2013-06-28, 10:19 PM
Soph Wrote:Oh dang. I quit this back in 2011 because it was slowly becoming a WoW clone. Removing stamina and taking away field boss hunting kinda killed it for me. How is the new game? Basically in these points:
- Is the game engine fixed? It needed ridiculous specs for the output.
- How is battle? I liked the earliest battle system but hated the skill bar ( looks great in those screenshots )
- Any info on crafting? I loved this part of the game!
- Do we still need macros when switching class?
- Have they revamped the world map? The original was quite bland but loved the towns.
- They kept on nerfing guildleves over and over. Are these still important or is there a new way to level / get materials?
- Lastly, do people with 1.0 accounts need to buy the game again?
Sorry for the extensive list, I've been gone years.
- The game engine is much better than what 1.0 had because the engine has been optimized to work on the PS3. The spec requirements are much lower and you can easily play the game on a mid-range computer. At this point of the beta, the game client itself is only using up around 800MB of RAM.
- So far I'm loving the battle system, especially the Thaumaturge mechanics. For Thaumaturge, you have to strike a balance between fire and ice due to the unique buffs that they give you (compare the MP costs of my fire and ice spells in each screenshot). The thunder element is there as more of a support spell, dealing damage over time. Spells share a GCD while weapon skills do not.
- Crafting is fairly engaging and actually requires you to plan out how efficiently you want to use your TP. Crafting materials, along with crystal shards, are required with high quality crafting materials increasing the base % chance of obtaining a high quality item (screen). When crafting, you can choose to increase the quality of the item which in turn increases the % chance of obtaining a high quality item, advance the progress of an item in order to create it, and various other things such as increasing the item durability or placing augments to get amplified effects such as a further increase in item quality. As you get higher in crafting levels, you can start taking advantage of item condition (amplified increases in quality depending on the condition) and melding materia.
- You switch classes by switching the weapon you have equipped. You can also save equipment sets so you can just change on the fly. You can also adopt skills from other classes that you have leveled. The amount of skills you can adopt depends on your current class level while the amount of skills available depends on the levels of your other classes. In this screenshot, I have Cure, Protect, and Aero from my Conjurer equipped on my Thaumaturge.
- The map, in my opinion, provides a lot of information for you. Things such as quest location, FATEs, guildleves are displays, as are more minor things such as shops and chocobo stables. The mini-map will also point to available quests and FATEs.
- Guildhests and levemetes are great ways to level up secondary classes, ones that missed out on story and side quests. They mostly just provide experience and gil, but some will provide items.
- They do have to buy the game again, however people that have 1.0 are granted legacy status and have a lower subscription fee than everyone else ($9.99 per month compared to the costs in the OP).