[Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn] Next Beta This Wednesday July 10 (Lasts Five Days!)

Just_Bri_Thanks

Ah well.

The Dude With Herpes

Well I feel stupid. I didn't realize there was an application for Alpha. I thought if you were a subscriber at the end you were automatically applied.

Oh wells.

Brody

Not everyone that applied got in though.

Professor Snugglesworth

I applied the day the form went up, haven't gotten an invite yet. Not sure if they're still sending the invites out, or that ship has sailed.

Neurotika

I think the last round goes out on the 17th, if their Twitter is to be believed.

Greg USN

yeah, sign ups ended on the 12th but selections through the 17th. I was initially sad I didn't get picked (got my invite last week) because of the thousands and thousands of hours i put into 1.0. I had friends that played the last few weeks with me and that was it that got picked before me.

WitchieNamine

Really looking forward for this game. I never played 1.0, so I'm not aware of what was so wrong, but for some reason even I'm really hoping it lives up to expectation to redeem from whatever failure 1.0 release was. I have a whole bunch of burning questions. I'm all hyped up like a kiddly on Christmas eve. Do people from Alpha and Beta keep their characters past release aswell?

Hunter_Killers

Nothing is held over from testing.

Greg USN

What tira said. Basically nothing carries over so i have been playing things to level 10 to tests the quests and general battle systems/crafting. I'd like to try the mini instance (15) but haven't had the willpower to actually get that high. Beta is being developed concurrently and will be very different but none the less the changes present in alpha are a testament to SE paying attention to the mistakes from the past and learning from the competition. They are trying to make a game that is first and foremost fun!

Professor Snugglesworth

Didn't FFXI let you keep your characters and their levels from the beta?

WitchieNamine

Any idea how long the gap will be from the beginning of beta to release? The Alpha is almost done, ending January/February, yea?

Greg USN

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

Didn't FFXI let you keep your characters and their levels from the beta?

nope I was 50 in ff11 closed beta and it got wiped

Professor Snugglesworth

Levequests and Party Combat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sesZWFsluM&hd=1

I wasn't sure at first why Levequests were still in, given that the game appears to have proper, easy to start up quests now. But I guess these are meant to be compared to WoW's dailies, letting you retake them as often as you want, and with adjustable levels for greater rewards.

I just hope they do a better job than the original's Levequests in letting you know what particular job/skill you need, whereas in the original they let you pick any quest even if you didn't have the necessary ability.

Party combat is looking ace, though it does look a bit humorous to see the giant armored monstrosity jiggle his hips wildly from the combined damage.

In any event, compare how this game looks in its current state to the recently released Lightning Returns...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajSAdgXU1ts&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

You tell me which looks like the better FF game.

Also, as I am sure there are a few FFXI fans here, there's also this....thing...hmm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCktm5W-Am0&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

reVerse

They both look pretty good to me.

The Dude With Herpes

Yeah, we know you have a hard on for your XIII related hate, lets leave that in the general FF thread.

And that XI thing isn't real anyway; its someone just made a shitty fighter with MUGEN.

Eumerin

The Lodestone site was just updated with some beta information.

Link - http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/teaser/index2.html

I wasn't sure at first why Levequests were still in, given that the game appears to have proper, easy to start up quests now. But I guess these are meant to be compared to WoW's dailies, letting you retake them as often as you want, and with adjustable levels for greater rewards.

Keep in mind that you can - in theory - max your level out seven times with the current classes. And this may increase later on. I suspect that you won't be able to gain all 350 levels on questing alone. Quests will be available for the first 1-50. And possibly the second and third. But eventually they're going to run out. Levequests should help take up the slack when this happens.

Professor Snugglesworth

More details here: http://www.siliconera.com/2012/12/26/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-beta-begins-in-feb-ps3-version-to-follow/

Phase 4 characters can be carried over to the official release.

I wonder if you'll have to re-apply for each beta phase, or if joining one has you set for all the others.

Professor Snugglesworth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fe09gta0WAw&hd=1

This is the first MMO I've seen where I'm actually tempted to try out the archer class. Those animations are just quick and smooth to a degree I've never seen before.

Eumerin

I liked Archer when I leveled it up (primarily for the very nice agro debuff ability that's available pretty high up the leveling path). Unfortunately, Archer's linked job is Bard, and, well... I didn't like that so much. Instead of focusing on really cool bow shots, I was watching buff timers.

Things could very easily change when ARR goes live, with all of its attendent differences. But it's something to be aware of.

There's also a "Musketeers" guild in Limsa Lominsa. SE hasn't added the class yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

spitfirek

Is there a link to apply for the beta yet?

Grundlestiltskin

So I saw somewhere that people with accounts would auto get into beta without applying - anyone know if that's true, and whether that only applies to active accounts?

Stolls

The alpha wasn't automatic - as I found out almost too late, applied just in time only just now got the reply - so I doubt the beta will be either. There may be some weighted preference for active players, but I couldn't honestly say for sure.

Neurotika

In the latest schedule Yoshi-P posted, Legacy members would "qualify as testers in Beta 1." You will still have to sign up when the beta site goes up though.

Roe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oR7ZfIyuHp0http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oR7ZfIyuHp0

Pretty awesome character creation.

Professor Snugglesworth

Baby Behemoth:



This is a bit weird to me, because this makes it look like Behemoths are a type of swine, whereas their adult appearances always gave the impression that they were some sort of feline/bull hybrid.

Combine that with the New Year's greeting picture, and it looks like we're going to get baby pets:

Also, this is fairly mind blowing in more ways than one: http://www.siliconera.com/2013/01/01/the-cover-of-what-may-be-square-enixs-final-playstation-2-game/

The Dude With Herpes

Why doesn't SE ever give us good covers like that.

They seem to think Americans are scared of Amanos androgynous art style. EDIT: Actually, they were pretty good about the XI xpacks having the amano art.

Anyway, yeah, Behemoth's have tended to always have a lion-ish facial structure. The pig nose on that baby one is weird.

After XIII-2 though, I'm not sure I can ever accept a behemoth that isn't adorned with a tophat.

EDIT EDIT: Also:
*removed because of potential malware? Chrome is super sensitive*

my body is ready

Neurotika

Sexy

The Dude With Herpes

I hope he pops out after you open up a chest in a dank cave. >.>

Professor Snugglesworth

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Why doesn't SE ever give us good covers like that.

Pretty sure all the FFXI expansion covers have used Amano art, including the US.

Also, how long have Cthulu Wizards been a thing? WoW, Demon's Souls, a bunch of other games I'm probably forgetting.

The Dude With Herpes

In FF those are Mindflayers, been in since FF1.

And I don't know how you quoted that line about the covers, without getting the sentence next to it that specifically mentioned the FFXI covers. :P

Professor Snugglesworth

You need to edit faster, son.

Anyway, I'm dying to try this already. It sounds if you get into even one Beta, you're good to go on all others forthcoming.

Greg USN

I got my CON to I think 18 in alpha from leves (eventually the leveling path ends, this was by design because ALPHA wasn't really about getting your character super high) and it worked really well solo. I never did get around to playing the instance though sadly because by the time I got to an appropriate level not a lot of people were doing it anymore (at least when I was logged in).

On another note! Unless there are any objections, depending on the launch date of ARR I'd like to volunteer to make the Linkshell for the PA community. I'll be importing a pretty buff character from 1.0 and can make my way to all the city states fairly easily. A couple caveats: Once we get going I will most likely pass leadership off to someone motivated that wants to set up events and what not and I may not be able to do it if I am in the middle of the ocean. The other thing is I've been pretty active in other PA guilds (FFXIV 1.0, TERA and SWTOR ) so a fair amount of folks know me. If there are other plans already though feel free to disregard this message.

Ryadic

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

In FF those are Mindflayers, been in since FF1.

And I don't know how you quoted that line about the covers, without getting the sentence next to it that specifically mentioned the FFXI covers. :P

They were called Mindflayers in Demon's Souls as well.

Professor Snugglesworth

So exactly how much content was available in the alpha? How many quests, areas, etc were available, and was there a certain point where you ran out of stuff to do?

Joshmvii

So when is this overhaul of FFXIV coming out? And is it going to have Samurai? I bought FFXIV when it launched for my wife and I, which was of course a huge mistake. Now that we've tired of TOR, GW2, and everything else quickly, seeing the videos and screens of this revamped deal is scratching my nostalgia itch since I do so love final fantasy in general.

Neurotika

According to the latest roadmap, about June-ish? Doesn't look like it will launch with Samurai.

WitchieNamine

ForceVoid wrote: »

According to the latest roadmap, about June-ish? Doesn't look like it will launch with Samurai.

I did a very vague assumption of when it's going to be released based on the roadmap. I was a bit early in my thoughts thinking beta would start mid January, when it will probably start later, and it's all subject to change. I just took all the maximum times given for each section in the roadmap and added it all up. I came to June too, around 180 more days/6 more months. Veeery roughly. It's kind of my way of tiding myself over till we get an actual release date.

Axen

I am surprised at how excited I am for this. My buddy and I both actually.

I got the game at launch and it didn't even run since I had the gall to have an nVidia (I think it was) graphics card. Then when that was sorted out there really wasn't anything to do in the game anyway.

I went back to it shortly before they closed the servers to prep for 2.0 and was genuinely impressed with the strides they had made. 2.0 is looking very sexy and very much something I wish to play. Though being a general fanboy of all things FF isn't helping with the wait. :P

Arthil

I just got a Malware notice from Chrome for this page ._.

The Dude With Herpes

Yeah, I did too, I suspect it may be that picture I linked. Gonna remove it and see.