Final Fantasy XIV [PS3]

They abso-*beeping*-lutely have to add Gladiator-style Move battle in FFXIV. In fact, they should also add puppetry using the Move controllers also.

EDIT: Bah... they probably can't. Need a completely new combat system, and new monster AI + animation, compared to PC and PS3 Dual Shock version.
 
http://worldsinmotion.biz/2010/10/f...aign=Feed:+WorldsInMotion+(WorldsInMotion.biz)

Launched across Japan, Europe, and North America on September 21st, Final Fantasy XIV has suffered complaints from fans regarding a number of issues like lag, sparsely populated zones, missing explanations/guides for systems, user interface deficiencies, and other problems.

Reviewers have also panned the online title for the same flaws, calling it "an unfinished product", "a travesty", and "unacceptable -- its aggregate Metacritic score currently sits at 54, the lowest for any numbered Final Fantasy release.

As the company implements changes based on the feedback it's received, Square Enix will extend the subscription-based game's free trial period from 30 to 60 days for anyone that's purchased FFXIV and registered an account before October 25th. The PC game has a $49.99 version and a $74.99 collector's edition (monthly charge of $12.99).

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Aye, the main reason I dropped this game off my list is that despite having a great character developement system, a decent combat system, and what appears to be a somewhat decent harvesting and crafting system, at the end of the day the game is completely and totally ruined by the absolutely horrible console inspired UI.

The UI was obviously designed in an attempt to make it as easy to use as possible on console, however, for an MMO, using that same UI meant that the game (on PC) was extremely crippled compared to any of the good MMO's (F2P or paid) on the market. Lack of customization options, inability to have simultaneous windows open, inability to customize chat windows, etc. all lead to a very frustrating and tedious experience.

For example creating macro's for the game for job switching is absolutely essential unless you want to spend half an hour swapping gear and skills everytime you switch jobs. However, when creating a macro you can't have your inventory or skills screen open. Meaning you must write down everything on a piece of paper ahead of time and make sure you got the spelling correct. Or constantly go back to main menu, go to inventory or skills (to look up name of item or skill), go back to main menu, go to macro menu, go to macro, edit macro, input new change, go back to main menu, go to inventory or skills, etc... I'm getting frustrated just typing that out. :p That gets tedious when you have to update said macro's everytime you upgrade gear, or gain a level and get new skills. Especially when you are encouraged to have and will have multiple jobs (classes) by the EXP system that is in place (fatigue). You can't even have multiple macro windows open in order to just copy certain things from another macro. Or if you just want to make sure that certain shared skills are on the same hotkey button across multiple jobs.

On consoles it's a necessary evil perhaps as everything must be accomplished via the console controller. On PC however, it's enough to kill any possible enjoyment of the game. And that's just one example of where the UI (not the gameplay) makes the game incredibly tedious.

As I tell my other MMO buddies. Great game, or at least great potential, ruined by a horrible UI.

Regards,
SB
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Aye, the main reason I dropped this game off my list is that despite having a great character developement system, a decent combat system, and what appears to be a somewhat decent harvesting and crafting system, at the end of the day the game is completely and totally ruined by the absolutely horrible console inspired UI.

The UI was obviously designed in an attempt to make it as easy to use as possible on console, however, for an MMO, using that same UI meant that the game (on PC) was extremely crippled compared to any of the good MMO's (F2P or paid) on the market. Lack of customization options, inability to have simultaneous windows open, inability to customize chat windows, etc. all lead to a very frustrating and tedious experience.

For example creating macro's for the game for job switching is absolutely essential unless you want to spend half an hour swapping gear and skills everytime you switch jobs. However, when creating a macro you can't have your inventory or skills screen open. Meaning you must write down everything on a piece of paper ahead of time and make sure you got the spelling correct. Or constantly go back to main menu, go to inventory or skills (to look up name of item or skill), go back to main menu, go to macro menu, go to macro, edit macro, input new change, go back to main menu, go to inventory or skills, etc... I'm getting frustrated just typing that out. :p That gets tedious when you have to update said macro's everytime you upgrade gear, or gain a level and get new skills. Especially when you are encouraged to have and will have multiple jobs (classes) by the EXP system that is in place (fatigue). You can't even have multiple macro windows open in order to just copy certain things from another macro. Or if you just want to make sure that certain shared skills are on the same hotkey button across multiple jobs.

On consoles it's a necessary evil perhaps as everything must be accomplished via the console controller. On PC however, it's enough to kill any possible enjoyment of the game. And that's just one example of where the UI (not the gameplay) makes the game incredibly tedious.

As I tell my other MMO buddies. Great game, or at least great potential, ruined by a horrible UI.

Regards,
SB
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Thanks for the feedback. Although the UI complaints you mentioned seem to me like they would cripple the console version too. If anything, a proper UI streamlined for consoles should make those tasks you mentioned easier, not more tedious, due to the limitations of screen resolution and input methods one would have to take into account. To do it right, it seems to me you'd want to make a simple, flexible, visual process. Hopefully, they'll have things ironed out by the time the PS3 version rolls around. And hopefully Logitech will come out with a combo keyboard controller this time around as well. I had one for FFXII, and it worked out great. Although full keyboard/mouse support would be nice, too.
 
It may be more effective to tailor the gameplay for console owners (e.g., add motion controlled fighting) than trying to make console behave like a PC.

But first they will have to solve memory issues mentioned above:
http://www.vg247.com/2010/08/24/ffxiv-ps3-delay-down-to-memory-says-square-enix/

The PlayStation 3 version of MMO Final Fantasy XIV was delayed due to “memory” issues, producer Hiromichi Tanaka told VG247.

...

“On the PC, they have enormous memory. For PS3, there’s a restriction.“They are adjusting the memory size and customising it; it took longer then we were expecting. But we’re really working hard to bring it out as soon as possible.”
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patsu said:
It may be more effective to tailor the gameplay for console owners (e.g., add motion controlled fighting) than trying to make console behave like a PC.
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The combat was fine with the UI presented. Well, fine in that it didn't make combat tedious or overly difficult because of the UI. It could have been better, but was definitely good enough.

It's all of the stuff you do between battles that was rendered tedious and frustrating. Crafting, Inventory, Equipping your character, changing jobs, creating macros, shopping, etc... And that doesn't even go into the social experience. Their in game chat system was a hindrance in that it was difficult or impossible to seperate global chat from group chat from local chat from private chat, etc.

I can't stress enough. I wanted to like this game SOOO much, it has so much promise, but the UI completely undermines the game. I enjoyed it when I was able to do things. I hated it whenever I had to go to the "main menu" to do anything. Level up? main menu. Get new gear? main menu. ARGH!. You can't just open up inventory. It's main menu -> Inventory. Can't just open char screen and distribute new attribute points. It's Main menu -> whatever the screen was.

Can't run around harvesting while having your inventory open so you can keep an eye on how much of X crafting materials you've gotten. Etc...

Combat was mostly find however. :p But the UI? FF XIV definitely sets a benchmark for worst UI ever made for an MMO.

Regards,
SB
 
I think for Console MMO to stand out, they can't settle on "just fine" combat and mimic PC all the way. The living room experience may be different.

Even if the user hooks up his PC to the big screen TV in the living room, the MMO experience may still s*ck because the posture, setting and environment is different. For one, the user may not get to hog the living room to chat forever, like in his/her personal room.

If the devs can get an "exclusive" console feature better/more fun than PC, and stop pretending to be a PC, it will likely attract its own audience.

Chatting on PS Home is ok (using a combination of voice chat and text chat). But a game like FFIV has a lot more potential for imagination to run wild.

The other thing is to allow cross client usage (e.g., a PS3 user can use a PC/web to play the same game, if not done already). e.g, Avatar customization should be doable over the web.
 
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/11/04/wada_on_ffxiv/

During an investors briefing earlier today, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada admitted that Final Fantasy XIV has been having a hard time out the gate and said, "We're quickly working on reforms. W'd like to put our full power into regaining trust." (Via Mainichi.)

...

The PlayStation 3 version is still on track for March, Square Enix also confirmed.

Wada said some of the problems were due to expectations for FFXIV being high and the end result showing a gap.

Said Wada, "If we satisfy our users, they will return. On the other hand, once the users say, 'forget this,' there's no turning back. We can only recover our trust so far."
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Square-Enix working to fix FFIV:
http://kotaku.com/5687331/how-square-enix-plans-to-fix-final-fantasy-xiv

First up is the guildleve system, which is Final Fantasy XIV's mission-based questing element. The November and December patches will see the addition of more guildleves; the ability to tweak difficulty after starting a mission; and the ability to abandon a guildleve you've already accepted.

the early 2011 update will bring more tweaks to the guildleve system, as well as new main scenario quests, new job-based quests, and new and improved tutorial quests to help explain the game better to new players.

Combat will greatly benefit from tweaks to the targeting system this year, along with various class and monster adjustments and the introduction of notorious monsters. Next year brings even greater changes, with new skills to further differentiate the combat classes, an assist command, and new battle content, such as hamlet defense battles.

Gathering and synthesis will benefit from new item sorting options, recipe tweaks, a log that tracks the last eight recipes the player used, and a reduction in the number of menus you need to go through in order to begin synthesis, one of the biggest annoyances to the game's crafting system. future updates will bring even more sorting methods and the introduction of new synthesis recipes.

On the market side of things, all I care about is the search function, which should be coming in the next two months. There are plenty of other changes coming, but the search feature is the one that matters the most. No more wandering from merchant to merchant for hours on end, praying the item you want is there.

Communication is key in any MMO, and the November/December updates will give players the ability to create multiple chat log windows and the ability (thank god) to filter out other people's crafting spam.

Then in 2011 Square Enix will introduce Companies, which are more like traditional guilds than the current linkshell communication system. Companies will gain access to company housing and ships. They'll also be introducing an in-game mail service.
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Full fix list here:
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=cb4dc09784bc24b4fde2e45de9f018ec5fb504d2
 
Ha ha, I posted the link above. The negotiation started way early. MS won't have enough info to decide based on game quality though.
 
RobertR1 said:
Getting lit up an interview! http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/11/15/i...-xiv-developers-apologise-to-unhappy-players/

I recall SE was publicy wanting MS to change Live policies for FF14. From the looks of it, MS smelled a turd and stayed away. If you're gonna make a change might as well do it for a quality product.
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As the problems in the game consern mostly the PC version, I'm not sure your conclusion relly makes sense.
On the other hand, as FFXI wasn't such a hit MS had hoped, and probably payed big money for the exclusivity, I think there was more obvious reasons involved than "MS smelling a turd", when those issues very likely hadn't even been there to smell when MS had been in negotiations with SE.
 
I'm so confused as to why MMO developers would want to even make controls for PC and consoles similar. PC is the #1 MMO market anyway, so gimping PC controls should obvioulsy be out of the question. If console players complain, well, too bad for them, who plays MMOs on a console? Not to mention, manufacturers have tried to make consoles MMO-friendly for like a decade or more. So it seems to me, if a PS3 owner wants to sit in his armchair and lazily play an MMO, then there should be a giant icon or super-deep menus system for them on consoles. But then they could also retain a proper hotshit PC UI for PS3 owners who really give a shit and buy a keyboard and mouse. How hard could it be? It's not a total redesign; they had to make the (inevitably somehwat different regardless) PC UI already anyway.
 
Hopefully they start with the UI. They need to do two things with that.

First, make a sensible UI that takes advantage of the PC. Look at WoW, VG, EQ 2, Eve Online, etc...

Second, make it so custom UI's can be made or at least include extensie customization options.

Doing that, at least you won't have people cursing your game just trying to play it. I would have paid for a monthly membership after the game had left Beta if the UI had been even remotely useable.

Regards,
SB
 
Saw the news on GAF. I applaud their decision. Hopefully they do a slightly different flavor of MMO for PS3. I have a feeling a living room MMO may play differently from a study room MMO.
 
Patch 1.18a was released on Aug 5th:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/19719-patch1.18a-Patch-1.18a-Notes?p=276820#post276820

Another huge one (1.19) coming soon:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/20998-Letter-from-the-Producer-XVI-(08-15-2011)

Patch note for 1.19 is said to be 3-5 times longer than 1.18.

Silicon Era has a summary for the upcoming patch:
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/08/1...m-to-enter-final-fantasy-xiv-with-patch-1-19/

Patch 1.19 for Final Fantasy XIV will introduce several of the changes that producer, Naoki Yoshida, has touched upon in the past. The most major is something called the “My Little Chocobo” system. That may not be the final name, according to Yoshida, who posted a “Letter from the Producer” column this week, mentioning the changes and new content that will be introduced through the 1.19 patch.

Chocobos are part of a new transportation system. Patch 1.19 will allow for Chocobo rentals in the three city-states. Players will also be able to acquire their own personal Chocobos. Finally, there will be airships flying between the three city-states. You’ll need to pay in Gil for both Chocobo rentals and passage aboard airships.

Other new content includes the Ifrit battle quest and a caravan escort system. Updates to both these are planned for patch 1.20. The Materia crafting system that Yoshida mentioned back in April will be included, too.

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