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A Couple of questions for Fans
keithian
Member UncommonPosts: 3,191
I didn't have a chance this weekend to do the closed beta because I was swamped with real life, but I tried last weeks and only got to level 6. I really wanted to like this game because I loved early versions of Final Fantasy on old consoles but shifted to MMOs when WOW came out. When I booted up this game, the one thing I agree with the fans is that the presentation, music, detail, is fantastic. The world did have that special charm I felt when I booted up WOW for the first time. Though I still prefer the artistry/style of Elder Scrolls Online or Skyrim, this is a VERY close second. Anyway, I have played most themeparks to date (WOW, RIft, AOC, Vanguard, EQ2, Allods, SWTOR, GW2, etc). I love themeparks, but wonder if I'm starting to agree with some of the Sandbox fans that shifting stories are changing the world more completely as events arise would be a welcome feature and possible even in a Themepark.
1) Now with this game, I felt it actually took a step backwards with the PVE in that it isn't voiced enough, you read a wall of text, at least until level 6, it just felt extremely bland and generic including the text. A) To those fans, at what level do you feel that the story becomes more meaningful and 
does it get away from the generic fetch kill quests you see up to level 6 as you get higher? C) Do the quests feel a little more involved later on down the line?
2) Though I know we all support the games we love, I myself admit to be blinded when I defended SWTOR until I realized around level 22-48 I was pushing myself to log in instead of wanting to..so I never reached end game. I barely reached it with GW2, but at least that game was different enough from others before that it kept my attention for a few months. Why is it that it doesn't bother you that a modern day MMO would take a starting city and split it into zones which to me is an immersion killer? Even the map divides the cities into zones. No other modern MMO does that as far as I know. Some of the cities in GW2 and SWTOR are quite big, but they arn't zones. ESO will have loading entering into building with quick loading as it does with the single player games (which I hate), but the city itself is wide open as far as I know. Does this type of splitting the cities happen within all of the later cities?
Curious to get your thoughts. I'm not trolling, I want to know if things change at later levels..especially if there is a sub. If they do get better at higher levels, my feedback to them would be very careful how generic you make starting zones feel because its in the early levels that you'll loose so many players who form a first impression very fast.
There Is Always Hope!
Comments
To answer part 1 -
Voiceovers are coming, in limited quantities. Major story and class quests only - not every single quest.
The quest stories get very much more involved. As good as the story was in SWTOR, so far this has been much better. Final Fantasy is known for a good story, and ARR doesn't disappoint. It doesn't really get into it until around L15 - when you finally get past the "Your just a wet behind the ears dude off the wagon" to "OK, you've started to prove yourself, here's some real work" and the story starts to open up.
The quests, if you just skip the text, are pretty much your average FedEx/Kill-X/Escort type quests (which is unfortunate - I can't defend that really, but I just see them as a means to get to more of the story, which is good).
To answer part 2:
The main cities are split for technical reasons (graphics engine can only load so many polys and textures at a time). When you get out and about into the forts and areas out in the open area, they aren't split, and the zones are fairly big - on par with SWTOR, maybe not as big as some of the WoW zones, but they have a lot more detail than either of those games.
1) A lot of MMORPG doesn't have a strong main story so I'm sure you and many others underestimate the focus on that aspect. Seeing as how you're a FF fan, I hope that you approach this game with close attention to the main story. Yes there are voice over for all the main story cutscenes but it isn't available in this beta. As for side quests, the dialogues can be long but they serve to help you learn about the lore of the game and the inhabitants of Eorzea. So to answer you:
A - For me I treat the main story seriously starting from level 1. If you just skip all the cutscenes then it will be harder for you to feel attached to the game world and give you less motivation to go on. Again voice acting will be available for main story so I don't see how this could be bland.
B - As early as lvl5 there is a boss fight with cutscenes involving the main story, so no, fetch/kill quests aren't the focus at all! You will eventually have more of these encounters that will test your skill and mastery of your class.
C - When you reach your lvl15 main storyline, there will be a mandatory quest chain that force you to form a party of 4 and take down 3 of the beginner dungeons. So yes this game requires coordination between players to get things done and you won't be able to solo your way through everything.
2) As for the zone stuffs, I never really cared much. The world feel big and every time you turn, you are guaranteed to see a new scene even with how the architecture is divided. Would it be cool if this game were more open world like GW2? Sure. Does it need to be in order for player to feel immersed and feel like an adventurer? No. If you look at the photos of FF14 posted in this site and you will see how trivial the presence of a zone line is in the grander scheme.
Now most people will tell you that the game "gets good at lvl15", but that's a bit misleading. You should judge the game from lvl1 and see how it is. If it isn't to your liking then that's fine, know that it will get better as you go on and if you still think it sucks at lvl15 then I suggest that you quit before you waste more time. I am more or less telling you that don't think the game sucks from 1 to 15 before you even start to spoil your mood.
Good luck and I hope you find the game to your taste by open beta. Also next week there will be an extended test as the final part of close beta.
I think what they promised so far was that main storyline would be fully voiced, class quests would feature cut scenes (but not voiced, so like it is now/1.0), and sidequests would be text based so that they could add as many as possible.
This was on the beta forums, but I'm sure it was also said in a live letter probably. I don't care about class quests, but the job/AF quests in 1.x were some of the best in the game. I hope they end up voicing them as well.
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The systems in Eve can be so large because it's 99.9998% empty black space.
THere are systems that can load graphics assets on the fly, and put out very large (seemingly limitless) zones: Planetside/SWG had one; The new PS2 engine has one, WoW has one as well. But they all had their tradeoffs as well - low polygon counts, low texture counts, texture streaming issues, etc. Also, the engine was always meant to be PS3 compatible - even in 1.0 although it never made it there. So that imposes some additional technical limitations - how fast can you buffer data into RAM, what data can be stored on the hard drive, what can be streamed live over the network, and what has to be loaded from the disc every time.
It's not impossible to do, but it's a function of the graphics engine. In FFXIV the cities have a lot of detail, and FFXIV in general uses some very nice textures in places (fabrics particularly).
I personnaly don't mind the zoning as long as it isn't terribly frequent; like in EQ when you would turn a corner, zone, take 5 steps and hit another zone around the corner (Freeport - argh!), and there was no indication of where the zone line actually was. Given the choice, I'd like seamless areas, but I can understand the choice the developers made here
any idea why mmos aren't loaded in chunks? as in there are always 9 chunks in memory and as you move from chunk to chunk it pre-loads the next chunk in the background?
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
any idea why mmos aren't loaded in chunks? as in there are always 9 chunks in memory and as you move from chunk to chunk it pre-loads the next chunk in the background?
Many are = you know those random hallways/doorways that completely block visual line of sight, and seem to make you take 90' turns for absolutely no reason? Those are there to buy the computer time to load the next chunk without having to completely lag you out.
Some people gave you good answers in here.This game will not be breaking any standards,if anything yoshi is trying to make it carry the same ideals as the standards games do.Yoshi made his employees plays many hours of other games to get a feel for what makes those games work and yes including WOW,he himself played all those other games as well.I am pretty sure Yoshi played more other games than he did any FF if any FF games.
Now the problem is the core design is pretty much in place,so don't expect anything ground breaking.Yoshi is a real passionate and smart guy but he won't be able to completely rebuild the core of the game.
What they did was create user friendly UI,big letter headings to find your way around and see what mobs are.Markers on maps ,Rift style Fate system,Leves similar to Dailies,easier travel all those things that some people like or need.Make no mistake just like any game,if you do one thing only and everyday,you will get bored.There are a lot fo classes to jump on and a lot of crafts and the ability to change between them rather quickly,so you should always have stuff to do if you are willing.
If i wanted the most in depth game,i would still play FFXI and guess what i do,but this game is just something more mainstream and looks really good doing it.I am of no doubt what so ever that a LOT more will be added to this game and all in the next year,from many new classes,quests,some new ideas .
Yoshi wanted 2 years ,they gave him 16 months,so like i said this game is still far from being the masterpiece they wanted.I think by now most everyone knows the story,they over spent developing the engine and game, so it was rushed,at l;east they have been honest.They will spend a lot more time and money to keep making the game better.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
ARR isn't being rushed, do you have any source on that? Or are you just trying to start that rumor? The game is actually almost a year past schedule due to development. It was originally supposed to be released by end of the year 2012. SE has given them all the money/support they needed, they have spent quite a bit on marketing already, and they made the producer (Yoshida) an executive before the game has even launched (and before beta/any hype) clearly they support this game. I honestly don't know how they could demonstrate that more than they currently are.
Also I wish people would stop comparing guildleves to dailies. Dailies in WoW and other games you pretty much HAVE to do in order to progress your character in some way, do certain factions etc. depending on what era we are talking about.
Guildleves do not matter you never have to do them. I don't do them (haven't for a very long time) and I've played this game since all there were was the guildleves. They aren't dailies, because you don't do them daily. You do them whenever/if ever you feel like it because they accumulate up to 100 allowances and so you do not have to do them every day.
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http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
A) To those fans, at what level do you feel that the story becomes more meaningful
I felt it since the start. You complain there is no voice over, so you probably skiped a lot of text. I played every single FF game, Dragon Quest, and tones of other J-RPG's, in any of those games, you read tones of text, you talk to every NPC in every city for that 1 potion, or item or side quest they can give you. I like reading the Quest text and i find it very engaging and very well done if FF XIV:ARR.
The Story is engaging since the beginning. You learn about yourself being an adventurer, and you learn about how they threat adventurers, what's the adventurer goal in this world. You learn about the city you start and it conflicts with the prinmals, the places around the city, the NPC's and then you start you Main class Quest, Adventurer Guild/Story Quest. And it escalate into bigger things. It's typical FF style and i just love it.
You rarely have more than 5 mobs to kill or items to get or stuff like that. And you have a wide variaty of methods to get XP. Leves, Quests, Hunting Log, Guildhest, Dungeons, Fates. It's far from generic, it's the most diversity in leveling, XP, and questing i encountered in an MMO. You have a wide variaty of occupations to take.
C) Do the quests feel a little more involved later on down the line?
I don't know maybe it's just taste, but i really find the story one of the main strenght of the game. It is very entertaining. So i would say it is involving since the first cinematic.
2) I'm not bothered by that. There is zoning in every game. While open zone world would be better, zoning itself isn't that bad. Every single game i played for the 15ene past years had zoning. In some more than others, and i don't find it that bothering in this game since i played Neverwinter before and it was terrible.
Thanks for the response. I agree with you that yes, at the very beginning, they did a good job setting up the story, but after that, sorry, I totally disagree...through level 6 in the starter city, the quests were VERY generic...such as go talk to these 5 people, go grab give x to these other 5 people, and I'm assuming that it is because this is sort of a training area being such a low level. What this thread convinced me is that several of you seem to love the story, so Im going to give this more time and try to force myself on the generic quests to listen to the story part more and not focus so much on the task at hand even if the task on hand feels generic.
I don't have a problem with zoning, but I do when it splits the city into pieces. I guess I'm surprised because in GW2, there seems to be quite a lot of detail, especially in the Human City, and its huge, I love the graphics, and there isn't zoning within the same city itself. However, maybe the graphics in Final Fantasy are a little more advanced and so it requires it. I'm not technical enough to challenge this premise so I guess it is what it is. Its not a deal breaker for me, just an immersion breaker.
FOR EVERYONE ELSE that responsed. Thanks for the answers. I was expecting to get flamed and instead got some good answers which convinced me to keep at it and see how I feel later on down the game.
There Is Always Hope!
interesting, and come to think of it in WoW orgrimmar had two turns in a hallway if you went into the main entrance on foot,