Final Fantasy XIV

[Raesvelg]

There's no guarantee that character development will be slow in a skill-based RPG. It's a common flaw of execution, admittedly, but it's not a definitive part of the system.

Ideally, the same amount of effort yields the same level of reward as a level-based RPG, it's simply that the reward is earned incrementally rather than all at once.

It's really not at all difficult to tune it so that it works that way. A common failing of the player, on the other hand, is to focus all their effort on one or two skills, which have escalating costs of advancement, then complain that they're not advancing as quickly.

 

[Bajaratt]

There's no guarantee that character development will be slow in a skill-based RPG. It's a common flaw of execution, admittedly, but it's not a definitive part of the system.

Ideally, the same amount of effort yields the same level of reward as a level-based RPG, it's simply that the reward is earned incrementally rather than all at once.

It's really not at all difficult to tune it so that it works that way. A common failing of the player, on the other hand, is to focus all their effort on one or two skills, which have escalating costs of advancement, then complain that they're not advancing as quickly.

Most of the time it's not the player, but the design of the skills that forces them to specialize in one or two skills. You can either do everything, but suck at it, or kick ass at one or two things. That's generally hold builds work with that kind of system; you advance more slowly in that you don't get new skills as often, but you advance much quicker in that you're actually getting stronger vs. learning new, equally weak skills.

 

[Raesvelg]

Most of the time it's not the player, but the design of the skills that forces them to specialize in one or two skills. You can either do everything, but suck at it, or kick ass at one or two things. That's generally hold builds work with that kind of system; you advance more slowly in that you don't get new skills as often, but you advance much quicker in that you're actually getting stronger vs. learning new, equally weak skills.

In a pen & paper RPG though, it's just dumb to over-specialize if the GM is at all competent.

When I ran on a regular basis, I drowned lots of players.

Now, in computer RPGs, specialization is the norm, since the program is rarely going to require you to do anything other than kill things. Being more diversified may offer more options, but it's rarely going to be absolutely necessary.

Anyhoo, in this instance I'm interested in seeing exactly what SE does with the concept. The trick is going to be balancing it out so that you cannot acquire all the theoretically available skills, while making it less-than-crippling to reconfigure or partially reconfigure your build.

And then there's the weapon skills, which probably will be fully attainable.

I dunno, we'll see how it looks when it comes out. For me, it sounds promising, albeit somewhat more complicated to find people for parties. Levels are a bit of a cumbersome mechanic, relatively speaking, but they offer a range of advantages in convenience when it comes to making groups and getting a rough idea of people's assets.

 

[Xalioniaf]

I always figured Weapon Skills were the limits breaks in this game, and that we'd get something new in terms of said limit breaks with XIV.

 

[Negorissimo]

"The way I see it, the player can define how his own job works," says Komoto. "For example, if you have the Swordsman skill, that's enough to let you play by yourself, but if you've also raised your Sorcerer skill enough to unlock that skill's healing magic, that'll make solo play a lot easier for you. You can carry enough equipment around at any given time to change your style freely, and the system makes this easy by letting you change sets of equipment all at once."

I was like "hmmm" untill I read this. Now I find it very intriguing. Plus the "change sets of equipment all at once" sound very inviting too. What they are doing is bringing the way we earned skills in FF Tactics/Tactics Advance to the MMORPG world. I can see me leveling "Watchamacallit Staff" to get the "Cast Bahamut" skill. =D

 

[Tiael]

Some more info from http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2009/080509a.html

New information about Final Fantasy XIV's world, races, and gameplay has come to light thanks to Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. Eorzea contains at least three large towns: the desert Uldaha, the forest Gridania, and the sea port, pirate-filled town Rimsa-Rominsa. The game will have weather changes and a day to night system with one real-time hour equaling a single game day.

All of the races from Final Fantasy XI are returning, but have slight modifications and new names. Hyuran are the new Humes and are the most common race in Eorzea. Even among themselves, they are divided into two groups: those who moved from the outer islands into lower areas and those who live in the higher regions.

Elzen are taking the place of the Elvaan, though little has been revealed about them as of now. Galka have been replaced by the tailless Roegadyn race. They are seafairing folk from the North who are often hired as mercenaries by other races. Filling the role of the cute little race are the Lalafell. This replacement for the Tarutaru are a highly intelligent race who are typically farmers in the South of Eorzea.

Finally, in place of Mithra are the Miqo'te, a race divided into two groups: sunseekers and moonguardians. As with the Mithra, men are rare for this race. According to Square Enix, racial differences are not as major in FFXIV, however the difference of gender is important, likely due to equipment playing a major role in job classes. In terms of customization, players can modify character features such as face style, skin tone, eye color, and hair color or style.

As stated before, levels and experience are not the game's focus for progress, equipment is. Players can change equipment on the fly in order to change their job. This means players wearing fishing gear will be fishermen, but can quickly equip a staff to become a mage. These weapons are key to character development and having the ability to change between jobs mid battle should hopefully work toward the goal of making the experience more solo friendly.

It is stated that item resistance or durability will be decreased with use. How all of this will work in battle is still to be seen, though combat is not action-oriented. It's a modified real-time system from Final Fantasy XI's style of play, meaning that fights no longer require parties to engage a target and attack.

Missions will have a larger focus in Final Fantasy XIV, and players will need to go to guilds to receive permits to access them. These quests will typically take thirty minutes or less to complete and will give players the option of deciding how many people can assist in these diverse missions.

And some more information:

http://www.ffxivcore.com/index.php?/topic/92-ffxiv-classes-revealed/

 

[Xalioniaf]

Honestly, the whole "guild center handles quests" thing sounds an awful lot like Monster Hunter.

Spoiler:

And that's fucking awesome.

 

[Negorissimo]

This is getting interesting. Note how they say "Path", which means: The route or course along which something travels or moves. I'll use mages as an example.

Path of the Sorcerer

This path, the path of the Sorcerer is for those who want to have magical weapons with enormous powers. The classes are a bit unsure as of yet, so we'll wait with speculating.

As the first 2 classes revealed are Sorcerer and Caster. I think if the player master both classes weapon's completely, they will unlock a more powerful mage class. Like say, Summoner.

 

[Hexx]

Ill be jumping into this game from day one. Thank fully its a simultaneuos world release so no longer will JP's have the upper hand mwahahahaha. Thinking of trying a different race this time though........

 

[Makelith]

Lets try to keep this down to one thread for all FFXIV. Having a thread for every major announcement about a game this far away will get things a little too cluttered.

 

[Raesvelg]

Lets try to keep this down to one thread for all FFXIV. Having a thread for every major announcement about a game this far away will get things a little too cluttered.

Alternately, of course, you can simply preemptively bow to the inevitable and create a sub-forum for FFXIV.

 

[Hexx]

Alternately, of course, you can simply preemptively bow to the inevitable and create a sub-forum for FFXIV.

Might be a good idea, a lot of other FFXI forums have already, or are in the process of, doing the same..........just an idea though :hiding:

 

[Xalioniaf]

Not a good idea to do so immediately, I'd say. Wait until we start getting regular information, rather than FAMITSU DECIDED TO DO THIS TODAY, MUCH TO THE SURPRISE OF THREE PEOPLE.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Official site has been updates with a buttfuckload of info. Most from the new Famitsu 'zine, but with official english names and the like.
To note;
English names for the 4 archetypes (Disciplines) are:
Disciple of War
Disciple of Magic
Disciple of the Land
Disciple of the Hand

Official name for the quest system is Guildleves, and not leaves

 

[Rari]

Dude! They have "Leeroy"s!!!

 

[Saocide]

they make it sound like you can change jobs on the spot...

 

[Strid]

Honestly, the whole "guild center handles quests" thing sounds an awful lot like Monster Hunter.

Spoiler:

And that's fucking awesome.

I'm of the same mindset. I was initially turned off on the game because I can no longer afford such a huge time endeavor. After some of the recent news it looks like the game will handle similar to Monster Hunter but more so similar to how White Knight Chronicles MP works. I'm sure it'll be a bit more complicated, it's SE after all. I got someone else take on it and I found it to be a better explanation than mine. I was told, "To me it looks like SE is doin' their best to tap into the same market as the Phantasy Star Online games." Like I said earlier, I'm sure it'll be a bit more complicated and complex, but with what we have I agree and hope like hell that's the case.

 

[StanDarsh]

 

[Gerry]

Words cannot describe how happy I am with these screens and the info that is surfacing =)

Edit: Actually, one word can... NERDGASM!!!!

 

[Rips]

Wow. See you guys in Gridania.