Final Fantasy XIV news

[elaniel]

If you're going to so that, remember you've only 7 working days from receipt.

Yes, they have said it's fine as I was missold the goods.

Ill take your advice from my other thread and buy that one you recommended (as there's a 5% off voucher.)

Hopefully that PC will definitely work out fine. I may send you a PM if it's okay tomorrow?

[abigsmurf]

Actually seems like there's a new config on that site which gives the same level of performance as the one I customised before but for £50 less.

Gotta love buying PCs, you can always wait a bit longer or spend a little more...

[elaniel]

So what's the new config if you'd be so kind? :)

[abigsmurf]

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/AMD_DDR3_Configurator/

Change the Ram to 4gb
GPU to 5770
PSU to 600w
HDD to 500gb (the one that's £5 extra)

Should come to £471 inc. vat

[elaniel]

It actually works out more expensive, as it doesn't come with any Operating System :(

[abigsmurf]

ah, I forgot about that.

[elaniel]

That's okay, I've sent them an email just to double check with them (so I cover myself in case it doesn't work)

This is what I got from the previous one you recommended:
Ultra Athena SE
Thermaltake V3 Black Mid-Tower Case
AMD Phenom™ II X2 550 Black Edition Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 NF630A AM2 DDR2/1066 SATA PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
(Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory
Corsair Value Select or Major Brand
ATI Radeon HD 5770 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card
CyberPowerPC 600W Quiet Power Supply
500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD

And the monitor and speakers:
Samsung Lavender SM-P2250 2MS 1920x1080 TRUE HD LCD Wide Monitor
Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set

Everything else I left as default.

Worried that it won't be good enough as it's not quad core though (or is a quad core really necessary?)

[abigsmurf]

In the majority of games, that CPU will perform better than all but the most expensive 4 core ones there (also overclocks well if you're feeling adventurous) . Few games are properly optmised for more than 2 cores.

All seems to be good, Samsung monitors in general are pretty good.

[elaniel]

Awesome, I will be making sure the Dell return is sorted tomorrow, and order that one immediately.

If you're ever in Coventry, I'll buy you a pint as a thanks! Really, I do appreciate all your help.

[mikewl]

This has me concerned, my HD3800 is a couple years old, I don't get why these newer cards are scoring so much less, I thought my card was bottom of the barrel for current gaming.

I've ordered a new Nvidia Fermi card so im hoping it is a decent step up from the HD3800.

On a side note, did anyone else play the beta yesterday?

[abigsmurf]

first number = age of the card
second number = Line of card (8 tends to be the high end line)
third number = model

There's probably some sort of formula for determining roughly how comparatively good your card is.

*thinks*

(1.5 * first digit) + second number + (0.1 * third)

putting a few cards in, seems crudely accurate.

[Hohum]

There are plenty of new cards released that aren't suitable for gaming. They may have extra capabilities compared to older cards (such as hardware acceleration for certain formats of video), but just because they're newer doesn't make them better performers. Most pre-built systems contain cards intended for media use as they are considerably cheaper.

[mikewl]

Thanks guys, I think the one I ordered is geared for high end gaming so it should be ok.

[Daragon]

Is this really going on sale as early as September?

This has all the hallmarks of a rushed release if so.

[mikewl]

Is this really going on sale as early as September?

This has all the hallmarks of a rushed release if so.

Im mixed on this, on one hand you have to remember that its already been in development a fairly long time, longer than most mmo's so it should be in good shape.

The other hand is something we don't know, how close is the Beta client to the final version as what I played last night needs alot of optimization, now its hard to tell if its server or graphics related but I and many others found it to be very poor last night in the frame rate, could be server lag though, which was something else, the response time in selecting actions seemed slow, more lag than on FFXI, so hopefully this is something that will improve.

I think in the next two months they should get it to a satisfactory state as far as stability and performance, though who knows how much content is actually going to be in there, the only guess I have is that it will hopefully be as big as FFXI pre Zilart which would be fine for the first year.

One thing I can say is its far more ready to go than games such as Age of Conan, Vanguard, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Warhammer Online all clearly felt like unfinished products that were way away from resembling a finished state, FFXIV should after what 3 years dev time, plus a strong fanbase from FFXI, it should survive the early stages without too many issues.

[abigsmurf]

WAR was horribly underfinished.

Identical armour, poor PvE, Battlgrounds were far too lucrative (which again hurt the PvE and the brilliant public quests), awful awful crafting and no reason to explore.

I'm cautious about FFXIV going from unveiling to retail in 'just' 14 months but at the same time, they did say the game was very far into development when it was first shown off

[shafropuff]

I'm putting my imac on ebay 2morro, hopefully can get a decent 600 from it about 200 will go towards fixing my macbook pro and then be placed on ebay and I hope to make around 400 form that so I should have around 800 to spend on building my first ever PC... mind you I don't really wanna spend it all so a 400-600 limit I'd think.

The idea of giving up macs for a PC scares the shit out of me but the idea of not playing FFXIV unless I spend a hell of a lot more then needed scares me more. Ah the things I do for FF...

So I have no clue where to start...

I have 2 working 200GB HDDs Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and I don't have the need for a monitor as I'd wanna connect it to my TV via HDMI.

I looked at the links that were posted by abigsmurf and I want the Thermaltake Element-T with a Yellow trim... Can someone help me build up the rest? I dunno if I should just use the HDDs I have or get a new one...

[mikewl]

I would imagine your HD's would be fine as long as they are SATA, just make sure you go for dual core or better cpu, at least 2 gig ram, preferably 4 gig and then get the best Gfx card you can afford.

[abigsmurf]

You'll get much better value building yourself as you've already got some parts (but you can't get that yellow case you want, you'll only get similar ones in black)

Otherwise your options are the configuration elaniel got (cheapest option) with your case or using this one as a base:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/mega_sales_III/

600W PSU
ATI 5770
4gb ram
AMD phenom x2 550

Slight bit more but with faster ram which should enable you to do a bit more overclocking if you wish (you can try to unlock the 2 disabled cores as well).

If you don't want to buy an OS with it, you can upgrade to a 700W PSU and a 5830 and keep to your budget.

[elaniel]

When I use that link, it looks like using that one is £10 cheaper than the one you recommended me when I match up the configuration (Unless I'm looking at some of the specs wrong?)

[abigsmurf]

That one doesn't include Windows 7. Adding that puts it at £546

[elaniel]

I did add Windows 7 to it, unless I selected an incorrect option.

EDIT: Yup... I must have missed something

[skyghene]

I got a score of 1998 with my AMD Athlon X2 6000+ and a 9600GT. I didn't expect a high score as my machine hasn't been updated in years, but darn. Guess I'll have to invest in better hardware as well :(

[abigsmurf]

2000 is playable according to Square

[skyghene]

When I did the FF11 benchmark I had a similar outcome, but the real game lagged like crazy, especially in towns. This benchmark ran great though, but you never know...

[elaniel]

Well CyberPower have slightly confused me.

They have told me:


Maybe a 5750 instead of the 5770, they are the same card but the 50 has slightly lower clocks. Also ask for the 550 to be unlocked. I can do this on some 550s to turn them into quad core CPUs on most M4A boards.

That's an inferior card isn't it? Also, won't there be some warranty issues if they unlock the Phenom to be "unlocked?"

I have no idea what that means

[abigsmurf]

The 5750 isn't the same as the 5770. It has fewer stream processors as well as the lower clock speed. You *can* overclock it to the same level of performance as the 5770 but it'll be close to the limit of the card.

He's saying the only difference between them is the clock speed which isn't really true. You can save a bit of money and get similar performance though, depends if you're happy on the card being overclocked.

He's right on the phenom though, that *can* have the other cores unlocked to make it a 4 core CPU. It isn't always successful though, sometimes the cores are disabled because they're defective.

It's slightly intimidating doing that it you're not familiar and it can result in the PC refusing to boot (requiring a bios reset) if you're unlucky but if he's willing to do it for free or a small amount (whilst keeping the warrenty) it's worth it.

[elaniel]

The 5750 isn't the same as the 5770. It has fewer stream processors as well as the lower clock speed. You *can* overclock it to the same level of performance as the 5770 but it'll be close to the limit of the card.

He's saying the only difference between them is the clock speed which isn't really true. You can save a bit of money and get similar performance though, depends if you're happy on the card being overclocked.

He's right on the phenom though, that *can* have the other cores unlocked to make it a 4 core CPU. It isn't always successful though, sometimes the cores are disabled because they're defective.

It's slightly intimidating doing that it you're not familiar and it can result in the PC refusing to boot (requiring a bios reset) if you're unlucky but if he's willing to do it for free or a small amount (whilst keeping the warrenty) it's worth it.

Thanks for that. He was saying that quad core for a different motherboard.

The one that you told me to get has a ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 NF630A motherboard. He was talking about the M4A, and I'm not willing to spend another £50. I guess he was recommending me a different motherboard.

Also, it seems there's no DVI on that M2 board, so I'm going to have to use VGA?

EDIT: Well I'm a tit, I should be looking at the ports on the graphics card, not motherboard LOL.

[Number45]

New invites have gone out. Check your mailz people.

[abigsmurf]

No beta invite.

I do however have 4 WoW cataclysm beta invites and my battlenet account needs to be verified! I'd better send them my credit card number!

WoW-login-battl-enet.com is legit right?

[Number45]

I do hope so, I've just registered and sent them a payment of £800,000.

[Hohum]

Got my beta invite today. Shame that my main graphics card died a few weeks ago and I'm temporarily having to use a low-end card in the meantime (Radeon 4350). Scored 253 in the benchmark I think, so don't expect I'll be able to play really... :hmm:

[Shakey_Jake33]

It's playable on my GeForce GT240m 1GB (mobile version, so less powerful than the desktop one). The main issue is that there's very little to configure in the beta in terms of graphics. In-game you can disable things like shadows and certain graphical effects, but it looks like everything else is running maxed out. Ideally I'd drop some of the settings. It's a massive step-up from the Alpha in terms of playablility, but still not what I'd want the final to be like.

I got something like 700-800 in the benchmark. The benchmark is abysmal though, it's windowed-only ffs (just like the Alpha was).

[Hohum]

There's some irony in that FFXIV has been windowed-only up until now, yet it took years (and a lot of prodding) for SE to release a windowed mode for FFXI. :p

[Number45]

They've updated the lengths of the tests. :)

Tue, July 13, 2010 – 11:00 > 21:00
Tue, July 13, 2010 - 23:00 > 09:00

Thu, July 15, 2010 – 13:00 > 23:00
Fri, July 16, 2010 – 13:00 > 23:00

* Testers from all regions may log in during the above times.

* The beta tests scheduled for Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 have been cancelled due to network maintenance. Subsequent dates and times will be posted at a later date.

[Hohum]

Those times on the 13th seem pretty moot for me at least, seeing as a) can't log in to the beta site at the moment as it's not available until that date, and b) the client will inevitably take ages to download anyway, so no chance of any play.

[Number45]

You can download the client before you login, you just need the installer. It's available if you search around, in fact there's a link to it on GAF in the online section. :)

[Shakey_Jake33]

The installer is ~100MB, but it downloads the entire beta using a bittorrent system. It ain't fun. Scarily, they intend to push all updates in this matter.

[Hohum]

I guess the hope is that with larger player numbers the torrent system will work more effectively. Guess we'll find out in September.

[Number45]

When I downloaded the patch the other morning it flew (Comparatively speaking), so I assume once the numbers are up it should be fine. Blizzard do it anyway don't they? I think they just supplement them with their own servers.

Hopefully S-E will use partners as well for the patches (Fileplanet etc.), at least then they'll give you some options without sacrificing bandwidth.

[elaniel]

I purchased my system tonight (so I can let this thread get back on topic) LOL.



CAS: Apex Vortex 3620 Black Mid-Tower Gaming Case
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CS_FAN: Default Case Fan
CPU: AMD Phenom(TM) II X2 550 Black Edition Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology [-12]
CD: Sony Optiarc 22X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (Black Color)
FAN: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
FA_HDD: None
FLASHMEDIA: None
HDD: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD (Single Hard Drive)
IEEE_CARD: NONE
MONITOR: 22" TFT Active Matrix LCD Display (Samsung Lavender SM-P2250 2MS 1920x1080 TRUE HD LCD Wide Monitor [+26])
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M4N68T-M NF630A AM3 DDR3/1066 SATA PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/1000 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 7 Home Premium [+78] (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts Power Supplies
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set [+6] (BLACK COLOR)
TEMP: NONE
TVRC: NONE
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
USBHD: NONE
UPS: None
VIDEO2: None, or On-Board Integrated Graphics
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5770 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card [+111]
WNC: NONE
WAP: NONE

What do ya guys think?

[Hohum]

Seems fairly decent to me, should last you a while.

[RobRoy]

could someone please post the link to the downloader as i cant get registered on the neogaf forums due to having a yahoo email account :/

[shafropuff]

I purchased my system tonight (so I can let this thread get back on topic) LOL.

Oh let me know how the benchmark runs and how much did it come to at the end?

I won't be able to order mine till about the end of the month.

[elaniel]

it was about £660 with free shipping and a 5 percent discount code. I'll be sure to post my results. Feel free to PM me if you want (I was given a lot of help with them thanks to some fellow members here)

Edit: That price was with me buying speakers and a monitor too.

[Rep]

Ok I realise I'm being horribly anal here, but could the section of the forum please be renamed to FFXIV, or it's going to annoy me for the next 8 years :lol:

[C']

lol I came to post the exact same thing.

It looks wrong!

[Number45]

You're not alone. :ph34r:

I'll go prod Charles.

[C']

HUZZAH! :thumb:

[RobRoy]

anyone else having trouble getting this downloaded? keeps timing out or restarting back to the start. nightmare :(

[Tsingtao]

Will drag down the benchmark soon, unfortunately I'm away in the Maldives o the launch date, well not that unfortunately really just poor timing from SE for me :)

Mind have they ever released anything on time I'll probably be back when it goes live.

[abigsmurf]

hmm...

There's something bottlenecking my system for this.

I get 3800 on 1080p, 4000 on 720p.

They're decent scores but there should be a much bigger difference between the two. A similar score at a lower res usually indicates it's the CPU holding it down but I've a i7 860 which should more than keep up with a 5850....

*ponders*

[3x3cut10n3r]

Got my invite back on the 12th but due to taking ages to download the client and login issues have not actually played it yet.

Got around 2600 on the 1080p and 2900 on 720p, not bad but not great. Running a old Phenom X4 9950BE and a single 5770.

I'm gonna run it at 1080p as will be on my TV so will see how it runs in the beta, if it isn't up to snuff I'll get another 5770 for the real release and have them in crossfire.

Seems like I'll have to wait a while to test though as it seems the next test is not till Wednesday. :thumbd:

Test Schedule

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 2:00 to Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 00:00 (GMT)

* We will be conducting maintenance on each world in order to further investigate the issue.
The following is the maintenance schedule for each world:

　Shadowlord World and Garland World
　　From July 21, 2010 at 6:00 to 8:00 (GMT)

　Emperor World and Golbez World
　 　July 21, 2010 from 9:00 to 11:00 (GMT)

　Exdeath World and Kefka World
　　July 21, 2010 from 12:00 to 14:00 (GMT)

　Sephiroth World and Ultimecia World
　　July 21, 2010 from 15:00 to 17:00 (GMT)

　 Jecht World and Gabranth World
　　July 21, 2010 from 18:00 to 20:00 (GMT)

[mikewl]

Its been a rough start for the beta, hopefully they have fixed the login issues, I wouldn't be surprised to see them wipe all characters as they mentioned server distribution was not working correctly and caused some servers to get overloaded.

[mikewl]

hmm...

There's something bottlenecking my system for this.

I get 3800 on 1080p, 4000 on 720p.

They're decent scores but there should be a much bigger difference between the two. A similar score at a lower res usually indicates it's the CPU holding it down but I've a i7 860 which should more than keep up with a 5850....

*ponders*

The high score seems fine, however you should get more on the low one, I put in a Geforce 460 the other day which is fairly close to the 5850, i'm on an I5 750 and scored 4760 on 720p, with your I7 you should be around the 5000 mark.

[abigsmurf]

Ah, found a problem.

Seems like it could be a bottleneck. My CPU's running at 2ghz rather than 2.8.

Now to see if it's rubbish bios settings or windows trying to save power...

*edit*

For some reason the multiplier in the bios was stupidly low. Bumped it up to 2.8ghz and got a nice solid 5613 \o/

[mikewl]

Ah, found a problem.

Seems like it could be a bottleneck. My CPU's running at 2ghz rather than 2.8.

Now to see if it's rubbish bios settings or windows trying to save power...

*edit*

For some reason the multiplier in the bios was stupidly low. Bumped it up to 2.8ghz and got a nice solid 5613 \o/

Nice thats more like it :thumb:

This reminded me of the time I got my first pc, a 486 and for the first month or so I wondered why when playing Theme Park it took about 5 hours to complete a game day, turned out the pc was set to run at 4mhz lol, just a small oversight hehe.

[elaniel]

New PC set up and ran the benchmark on High Settings.
Here's my score:
http://i32.tinypic.com/2pytjwx.jpg
Just wanna say thanks to everyone who helped in their advice.
Now I just gotta get an invite to the beta!

[Daragon]

That score's actually surprised me. It looks quite low.

I thought 1500 and below meant it wouldn't be compatible with the system. Despite me needing a new desktop, there's no way on earth I'm spending upwards of a grand primarily on this when it will eventually (hopefully) release on the PS3.

I have to laugh, the game was originally announced on the PS3 and made up part of one of Sony's showcases at an event I forget. I'll wait for the shit to hit the fan as soon as Squenix come along to their Sony paymasters begging forgiveness when their game is far too powerful for the system to the point where it's not worth bothering with a port :lol:

[Rep]

That score's actually surprised me. It looks quite low.

I thought 1500 and below meant it wouldn't be compatible with the system. Despite me needing a new desktop, there's no way on earth I'm spending upwards of a grand primarily on this when it will eventually (hopefully) release on the PS3.

I have to laugh, the game was originally announced on the PS3 and made up part of one of Sony's showcases at an event I forget. I'll wait for the shit to hit the fan as soon as Squenix come along to their Sony paymasters begging forgiveness when their game is far too powerful for the system to the point where it's not worth bothering with a port :lol:

What are you on about, 2434 is way over 1500 where I'm from. That's in 1920 Resolution too. My score came in at 2449. The Intel lot is just higher.

[Daragon]

How many frames a second are you expecting to be playing it at? Console speeds do you? What are you used to with XI?

[abigsmurf]

1500 is only what Square themselves consider comfortably playable, not the bare minimum to run.

2400 is a decent score on maximum. I imagine on 720p it'd easily get a score in the 3000's.

[Rep]

That's right, if only my PC could keep up with those pesky games consoles :D. FFXI I run at 2048x2048, Max Draw-distance, everything maxed out, and it runs like a dream. Everyone here bar Hic (sorry) should run it fine based on their scores, which are all very similar. 720P score was 3935, I prob won't be running it at 1920 anyway, more like 1680.

[Daragon]

1500 is only what Square themselves consider comfortably playable, not the bare minimum to run.

2400 is a decent score on maximum. I imagine on 720p it'd easily get a score in the 3000's.

According to this http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/media/benchmark/na/ 1500 doesn't sound like what I'd call comfortably playable. You could have the game looking like an arse after botched surgery and it still wouldn't play well apparently.

[Daragon]

That's right, if only my PC could keep up with those pesky games consoles :D. FFXI I run at 2048x2048, Max Draw-distance, everything maxed out, and it runs like a dream. Everyone here bar Hic (sorry) should run it fine based on their scores, which are all very similar.

I don't doubt that, but are you happy to play XIV with reduced settings to achieve the fps you're used to seeing?

[Rep]

Except the only thing I'm dropping is the max resolution of 1920, I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. It's clear from your comments you haven't actually seen the benchmark running at 2500 score on 1080P. It is exactly that, a benchmark it'll push more then game will most of the time anyway.

EDIT: I've just looked at those Official scores on the website, they're not a true reflection at all.

[Daragon]

I haven't even seen the benchmark running at all as my system probably wouldn't even manage that let alone the game, which is the reason for my comments. If the benchmark scoring system is grossly inaccurate then I apologise for my ranting, but to me it would have made alot more sense if SE focused more on getting both systems running at optimum before rushing out the PC version just so that they can claim to still meet their 2010 release window.

[Rep]

A PC with a score of 8000+ would probably be powered by the sun.

[Daragon]

I must admit, I do remember the XI benchmarks being somewhat unfairly put together. Not sure I particularly recall occasions where thousands of huge airships flew across the sky in any given situation, or several hundred chocobos on the screen at once.

These things really need to represent accurate in-game situations, not the fantastical imaginings of an overzealous developer.

[mikewl]

I must admit, I do remember the XI benchmarks being somewhat unfairly put together. Not sure I particularly recall occasions where thousands of huge airships flew across the sky in any given situation, or several hundred chocobos on the screen at once.

These things really need to represent accurate in-game situations, not the fantastical imaginings of an overzealous developer.

I would say the benchmark for FFXIV is the other way round, its a cutscene straight from the game, but I find during actual real gameplay the framerate is worse, maybe partly because the benchmark is not capped at 30fps like the actual beta of the game.

[C']

Ok, those of you with the beta what server are you playing on? Making my character now so may as well be on the same server.

My XI heritage means I'm tempted to join Shadowlord. Plus I imagine we'll avoid most of the morons if we don't choose Sephiroth :D

[mikewl]

I ended up on something like Ultimat.... something, but I want to make a new character soon anyway, let us know where you end up.

[mikewl]

I spent a bit of time on this last night, im starting to get to grips with it now, also noticed an improvement in performance, it was running quite smooth last night.

[RobRoy]

did you guys download from somewhere else other than the office downloader? mine just keeps timing out and restarting

[nakamura]

My benchmark score was 278. I also do not have a PS3. Damn.

[abigsmurf]

What's your system?

[nakamura]

Well it is just a laptop. 2.2 AMD thing. Not a gaming machine, just tried it for the laugh really.

[djtickle]

Im having a hard time beleiving my benchmark score, it was in the low 1000's but the video run really really smooth. Maybe ill update drivers see if it makes a difference. I find it hard to beleive it wont run on a 1gb Nvidia Graphics, 6gb RAM machine.

[Daragon]

How's your processor speed? Probably won't make too much difference but if you have a bottleneck then it can drag everything else down with it.

[djtickle]

Quad Intel 2.40ghz.

Meh will just see when it arrives.

Just out of interest what score are people getting who are playing the Beta, is anyone playing with a low score? Rare didnt you say your PC wasn't all that great?

Guess i dont mind if I can play on a low setting till PS3 Version comes out.

[C']

No, my Benchmark score for my new PC built in May was around 2000.

This is with an Intel Core i7 2.67GHz. With Rep's help I did some overclocking yesterday up to 3.8GHz and it didn't change the score one bit so we think the GPU may be bottlenecking performance. To be honest, that was expected. When we built the PC was hoping to get an Nvidia GTX 260 but they were out of stock everywhere as they were out of production as the 400 series was imminent. My plan is to get a GTX460 in the next few weeks which should improve matters immensely.

At the moment I can run the beta but need to turn off some of the advanced graphic settings (Ambient Occlusion and Depth of Field) and lower the shadow detail.

Don't think I've ever said my PC wasn't all that great mind. Consider what I spent on it (cheap GPU aside :)) I hope it's pretty damn swish.

[abigsmurf]

What's the graphics card DJ?

[shafropuff]

Is it worth getting a GTX 460 over a HD 5770? The Nvidia cards seem to be much more expensive but looking at the Graphics Card Hierarchy on tomshardware.com they seem to be around the same or worse then an ATI card which is like £50 less or so... what is the big difference?

Also if I plan to later crossfire two graphics cards is it a good idea to get a PSU that can handle that now or upgrade when I actually get the second graphics card?

[abigsmurf]

The GTX 460 performs oddly on FFXIV, gets near identical performance to the 5770. I'd guess there's an issue with either the benchmark code or the drivers behind it.

Outside of FFXIV, the GTX seems to give you 30-50% higher frame rates. I would easily judge that worth a £40 premium (7% increase in overall system price for 30-50% gaming performance increase).

If you're playing 1080p you need 1gb vram, whichever you choose. You'll save money getting a higher capacity PSU now rather than buying one and replacing it. Swapping a PSU is also a PITA, there's always some connector you forget or miss.

[mikewl]

Is it worth getting a GTX 460 over a HD 5770? The Nvidia cards seem to be much more expensive but looking at the Graphics Card Hierarchy on tomshardware.com they seem to be around the same or worse then an ATI card which is like £50 less or so... what is the big difference?

Also if I plan to later crossfire two graphics cards is it a good idea to get a PSU that can handle that now or upgrade when I actually get the second graphics card?

The GTX 460 is a good card, got one the other week and im pleased with its performance, its actually closer to the ATI 5850 so its a solid mid range card.

I've played a fair bit of FFXIV with it now and it will cope with it just fine, I have tried with the ambient occlusion and depth of field options turned on and it runs solid, though I prefer to turn them off as they don't look that good and in turn bump up the AA.

Personally the two cards I would go for would be the 460 or 5850, the ones above are too expensive for what extra performance you get.

[Rep]

It should also be noted the 400 Series drivers make FFXI near unplayable.

I wouldn't be suprised if the whole game (XIV) is poorly developed, been saying it all along.

[C']

The 400 series seem to have major performance issues with with FFXI too. Builds that should in theory be capable of running multiple instances of XI without breaking a sweat are slowing to a crawl with only a few characters on screen. Have to presume it's a major driver issue.

Whether this is related to its XIV performance I'm not sure.

[mikewl]

It should also be noted the 400 Series drivers make FFXI near unplayable.

I wouldn't be suprised if the whole game (XIV) is poorly developed, been saying it all along.

Strange that it has issues with FFXI, it runs FFXIV fine, I guess if your gonna be playing both then best to go with an ATI card.

[Rep]

Which server are you ladies playing on?

[djtickle]

Scored 1600 on the bench mark now with some driver updating and OC'ing. That will do for me until ps3 launch.

[C']

Which server are you ladies playing on?

I'm on Shadowlord.

Put a few hours into it again last night and it's all starting to click into place. It is VERY different to FFXI that coming from one to another is a major culture shock. Even how the character 'handles' under your control feels totally different. I've always played FFXI via keyboard as it felt more intuitive to me that way than with a pad but keyboard controls in this felt totally alien whereas pad felt spot on.

Apart from the early Levequests I've been mostly playing the Treasures of the Main questline which is basically an extended tutorial but does a fantastic job of introducing the different mechanics to you bit by bit.

There's a lot of instancing as well. Not just dungeons either. I had an escort quest where I actually had to go out into the field. As soon as I stepped out of the gates of Lamsa Laminsa I entered an 'instance' of the standard field map except no other players were presents and the only monsters that appeared were those relevant to the quest. Seemed really strange.

Playing as a Conjurer. Trying to avoid melee jobs in this. If it follows FFXI, being a melee job will be a major disadvantage come endgame.

[Rep]

Beta testing for FINAL FANTASY XIV will be conducted follows:

Test Schedule

Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 from 2:00 (GMT)

As of 2:00 (GMT) on Thursday, July 29, beta test servers will be online 24 hours a day. This signifies the shift to Phase 2.
Beta testers from any region will be able to log in at any time. Announcements for maintenance etc. will be posted in advance.

My update at 33% with about 4 hours to go in, taking forever.

[djtickle]

Nice update rare. I have been meaning to ask some questions you already answered.

How does the game work for EXP'ing? Also how does it work for NMs? E.g random amount of hours wait etc, or pop NM like 11.

Does it look like there is going to be alot of Solo stuff? Or could you play through it either way?

Are you guys going to be able to keep your chars from the beta? Or was it just the alpha chars that get removed.

[C']

Hmm, every time I've tried to get online since the weekend the servers have always been available so I assumed beta test had entered the 24 hour stage already.

A lot of the questions you've asked Dj is far more advanced than I've experienced really. Everything I've done so far has been solo and most of the EXP I've earned has been via quests. Not done any "grinding" at all (sheer volume of players in the starter areas means it would be near impossible anyway).

Guildleves are selected at the Faction base in the main city and you can activate multiple at a time. You then have to go out to the appropriate camp that they apply to and activate the Aetheryte. There you will be given a list of guildleves you you have chosen for that camp and can activate one to complete. At this point you are asked to select a difficult from 1-5 stars with each difficulty seeming to apply to different size player groups from 1 (solo) to 5 (alliance). Every guildleve so far has offered a solo choice but I wonder if later high level leves will be designed for groups only.

And I'm not expecting the characters to transfer from beta to full game. They did that for the Xbox 360 FFXI 'beta' but that was nothing more than a glorified demo anyway so different circumstances.

[Rep]

Does it look like there is going to be alot of Solo stuff? Or could you play through it either way?

I would imagine "Passive mode" is going to make solo (at least like XI) difficult, as a players movement speed is reduced when engaged.

The fact every XI NM has been given a resist bind and grav trait in the last 2 years doesn't help either.

Which starter area did you choose Rare? Hopefully I'll be on later.

[C']

You can only start at Lamsa Lominsa I think.

I presumed when Dj talked about soloing he meant more along the lines of general EXP grinding and quests etc, not soloing HNMs and the like.

[mikewl]

One thing i've noticed is that SE have accommodated partying from the very beginning, its been mega hectic in the starting camps and once you hit about physical level 5 there are no more guideleves available, everyone is grinding off the starting area, but most are soloing and fighting for every mob spawn, yet all the while there are tough/very tough mobs roaming all around being left untouched, early on it looks like partying is the way to go and avoid the solo crowds.

Also, have been playing as a Gladiator with sword and shield, its interesting as now you actually have skills to use for the shield, so you can go into a defensive stance, block until your stamina is high and unload a few attacks, then shield and repeat, it feels more hands on than FFXI and its growing on me, I like the battle system more each time I play it.

[mikewl]

I'm on Shadowlord.

I'm gonna make a new character on my next session, will try and get on Shadowlord, would be nice to test out some parties during the beta.

I've tried messing with Battle Regimen which is the new skill chain system but not got the hang of it yet.

[RobRoy]

Im guessing with this game you NEED to play it with a control pad on the pc? Ive tried playing with a keyboard and mouse and the camera movement is terrible.

Does this become better with a pad?

[Rep]

Update process is a nightmare, been stuck at 61% for 2hours, getting 800byte DL rate :( Trying a different client doesn't help either.

[C']

Heh, now you know why it took me 2 evenings to download.

[Number45]

Im guessing with this game you NEED to play it with a control pad on the pc? Ive tried playing with a keyboard and mouse and the camera movement is terrible.
It HAS to. I've tried it with keyboard/mouse and it's bordering on unplayable.

[Hohum]

I just use keyboard only personally, which is particularly easy for me seeing as most of the main controls appear to be the same as FFXI... I used IJKL for camera the whole time I played that, so felt right at home when starting XIV.

[Shakey_Jake33]

FFXI was quite unique for an MMO in that it was originally designed for controller, and FFXIV is largely the same. But there's no reason why you can't use a keyboard, it's not as if the game requires as quick reflexes as some games. That said, I use a 360 controller for both games.

[Rep]

It HAS to. I've tried it with keyboard/mouse and it's bordering on unplayable.


I just use keyboard only personally, which is particularly easy for me seeing as most of the main controls appear to be the same as FFXI... I used IJKL for camera the whole time I played that, so felt right at home when starting XIV.


FFXI was quite unique for an MMO in that it was originally designed for controller, and FFXIV is largely the same. But there's no reason why you can't use a keyboard, it's not as if the game requires as quick reflexes as some games. That said, I use a 360 controller for both games.


Which world are you guys currently on? As I'm sure you're aware the majority (or what's left of us) all played on Seraph for FFXI. It would be good if everyone from Ntsc played on the same server this time around.

[Hohum]

I'm on Shadowlord for this currently. For FFXI, I was on Titan.

[mikewl]

I'm on Shadowlord for this currently. For FFXI, I was on Titan.

I made a new character on Shadowlord last night.

[Rep]

Good to hear there's a few of us on Shadowlord, once I get my head around the systems and assuming there's some group content on there, I'll get something organised.

[C']

Is anyone able to explain how the 2 Discipline of Magic jobs work and how they are different to each other? Doesn't seem as simple as one is healing/support and the other is nukes/debuffs.

I chose Conjurer as my starting class and immediately assumed it was this game's "Black Mage" as I had access to the standard set of elemental magic spells (Fire, Blizzard etc.) However upon hitting rank 4 I got a Cure spell so my original assumption was clearly thrown.

With how your abilities are setup, limiting how many can be set via Action Points, I'm wondering if Conjurer is able to operate as either a White or Black Mage and you have to choose whether to spec it for one or the other dependant on the spells you choose. With a "Red Mage" type setup also possible if you sacrifice the very highest tiers of spells for a mix of support/offense.

But where does Thaumaturge fit in?

[Rep]

Confused as well, in fact, I recall asking asking you "Where's the WHM/Healer?" as I'm not sure the class I've picked it is. From my spells It's more of a RDM (Def down, Magic def down etc).

I'm enjoying it, when it doesn't crash every 35 seconds. The instanced areas are a good idea and it feels more laid back then XI. Currently on the Lalafeel Fisherman's guide quest.

[mikewl]

I've not gotten my head round all the classes yet but one thing I noticed when partying with a Thaumaturge was that its healing abilities were AOE as well as things like stoneskin, i'm not sure if thats different to the other mage class.

So far i've done a bit with Gladiator and Marauder, Gladiator looks like its probably a tank job, Marauder is like Warrior with a G.Axe in FFXI, I haven't found out where to buy the weapons for the Mage classes yet but once I do I will test them out, I do like the way changing job is done just by equipping the appropriate weapon type.

Oh my character name is Hensley Alvarez on Shadowlord, if you see me say hello, i'm a big Galka with green skin.

I saw someone called Raredash Hero the other night, I thought maybe that's you Rare?

Anyway i'm really getting into the game now, i'm trying to just test a few things out and not do too much in the Beta but I have that feeling where I wanna just get really stuck in, can't wait for the full release.

[Rep]

Thaumaturge is Dark Knight/Red Mage esqe job.

Conqueror is a support and magic offensive job, although the descriptions don't make it clear.

Basically I've chosen the wrong class.

I'm Rep Beta btw.

[Rep]

I don't think Anima is working, I've completely run out, as in zero. It's not increased once over time. Unless I'm doing it wrong and there's a way to restore it.

[mikewl]

I still have some left but I think its not resetting to to when the servers are down its not letting them build back up.

Quite a few things i've noticed that need sorting, I switched to Gladiator Rank 1 and it was letting me use higher rank Marauder weapon skills, hopefully in the next client update we will get some improved balance and better search functions and linkshells.

Must say though I realy enjoyed the trio party we had the other day, I see the potential is there with the battle system.

[Rep]

I don't understand Leves either, the test site says they appear every 2 game hours, npc keeps telling me none available. Do you have to be logged into the game for 2 hours? It seems to work that way with the job abilities.

[Rep]

If people want to party again tonight (and those who haven't partied with us yet!) I have the following six quests open:

Camp Skull Valley - Rank 10

Colonizing the Valley
Send them Packing
Annexing the Valley

Camp Bloodshore - Rank 20

An Imp in Sheeps Clothing
Annexing the Shore
Sating the Simians

[C']

I’ll do some more although the Camp Skull Valley ones are the same ones we did on Friday I think.

Not played a lot since then though so my levels (physical 11, Conjurer Rank 7) may be a little low for Camp Bloodshore.

I know it’s beta, but the reason I’ve not been on much since Friday is because I couldn’t really see what I should be doing next. Nothing in town seemed to activate new missions/quests nor could I activate new guildleves (not even to repeat ones I’d already completed which I thought was supposed to be possible). The game’s fun but I really don’t want to spend large amounts of time solo grinding EXP (I have FFXIII for that).

Lack of friend list and (as far as I can tell) search functions also hinders party play somewhat (although I’m certain that will be fixed for retail). Fingers crossed they reinstate the CTRL+key shortcuts for /tell, /reply etc. Becomes a ballache having to type out /t [Player Name] for every reply.

[Rep]

The party search functions are being added next update, I think they're also making the chat system easier. They're altering reissue of Levls too. Big list of changes on the dev site.

[mikewl]

I'd be up for some tonight, I have a few leves ready as well.

I'm still level 7 Marauder and Level 5 Gladiator, once we hit level 10 we can go talk to Balderon to continue the main storyline.

[Rep]

I'm still level 7 Marauder and Level 5 Gladiator, once we hit level 10 we can go talk to Balderon to continue the main storyline.

Seriously?!? :lol: Wish i'd have know this sooner :lol: I thought that was it.

[mikewl]

Seriously?!? :lol: Wish i'd have know this sooner :lol: I thought that was it.

This is what i've read on the Beta forum, will have to see later on if it works.

[Rep]

Yes it does thank you, I'm working on "Legends Adrift" now :)

[Number45]

http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status/20286730139

Phase 2 ends tomorrow. Phase 3 to commence mid August.

[Hohum]

Yep, and all characters will be wiped... so wouldn't bother trying to make any progress.

[mikewl]

I think im done with this now until it comes out, i've enjoyed the beta so far but until I can get properly stuck into it im not gonna keep playing, I still want it to feel new when it comes out.

[Hohum]

I'll keep checking on it to see what progress is being made, but I can't really get enthused about playing it. It doesn't really have much appeal when you know that you'll be starting from scratch in a couple of months, so I'm just using it as an interesting preview.

[Rep]

That's a shame, but I'd at least I've had enough hands on to figure out how the game plays. That second set of missions was pretty cool, and the underground zone if anyone visited that. Was like Carpenter's Landing (XI) on crack.

[Rep]

Details of phase 3, and one part I know Rare will be happy with :lol:


Thank you for your continued participation in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test.

Phase 2 of beta testing will come to a close at 0:00 (GMT) on Thursday, August 5th, with phase 3 (Beta 3) scheduled to begin mid-August.

In Beta 3, we will be adding new classes, new features such as linkshells, and a host of other adjustments and changes based on the feedback we've received thus far. The following is just a selection of what's in store for the next phase of testing.

[System-related]
- Significant adjustments to mouse controls
- Changes to the item menu display and controls for equipping gear
- The implementation of the following features:
Linkshells
Text commands
Auto-complete/auto-translation dictionary
Player macros

[Event-related]
- Local levequests will once again be available
- A sound effect and on-screen message will accompany the completion of a quest
- Completed quests will be recorded in the quest journal

[Battle-related]
- Changes to animations, effects, and combat speed
- Passive /Active mode will be toggled automatically when speaking to an NPC or locking on to a monster
- Players will be able to select either a single target or an area effect when casting spells
- Adjustments to balance guildleve rewards versus monster strength
- Various adjustments to overall battle balance

Full details will be announced in the Version Update Details section of the Beta Test Site on the day Beta 3 commences. Related updates to the manual will also be posted on the Beta Test Site

[C']

YeahI saw those earlier but wasn't sure if it was public knowledge or not so didn't post.

The completed quests in journal update is much needed.

[abigsmurf]

Heard the mouse controls were appauling. Hopefully they've improved things.

[shafropuff]

Glad to see things moving along nicely... me on the other hand I'm just going back and forth trying to put together my computer and get it ordered...

[Rep]

This new stage of the Beta is a massive step up, code has been hugely improved now.

[mikewl]

This new stage of the Beta is a massive step up, code has been hugely improved now.

Thats good to hear, I updated the client and was going to give it a test just to see whats been updated but couldn't make myself do the whole new character intro thing again, knowing i'd have to do it again in a month.

[C']

Keeps crashing for me (whereas the previous stage of the beta could run for hours without a problem). :(

[Rep]

I'm around this evening if people want a linkpearl.

Also i've noticed, the fullscreen for 1280 above has been removed, windowed mode only for me.

[Shakey_Jake33]

^Strange you get that I get full screen resolutions all the way up to 2560x2048. I use 1366x768 myself.

[Irons]

What are people's opinions on whether this game will be ready for launch or not? There is a lot of talk on other forums about how bad the game is then someone will pipe in and say they aren't having nearly as many problems so I'm not sure what the actual truth is. Terrible UI and lag seem to be the biggest complaints

I'm really looking forward to this game as I'm ready for a new MMO and I want something that isn't WoW or any of the many MMOs trying to be WoW :thumbd:

I adore the look and the music of this game and the core concepts seem really good with plenty of depth.

Most of all I want to get back to an MMO where people actually group, I just don't understand the 'solo MMORPGs'. Sure I like the option to solo and it's good FFXIV is including it but I'm hoping to spend as much time as possible grouping. Is that really so bad?

I also have 2 weeks holidays to take before November and I'm hoping that September 27th might be a good place to start them.

[Rep]

I'm really enjoying it, phase 2 of the Beta was a broken horrible mess, at the time it was clearly nothing like a finished product.

Now we're on phase 3, every single issue I had is resolved. UI complaints are funny, they seem to be from people who either haven't actually played the game, or were expecting an exact copy of XI's. You can customise it, resize it, relocate it etc. Targeting has also been altered this time, along with the passive/engage mode. The step up from the last phase is massive.

It's absolutely lush on my pc, and invite anyone to come check it out. Most of the time peoples pc's aren't up-to scratch. Again the people complaining expect a Beta to be a finished product.

[Irons]

Thanks for the reply, that's good to hear as it's so hard to get actual information about this game and I think a lot of that has to with the fact that many people simply won't like FFXIV no matter how polished it is. I haven't played the beta but I'm sure it's very, very different from WoW and co just like Final Fantasy XI is.

I think I'll pre-order the game and book my holidays when my boss gets back next week then, MMO launches are nearly always buggy to some degree but the first few months when everything is new to everyone is magical as well :thumb:

[Daragon]

God damn I really want to play this now, hurry the feck up with my PS3 invite Squeenix :thumbd:

[Shakey_Jake33]

Given SquareEnix have pushed the PS3 version back to January because of problems getting the game up and running on the PS3, I'd be surprised if we saw anything for a while :(

[Daragon]

It was originally pushed back to March, but the beta stage for PS3 owners is starting this month following news that the application period would have closed on monday.

Hopefully the fact that it's reached beta will mean that the biggest issues have been tackled and the game will be ready alot sooner than planned.

[Irons]

Given that the release is approaching fast it's quite amazing how little we actually know about this game. All the internet can really supply is guess work and wishes.

I mean what do we actually know about this game? the Beta is constrained it doesn't really seem to show off that much at all. I need to get into the open Beta damn it, assuming they have one of course...

[abigsmurf]

It is rather worrying how fast this has been developed.

such a short and closed beta period doesn't give them huge amounts of time to fix issues.

Gotta hope there's still lots of content and nothing is too broken at launch

[Rep]

It's been in development for 4-5years, and is currently quite polished. XIV is the Rapture project no?

[mikewl]

Made a character to give this another test, Rep are you still Rep Beta?

I'll see if your on when I next log on for a linkpearl, on shadowlord I presume?

Strangely mine is now running in windowed mode at native res.

[Rep]

Aye, i'm still Rep Beta, and since I can't think of anything clever, might carry that over to full :) I'll be on after.

I had that odd Windowed thing too, I set it to 1680x1050 windowed, exited the config, then re-entered and was able to select full screen.

[mikewl]

Cool, i'll be on sometime this evening, got to configure the gamepad as for some reason it wasn't setup by default on this beta stage.

[Rep]

If anyone on Shadowlord needs a pearl, send me a tell in game and i'll get back to you, probably within about 10mins. I'll be hanging around Camp Skull Valley.

[abigsmurf]

Just read you're limited to 8 leves/quests a day and there's no AH.

That's kinda killed my enthusiam a lot. AH contribute hugely to in game communities, they force a gathering place.

[Daragon]

Really, I just assumed AHs contributed hugely to in game lag?

Undoubtedly there will be something to form an alternative in this however, and we can all look forward to that lagging everyone out instead.

[Irons]

About the AH, they haven't ruled it out but they won't have it at launch

Regarding Final Fantasy XIV and the market battle system is something we would like to consider the equilevent to the auction house we had in Final Fantasy XI. Only that you'll also be able to fix your equipment and things like that. It is something we really want people to enjoy. Also after the release of the game we will see how it goes and for example find out what kind of search options players will want and need and improve the situation. We don't really want to introduce the auctionhouse from the beginning because that is going to determine the economy system. So we want to improve it slowly and adjust it accordingly.

AH do tend to be manipulated by a relative few in most MMOs I've been in with a few players setting the prices for items and controlling the market so I'm quite interested to see how this market system will work. I do think you need a better way to search though, from the videos I've seen searching each retainer to look for an item looks like a real pain.

But then perhaps over time certain players will become known for certain items and maybe 6 months down the line if you want a new chest piece you will go to Jim's Armour Emporium or perhaps Pat's protections will be having a weekend sale on chest pieces. Of course it might just be a jumbled mess but the potential is there for something special that AH don't allow I feel, a lot of old school MMO players claim AH kill community anyway. I guess time will time.

The leves, its 8 every 2 days if you play them solo but do they increase exponentially for every member of the party after? get a group of 5 and you suddenly have 40 to do and so on. I guess their reasoning is there's content for casual players that can play for short periods and there's content for more hardcore players, you just have to group up first.

The one complaint I don't understand coming out of Beta is people requesting a WoW style UI, surely anyone with half a brain can tell you can't have a control system like that when you are sharing servers with people who's means of control is game pad? Hell in games like WoW you are at a disadvantage if you are a 'clicker' compared to someone who has efficient hot keys, imagine how big the advantage would be if you had hot keys and the majority had only game pads. It would be game breaking.

It's seems pretty clear there will be bugs and a lot of balancing issues still to work out when the PC version is launched but I'm still very excited to start exploring the world, it's absolutely gorgeous :wub:

Plus what happens to the genre if this game fails? endless WoW clones on 1 side and on the other you have Eve.

I think SE deserve to be given a chance just for going their own way with this game, making a group focused game when every one else is falling over themselves to tell people how you can solo their Massively Multiplayer game. Making professions to be a class that you can level up when most games have reduced crafting to such a trivial state that most players will have multiple crafts maxed and the items you can make are very short lived.

[Rep]

Excellent post Irons, the problem with the Auction House in XI, is it made npc's pointless. Most of the time something would be sold on the ah for far less what you could sell to an npc. It just created a system which one player would undercut the next and so on, I'm all for a change.

With regards to the quests, you can join somebody else's and collect the rewards, we've tested this in-house. You can also rank up insanely fast by ramping up the difficulty and invoking a guardians aspect, so some form of cap seemed sensible.

[abigsmurf]

The one complaint I don't understand coming out of Beta is people requesting a WoW style UI, surely anyone with half a brain can tell you can't have a control system like that when you are sharing servers with people who's means of control is game pad? Hell in games like WoW you are at a disadvantage if you are a 'clicker' compared to someone who has efficient hot keys, imagine how big the advantage would be if you had hot keys and the majority had only game pads. It would be game breaking.


I think the problem everyone's having with the UI is that it's server side, so you have to wait for it to load and that actions through the menus take far too many clicks. Selling to vendors or getting rid of items is apparently pretty awful.

[Irons]

I think the problem everyone's having with the UI is that it's server side, so you have to wait for it to load and that actions through the menus take far too many clicks. Selling to vendors or getting rid of items is apparently pretty awful.

They have said they are aware of it though, it even sounds like they know what bugs are causing it. It's obviously unacceptable no matter what control system you are using and it's my biggest concern about the game personally.

I just read a Famitsu interview that they snagged with the 'FFXIV trio' at gamescon and it's interesting to hear how the interview almost seemed surprised at how big a deal the mouse control is in the West and it doesn't seem to be an issue at all in Japan.

Changes between phases two and three of the beta

F: What changed with the beginning of phase three of the beta?
DK: We added a few things, but a couple of big things that changed were the tempo of battle and the feel of the game. Also, for the players outside of Japan, the changes to the mouse controls were probably pretty big.

F: So mouse control was a pretty big deal to users overseas?
PT: I would say about 90% of the feedback we got about things people wanted to see in the game was related to the mouse.
DK: If you look at it globally, there was more feedback about that than anything else.
SS: Outside of Japan, many PC gamers use a mouse as the main controls for all games, from FPS’s to MMORPG’s.
PT: Gamepad and mouse controls are different at the most fundamental of levels. With a gamepad, you have to go through a layered structure command input for control, a mouse needs to be able to get things done with just a click. We have to set the game up to be able to handle both.

F: So there wasn’t much feedback from Japan about all that?
DK: Not really, but we got a lot of feedback about the user interface as a whole, so we’re working around the clock to fix that right now.

[mikewl]

Some new making of videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV#p/u/15/ZxBol-NJFuA

http://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV#p/u/11/DEybd106bBU

http://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV#p/u/7/wc0ilSksWBQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/FINALFANTASYXIV#p/u/3/qIO2gS5ZeLI

[talizker]

Do any of the Beta testers know if any further phases are planned with new applicants (PC)? I must admit to being slightly frustrated at not getting an opportunity yet given two applications plus using the FFXIII code! Still only a month from release so i'm hoping performance will be acceptable on my PC.

[C']

I would doubt it now with only a month to go until release. Perhaps if they want to stress test their servers or something they may open it for the last couple of weeks but nothing has been mentioned yet.

[Irons]

SE said at Gamescon that there will be an open Beta starting at the start of September, I assume all regions will get it and it will have all 3 cities to start in and a lot more of the content available.

What are people's opinions on this 'surplus' mechanic they are introducing for release? the internet sites are up in flames about it and for once I'm not sure I disagree. My main love in MMOs is healing and I was planning on doing that class exclusively except leveling other jobs to pick up the odd ability here and there, but in the main I planned on being a healer 80% of the time. It seems SE doesn't want me to do that though :confused:

It seems the fatigue affects combat classes, gathering classes, crafting classes and even your physical level. It also looks like just logging for a while doesn't decrease it, you have to actively level another class to drain the surplus.

I'm simply baffled by it

[abigsmurf]

I understand the goal of the surplus mechanic but it's entirely the wrong way to go about it.

If I want to be a healer, why force me to to be a tank or melee DPS?

If you want to encourage people to diversify, do it by giving you a bonus to other classes xp and if you have to include a penalty (to prevent power levelling) make it far less than 90% XP loss.

[Irons]

I have to admit this has thrown a huge spanner in the works for me personally, like I mentioned earlier I have a couple of weeks holidays to take and I was thinking of taking them to coincide with release.

Is there any point though if you can't play more when you're off without getting kicked in the teeth? I only really have an interest in magic classes, there are only 2 at launch and it seems levelling 2 classes might not be enough to prevent fatigue :(

I was quite looking forward to getting a little ahead of the general population just to avoid the mad rush for mobs that happens at MMO launches.

I can imagine the headlines the reviewers will use for this game if this system goes live and is as bad as it's reported to be. Even then people are guessing why can't SE release a post on the beta forums to explain the mechanic if it isn't so bad or will be toned down for release?

[talizker]

Open Beta info from the official FFXIV Twitter (http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status/21899401916).

"The FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Phase 3 will end on August 25, then move to the Open Beta Test in early September. Get ready!"

[mikewl]

I wonder if they will keep the Open Beta to just Limsa Lominsa, I kind of hope they do as I don't wanna get stuck having to download 10+ gig on the crappy updater.

[Adam]

Apparently: "Overseas sites are full of falsehoods. They just put words together and fabricate statements. Japanese sites then mistranslate these. The fatigue system isn’t in and was just something they made up." from Hiromichi Tanaka's Twitter (http://twitter.com/tanakahiromichi/status/22058207804), even though this was first reported news from some hugely popular japanese sites. He was also interviewed by Famitsu with production director Nobuaki Komoto where they both freely admitted the existence of the “fatigue” system for penalising heavy players. Gotta love Square Enix.

[mikewl]

From what I gather at the start of your week you get an XP Bonus which starts at 100% and lasts for 8 hours, then the next 7 hours it will gradually go down to zero, once that is up you will only get regular XP, so its sort of like a XP Band , for casual players they benefit from having a bonus going the majority of the time they play, hardcore players will probably use up the bonus fairly early in the week.

I'm fine with this as it slows down those that race to max level like there is nothing else to do in the game.

[Adam]

They have addressed this on the Japanese beta site, it's something like the first 8 hours you get 100% exp from whatever you do, and after those 8 hours are up the exp rate goes down gradually to 0% (no exp at all) which takes 7 hours to go that low. To reset your exp from 0% rate to 100% rate takes 1 week. Will post more if/when they have an official translation on the beta site :s

[mikewl]

They have addressed this on the Japanese beta site, it's something like the first 8 hours you get 100% exp from whatever you do, and after those 8 hours are up the exp rate goes down gradually to 0% (no exp at all) which takes 7 hours to go that low. To reset your exp from 0% rate to 100% rate takes 1 week. Will post more if/when they have an official translation on the beta site :s

I don't think it means it goes to 0% XP just 0% Bonus XP, so you would still get XP at a base rate.

[Daragon]

I've not been following the game that much, but when was the decision made to stick exp and levels back into it?

I can only hope that Level syncing is going to be available, especially if I'm going to be 6 months late to the party :thumbd:

[mikewl]

Hmm its been that way since the first alpha test, you have a Physical Level and a Job Rank level.

[Irons]

We’d like to thank all the beta testers out there for their hard work and support! We’re applying all those ideas you’ve sent us to make for the best possible Open Beta test and official release.

Now we’d like to take a moment to answer the many questions we’ve received about character balance in the current B3 phase.

First off, the main concept behind FFXIV is allowing those players with little time on their hands to play effectively, and game balance is based off of that. Furthermore, it is being designed to not give those with more time on their hands to play an unfair advantage. Because of that, systems such as Guardian’s Favor (a bonus to Guildleves) have been implemented to make leveling in the short-term easier than leveling in the long-term.

To achieve this balance, the amount of possible skill/experience points earned after a certain period of time has a threshold. Think of it as real-life “fatigue” from working at improving your skills via battle *(aka. No one could train ad nauseam in the real world with no ill effects).

Within the first eight hours of play, you can earn 100% experience. The seven hour period following will see your possible experience gradually approach zero.

This system is on a weekly timer. After a week has passed since you began skilling that particular weapon, the timer will reset. It will start anew when you skill up again.

Any experience earned past that point is saved as “surplus.” There is surplus for each class, and if you begin to see it please consider playing another class and adjust accordingly.

However, experience points are not specific to any class and therefore the decrease in experience points is not affected by changing classes.

That’s how the system stands as of right now.

Also, this system wasn’t implemented just in B3 but was set in motion from the very start of beta. Despite this, we have received many opinions regarding it in B3. There are a few reasons why:

-B3 allowed for longer sessions in single sittings.
-In order to promote party play, skill/experience points earned were greatly increased.
-The skill/experience earned from weak enemies was lowered, but had failed to pop up on initial bug reports (and was later fixed via maintenance).

According to the last bug report skill/experience able to be earned was above what had been planned, therefore people hit the limit much more quickly than hoped for. That is the biggest cause. Yet another problem was that we were unable to adjust guildleve experience and the experience-earned limit at the same time.

Our lack of explanation regarding all of this was a mistake, and we heartily apologize.

This all is still currently under development, and we have plans to make the limit more palatable in answer to all the tester feedback we received concerning this. In particular we would like to address the speed with which experience begins to drop off and are already looking into it.
Also, since experience points fatigue carries over despite changing weapons, we plan to make it not so harsh.

At the very least, we promise to not have people hitting these limits in a short period of time, such as during the start of B3.

We would also like to make an announcement regarding something else.

The decrease in earnings when gathering is based on your actions taken with that class and is unrelated to the aforementioned limits. This is also currently under review and is planned for adjustment in accordance with many testers’ opinions.

Surplus experience is currently not being used. However, we have received many comments suggesting some sort of reward be put into effect regarding it, and we think that’s a pretty interesting idea. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, though, and we’re currently investigating the possibilities.

Open Beta will not just see changes to the issues stated above but will also see adjustments made to encourage party play even more (such as an increase to skill points), which the team is currently hard at work on adjusting. We hope you’ll all test it out when the time comes.

Finally, we would like to apologize for the lateness of any developer comments due to my attendance of Gamecom this past week. In my absence much fuss was raised over speculation, old information and some mistranslations on overseas fansites *(what?! /panic. Though I wonder what that’s in reference to in particular). I hope to avoid this from happening again by delivering developer comments as promptly as possible. Thank you all for your understanding.

And thanks in advance for your hard work to come in Open Beta!

Final Fantasy XIV director
Nobuaki Komoto

Terrible system that will literally cost them 10s of thousands of players.

According to people in Beta you will be able to get xp down to zero effectively earned. People have got to the stage where you simply can't get skill ups in crafting no matter what you try.

[mikewl]

Looks like I was wrong, that does actually look crap.

What happens if you have a bunch of friends that all want to party for an evening, however some of them are near the surplus.

This really does seem like its there to just slow peoples progress down, maybe they don't have any end game content ready yet, 8 hours just seems way too short.

I think maybe they have gone too far to cater for the casuals here.

[mikewl]

[I]

Any experience earned past that point is saved as “surplus.” There is surplus for each class, and if you begin to see it please consider playing another class and adjust accordingly.

However, experience points are not specific to any class and therefore the decrease in experience points is not affected by changing classes.

This confuses me, they tell you to change class and then go on to say changing class does not affect experience points, hmm.

[abigsmurf]

Square-enix are doing an excellent job of sabotaging their own launch. Even if they remove this system now, there'll be a whole bunch of *** circulating on the net.

Is there an extreme lack of content or something forcing this? How could they ever think you'd get a positive reaction from something like this?

*edit*

Just read that interview...

That is absolutely horrendous.

A set 8 hour weekly limit? Do they realise that you're going to get people powerleveling as much as they possibly can for that time? Not exploring, not taking in the story, not socialising, just going all out to get the maximum amount of xp in that time.

[Irons]

It's just about the worst idea for an MMO mechanic I've ever heard off.

Can you imagine the reaction this will get from western reviewers :blink:

[shafropuff]

Its 8 hours full XP and then it decreases over 7 hours rite?

I don't think I'll have to worry too much, I'd be lucky to get more then 3 hours in during the week.

[Tsingtao]

When this hits open Beata I'm taking anyone can jump on and start playing?

[Shakey_Jake33]

Am I reading that right? 8 hours a week? I must be missing something here. My brother has been known to play FFXI for more than 8 hours a day before now, and it is usually a couple of hours a day at the very least.

[mikewl]

SE really need to be more specific, is it 8 hours from the moment you switch to a class, after the first time you attack an enemy or does the timer only go down while in active mode, if its only during active mode then its not as bad as it will mean 8 hours pure battle time.

[mikewl]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-26-ffxiv-limits-xp-earning-after-eight-hours

Well its hit the headlines now and its not sounding too good, the thing is new details have come to light that is not making into these news items.

Throughout the week while your not xping a class the surplus % gradually goes back up, the weekly thing just guarantees it will be reset at least once a week, this means you could do 4 hours aa day and while your not xping it will regenerate abit.

[abigsmurf]

I'm getting very confused

From what I can gather, there's fatigue and there's surplus.

Fatigue is a universal XP penalty that at 8 hours, you either start to lose xp or your xp is already down to 5%.

Surplus is when you level a class 'too much' and the xp penalty stays forever unless you start levelling another class.

Whether or not the two are being confused and there's only one system. The fact is, this is a pretty awful system. You don't punish subscribers for playing your game.

There was huge amounts of hype and good will towards this game up until the last week or so and they're throwing it away. This shouldn't have got past the drawing board. It certainly shouldn't be the main topic, weeks from launch when they should be concentrating on that final bit of polish.

[Darwock]

Maybe it's a bid to stop the Koreans from killing themselves? In any case I kind of applaud what they are trying to do, even if it does sound a little screwed up.

It sounds like they are taking a little responsibility, I mean there's no denying that MMORPGs are addictive as hell.

[Number45]

That sounds all kinds of crazy. It would be unlikely to affect me, but I can't say I'd be terribly enamoured with paying S-E ~£10/month for them to tell me what I can and can't do with that time. Crazy.

Balance the game, not the players.

[Irons]

From the beta site...

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.

This is how the progression system currently works.

This system was not introduced in Beta 3, but has been in place since the beginning of beta testing. There are several reasons why many people believe that these features were only recently implemented:

- Leading into Beta 3, operation hours were extended, making it possible to play more often during the span of a week.
- To encourage players to form guidleve parties in Beta 3, skill and experience point rewards for guildleves were significantly increased.
- The process that reduced the amount of skill/experience points awarded for weak enemies attacking in groups was unintentionally removed at the start of Beta 3. (This issue has been addressed.)

That last reason in particular was the biggest cause for players running up against the threshold penalty, with characters earning far more skill/experience points than we anticipated. We also faced an issue where we were simultaneously unable to adjust the amount earned for guildleves as well as the effects of crossing each threshold.

We sincerely apologize for the lack of explanation and our failure to make the necessary adjustments in the game.

The threshold values are being reexamined, and we plan to further adjust the different rates of earnable points based on feedback from our testers. One of the top issues we are looking at right now is fixing the excessively rapid drop after crossing the eighth threshold. We also plan to improve experience point reduction rates, even more so than for skill points, considering the threshold is unaffected when changing class.

At the very least, we can promise that players won't be running into the threshold penalty in the same short time span as they did in the beginning of Beta 3.

We would like to take this opportunity to also explain the following issues.

The diminishing results experienced during gathering are a function related to that class alone, and have no connection to this progression system. We are in the process of adjusting this system, and plan to make changes based on tester feedback.

We are currently in the process of considering the means in which bonus skill points can be used. There have been suggestions for various types of incentives, but as encouraging people to play with that in mind defeats the purpose of this threshold system, we will be examining this issue very carefully.

These are not the only adjustments we have planned for Open Beta. As mentioned previously, we are looking into increasing the amount of skill points earned when fighting in a party, and we look forward to seeing your input on these changes.

Last of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in releasing a developer's comment due to my recent attendance to Gamescom. The article based on my interview during that trip, coupled with conjecture, outdated information, and some misunderstandings on overseas websites, only added to the confusion. In the future, I hope to avoid similar problems by responding directly through official developer's comments as often as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

See you in the Open Beta Testing!

FINAL FANTASY XIV Director
Nobuaki Komoto

I honestly fear for this game now and I think it could take to the PS3 launch if not more to recover. Even if the system is tweaked so it only ever affects the really hardcore 5% the internet is simply flooded with it now.

How a company of SE experience could let this get so far out of hand is astonishing and it is clear their unwillingness to communicate with the player base is hurting them really badly.

[Tobal]

How does this game offer to do outside of exping/skilling up? I assume its next to nothing like all starting mmo's then i think i won't play past the 1st free month.

[C']

You have the mission line obviously and there are Guildleves which are basically like Assault missions but take place in the field rather than specific battlefield areas.

Very early days like you say though so content is a little thin at the moment.

[abigsmurf]

But aren't you limited to 8 leves a week or something?

This is such a stupidly complex set of limitations to place on paying customers. Even with that detailed explanation, it's still not entirely clear what the limitations mean in practice. They even add another factor in : It doesn't seem to be a case of 8hours. It seems to be a case of 8 hours OR an xp limit, whichever happens first.

Squeenix are utterly forgetting about the rule of unintended consequences. ALWAYS assume an online community will be insanely demanding.

Limiting the amount of xp and skill won't make the game fairer to casual people at all. It'll make the end game far far more inaccessible.

"You're a healer? do you have <insert damage reducing tank skill here>?"
"erm no..."
"we don't want you in our party then!"
"But I haven't been levelling as a tank, I want to be a healer! If I start levelling as a tank to get that skill, it's going to be 3 months because of the limits xp and skill!"
"tough, there are loads of healers with that tank skill who have been playing since launch we can choose from!"

Then of course there's the AFK-ing in the cities whilst people sleep so they can reduce their XP

[shafropuff]

I'm just about done with my computer but I ran out of money and I only need the graphics card -_-

I ended up gettin' a Phenom II X6 1090T on ebay for £180 which just arrived now and I just about had enough for 4GB OCZ ram which should be here in a bit.

I guess I'll have to wait a couple of weeks before I can get myself the GTX460 but I wanna test it all out but theres no onboard graphics card >_>

[djtickle]

The FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test begins on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 2:00 (GMT)! We hope to see everyone participate!

http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN

[elaniel]

So I assume on the 1st the client will be available to download on the site for everyone?

[talizker]

New prerelease trailer which looks very nice, allbeit with very little gameplay.

S_n-2xacjVw

[mikewl]

That mountain location at 1:04 looks amazing, i'm looking forward to seeing the new areas in this.

[elaniel]

I want to download the beta client in preparation of the open beta. However, the download has me at 58 remote connections and only 2 local connections.

Should the local connections be higher?

I know I can't play it at the moment, just wanting to have the client ready before everyone else is fighting to get it once the open beta starts (if it even uses the same client)

[Shakey_Jake33]

The issue is that it uses a torrent system, and given the closed beta is now over, not many people will have the client open.

I'd be very surprised if the open beta uses the same client anyway.

[elaniel]

Yeah, that would explain why I didn't have many people connected.

I wanted to download the client anyway, just in case. As I've lost nothing if it doesn't use the client.

[Irons]

Is it really an Open Beta in the sense that anyone can join it? A lot of forums are claiming you will still need an invite to get in :hmm:

[Number45]

I get the impression they think open means that you can play at any time.

[abigsmurf]

Euch, at this stage they should be getting as many people playing as they possibly can.

This could be a trainwreck that makes the EU WAR launch look professional.

[Irons]

Yeah, if the fatigue system isn't as bad as the rumours like SE claim surely they'd want as many people as possible to experience that to get the word out.

It seems this game really could be a wait and see affair.

****ing hell though, SE really need to start communicating a lot better with their fans and customers. Is it sheer arrogance that leads them to this attitude? I'm not so sure that confidence is even warranted any more as a lot of people have become disillusioned with Final Fantasy after the last 3 games in the series.

[mikewl]

Time to start thinking about your character names, open beta names will be transferrable to the official release.

I guess this also means you need to choose which server to use too.

[elaniel]

I'm not expecting it to be fully open to all, just I did apply for the beta, and registered so I'm hoping (if it is not in fact fully open for all) that I do get in and at least I have the client ready.

[shafropuff]

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/493/39594774.jpg

WTF

[elaniel]

It looks like they are letting people download the installer now (Just had an email) and will become available to get a key at 2AM. I guess it gives people preparation to get the client downloaded and installed. Great time to have that going for UK players!

[talizker]

"As long as the World you choose in the commercial release is the same as the World you choose in the open beta test, you will be able to transfer your character name. If you choose a different World for the commercial release, your character name will not be transferrable. For details, please refer to the beta test site."

As mikewl mentioned a few posts back its worth thinking about names and a World for the Open Beta. Are there any preferences yet from those that have been in the Closed Beta as far as a World (based on existing FFXI Linkshells etc - I think Tsing mentioned something) or is it just a case of making sure all the NTSCuk crew are together.

[abigsmurf]

shafropuff - something is bottlenecking that system big time.

Which of the 5700 series is the card? You should be getting around 1000 more than that, 1500 if it's a 5770.

Check system in control panel, make sure the CPU is running at full speed, 3.2ghz (the benchmark uses the CPU model name, system uses the bios info) when the benchmark is running.

What's the ram you're using? Is it in matching pairs?

Are you running the latest drivers?

[djtickle]

Are we all going to the same world? Be nice to set my name now and keep it on full release.

Im not fussed were i go.

Downloaded the setup but cant seem to update at the moment. If i leave it running will it just update?

[mikewl]

We went with Shadowlord on the closed Beta, i'm not sure but Rare may have mentioned something about it being related to the server we were on in FFXI.

I don't mind which we go with.

[talizker]

Are we all going to the same world?

I sure hope so ^_^


We went with Shadowlord on the closed Beta, i'm not sure but Rare may have mentioned something about it being related to the server we were on in FFXI.

I don't mind which we go with.

Shadowlord sounds fine unless anyone has a better choice?

[Number45]

As long as you're all still playing come next March (Stupid PS3 delay), I'm in with whatever is chosen. :)

[djtickle]

Sweet, shadowlord it is :)

[Rep]

The problem with Shadowlord is it's capacity, due to it's XI heritage, everyone will want to be on that one. Even in Beta it's the most overcrowded server.

Are the current Beta lot going to lose their characters again for the next phase?

[talizker]

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.


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

[mikewl]

Hmm I guess thats why the installer update process has been stuck at 0kb/s the last hour.

[mikewl]

I can't tell if they are saying the client software will still work or not, not sure whether to just close it and leave it for the time being.

[Rep]

If you have a program like uTorrent, you don't need to use the official downloader. In Documents > My Games > FFXIV Beta Version there's a torrent file somewhere, can't remember exactly where off the top of my head.

[talizker]

I can't tell if they are saying the client software will still work or not, not sure whether to just close it and leave it for the time being.

"With the download of client software's installer, it will be suspended at 02:00 (GMT) on Sept. 1, 2010."

This is a strange statement and the installer is still available for download.

[C']

This is going to be such an awesome launch isn't it?

Nothing is going to go wrong at al! :rofl:

[elaniel]

I was hoping to have this beta tomorrow as I am away Thursday and Friday. Oh well, hopefully they can get back on track.

Some of the FFXIV forums are saying it seems that previous beta keys have been cancelled and that may be the problem?

[Tobal]

official updater seems to be working for me, got 50-100k download going so it gonna be long download..... and probably all in vain to.

I've looked in the docu/ff14 file and there is 4 torrents, i assume the one to use is the 95kb on?

[Rep]

The torrent title is the date of the update, so 2010.08.30 or something, the ones in the folder d96437e6.

[shafropuff]

shafropuff - something is bottlenecking that system big time.

Which of the 5700 series is the card? You should be getting around 1000 more than that, 1500 if it's a 5770.

Check system in control panel, make sure the CPU is running at full speed, 3.2ghz (the benchmark uses the CPU model name, system uses the bios info) when the benchmark is running.

What's the ram you're using? Is it in matching pairs?

Are you running the latest drivers?

Turns out I had a program running in the background keeping my computer on a low preformance/power saving mode.

I also had a few scaling issues with the 5770 via HDMI so I took it back and got a GTX 260&#178;... I'm a little confused if this card is a dual card or what tho it needs two connections from the PSU and its pretty big but I dunno if the display adapters tab under the device manager is suppose to be showing two cards or what...

I getting a score of 3490 with this card and the preformance manager thing turned off.

[Rep]

GTX260 requires both PCI-E PSU connectors to be plugged into the card.

[shafropuff]

Any reason why it needs two? and whats the small 2 in 260&#178; for?

[Tsingtao]

I'm just downloading the beta, I can't seem to get the benchmark to run moans about a missing DLL or something any ideas?

Running one of these reckon it will support XIV?

2 x dual core Intel 3.00 Ghz CPUs
RAID 0 SCSI Array 205Gb
ATI RAdeon 2600 Pro
2Gb Memory

It's basically a Dell Poweredge server with it's PCIE enabled.

[talizker]

I'm just downloading the beta

Was just going to say the client link is now removed from the FFXIV site and my download (with official client) stopped overnight and won't restart now!

Are you downloading with the official client or a separate Bittorrent app?

[djtickle]

I downloaded with the official app, started yesterday 2pm. Finished 5min ago :p

[Number45]

Anyone able to login to the site? I'm getting "This service cannot be logged into." every time.

[Number45]

According to Twitter, open beta starts 02:00 GMT tomorrow morning. Again.

[talizker]

"FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Will Start on Sep. 2!

We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which was announced to be postponed on Aug. 31, 2010.

Along with the completion on investigation and correction of the critical issue, we have decided to begin FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test on Sep. 2, 2010 at 02:00 (GMT).

Starting on Sep. 2, 2010 at 02:00 (GMT), acquisition of registration code required for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will become available.

We are looking forward to your participation in FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test!"

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

[elaniel]

That is typical! I'm away from 7pm tonight until late Friday. Grrr.

[mikewl]

Ergh the downloader is doing my nut in, its been on 99.5&#37; complete for about 4 hours constantly uploading at 50kb and downloading at 0kb.

Not good for my bandwidth usage.

[talizker]

I'm still at 33.4% downloaded and coming down at 30-50 Kb/s. It may be finished by the time the retail comes out on the 22nd!

[Number45]

You still think this is going to release on the 22nd? :p

[talizker]

Client now downloaded and installed - Yea!

"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" - FFS :(

[Number45]

I thought I'd just be able to login with my original credentials, but it seems like that's not the case at all. Has anyone else from the alpha/closed beta had to re-apply?

[elaniel]

I thought I'd just be able to login with my original credentials, but it seems like that's not the case at all. Has anyone else from the alpha/closed beta had to re-apply?

There's a message on FFXIV core that says everyone has to reapply for a beta key.

[Number45]

I either get server busy or server error. :(

I think I'll just sit on this until the PS3 release, and hope they have their act together by then. DCUO is out in November anyway so that'll give an MMO fix for the PS3.

[talizker]

Application accepted and Code received!

I used this link posted on ffxiv.zam.com

https://secure.square-enix.com/account/app/svc/login?ret=https://secure.square-enix.com/enqt/e/FF14OBTENTRYJP/html&cont=ffxiv_beta_ap

Code has been registered and confirmed on Square Enix Account Management System :)

[Number45]

Thanks for the link, I got a code from there. Still getting server error when I try and login to redeem the code though. >_<

[Tsingtao]

I can't get the client down basically very anoying...

[talizker]

Thanks for the link, I got a code from there. Still getting server error when I try and login to redeem the code though. >_<

Try going to https://secure.square-enix.com/ and not https://secure.square-enix.com/account/ as it suggests in the email. This worked for me but I was already logged in from earlier.

[Number45]

Yeah it logged me in to the point that I could get a code, but then when I tried to go back in to redeem it I get the error again. Will keep trying anyway.

Assuming I get it working I'll see how it controls now with mouse/keyboard, and if that's still horribly clunky I'll try and get the SIXAXIS working with it again.

[Tsingtao]

I've got the installer downloaded but the actual updates are increadibly slow. I've got the first 2 files updated and now its on a blue screen doing 4 more but doesn't seem to be moving at all.

[talizker]

I've got the installer downloaded but the actual updates are increadibly slow. I've got the first 2 files updated and now its on a blue screen doing 4 more but doesn't seem to be moving at all.

*Updated* I had to forward Port 55296 on my Router to my PC to get the download working.

[talizker]

Assuming I get it working I'll see how it controls now with mouse/keyboard, and if that's still horribly clunky I'll try and get the SIXAXIS working with it again.

I used a PS2 pad and adapter for FFXI which was great. I think someone mentioned a 360 pad also works well with this but I didn't get on so well with that in FFXI...

[Number45]

I don't have a 360 pad, I'm not a fan of it anyway. I have a DS2 in the loft I think but I'm not sure I still have my adapter.

There is a process for getting the SIXAXIS/DS3 working, but it's more hassle than I'd like (At least on 64-bit OSeseseseses).

[talizker]

Any further thoughts about World choice for the NTSCuk / Rargh players (and has anyone started the Open Beta yet)?

Available worlds are:

Cornelia
Kashuan
Gysahl
Mysidia
Istory
Figaro
Wutai
Trabia
Lindblum
Besaid

Also, is there a choice of starting location / city as in FFXI? Is this dependant on Race. Any preference on this so we can party together where/if appropriate from the start?

[Tsingtao]

Some advice would be good I want back in with the old Rargh guys and looking to move with AaD as well.

[shafropuff]

another 2 patches...

[mikewl]

Hmm not sure what server, if anyone has a preference let us know.

[Rep]

Those were the best town names they choose from each game? :mellow: Mysidia gets my vote.