Does their official downloader really force you to install the game to your windows drive?
It insists you have 12 GBs free on the drive where your My Documents folder is. You can still put the install folder where ever, and I suppose you could move your My Document folder, too. But it is a pain in the ass.
Yay, slow download. Reminds me of when I played FFXI on 56k and it took a week for that first install and download.
If you know the folder that the installer need, maybe you can create a hardlink to another drive. so [B]c:\My Documents\Poor mmorpg console port ffuur fantasy xxu[/B] is really a link to [B]d:\ffuur[/B]
NTFS (and Windows NT) has supported this for a long time, is just that is not enabled in the interface because will confuse the poor minds of windows users. There are command line tools to create these links.
It could be worst, It could use BITS.
Totally pointless link:
I kicked this download off at 7am before I left for work yesterday, and when I got back home after 10 hours it had pulled 162mb down. WTF!? I wiped the folder and cancelled the download, I’ll check it out in reviews/online videos I guess.
What about using a BitTorrent download?, maybe theres people downloading at 200KB/s
Normally Bittorrent suck, but still.
update:
wait… this already use BT?, then maybe is broken ISP’s that shape BT trafic, or the suckiness of BT + greographical conditions.
I think Square’s official seeds are offline right now. The wording is confused in the postponement announcement above, but I think that’s what they are trying to say here:
With the download of client software’s installer, it will be suspended at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010.
As of end of beta 3 you were at liberty to say and post game impressions, as well as screen shots but no video. And of course, in a few hours anyone can go grab open beta key I think.
I did get in the end of beta 3. Combat was better than what a friend in earlier beta had told me unofficially.
Random impressions:
[ul]
[li] The graphics are quite nice. My box is average (FFXIV benchmark 3482 at lowest benchmark resolution) and ran them surprisingly well.[/li][li] The classes are different. Not bad, but some are not what you expect especially magic. Both are a mix of heals, damage and utility.[/li][li] The class system is quite different. There isn’t a requirement to level subjobs, but you can still level any class on any character, and all classes have a category of “abilities” that are equipable when not as that class. The assumption is that you will level various classes to pick up abilities that compliment. You can mix the abilities of more than one sub-class on a main, but you have limited slots. So like Guild Wars you get a mini-game dynamic of sort through what I can use to pick the skills on my bar today.[/li][li] Like Guild Wars, they want to reward people that play more with the ability to get more choices to put on the bar (by leveling more classes). They have some unusual caps on exp to try to force this. “Fatigue” and “Surplus” that have caused all kinds of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and yawns from some.[/li][li] They have lots of crafting classes, mobs drop raws not equipment. Some quests do give equipment but the plan seems to be for crafters to create almost all that is used.[/li][li]They also have a hard limit on how many quests aka "guild leve"s you can do in a 48 hour period. See above about wailing, gnashing of teeth and yawns.[/li][li] Combat is faster than what a friend that was in earlier beta said. So they sped that up. Client still had some response lag, but I was in stress part of beta 3 sooo … dunno. I can’t see it being as responsive as WoW though.[/li][li] It is very soloable. Few people group to quest as organizing takes time. They said they wanted to encourage grouping with some rewards, but still plan on keeping it soloable. They did say some of the later story-line quests may require a group though. Players hit the beta level cap of 30 solo.[/li][li] Quests are scalable to 5 levels of difficulty Solo->Group.[/li][li] Crafting and gathering are interactive each requiring that you beat a mini-game to succeed. The crafting one is hard, and you lose all components on a failure. Recipes, and their relative difficulty are not documented. I hope that some recipe feed back is in open beta.[/li][li] I suspect to combat bots, not only are there the mini-games, but also on crafting and gathering there are exp caps like the “adventuring classes”, as well there is a separate system that caps the amount of resources you can gather in short periods. I tried to level 5 of the 8 crafting classes in beta and was often hit with the “no more gathering for you!” cap trying to gather enough for all five. They said that cap will be tweaked.[/li][li] All the GOGOGO hardcore raid guilds are going to be frustrated by the mechanics capping exp/quests over time. I’m not sure what end game content exists at this time.[/li][li] The “guild leve” scalable quests are like instances in plain sight. The monsters spawn once you select the difficulty, often in another location. They can have scripts. But the encounter is locked to you (or your group) once spawned. I can see some interesting spectator possibilities.[/li][li] All things considered I will pick it up. I like the FF series, RPGs and have played most MMOs. I’m not into raiding anymore, so the slow pace and soloability hits me at a good time gaming wise with an art style I enjoy.[/li][/ul]
I have client already and it’s patched for open. Hope I’ll grab a key but I do have a lot of family over for the long weekend. =/
And you can use uTorrent to manually grab the files. Check various fan sites (I know FFXICore has instructions on that somewhere). Some people are seeding.
OK. I somehow missed the “all clear” announcement on the beta site.
I don’t have any major disagreements with what Hechicera said, but let me add a few comments of my own:
First, I can’t believe that this is going live in three weeks. It could easily benefit from a few months of additional testing. It’s obvious that S-E has spent a lot of time and effort crafting the backstory for the game world, and the assets to depict that world. The in-engine cut scenes are impressive, and executed with S-E’s usual skill. I’m not worried about FF14’s story line at all, though you see very little of it in the beta (assuming that the content is still limited to what was available in closed beta.)
I am less confident about the game’s class, quest, and combat systems, given that S-E has been making significant ongoing tweaks of these (and appears to have a lot more tweaking left to do.)
For example, I’m a bit put off by skill point assignment, which is basically a big mass of numbers, with little guidance to tell what the effect of increasing your various attributes and elemental resistances will do for you. More is better, obviously, but how much better do you get by adding one point to an attribute? Is there a cap, beyond which adding points has no additional effect? I’m not sure this stuff is adequately explained anywhere. Possibly this situation will improve when the various hardcore number crunchers start figuring out the inevitable cookie cutter munchkin builds, but I was hoping for something a little less arbitrary and a little more intuitive. Right now, it all feels like guesswork.
Speaking of guesswork: If you didn’t like FFXI’s user interface, I’m guessing you won’t like FF14’s, either. The two share many similarities. Mouse support is a little better this time around, but don’t put away your game controllers just yet.
Really, I don’t know what people are going to make of FF14, and I’m saying that as someone who’s played FFXI for more than six-and-a-half years. Some will feel it’s too much like FFXI, and others that it’s not enough like FFXI. It is definitely more accessible, and playable in small chunks if that’s what you have time for, but I don’t know how well the guildleve and fatigue systems are going to go over with players who want to solo WoW-style non-stop to the level cap. Nor do I have any idea what people will do once they get there, though I’m sure this will be revealed in good time.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ve preordered my Collector’s Edition and will be giving the game the old college try, but I fear it’s going to hit the bricks in an unfinished state (as much as MMOs are ever finished). The cynical voice inside my head says that S-E may not care whether the game has rough edges, since the early PC release will give them six months of user feedback that they can use to polish FF14 for the “real” launch–when the PS3 client is released in March.
It’s difficult for me to draw parallels with FFXI’s launch, because I didn’t see it until North American release in October, 2003. At that point, the game had been operating in Japan for something like 17 months and already had one expansion. It may be that FFXI was in a raw state in its initial Japanese release, but I have no experience with this.
Anyway, open beta is scheduled to begin later tonight, so you can all form your own opinions if you want to. :)
S-E’s servers are getting hammered right now. I haven’t even been able to obtain a key yet, let alone register it and attempt to log in. You’d think that after eight-plus years of operational experience, S-E’s IT department would know something about capacity planning. :P
From the beta entry site
[I]“Users who have already been accepted as beta testers or who have already registered a beta test registration code on the Square Enix Account Management System do not need to apply for the open beta test. Open beta test registration codes and information on how to register them will be sent shortly. If, however, you possess a registration code but have never registered it on the Square Enix Account Management System, please log in below and apply for the open beta test.”
[/I]Hmm. So I wait for an e-mail or keep clicking, since I had a beta key. What is “shortly”? Perhaps I’ll just sleep on it. And yes the account management server is toast at the moment.
Where “shortly” probably means “tomorrow”…
Maybe I’ll go play FFXI instead. :D
I wonder if they’ll allow you to Alt+Tab out of the game when it’s full-screen without it crashing! Oh, who am I kidding?
I was in the closed beta (phase 3) and played it a grand total of two nights. I thought the game was visually beautiful, but I didn’t enjoy combat in the least, not to mention the cumbersome interface. I was sure that playing FFXI for five years would have better prepared me SE’s “unique” design decisions, but boy was I wrong!
I do look forward to reading some positive impressions about the game, though. :) I’m sure the game will sell big out the gate based on the name alone, but I will be impressed if the game does well long-term.
Well the message about closed beta testers not needing to apply and keys would be mailed shortly was removed from the entry page. Rumor has it, right when notices went up to people who had clicked through it that they put up a notice they were suspending key distribution for now. I haven’t seen that notice, but I can verify what I cut&pasted is no longer there.
No, I did not get notice in my e-mail either. There is much rage from closed beta testers on boards.
SE communication at it’s finest. Maybe I’ll make popcorn for breakfast.
I agree with you 100% percent. It’s going to sell a ton of boxes but I’m not convinced they will be able to retain those subs. This is not a user-friendly game. The UI will be the biggest hurdle to overcome, if you plan on playing you are probably better off waiting for the console launch next year. The mouse lags a lot though this got a little better and selling items and moving them to your retainer was a massive PITA. (move them one by one with annoying popups and confirmations, emptying a full backpack could take a half an hour, no lie.) You have to go through menus for pretty much anything. The job system sounds interesting but everytime you changed classes and back you had to fill your interface with attacks etc which also was a huge chore. During beta we didnt have macros to make this task easier, I don’t know if this has changed because I didn’t play all that much.
It is much more soloable, this is true, and not as grindy as FFXI, but combat I found to be boring nonetheless. Part of the problem may be rectified at launch or even open beta with full content, but during closed beta there were no quests other than the main one, and guildleves which were basically kill tasks that were on a 48 hr timer.
If you want to alt-tab you have to play in windowed mode. Playing this way did not cause any crashes, at least for me.
Not having a friends list seemed dumb to me, and the linkshell (guild) while working still needed better functionality. For example everyone would show offline whether they were online or not, you could only tell if they were online if they were in the immediate vicinity. I am not sure whether this is a bug or intended. The preceding sentence will describe a lot of things in game. Sending anyone a tell was also cumbersome, you would have to type in both their first and their last name. Oh yeah, it was difficult to chat with someone while fighting or harvesting. Once again, not sure if its intended or a bug.
During beta the game was buggy as heck, I’m not convinced that the game will be in good shape for launch. Even if it is, expect a ridiculously large patch that will probably take 6 weeks to download. I’m only partially joking.
I’m not sure I’ll pick it up at launch, I’m not sure if I can overcome the UI. I did find the beta boring but with all the content that was missing I’m not sure it will be boring at launch.
One thing that I was pleased with, was how well it ran on my four year old pc. (2gig ram, intel core 2, 6600 2.4 GHz, and a 8800GT, 512mb…not anybody’s dream machine) I did have to lower some of my settings but it performed much better than the benchmarks would have me think.
If you didn’t like FFXI I would recommend that you really try to get into the open beta and try it out, save yourself 50 bucks if you find its not for you.
TLDR version, try to try it first, Interface bad, graphics good, gameplay boring, buggy.
They did suspend key distribution last night. This morning, I had no e-mail from SE after their message telling closed beta testers to wait for it the night before. I go to check my account and registration page and it has a large notice basically
“Ooops! Our bad, closed beta testers do need to reapply for open.”
The fansite had posted a notice keys were being given again. But when I went ahead and clicked through I got:
“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.”
I think the nerd rage died down, hard core ones stayed up all night refreshing and hit the window. But for anyone that’s trying to get in now, there is a longish login queue to the game servers and it looks like they are going to slowly phase people into them and release keys on small batches, so far every 12 hours.
If you were in beta, stop waiting for that e-mail. It’s not coming.
I agree with others on the UI issues. People that have logged in say it is much better in open beta, but the lag when accessing you “retainer” (basically a combo storage mule/vendor that is designed in) was horrific even after the last “fix” in closed beta. It almost made them unusable. So I was curious to test that in open. I did go plug in my USB controller.
And accessing the retainer-vendor is important since one of their "SE’s “unique” design decisions" is no auction house. It is intentional, they want the player-crafter driven economy to develop without the effects of “auctioneer” type apps. And as Lee said they are obviously tuning the other systems I described as “different” very much in beta. So I am curious where they set some of the parameters for open beta and their first impression.
But you can’t accuse them of not trying different things. Especially those used to the fast pace of both combat and advancement in WoW, and the overall convenience of interacting with WoW in-game, with customized UIs, with out of game apps … FFXIV will be a shocking dinosaur however. Part of my intrigue though is playing through some of their unusual design choices and seeing how it works.
I am webmaster, and my impression of the panel of control of SE is that is very obtuse.
It feel like manually controlling a very dumb and uselless server machine.
Others panel controls for other games are elegant and eforceless.
Maybe has been designed by SE this way, so it scale for x10, x100 more people. I don’t know. But I feel like a angry wookie using it: I want to remove the arms of his designers.
I expect the game to be the same.
If anyone wants a beta key, I just got one 10 minutes ago. Looks like they are reopening the gate at least for a little while.
Wendelius
It looks that way. I finally obtained my open beta key a few hours ago.