"Oh btw, FFXIV Online in 2010"

[Shatter]

Open beta set for Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 19:00 (PDT).

Thanks for the reminder, Ill make sure to not download this ;)

[01101010]

Regardless of what has been said about this xp limiter issue, fact is in beta 2 and 3 at least, you could max out your surplus scores easily in the beginning of the week and that limiter was in place not only with class/weapon but also with your physical level. I did a ton of fishing and it got to the point of red surplus where I would earn 25 fishing xp and have a fishing surplus of 300xp along with a huge gouge in physical xp gains as well. I understand the mechanic and its design does dictate a multiple job direction, but I can not agree to limiting gameplay this way or forcing your community into a certain way of doing things. FFXI seemed more community drive in the ruleset as to what jobs/subjobs you "should" do and this seems as though the developers are dictating that now. I can't see myself playing when the game comes out - this being only one of the reasons among others, but this is a big one for me.

Disappointing to see SE go this route, which I am sure will work in the long run and fit with SE's design plan, but it does seem better suited to the Asian gaming community who are on a different pay cycle IIRC.

[PalmTrees]

It seems like such a controlling, heavy-handed and unnecessary system. If someone wants to focus on one job why stop them? Is it like launch AoC where the upper levels aren't done yet or something?

[LK]

It's highly possible. Their system seems to encourage non-specific paths of leveling directed by random leves as opposed to the theme park ride of other MMO's. More dynamic, more recycled, less memorable.

[Velorath]

Regardless of what has been said about this xp limiter issue, fact is in beta 2 and 3 at least, you could max out your surplus scores easily in the beginning of the week and that limiter was in place not only with class/weapon but also with your physical level.

If you go to the beta site, there's a better translation of the stuff in the link that Ard posted that explains why that happened.

[Simond]

It seems like such a controlling, heavy-handed and unnecessary system. If someone wants to focus on one job why stop them? Is it like launch AoC where the upper levels aren't done yet or something?

Or, you know, it's a sequel to the game that looked at Verant-era EQ and went "You know what that needs? More forced grouping and a slower xp grind!"

[Margalis]

Or, you know, it's a sequel to the game that looked at Verant-era EQ and went "You know what that needs? More forced grouping and a slower xp grind!"

FFXIV is very solo friendly, in fact a major complaint of XI players is that there isn't much reason to group, so that's not really a fair point.

As far as the XP limiting stuff goes, the main problem seems to be some bad data combined with it launching without explanation and then the explanation being supplied by third hand purposely mistranslated garbage. At this point how the system will work out in practice is anyone's guess, it could be incredibly punitive or it could be a variation on rest XP.

[Simond]

Or you could just read the official NA forums:

Balancing Character Growth in Beta 3

Once again, we would like to thank you all for your participation and support during the Closed Beta. We will continue to take your valuable feedback into consideration as we develop the game during Open Beta and even beyond the official release.

Now I would like to take a moment to respond to the many questions and opinions regarding the manner in and rates at which experience and skill points are obtained in Beta 3.

Firstly, the concept for FINAL FANTASY XIV was to design a system of character progression that offers meaningful advancement for those with limited time to dedicate to playing. We did not want to create a game that forced people to play for hours on end to see their efforts rewarded. To that end, in addition to the Guardian's Aspect and guildleve systems, we introduced a means of apportioning swifter advancement to shorter periods of play.

In order to achieve this balance, we calculated a value for the amount of skill or experience points that could be earned in a one-hour period. This theoretical value represents an hour spent engaged solely in combat, levequests, or any other activities that earn skill or experience points, and sets a threshold delimiting how many of these points can be earned in a period of play.

Based on this, we have implemented a “threshold value” concept. These thresholds are regulated by a one-week timer that begins counting down the instant you earn skill/experience points. After a week has passed, the thresholds will reset, and the moment skill/experience points are earned again, the timer begins counting down anew.

For the first eight thresholds during this week-long period, players will receive skill/experience points at the maximum rate possible. The actual amount of time spent reaching these thresholds is not significant. That is to say, a player who exceeds eight hours of gameplay will still be rewarded the maximum amount of skill/experience points, so long as the total amount earned is below the eighth threshold value. For the subsequent seven thresholds, players will earn skill/experience points at a gradually decreasing rate, eventually reaching a rate of zero.

It is worth noting, however, that the reduced rate will also gradually recover while players are engaged in activities that do not yield skill/experience points. In this manner, it is possible for the threshold value to reset completely, even before the completion of the one-week timer.

Any skill points earned in excess of the threshold maximum—that is, at a rate of zero—will be stored as "bonus skill points." These are specific to each class, so players limited to earning bonus skill points still have the freedom to change classes and begin earning skill points again at the maximum rate, allowing their reduced skill rates to recover in the meantime.

The experience point threshold, however, is unrelated to class, and switching classes will have no effect on the decreasing rate of earnable experience.

[Lantyssa]

Still confusing as hell.  Also calling penalty XP "bonus" is extremely poor word choice.

[Mrbloodworth]

Where does this surplus XP go? The void?

[Lantyssa]

Yep.

[Kitsune]

So, here's the prerelease trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW-dfDTruMQ&feature=player_embedded

I have just one question.  Have they actually gotten any semblance of that cutscene-level awesome into actual gameplay?  Having run the tech demo, I've seen for myself that they're rendering very good footage with the game engine rather than pre-rendered video, but I can't tell whether they've actually put that same effort into the non-cutscene stuff.  Things like people actually having expressions and looking like they're looking at things happening around them instead of always staring straight forward with a blank doll face.

I know it's just graphics, but having a game where a character moves like they're actually hitting a monster with an axe instead of flailing their weapon in the air would be a very nice step up.

[Ard]

The benchmark is the opening of the game, minus the directly interactable parts.   The character you choose for the benchmark is your analog for the one you'd have made yourself.  It's not just running one long rendered cutscene, that's the in game engine, or rather, was it from months ago.

[Murgos]

I just watched some gameplay footage of a lvl 10 Gladiator.  Oh, god that looked like some boring slow ass combat.

[Kitsune]

I realize that the opening is done in the game's engine, but that doesn't mean that the same level of effort is being made by the designers to make it look awesome outside of special events like the opening.  The engine is clearly capable of doing some swank epic looking stuff, but someone actually has to code the game to include all of those details while your character's just walking down the street or stabbing rats.  When they showed the guy in the trailer giving a half-grin at the guildleve table, I was all, "Holy shit, that's the most realistic facial expression I've ever seen in a mmorpg."  Which is a little sad given the technology we have, but true all the same.

[Shatter]

OB DL Client for those interested in trying the OB.  I dont think I am even going to do that.

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/12489-open-beta-client-download-available-manual-update/

[Mrbloodworth]

The cut scene question was answered here.

[Hawkbit]

I wanted to see what all the fuss is about, but it looks like open beta isn't 'open' from what I'm reading.  Not sure... but they're no longer accepting beta applications so I have no way to download the client or make an account.  W/e I guess.

[Ard]

Open generally only implies that the NDA is going to be down, not that they're necessarily going to let more people in.  It does often correlate with more people being invited, but it's still up in the air if that's actually happening in this case.  I do fully expect more people to rage-quit though if more invites don't go out though.

[LK]

Don't tell me the mixed messaging is getting so bad they can't even properly explain what an Open Beta is? Man, I expect major LOLing from trying to decipher the game's instruction manual / tutorial.

[birdsguts]

After reading that ridiculous XP/SP idea they chose to go with I'm really interested to see how it pans out in practice... if at all.
If I understand the bit about "non combat activities diminishing the penalty faster than being logged out" correctly.... well .... I'm expecting lots of creative "game-ing" methods to be employed.

[Velorath]

I wanted to see what all the fuss is about, but it looks like open beta isn't 'open' from what I'm reading.  Not sure... but they're no longer accepting beta applications so I have no way to download the client or make an account.  W/e I guess.

They just opened a new open beta application site.

[Kitsune]

I was just coming by to put up the link.  One thing that the application site isn't clear on is that the key application part isn't accessible until 7:00 pacific time on Tuesday night.  You can load the page and download the installer, but the part where you actually sign up for the key is missing at present.  Just so people don't go there and tear their hair out OMG WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BUTTON?!  Button's not there right now, is why.

[Mrbloodworth]

Well poo. I went and made an account and all that, sucks I have to Waite. By the time I get home I bet is slammed.

[Shatter]

http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html
http://entry.ffxiv.com/eu/index.html

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Postponed

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 02:00 (GMT) on Sept. 1, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be releaseｄ at a later date.

Along with the postponement of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, the issuing of registration code for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be postponed as well. With the download of client software's installer, it will be suspended at 02:00 (GMT) on Sept. 1, 2010.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

[trias_e]

Note that you can still download the installer at the bottom of that page in preperation.  It can take a while to download as it uses some funky bit-torrent stuff.

[schild]

Worst bittorrent client ever.

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, the other day I tried to download the beta client, and I got about 17% after 8 hours.  I should be ready to go sometime in Novermber.

[Zetor]

Yep, in closed beta [EU at least] it was not a good idea to use the patcher's bittorrent client (does this downloader still have constant looping music with no mute button?). Loading the .torrent file into a proper BT client helped a lot, just be sure to download the stuff into the proper directories.

[statisticalfool]

Rethinking critical advancement systems a month before opening?

Good thing that's worked out so well all the other times that's happened.

[01101010]

Worst bittorrent client ever.

Funny that this was a HUGE issue in Alpha and took a lot of tinkering of my ports to get it to even function properly. Once I got those situated it was still a open and go to work while it finished sorta download. Quite a few people who got into Alpha late stage never even got to play since there downloads were not functioning well. Of course, there is a positive...no PlayOnline.

[Kitsune]

Rethinking critical advancement systems a month before opening?

Good thing that's worked out so well all the other times that's happened.

Apparently the critical advancement systems were in place a few months ago.  It's just that the beta servers weren't online enough hours in a day for people to actually smack up against the limiters, so no players knew.

[statisticalfool]

Yeah. They're saying they're going to look into it and tweak it around, now that people have actually gotten their hands on it.

I'm curious though, why people haven't learned from the flack the initial WoW rest system got; carrots, not sticks. Doesn't matter if the result is the same.

Also, this system is going to be a disaster for people who want to catch up with friends who are already higher level...

[Hawkbit]

I mentioned that a page or two ago and it was decided that it doesn't matter.   

[Lakov_Sanite]

Going back to the exp gating all I could think of was in wow terms "Hey, now you get to do the barrens 10 times in a row!"   

having to stop and switch classes is one thing but when you think about it, you'll be cycling through the same content immediately after doing it except you probably won't even get to re-do quests.  Imagine if you will an mmo where you are forced after ever vouple levels to switch to an alt but on that alt you could only do dungeons or grind mobs.  FFXIV is sort of like that.