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I'm really impressed with this expansion so far......
GeezerGamer
Member EpicPosts: 8,855
I did not renew my sub and buy the expansion immediately on release. And when I did start playing again, I leveled a new class and job so I did not see the new content for some time later. I am currently 58 on my highest job and I must say, I am really enjoying this game now.
1. The new zones are much bigger now. I don't feel like I am playing in "Tunnel World Online"
2. There is just so much to do. It goes way beyond the traditional quest to cap and gear treadmill from there. Yes, that is present, however, there are so many other things I have to get done outside that it gives my options to keep from being burned out too quickly.
3. The way they did flight in this game so far is the best way I have seen it done. You must unlock it though each zone by completing objectives and exploring before you can fly in a zone. Thus, the content is not made obsolete by flying. You can only skip over it after you have completed it.
4. The game is just beautiful. I have older hardware and this game plays incredibly smooth.
5. I've never been impressed with a video game sound track. This one has me listening to it. Especially how each mount has it's own theme.
6. I've never liked how MMO Theme Parks have incorporated the "chosen one" story line. And while I would rather see MMOs not have them, this story is very well done and I find myself looking to advance the story for its own sake rather than to just get though it.
7. The leveling experience is feels like it goes back to the earlier days of Theme Park MMOs. You aren't going to queue up for a couple dungeons and do a handful of quests in any given zone before you ding and move on only a few hours later. I just spent most of my free time this past weekend Sat and Sun and pushed only 2 levels.
I have traditionally been a heavy crafter in my MMOs, and I fully intend to max out a trade, but I have not touched any gathering or crafting since returning. I'll do that later. But, it means I cannot comment on how good, bad or mediocre the crafting is in this expansion. My assumption is that it's pretty much the exact extension of where the Vanilla game left off. (Which I did have some major issues with, but I'll leave that for another discussion)
I would like to see them buff the new DPS job though. It feels a bit weak compared to the others. Aside from that, I really don't have any strong complaints about the game.
1. The new zones are much bigger now. I don't feel like I am playing in "Tunnel World Online"
2. There is just so much to do. It goes way beyond the traditional quest to cap and gear treadmill from there. Yes, that is present, however, there are so many other things I have to get done outside that it gives my options to keep from being burned out too quickly.
3. The way they did flight in this game so far is the best way I have seen it done. You must unlock it though each zone by completing objectives and exploring before you can fly in a zone. Thus, the content is not made obsolete by flying. You can only skip over it after you have completed it.
4. The game is just beautiful. I have older hardware and this game plays incredibly smooth.
5. I've never been impressed with a video game sound track. This one has me listening to it. Especially how each mount has it's own theme.
6. I've never liked how MMO Theme Parks have incorporated the "chosen one" story line. And while I would rather see MMOs not have them, this story is very well done and I find myself looking to advance the story for its own sake rather than to just get though it.
7. The leveling experience is feels like it goes back to the earlier days of Theme Park MMOs. You aren't going to queue up for a couple dungeons and do a handful of quests in any given zone before you ding and move on only a few hours later. I just spent most of my free time this past weekend Sat and Sun and pushed only 2 levels.
I have traditionally been a heavy crafter in my MMOs, and I fully intend to max out a trade, but I have not touched any gathering or crafting since returning. I'll do that later. But, it means I cannot comment on how good, bad or mediocre the crafting is in this expansion. My assumption is that it's pretty much the exact extension of where the Vanilla game left off. (Which I did have some major issues with, but I'll leave that for another discussion)
I would like to see them buff the new DPS job though. It feels a bit weak compared to the others. Aside from that, I really don't have any strong complaints about the game.
Comments
You need to take the main story to 60, you need to do hundreds of side quests and unlock flying in HW, you need to get gathering to max, at least a single desynth to 180 and then you need 60X8 crafting. This will establish an optimal red script cap, capable character. Doing it any other way turns the game in to gil farming online and with unlock systems in place, often you simply can't do it. The actual crafting system is one of the nicer ones out there but it's literally locked behind every other form of content in the game in quest form, dungeon farming form, resource form.
I played for the story, which was great...
the rest of the expansion is what I already did up to level 50; sluggish combat, quests, I think the zones are about the same as the original game, I didn't think they were that much of an improvement, dungeons, nothing new really.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
I purchased this on release, leveled to max level, got bored very quickly and quit. Came back, started over like you did, leveled up to Max, purchased expand hoping the new classes (jobs or whatever) would be an improvement and they were just as bad.
The combat is so clunky, global cooldown is horrid, fights more or less feel like they could be text based minus avoiding the telegraphed attacks.
If I ignore the combat itself, the rest of the game feels like it was made in the 1990's. I don't see any innovative features or mechanics that stand out over other games which offer better and more polished (and non-translated) "stuff."
The only huge positive I can give this game is you can play and level every job on a single character. I don't enjoy (and never do) have multiple characters. I want 1 character, 1 account, and I want to do all of my progression and investment on that single character. This game allows you to do that which is great. Unfortunately, the combat is horrible. I'll give them additional credit, they make it easy for new players to enjoy the game (if you can enjoy it in first place) because they force high level characters to replay old content over and over for daily rewards. Not great if you're tired of that content as a max level player but great for new players who need groups to do raiding of older content.
Within a week-ish I managed to get very far along on my weapon quest as well as a full set of decent gear due to the dungeon queue and groups steam-rolling most content pretty easily.
Maybe one day I will get over my fear of sub based MMO's and give it a try.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Well you can level classes by spamming fates or the same dungeon over and over I guess.
There is actually less to do in this expansion then there was to do in the prior patch if you ignore the leveling part of it.
If you are a more casual player, yea there is more then enough to keep you busy. If you are a player who wants to put in 20-30hrs a week, game is still extremely lacking, unless you enjoy bashing your head against the wall in the one elite raid due to gear requirements and weekly gear lockouts.
I don't really have any hangups against sub games other than I don't like to be tied down to a sub. I just don't appreciate being forced to play or else waste my money. I like to play when I want, and pay what I want.
As for your description of F2P, that is just pure hyperbole. We have different playstyles, you and I. Lets just leave it at that.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
I don't like the feeling of being held down to play one particular game myself, but that just means I wind up subbing to multiple games and bouncing back and forth. I am not rich but outside of living costs I don't very well get out much, cook my own meals and spend very little outside of gaming for entertainment. That being said 15 bones for 30 whole days of entertainment does not break the bank. Some F2P games I still enjoy returning to such as SWTOR, but due to their horrendous F2P model I wind up shelling out a month sub to do Warzones and enjoy increased exp rates. What I will say in the end is if you don't feel there is a game that is worth spending money on them I can completely level with you there since its been pretty bad Decade for MMOs. Remember I and strictly speak of MMOs, not mobas/shooters e.tc. but from reading your post I get the feeling you are talking strictly MMOS.
Its just that paying what you want in F2P games can tend to be more than paying for a P2P unless you are a person that doesn't want a whole lot or once again are playing non MMO games e.t.c.
EDIT: I apologize for derailing the thread and if you want to continue you can hit me up via private message.
Pretty much everything in the game has its own meta, in its own way. I'm deep into crafting and so it takes up 100% of my time. Looking forward to the major content updates -- since they're always great and pack fulled of content that I know is worth my $15 a month... as opposed to WoD.
Housing is still a problem, especially for Free Companies. They need to find a solution as soon as possible so that everyone can get one if they work on getting enough gil.
Almost everything seems to be lovingly crafted, from the combat to the classes and is built upon them with the new abilities in the expansion.
There Is Always Hope!
But then, I can only assume you're talking about obsolete content (weapon quest) as if it's current because you stopped playing quite a while ago and haven't really played the expansion.
I admit, however, I am more invested in the world, characters and story than the gameplay, and the end-game is lacking at the moment, so I'm just killing time until the next patch.
Regardless, it's funny how people's opinions differ so extremely. You call it the worst MMO in the AAA market. I call it the best game to come along since WoW in 2004, and the only game I've found to be even remotely addictive beyond the first month or so. In this oversaturated market, games are lucky to hold my attention beyond a few days, let alone a year or more as FFXIV has done.
As for Xatsh gripe about 20 to 30 hours a week. Who does that now? Seriously the majority of the MMO Community does not spend that amount of time anymore. Not saying is good or bad. However its the truth and publishers are making games for the masses. I know it sucks however bitching about it with any game outside of the Kickstarters is pointless. I know it sucks but no MMO is going to make content where it takes someone 20 or 30 hours a week to complete anymore.
I know its wrong to say this but you have to make a game for the market. Just like the developers from the game Saga of Lucimia love to be blind to the true market just because there is 12 of them that have no family no kids and are still single, I can show you a lot more who are in the true MMO market. Saga of Lucimia want to make a Group MMO where you cannot do anything outside of a group, plus require 20 to 40 hours a week of game play. They got a total of 64 backers. Why didnt they get more? Because this is such a small market you cannot consider them for much of anything.
Now what needs to be done is like we said. More Dungeons, like 10 or 20 more. That will give people WAY more to do than what we have right now. You can also do some tiered gear progression through that. It would give people with more time more to do without going hardcore like WildStar did and wasting a game in the space, you know what I mean.
Do you actually properly research anything that you talk about? Wildstar failed because it was a buggy un optimized mess that was trying to cram the old long lost idea of 40 man raids, not because it offered 30+ hours of content. Google is your friend, a quick google search of the game with fail keywords would of told you that so there is no reason make up why everything failed instead of researching it.
You don't have to make a game for the market, has 10 years of failed MMO's making their game "for the market" not taught you how ironic that statement is? Do you not understand that there are multiple factors when it comes to a successful kickstarter that can contribute to a games failure? Also according to the Saga of Lucimia Indiegogo page the project was 78% funded and is well underway with production and the website has constant updates. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-saga-of-lucimia-indiegogo-campaign#/story
The owner and other staff are very helpful and are answering all questions not matter how simple or complex they are, all the supporters are looking forward to the product and currently enjoying alpha access. If they were asking some extreme amount like $100k-500k and got only 5-10% of the funding then yes I'd call it a wash but indiegogo does not work the same way as Kickstarter when it comes to full goal reached/funded. Once again I spent 5 minutes to look up this information to yet once again say you are making up information. Granted the bottom line it only had 61 backers, but the presentation/videos/artwork and overall was very lackluster + add what happened to Pathfinder to the mix and many no longer so quick to immediately jump to fund every MMO and as a result are more skeptical.
FFXIV need more than just dungeons, it needs more activities to do in the open world and less pushing instances down peoples throats. The bottom line is neither me nor you have concrete numbers on the age variation/level of "responsibility" of the average player that plays today's MMO's and even if we were to procure articles of numbers claiming to be accurate there is no way we could prove them. I can however tell you that your circle of friends and mine are polar opposites and that goes for many others as well. Before you say my group of friends are a pack of washouts in much nicer worlds I will let you know that most of them are well off with lucrative careers that opted for sports cars and personal luxury vs. getting married and having kids becuz that = "responsible".
I am also a firm disbeliever of marriage as are most of my friends because we live in a very different world today, with the way the world is going in the generation of kids following me I would fear to raise a child in the generation following. I however would like to believe that many players would like more than 30 hours of content to do a week, you cant help but think the reason why sub numbers drop for MMOs between patches/prior to expansions for more reasons than playing other games? Just a random thought that I'll admit is way out there but still you cant just paint it all black and white because that's the way things are for you.
Lets really talk about content the core problem in FFXIV right now. They need More to do however they need more that is not overly time consuming. Too often people who talk about content talk about 40 man raids and needing 6 to 10 hours a week plus 10 hour a week grinding shit. Not on the Quality vs quantity vs time sink balance. Often you hear people who talk about needing more to do in game and saying we need a vanilla WOW type game. AKA Wildstar which did fail because it went into the major time sink category. 20/40 man raids, attunements that were long and a pain in the ass and so on.
When I say we need more Dungeons I say it because having 10 to 20 dungeons setup tiered can add a lot of content to the game. You want open world stuff which can also be put in. When we say we need more content we need to talk about proper balanced content. That is Quality, Quantity and Time Sink.
Anyway if we are going to carry on this conversation lets talk about content and what can be added that is a balance between Quality, Quantity and Time Sink. Because if you dont balance this you will loose players. So we need to find a common ground and that can be done without making hardcore content or casual content. It can be done with balanced content.
As far as what this game needs, not really sure If I have the energy to go on. We have already gone over what the game needs several times and we just need to hope some JP players feel the same so things change. After this whole live letter debacle I'm just worn out and thoroughly disappointed, I think that if SE gets a vacation then I'm taking a vacation from this game. Ill be more than happy to return when they make it a game worth returning to, that announcement was the straw that broke the camels back for me. For the sake of staying on topic (minus your thoughts of responsibility, id like your quick thoughts on that so you can private message me) if you have an qualms with this paragraph you can visit my 2 month delay thread and we can continue there.
Definitely can agree with you there Driven, trying to implement a way of horizontal progression in a current gen MMO is very risky and delicate. That being said I have very little to no hope of them adding alternate gear progression and stat distribution as it seems they dumb down stats each new version (1.0.-2.0-3.0) and since its been an aggressive vertical progression game since 2.0 I have very little hope that will change. From a developer standpoint I feel it would be very hard to spend so much time making something that is obsolete in 3-6 months when it can take a upwards of that to make it in the first place.
No one said that you couldn't find a nice middle ground to all of this though, I will admit however that its one of the major detractors from me enjoying this game. No one is asking for gear to be relevant several years down the road, just 3-6 months is a bit...much. Maybe the problem isn't gear itself, maybe its how each x job feels like any other playing x job. Trait/Armoury/Customization revamps could be very well what we really need. A re-purposing of secondary stats and ways to augment your class to play differently from others playing the same class. In the end its not how long gear is relevant, its how many different places you can get it from and how much you vary all of them. The ability to mix and match at your leisure rather than stress over differences in ilvl really make the battle content very stale in this game.