More news on XIV

[Malikai]

We have a little more insight into how XIV is going to play out now.
Sorcerer, Fighter, Crafter, and Gatherer are the classes announced so far, sorta.
As a Fight you can have a choice between two sub classes. BUT, it's not like how XI was and you can choose any you want. You can only choose between the classes designated as sub for your main class. Fight can choose something like Archer or Swordsman. Sorcerer can choose to sub Enchanter or Warlock. Crafter - Cook or Blacksmith. Gatherer - Gardener or Fisherman.
I am a little confused as to how that's going to work for those last two classes, but I think I get it. Since the game is based on weapons in how you character plays the game, I could see a fisherman possibly using items fished up to wield or something to that effect.
"Gamut" is a sub class for something. I can't seem to find what it's a sub for though.
Eorzea is a continent, not the world. I can't seem to find the article I read that stated the world's name, but for now it seems that the game is going to be played on Eorzea only. I'm sure it's going to have something to do with DLC or expansions.

"Eorzea is home to five races which, although they have different names, look quite a bit like the races in Final Fantasy XI. You have the Hyuran (Hume in FFXI), Miqo'te (Mithra), Lalafell (Tarutaru), Elezen (Elvaan) and Roegadyn (Galka), and as you'd expect, you can fully customize the look your character no matter what race he or she's a member of. Hyuran are further divided into "midlanders" and "highlanders," and Miqo'te are divided into the diurnal Sunseekers and the nocturnal Moonkeepers, though how this affects gameplay is still under wraps. "

"FFXIV's "armory system" is what defines your character's growth. The game has four broadly defined "job skills" -- Fighter, Sorcerer, Gatherer and Crafter -- each of which has a variety of more specific classes (Swordsman, Blacksmith, Caster, etc) attached to it. You can change your class instantly simply by changing your weapon and armor, and as you fight and complete quests with that equipment, your character will advance in that class. You're free to concentrate entirely on one class, or try to balance yourself out among all the job skills. "
That's a lot how FFV worked. This sounds fantastic!!

"This armory system isn't exactly like the "job" concept that most Final Fantasy games work under. "The way I see it, the player can define how his own job works," says Komoto. "For example, if you have the Swordsman skill, that's enough to let you play by yourself, but if you've also raised your Sorcerer skill enough to unlock that skill's healing magic, that'll make solo play a lot easier for you. You can carry enough equipment around at any given time to change your style freely, and the system makes this easy by letting you change sets of equipment all at once."

"This skill and class system largely replaces the traditional RPG concepts of levels and experience points in FFXIV. Instead of worrying about EXP, "I think the main thrust will be raising the skills you have at hand," as Komoto puts it. You'll probably still have to engage in good old-fashioned MMORPG grinding to improve your character, though."

"FFXIV's quest system involves visiting Eorzea's guild and receiving work passes from the guildmaster. Other players can cooperate with you, and everyone can put their passes together to involve the entire gang in a sort of mini-campaign. The available passes change at regular intervals, and completing a single quest from one of these passes will be a relatively short process -- Komoto estimates it at around half an hour or so. "You don't need a set number of people for each quest," he said. "That you can work out by yourself with the other players in the guild, since they're all there for the same goal."

w00t!

[negotiator]

thanks mali, very good info.

[Zerila]

I'm excited to try it out, and it sounds awesome for casual play, but so far, I haven't read anything that would make me stop playing FFXI in favor of this. I'm really hoping that there's some more flexible payment options, so I can pay only for the time I'm on, since I plan on playing both

Still, the screenshots I've seen are  just incredible!

[Zerila]

I was reading a little bit about Guildleves, and I'm a bit concerned about that. It sounds a LOT like Moblin Maze Mongers (which isn't a bad thing), but it seems like that is primarily how you quest/do missions and possibly gain XP. What I'm concerned about is that it sounds like it might be instanced, like Guild Wars.

While I don't have anything against instancing in general (it's great for what FFXI uses it for), if it takes over too much of the world, then it's not really an MMO in my book. If the only place you can really interact with people who aren't in your party is in town, then I think the whole experience loses something.

So, in my opinion:
Occasional, instanced battlefield and the like: Good
EVERYTHING instanced outside of town: Bad

[negotiator]

some video on ff14 gameplay.
Final Fantasy XIV Online Video Game, GC 09: Lalafell Gameplay (Cam) | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

from that little bit, it seems open world.
looking at some screenshots and this video, I really wish they made the landscape more dynamic/fantasy.  it's pretty much
Hi-res versions of 11's.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-09-final-fantasy/54445

....aaaannd elvans still have small heads, lmao.

if you don't have a gaming pc or ps3, if you save just a little bit every month, you'll have well over $300 for a ps3 by the
time this comes out if you're really interested in playing.

ok last vids:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/25995

[Zerila]

Wow... for an Alpha, that's incredibly good. I like that it's not instanced! And it seems like we will have a wider array of emotes to use 

I'll definitely be playing this, and I've signed up to try to get into the beta. I think I'll have to drop Noogies, though, in order to be able to afford playing both this and FFXI. We'll see how the billing works...

[negotiator]

more info for  14
http://www.ffxivcore.com/

[Malikai]

XIVcore is my friend! And the latest news from Famitsu is droolgasmic.

[negotiator]

FINAL FANTASY XIV FOR PC CONFIRMED FOR 30th SEPTEMBER 2010 RELEASE

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Apparently the Collector's Edition is to be released on September 22, 2010, while the standard edition will see release on September 30th, 2010. The PS3 version will be launched sometime in March, 2011.

Quote
Final Fantasy fanatics willing to pay $25 will be able to access the game eight days ahead of the masses, courtesy of the early access codes included in the $75 collector's edition of the game. (Square Enix did add the caveat that "timing of access subject to initial server capacity.") Besides the game disc and manual, included will be the following cache of goodies:
A behind the scenes DVD with the obligatory documentary on the making of the game.
A travel journal with concept art pages in which players can document their in-game wanderings.
An in-game item called the "Onion Helm."
A fully personalized "Right of Passage" certificate.
Special cover illustrated by artist Yoshitaka Amano.
A FFXIV-branded security token for use with regular password.

Missing from our version of the CE is the tumbler and music CD, sadly. The regular edition will be priced at $50.00 USD.

Subscription Pricing Information
Quote


The monthly subscription fee will be £8.99 ($12.99) with additional characters available for £2.10 ($3.00) a month. A maximum of eight characters can be registered on any one account.
Each account is eligible for one free retainer (a non-playable character that maintains item sales and storage when users are logged out) with each additional retainer costing £0.70 ($1.00).

Recommended Specs (?)
Quote
Windows XP/Vista/7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, 15GB HDD space, NVIDIA GeForce 9600 512MB or ATI Radeon HD 2900 512MB and DirectX 9

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GRIPE. $3.00 per extra character???
Anyway just slapped my gil down for 2 CE.  damn my weakness!

[Zerila]

Ordered the CE myself...

I'm thinking that the $3 is to discourage mules from being made, since they should be unneeded with the retainer system... But that's just a wild guess.

[Majestica]

Ooooh noes it's listing specific video cards =( I hope it works on my lappytoppy!

My laptop has an ATI Radeon 3100, does that mean it's better than what is being recommended? 

[Zerila]

I wouldn't worry too much about specific cards, but definitely run the benchmark test before you buy it!
Find that here: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/media/benchmark/na/

Oh, and though I'm definitely going to at least try FFXIV, there is no way I'm going to stop playing FFXI, unless they turn off the servers

[Majestica]

Sweet, thanks Zeripu! I'm downloading it now =D Wish me luck!

Blah it says I am missing some .dll file, it looks kinda like it has something to do with DirectX but I have it installed so idk... bummer!

[Zerila]

Ah! I had that, too! Try reinstalling DirectX

[Majestica]

Ok I'll try later. Heading down to Okaloosa Island to check out the state of our beaches =( And... to have lunch!

[Majestica]

Holy crap I scored a 225. No, I didn't forget a digit. 225. lol. Guess I have a few months to work on that?

[Areya]

Bah, I didn't even hit 1500 on mine...    Guess I have work to do.

Well, second try, with a little tweaking I managed to get up to 1692.  That's still barely minimum.  This was supposed to be a good gaming computer, why is it performing so badly?  *sigh*

[Zerila]

A few things to check:
Run some maintenance on your PC/laptop (run disk cleaner, defragment the hard drive, etc.)
Shut down all applications but the benchmark test (in my case, just closing Firefox added over 150 to my score )
Make sure your virus scanner is either disabled or not actively scanning (don't forget to re-enable it when you're done!)

That should help.
Also, were you running the higher resolution test or the lower one? I scored well within the "playable" range on the lower resolution one, and barely squeaked by on the higher

Oooh, also... how much memory do you have, what kind of processor, and what kind of graphics card?
By the way, this whole post is directed at both Rey and Maj

[Areya]

Hmm, yeah a defrag/etc. might not hurt.  Might try turning off a few more programs too.  I also thought about updating graphics drivers, seeing if that will do anything.

Was using Low Res mode.

Graphics Card is an ATI Radeon 4670 HD.
3.23 GB of RAM
AMD Triple Core Processor.

[Zerila]

Sheesh, yeah, your PC has better specs than mine, but scored lower  Something's not right!