FFXIV ARR Open Beta Expectations

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2013-08-15 07:53
  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/eWlgc5U.jpg]

  
  
  FFXIV ARR Open Beta Expectations
  I. Schedule and Technical Details
  II. Introduction
  III. Atmosphere
  IV. Gameplay
  V. Other Content
  VI. Conclusion
  
  Disclaimer: Please skim/read everything before posting.
  Information about the content in the open beta and the release came from FFXIV’s streams on Twitch. Also, any article of the gameplay experience (such as strength of class skills) is based upon Phase 3. The level cap of the previous beta was level 35 and the main quest only went up to level 20.
  Credits to the website Eorzea Reborn for writing really great articles on FFXIV.
  FFXIV Database helped a lot.
  
  I. Schedule and Technical Details
  
  For previous testers: “What content is available in Open Beta?”
  -Level 20 cap. The release will have a level 50 cap.
  -All launch content will be available.
  -Cutscenes in main questline and class quests will be fully voiced.
  -The Arcanist class is added.
  -The Wolves den (PVP Arena) will be added. No PVP skills available yet.
  -La Noscean housing will be available
  -All characters will be carried over unless if serious bug is encountered.
  What is the schedule for FFXIV: ARR?
  Open Beta or Phase 4 Beta will take place from August 16th 9AM GMT/2AM PST to 19th 9AM/2AM PST GMT. Phase 3 (closed beta) players will be able to access the game early on August 16th. New accounts can access starting the 17th. You do not have to purchase the game to access Open Beta. However, you do need to sign up for a registration code to register in your Square Enix account if you have not participated in any of the previous betas. Registration will begin once Open Beta begins. No subscription is required to participate in Open Beta.
  
  Early access for people who preordered the game. You have to redeem an early access code that’s received by email or from the retail store where you preordered. Early Access will take place from August 24th to 27th. 1.0 Players will not be eligible for Early Access unless if you have Legacy status (addressed later).
  
  The game is officially released on August 27th. Non 1.0 players who purchased FFXIV:ARR will have free 30 days of service.1.0 players who did not purchase FFXIV: ARR will have 14 days of free subscription.
  
  What platforms is FFXIV: ARR available for and what languages are supported?
  FFXIV:ARR is available for the PC and PS3 at launch. The PS4 version will be not available at launch and will be released within 1 year after. Players from different platforms will be able to play together on the same servers.
  
  FFXIV: ARR supports English, French, German and Japanese. The servers will be in North America, Japan and Europe.
  
  Why is FFXIV: ARR not available for Xbox 360/Xbox One?
  Square Enix and Microsoft cannot agree on servers because of their Xbox Live policies. Xbox players would have to play on Xbox servers and not with other platforms. This would diminish the MMORPG experience. Also, they have to purchase a Xbox Live Gold subscription to play the game.
  
  What are the system requirements for FFXIV:ARR and how well will my computer run it?
  System Requirements:
  Minimum System Requirements
  Operating System: Windows® Vista 32/64bit, Windows® 7 32/64 bit
  Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo
  Graphics: NVIDIA® Geforce® 8800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4770
  Memory: 2GB (4GB recommended for 64bit OS)
  Disk Space: 20GB.
  Recommended System Requirements
  
  For the best performance you should aim to run the game on a system with at least these specifications.
  Operating System: Windows® 7 64 bit
  Processor: Intel® Core™ i5
  Graphics: NVIDIA® Geforce® GTX 660 or higher, AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 or higher
  Memory: 4GB of RAM.
  Disk Space: 20GB.
  
  A benchmark with a character creator is available here.
  http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/
  
  Can I use the same accounts/characters across different platform?
  Yes, you can use the same account for different platforms. All characters will be accessible for different platforms. Only one subscription is needed for one account regardless of platforms used to play the game.
  
  How much is FFXIV: A Realm Reborn?
  The link has all the details but I will summarize stuff.
  http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/product/
  The standard edition is $29.99 for PC, $39.99 for PS3. PC is available in a box or download. PS3 is only available in a box.
  
  The digital collector is $49.99 for PC, $59.99 for PS3. It comes with a Helm of Light , Coeurl Mount, Behemoth themed Chocobo armor, and a Baby Behemoth minion (pet).
  
  Physical collector’s edition is $69.99 for PC, $79.99 for PS3. It comes with the digital items and has physical items. The box art is by Yoshitaka Amano who did the art for Final Fantasy I and VI. An artbook by Akihiko Yoshida and other artists. A 2 disc movie of the lore of FFXIV: ARR. Soundtrack. Cards set. FFXIV security token.
  
  What are the pre-order bonuses?
  You will receive an ingame Cait Sith minion (pet) and a Mog Cap (head equipment). It is possible that the Mog Cap will have special stats. You will also be able to participate in Early Access.
  
  If I purchased FFXIV 1.0, do I have to pay for FFXIV: ARR?
  No. You will be able to download the game for free. Also, players who purchased the Collector’s Edition of 1.0 will receive the items in the digital CE for ARR for free. However, you will have to purchase the physical CE of ARR if you want the items.
  
  Also, there was a service a long while ago where 1.0 players can transfer their character from 1.0. All levels of classes, items, and even money will be transferred.
  
  What is Legacy Status?
  Legacy status is given to players who have completed the Legacy campaign in 1.0. In order to be eligible, you must have purchased at least 90 days of subscription for 1.0. Legacy players are able to participate in Early Access and will have a permanent subscription fee discount. You can check if you have Legacy Status via your Square Enix account.
  
  How much is the subscription for FFXIV?:
  There are different subscriptions with different features.
  Entry: £7.69/€10.99/$12.99 for 30 days. Maximum of 8 characters and 1 character per server.
  Standard: £8.99/€12.99/$14.99 for 30 days; £8.39/€11.99/$13.99 per 30 days for 90 days; £7.69/€10.99/$12.99 per 30 days for 180 days. Maximum of 40 characters and 8 characters per server.
  Legacy: £6.89/€9.99/$9.99 for 30 days. Maximum of 40 characters and 8 characters per server.
  
  Will I be able to transfer characters to different servers?
  There will be a service to transfer characters (name and all items) to different servers similar to World of Warcraft’s. There will be a fee for this but the pricing has not been yet announced since this is new information.
  
  II. Introduction
  What is FFXIV ARR?
  FFXIV is the second Final Fantasy MMORPG released by Square Enix for the PS3 and PC. FFXIV A Realm Reborn is a reboot of FFXIV 1.0 with a new game engine. The new engine will be able to do what the developers were not able to do with the original engine in terms of mechanics and gameplay. Also, ARR has been a major improvement in many ways in terms of quality, game design, developer-community relations, and content. Final Fantasy ARR will be available for PC and PS3 on August 27th while the PS4 version is currently in development.
  
  What happened to FFXIV 1.0?
  FFXIV was negatively criticized by players in many aspects. The key problem was not listening to community feedback and not addressing problems players encountered in the beta. The game was released with critical bugs and was a very bland game. Here are some examples:
  
  Menus were server sided so there was a noticeable lag when you open up menus. Thankfully, ARR fixed that by making them client sized.
  
  Poor world design. The terrain was literally copy-pasted
  [video=youtube;La9nLBfH44c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9nLBfH44c[/video]
  [video=youtube;CA7GGnyNwE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA7GGnyNwE[/video]
  
  Slow combat system. In order to cast weaponskills, you have to spend TP (Tactical points) which is generated with auto-attacks. You begin combat with zero TP.
  [video=youtube;zGmUoY7Gqzc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGmUoY7Gqzc[/video]
  
  ARR completely overhauled this but I will talk more about this in the Gameplay segment.
  
  A “fatigue” system where you can earn a limited amount of exp for a time period before you cannot earn any more.
  [video=youtube;abE09-tqhoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abE09-tqhoM[/video]
  
  Basically, the main thing was dissatisfied FFXI fans looking for a modern Final Fantasy MMORPG to move on to and the huge negative hit to Square Enix’s falling reputation. The release went so bad that the staff who worked on the game were fired and the game went free to play after only a few months of service. A new staff were formed with a new director Naoki Yoshida who worked previously as a game designer for Dragon Quest and has a large history of playing MMORPGs including: Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Guild Wars 2.
  The significance of the staff change was the lack of experience by Japanese developers when it comes to MMORPGs. The majority of games in Japan are created for and played on handhelds (PS Vitas, 3DSes, smartphones, and tablets) for people to play on the go. People play consoles at home or rent them in arcades. PC games are very limited, and the MMORPG market is even more limited. The most common PC games are the doujin games sold in Comiket which are made by hobbyists. It’s not too much of a surprise that a Japanese MMORPG wouldn’t end up being a good game. The new staff have been very responsive and attempted to improve Final Fantasy 1.0 until the engine was deemed inadequate and they finally close the servers with an apocalypse event where the ingame world was being destroyed and will be reborn in ARR.
  [video=youtube;39j5v8jlndM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j5v8jlndM[/video]
  
  How is the staff for A Realm Reborn?
  As said before, the staff has been working closely with the testers and have addressed many issues over every aspect of the reboot such as visuals, character design, world design, animations, the pacing of the combat speed.
  
  Naoki Yoshida himself creates video logs called “Letters from the Producer” every month and has also written up “Letters from the Producer.”
  Here are some examples.
  You do not need to watch the whole video, it is very long.
  [video=youtube;FCCKYfouAxE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCKYfouAxE[/video]
  He addresses the feedback from the forums on the game and showcases new features as they are slowly added into the beta.
  
  Below is a letter that describes the direction of A Realm Reborn’s development.. It is very important that you at least read this to understand the choices in development.
  [SPOILER="FFXIV letter"]From FF14's Director, Yoshida
  Producer and director Naoki Yoshida here.
  
  You've been providing us great feedback on all aspects of FFXIV: ARR, and I can't thank you all enough. With phase 3 well underway, we have testers coming from a wide range of backgrounds, whether they're unfamiliar with Version 1.0, coming in from another game, dropping in to test the FFXIV out, or simply new to MMOs as a whole.
  
  With such a diverse group of testers here, I thought it would be best to speak with you all about the design of FFXIV and the direction the game will be heading. MMOs are fairly large games, and as you'd expect of a large game, this post will be fairly long, and perhaps a little complicated. Some of you may be thinking "Well as long as the game is fun, your plans are fine with me." If you not overly concerned with the way game is progressing, you're free to skim through this post if you'd like. If you have questions or concerns about core game designs, and are considering leaving feedback, pull up a comfy chair and perhaps grab a snack. Hopefully by the end of this post, your questions will be answered.
  
  I know I said this just a moment ago, but this post is fairly long, and I could probably give a lecture based on its contents. For those of you planning to read this, prepare yourselves for the flood of text that's coming.
  
  I'll begin by talking about the early stages of MMOs, followed by a look at them from a business standpoint, and finish with a few words on content design in FFXV: ARR.
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  Yoshida: The Hardcore Gamer vs. Producer and Director
  As an avid gamer myself, I'd like to start with a comparison of two viewpoints with respect to the start of MMOs—Yoshida the hardcore gamer, and Yoshida the producer and director.
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  Yoshida the Hardcore Gamer
  I've played online games for nearly 20 years now, and whenever there's a new release, you can be sure I'm going to try it. When I do, however, there's always that longing for a magic button that will instantly take me to the level cap.
  
  No matter the MMO, there's a certain standard expected of every game. This includes the chat system, party system, and features such as guilds to foster the community. There are also standard UI elements making it easy to move from one game to another. Since there's little you need to remember changing over from one game to the next, one may think these games are designed to quickly get to the level cap and start playing through endgame content.
  
  It goes without saying that the leveling system, skill system, and many other aspects of the game are important, but all of these things can be figured out at the level cap. As a result, players can feel frustrated with only one or two skills at the beginning of the game, wanting to quickly rush through everything and get to the cap.
  
  For example, let's say until yesterday, there's a particular game I've devoted all of my time to. I'm max level, I have all the best gear—I'm a top ranked player on my server. When I log into the game people take notice, and there are few who haven't heard of me. If it's time for a large-scale raid, I take the lead gathering my guild mates, and we press on to victory. Nothing beats the thrill of life and death battles with raid bosses, lasting well through the night until my eyes are bloodshot the next day. With every relevant gaming site bookmarked, I'm always up to speed on and any and everything so that no one could ever doubt my skill.
  
  But today I started a new game, and I have no experience or assets to speak of. The epic encounters I'm accustomed to are gone, and my only choices in combat are A > B or B > A. I don't see any demanding gameplay, and all there is to do is explore the large maps. Thankfully I have a lot of general gaming experience, so I can make use of my time fairly efficiently. As I begin pouring my time into the game, I can only help but think "Why couldn't there be some faster way to reach level 50. If they won't let me speed to level 50, the least they could do is make the beginning of the game a little harder. Maybe then I could have a little more fun until cap. This game needs to pick up soon, or I'm out of here."
  
  The important thing to remember here is that the people getting bored at the beginning are gamers who play and think like I do. These gamers have realized that combat is the the primary focus of the MMO experience.
  
  Although this is a fairly extreme example, to all of you skilled players with long gaming histories, let me ask one question. When playing a new game for the first time, have you ever thought it was a bit dull or underwhelming in the beginning? With MMOs in particular, as players continue to move from game to game, they tend to get burned out easily. My hardcore MMO gamer friends are like this as well, saying they'll never waste so much time trying to get into a game ever again. The beginning of the game seems dull and uninteresting, but there's still that longing for something to ignite a passion for the game.
  
  Another common phenomenon among MMO players is something I like to call "first love syndrome." A new game comes out and you play from beta through to the free trial, and although there are a lot of things you like, you always go back to your first MMO. You feel the updates were always so much better in your first MMO, focusing on the things you can no longer do in the other games you try. This is just how people are after playing a particular game for a long time, getting stuck in their old ways.
  
  I'm sure anyone who's had to change schools because of their parents or change jobs because of company troubles can relate. Suddenly finding yourself in a new environment can be stressful, and there's always that desire to go back to the way things used to be. Even small details reminiscent of "the good old days" can be reassuring.
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  Yoshida the Producer and Director
  Looking at the game objectively as a developer for an MMO, the game looks completely different compared to my hardcore gaming alter ego. The first thing I often think of is the stress felt by first time MMO players and the high barrier of entry.
  
  Looking at an MMO from the viewpoint of those who tend to avoid them, the following qualities define your typical MMO:
  A game for hardcore players. (A game they can't relate to)
  A game that requires a constant internet connection. (Stressful)
  A game where you have to chat with people. (Stressful)
  A game that requires partying to progress, forcing interaction with others. (Stressful)
  A game that lacks a good story. (Low expectations)
  A game with too many windows and interfaces. (Confusing)
  A game with too many things to remember, making it unplayable. (Intimidating)
  A game with too much terminology. (Difficult)
  A game where you may be abruptly killed by another player. (Misconception)
  A game that looks like too much trouble. (A vague sense of uneasiness)
  The truth of the matter is, all of these points are often applicable to MMOs.
  
  When speaking from a hardcore gamer's point of view, I mentioned there are many things that are simply to be expected in an MMO. For a person who's never played an MMO, however, these can sometimes be seen as insurmountable obstacles.
  *An online playing environment (more affordable in recent years)
  *Chat system
  *Battle system
  *Party gameplay
  *Real-time battle system
  *A basic interface allowing prolonged gameplay
  *A guild system such as linkshells and free companies
  *Crafting and gathering
  *Trading
  *Markets
  *Character development that doesn't require resetting
  Although they may be seen as drawbacks, these are all necessary in an MMO. These are also what make MMOs so interesting.
  
  Just as FFXI was there for gamers 11 years ago, we want FFXIV to introduce a new generation of gamers to MMOs. Considering the shortcomings of Version 1.0, we want the beginning of the game to be stress-free, giving players an incentive to give it a try. Although gaming veterans tend to focus on the battle system, one should also consider the following:
  *Exploring the expansive areas in the game
  *Potential new friends always running about as you explore
  *An environment that's constantly changing in real time
  *Conversation with NPCs revealing the world's lore
  *The thrill of a good fight
  *Trying on a newly obtained piece of gear
  *Leveling up and learning a new skill
  *Acquiring return and teleport to travel between areas
  *Progressing to an area you've never seen before
  
  I believe playing an MMO should be about enjoying the world as a whole. My first MMO was Ultima Online, and I have to admit I wasn't the fastest learner starting out. The world was huge, everyone I met was from another country, and I didn't understand English. After carefully checking all the menus, I managed to get out into the field to fight a chicken...but I was barehanded. To make matters worse, I was PK’ed shortly after (lol). Despite all these frustrations, however, it was an incredible gaming experience. I never realized games like that existed before. The beginning of FFXIV: ARR has been designed to offer newcomers that same sense of wonderment.
  Create a quality character to represent you, be it manly, cute, rugged, or sexy.
  Enjoy a beautiful, expansive world that's constantly changing.
  Connect with other players from around the world.
  Speak with NPCs and reveal the game's story.
  Take your time as you use the map and explore.
  Take on fearsome looking monsters and revel in your victories.
  Enjoy the freedom of progressing through the story alone or with friends.
  Discover something new each time you visit your favorite places.
  Follow the story of a crystal, befitting a FINAL FANTASY title.
  Start off as a fledgling adventurer and grow to be something greater.
  Board an airship and set out on a great adventure.
  
  As a FINAL FANTASY game, I feel these elements make for a solid beginning in an MMO. What's important is whether or not players feel comfortable in the world of Eorzea. Players should find the game easy to get into, but also fun and exciting.
  
  If players don't find the game intuitive, they're not likely to make use of the UI, chat system, or the party system, let alone play through the main scenario quests. Even now we're conflicted over the best way to explain the game's systems and features. Videos may prove more helpful than text, but would prove to be costly when updating. Too much text and the game will push players around everywhere, so it has to be simple. The problems go on and on.
  
  For a player new to MMOs, the individual systems that make up the game are small pieces of a beautiful all-encompassing world. Eventually, they may realize these small systems make up a much greater part of the game than they first thought. Nevertheless, players aren't thinking that far ahead at the beginning of the game. Above all else, players should feel the game offers a world they can enjoy.
  
  For the first 15 levels, when players are still adjusting to online gameplay, there are no elements in the game that force you into playing in a party. This way, as players are still learning the ropes, there's no worry of strangers in a party yelling at them or trying to order them around while trying to play. However, this may not necessarily be the case for endgame.
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  The Business Challenge of an MMO
  With each passing year, it becomes increasingly difficult to release a large-scale MMO. The rush following Ultima Online and EverQuest reached its peak with Blizzard's World of Warcraft. That's not to say WoW started off without criticism. When it first released, there were many complaints about the simplicity of quests, that there was a lack of adventure. There two factions were poorly balanced in PvP, and general impressions would lead one to believe the game was no fun. Looking at WoW now, it's almost unimaginable.
  
  However, instead of giving up, Blizzard switched their plans to be more user/community-centric from their second year of operation on, and became dominant by increasing the new MMORPG users through supplementation of thick scenarios, quest lines, and end-game content. WoW didn’t become what it is today by acquiring all of the existing MMORPG players at the time, they became what they are today as the result of breaking into new territory and as a result of that secured all of the existing MMORPG players.
  
  Instead of choosing sides, they persisted and made it attractive to both groups, and began expanding with a focus on Blizzard fans. While the scale is slightly different, FFXI was more than likely in the same boat 11 years ago. Blizzard has been quoted saying that "MMORPGs are a service industry." This was a tremendous shock to Blizzard fans at that time when Blizzard who possesses such great confidence in their game design said this.
  
  Moving forward to 2013, their user numbers are continuing to fall; however, World of Warcraft reigning as the absolute king of the MMORPG industry has not changed. We arrived to where we are currently with the MMORPG rush during 2007 as well as the additional large scale rush of last year.
  
  There are 3 main difficulties for launching an MMO.
  Content volume
  High-quality user interface
  New and unique elements
  
  To overcome these three difficulties and launch a game is by no means an easy matter. Amongst the large number of MMORPGs that are trying to launch, there are many cases where their content volume is compared to other MMORPGs who have been running for a long time, and end up suffering immensely. Additionally, the impressions of the beginning of the game between the gamer and the new MMORPG player that I mentioned before are as different as night and day. With this, it’s uniqueness that largely increases the difficulty.
  I want to target MMORPG gamers as much as possible
  I want to acquire as many new players as possible
  
  Recent MMORPGs are beginning to shift to a more action based game; however, I personally feel that this is one element that acts as a reverse effect for MMORPGs that are striving to operate for a long time with a subscription-based model (This is separate from cases where you are shortening the life cycle for a single MMORPG user. In that case it is correct.). As I mentioned previously, the road blocks on the way to getting used to an MMORPG are too high and adding action elements into the mix, while definitely exciting, makes it extremely difficult for the common player to repeat these battles everyday for hundreds of hours.
  
  Furthermore, it becomes difficult to churn out battle content from a balance perspective, and as a result content volume is affected. Due to this, a more fitting business model would be the free-to-play model which allows for retention of the game through low estimations of total play time, a higher churn rate of new players, and the average spending per customer (also known as microtransactions).
  
  As a numbered title in the FINAL FANTASY series, we are striving to make FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn a game that operates steadily for a long time, and one where we provide a steady flow of updates and content to you all. With that said, when we made the decision to build A Realm Reborn from the ground up while working on updates for 1.0, the first thing we decided was to eliminate action elements as best as possible.
  
  With the advent of stronger internet connections, recent MMORPGs have come to be able to have defensive and evasive skills similar to offline stand alone games. Despite this, I feel that this does not fit with our customers who play FINAL FANTASY online, and I would like to have everyone play this game steadily for as long of a time as possible, which is why we've eliminated action elements to the best of our ability.
  
  With these goals in mind we have built the content and the battle system.
  *Visually noticeable AoE attacks that you can avoid by moving
  *A system where you can boost damage by attacking from certain positions
  *Freedom to put things together by executing skills that follow a specific route
  *Being able to fixate on dealing the most damage while giving consideration to TP/MP costs in the end-game
  *Jump not being essential for clearing content
  
  While it might be thought of as simplistic, the end-game after reaching the level cap is where a good deal of player skill differences will start to appear, especially when adding equipment into the mix. We started designing this game by making the first goal of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn having everyone enjoy this aspect.
  
  This is the reason why there are no action elements in FFXIV content and battle. While I’m repeating myself, just like FFXI was trying to show FINAL FANTASY users the excitement of MMORPGs at that time, we would like to show players of the current time period the excitement of MMORPGs once again through FFXIV. Showing that it's possible to play and enjoy it by spending time, without rushing, at their own pace.
  A fetch-quest game vs. a game with clear purpose
  Now then, FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn has adopted the quest form game design that was established by World of Warcraft. However, even since the old days of RPGs there have been small stories from towns that when cleared lead into larger stories, and this isn't just related to WoW.
  
  On the other hand, the world of an MMORPG is vast and is not like a regular game where you simply pass through and move on. As there are multiple classes and jobs, having players adventure through the entire world would result in a gigantic number of quests. Of course there are people who don’t want to read quest text and want to be able to finish them with a single click, so after WoW there have been many discussions on this topic.
  
  However, without a pile of quests, it’s not possible to have players learn about the world, and there are ton of benefits for having these so users can play the game with a sense of progression.
  
  In order to make it so FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn does not just become a fetch quest game we decided to add some variety and flavor. Of course, we've created a really large story since this is a new FINAL FANTASY title after all. However, for the so-called side-quests that have been spread along the main questing line, we’ve done our best to reduce the text, making it so the text can be skipped by spamming through it. For quests where major characters appear, we’ve made this clear by adding a special icon, and also spruced them up to make them exciting by adding voices and cutscenes. While we did not add voices to class and job quests, we still made them with the same thought process.
  
  When it comes to hardcore MMORPG players like myself, it's all about skipping text by spamming the mouse left-click to get to upper ranks of leveling and content. However, this is something that is sure to be fresh and new for the MMORPG newcomer, and we’d like to see gaps form between peoples’ various images of MMORPGs in a positive way, such as "whoa, there are a huge amount of quests," "Just when I thought I was done there is another one," and "Isn't an MMO something you take on with parties?"
  
  The game design will largely change after the level 15 instanced battle quest. All of you adventurers will then begin taking on dungeons with parties throughout the main storyline so that you can meet new allies.
  
  While I understand that there are some of you who feel that it would be better if you could clear everything by yourself, from an MMORPG business perspective, there is a necessity to make it so a large amount of players continue to play for a long time. Because of this, it’s critical that players interact with each other and build a strong community. This is why we have implemented party content in the main quest line and removed the stress of forming parties with the Duty Finder which automatically matches players.
  
  Of course the real loss is if people get tired of the game on the way to level 15, but as I have written, I feel that it’s critical to make the beginning of an MMORPG one such that anyone can progress, and in the case that there are people that drop out or are not satisfied with the development of the game ahead, I feel this is fine as everyone has their own preferences. To some degree, the ideal for the beginning of the game is to get through it as fast as you can and moving on.
  
  Other MMORPGs have a guild system you can set up after starting the game and playing for two hours. In FFXIV: ARR, we have Free Companies, but this can only be created after joining a Grand Company, which is different from other MMORPGs. Especially for those players who are new to MMORPGs, explaining guilds is difficult. The beginning of the game contains too many things to remember and if we had Free Company invitations added to the mix people would be completely lost. However, for those players who wish to form a Free Company right away, you can speed through the beginning and reach that point before you know it. We would like all kinds of players to succeed in this game, so while it might be somewhat of a nuisance for the advanced players, this was designed like this intentionally.
  FFXIV: ARR Party Content Design
  We've put in a considerable amount of work to add as much of the playable scenario as possible for launch. We'd like both MMORPG players and those new to MMORPGs to play the game comfortably while enjoying the newest story in the FINAL FANTASY series.
  
  As I have already mentioned, the party dungeons that will start from level 15 will not require you to worry about finding parties as we have prepared a feature known as the Duty Finder which will automatically form parties (During the third test of Beta Test phase 3 we will be performing Duty Finder stress tests.). With that said, the only things you really need to worry about are leveling up to level 50 and dungeon difficulty.
  
  The difficulty for the 2 dungeons from level 15 has been set you can get excited about your victory and not worry about wiping with the first party of players you meet. With the third dungeon there will be some special mechanics, and for primal battles within the scenario that take place after that, you’ll come to learn that for large boss battles you’ll need a solid strategy to win.
  
  For the Legacy members who have done the end-game content up until the end of 1.0, as well as for players who are familiar with other MMORPGs, the content that you encounter while leveling up to the cap will be a walk in the park. However, the most important point here is that you can have fun and clear content as players with different levels of knowledge will be matched and grouped by the Duty Finder.
  
  The difficulty will increase as the story progresses. Likewise, you role as a particular class will become clearer as you learn weapon skills, magic, and abilities, and the number of times you wipe will gradually increase in the event that you do not properly formulate a battle plan that involves the skilled use of abilities and attack positioning.
  
  We’ve paid extremely close attention to the design of this content so that the balance and difficulty increases, the clear need for strategies to clear content, and the need for equipment can be easily understood. Similarly, this is also the biggest reason why we’ve also made the battle system foundation as simple as possible. The MMORPG battle system and the battle content design are one and the same.
  
  Additionally, once you start getting into crafting and gathering, the game will become even more in-depth and a ton of content you can do each day will be introduced. We’d like you to enjoy the world of Eorzea relaxed in your own style and at your own pace.
  
  Once the main scenario reaches its first major milestone, I believe the meaning behind the opening will become clear.
  
  Doing the quests and reading the story text without leveling another class, continuing to play straight through for 60-80 hours you can see the world’s longest list of credits, and even after that continue to adventure through Eorzea. There will begin to be a difference in player skills as large enemies appear and players gather equipment to combat these foes. There are a ton of plans in store: primals that are summoned in to Eorzea, the housing system, what happened to Bahamut, the Crystal Tower, large scale PvP, company crafting, and more. The feeling that you are living in Eorzea will really take place after the "ending."
  
  It's at this point in time where you will start to need multiple level 50 classes and jobs, battle strategies, efficient usage of skills, and intense analysis from players passionate about research. This is why the early stages of the game and the core battle system have been simplified. The much discussed length of the global cooldown is because you have time to think at the moment, yet once you reach end-game, that free time will all but disappear as what you'll need to do will increase, so with that said, we do not plan on eliminating this.
  In Closing
  I still have so much I could write, but eventually it would just turn into a book…
  I apologize for making this so long, but FFXIV: ARR is a game that we have designed with these core concepts in mind. While it may seem a huge list of reasoning, once you start playing, this reasoning could matter less, so though I am yet again repeating myself, we are placing the utmost importance on making sure everyone enjoys the game.
  
  The development team has been checking Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other sites in addition to the forums to get a wide view of impressions of Beta Test phase 3. Also, please know that we are not making decisions solely based on the number of "Likes" a post has on the forum. There are a lot of differing opinions on the forums and it’s the important work of the operations team to read this data objectively and collect it so there is no bias, reporting it as a ratio of those who post from the total player population.
  
  As long as there are likes and dislikes for games, there will always be conflicting opinions. There are a lot of cases where if we decide to adopt A, then adopting B becomes impossible, so in order to prevent missteps when making decisions, we think about your feedback extremely carefully.
  
  In the Player Feedback Status List that we released the other day, there were items that we addressed as well as those that we did not along with a clear explanation. Since MMORPGs are a service industry, I feel that all of these discussions are extremely important for MMORPG operation, so instead of only "they did this," "they are not doing that," "I think this," "I think it should be this way," it;s my sincere wish that everyone takes a step back a bit and have fun talking about the game.
  
  Before posting, I'd like to ask you to please check to make sure that your post won’t have a negative effect on those around you. Up until now Square Enix has been a pretty closed off company, so I’m sure there are some players who really want to state their demands. Of course we will listen to them sincerely, but please base them all on having fun first and foremost.
  
  I'm repeating myself, but there is no need for players who are experiencing MMORPGs for the first time to overthink this. We’ve made it so you can have fun and reach your goal by preparing a ton of exciting and fun cutscenes and making balance adjustments as we go. We actually tried testing out early battles where the maximum TP was lowered so you would have to really pay more attention to it. However, it was tiring to repeat that kind of battle over and over on random fodder monsters. With 1 on 1 battles, your efficiency in avoiding enemy skills improves around level 5, and you learn that only attacking enemies from the front in instanced quest battles will result in death.
  
  I definitely understand spicing things up, and that’s why it has to be just right. However, as I stated previously, the beginning of an MMORPG is not only focused on battle. There is a world, people, time passes in real-time, battles, crafting, gathering, chatting, and creating your ideal characters. In order to have you all enjoy the world, we’ve prepared the battles at the beginning of the game to be just the first step before shifting into the more difficult aspects (We plan on reducing the difficulty for the level 15 instanced battle quest a little bit more.). If you don’t think this shift was done very well, then that is my fault.
  
  In Beta Test phase 3 the level cap has been set to level 35, and the difficulty for the Brayflox dungeon has been set slightly harder than the official release version. For those who are dying for a challenging dungeon, please give it a shot!
  
  In order to satisfy all kinds of players, we have our goals set very high, but we will continue to work as hard as possible, and would love for you all to stay with us for many years to come!
  [/SPOILER]
  As you can see, FFXIV ARR is designed for people who are new to MMORPGs to not be overwhelmed and learn how to play a MMORPG as they progress in the main quest while experienced MMO players will be able to move through the beginner content quickly and enjoy the story. FFXI was difficult since it was impossible to solo the game and a party is required to progress. The required party play was one of the greatest strengths of FFXI but turned away new players. FFXIV: ARR allows players to learn the game mechanics during the first 15 levels, be able to participate in guildhests or party quests at level 10, and finally be able to participate in their first dungeon at level with a new party. Endgame content will be available at launch. After a letter like this, the FFXIV 1.0 community and testers have great confidence in ARR being an enjoyable Final Fantasy game.
  
  III. Atmosphere
  
  What is the atmosphere of the game like?
  Within the first hour of playing FFXIV: ARR, you can tell why it’s a subscription MMORPG. Everything’s ridiculously polished. The visuals are pretty and your frame rate barely drops in towns. The game’s so well optimized that even a mid range GPU can 1080p 60 fps the game and this is just with DirectX9 (DirectX11 will be coming after launch). The design of the world and characters is very appealing and lively. You would see a lot of NPCs moving around in towns and interacting with each other. The adventurers walking at one point would be talking with an old man at the next. The bars are full of commotion and you can hear crowds talking when a lot of players in an area are chatting.
  The localization team has done an amazing job. You’ll see many English easter eggs and subtle jokes
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/X3VIRHC.jpg]

  
  
  [video=youtube;KW6fL5X1fM4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6fL5X1fM4[/video]
  

  [Image: http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/901000178684399301/9BCE1F0B3CE5031155A6FB3BE57E593160307805/]

  
  The main questline brings the JRPG feel to the MMO genre. Your character would be involved in the rebuilding of the city-states of Eorzea while learning more of the Bahamut appearance and the further destruction that would come. There will be fully voice acted cutscenes featuring your character. Here’s the “story” trailer of FFXIV. Yes, you will be able to adjust subtitles and audio language from English, French, German or Japanese.
  
  English VA
  [video=youtube;HHnxfrvgdqw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHnxfrvgdqw[/video]
  
  Japanese VA (note no English subtitles for this particular video)
  [video=youtube;OEmm6ZINrR0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmm6ZINrR0[/video]
  
  The side quests serve their purpose with rewarding players to learn more of the lore. Some have witty and funny text.
  
  The FATE (Full Active Timed Events) system features various events that happen randomly out in the field and they would have objectives that range from hunting monsters for materials, defending an target, or a dangerous field boss. Players can jump in or get of FATEs as they happen and will be rewards EXP and Gold based upon how much Enmity/aggro/threat produced. Players who are too high leveled can still join in for a reasonable reward with the “Level Sync” or be deleveled to the level range of the FATE. Higher leveled FATEs will feature powerful field bosses that will take an organized party of experienced players to defeat.
  One of the most powerful FATE bosses in the beta was Cancer who does large debuff spells and large amounts of damage. Here’s a screenshot of a party taking on Cancer.
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/BokPjsB.jpg]

  
  
  This is a video of high level areas not available in the previous betas.
  It will also compare PC and PS3 visual performance at 720p.
  [video=youtube;v0w5dyfENwA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0w5dyfENwA[/video]
  
  The lighting of the game is one of its strongest point in terms of graphics. Night time is actually DARK. Many video games do not accurately show night time well. A different track would play at night when day ends.
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/AR2BQv1.jpg]

  
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/vwPHgQ3.jpg]

  
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/b9tuTaz.jpg]

  
  
  Here is a video of of the many monsters you’ll meet in the game.
  [video=youtube;fbmC5ytybjQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmC5ytybjQ[/video]
  Lots of cameos of monsters from the Final Fantasy Series. Surprisingly the video did not catch all of them. You would see Cactuars, Behemoth, Primals, Tonberries, Coeurls, Mirrorknights and many others.
  
  Speaking of the name, FFXIV: ARR is definitely more Final Fantasy than the FFXIII trilogy and upcoming FFXIV. If you’re a longtime fan, you would have recognize the theme in the previous video as a remix of a FF2 track.
  [video=youtube;RVU9un_8RcA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVU9un_8RcA[/video]
  Back to Final Fantasy, there’s chocobos, crystals, Moogle mailmen, airships, white mages, black mages, dragoons, bards etc. Playing as a class really feels like being one of a party member in a standard Final Fantasy game with White Mages casting Holy, Protect and Cure; Dragoons dealing huge burst damage with Jumps; Summoners summoning the powers of legendary Primals (Espers) such as Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, and Ramuh; Arcanists poisoning enemies with Bio; Black Mages using Fire/Ice/Thunder I/II/III; and many more examples.
  The benchmark video just shows the visuals of party play but I will have a more proper gameplay video later on in the Gameplay section.
  [video=youtube;b721_9WPthU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b721_9WPthU[/video]
  
  There also Limit Breaks where party members fill up bars by fulfilling party roles. Tanks generating enmity(aggro) while keeping the AI off party members. DDs (damage dealers) dealing damage. Healers healing, buffing, and debuffing. More will be explained in the combat section.
  
  Magitek Armor from FFVI. Yes players at one point will be able to drive one of them and use Magitek beams.
  [video=youtube;q8RuIXX4nt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8RuIXX4nt[/video]
  The antagonists of the main questline will be the main users of Magitek and other advanced technology such as gunblades
  

  [Image: http://i3.minus.com/iXty2AxwaL8Uy.png]

  
  There’s chockful of Final Fantasy references in-game. However, some of the more amazing ones would be bigger spoilers for the main story. Hint: One involves FFVII.
  
  There are many planned Final Fantasy-related event quests such as the Gilgamesh questline where players will be to learn the story of Gilgamesh in the FFXIV universe while being able to seek out his legendary weapons like Excalibur and Masamune. From the picture, it seems every class can obtain a legendary weapon.
  

  [Image: http://cdn.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/FFXIV_Gilgamesh.jpg]

  
  
  

  [Image: http://www.dannykang.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/FINAL-FANTASY-XIV_-A-Realm-Reborn-A-New-Beginning.mp4_snapshot_07.03_2013.01.07_07.59.45.jpg]

  
  People who played Final Fantasy III would know the Crystal Tower which was the end game dungeon.The Crystal Tower is making a return in FFXIV as a level 50 raid dungeon where 24 players will enter as an alliance of 3 parties. This will be the first and easiest raid. It’s likely the Cloud of Darkness will make a return with some powerful bosses like Titan.
  

  [Image: http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/3b/05/10343_1.jpg]

  
  As you can see, Titan wiped the entire party of developers. lol
  
  The developers are also planning on non-combat related Final Fantasy content such as a Golden Saucer from FFVII, or a place with minigames in FFXIV. Let’s hope for Chocobo racing!
  [video=youtube;11HSbwLbSno]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11HSbwLbSno[/video]
  
  Who knows what else they can bring? Maybe Blitzball?
  
  IV. Gameplay
  
  

  [Image: http://eorzeareborn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Game-systems-by-level1.jpg]

  
  What is the progression (access to features and content according to levels) like in FFXIV?
  Here is a graphic created by Eorzea Reborn that shows the features available by level. In fact, Eorzea Reborn has written up a very good article about the game’s progression with pictures. Highly recommend you read it because it will present the information better.
  http://eorzeareborn.com/final-fantasy-xiv-game-systems/
  
  I will only talk about the stuff available from the previous beta and what the developers mentioned about future content such as raids.
  
  There are three starting cities: Limsa Lominsa, Ul’dah and Gridania. Where you start depends on the beginning class you pick. This is to make it easier for new players to be near the guild for their class is. Each class have their own guild, or headquarters with a NPC guild master. The guild master will have quests for your character to change classes to and also “class quests” that will grant skills as rewards at higher levels. It is recommended that you begin with your most preferred main class to level up the fastest.
  Limsa Lominsa: Arcanist, Marauder
  Ul’dah: Gladiator, Pugilist, Thaumaturge
  Gridania: Conjurer, Archer, Lancer
  Take note. Even though class change becomes available at level 10, you will not be able to travel to different regions via airships until you progressed around level 13-14ish in the main quest.
  
  What are the classes? And how does the cross-class system work?
  There are four categories of classes. In this game, your character’s class will be determined by the type of weapon equipped. You can easily change classes by switching the equipped weapon. There is a feature where you can save equipment sets for each class and place them on your hotbar to switch quickly without having to open up your equipment menu.
  
  Disciples of War: Gladiator (one handed sword), Marauder (axe), Lancer (lance), Pugilist, Archer (bow)
  Disciple of Magic: Conjurer (canes), Thaumaturge (staff)
  Disciple of Hand: Blacksmith (cross-pein hammer)), Armorer (pliers), Goldsmith(chaser hammer), Culinarian(culinary knives), Alchemist(alembi), Weaver, Leatherworker(awl), Carpenter(claw hammer)
  Disciple of Land: Botanist(scythe), Miner(pickaxe), Fisherman(pick axe)
  
  You will begin the game as a combat class, either a Disciple of War or Disciple of Magic. Choose your main class since you will not be able to access other classes until finishing your class’ level 10 quest. Each of the combat classes have their own unique skills (active abilities) and traits (passive abilities) that they will gain as they level up. Some skills have to be obtained from completing class quests such as the one at level 15 and so on. As you level up the classes, you can be able to use certain skills learned from your character’s other classes. The compatibility of skills are listed in their descriptions. The amount of skills you can use depend on the current class’s level, starting with 3 cross-class skills at level 1 and up to 10 at level 50. These skills will help complement your playstyle such as Archer skills for DPS, Conjurer skills for soloing, etc. Traits amplify their respective classes’ skills with stronger effects or add bonus stats. Here are brief descriptions of each role and how the class fulfills them.
  
  Tanks: Tanks use their skills to produce enmity, or aggro from the enemies. Enmity is produced from damage dealt, tanking skills, and amount of health cured with a spell. Yes, mob’s enmity level towards the healers increases depending how much health healers heal. Higher level combat brings mechanics such as reinforcements, party-wide attacks etc.. The tanks’ priority is to respond to changes in situations and keeping the party from being overrun.
  The articles below are highly recommended
  How enmity works (best explained)
  http://eorzeareborn.com/enmity/
  Tanking in MMOs
  http://eorzeareborn.com/tanking-basics-communicatio/
  
  
  Gladiators & Marauders
  -Both have similar early level skills but differ greatly at higher levels
  -Both can wear the heavy armor, strongest armor in the game.
  -Both rely mostly on Vitality stat to have as much health as possible to take hits.
  -Both have skills to produce enmity, or aggro.
  -Gladiators (GLD) have powerful damage mitigation skills and other self buffs. They can also wield shields to mitigate damage even further. The class revolves around timing self buffs and prolonging fights. Their AoE skill is Flash, a spell that increases enmity from enemies near the Gladiator and a later trait blinds them. Their moderate mana pool allows them to utilize Flash efficiently and Cure (for emergency self heals) better than Marauders’ abysmal mana pool.
  -Marauders (MRD) have many more active skills instead of self buffs to attract aggro. They rely more on producing damage for tanking in terms of skill damage and lifesteal. To compensate for lower damage mitigation, they have a much higher health pool than Gladiators. Their signature AoE aggro skill is a cone AoE skill, Overpower. This skill requires positioning and managing TP since Marauders are already TP intensive with all their active abilities.
  
  Damage Dealers: As the name suggests, they deal damage. Their job is to focus down enemies as quickly as possible and eliminate threats. As stated before, there are times when the tank will not be able to keep an outlier off a healer and the DDers are the ones who needs to pull them off with their damage to bring back within the tank’s area of control.
  
  -Pugilist(PGL) is a physical damage dealer who relies upon a large of variety skill rotations to deal damage and apply self buffs and debuffs to the enemy. They’re extremely versatile but their skills require constant repositioning. Compared to Lancers, they deal similar DPS but are better for attacking stationary targets. They also have the shortest attack range.
  -Lancer(LNC) is a physical damage dealer who has simpler skill rotations compared to the Pugilist. Lancers also have a much greater attack range and a lifesteal attack. However, they do not benefit as much from positioning and are not awarded as much as Pugilists. Lancers are better for attacking moving targets.
  
  -Archer(ARC) is a ranged physical damage dealer who relies upon using self buffs and single powerful skills rather than skill rotations to deal damage. They’re much more fragile than the physical damage dealers but in exchange deal much more damage.
  
  -Arcanist(ACN) is a magical damage dealer class who relies upon debuffing enemies and dealing damage over time spells such as Bio (poison). They also have a summon called a carbuncle with its own set of spells to deal damage or support. Their skills seem to be extremely fit for long fights (bosses).
  -Thaumauturge(THM) is a mage damage dealer class who does a variety of damage spells burst damage and self buffs that improve their offensive casting. For example, some spells deal moderate AoE, large single target burst, or low DoT. Compared to other damage dealers, they lack damage in the early levels until they obtain their damage boosting perks. However, they have a powerful support spell called Sleep that will put a single target to sleep, making them a great alternative to other DDers and allows the party focus down targets faster. Note: sleeping targets will wake up upon being attacked. One unique aspect of THMs is Umbral Ice or Astral Fire buffs that adjust their spells’ mana cost, damage and cooldowns. Casting Ice applies Umbral Ice which reduces damage, cooldown and mana costs of spells while casting Fire applies Astral Fire which increases damage, cooldown and mana costs of spells.
  
  The only Healer class are Conjurers (CNJ). Conjurer’s offensive spells are made to debuff enemies while their traits boosts Cure by a lot. Conjurers also have Protect, a defensive party buff that boosts defenses, and a trait that improves it even further.
  
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/A0qghio.jpg]

  
  What are jobs?
  If you played Final Fantasy 3, you would already have a general idea of what jobs are. Jobs are advanced specializations that takes combat roles even further. Classes are basically Red Mages, being the jack of all trades but master of none. Jobs are masters of their roles and are more useful in parties with their powerful skills while classes are more fit for soloing since they can utilize skills to offset weaknesses. There are questlines where you can obtain the armor set exclusive for your job. In 1.0, you needed a party to complete the dungeons. ARR’s questlines can be soloed. The only drawback of jobs is that they’re limited to 5 cross class skills and can only pick skills from their base classes. For example, a Paladin has Gladiator as its main class and Conjurer and Marauder as its base classes, meaning you can only crossclass Conjurer and Marauder skills.
  In order to unlock a job, you have to fulfill the level requirements and complete the specific quest for each job.
  Here is the general description of all jobs and their specific requirements
  
  -Paladins(PLD) have much greater damage mitigation and tanking skills, one of them being a temporary “God Mode”.
  Main Class: lvl 30 GLD, 2nd Class: lvl 15 CNJ. Base Classes: CNJ, MRD
  
  -Warriors(WAR) have increased tanking skills with 25% bonus max health and some damage mitigation.
  Main Class: lvl 30 WAR, 2nd Class: lvl 15 GLD. Base Classes: GLD, PGL
  
  -Bards(BRD) have decreased DPS in exchange for party support skills such as mana regeneration during combat.
  Main Class: lvl 30 ARC, 2nd Class: lvl 15 CNJ
  
  -Monks(MNK) have a much stronger skill rotation.
  Main Class: lvl 30 MNK, 2nd Class: lvl 15 LNC. Base Classes: LNC, MRD
  
  -Dragoons(DRG) have Jump skills to deal great amount of damage.
  Main Class: lvl 30 LNC, 2nd Class: lvl 15 PGL. Base Classes: PGL, MRD
  
  -Black Mages (BLM) have more destructive spells with some self buffs to improve casting and also a party defensive buff.
  Main Class: lvl 30 THM, 2nd Class: lvl 15 ACN. Base Classes:ACN, ARC
  
  -White Mages (WHM) have greater healing spells, one of them being an emergency full restore. They can also cast Holy, an AoE magic spell that stuns.
  Main Class: lvl 30 GLD, 2nd Class: lvl 15 CNJ. Base Classes: CNJ. ACN or THM (unknown)
  
  -Summoners (SMN) have stronger summons that can fulfill minor roles such as DD or Tanking.
  Their summons are essences of primals like Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, or Garuda.
  Main Class: lvl 30 ACN, 2nd Class: lvl 15 THM. Base Classes: THM, (unknown)
  
  -Scholars (SCH) have unique healing spells, buffs and debuffs. They utilize a fairy that have its own set of spells. The main difference from White Mages is the side emphasis on party buffs. An effective 8 man party would have 1 scholar and 1 White mage since scholars can increase their party member’s healing power by 30%.
  Main Class: lvl 30 ACN, 2nd Class: lvl 15 CNJ. Base Classes: CNJ, THM
  
  Will more classes and jobs be added later on?
  Yes, but there are no specific details. FFXIV ended up with about 20+ jobs. The director wanted to place in more of the classic classes like Samurai, Ninja, Dark Knight etc.
  
  Crafting and Gathering
  Before I explain the crafting and gathering classes, there is one general system that applies to all the equipment related classes; the materia system. Yes, the materia system is named after the one used in FFVII with some slight differences. Crafting classes can meld materia that provides stat boosts in their respective trade of equipment. Here’s an introduction article that explains the materia system.
  http://eorzeareborn.com/a-materia-overview/
  After reading that, read the advanced one.
  http://eorzeareborn.com/advanced-materia/
  There will be a feature in Open Beta where you will be able to request a crafter to meld materia into your equipment.
  
  Crafting Classes & their trade
  Leatherworker: Converts skin obtained from certain monsters into leather.
  Carpenter: Works with wood and creates wood related equipment (bows being the most common).
  Blacksmith: Forges weapons, tools and materials.
  Armorer: Forges heavy armor, tools and materials.
  Goldsmith: Forges accessories.
  Weaver: Creates cloth related equipment and materials.
  Alchemist: Creates dyes, materials, potions, and wands.
  Culinarian: Creates food that grants temporary stat boosts. Useful for all classes.
  Gathering Classes
  Botanist: gathers wood and other plant related materials.
  Miner: gather shards, metals and other mineral based materials.
  Fisherman: gathers seafood needed for culinarians and water related materials like coral for Goldsmiths.
  
  It is very difficult to pinpoint or generalize many of these classes because they have a large diversity of recipes while being reliant on other classes. For example, the leatherworker would use material obtained by battle classes to convert into leather. The leather can then be used for be used for any of the equipment producing classes.Blacksmiths can produce whatever materials armorers need and vice versa. The market economy is simple yet demands everything from everyone, regardless of if you’re a dedicated crafter, gatherer or combatant.
  
  Crafting, by itself, is a large part of the game. You have players who want better equipment and better materials. The main characteristic that helps reinforce this is the “High Quality” characteristic of items. Crafting anything involves a minigame where your character will choose whether to progress on completing an item or apply different efffects like improving the chance of it becoming a high quality item by using skills.The amount of actions allowed on an item is determined by its durability; the crafting is guarenteed to fail if it reaches 0. Crafting Points (CP) is a resource that your character consumes to use skills to affect the progression of item like increasing durability or increasing success rates. Crafters can cross class skills from other trades to apply to their current class’ crafting, making crafting an interesting profession and rewards dedicated players who learn and attempt to create the best equipment efficiently. “High Quality” materials used to craft an item will greatly increase the likelihood of the product becoming “High quality.” High quality equipment will turn out with higher stats. For example, a HQ blacksmith hammer will have 44 craftmanship and 1 extra damage as opposed to the standard 41; this is practically a 10% increase.in better tools! Crafting seems daunting to start but there are NPCs who sell materials that will allow crafters to level independently and efficiently until the level 15+ recipes.
  
  Gathering is much more simple but a minigame in its own right. Players will locate gathering spots and use various skills to increase success rate of gathering materials from each one. Every gathering spot has a variety of different materials of different levels. The chance of obtaining a “High Quality” material is initially low but gathering skills can increase the likelihood of obtaining them. You have to take note that each gathering spot has limited amount of attempts and effects of active skills only apply to that one spot.
  
  What is the HUD like?
  You can adjust every element of the HUD to your liking.
  Here’s a simulator. Open Beta will feature a grid for OCD people.
  http://ffxiv.game-junkie.net/HUD/
  You may use hotbars if you’re using a keyboard or cross bars when using a controller.
  

  [Image: https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1076995_10151785676570871_1038671838_o.jpg]

  
  The game utilizes WASD/joystick movement with keys/buttons for and is actually very controller friendly. Not even a MMO mouse can be as comfortable as a controller. Using the 360 controller as an example since it’s the default one. The crossbars features the D-pad and the 4 buttons on the right side of the controller. You can place skills on these slots and switch between different crossbars using the shoulder buttons. Controllers also have a lock on buttons for targetting purposes and toggles very quickly between targets.
  The cat has made an example HUD for 1080p keyboard users
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/fbfAgXn.png]

  
  Upper left, there are limit break bars that appear when you’re in a party. Top right is the server/local time and the minimap.
  Top mid there are buffs on the top left and debuffs on the right. The red bar is the current target enemy’s health. There will be buffs and debuff icons under his health if applicable.
  The blue bar next to the red bar shows what enemy he is targetting and their health, really useful for healers. The Focus target is a target ally or enemy you selected to keep track of. Again, healers should learn to use this for keeping track of the tank.
  Bottom left is the chat logs. You can choose to separate the battle/chat/guild log if you like or just toggle through them to save screen space.
  Whenever casting a spell, a cast bar will appear and will determine how long it will take to cast. Note it will be canceled upon moving or stunned.
  Personally the horizontal hotbars are for items and skills. the vertical hotbars are for class equipment sets to switch classes.
  Bottom right is the inventory (the squares of dots). It is really user-friendly and convenient since you can directly open up a page of inventory quickly as opposed to toggling through. There are two inventories, one for equipment and one for other stuff (other stuff can stack up to 99 quantity).. Equipment menu can hold up to 25 equipment for each equipabble slot. This combined with the normal inventories will allow up to 400 inventory slots on your personal character alone. Something you’ll never see in a crappy F2P MMO.
  Under the inventories are menu shortcuts.
  
  What is the combat like?
  There are two resources a player uses for abilities. Tactical Points (TP) for skills and Mana Points (MP). Outside combat, both bars will always be full. The TP pool will always be 1000 but can be increased with effects of food. In combat, your character generates at 50 TP per “tick” and 2% mana per “tick” so gain the habits of managing your resources wisely. Outside combat, these will regenerate back very quickly.
  
  At first, the combat will be very simple as the players will not have that much abilities. The early solo combat will involve the player learning how to use their skills and the early class quests will instruct on their signifiance. There is a mechanic called Global Cooldown (GCD) where certain core skills will share the same initial 2.5 seconds cooldown. However, the progression of the game is designed for keeping the concepts of the skill’s usage simple while adding more depth. The GCD will feel less slow since higher level equipment will add the stat Skill Speed to reduce the duration. At level 50 with cross class skills, you will have 25+ abilities and half of them will be on GCD. You will choose to execute your skills in response to enemies. For example, an archer deal a large amount of damage, bind down the target, knock the target back, apply poison debuff or increase his crit rate with a GCD skill and then buff his damage, accuracy, or movement speed during the downtime. The casting animations of the buffs gives much less time for players to make decisions in efficient combat. The combat is much more fluid and dynamic than 1.0.
  
  Using this screenshot as an example again
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/BokPjsB.jpg]

  
  
  In the top left corner are the party’s Limit Break bars that party members fill up by fulfilling party roles. The Limit Breaks are strong abilities used by a single member and depends on the amount of bars filled.
  Tanks will boost their party’s defense.
  Monks and Lancers will deal a very large amount of damage to a single target.
  Archers, Arcanists, Summoners and THMs will deal a large amount of damage in an AoE
  Healers will heal everyone in their party.
  Limit Breaks are useful in different situations and the higher level content will demand more often and efficient use of them.
  
  Under the Limit Break bars is the list of your party members and the enmity level of the current target towards each member.This is very important since you never want to have higher enmity than your tank. During combat, enemies that become aggroed will have arrows flying towards the player they’re targeting. This is useful for knowing who the monster switched target towards.
  
  Under the party list is the monster list of all the enemies your party is current engaging. The letters next to the names are identifiers to tell apart different enemies of the same species. You can easily switch targets by clicking on the names if playing with keyboard and mouse.
  
  The introduction of party play at level 15 alone makes the combat much different than earlier levels. Combat with each class will feel different than earlier levels. The introduction of the stun Shield Bash at lvl 18 will apply another responsibility to the Gladiator, increased damage trait for THMs, Lancer’s skill to restore TP. For example, a THM playing with a marauder will play differently than with a gladiator as the marauder’s AoE will disrupt sleep while the gladiator will have an easier time with sleeped enemies.
  [video=youtube;Lss7WoHa8FE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lss7WoHa8FE[/video]
  Here was a live stream of the developers demonstrating the need for good party play. They will use the first miniboss of the level 32 dungeon Brayflox Longstop as an example. The boss deals a great amount of damage and applies powerful debuffs, easily taking down an unattentive tank to critical level of health. His summons later on will easily allow the monsters to overwhelm the party/tank if not paid attention to. DPS need to eliminate these lower health summons. For the sake of demonstration, they fail on purpose the first time and then play properly the next time at 11:44.
  In a dungeon, you will be able to revive from the start when dead but cannot re-enter closed off combat rooms until all the monsters inside are dead. If the entire party fails, the enemies’ health will be fully regenerated and the party will have to start over the fight. The only penalty for dying is about 10% durability loss to all equipment. Your equipment will stop giving full stats when durability reaches zero until you repair it (can only be done outside dungeons by NPCs or crafters).
  The numbers above targets’ heads are markers players can assign for priority. This is useful before engaging in combat to let the party know what order the tank will focus on the mobs.
  
  Now, I’ve summed up the PVE content that was available in the closed beta up to level 35. Now it is time to talk about PVP. In PVP, the skills will be adjusted to be different than in PVE. Also, there are planned PVP exclusive skills that will be rewarded by playing PVP. In Open Beta, the Wolves’ Den will be open after completing the level 20 main quest. Wolves’ Den is an arena with teams. However, it is only for the sake of testing attack ranges; no adjustments have been made for skills; and no PVP skills will be available. Another planned form of PVP is called Frontier for after release and will be explained the “Grand Companies” segment.
  
  Leveling
  
  The game is very noob-friendly at the beginning, with useful in-game tips and the main quests guides you on how to play in a party-based MMORPG. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TIPS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME OR ELSE YOU WILL MISS OUT ON LEARNING AN IMPORTANT GAME MECHANICS OR FEATURE. A new feature added in Open Beta is content finder or a list of possible quests in an area. Clicking on the names of quests will show the location of the quest giver.The early quests in town will jump your character to level 4-5 without even going outside the town. The Hunting Logs unlock at level 5 and will introduce you to mobs in the field. you will gain a large amount of exp from finishing pages (an experienced MMO player can easily reach level 10 within an hour of starting the game with FATEs and Hunting Log. The main quest is icing on the cake)
  
  Level 10
  At level 10, the Chocobo rental system will be available, allowing you quickly move between towns. The Aetheryte system where you can teleport to crystals you attuned to in different towns is faster but the gil cost is extremely expensive in comparison. Also, you’ll be able to access the other classes after finishing some requirements, including the crafting and gathering classes. Levequests or a form of “daily quests” will become available for your character. There’s battlecraft, tradecraft, and gathering levequests but it is recommended that your save your leve allowances for tradecraft or gathering since battlecraft is really easy to level. You only gain 3 leves allowances per 12 hours and can store up to 100 allowances. In addition, you’ll be able to participate in guildhests or instanced party quests that offers a lot of experience and gold for first time completion. They’re designed to teach a player how to play in a party with many tips for new players on how to play their roles. The standard party ratio most people play with is 1 Tank(controls the mobs), 2 DDs (Damage dealers) and 1 healer. This is basically a warmup for your first dungeon unlocked by the level 15 main quest.
  
  Offtopic: But I don’t like the Holy Trinity
  [video=youtube;iEttbac3HVU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEttbac3HVU[/video]
  
  Here’s a video of all the dungeons available from the previous beta with a level 35 cap. The Open Beta will feature all the possible dungeons from level 1-50.
  The dungeons have great themes and soundtracks.
  [video=youtube;Kbr_h_d5g2Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbr_h_d5g2Q[/video]
  
  Level 15
  Dungeons will put understanding of party mechanics to the test while training players in their roles. From experience, at least the dungeons from level 15-35 will feature many different situations such as aggro control, different objectives, monster variety, bosses requiring unique strategy, status effects etc. The dungeons will have a fixed level design while higher level dungeons will have a bit more randomization. Also, the easier dungeons will be restricted to 4 person parties while the later ones will demand a 8 person party. There are planned “Hard Mode”, “Extreme Mode” and also solo mode after release. Completing dungeons will grant you experience and gold. However, the most important reward are the exclusive green and pink equipment from the dungeon chests. Green equipment have stat bonuses when you’re equipping multiple pieces of a set while Pink equipment are strong individually. Finishing your first level 15 dungeon will grant access to an Inn, or a sanctuary in the main towns.
  
  Sanctuaries are places in the game where you will gain “rested-exp” bonus for staying there which are great places to AFK or log out of. You will still gain the bonus when logged out. They would be found in the towns outside the large main town or the inn room. It is very efficient to play for a few hours and take breaks since the exp bonus is 50%. The duration of the bonus is dependent on how long you rested and will deplete as you gain more experience % of your level. It is more useful to use your rested bonus for your higher level classes. There is an important mechanic called Chain bonus where successfully gaining exp in a short time period will grant you exp bonuses. For example, killing a second monster quickly after the first one will grant a small bonus and this bonus will increase as you kill more monsters up to a maximum of 50%. This chain will apply to party members, encouraging party play. The Chain bonus will also apply to crafting and gathering classes. Other form of exp bonuses are found in the game through status effect of eating food (3%) or Free Company housing furniture. There is also a proposed exp bonus for completing a dungeon for the first time and helping a party member complete one for their first time. After reaching level 50 on one class (if you finish the main quest, there’s enough experience to reach level 50), you will gain an exp bonus for your other classes. Finally, after unlocking a second battle class, players will receive an experience point bonus known as the Armoury bonus when slaying enemies and participating in FATE. This bonus is only applicable to classes other than your highest level battle class.
  
  Free Companies
  Free Companies are what you would call a traditional MMORPG guild where you can join a community of players. The guild founder must be at least level 25 with 3 other members and pay a fee of 15,000 gil to start a Free Company. You can only be in one Free Company at a time. Perks of a free-company
  -Free Company housing. Certain furniture will grant bonuses such as experience bonuses. However, the guild has to contribute a lot of gold and material to buy the real estate and build the furniture via Carpenter class.
  - Free Company chat channel
  To join a free company, there is a feature to search for them and you have to /tell a officer or the master to invite you. There is no level restriction for joining or creating.
  
  Linkshells
  Linkshells are another form of private channels that anyone can join. In FFXI, linkshells were used for trading and recruiting party members. These are useful since they’re not restricted like Free Company chat.
  
  Grand Companies
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/X1IB4Jd.jpg]

  
  As you progress through the main quest, you will encounter Grand Companies or in-game factions. There is one Grand Company per starting city. The main story’s quest will involve your characters helping the factions with their local problems. You will be able to join one after finishing the level 20 main quest and the Grand Company’s special quest. In a Grand Company, you’l be able to earn seals from GC missions to promote your rank or purchase from the Grand Company store. You will be able to switch between Grand Companies as you wish.
  Perks of Grand Companies
  -Chocobo with exclusive Grand Company armor.
  -Grand Company store that rewards exclusive equipment and crafting materials in exchange for seals.
  -Grand Company uniform with decent general stats.
  There will be a form of PVP later called Frontier where players from different Grand Companies will fight each other. This is inspired by World vs. World vs. World from Guild Wars. This will be added some time after launch.
  
  Raids
  There are two planned raids after launch. The Crystal Tower and Labyrinth of Bahamut.
  The Crystal Tower is the first and “casual” raid for 24 players made up of 3 8-person parties. It will be available at level 50.
  The Labryinth of Bahamut is another level 50 raid will be a large maze with check points. There are entrances all over the game world and each one begin in a different segment of the maze. This is designed for 8-person parties to enter and advance. A “Hard Mode” and “Extreme Mode” has been planned and you cannot use the party finder for these modes.
  
  V. Other Content
  How much can I customize my character?
  http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/
  The benchmark includes a character creator. When you start the Open Beta client, it will load the character you created in the benchmark. There is a great variety of customization and it’s very difficult to create an ugly character unless if you’re going for that.
  
  Will be able to change my look later?
  In Open Beta, no. There will be a “Beauty Salon” planned later on for players change their hairstyles. The developers talked about some features like tanning for summer events. Anything else is up in the air.
  
  Is there a variety of good looking armor?
  [video=youtube;6N_ruqUF1Sc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N_ruqUF1Sc[/video]
  
  Is there a dying system?
  Yes, there are dyes for clothing and armor. Alchemists can craft them and a NPC in Ul’dah sells them.
  
  Will there be a marriage system?
  After release. There can be cross racial marriage.
  
  How does housing work?
  There are two forms of housing. Free Company housing and personal housing.
  Free Company housing involves members contributing gil to purchase real estate. Special furniture can be built by Carpenters to provide bonuses such as Free Company wide experience bonuses.
  Personal housing is owned by individuals but the real estate for medium sized one is said to be extremely expensive, even more than the moneyyou earn from completing all the quests up to level 50. You may build furniture for your home and some can be used for storage.
  Here’s the producer showing an example house
  [video=youtube;XPZscwM-aBc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZscwM-aBc[/video]
  
  How can I pay for my subscription?
  You can pay by credit card, debit card, or prepaid subscription cards.
  
  Will there be rewards for suscribing X amount of days?
  Yes. There are rewards for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, and so on.
  There are only details for the 30, 60 and 90 days so far.
  http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=10982e2b30371a138e97d0f6bf198b0ef6c9c8dc
  
  Will there be an event at release?
  A summer event is planned at release.
  
  Will there be content up to level 50?
  Yes, there will be quests, FATEs, leves, guildhests, dungeons, and the main quest will go up to level 50.
  
  When will DirectX11 come?
  DirectX11 is planned to release within one year after launch.
  
  When will the PS4 version come?
  
  The PS4 version is planned to release within one year after launch.
  VI. Conclusion
  This guide took way too long to type. See you all in Open Beta.
  Here’s the JP Promotional trailer for fun
  [video=youtube;3wy1S866A0E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wy1S866A0E[/video]
  Reminder: Registeration is required for new accounts in FFXIV:ARR. It will not open until the Open Beta starts.
  
  Great websites
  FFXIV database
  http://xivdb.com/
  
  Eorzea Reborn
  http://eorzeareborn.com/
  
  Edit: The developers released another video
  [video=youtube;RYkH8g614gA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYkH8g614gA[/video]
  
  Edit #2 Pick Ultros Realm/server
  [video=youtube;260oetpb9mM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=260oetpb9mM[/video]
• Claudia wrote on 2013-08-15 13:49
  screaming at the crystal tower raid I NEED THAT RAID
  
  see y'all in OB!
• Arsik wrote on 2013-08-15 22:05
  Naturally, the beta test has to be on the weekend that I have to work during the evenings. D:
  
  But we still need to figure out what world we're joining, since there were a few people who were against joining Gilgamesh a few weeks ago.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2013-08-15 22:56
  I'll probably play this. Is OB free? I'll end up giving it some time before I actually buy it though.
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2013-08-15 23:01

  Quote from Cucurbita;1136416:

  I'll probably play this. Is OB free? I'll end up giving it some time before I actually buy it though.

  
  
  You do not need to buy the game for Open Beta.
• Chockeh wrote on 2013-08-15 23:04
  Holy shit cat.
  I'll play this as well if there's enough nationers playing. I kinda miss those DFO days. I am not looking forward to paying a monthly fee though.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2013-08-15 23:14
  I think I read that you can knock it below 12 dollars a month if you stick to a one character model. I dont do alt characters so I'm fine with this.
• Lyrveil wrote on 2013-08-16 01:54
  You don't really need more than one character in this game anyway other than for cosmetic (and maybe inventory space) since one character can do all class/job. Which is totally cool by me since I can save 3 dollars a month on the subscription.
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2013-08-16 02:02

  Quote from Arsik;1136388:

  Naturally, the beta test has to be on the weekend that I have to work during the evenings. D:
  
  But we still need to figure out what world we're joining, since there were a few people who were against joining Gilgamesh a few weeks ago.

  
  
  We're going to be on Ultros. Gilgamesh is the internet server with 4chan, reddit, the LBGT community and other internet communities.
  Also, tentacles
  [video=youtube;260oetpb9mM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=260oetpb9mM[/video]
  
  

  Quote from Cucurbita;1136427:

  I think I read that you can knock it below 12 dollars a month if you stick to a one character model. I dont do alt characters so I'm fine with this.

  
  
  It's $12.99 actually.
• Taycat wrote on 2013-08-16 04:01
  Crystal Tower though, hnnnn.
• Luxezel wrote on 2013-08-16 04:23
  Wow, that looks like one intense MMO . -.
  
  I would love to play that but alas I have no means too = w=
  
  Crappy computer and no real game console. Derp
• Mentosftw wrote on 2013-08-16 08:44
  I'll be playing :D Scored 14666 on extremes settings/fullscreen.
• Taycat wrote on 2013-08-16 11:45

  Quote from Mentosftw;1136600:

  I'll be playing :D Scored 14666 on extremes settings/fullscreen.

  
  
  Jesus christ, give me your build, mr titan.
• Mentosftw wrote on 2013-08-16 11:48

  FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Character Creation)
  Tested on:8/16/2013 1:35:05 AM
  Score:14666
  Average Framerate:137.393
  Performance:Extremely High
  -Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
  
  Screen Size: 1280x720
  Screen Mode: Full Screen
  Graphics Presets: Maximum
  General
  -Enable HDR rendering and improve overall graphic quality. : Enabled
  -Disable rendering of objects when not visible. (Occlusion Culling) : Disabled
  -Use low-detail models on distant objects. (LOD) : Disabled
  -Cache LOD data only when necessary. (LOD Streaming) : Disabled
  -Real-time Reflections : High
  -Edge Smoothing (Anti-aliasing) : FXAA
  -Transparent Lighting Quality : High
  -Grass Quality : High
  Shadows
  -Self : Display
  -Other NPCs : Display
  Shadow Quality
  -Use low-detail models on shadows. (LOD) : Disabled
  -Shadow Resolution : High - 2048p
  -Shadow Cascading : Best
  -Shadow Softening : Strong
  Texture Detail
  -Texture Filtering : Anisotropic
  -Anisotropic Filtering : x16
  Movement Physics
  -Self : Full
  -Other NPCs : Full
  Effects
  -Naturally darken the edges of the screen. (Limb Darkening) : Enabled
  -Blur the graphics around an object in motion. (Radial Blur) : Enabled
  -Screen Space Ambient Occlusion : Strong
  -Glare : Normal
  Cinematic Cutscenes
  -Enable depth of field. : Enabled
  
  System:
  Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130708-1532)
  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz
  8140.668MB
  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti(VRAM 4042 MB) 9.18.0013.2018
  
  Benchmark results do not provide any guarantee FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn will run on your system.
  
  FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Website http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com
  (C) 2010-2013 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
  
  Tweet
  http://sqex.to/ffxiv_bench_na #FFXIV Score:14666 1280x720 Maximum Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti

  
  
  It's not even a high end build. FFXIV is just well optimized.
• Claudia wrote on 2013-08-16 13:31
  omg yes ultros server
  
  also, i'm on the FFXIV website and can't find a download, even though OB has started for previous testers...