Previous Free Company Threads

A Realm Reborn (2.0) - Giant Bomb Free Company Thread

Heavensward (3.0) - Giant Bomb Free Company Thread

FFXIV Patch 2.4 Questions & Answers from «VinCo»

Joining the Giant Bomb Free Company

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood announced (4.0), coming summer 2017

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (4.0)

• Stormblood will explore the continent of Othard with a particular narrative focus on liberating Ala Mihgo and Doma, along with their ongoing relationship and struggle with the Garlean Empire. The in-game map showed that players will be able to explore an entirely new continent this time. We've only been able to explore (or see) the Eorzean region Aldenard thus far.

• Port town, Kugane. Part of the Hingashi area, it is the only city open to trade. Violence in the city is strictly prohibited and is very isolationist (similar to Ishgard).

• The Ruby Sea, a very large sea area, "rife with pirate activity", connected to Kugane and one of the first areas that the player will visit in the expansion.
• Yanxia, the location of Doma and an area with a substantial Garlean presence.
• The Azim Steppe, the first expansive "plains" type area in FFXIV. This will be an important point of interaction with various tribes for the Warrior of Light.

Ala Mihgo is one of the more eastern areas of Aldenard, constantly referenced and affecting plotwise, but currently occupied by one of the primary antagonists in the game.

• The main focus is to regain control of Ala Mihgo and Doma from the Garleans, while traveling the lands of Othard.

The Garleans were for the most part the primary antagonists of the base 2.0 game, but their prominence (while still significant) took backseat to some of the later 2.0 patches and Heavensward's more Wyrm-war focused narrative. It looks like this expansion will bring them back to the forefront. With the big reveal being that we're going to an entirely new continent, the full trailer (below) shows Ilsabard (home continent and capital of the Garlean empire between Aldenard and Othard) ominously lurking in the background.

• 20 years have passed since Garleans have established control in Gyr Abania (the small chunk on the left-hand continent above that's not inside the red or blue squares), with the exact history of Doma and Othard being a little less defined at the moment.

Throughout the entire 1.0/2.0 FFXIV campaign (and to a lesser extent, Heavensward), Ala Mihgo is constantly referenced as a catalyst and driver for some of the game's more isolated and secondary plot-movers. Given its current Garlean occupation, this was probably the most obvious step for FFXIV to make next. The Doman people and Yuguri show up in the post 2.0 patches between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward as refugees, but outside of their similar predicament with Garlemald, not much has been said on Othgard itself.

• The primary antagonist is Zenos Yae Galvus, XIIth Legion Legatus and de facto ruler of Ala Mihgo, as well as the biological son of emperor Varis zos Galvus.

A new Judge-esque Legatus/General in the Garlean army aside the ones we've dealt with: Nael van Darnus (1.0) Gaius van Baelsar (2.0), and Regula van Hydrus (3.0). An interesting thing to note here is that the prior three always take a sort of FFmotif in relation to the number of legion they're legatus of. This in turn dictates the motive and style in which they serve as an antagonist. Don't ask me why he's using an even more amped up version (if that's possible) of Samuel Rodrigues's Murasama blade, complete with the damn gun-sheathe.

Regula van Hydrus is the legatus of the VIth legion (Final Fantasy VI), most of his story currently revolves around XIV's incarnation of the Warring Triad from FFVI.

Gaius van Baelsar was/is the legatus of the XIVth legion, meaning he simply represents Final Fantasy XIV in its original aspects.

Nael van Darnus was the VIIth legion and her character had some pretty prominent parallels to both Sephiroth and Meteor (see Dalamund).

Zenos is XIIth legion, which would imply some sort of FFXII tone (Dalmasca as an area and "Return to Ivalice" have already been shown or referenced).

• Woman depicted in trailer to potentially be revealed in future 3.X patch

Fans are calling this Yda with her mask off given the current similarities (blonde, blue-eyed Hyur with a penchant for punching shit). As the story is going now in the latest patch, I’m leaning more on this indeed being her.

• Warrior of Light's main job in 4.0 is Monk (akin to DRG being the mascot for 3.0/Heavensward)

This is definitely a big deal, as a lot of Heavensward's general tone and feel relied mostly around the image and iconography of dragoons. Stormblood is likely to have a more eastern flavor to it if it's based off the current Monk, which is currently one of the games more free-flowing and dependable DPS classes.

• Two new jobs for this expansion.

The new jobs have been revealed as Red Mage and Samurai. Both are DPS jobs. There will be no third job, as the developers realized after Heavensward that designing and balancing a new tank and healer along with new DPS would be too much for them to do. Red Mage is a "hybrid" casting/melee class, with Samurai as a straight up melee class. The starting level for these new jobs will be level 50. Samurai uses three sources of energy ("Setsu", "Getsu" and "Ka") to form attacks. It can store up energy and expend it in different attacks. Red Mage chains multiple spells while using positioning to effectively attack with both magic and melee.

I'm very glad that they decided not to opt for continuing to focus on fine-tuning the existing healers and tanks (mostly because I only play healers and tanks) rather than throwing a new one into the mix and fucking the existing balance up (which is still very much jacked up for the two non-warrior tanks). It could always be better and the tank design has arguably been their weakest effort in terms of how they've designed FFXIV's current trinity system. As it stands now, Dark Knight has found a very narrow place to fit in, and Paladin isn't in demand as it was before DRK came on the scene, though that has more to do with how the fights themselves are designed. Paladin's biggest strength (they're the sturdiest tank) hasn't really had a place to shine in a very long time. Warrior is overall in the best place as the tanks go and it's the only tank job that shows how they properly handled the process from 2.0 to 3.0 (i.e. almost everything Warrior does and has access to has relevance in their play). An incredibly lean ability design and moveset paired with extending its natural strengths made it the best effort they've put forward as a tank so far. I'm hoping they can extend that to the other two tanks as well (without losing uniqueness of course).

• New Level Cap: 70 (for all classes/jobs)
• More actions for each job to go with new cap. Revamped battle system to go with new actions. Additional Skill System to be overhauled, with skills shared by roles instead of jobs, and can choose from shared role ability options.

The skill system changes are what personally interest me the most design-wise as it could potentially change the entire game. Currently FFXIV doesn't do a terrible amount to differentiate itself from other theme-park MMOs in terms of its vertical progression and being slavish to the trinity (i.e. always having to desperately outrun the power creep). While this isn't the departure from that progression that I'd like, it does make me optimistic on how they're approaching their classes now. We'll see what happens here. They said they'd have more to reveal on this in May. Job-specific UIs sound nice as well.

• Reassessment of unused/ineffective actions

Not all but most jobs have at least one or two abilities that make no sense and are rarely used by people who main those said jobs, outside of very specific circumstances.

• An example used is Dragoon's Blood of the Dragon buff, where in 4.0 an icon/gauge showing how much time is left will be better visible on screen so players aren't just staring at the current icon. There are considerations (though the Japanese article said "close inspection", meaning they are looking through it in detail) on whether each jobs will get their specific UI or not. DRK will have a specific DRK gauge bar, and from there DRK players will have to manage that bar. The UI will be different depending on what job you use, as well. For Monk's Greased Lightning will have 3 orbs like Mantra located somewhere on the screen, first orb will lit when the greased lightning stack is 1, and then if 3, if shines brightly, something like gauge getting filled up in fighting games.

• Currently the problem where they noticed a huge gap in dps occurred in situations between scenarios such as "being able to maintain Enochian" and "not being able to maintain Enochian". So they're approaching it more on the mindset of Enochian not "wearing off" and on top of that, giving bonus to players who have done well to maintain Enochian, which should help close the gap. They're aiming to streamline the current UI and combat ability usage, and not just dumb it down.

• Even when you fight alone, there are almost no occasions where featherfoot changes your fate of living or dying. Of course there will be people who say "But i use it when i solo! Don't take away a characteristic from our job", but if we add more actions/abilities, these kinds of actions will get removed from players' hotbars anyway. So we will delete and add new actions instead or leave the name of the action and change what it does to give it more meaning. Another example is the warrior's wrath and abandon stacks where they will both be united to one gauge called "Origin（原初)" (Note: the name of this new stack will be totally different in the En version because most of the names of the warrior moves in the japanese client share the word "origin". For example, inner beast is Soul of the origin(原初の魂）, Raw intuiition is Instinct of the origin (原初の直感) and the LB3 for warrior is Land of the origin (原初の大地) and that's why Yoshida called the new stack for both stances "origin (原初) stacks " ). Warriors will manage this new gauge for both stances and decide what to use each of them on.

• The overall new skills for Stormblood is aimed towards making it much better than the roles they are confined to, like making DRG more fun, or making PLD defend better, and sturdier. However, how to obtain those new skills might be different from the usual, like there will be changes in the usual "level up to a certain level, receive job quest and gain new skills". They'll be blurring new ability acquisition between main scenario quests and job quests.
• New Areas to be introduced, comparable in size to Heavensward areas
• Stormblood will be a full standalone game's worth of content

Heavensward was easily a 30-50 hour run for the main story quests. The REAL question is how content will be gated behind it this time, as they promised not to do it in the same manner that they did with 3.0 (a LOT of people complained about this).

• New Primals to be introduced, including known names and all-new original-to-FF14 ones.
• So far they’ve revealed Lakshmi, Susano, and Omega, with the latter being the primal which the high-end raid tier will revolve around (similar to Bahamut and Alexander in the previous two tiers of the game). Susano joins Ravana as an all-new original primal for the game.
• There will be two new Beast Tribes, the Ananta and Kojin.
• The current endgame of FFXIV is composed of highly-regimented dances amidst 9-15 minute boss encounters, and these feature a myriad of mechanics against single high priority targets or just general gauntlets. They're on a much smaller scale compared to something like WoW, but some prefer the more intimate setup FFXIV currently features. Heavensward's endgame Alexander was seen as an execution that was overall enjoyable with some really low lows (the first tier featured a fight so difficult it damn near killed the raiding community for a while). This is in contrast 2.0's original Binding Coil raid, which is looked at more fondly in terms its difficulty, consistency, and narrative and how well they all meshed and escalated.
• New Alliance Raids to be added will be, "very, very Final Fantasy".
• Joining "Answers" and "Dragonsong", the primary theme for Stormblood is "Revolutions"

A new 24-man dungeon more akin to something like 2.0's Crystal Tower (nostalgia-based dungeon with a strong FFIII atmosphere) than 3.0's more original sky-pirates and Diablos's Void Ark.

This has since been revealed as “Return to Ivalice” a storyline based off/in/around (???) the Tactics/FFXII/Vagrant Story world Ivalice. It is being guest-designed/written by Yasumi Matsuno ("The father of Ivalice") and Keita Amemiya (Garo Creator, which FFXIV is already currently doing a crossover PVP event with).

• Expanded form of Exploration to be introduced: The Forbidden Land of Eureka (as much love and fanservice as they've shown the entire series with this game, they really do have a real penchant for FF3), something different from Diadem and the development will expand its entire area, which is unique to Stormblood. There might even be Notorious Monsters that only appear once every 72 hours.

• Forbidden Land of Eureka may be the place that is created as a "theme park" where one can do their next relic weapon through here. Yoshida on that issue, mentions that, up till now, weapons are all upgraded through using existing content but players may be sick of this by now, and since they are also at its limit of tying new content using existing content to clear, hence the devs have agreed on "creating a specific attraction park (area)" for the next relic weapon content. And since Zodiac Weapon and Anima Weapon is a "Time To Win" based content, they found the name Forbidden Land quite appropriate for it. The concept behind it came from Final Fantasy III, which Eureka is a land sealed by strong weapons and magic, hence they thought of using it as a content in 4.0 that aims to have players invest their time without getting burned out. The content is also aimed to be challenging, which he cited the 72-hour notorious monsters as one of the key features. Yoshida doesn't think that it's a place everyone would like to visit, equating to a ghost house where "why would I want to purposely visit a scary place like that". However, even if players were not to go because "it's a scary place why would I want to", it's a place that is to create curiosity because "even if it's scary, there is still something to look forward to". Yoshida answers the question using the couple dating logic for this.

Curious to see what happens here, as Diadem is currently one of FFXIV more unique large-scale features that sounded better on paper than it actually turned out for most. They’ve also revealed that swimming will be added with this expansion, adding a bit more to the already-existing areas in addition to the new ones.

• Eureka may also be used for next set of high-end weapons, akin to Relic/Anima, rather than upgrades in "normal areas."
• New Gear and Recipes, including winners of Fan's Gear Design Contest
• Item Inventory Expansion (this got the biggest cheers at each fanfest), looking to increase "as much as humanly possible." There is uncertainty in how this will be implemented due to the server needs, and it will be addressed in a future Live Letter.

I think the fanbase would have revolted if the inventory expansion wasn't announced, hence that response. Even the most conservative of us are hurting for space these days. The Armory Chest is currently just not enough for those who like to hang on to things (unless you want to buy more retainers to hold stuff), and the Armoire is a cruel joke.

• A 4th Residential Area to be added, Shirogane an Eastern housing district.
• Doubled capacity for housing estates.
• Changes have been made to the minimum requirements for the PC version of the game, now recommending updating to a 64-bit OS if players haven't yet. This allows more server and graphics upgrades.

Wait for it...

• End of PS3 support, with a free upgrade campaign to the PS4 version.

...and there it is. Yoshi-P promised to support the PS3 up to and through the current game's expansion when it first relaunched as A Realm Reborn. He kept his promise there. It looks like the time is finally here to drop the PS3, but the upgrade to current owners for PS4 (assuming you have or plan to purchase one) looks to be free, so that's good at least.

• Financial reports indicate Stormblood will have over double the budget of Heavensward

Heavensward was easily a successful first expansion so this is no real surprise. Currently waiting to see how ballsy some of these changes turn out. On paper they look like they could restructure how the entire game is currently played, but time will tell. They're adding an entirely new continent, which is a new thing for this seven year old game that's finally doing quite well for itself. Even Heavensward's base content ran deep, so if they can outpace that by any margin, *phew*. They seem determined to keep their reputation as the premiere MMO in just the amount of shit they keep adding.

Common Questions

"When’s this coming out?"

June 20, 2017. They’re already taking preorders and they’re telling me early access codes are already being sent out (keep in mind “early access” likely just means the weekend before official release the following week).

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/582380/

"What job should I play? What’s good?"

They’ve done a pretty good job of keeping balance and parity between all jobs in this game (though some have expressed worry that the developers have been too concerned with balance, stripping individuality between each job along the way, which is a valid concern). The only semi-exception I’d personally argue right now is that the new jobs take time to settle in and this will likely be true for Red Mage and Samurai as well, so I wouldn't go balls-to-the-wall with the new jobs unless you're willing accept that from the jump. It took them a good while to fit Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Machinist in for Heavensward (and they probably over-extended themselves with that), so I expect the same here. I do suggest sampling all jobs to about the 15-20 range and seeing which one grabs you. First, see what side of the trinity you have a preference for, and then branch off from there.

"Do I have to play the entire story to access the expansion like Heavensward? [*will update as more is revealed*]"

Heavensward was intentionally designed so all players had to progress through the main story scenario to access all new content in the expansion. This was done with the mindset that it's a story-driven MMO, which should take precedence over everything else. Although I agree with that, I'll only back that in terms of the first expansion. We're now at the point where a solution will have to be reached with how they allow players access to Stormblood and the way they handled Heavensward really won't work here, not without turning a large amount of new players away. The developers have already said it won't be the same process but haven't specified beyond that. They have stated they may use jump potions seen in other MMOs this time (and those potions are already in the game for Chinese players), but it hasn't been set in stone yet for the rest of us.

"What's a 'Free Company'?"

A guild: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Free_Company

Where is the Giant Bomb guild?"

We are located on the Ultros server within the Primal Data Center. The directions to our house once you're on Ultros are here.

"Can I start now? Is it a good time to jump in? You guys still active?"

Yup. This game is more casual-focused than hardcore (not many MMOs can survive these days that aren't), though there is a sizable chunk of content for the more dedicated players to mess with. In the free company we generally have one of three kinds of people playing at any given time (out of a 400+ community):

Ranks are doled out by helpfulness, regular play/seniority, and general activity/participation with the free company. There are no hard-line rules for joining. Hell, you don't even have to know what Giant Bomb is (and a lot of our players don't, they just value a decent community to play with). We have people that don't know what this site is but are Final Fantasy fans and vice versa.

1. Regulars (rank names: Bomb Master, Bomb Leaders, Bomb Officers): These people have been playing the game on a near-daily basis for the better part of four years now.

2. Semi-dedicated players (rank name: Duders): This is the largest group of active players. There are always new players cycling in and out of this category. They typically stack content patches and come back a couple of times a year to catch up on story and features. Otherwise they mainly keep up interactions on social media and Discord while taking regular extended breaks from the game and coming back in aggressive bursts throughout the year.

3. L.I.O. : They logged in once or twice and we never saw them again. Some try to barrel through the in order to bypass the subscription fee, but that's getting harder to do (Both Heavensward and A Realm Reborn have gotten rather long in the tooth with post-vanilla padding/fetch quests).

It's always a good time to start playing, but there are better times than others. For example, after the next big patch (i.e. 3.5a/b: The Far Edge of Fate Part II), there will be a downtime as the development begins gear up for the expansion. This means at least three months for everyone to catch up and comfortably cruise through the story mode with time left to dabble in other things (assuming you're starting fresh).

"Can I take this item from the Free Company Chest?"

Please take it. General rule of thumb is if you can see and have access to it, you're free to make use of it (just don't clean out the entire chest). We try to keep it stocked with things people regularly use and need so feel free to take what you need.

"Starting out, advice?"

Patience. Do not rush it, especially if you're actually enjoying the game. We've seen way too many people fall into the trap of trying to access that new hot content ASAP when they just started the game, whether they're new or MMO-veterans. This is especially relevant for for people coming from other MMOs (especially you WoW-heads), as things like the longer GCD and very forced focus on story before anything else tends to brush people the wrong way early on. For MMO-newcomers, winding up having your attention pulled in a dozen different directions when you'd be better served focusing on one task (i.e. doing the main scenario quests and the leveling to support it) frequently ruins people on the game, especially when the story slows down with its fetch quests and the like. They wind up burning out or frustrating themselves on the game and dropping it. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had (even in that fetch quest stuff) if you're not constantly trying barrel through to endgame (unless that's all you're there for, in which case you're on your own). This guild's primarily function is to help players enjoyably cruise through all that stuff, so don't be afraid to ask for bodies in low level stuff (usually there's a reward in it in some form or another for a Veteran player).

"I'm here for endgame? Can you guys coordinate a static for progression?"

Copying-pasting from the questions thread:

This turned into a weird one from some of the more hardcore people that stumble into the Company and I've had to go out of my way to plaster it on every outlet we have that we're not that kind of guild. That being said we do have a handful of groups that tackle the high endgame stuff but they're only together due to naturally forged friendships over the past few years, so it's simply not realistic for someone to just jump in expecting to immediately play with them (honestly, you'd be surprised how many people who just invite themselves along or at least feel entitled to it). The leaders and officers are here to moderate assholes and help people with as much stuff as they reasonably can while enjoying the game for themselves, not babysit your egos.

"I heard there are new PC Requirements?"

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/product

"Should I play for PS4 or PC?"

Either one is fine. It mostly depends on comfort your level and preference, as this game has been designed from the ground up to work on console (much to the chagrin of those weird PC people). For the PC crowd though, I should emphasize that if you buy the game on Steam you will be locked to the platform when buying other expansions for the game (e.g. you can't buy a the regular PC version of the game and have it work with Steam's copy of Heavensward and vice versa). You essentially have to consider the Steam version of the game as its own separate platform with this game.

Free Company Updates

1. We still have a Guildwork page, but it’s essentially dead at this point. We moved most of our chatter and business over to Discord pretty early on and haven’t looked back.
2. We're still on the Ultros server but as of the latest patch, cross-server play was added, so as long as you're on the Primal data center cluster, you can play with us via the party finder (though you can't actually join the guild unless you're on Ultros).
3. Ultros, while not the most popular server, is still on the more popular end of servers, which means it can take a little bit of patience to get in if you're making a new character. During the following times is typically when character creation restrictions are eased and it's best to make a character on Ultros: 3:00 a.m./ 7:00 a.m./ 12:00 p.m./ 5:00 p.m./ 10:00 p.m. (PST)

Links/News and other Media

1. Reddit Translation of Famitsu Interview with Yoshida: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/5cucly/8page_famitsu_interview_with_yoshida_after_nas/
2. Official Site: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/
3. FFXIV Subreddit (generally the melting pot for this game's community in terms of news and such): https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/
4. Yoshida still interested in getting the game on X-Box One (and now Switch), but refuses to comprimise on a split player-base: http://nintendoeverything.com/square-enix-considering-final-fantasy-xiv-for-switch/
5. They are also looking into adding a unique form of Blitzball to the game: https://twitter.com/RPGSite/status/833048350966611969
6. Letter from the Producer (EU Fanfest): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X6G46QON0-SjjeLFe8BVwfqxyV_E5OGxTMVMsXVQoo8/
7. A Realm Reborn (2.0) - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIV:_A_Realm_Reborn
8. Heavensward (3.0) - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIV:_Heavensward
9. Twitch - Final Fantasy XIV: https://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv
10. Final Fantasy XIV - Free Trial: http://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/
11. Final Fantasy XIV - Lonestone: Database, Guide, News, Maintenance, etc: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/
12. FFXIV Server Status (Official): http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/worldstatus/
13. FFXIV Server Status (Fan, Prettier, Better): http://arrstatus.com/
14. Garland Tools- Great database site, more robust than the lodestone: http://www.garlandtools.org/
15. FF Logs - Combat Analysis for Final Fantasy XIV, great for looking at, analyzing, and comparing numbers: https://www.fflogs.com/guilds/characters/37/
16. Ariyala's Toolkit - Good supplement to the above two, tracking best-in-slot gear and stuff: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/
17. Gamer Escape - Final Fantasy XIV Wiki: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/
18. FFXIV Wiki: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/FF14_Wiki
19. Twitch Community for us: https://www.twitch.tv/communities/vincoffxiv
20. We also have a PS4 community that people can join if they want, though you'll have to search it on your Playstation: http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps4/friends/about_communities.html
21. Twitter list for members of the Free Company: https://twitter.com/SnakeLinkSonic/lists/vinnco-free-company

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O boy, this is making me want to resub and get back to not finishing content -corhrah

Seriously tho redmage looks so fucking sick

RDM/SAM hype!

Excited to check out Ala Mhigo. I'm about to start the 2.5 lead up quests to Heavensward content, so between that, everything after, and the few extra jobs I wanna level I think I'm good between now and Stormblood's release. Of the two new jobs I'll probably go samurai first.

Man, playing this thing with a controller is intense. Definitely takes some getting used to, but I really like it.

An interview transcribed from the Fanfest conversation with Soken and Uematsu: http://gamerescape.com/2017/02/19/when-musicians-collide-nobuo-uematsu-masayoshi-soken-recap/

They also accepted three world records:

• Longest end credits in an MMO video game (1 hour and 38 minutes)
• Most Original Pieces of Music in a Video Game (384 Original Compositions)
• The Most Prolific Role Playing Series (87 games)

WAR has been the favorable of the tank jobs since the get go. While PLD has no equal in the amount of damage that job can soak people prefer teaming with WAR due to their high DPS rate that sometimes matches some DPS jobs. To me it pretty much reached a point where they can just shelve PLD and DRK and people won't even blink. WAR has clearly been their main tank job from the get go. But like you said, tanks is clearly something they didn't really put much thought into when building the system.

I at least take solace in the fact that PLD do not need to be babyset by the healers as much as WAR and DRK.

@mordukai: When 2.0 first launched I remember WAR being pretty lackluster. Everyone wanted a PLD over WAR because it did its job of soaking up damage better than WAR ever could. But eventually WAR got a big overhaul, and they started to adjust end game content to favor PLD less and the class steadily fell out of favor from there. WAR getting a strong off-tank stance in 3.0 really put a nail in its coffin.

I have more fun playing DRK than either though.

@zeik: I will agree to that. DRK are really fun to play and if you play it right you can have an infinite pool of MP. I really hope they'll put some attention on PLD back.

I'm ready for Return to Ivalice. FFT for the original Playstation is one of the best games I've ever played so I'm hoping there is more of that and less FF12 and Vagrant Story in there.

I plan to resub in the next month or two to catch up on the stuff I missed since Christmas and then I'll return again for the Stormblood launch. I may finally be able to convince my friend to switch over from her server to Ultros.

Very relevant: in Japan starting on April 16th there's going to be a live-action show, called "Daddy of Light" (official translation), which is about a teenage boy and his middle-aged salaryman father playing FFXIV together. Along with a bunch of old looking salarymen who you wouldn't normally expect to see playing an online videogame. Trailer:

I kind of hope there are some fan subs for this as a part of misses watching weird japanese TV.

I need to catch the fuck up, haven't played for a year or two but I'd bought Heavensward at some point. Now I'm trying to make my way up to that content. I think I still have some time, but goddamn there's so much to go through.

If you play casually (like less than 2 hours a day) it'll probably take you a month to catch up with all the gear grinds and ilvl checks they put in. You can expedite that some by grinding some of the high level dungeons but I don't recommend that unless you are a tank or healer with faster queue times. Most of the patched content can be done in one sitting if you have the gear for it. At least it's easy to get ilvl 230 right now.

I don't recommend trying to grind through all the content to "catch up," while some parts of it are irritating, by and large post 2.0 I found going through large chunks of the storyline at a time to be a really enjoyable, relaxing experience. When you're "catching up" it feels like there's always something to do, some near goal in sight. When you're "caught up" most of what you have to do feels like busy work and most of your goals are long term.

The patches are actually going way faster than expected. I'm not really finding them that interesting so far, but I just want to get up to the Heavensward content mostly. So I'm kinda swimming my way through the patches leading up to it.

Do I need to be on a specific server to join the Company through housing? I am on Primal - Exodus to play with some friends (got about 12 hours so far) and I saw the guide for joining but didn't see anything GB related there. Maybe I just don't know how housing works exactly. I just saw a list of plots and no way to walk around in the area.

Thinking I want to jump back into this game.

I had the base version on steam but thinking if I want to get back into the game I might rather do it on PS4. Can I use my Steam character on PS4?

Yep PS4/PC players are located on the same server. Just use your Square enix ID that you used for your PC version and everything should be A-Okay.

@mrplatitude: Yes, they run on the same servers. Just make sure to link it to the same Mogstation account/Square Enix ID.

@ketta said:

If you're on the same data center, you can only play with us through duties (dungeons, raids, etc.) created in the party finder, but you're actually on a different server from us (meaning you can't just hang around with us in the world or at the house).

Yup. Same servers. Do keep in mind that you will have to re-purchase the game on PS4 though.

@snakelinksonic: I think I understand. I am on the same data center but a different server. Am I still able to join the FC through a contact if I can't go to the housing district and apply?

@ketta: Not in the way that I imagine you want. You could jump in if we set up a night to do free company runs and raids (which we do occasionally do from time to time), but you can only "officially" join the guild if you're on the same server, otherwise you'd have to make your own. There were a couple of other ones on the lower-pop servers, but I've never heard from them outside of them starting up.

Well, I resubbed. Maybe now I'll actually finish vanilla and get to HW content.

Your only real options are to either server transfer or create an alt character if you want to play directly with us. Like @snakelinksonic said there is cross server play for doing duties and joining pre-formed parties but if you wanted to directly chat with people in the free company chat channel as well as hang out around the house the only way to do that is to be physically on the Ultros server with us.

That being said if you play FFXIV and just want some like minded people to bounce ideas off of outside of the game either me or Snakelinksonic can hook you up with a discord link if you would like to join that.

@demoskinos: Oh, could I get a discord link too?

@belegorm said:

Discord link: https://discordapp.com/invite/0NWds5GeWWRShYlf

@snakelinksonic Do you know if Stormblood already has significant upgrades that makes the PC requirements update and the end of PS3 support necessary? Or is it just to make way for future upgrades?

@newhaap said:

A lot of it was from the memory restrictions that the PS3 was placing on the game, which is why so many people celebrated it being dropped. This included stuff like housing item limitations and inventory space (which looks like it's being doubled across the board for Stormblood). Beyond that, they seem to be targeting graphical and performance upgrades. They've already announced that the PS4 version is getting stuff like support for the Pro.

I personally always liked the PS3 support (the more unified platforms this game supports the better), but they said going into 2.0 that they would only support the PS3 up and through the first expansion. I hope something can be worked out for the Switch and/or the X-Box platforms.

I'm back in trying to do Alex stuff.

The most limiting aspect of the PS3 version was the HUD. Since the system has such low memory they were very limited in what kinds of and how many HUD elements there could be. One of the announced features of Stormblood is a job specific HUD element to make it easier to keep track of and manage the vital buffs or abilities for each class.

@newhaap: To add to what the posts above have said, I have a specific example where PS3 limitations held the game back. Previously the party list showed HP and MP, but not TP. It was decided to add TP to the list in patch 3.07, but the number of HUD elements on the screen was already at the maximum that the PS3 could display, so something had to go. They chose to remove the party bonus indicators (i.e. the bonuses for having certain jobs in the party, like everyone getting extra VIT with a tank in the party) so that TP bars could be added.

I've played XIV on and off for a little while (returning for new major patches mostly) so I'll definitely be back for Stormblood. It's looking likely I'll be moving to the US around the time of Stormblood so I've been thinking of swapping to a US server (currently on Moogle). If I do, I'll probably join the GB FC.

@newhaap: Dude, FFXIV on PS3 is ROOOUUUGGGHHHH. Incredibly long loading times (like everyone else in your party will be loaded in and ready to go a minute or two before you), incredibly small viewing distance (fog everywhere), ugly textures, and so on.

Also like others mentioned, there's lots of potential improvements to the HUD that could be made without the PS3 version holding it back. Of course they've already started improving it for the PS4 and PC versions, but it's really a miracle that the game is playable on PS3 at all really at this point. And instead of trying to somehow make the damn game work on PS3 they can take that time and resources working on other things. Like bigger and better organized inventories, which also wasn't possible on PS3.

What's the pop and activity of the Ultros guild. My buddy and I just got back in to FFXIV and don't have a FC currently and would totally server transfer over.

We probably see 20-30 different players daily, concurrent numbers are around 10 or so (totally spitballing the numbers here). Things can feel a little quiet pre-Stormblood but there are totally still people down to chat & run stuff, so if you wanna hop on over we can get you hooked up no problem

@giantstalker said:

He's more or less correct. It waxes and wanes throughout patches/year. When things are packed and rolling (launch months, big patches, etc.), there can be between 40-70 people always on at any given time. During the more tepid patches and pre-expansion storm's eye months, it's mostly a skeleton crew of the regulars (10-30) with a handful of new people slowly working their way through the main story quests.

So I haven't been playing FFXIV much lately, because I'm on the EU Data Center (started there when it was located in NA) and my hours just make it a drag with super long queues. Now that I know GB has an FC, I am definitely going to hop over. My only question is what should I use to carry over my gil? I have about 16 million and I was wondering what you guys suggest to buy and sell over there. I was thinking of buying Savage Aim Materia V. It costs 130-140k on my server, and I could always use it if I can't move it. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks ^_^

@belegorm: Every time inventory space has come up they said it was the servers that were holding it back. When they announced the increase they specifically said it was due to them improving their servers, which is why it won't be in at Stormblood's launch. They know servers will be getting hammered when the expansion launches so they are waiting a bit before adding the strain of more inventory.

Why did Doma fall to the Empire?

Cause it had no healers or tanks!

Seriously though, bummed out at Samurai being a DPS, just ain't feeling the love for healers and tanks this time round and the queue problems this'll create out the gate will probably be pretty substantial.

Though I hear there's blitzball coming? And Monks will be plot relevant likely? Looking forward to that.

@pierre42: I think their problem right now is they can't figure a way to make a new healer or tank feel unique. They were already stretching it apparently with DRK/AST.

We'll see what time brings, though.

That's a bummer: I've been waxing for my old WoW days lately and the idea of an active GB community in this game was making me think about finally checking it out. I may still grab it on sale at some point where it seems to come with a trial month, but a skeleton crew is definitely lessening the appeal.

@pierre42: I'm (secretly) thankful because I can more easily stick with WAR and feel at peace.

Obviously 1-50 queue times will be fine, I expect DD queue times from 50-60 to be brutal for a few weeks, but 61-70 to be mostly alright since there will be plenty of people who just want to continue playing their normal tank or healer.

Then in a month or two it should all level out a bit. To me at least it does kinda feel like SE is reaching the same point they reached in FFXI, where they quickly ran out of ideas for new tanks or healers and just kept on spitting out more DD jobs. But in FFXI they had other roles they could make new jobs of: support, hybrid, solo, etc. It'll definitely feel quite a bit worse in FFXIV's more clearly defined trinity.

@belegorm: I dunno it's always fun to bat around ideas for new healers and tanks.

I remember my girlfriend hedged her bet on a new tank idea that would be about parrying. Basically small cooldown moves that reduced damage and reflected some back as the basis for a class.

I've been thinking Geomancer could be potentially a healer. Heals as standard but as their gimmick they could create particular fields that would buff anyone standing in them. Like Astrologian cards but weaker (to justify it) and on demand and only for a small area.

Also these ain't any small job classes...these are Red Mage (the classiest) and Samurai (from what I hear this was big in XI), even if some people go back to their healer and tank main...some won't. Some will stick and the balance will be forever altered for the worse.

@embigmoose: When I moved, I bought popular things like minions. May be worth while to have a contact on the new server compare market items to make sure you're not losing -too- much money. Popular items like Thancred minions will cost a lot and flip fast. I made back the 15 mil I went over with in about a week.

i joined the free company but haven't really said anything yet, i'm slowly working my lil ninja through the msq. i don't really know what i wanna do job wise yet. i'm thinking take ninja to 50 then try drk/ast, but the idea of tanking is not as appealing as the idea of playing as drk again (my ffxi character a hundred years ago was drk), and i'm not sure what the hell is up with ast but it seems like white mage but with random buff things to make it annoying?? and then there's stormblood stuff to consider... i might just stick with nin, i just worry with all the mudra stuff since going from rog->nin it's getting too dense to be something enjoyable at cap for me.

basically i just want the easiest job of the 3(5?) to push butan and make number go up real big. i don't want responsibility

I often think about picking this game back up. I quit because I had such a horrid experience trying to beat one of the 8 man bosses, can't remember which but the games reliance on having its player go in their own time and research every fight before they do it really turned me off.

But with the new expansion I keep thinking about it. But I haven't even got very far into the heavensward stuff so maybe I'd be too far behind hmmmmm

@frodobaggins said:

Was it just general anxiety or were people being shitty about it in an instance? Usually this game's fanbase is seen as one of the more helpful ones, but there's buttheads everywhere, especially now with veterans having end-game ready jobs and no patience for newcomers.

@snakelinksonic: it was just people being generally shitty, or not even so much the people but the games almost reliance on you doing research before hand, that at the time turned me off. We tried the boss maybe 3 or 4 times and then people started bitching about why don't people know what to do, haven't you watched the YouTube guides etc. Which I kind of understand, ie they've probably done the fight before they know what to do, they don't want to waste their time.

They just posted the benchmark for Stormblood: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/blog/002010.html

Along with some new information from Today's Live Letter: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/323559

There was a massive info dump with today's Live Letter. No use in trying to rephrase what's been gathered at reddit already. Jump potions, PVP, and detailing how the changes to the combat system will work in Stormblood.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/6co0zv/megathread_letter_from_the_producer_live_xxxvi/dhw1jmq/

Also a cool video showing some of it in action (similar to the one they released around the same time for Heavensward)