Those playing FFXI, can you give me some info
Tuesday, December 16th, 2003 - 7:28pm
I've beaten, or am bored with, the last few games I picked up. I'm looking to get REALLY into a game. A game with nice graphics and enough options to keep it fresh and interesting. Is FFXI a game like that?
I was hoping to wait for WoW to come out as my next MMO purchase, but everything I hear about that says beta in 2004 and lucky to have the game by 4th quarter 2004.
So, can people playing FFXI tell me the highs and lows of the game? I know its all individual opinions, I'm just curious what others think.
Thanks in advance
Personally, I would say FFXI is not what you''re looking for. I speak from a Dark Age of Camelot background, however. Camelot has much faster combat, player versus player, and faster leveling than most ORPGs out there.
FFXI has none of those above features. It has a rather detailed storyline through missions, which would be nice if the XP rewards were actually worth the time spent in the mission. There is no player versus player component, and from what I hear, the one they''re adding doesn''t even let you engage other players. It''s more of a competition for who can kill this monster faster. Finally, the combat is slow and has little true variety during an actual battle. I''d say pass.
There is tons of info in the forums just do a search on FFXI and you can find it. I find the game to be awesome, if you enjoy MMORPG''s I highly recommend it.
PSN ID: Stric9
I''m enjoying it and would recommend it, as well. It''s not perfect, though.
Low points -- Slow leveling tredmill and a UI that is designed for console controllers (which if you switch to a controller on your PC, as I did, negates this problem, imho.) These two points seem to be the main beefs with people from this forum.
I would add the lack of guilds, as a low point. They have linkshells, which allow groups of friends to chat on a channel, but that''s all they do.
High points -- Quests, missions, and storyline. FFXI does this really well. There are cutscenes, like you''re playing a SP FFX game, but in an MMO. Graphics and scenery are beautiful. There''s tons of content and depth. Everything works and works well. No lag, crashes, disconnects, etc. Classes are balanced and work well in groups together.
As Stric9 said, you can find several threads about FFXI on the board. Do a search, as some are several pages deep.
The terrain in FFXI is horrible. They have great characters. I like the quest system and I''m waiting to see how PVP works out.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
The terrain looks great. It''s not really modeled to be realistic, but it does look nice.
PSN ID: Stric9
I''m not talking art wise but graphic wise. The terrain engine is horrible. The terrain textures are not crisp and clear. It looks very ps2ish. I would have liked higher res textures for the PC to go with the characters.
If you can get past the interface and the terrain the game is fun.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
I think Ulari is letting his Horizons bias show.
FFXI has an interface that was designed to be used with either a keyboard only or a controller. If you can get over that, it is probably the most polished and fun MMO on the market. It has a great job system that doesn''t penalize you for trying new things. It has great spell effects. The graphics engine is built around a ton of polys as opposed to low poly, high texture. I personally think it looks magnificent. The weather effects are great.
The quest system and cutscenes really add to the game. And I love the crafting system. They don''t really do anything *new* in crafting (it is still compile components and hit a button), but the fact that there is a robust player-driven economy means that you have ready access to components and an easy way to get rid of the things you craft (as opposed to hunting for the one component that you can''t find and then struggling with inventory space because no one you know wants the 15 spears that you made).
Sure, the levelling isn''t instant, but if you could reach the highest level in 3-4 weeks (like you could in AC2), what is the point of playing? There''s a ton of stuff to do that is all level appropriate. I view it as something to enjoy and savor, not get annoyed because it isn''t fast enough.
I highly recommend it.
"It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem." - Malcolm Forbes
Although I will give the nod to Horizons in terms of modeling of characters navigating terrain. FFXI looks better in every aspect. I haven''t seen one area where Horizons looked better, including terrain. In fact all around graphic wise I would rate FFXI right up there with the best of the genre. I guess if you never used the configuration utility to up the screen resolution and background resolution you might be able to say it looked worse, but that could be said for any game.
PSN ID: Stric9
I''m not being biased. I don''t think how anyone can look at the two terrain engines and say that FFXI is up there at the top. I agree 100% with FFXI having fantastic characters and a cool quest system. However, their terrain engine isn''t up to par.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
You can get FF to look like ass if you want, just set the background resolution to 512x512. But if you have the background resolution set to 1024x1024 or above the whole thing looks incredible.
Intentionally or not you are biased. I''ll admit I am biased towards FFXI and thats just because I like the game, not because I am on their payroll. If you think you have a valid point then back it up, show us any neutral party that agrees with you. Every review I have seen on the net has FFXI''s graphics at around a 9 or 10 with no mention of the terrain looking bad.
Here is a quote from the GameSpy Review, no mention of bad terrain:
PSN ID: Stric9
I tend to agree with Ulairi here, the terrain in FFXII is very two dimensional, you can''t climb things and the rendering engine is pretty sub par IMO, honestly I think saying otherwise is just a hefty dose of through the rose color glasses.
I wouldn''t try and compare Horizons and FFXII given the difference in vintage of the engines though. Art wise they are both very nice.
It''s really the UI in FFXII that killed it for me, that and slow as sh*t level treadmill. It definitely has a lot of great ideas going for it but the core game play is not that much fun, ala EQ. Course I say the same thing about Horizons
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Course your mileage may very, I'm a big supporter of giving all these games a shot, you never know when you will find the diamond in the ruff.
-Griffon
"White is the new black"
I was trying to refrain from commenting in this thread since I''ve already said what I think in other threads... but since the precedent has now been set for responses other than ""go read the other 158 threads on this"" here''s my take:
First the negatives. It has no PvP. So that right there kills it for some people. They are putting some form of PvP in, but who knows what it''ll be like as no details have been released yet.
Some of the art, including a playable race, is anime-style cutesy. This is a big turnoff to some of my friends, and I have to say the downloadable benchmark of dancing TaruTaru put me off at first as well.
There are some rare items that can only be obtained through camping rare spawns that may or may not drop the item. So you get EQ style camping for days on end if you want these items and can''t afford to simply buy one.
The UI definitely takes some getting used to.
There''s only 1 class that can effectively solo past level 15 or so. This means if your goal is fast leveling, you better be able to allocate a few hours at a time to group with people for exping.
Now the positives, which I think far outweigh the negatives.
It''s been out for a while in Japan, so it''s stable, runs well, generally not laggy, no crazy class balancing stuff going on.
The group PvE is fantastic. Much more challenging and involving than other MMOGs that I''ve played. The difference in the exp that can be had by a group of skilled, knowledgeable players vs. a mediocre or unfocused group is amazing - the game really rewards player skill in PvE.
The job (class) system is cool. When you start out, you pick from a list of basic jobs. When you reach level 18, you can complete a quest to unlock a support job. So you can then have 2 jobs at once, the sub job being capped at half the level of your main job. You can change jobs any time you want. At level 30 you can complete various quests to unlock other jobs.
There''s a fully functioning in game economy centered around auction houses. There''s no trash loot at all -- any drop you get is either a component for crafting or equipment. To make money you can craft, or sell your trash loot at the auction house and crafters will buy it up.
You can send money/items to any character (including your own mules/alts -- although alts are less usual in this game since you can switch jobs at will). No need for two accounts or help from somebody when you want to give stuff to a new alt.
No buffbots (my biggest problem with DAOC now is the rampant use of buffbots). Some people still 2-box though.
Once you get used to the UI you can play with only the keyboard. I like this alot, never have to move hands back and forth from KB to mouse.
Cut scenes! Kinda cheesy but I think cut scenes make quests and missions more interesting.
You can belong to as many player guilds (called linkshells) as you want.
If you don''t like the rubrics of the MMORPG genre, you won''t like this game. But if you want an evolutionary, well-executed version of the usual formula, FFXI will probably make you very happy.
[edit: spelling]
Thats not what he said, what he said was:
This in no way refers to the ''two dimensional'' aspect of navigating the terrain. In fact I am the one who mentioned that as a plus for Horizons.
How is the rendering engine sub par? The fact is the end result on the screen looks amazing, and the engine isn''t going to be licensed out to anyone so how on earth could you know that it is ''sub par''? I could easily argue FFXI is among the best looking MMORPGs on the market, I doubt you will find many people willing to say that about Horizons.
But again this is off subject, we were talking about the visual quality of the terrain. Visually the terrain textures in FFXI in my opinion look just as sharp as those of Horizons, and further art wise blow Horizons away. To clarify I think the trees, rocks, dirt, snow, sand and any other terrain objects look just as sharp and a lot prettier in FFXI than they do in Horizons.
I think people are getting an impression that the leveling in FF is slower than all other games out there, this isn''t the case. It''s really not much different than EQ or DAOC, that said Horizons does seem to allow you to level quicker, also Horizons seems to have less downtime which is a plus.
Neither would I, especially since XII isn''t even out yet
PSN ID: Stric9
Eh oops
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I will add that I also utterly and completely hated the their whole logon message client thing and the way they work your id system (pain the ass, differnt things here and there). Any app that is constantly complaining at me because I ddin''t bother to spend the 20 clicks to exit out of it can go to hell
. I really found having to login through all that drizzle just to get the game to be completely annoying and a turn off.
As long as I''m grouching, I also don''t like Horizons login system but that is mainly because it makes it impossible to use even socks cap at work. Tthe handshaking is badly designed and won''t work through our corperate firewall (at least up to end of beta). That causes me to have to do nasty things to tunnel to our proxy server and that make me cranky. But I digress a bit
. AO and DAOC seamed to get how that should work (both work seamlessly from work so do some others, not even needing the proxy server).
Bah quotes are messed up but I can''t make it better
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-Griffon
"White is the new black"
Can''t say I have seen any of these problems except for the occasional jaggy when background res was at 1024x1024, but since I upped the background res to 1600x1600 I haven''t seen one jaggy. As stated above almost any review you read is going to have the graphics rated at 9 or higher so it''s not just my opinion.
Oh and the logon could definately use some streamlining. However considering they developed the system to be a genral host for multiple online titles I can understand why the system is like it is.
PSN ID: Stric9
Griff, were your prolems anything like this? Seems this problem was caused by a Radeon 9700 and ALI chispset combo. Based on what you are describing I would think you had some kind of instability in the game caused by a certain hardware configuration, cause I have yet to see any texture seams.
PSN ID: Stric9
OK, as much as I love FFXI, this is really not true as far as DAOC is concerned. I''ve played DAOC since it came out, so I feel quite comfortable comparing it... There are several classes in DAOC that can solo their way to level 50 (the maximum) in under 10 days played in game. I think DAOC and AC2 will both get you to endgame in an order of magnitude quicker than FFXI would. But is this an advantage? Depends on who you ask, I guess.
Well my last post ened up at 404 page
. Anyway nah I''m on a Ti4600. I have also seen all the same issues on ATI 7500.
Those 9''s that some reviews give I would gander have a lot more to do with the art then the engine. Engine ratings ussualy get picked up more under game play.
-Griffon
"White is the new black"
It''s a frank speed issue for me. Battles in FFXI are slow. Very slow. Even low delay weapons make you wait around for your next attack. Camelot is fast, and in RvR, very fast. Low delay weapons give you a rapid series of attacks and keep combat moving along. Spell casting times are fast. Hell, everything is fast.
I''m spoiled by the ""action"" of Camelot. FFXI was easy to play, easy to learn, and easy to perfect. Thanks to the low XP output, the slow battles, and the lack of challenge, I shelved it pretty damn fast. The XP grind in it would be tolerable if I didn''t feel like I was falling asleep during each battle or the ridiculous wait times they make you suffer through if you lack a white mage.
Here''s a summary: It''s slow and leisurely. If you want a game like that, go get it. If you want something fast paced and challenging, run away screaming.
If you''re getting low XP output, then I don''t know how you can claim to have perfected your play in FFXI. As I''ve said several times, a skilled exp group will blow through a couple levels in an evening''s play. It''s still going to take you much longer to get to the level cap in FFXI than DAOC but a level every other hour seems like an OK pace to me.
An FFXI group that isn''t chaining IT mobs compares to a DAOC group without crowd control or a PBAE caster doing single pulls: they''re both slow.
So, with some of you guys dropping out of FFXI, is it time for Thursday Night EQ again?!?!?!
A great patch went live in EQ today. One feature: a casino where you can win actual items that are no longer dropped. One of the items.......guise of the deceiver
Xbox Live: Kooter06
Yeah your right DAOC is much faster than EQ and FF, I had forgot how quick it was to level in that game.
There is no doubt DAOC was/is a pretty cool game. However I didn''t like how fast the battles went in it, they were much more chaotic. Which while it may simulate the feel of a real battle more accurately, leaves less room for coordinated group attacks like Renkei and Magic Bursts in FF. Not to mention buffbots really ruined the game.
PSN ID: Stric9
What shard do you play on?
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Shard or server?
Xbox Live: Kooter06
Shard.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Erollisi Marr is my shard/server of choice for EQ.
I put in many hours with Gorack and Tobyus back in the day.
Xbox Live: Kooter06