FF XIV Beta...

[Goman Fox]

Applications for the FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test have been temporarily suspended. Please wait until we are ready to accept new applications and then try again.

*cries*

If anyone says "I got an Open Beta key!" I'm going to show up at your house and kick you in the face. D:  ...unless you're TMAK or Eternimus, in which case I'll congratulate you for getting one, and continue to cry. D:

Oh well, the updater is going to take a frickin' day at 15Kb/s anyways, maybe they'll open up Open Beta Key registration by the time I get home from class today, or tomorrow even.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I got an Open Beta key!

And I'm not even going to use it.



Just kidding, Fox.  I'll try the game, but what I've seen so far hasn't convinced me to spend any money on it.  I've created a pretty little female hume Hyur Lancer named Helenia on Figaro.  She's currently idling in the starter town of Limsa Lominsa.  I'm still playing with the game configuration to get it to run smoothly, which is far more difficult than it should be.

So, changes from FFXI to FFXIV, what SE did right and what they did wrong that I can see thus far:

- They stuck with the gamepad-central configuration from FFXI.  Not that using a gamepad is a bad thing in itself, but they even stuck with the CTRL/ALT macro system from FFXI.  I haven't played with the macro system in FFXIV yet, but I can't help but remember just how limiting it was in FFXI.  This also ties into my next point:

- This is a PS3 -> PC port.  And it's been mishandled in all the same ways that FFXI was.  Oh sure, it supports advanced graphics options like ambient occlusion, antialiasing, and depth of field...but enabling those options will kill your framerate when they shouldn't!  Just like with FFXI, tying this game to a console is going to severely limit the kinds of features and updates that can be done in the future.

- Hyur.  Really?  Come on, I've heard less retarded sounds come out of people who suffer from Down's Syndrome!

- The update system still sucks dead donkey dong for beer money.  Oh, sure, they've gone P2P with it (taking a page from Blizzard's book), but it has been ridiculously poorly implemented!  Opening ports, adjusting firewall settings, etc. has intermittent beneficial effects.  Why intermittent?  Because you literally can download the patches ten times faster by just opening the torrent files in your Bittorrent client of choice, and that's exactly what everyone else is doing!

- Windowed mode.  Finally.  But:

- The game looks and performs better full-screen, of course...but you still can't ALT+TAB when in full-screen mode!  Attempting to do so crashes the game.  W.  T.  F?!

- The controls are laggy as sh**.  There is literally a whole second between when I press a button and when the game registers it.  I'm not sure if that's a control issue or a graphics setting issue, so I'm still trying to sort that out.  Still annoying, though.

- No PlayOnline.  Thank whatever Deity you believe in!  The login process for FFXIV is considerably more streamlined when compared to FFXI, and that's a very good thing indeed.

I know all that red text makes me look really negative...but I really haven't found much to like about this game yet.  I'll revise my impressions over the next few days or so, but don't hold your breath hoping I'll spend money on this trash.  I'm still pissed at SE over ripping me off with FFXI. >.<

Yes, I intend to hold that grudge until they settle up, and yes I still call or e-mail them every month demanding that they do just that.

[Goman Fox]

I hate you. D:  Not really, but I'm still sad, even trying this morning and now after getting home, I can't get a beta key.  Not that it really matters since my game update is at 42.7% after being on for the last 21 hours. -.-

Where is this update torrent you speak of?  I'm tired of seeing my precious GCI-limited bandwidth being wasted on 100+Kb/s upload while I get no higher than 10Kb/s download most of the time.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

You're running Windows 7, right?  Look here:

C:\Users\[Your User]\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version\downloads\ffxiv-beta

There will be two folders in there: d96437e6 and bca2a8ae.  Inside each of those is a metainfo that contains the torrent files that the FFXIV updater is supposed to be using.  Just make sure you set the destination for the files downloaded to that downloads folder in the above path, or you'll have to move them manually later on.

Before you try using uTorrent or whatever, you might try hitting your router and forwarding the 54992-55551 TCP/UDP port range to your computer's IP.  That's the range that FFXIV's updater is using for its P2P transfer.  Opening those ports might speed you up without having to switch torrent apps.

[Oni]

Router set up and Fixed for ya Fox.

[Goman Fox]

Apparently the game has decided it hates me now anyways.  Can't get it to download anything at all (but it's got a steady 100Kb/s upload rate) and uTorrent wont connect to the torrents either, even after doing the port forwarding and such.

Should have just gotten City of Heroes Going Rogue and forgotten about FFXIV, lol.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Or StarCraft II (gg, yo).  Or Metroid Other M (Samus Aran is a damn ninja now!).  Or just wait for SWTOR if you have your heart set on a mummorpuger.  There's a grip of better games to distract yourself with right now, and FFXIV is shaping up to just not worth your time.

Okay, yes, I know it's a damn beta.  But one could argue that all MMORPGs remain betas throughout their entire lifetime!  If you want to play the "OBTs are for working out the few remaining bugs" card, I have an answer for that too:

You can't get players to help crush bugs if they can't get the damn software.  How can you get the software if the downloader/updater is broken?!
"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!  How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!"

Also, the operative word there was "few."  The fact that all of the FFXIV world servers just went down for a 3+ hour emergency maintenance, coupled with the broken updater, indicates that there are more than a "few" remaining bugs in this game.

What a piece of trash.  Have you looked at the config app yet?  It's nearly identical to FFXI's config app (in fact, the gamepad config is identical).  They've added a few new graphics tweaking options in there, but nowhere near the amount that is actually called for.  Why can I adjust shadow quality, texture quality, texture filtering, and antialiasing...but not foliage density, lighting quality, or vertical sync?  And why, for the love of Altana (compulsory FFXI reference completed), can't any of those settings be adjusted from inside the game itself?!

Two words:

Bad.  Console.  Port.
Yes, I did that intentionally.

Square-Enix didn't learn very much from their experience with FFXI, and that's a very sad commentary indeed.

[Goman Fox]

I wont know that FFXIV really isn't worth my time until I try it out though, my curiosity will eventually get to me.  I mean, I still check the FFXI page from time to time to see if any of their updates are interesting enough to get me to go back.

I'll have to try FFXIV someday to satisfy my curiosity, I'm just kinda hoping for a chance at the open beta since it's free.  I got into the beta for Champions Online but got bored with it pretty quick, it didn't appeal to me and it saved me $30+ I would have spent to buy the game to realize I didn't like it.  I'm hoping it will either be the same with FFXIV or I will actually enjoy it.

Now that I got uTorrent to get a download speed on the update, I'm just waiting for the chance to get a beta key (tomorrow morning maybe?  who knows).  After I try it, I'll know if it's worth pre-ordering the game or not, assuming I can afford it of course.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Getting a OB key is just a matter of patience, man.  It's not still suspended (I got mine, right?), it's just retarded congested with people trying to get their keys, and of course SE didn't see that coming and have protections in place for the imminent DDOS attack that they invited upon themselves.

I'm not saying you shouldn't check it out.  By all means, it's your time.  I, too, plan to spend some time with it over the next few days (after the weekend, due to the State Fair, grocery shopping, spending time with Millie, making it rain by mowing the lawn, and other demands upon my time) to see if my impressions improve any...

...but even if they do, I'm not buying it.  SE isn't getting any more of my money, and that's one stance upon which I really am adamant (*cough*StarCraftII*cough*).

[Goman Fox]

Actually, most of the day yesterday the Open Beta Key registration was suspended again.

But this morning (here anyways) it was up again, the site wasn't congested like it was, and I got my own beta key.  Oh and uTorrent finished the update, now lets see if it works...

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Congratulations!  You have found the AstroGlide!

Oh, and the page that says that they've suspended key applications?  That's an automatic page that you get forwarded to when their server crashes from that DDOS attack I was talking about.  Did you play FFXI waaaaaaaaaaay back in the day when DDOS attacks on their servers were commonplace?  They didn't know how to deal with it then (they solved it by going after the people who were doing it, instead of protecting their servers from it), and evidently they still haven't figured it out now.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

 

[Goman Fox]

I think the mini-patches they have every(?) day are just to test their testers' patience with their crappy download system.  I mean, they're no more than a few MB large, but with the crappy connections I get (like just now, getting 50-100Kb/s up to 95%, then dropping to 0) it takes forever to download them.

Anyways other than the annoyance with the crappy updater, and wishing I had a nicer computer to play the game, I'm kinda enjoying FFXIV.  I kinda hope they get more detailed with their "tutorial" quest line, or have a manual or something, because I was completely lost until an hour or something into those quests when they finally described the basics in more detail.  Oh and some of the quests obviously need touchups, like the one in Ul'Dah that teaches you about the emote commands.  I basically had to go through the list of emotes to figure out the correct choice in each step, it was annoying.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Wanna know something they don't describe at all in any kind of tutorial?  Crafting.  I tried for an hour to figure out how it's supposed to work, only to end up giving up and uninstalling the game.

Mind you, the lack of crafting exposition was just one factor that killed me on the game.  Here are a few more:

- There are no weapon or armor shops in that starter/main town.  None that I could find, anyhow, and I scoured every inch of that burg.  Sure, there's the merchant's alley or whatever it's called, but all they sell there are...crafting materials!  sh**, even Windurst had weapon and armor shops offering low-level gear for newbies.

- There is no centralized auction house.  If you want to buy crafted/gathered/looted items from offline players, you have to go to a zone that is specifically designated for bazaaring (think "Batallia Downs Black Market," only officially sanctioned now) and sift through numerous player/agent bazaar shops to see if you can find what you're looking for.  Anecdote related to above lack of NPC shops: I went into the market space to see if I could find a new polearm to upgrade my weapon, dug through player shops for half an hour, and still came up empty-handed.

- The lag.  GOOD LORD THE LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!  All-pervasive, ever-present, and utterly perverse in its ability to annoy even somebody as patient as I am.  It's not graphics lag, either, because it diminishes to near non-existence when you enter an instance that excludes other players.

- Why can't I ALT+TAB?  This game finally supports a windowed mode, yet if I have it full-screen and attempt to coolswitch to a web browser, the game crashes with a Directx error.  Bad form, SE, very bad form!

- Equipment deteriorates, and it costs you gil and items to repair it.  I know this is pretty standard practice in current MMORPGs, but I still hate it when the developers decide that players don't have enough to spend their game money on and invent some micromanaging money-hemorrhaging bullshit like this.  It's especially annoying that SE's idea for this system requires you to essentially carry around a backpack full of detritus in order to keep your gear in fighting condition.

[Goman Fox]

What starter town did you pick?  I haven't looked around Limsa Lominsa or Gridania, but I know there's at least one shop in Ul'Dah that sells weapons and armor.  Well, at least the most basic of basic stuff (starter stuff for different classes, and very few stronger things).

It may just be a rumor, but I heard they were wanting to avoid the typical auction house because they think it might cut down RMT making money, or something (speaking of which, I saw gil-selling shout spam the other night, lol).  Honestly I'd like it if they ditched the typical AH system and instead implemented a system where one could go into those special bazaar places (or maybe better, access them from some points outside) and search them, maybe adding a small "finder's fee" if you buy from that menu instead of finding the bazaar yourself.

My main problem with the current bazaar system is that you can't browse a bazaar while walking (or at least I haven't been able to).  I used to look through bazaars as I'd run around in FFXI just as something to do.  Being rooted to the ground while browsing makes it practically impossible to look through any moving player's bazaar because they go out of range pretty quick if they keep moving.

I haven't been able to play much this weekend, and probably wont throughout the week, but I'm still kinda interested in the game.  I probably wont give it a stronger judgment until after it's released, to see what problems (if any) they decide to fix.