Final Fantasy 14? Wanderers?

[Skinypupy]

FYI, the "starter version" (the full main game, with no xpacs) for FF XIV is free on PS4 until next Tuesday.

[BCarle]

Are the Wanderers on Behemoth now? Trying to create a char on that server.

Thanks
bob

[Skinypupy]

Rolled an alt to play on PS4 recently, and got hooked on this one all over again. Just wrapped up the main story for FF XIV ARR tonight with the alt toon. Took me a bit, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of playing on a controller.

First time I went through ARR, it took close to 200 hours, ended at level 50, and you had to do every single sidequest and/or grind endless leves and dungeons to get there.

This time through, it took 42 hours, I didn't touch a single sidequest, only did required dungeon and daily roulettes, didn't grind one bit, and wrapped it up at level 60. They did a really good job of streamlining things and making it far less tedious to get through.

On to Heavensward (after all the incremental patch content )!

[rittchard]

Is there another FFXIV thread somewhere I couldn't find?

Anyway, just curious if anyone was playing this (again) with the Endwalker expansion due out soon?

I started messing around with it after not playing since 2013, a lot sure has changed, and yet it still felt pretty familiar.

I lucked out and got in on some good sales before they expired, but I still managed to spend a bunch to get myself going. I really really wanted to play the new Sage class and do the Endwalker content with friends, but that meant spending extra money to get boosted and boosted! If you didn't know you can now boost with real money to get to lvl 70 in any job, and you can choose to skip through any of the story content as well. People told me not to skip the story but it really doesn't bug me. I jumped right into Shadowbringers and I am absolutely LOVING it. I can tell there are references to past storylines and characters, but I just think of it all as lore that I can choose to go back and experience as prequels if I so desire. In the mean time, I get to mess with the stuff I want to right now, and that's worth the extra bucks for me.

I'm playing by myself for now, on Famfrit server in Primal data center. I don't know why but none of my contacts or friends seem to have carried over, even though I can still access my old characters from Coeurl and Adamantoise.

Anyway if you decide to head back, please post and friend me up!!!!

[Skinypupy]

Looking forward to Endwalker. Having some fresh content will be a godsend.

I finished the current story and raid content, and have maxed out my Bard. I got about halfway through the grind for a full set of endgame gear, but got burned out from running the same dungeons over and over again so I’ve taken a break for a few months. Will be jumping back in when the xpac releases, but will probably wait a week for them to iron out some of the bugs (launch weeks have been a clusterfuck for every xpac so far).

I’m on Couerl (Bayard Elderwood) if anyone else is on there and wants to team up.

[Baroquen]

I was just thinking about jumping back in. I tried the returning player "free play" thing a few months back, and it didn't really grab me. But, I'm kind of missing it now. On the fence, but it's growing more likely. That said, I may wait a bit until after the expansion launches too. Not sure.

[Skinypupy]

If you're jumping back in just for the new expansion, note that you have to play through hundreds of hours (I would estimate at least 250-300 hours to get through the main story, Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers) before you'll see any of the new stuff. It's not like other MMO's where you can jump right into the new content or classes. You actually have to progress to that point in the story to unlock them.

I think there is a skip token you can buy, but I can't imagine that simply skipping past all the story in FF XIV would make for a great experience.

[Daehawk]

Well frizz my tater. After years I know why I had a mix up in my FF14 account. I just re read the first page....and it seems Ive done this before and forgot lol. I have TWO different accounts on two different emails. One is only a 30 day trial account and the other I actually own the game. DOH! Im logged into both right now in different tabs.

One day I need to resub and play again. But glad I have it straightened out so I can. And no expansions..sigh. Maybe I should just get the Blackwood for ESO and play that one day.

[rittchard]

I think there is a skip token you can buy, but I can't imagine that simply skipping past all the story in FF XIV would make for a great experience.

I guess you didn't read my post but that's exactly what I did

FWIW you can choose to skip past any of the expansions or all of them - at a price of real money, it's 100% up to you. It was on sale when I did it for $12.50 to skip all of the expansions up to Shadowbringers. I honestly have found it to be great fun, in spite of people insisting I missed out on so much. The way Shadowbringers is written you can definitely jump right in and it feels like a new stand alone story is just beginning. While I can tell I may be missing out on a lot of nuances in terms of character relationships and past history, in my head it's just like any other epic story that has tons of lore that I may or may not have read about or experienced. Shadowbringers is really good so far, I'm about halfway through the main story. My plan is to play through it and go to Endwalker, and then some day in the future I can always go back and see what I missed in "prequel-ish" fashion.

[Baroquen]

That comment may have been directed at me, and I'm aware of the MSQ and how it works. I won't be skipping ahead, as I enjoy the ride.

Oh - and I did pull the trigger and re-subbed. I got something like $8 off the expansion on Newegg, and was playing earlier this evening. Biggest headache is resetting all of my outfits, hotbars and abilities. So much stuff, and I don't remember what went where.

But I played some Firmament fetes earlier and knocked out a few side quests, so that was fun.

[Skinypupy]

That comment may have been directed at me,

Yup.

[Baroquen]

So I just got home and am about to login. Had a queue of 709. Didn't seem that bad. (I had a queue of 31 this morning at 6am. But had to go to work).

I have a ton of MSQ to digest. I'm only in the middle of Stormblood. But that's ok. I enjoy it, and when I get weary of the cut-scenes, I'll wander off and do other things.

Haven't touched the Duty Finder yet, or done any party/grouping. I did one Trial because it was part of the MSQ. But otherwise, it stresses me out to party up unless I review the dungeon/encounter first. Back to the YouTube to review all (well most) of these old instances.

[Skinypupy]

I was going to wait, but decided to go ahead and grab it and see if I might be able to get ahead of things a bit during early access.

I'm on a lower pop server, and the queue when I just tried to log in (just before 5:00 ET) was 920. It isn't even able to pull any of the character data, so my login screen just shows a bunch of "???" under all the character info. The new title screen sure is purty though.

So, typical launch clusterfark-ery. If I happen to get in this weekend, great. If not, I'll give it a while to clear up and start a little bit later. I'm in no rush, just glad to have things to actually do now instead of running the same dungeons over and over for Tomestones.

[Baroquen]

I was going to wait, but decided to go ahead and grab it and see if I might be able to get ahead of things a bit during early access.

I'm on a lower pop server, and the queue when I just tried to log in (just before 5:00 ET) was 920. It isn't even able to pull any of the character data, so my login screen just shows a bunch of "???" under all the character info. The new title screen sure is purty though.

So, typical launch clusterfark-ery. If I happen to get in this weekend, great. If not, I'll give it a while to clear up and start a little bit later. I'm in no rush, just glad to have things to actually do now instead of running the same dungeons over and over for Tomestones.

My post-dinner queue was around 1800 I think. So I tabbed out to another window and played another game while I waited. Once I got in, I was able to play for a handful of hours, no problem. Downed another chunk of MSQ and a couple oddball side quests. Knocked out the flying requirements for a zone. (It's nice that they lowered the requirements for that). Hit the Bardam's Mettle dungeon, and was a typical experience. Tank was flying along and ended up wiping us once. I died on one of the bosses. I hate that, especially if I prepped with a video guide. I think it was one of the "look away from the boss" mechanics. I'm always bad on those.

Picked up the sage quests, even though I'll probably be more interested in the reaper class. I'm not comfortable tanking at all, and only confident healing low level instances.

Haven't done any crafting/gathering yet, though I enjoy both. I'd like to burn off/use some of my outdate HQ inventory to create some inventory space. Then I can go fishing more, and fill all those bag slots right back up!

[Skinypupy]

If you spend $15 on Grubhub and enter the code ENDWALKER during checkout, you get an "eat pizza" emote.

I was able to play a few hours yesterday morning. It's mostly just be story scenes, but I'm really like the new zones so far and the conflict they're setting up. Tried a couple times yesterday evening and today, but can't get on at all. Tries to connect, then a 2002 error.

If previous launches are any indicator, it'll be 7-10 days (possibly more, given the increase in player base) before it settles down enough to be regularly playable.

[Baroquen]

I played a decent amount over the weekend. Early queues here on the east coast weren't bad. Things got rough later on, and especially Sunday overall.

Today, I was able to log on after work with a 1400ish queue. Wasn't too bad. After getting knocked offline due to some windy weather, the line had ballooned to 4500 w/2002 errors. I'm not fighting that. Hopefully I can get back online in the afternoons for the next few days.

[rittchard]

The bad news is the queues are still as horrible as they were before. Essentially if you don't play during off hours, you have to find some way to micromanage your way into the game. While I understand some of the congestion problems, it's a bit ridiculous to me that a game this mature would still have simple queue issues like losing your place in line if you lose connection. They "improved" it so you potentially get like a minute or something to get back in line, but even that is hit or miss from what I've seen, and would require constant babysitting.

The good news, though, for me, anyway, is that my skip ahead plan worked out pretty well all in all. When Endwalker released, I switched to Sage and started learning the new class. It took me a little time (and learning curve) to catch my level up to where I was but I made my through Shadowbringers. Other things aside, I honestly felt like this was one of the best played out RPG game stories I've ever played. It started a little slow, but ramped up well and was just enjoyable from start to finish. A lot of depth in the storytelling, great world building and memorable characters. Also very good voice acting for the most part, which really helps. Big thumbs up, I can see why the reviews have been so positive.

[Skinypupy]

I've only been able to get in once since early access started, and that was a couple hours last Sunday morning. Every other attempt has been a 1-2 hour queue, with random disconnects throughout the queueing process (and I'm on a lower pop server). I don't have the patience or time to sit around and manage that nonsense. I'm really eager to get started (what little Endwalker content I did see was fantastic), but I fear it'll be a while before I actually get going.

This has been the case for every FF XIV xpac release though, so it's not surprising at all that they're running into issues again.

[Baroquen]

I've been playing regularly every day. Yes, it takes some maneuvering with the queues, and it's still really bad during prime time playing hours. But at least I haven't been dropping from the queues as much as before.

So I wrapped up Stormblood and am working my way toward Shadowbringers. I'd be getting there faster except I constantly drift and do non-MSQ things. Lots of crafting/gathering. Side quests. Picking up flying in the various zones. I'm not complaining because I enjoy having so many options.

Now tonight - was having some internet/streaming problems. While sitting in the nightly queue, I got knocked out with a new error. Thought it was my fault, but apparently the authentication server crashed. So it's on their end. Hoping they get things fixed up soon.

[Sudy]

I'm not playing this, just observing... but I'm amazed so many MMOGs still have the queueing issue. I totally get that they're built in different ways, but games like City of Heroes had instanced zones figured out 15+ years ago. It didn't affect community much because if the number of players was smaller, players would congregate in the main instance. Is there a game mechanic at play in why FFXIV wasn't designed this way? At least in New World I get it--it's a PvP-focused game with territory control.

Knowing you're likely not going to be able to play for a couple weeks at the launch of each new expansion is just absurd.

[Skinypupy]

Announced today that they’re literally suspending sales, advertisements, and free trials because there’s too many people trying to play and no one can get into the game.

Players are currently experiencing extremely long wait times due to the dense concentration of play hours which far exceed our server capacity, especially during the peak times, and so we have decided to temporarily suspend the sale and delivery of FINAL FANTASY XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition. Additionally, although those with an active subscription are prioritized to log in, Free Trial players are unable to log in outside of late night and early morning hours, and so we will also temporarily suspend new registrations for the Free Trial.

These temporary suspensions will be phased in over the next few days as we work with our retail partners. We will be coordinating with them as swiftly as possible, but please bear in mind that this will be a gradual process.

We will also be suspending all new advertisements. However, it will not be possible to suspend some of the advertisements due to the nature of how they were set up. We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter.

I knew FF XIV has grown in popularity, but…

[YellowKing]

I'm going to jump back in for a bit since I burned out on New World.

I left off just before completing Stormblood, so I have all of Shadowbringers to look forward to. I'll likely hold off on buying Endwalker until I finish that.

Now I just have to decide if I want to continue with my Dancer, or switch jobs. She was a ton of fun to play back when I had dozens of hours of experience with her, but after a year-long hiatus trying to re-learn her seems....daunting. I figure I'll just jump back in (queues willing) and mess around with it to see how difficult it is to get back in the groove of playing her.

I REALLY want to see the Shadowbringers content as I've heard how good the story is.

[Baroquen]

I'm about halfway through the patch quests between Stormblood and Shadowbringers. Interesting story. I'm still getting distracted by crafting/gathering and lots of other stuff. But that's part of the game's charm for me.

Queues have been better for me recently. For example - I went to jump in line now (7:45pm) while I typed up this post, and there were only 33 in line. (There's a patch coming shortly, so that might have something to do with it, but even over the weekend, it was a lot better).

[YellowKing]

I forgot I had a $25 Amazon credit so I used that towards Endwalkers so I could try the Reaper. So far so good - she’s slightly easier to play than the Dancer and better DPS so I’ll likely stick with it.

Jumping back in after a year off was like riding a bike. I have one dungeon to clear and then I’ll hit the first Shadowbringers MSQ.

[rittchard]

I forgot I had a $25 Amazon credit so I used that towards Endwalkers so I could try the Reaper. So far so good - she’s slightly easier to play than the Dancer and better DPS so I’ll likely stick with it.

Jumping back in after a year off was like riding a bike. I have one dungeon to clear and then I’ll hit the first Shadowbringers MSQ.

YK! What's your character name? Mine is Rittchard Exsulum and I'm on Famfrit. We don't have a guild or anything but a small chat group that crosses servers.

I really loved Shadowbringers. I was getting a little bored in the interim portion and then suddenly they ramped the story up and threw two fun dungeons in a row. Really dramatic stuff and good sense of closure. The next patches apparently are leading into Endwalker, so I'm pretty excited for it. I've tried to avoid spoilers and reviews for Endwalker, though I get the sense it has been well received.

[YellowKing]

YK! What's your character name? Mine is Rittchard Exsulum and I'm on Famfrit.

I'm Khephra Harbinger on Coeurl. Definitely look me up!