Thachsanh

@darzin RaiderZ is still in alpha state. Also, it leans more toward skill based than classed base. You can mix skills from different tree to create your character instead of having to stick with one class. So, in theory, RaiderZ is a lot more diversed than Tera.

@pid No, that's not why they are going to jail for. They are going to jail because they carried boat load of confidential files in mobile storage devices taken from the NCSoft offices out and tried to sell those to a Japanese buyer. The police even has a list of the files they were stolen from NCSoft.

To reach this darker western theme, Perfect World "borrowed" massively from Warhammer Fantasy world. That's why it looks a lot like World of Warcraft, heheheh. The male dwarf and male dwarf NPCs are taken directly from Warhammer Dwarf. I mean almost like copy and paste. The armor designs, the dwarf character models... come right off The Dwarf Amy book. The male elf armor designs also taken directly from Warhammer High Elf. The armor male dress, the pointy tall cone shape helmet... oh come on.

The first city, the Freedom Harbor screaming Empire, I even saw NPC looks exactly like a Witch Hunter with a pistol standing in town.

If the game only release in China, it will probably be ok but I wonder what will happen when the game release in US and Europe.

I call you BS on this one Pewpdaddy. You did not play FFXI. If you played FFXI, you would not describe the magic targeting system like that.

Why? Because the UI of FFXIV is actually an IMPROVED version of FFXI.

Let's see, how do you cast a spell in FFXI? Let me explain it to you as you only pretend that you played FFXI.

There are 2 ways to cast a spell in FFXI

- You select the spell from a nested list of all your available spells.
- You make a macro to cast the spell

If you select the spell from the list or you make your macro without the target, you will have to select and confirm your target just like it is in FFXIV. If you make your macro with target then it will skip the target selecting. Again, it works exactly the same in FFXIV.

So, in FFXIV now you don't have to go through the spell list anymore, you can cast from your hot bar. You can also cast spell by making macro just like FFXI.

The targeting system works the same way in FFXIV as in FFXI (at least the controller mechanism). You use your cross pad to select, left+right are used to select target in front of you from the left or from the right. Up+down are used to select your party members if you are in a party.

Blomma,

yes, you can still continue to earn exp when KILLING stuffs, but does exp does anything to you? Does level 70.8 any stronger than level 70.5? No, until you get to the NEXT level, you get nothing. No new ability, no new shinny stuffs. And the experience bar is there to make sure that you don't get to level 71 but stay at level 70.8. You see why I put it as an illusion of progression?

Judging from what I have seen in beta, the exp curve of FFXIV is very easy. People reach beta cap with easy even with the fatigue/surplus in place. So, instead of doing this way: "you get your level very easy, and when you can't progress in level anymore you can still do other things" they change into the system where "it would take your devotion to leveling to make any progress and since you have to devote your time to leveling, you can't do pretty much anything else" way?

Personally, I actually prefer the first one. I do see the reason why developers need to control players progression and I understand.

At the end of the day, everything will depend on the actual threshold Square-Enix set their system at. If the exp progression still stay very easy like it is now and the thresholds are reasonable set, I am perfectly fine with it.

Oh, yeah?

Forget about the 15 hours thing, because it's not how the system works. You just understand it wrong.

Now, take your example, it would be Blizzard tell you: "you already reach X level this week, we don't want you to reach X+1 level this week, now please go level your Paladin alt or gather some charcoal, next week we will give you another level, and oh yeah, thank you for paying the whole month in advance".

How does that sound? Oh, but not just that. Let's look at another example. This is how it works in the past, they since have changed it but I will just give you an example of controlling.

Blizzard tell you: "you see that purple little thing there? If you want it, you will have to go through this place, this place and this place first, then you can proceed to this place, this place and this place. Then finally, you can attempt to get it, but there's a chance that we will not give it to you either. If you don't follow this specific order, you get jack. Oh, and we forget to tell you before but you can only do this once a week, and thank you for paying the whole month in advance"

How does that sound? Hey, I see nobody making and fuss about it.

You are just too naive. The developers only make it sounds like rewarding you for doing something. So they give you a what looks like a bonus in term of rest exp but the exp curve was adjusted so the progression would still fit within their vision.

The experience system is a time sink. It's an illusion of progression. The true progression is always your actual level. Everything is based on it. Your experience bar - it's just an illusion to make you feel good that you are progressing.

I guess it's the human nature that hated changes. We just hate things that are different that the usual that we see.

I see people keep repeating about "control your gaming experience", "take away your freedom" but the truth is: you never have freedom in the first place.

Face it, progression in an RPG game is all about controlling your gaming experience. You need to get X amount of exp to get to Y level. This is the prime example of controlling your gaming experience and it existed since the beginning of the genre. The experience curve exist to control your progression.

If the developers don't want you to get 1 level in 1 day, there's pretty much nothing you can do to get 2 levels (well, unless you cheat...) So, having the freedom to level any class at any time you want is nothing but an illusion. The barrier is there, they are just different. Instead of saying "stop, you can't level any more today" they will just make the to-next-level experience long enough to make sure that you will not get it today.

Let's examine 2 cases:

1- you have a portal that leads you almost instantly to your certain destination, you take the portal and "bam" you are at your destination, but you can't take it again, it's on "cool down" for 1 day... you need to wait for it to come back, in the mean time, you can do whatever you want but taking that portal

or

2- you have some very long tunnels that also lead you to your destinations and it will take you 1 day to walk through each tunnel to get to your destinations. Take it or not, it's your choice, but if you don't take it, there is no other way for you to get to your destinations.

You see, in the end, the results are the same, you get to the destinations you want but in case 1 it says you have to wait, in case 2 it says you don't have to, you have the freedom to do whatever you want but do you really have the freedom?

You see, what Square-Enix does is neither better nor worse than any other method out there, it's just different. Judging from the game's insanely easy experience curve, I say, "yeah, it's just different".

Every single MMORPG developer out there want to control their game, they want their player to follow their game a certain way to make sure the order in game and not totally chaos. There are and will be barriers in one form or another to control the progression of players. Make no mistake about this. If you think there is no controlling, you are just too naive.

There are new, more up-to-date version of this article. Update the news please.

If I read that article right, I would not worry too much about this.

If they determine their bucket/threshold value base on the most efficient exp gaining method aka someone sit in one place, continuously killing none stop, doing nothing but kill for 1 class 24 hours a day. Then 8 chunks of 1 hour of that guy would be likely way more than enough for me.

Also think about the time expansion effect of the formula. For the first 8 chunks there are none but for the later 7 chunks your time to reach the max of the chunk actually will be longer since you are getting less exp.

So your time for your exp to drop from 80% to 70% will be 10% longer than the time for your exp to drop from 90% to 80% etc...

So, I think the time for it to drop from 90 to 0 will actually be at least double the 100% time. So, it probably that you will have about 24 hours played time for it to reach 0 using the most efficient exp income method possible.

So if you running around at all or stop to chat or run to the bathroom at any time during your exp section, it will refill up.

So, actually this system encourage you to play LONGER but not concentrate on 1 single action. Heheh, sound kinda weir.

I will just post the whole article here.

=======================================

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

@Sneaky

You accused me generalizing WoW yet you made one your self. Being an Asian born my self, I don't think that it's true. May be we are both doing that. May be I was just landed on a bad WoW server and you was on a bad FFXI server.

I personally find the FFXI community shaped up the way it is because of the way the game servers were designed. No regional servers, everyone in the world could be on the same server. It's the human nature is xenophobic somewhat really. Individuals are not but people are. We just generally don't like things that we don't understand and different than us. This is not generalization, it's all over in human history, any race, any culture. This we don't see often on WoW servers often because of geometric servers allocation.

Just like in real life, to work with that sort of community, you usually have to give a lot more efforts to break the barrier, to understand the people and what they are custom to. And when you do, it becomes more refreshing and interesting than when you are with the same group of people that you known everything about them. That's also the reason why many people prefer this type of server allocation than the regional one.