Hey all, I'm on a break from FFXIV at the moment. Unfortunately this happened only a few days after my boyfriend finally started playing the game. We did some leves together, which was fun for a while, but it's just always the same.... always the same. No exception.
We did level up quite quickly and also mastered some harder fights with just the two of us, but never played more than 2 hours at a time.
Upcoming patch notes from SE mention nothing content wise, no story whatsoever, and the group play is still horrible to me. No tactics, no real roles for each character except maybe the tank.
What they add is new equipment that is "sexy looking" in many people's eyes- in mine all those Mi'qote just look like whores and I wonder if SE really has nothing else to offer anymore. No offense to Mi'qote players behind their chars, you might be the nicest person, but your char looks like a whore, I'm sorry.
So anyways, I will keep an eye on the patch notes coming up, but at the moment I just can't get myself to log in. Even thinking about it makes me want to turn off the computer and just do something fun, which FFXIV clearly isn't at the moment.
I'm deeply disappointed with SE who brought out so great games in their FF series with great story, great synergy in fights (Vivi and Steiner), tactics and last but not least graphics and in this game the only thing FF wise is the extraordinarly good graphic. That's it. And that's sad.
February 04, 2011
January 05, 2011
Back after some kind of break?
After not having played for a while because of a pretty eventful RL and a little burn out from the game, I have now picked it up again at a very much slower pace than before.
Another patch happened, adding a semi-good search function to the retainer system. It still sucks as hell, but it got a little better, I guess. Sadly, to efficiently buy anything you still have to use third party sites like yg for example - which is a really great site and I use it frequently, but I wish SE would just put the information we got on there in the game D: Well, maybe some day.
They did add a Christmas and a new Years event. While they work with the exact same pattern, and have gear as a reward which will only take away space, I think they did succeed in creating a "Christmassy" atmosphere within the game, which is cool. I haven't seen much of the New Year's event so can't comment on that, but I imagine it was the same.
I'm still mainly focussing on BTN and CUL, and only very occasionally on THM. The new SP system makes it easier to level, but it still is very boring. At least the leves etc which are repetetive are boring, and no challenge at all. I'm not speaking about the new NMs or some faction leves or behests, those *can* be fun, though I'm not so sure the NMs are fun, as I saw a vid where it was, once again, mindless thrashing of the mob without tactics.
Hamen is almost done with his thesis and he got a new computer with a great video card (better than mine). So far we haven't got to play at all together yet, but I'm hoping that leveling up together with him will be fun.
Anyway, let's look at a few screenies I took :):
Some new animation at crafting. Looks nice and makes a special sound, I'm always happy when I get it xD!
Awesome looking forest scene during the story quest.
Still story quest, some Sylphs :) I just love how detailed everything is. I should try to remember and take a close up pic of an elemental just because of how awesome they are designed.
Another patch happened, adding a semi-good search function to the retainer system. It still sucks as hell, but it got a little better, I guess. Sadly, to efficiently buy anything you still have to use third party sites like yg for example - which is a really great site and I use it frequently, but I wish SE would just put the information we got on there in the game D: Well, maybe some day.
They did add a Christmas and a new Years event. While they work with the exact same pattern, and have gear as a reward which will only take away space, I think they did succeed in creating a "Christmassy" atmosphere within the game, which is cool. I haven't seen much of the New Year's event so can't comment on that, but I imagine it was the same.
I'm still mainly focussing on BTN and CUL, and only very occasionally on THM. The new SP system makes it easier to level, but it still is very boring. At least the leves etc which are repetetive are boring, and no challenge at all. I'm not speaking about the new NMs or some faction leves or behests, those *can* be fun, though I'm not so sure the NMs are fun, as I saw a vid where it was, once again, mindless thrashing of the mob without tactics.
Hamen is almost done with his thesis and he got a new computer with a great video card (better than mine). So far we haven't got to play at all together yet, but I'm hoping that leveling up together with him will be fun.
Anyway, let's look at a few screenies I took :):
Some new animation at crafting. Looks nice and makes a special sound, I'm always happy when I get it xD!
Awesome looking forest scene during the story quest.
Still story quest, some Sylphs :) I just love how detailed everything is. I should try to remember and take a close up pic of an elemental just because of how awesome they are designed.
December 06, 2010
Patches and LS activity
Hey, it has been a while! I am still playing, but there just wasn't that much to write about... or was there?
The LS Luna Veneris has been great. As there is not much content provided by SE, the officers are very imaginative in adding LS events nevertheless. A while ago, we had a scavenger hunt. Owen, an officer, posted 9 pictues on the forum, and we all rushed to take the same screenies. The first 5 people got a gil reward, but for me it was just really fun.
I didn't want to participate at first, because it involved teleporting around all 3 cities and I didn't have too much anima at that time - but after I bumped into Sariae, the linkshell leader, I kind of got hooked with the idea, and actually made second place.
This is the pic I took from Sariae (task was to cheer an officer on), it was quite fun because all the officers tried to evade people by teleporting or running really fast - not always fast enough, as this picture shows! ;P
Other than that, we have been having crafting fairs twice a week. I love those. I can get my equipment repaired, and give my extra crystals to people.
Now that I have been taking up cooking, I can even contribute myself and help people out, which makes me quite happy. Dodo omelettes, which are good for crafting, are especially sought after. :)
I have stopped leveling THM altogether for now. In the last patch, a lot of stuff has been changed, especially SP-gaining. It's now static, which is what I wanted. Soloing is doable now, however party SP seem to be messed up. But I'm still not interested in party grinding as I find it too mindless, without tactics. However, despite teh fact that I now COULD level my THM I don't because I'm focussing on BTN and CUL - doing those leves takes up almost all my playing time.
My BTN with a new outfit, that Jeuth Altari made for me. I figured since I now level more slowly I wanted colored gear - hence the auburn. Jeuth even tossed in the Voyager's belt for free, and it even fits the Jerkin.
Well, what else. I temporarly had to turn down my graphics, because the card was overheating. I resolved that issue now, by cleaning it from dust and installing a second case fan. FFXIV sure does draw a lot of power :(
The November patch fixed a LOT of things. The UI lag is almost gone, managing retainer and selling stuff to NPC has gotten a lot easier and they made a lot more stuff more convenient. They improved targetting, they gave us 40 more inventory space... and much more that I can't remmeber now. Oh did I mention that before the patch they extended the free play period even more? I got 2 months for free now. They openly acknowledged that the game was not in the state that it should have been in at release. I think it's a good thing that they acknowledge that, however I believe that they shouldn't accumulate all the little things into a big patch, but patch once a week and improve steadily. A lot of people don't have the patience to wait that long. I do have it, because I'm enjoying my time in game. The next patch is scheduled for December sometime, so I'm looking forward to that. I hope they will implement the recipe book now. Culinarian is fun, but a lot of recipes take 6+ ingredients.
Just a random landscape picture to close this post. ;)
The LS Luna Veneris has been great. As there is not much content provided by SE, the officers are very imaginative in adding LS events nevertheless. A while ago, we had a scavenger hunt. Owen, an officer, posted 9 pictues on the forum, and we all rushed to take the same screenies. The first 5 people got a gil reward, but for me it was just really fun.
I didn't want to participate at first, because it involved teleporting around all 3 cities and I didn't have too much anima at that time - but after I bumped into Sariae, the linkshell leader, I kind of got hooked with the idea, and actually made second place.
This is the pic I took from Sariae (task was to cheer an officer on), it was quite fun because all the officers tried to evade people by teleporting or running really fast - not always fast enough, as this picture shows! ;P
Other than that, we have been having crafting fairs twice a week. I love those. I can get my equipment repaired, and give my extra crystals to people.
Now that I have been taking up cooking, I can even contribute myself and help people out, which makes me quite happy. Dodo omelettes, which are good for crafting, are especially sought after. :)
I have stopped leveling THM altogether for now. In the last patch, a lot of stuff has been changed, especially SP-gaining. It's now static, which is what I wanted. Soloing is doable now, however party SP seem to be messed up. But I'm still not interested in party grinding as I find it too mindless, without tactics. However, despite teh fact that I now COULD level my THM I don't because I'm focussing on BTN and CUL - doing those leves takes up almost all my playing time.
My BTN with a new outfit, that Jeuth Altari made for me. I figured since I now level more slowly I wanted colored gear - hence the auburn. Jeuth even tossed in the Voyager's belt for free, and it even fits the Jerkin.
Well, what else. I temporarly had to turn down my graphics, because the card was overheating. I resolved that issue now, by cleaning it from dust and installing a second case fan. FFXIV sure does draw a lot of power :(
The November patch fixed a LOT of things. The UI lag is almost gone, managing retainer and selling stuff to NPC has gotten a lot easier and they made a lot more stuff more convenient. They improved targetting, they gave us 40 more inventory space... and much more that I can't remmeber now. Oh did I mention that before the patch they extended the free play period even more? I got 2 months for free now. They openly acknowledged that the game was not in the state that it should have been in at release. I think it's a good thing that they acknowledge that, however I believe that they shouldn't accumulate all the little things into a big patch, but patch once a week and improve steadily. A lot of people don't have the patience to wait that long. I do have it, because I'm enjoying my time in game. The next patch is scheduled for December sometime, so I'm looking forward to that. I hope they will implement the recipe book now. Culinarian is fun, but a lot of recipes take 6+ ingredients.
Just a random landscape picture to close this post. ;)
November 09, 2010
Okay, so I haven't posted in a while. I have slowed down in playing, but when I do I have fun. I have stopped actively leveling my THM. I do level it while doing leves, but of course very very slowly. I don't really mind because at the moment I do not like how THM is played. Maybe I will level up another DoW or DoM - but for now I'm having a blast with Botanist and Cook. Yep, I'm a cook now. I loved making pie dough :D For some reason pie dough sounds more yummy to me, than pie. <.< Anyway, crafting still needs way too many clicks, but they
Botanist also supports cooking greatly and yeah, it just fits together really well.
My BTN is almost 25 now, which is when I will get Level 30 leves, finally. Adventurers get that at 23 already. As I said, I enjoy BTN greatly, however I have been hitting fatigue. And fatigue on BTN means, that I can't even farm because I damage everything I try to chop. This is REALLY annoying. I wouldn't mind less SP, but I don't even hit surplus because the game doesn't let me. Also a reason why I started leveling cook. When I hit fatigue on BTN I just cannot play BTN anymore.
A quite fun screenshot from the Level 20 THM quest, thought I'd share. Poor Lala carrying about 2 tons of books.
However, I can't help to feel that this game will never live up to FFXI. At least not group play wise, it is just horrible. The targeting is bad, the SP gain for certain classes is bad, healing is mindless AOE spam, it doesn't matter weather you debuff a mob or
Oh well, but I'm repeating myself. :) My consequence is just that I don't level my DoM because it's not acceptable for me at it's current state.
Okay, what else is new FF - wise? They will have a bigger patch at the end of November, where they introduce a lot of stuff that should have been there at release. <.< Good news? You judge.
October 19, 2010
Miscellaneous
I got a new kitchen skillet today which is being made by Sakari on this screenshot. The red gear I am wearing is gathering gear made by Sanjo, the pickaxe was made by Pikarya and I am wearing jewelry most of which is made by Red ;) In turn, I pass a lot of shards and crystals as well as mats to my linkshell mates and it all works out really well.
We had an event on Sunday, a crafting fair. Everyone gathers together, brings the mats for items they need and pass stuff to people who need it. Also, repairs are getitng done as well. This is supposed to be happening twice a week, and I was enjoying myself.
I did my first party grinding... At first I was the only mage, so designated healer. It was... boring but efficient. There is nothing left from the awesome group play FFXI had. This is mindless thrashing of mobs and your role as a healer is spam aoe heal when ever someone takes damage, hoping to get skillpoints from it.
I believe the disciples of Magic got screwed here, as usually I would get 200 SP tops (more like 150, if unlucky less than 100) for a crab while the fighters got more than 300 sometimes. However this of course still is way more efficient than grinding solo. I went from 17 to 19 in... 2-3 hours, i don't remember. Lateron more people arrived, and also other groups so the sp rate went down a bit.
Also, they really need to fix some stuff. I sometimes get stuck in the Battle Regimen (which in itself doesn't work) which is a different battle mode where, in theory, the party members can do abilities in order to put debuffs on the mob (if I understand it correctly). I don#t know how I get in the mode, as I don't hit the shortkey for it, and, worse, I can't get out of it anymore without completely disengaging from fighting.
Also, my AoE spells sometimes don't hit everyone in the group, even though they were near. Which is kind of annoying. But overall I'm rather content with the outcome of that grinding. It is boring, yes, but if I am ever in the mood of doing something where I don't have to think, while still proceeding in the game, that's the thing to do.
October 11, 2010
Thoughts on Content
So, my THM and my BTN are both 16. I did the level 15 story quest, which is just awesome. Other than that I spend my time either doing THM leves and grinding a bit or harvesting on my BTN. I do that cycling between the three cities.
The leves are... boring. They are always the same for each camp. I think there is a pool of 5 or 6 leves for each camp, of which you get 3 with random rewards. All the DoW and DoM leves consist of running off, killing the leve target(s) , turning in the leve.
They do get a little harder, for example at the second camp the mobs start running away spawning friends who you then have to kill as well, and at the third camps I noticed that some leves consist of mobs in "disguise" with a bunch of real mobs there as well and your task is to find the disguised mob and kill it.
Generally all the same though. The rewards are usually gil and if you are lucky a crafting material and if you are VERY lucky some kind of gear, but that's rather rare.
At the 3rd camp the reward also might be so-called "Guildmarks" from which you can buy new abilities for your class at the guild.
The constant damaged gear (buggy too, you get the red gear damage sign but all of your equipment is repaired...), then you can either repair it at the NPC , but only to 75% or you have to bug someone to repair it (but then to 100%) or you put it up in your bazaar asking for repair and if you are lucky, someone will do it for the amount of gil you offer.
To me, this is just annoying, and they could implement better means to take out gil from the economy. For example implementing chocobos and airships and make them (as wlel as the ferry) cost a fee. You get gil easily in this game, I'm close to 500k now and I DID buy equipment for 40-50k occasionally. And I don't even play much.
Anyway, back to the point. There really isn't much to do besides grinding (be it with leves or not), and I conclude crafting and harvesting into grinding as well as you keep doing the same thing over and over again. Which is a little sad, especially considering that this is a Final Fantasy. While the story, like I said, is awesome, you of course don't always do that as the storyline only continues at predefined level intervals. (0,10,15,20...) I'm not sure if any story is implemented after level 20, actually.
The game has been getting pretty bad reviews and while I still think that after some time, this weill become an awesome game, I start to agree with those who say that SE should have waited another 6 months before bringing out this game. It's just not ready.
The leves are... boring. They are always the same for each camp. I think there is a pool of 5 or 6 leves for each camp, of which you get 3 with random rewards. All the DoW and DoM leves consist of running off, killing the leve target(s) , turning in the leve.
They do get a little harder, for example at the second camp the mobs start running away spawning friends who you then have to kill as well, and at the third camps I noticed that some leves consist of mobs in "disguise" with a bunch of real mobs there as well and your task is to find the disguised mob and kill it.
Generally all the same though. The rewards are usually gil and if you are lucky a crafting material and if you are VERY lucky some kind of gear, but that's rather rare.
At the 3rd camp the reward also might be so-called "Guildmarks" from which you can buy new abilities for your class at the guild.
The constant damaged gear (buggy too, you get the red gear damage sign but all of your equipment is repaired...), then you can either repair it at the NPC , but only to 75% or you have to bug someone to repair it (but then to 100%) or you put it up in your bazaar asking for repair and if you are lucky, someone will do it for the amount of gil you offer.
To me, this is just annoying, and they could implement better means to take out gil from the economy. For example implementing chocobos and airships and make them (as wlel as the ferry) cost a fee. You get gil easily in this game, I'm close to 500k now and I DID buy equipment for 40-50k occasionally. And I don't even play much.
Anyway, back to the point. There really isn't much to do besides grinding (be it with leves or not), and I conclude crafting and harvesting into grinding as well as you keep doing the same thing over and over again. Which is a little sad, especially considering that this is a Final Fantasy. While the story, like I said, is awesome, you of course don't always do that as the storyline only continues at predefined level intervals. (0,10,15,20...) I'm not sure if any story is implemented after level 20, actually.
The game has been getting pretty bad reviews and while I still think that after some time, this weill become an awesome game, I start to agree with those who say that SE should have waited another 6 months before bringing out this game. It's just not ready.
October 07, 2010
Exploring
A pond with fun dragons in it, also in Coerthas.
This is Mor Dhona. There is this cool structure with the dragon in the middle (I believe it's the same dragon as in the opening video) but you can't get there yet. The rest of the zone is horribly uninteresting.
More dragon thingies.
Enough of exploring. As I have mentioned I am in a linkshell now. It is very social with a good amount of crafters and adventurers and I constantly give away mats and shards/crystals to the crafters that I get from fighting and harvesting. In turn, crafters give away gear for cheap or even nothing and in this screenshot our
On a side note, I tried to upgrade my weapon but I couldn't get the mats from the stupid market wards ~.~... I want a search function so bad...
Just because I haven't posted a screenie during a battle yet, I put this here. :P
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