Huh... wait, can you explain in brief what the system is? I checked the page quickly but to no avail, it makes me think of the judge system in FF Tactics, but I am pretty sure its not the right case.
In MMORPGs, enemies need to know who to attack at any given time, since many MMORPGs run on the "Tank, DPS, Heal" system. Well, the way they do this is called "Enmity" (some games call it "Threat", "Aggro", or "Hate"). Basically, each action you do has a number attached to it. Usually, the more you do, the more you generate. Hitting an enemy for 100 damage might create 100 Enmity/Threat/whatever. Healing for 100 might generate 200-300. Or, if you hit it for 150, you'd get 150. etc. Tanks are usually given skills that generate extra to help them keep the enemies on them, and in some games, enmity is lost when you take damage. Managing your threat output is oftentimes a mechanic, or a tank check to make sure the tank knows what he's doing. It also helps keep overzealous DPS in line from dumping a whallop on an enemy at the very beginning of the fight before the tank builds enough enmity to keep it on him. Taking hits in group content as class/job/whatever that is NOT a tank hurts. A lot. Like, 2-4 hits and you're dead hurt. Anyways, the enemy will attack whoever has the most enmity at the time. Sometimes, some boss fights in these games will even play with the enmity system, such as having bosses throw certain attacks at the people with the lowest enmity, or using attacks on whoever is #2 behind the tank, there are bosses where you must have 2 tanks and the tanks much switch (because it applies a debuff that will kill the tank if he keeps getting hit with it), so the tanks need to coordinate and keep their threats close to each other, etc.
Oh I see, thats actually quite fascinating! I always thought these games simply went for either highest threat, or highest health (aka tank and dps). Well, I had an idea of how they all picked targets, but never really tried to find out its inner workings, huh... now I want to know how enemies pick their targets in Darkest Dungeon... I still havent given the GBA titles you recommended a chance, I am kind of considering that one... the Glam-esque FF that came out for PS4, 14 I think? edit: oh, its 15, did you try it? it just looks so terribly different that I cannot even begin to honestly think it belongs to the franchise, even if it shares the gameplay to the letter (if it even does)
I don't have a PS4, so no... no FF15 for me, and I doubt I'd be into it anyways. I stopped buying consoles at the Wii/PS2/360. What's the point? They're just PCs in a fancy box with proprietary software. They use the same hardware a PC does, except for the motherboard, and they load some proprietary OS on it, otherwise it's the same x86 compatible hardware you'd see in any PC. I imagine if we just give em a year or two someone will have a stable emulator out for this stuff, because the closer they get to PCs, the easier they are to emulate. EDIT: And yeah, FF14 is that awesome "Better-than-WoW" game that a lot of people call a "WoW Clone" but yet... can't really call it a clone when it is better than the source material in every way. EDIT2: So last night I fired up the old DS (I still have it, lol) and now I remember why I stopped playing FF3 -- the font is so tiny it hurts the eyes. But... now that I have a good PSP emulator... Imma try the FF3 ISO and see if this is any better. Should be, because I can play it on my PC which should get rid of the most (all?) of the problems I had with playing it on the DS other than the weird game mechanics. Maybe I was just distracted by various stuff and the answer was easy?
Well they call Agent 47 a cloned human, and he is way better in comparison! so FF14 is the Hitman of Wow. Oh emulating DS games on pc... it can be pretty fun, or it can go terribly in my experience, it is funny how Hajimari no Ishi (for the GBA) looks better than a lot of DS games out there, as for DS games on Pc... how do people deal with touch mechanics? I get the idea but bloody heaven, it can get annoying fast! Oh and dont get me started with Consoles are the same as Computers... it is absolutely baffling, inconceivable and utterly stupid how consoles do more and more computer stuff, yet try to remain "their own", I guess props to Nintendo for coming up with their own, weird, quirky machines that are still pretty much computers (or in the newest, a tablet) If they are making Monster Hunter for PC... I can only hope more games will jump in as well, maybe one day I can play in Ivalice without the need of an emulator, or without it being an online game (and I hear its only a dungeon or something)
I don't know; I've never emulated a DS game but I imagine you'd probably use the mouse and click to simulate a touch. I've long maintained that Sony and MS should just get out of the console business and instead make boxed PCs like Alienware does, but aim them at budget gamers (which that is what the PS4 and 360 already do). Make them compact, small, but "best bang for buck" and maybe throw SteamOS on it or something and work with Valve to deliver a gaming platform that is easily accessible without the mumbo-jumbo of having to deal with proprietary software/specs/whatever. And Nintendo.... well Nintendo hates PCs. They'll stay in their little corner like the weird loner kid at kindergarten who plays with their toys in their own imaginary little world that nobody else is invited or welcomed into. Why not? That's basically how they treat gaming already. Hmm. I've never heard of Ivalice being in either of the two MMO FFs... I know it certainly ain't in, nor will it ever be, in XI because major content development on that game has stopped. XIV? I dunno there could be an Ivalice side-story thingie? *Shrug* But yeah it would be nice for Square to wake up and smell the roses, that people want to play their games on PCs. You kinda can now, but many of the FF PC games are horrible mobile ports that are oftentimes riddled with bugs, have poor performance, have gaudy font choices (seriously, what's up with some of the large, giant, gaudy fonts in the PC remakes? ugh, it's like they design these games for kindergartners), or they have stuff like MIDI music in FF7 (really? Seriously? MIDI? In 2010+?). But give them time and they might clean some of these games up, either they will, or fans will make unofficial patches for these games to make them playable. Currently, all FFs except for #12, #15 and the side-games like Tactics are available on PC. EDIT: It doesn't help that some of those mobile ports of older FF games... are actually EMULATED with the game itself being a ROM. They're just wrapped up in one big .exe or something. I remember reading that somewhere, and just rolling my eyes. Laziest of Lazy.
Heh somebody does not like Nintendo! (is there any soul that still likes them?) If I recall correctly, a friend who loves FFonline (whatever its called, a realm reborn?) told me that the newest expansion included a dungeon from Ivalice, unless I misunderstand, which is very likely. Now that you mention it... what happened to SteamOS? it came out with a bit of a "hey look at us! we are doing things!" and... idk, they sort of bleeding disappeared? I would have been very interested in one of their machines if the information was not so confusing, I remember taking a look or two at them, and had no idea what it was capable of doing, and what was not. And gods I hope they hear your words, I would so love to play FF games on PC, new or old, just make it darn happen! maybe not too old... I kind of want to play those on the GBA, which I intend to do for sure!
I do seem to remember something about that, but I dunno. I mean there's Deltascape which is basically a throwback to lots of old stuff,I mean, Deltascape v4 boss is Exdeath (FF5's main villain) for crying out loud. lol. It's still around, but sadly the Steam Machines that the OS was mainly developed for kinda tanked because there was no oversight, a bunch of companies made their own computer bundles, some good, some bad, and you needed to be a computer techie to know how to compare them, to know which ones were priced good, which were not... Valve didn't set up any rules/guidelines/oversight as to what hardware goes into Steam Machines, so it just all kinda fell apart because nobody knew what to actually get, those who were actually interested in it. That, and SteamOS turned out to be a Linux Distro anyways, IIRC. So.... ya. Doubt it. I'm hardly the first to say such things, and they keep shovelling their crappy emulated mobile ports anytime they release a new FF with the exception of FF10 and 10-2 remastered. I've heard those are decent-ish. Oh, and I tried the PSP version of FF3 (you can get it on Emuparadise along with PPSSPP) and it works great. Font is pleasant and easy to read, the load times are actually faster than the DS version (at least between battles... there's a few seconds of loading when you first load the game up but it isn't that bad). So I'll give it another go and see if I can't figure out how you're actually supposed to do progression in that game, lol. In other FF news, I just tried the two Lv70 dungeons in FFXIV (the one you referred to as "FFOnline"). Insanely fun dungeons, with cool bosses. The FF14 team really knows how to make fun content without getting too out-of-this-world ridiculous.
Oh I see... well thats a real shame, seriously! You would think Steam, with such a massive pull (at least that is how I feel about it) would have the foresight and preparation to set up strict standards in what should go into their technology, although from what you told me, this is more likely just them testing the waters, and gauge reactions instead of fully investing into the unknown. Emuparadise... hmm, I think thats where I got Hajimari no Ishi, its been what, 8 years? maybe not... anyways! so the dungeons were not like super ludicrously difficult and madness-indusing? I know some people call that kind of content "entertaining and challenging" poppycock, every word and description used! although that is just... me talking about Guild Wars 2 and its "raids" Gah, I said I would wait until Winter to play "FFOnline" (it sounds funny, ill keep calling it that) but it sounds more tempting everyday... specially those dungeons and bosses.
Well, XIV has a Free Trial Period too, that's infinite but you can only go up to Level 35. All content except Retainers/Market Boards and Free Companies (think: Guilds) are available to you, but you can't make your own parties (you can, however, use the dungeon finder). So that's a great way to test the water to see if you're interested or not. And no, they weren't too hard at all! Now, granted, there IS hard content in the game make no mistake... but it's optional. Currently, the worst non-optional content (it's part of the main story questline) is Shinryu... but more people are getting through it every day and it won't be too long until people are mowing through him too. He's just slightly harder than Final Steps of Faith (the last Heavensward boss battle), and Final Steps... is usually cleared in 1-2 attempts whenever I end up in there. See, there's a thing called Dungeon Roulette... you can do this once a day for large rewards, and it will pick one dungeon randomly you have unlocked and stick you in a group with random people, and if necessary, temporarily reduce your level so that you aren't going to make the whole thing trivial (like a Lv70 in the Lv16 dungeon for example). Well, as time goes on, there will be more people who have already done Shinryu and who have gear from stuff after Shinryu, that by the time newer players get up there, it'll be easier than when half or more of your party had yet to clear it. Buuut anyways. hehe. Yes, there are awesomely designed boss battles. My favorite is this little thing called Limitless Blue. I mean, seriously, that intro (and the BGM!! One of my favorite in the game) should speak volumes as to how cool this battle is.
Oooh the roulette sounds fascinating, thats sure to keep a good lot of folk busy! though I imagine there's bound to be the typical smart arse in the group. I remember you linked that boss before, it is a very impressive scene, and fight as well! would certainly love to fight them one day, as for challenging content, I am actually more in favour of making story fights very difficult, you are supposed to EARN your bloody progress, not just be on some lackluster carousel trip listening to the narrative... (actually I have to go ill continue later)
Ahh, did you see that video already? Wasn't sure. hehe. Well, most groups I've been in have been very reasonable. I would have to say that maybe 1 in 100 groups will have a truly bad apple. At least 70% of the groups are very reasonable and smooth, and the other 29% you will occasionally find a lesser-skilled player who takes unnecessary damage, or doesn't do very good DPS, or a tank that doesn't know what they're doing, or a healer who focuses too much on DPS rather than healing. That's at least my personal experiences. I hear it varies based upon data center (one data center has several servers, and the duty finder places you in groups of mixed servers on the same data center). As for hard story fights, well... the thing about the Main Story in this game, is that it is required to do much else. You won't get far if you don't do the Main Story quests, as 99% of the game has some sort of MSQ requirement, and things are gradually unlocked as you play. The ability to change your class on the fly is unlocked at Lv10, your first dungeon is unlocked at 16 (MSQ required), your 2nd and 3rd dungeons immediately thereafter, and once your 3rd dungeon is done, retainers (which allows you to sell things on market), etc. So, if you make the story fights too hard, you lock a large amount of players out of the majority of the content in the game and that's not really good. Now, some story fights are still somewhat of a challenge... like Final Steps and definitely Shinryu, but for the most part, they are reasonable, for most people to get through. If you're looking for challenge, then you want Extreme Primals, or Savage Raids. Extreme Primals are just like the Hard version of the Primals, only..... harder. Much harder. New mechanics, new ways to die... for example, Leviathan (Hard) has rails on the edges of the deck (you fight him out at sea while on two boats attached to each other). Leviathan will slam the boat, sending you sliding across. The rails keep you from falling. Well, in Extreme... those rails are destroyed the first time he slams the boat. If you don't position yourself right, you'll go flying overboard and die instantly.
Hmm I see, well with that in mind I suppose they should be considerably accessible. I mean, we are takling about features after all! But that is quite fascinating regardless, not so much trouble with players... I do not mind unskilled or learning players, I mind the know-it-all cant-make-mistakes, those are the players that should receive no tolerance. Having an unskilled teammate or two give on the opportunity to try yourself, your limits, if you win, that is a great great occassion, if you lose, well! now you know your limits, and should improve upon them, always farther, better and harder, but NEVER above anyone else. What you describe about the bosses... it sounds beautiful, simply more difficult without being ridiculous, and if it stays true to every boss fight, then death is naugh but your own doing. Hrrm... I need to push this game in my schedule and buy it sooner, maybe next month if possible. I would probably be a healer, or a DPS... I could never get into tanking, unless tanking in this game is handled differently from being simply a meatshield.
That kinda depends on what you mean by being a "meatshield". Obviously no matter what, being a Tank means protecting your teammates from harm -- it's the very definition of what a tank Is. Playing a tank in XIV is... well, early on it might seem boring, like many classes you don't get a Lot of actions and this turns some people off on the game. It starts off slow, and builds up over time until near the end you've got plenty to do. Anyways, playing as a Tank is somewhat like playing as a DPS only you obviously need to keep everything attacking you (unless you're in an 8 man group and you're the Off-Tank then it's different). You do a bit less damage than the DPS of course, but yet in actual playing, the playstyles are similar though your "cooldowns" (abilities that have longer cooldowns than usual) are all geared towards making you take less damage, either because you've got several enemies attacking you, or because you know a boss is about to use something particularly deadly and you want to cushion the blow that you know is coming. The thing about being a DPS, though... while fun, it means longer queue times when queuing up for a dungeon because there are far more people playing DPS than those who play healers or especially tanks. They try to offset this by offering special rewards (extra money, XP, and occasionally items tradeable for consumables) for whatever role is needed the most (called simply, "Adventurer in Need"), but it isn't enough apparently. It takes 10-30 min to get a dungeon as a DPS, but yet Tanks and Heals are usually <60 seconds with tanks being more likely to have <10 second queues and healers are usually 10-60 seconds (though sometimes, it is instant or near-instant for them too). The adventurer in need is almost always for Tanks, though I have seen it for healers once in a blue moon.
Ah right, sorry. When I said meatshields I meant to inquire wether or not tanks had something more complex than just buffing themselves to absorb damage and keep the enemies on them. I would like to draw comparisons from what you have told me, to the tank classes in Guild Wars 2 (Dragonhunter, Guardian, Engineer) but I will reserve that until I have actually played the game, I love tanking, or healing, I feel it's far more rewarding, and by extense enjoyable, than simply being an effective killer. Don't get me wrong, I think people who are effective damage dealers have nothing to scoff at. Speaking of making comparisons, something I find really sad in Guild Wars 2 is that dungeons are pretty much left to completionists, since they have created more difficult, yet smaller dungeons (called Fractals) with much better rewards, people completely lost interest in doing them, and there has been not an ounce of effort in putting them back on the map other than a meager gold reward that is not even in the slightest worth the time you have invested in exploring the dungeon. If there was a similar system, but focused on specific paths/dungeons, it could perhaps benefit... and revive interest.
Well, I think tanking is a combo between being a damage dealer and the kind of meatshield you speak of. Keeping stuff on you usually falls under the same actions you would take that actually deals damage to the enemy and later on you have different combo attacks... one set for building threat, the other for doing more damage (but less threat). You use the two depending on situation. And of course lots of AoE as well. Raid Gear in FFXIV is very stylish -- people oftentimes do old raids for gear to change their appearance (the "Glamour" system), so old optional content is still in demand and some of it can be solo'd or at least low-manned at max level, never tried it yet tho so not entirely sure how that works. As for dungeons, well most dungeons are 4-man dungeons. A tank, a healer, and 2 DPS. They typically run 3 bosses, and the whole thing is 15-30 minutes. There are a couple 8-man dungeons that are part of the MSQ that are called "Raids", but eh. I wouldn't call them that. They are rather cool and full of story though. Those are only at Lv50. They haven't done anything like that since, because there were problems mainly having to do with people being forced to skip cutscenes and watch them later at an inn because they'd get left behind otherwise. Sadly that's just player mentality there. There's "Trials", which are 8-man boss battles. Just the boss and nothing else. These are usually for Main Story Quests where you fight incredibly powerful enemies. These tend to be long fights, and in the Lore, these are some of the most powerful and dangerous creatures around and they tend to be the most complex fights and most of them have total party wipe attacks if the group fails to deal with the mechanics properly. For example, the first one, Ifrit is a 4-man Trial because it's early in game, but he will insta-kill your entire group if you don't kill the nail he spawns in the middle of the arena before he casts Hellfire (he gives you ample time to do this). Titan will insta-kill you if you don't kill his heart before he casts his big special. Leviathan insta-kills you if you fail to protect the shield generator from the water spumes that spawn periodically throughout the fight, or if you get an exceptionally derpy group, if nobody bothered activating the Shield before he uses Tidal Wave. That kinda thing. And then, there's actual Raids, but I have little experience with them outside of Deltascape which is just 4 bosses, each in their own instance queue but from my understanding, this is not how raids were done in the past. They were actual 8-man dungeons with multiple bosses much like normal dungeons. I could be wrong about that, though. I've seen clips of Coil and Crystal Tower having actual mobs other than bosses in them. But I've yet to really get into the whole raiding thing. I plan to clear the older raids, though! At some point, anyways lol.
Gah, it all sounds absolutely beautiful...! you say the first 15 levels feel the slowest, but what of the actual road towards max level? is it a grind, or have they managed to keep things from dragging on unnecessarily?
There's a couple infamous parts in the Main Quest Line that might feel like they drag out, but they were done very intentionally for in-game reasons: the first is a trial of patience. The NPCs have an in-character reason to send you on a bunch of boring fetch-quests to prove your patience. The second, is because you're at a dead-end in trying to figure out what to do next, and when you do discover what you should do next, you become embroiled in foreign politics and this *really* pays off later in the game's story, when your actions will come back to pay big dividends later. Other than those, though, levels feel pretty smooth for your first job. Your second job+ may feel faster or slower depending. Tanks and Healers are incredibly fast and easy to level because they get quick Dungeon Queues. DPS jobs can be done in Palace of the Dead (because there's no role requirements, any combination of players including 4x DPS can do PotD) and that's good until Lv60. Lv60+, DPS is going to slow down a bit because it takes awhile to get dungeon groups, PotD was not designed to give you great XP above 60 (because the current cap is 70). You can still do PotD, it will just take a bit longer. The Daily Dungeon Roulettes (there are multiple, later on!) are probably the majority of your XP income and <Lv50 it isn't too uncommon to get a level and a half out of a single 30 minute dungeon. But these roulettes as I mentioned earlier are a once-per-day thing. There's normal quests, but those are limited. You also have Beast Tribe Daily Quests at Lv45-50 and then again from 51-60, though those are limited in quantity too (you can do 12 total per day). At Lv50+, there are daily Hunts (they give you 5 random enemies to kill per group (one-star, two-star, three-star), and when you do you get XP, a little money, and some seals that can be used to buy stuff). And of course there's FATEs (I forget what the acronym stands for, but basically, random events that pop up on the map that usually involve killing junk, if you win you get a small chunk of XP) if you run out of daily stuff to do. There's also Challenge Logs which reset every Tuesday Morning, stuff like "Do 5 FATEs" or "Complete 3 Dungeons" and some of these give a nice chunk of XP. See, that's the thing about FFXIV -- there's so much variety in stuff you can do, I find myself running out of time. I routinely go through a Tuesday having only half of my challenge log done because I couldn't find enough time to do everything. I almost never log on and find myself unable to think of anything to do. But yet a lot of this stuff, you can safely let go and it isn't too punishing -- you miss out on a little money, perhaps a few special currencies, or a little XP... nothing that can't be replaced by some other means. Sorry about the long-winded response, but ya. Leveling ain't too bad. The MSQ can feel long (it is long, but in a good way), but if you're not in a hurry to get to endgame right now, you should be able to enjoy the story for what it is. The fetch quest and long political quagmire notwithstanding, I felt like the MSQ played out a lot like a Single-Player FF story.
Hmm... hm... I think my biggest issue would be not having enough time to do whatever I feel like doing then, how bizarre! I will take it slowly... considering everything you have shared, which is much appreciated I should say! I know I would become irritatingly frustrated if I wanted to move too fast, too quickly. Specially if I want to be a proper healer.
