FUN!!!!!!!! We’ve been asking for more open world content for a while now, and this feels like it! Open world bosses have led to congestion issues and models not loading on screen, so limiting the Diadem instances to 72 people is a good idea to start off. Perhaps if the servers and content balancing works out with the map that we have now, they may add larger capacity harder bosses for future iterations of this type of content.
Note that we’ve only tried The Diadem Normal though we do have Hard unlocked. We’ll be doing those soon and I’ll post the experience as well.
I thoroughly enjoy the idea of slaying smaller mobs which then spawns the next tier until you reach the starred mob. it reminds me of a more accessible and speedier version of ZNM from FFXI.
We got lucky with finding Little Foot (I refuse to call him anything else, also I can’t spell his real name ; ;). We haven’t had a chance to go back in again since we’re using static play times to learn Thordan, but perhaps this weekend we’ll be able to try Hard!
Square Enix and story telling has always been the WINNINGEST combo (yes that’s a word, you shush now). There were definitely some cable TV moments with some of the threads in the story, you know when the writer wants to wring out every last drop of your tears!! /stares at writers…. /stareeee….. but it’s all understandable in the grand scheme of things. We continue rushing along to where the story of Eorzea is taking us.
I still recall the very first instant in 1.0 when we heard whispers of the Ascians, saw shadows of their presence in Eorzea, then in 2.0 where the story was revolved entirely around their machinations. But in 3.0, despite the continued Ascian presence and the impending BIG BAD to come, we still got to meet some amazing new characters and experienced many emotional moments in the story.
With the continued improvements of the graphics and game engine, SE team was able to tell a heart tugging, awe inspiring story of decades old deceit, betrayal, love and friendship. This time around I’m glad I was able to truly and absolutely enjoy it at my own pace and time, from the grand and epic main story to the smaller touching side quests, everything was incredibly well done.
Yes, even the side quests! You end up caring for characters or having high hopes for them only to find it dashed and bloodied in the snow, where only a satchel of their belongings are left behind. If you have not done the Ishgard side quests, I recommend you do it! And the Gnath side quests too! And the Moogles, even though you may want to wring their cute fluffy little necks after, I bet you’ll still have your ‘favorite’ kupo in there somewhere!
But we’re getting sidetracked, let’s go back to the main story! THANK YOU SQUARE ENIX for giving us a complicated involved story line that we can enjoy, thank you for giving us meaningful main arcs and enjoyable mini arcs, so that we can feel accomplishment along with all the characters. Most of all, thank you for giving us an NPC team that TRAVELS WITH US, engages in battles along side us, and is THERE where the moments matter. I am especially loving all the quest scenario that takes you on a journey from one place to the other with memories made along the way (Leaving Moghome, Dravanian Forelands etc.) I am absolutely looking forward to the story continuation in the next patch!
Walking Down Memory Lane
I’ve always wanted to go back through and read npc dialogues or re-experience the story, as my main character, which is why I film the entire process (yes even during ARR but I’m still working on those files! It’s a mess!). After a few weeks of editing, re-watching, organizing and publishing, I finally completed my Heavensward Main Scenario Quest playlist on Youtube!! I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been to me, although watching it from the viewpoint of someone not your character is a bit poo poo ; ;
HI FWENS (and also any random passer bys that’s seeing this /wave). It’s been a really long time since I made an update post. What have I been up to?!
IRL Job gained additional responsibility and challenges causing playtime to reduce, booo however it is so much fun, it’s almost like a RL game so I’m super happy!
Creating never ending Youtube videos! I’ve been much more active on Youtube in the last year or so, with maybe a 6 month lull as I transitioned through RL events and worked around my new schedule. You can view my youtube here: www.youtube.com/aqueliachan
Absolutely having a blast with the new FFXIV Heavensward Expansion. I even made an unboxing video woo!
Trying to fit in some Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together game time in there somewhere! If you haven’t tried it yet, do eettt it’s so hilariously awesome! I’ve been wanting to make videos of it but I keep forgetting >.>
Lots of other awesome things IRL such as trips, visits, and food lots and lots of food omg
Alpha Prime Celebrating the end of 2.0 and beginning of 3.0
Onward… Heavensward… Hooooooo!
It has been an amazing experience with Heavensward so far. I always felt that 1.0 had its charms even though the entire system was URGH BARF, then 2.0 was suchhhhh an obvious improvement but it retained that charm and added to it. It also added heart. However, I made the mistake of starting out 2.0 attempting a play style that just wasn’t who I am anymore, yet I ignorantly tried to continue that play-style. In 3.0, it has been absolutely perfect! I spend my entire time with friends and loved ones. We do whatever we want whenever we want, as little or as much as we want. I am most especially happy since a lot of friends have returned to game to play Heavensward, including Vivid and Scinder! Vid came back much earlier so I had time to annoy her for months on end before Scinder came back MUAHAHA. Nain also took a break and is now back full time /cracks whipper.
The remainder of Alpha Prime that stayed with me on Excalibur is still playing, including Lokie! OMG! This is the longest I’ve seen him play XIV in a stretch. Cala, Foosh and Debris are pretty much done with the game since about 2 months in to 2.0 so poops there but they chat every day and I pop in to view their jibba jabba sneakily once in a while.
We’ve been leveling jobs, doing main scenario quests (MSQ)… which is just fantastic! The story-line is absurdly good, I’ve not been this invested in characters since FF9! I mean I love all the other games but I never felt ‘attached’. I actually cried IRL and exclaimed out loud to the dismay of hubby in certain parts/scenes from the main story, that’s how amazingly good it is. I’m starting to post the entire MSQ journey on my Youtube channel, so check there if you are curious!
Understandably 2.0 had to fix a lot of things from 1.0, so it spent it’s entire time doing that, as well as live testing on certain content. I could visibly see the XIV dev team learning with every major patch. The story elements, the content, everything was a learning curve. Us players and SE learned and grew side by side, I really liked that! I feel that Heavensward, for me and my group of friends specifically, has parts that make us go URGH but in general we’re very happy with the expansion and will not run out of things to do for a long time.
Aque Vid And Scin Together Wether
Raidsward…mooo?
As with any MMO, raiding is a key ingredient. It’s not a compulsory ingredient though, especially in Heavensward. They released the normal or story version of the raid first, then add in the hardcore or “Savage” version after. This makes so much more sense and allows players who want to see the story to get in there and start doing things. I felt that the Coils of Bahamut, which also had a rich story-line locked the majority of players out of enjoying it. It is safe to assume that there is maybe 1-10% of players who are hardcore and care about raiding content, the remainder just wants to have fun and do whatever they want while enjoying the story-line as a bonus (or in our case, the primary reason we love the game! GO STORY!!!)
We started doing the Savage mode raids the week it was released and boy are they tough! I love it! We may not beat this content fast, considering we have a maximum of 6 hours raid time a week (2 hours every Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) but we sure are gonna keep at it and see where it takes us! We have been keeping this schedule consistently for almost a year now and our core group has stabilized with 7 of us being close friends which includes FFXI static mates Varg, Dakana and Ferien. This particular point is key, for me personally. I enjoy doing raids with my team and am incredibly grateful to Ferien for transferring to Excalibur to hang out with us. Tizmo, Ice Wing and Alki are new friends but they’ve already accepted me just for who I am!
I’ll rant, yell, complain, whine, or as the team puts it “Dooo whattttevvverrr you want Aqueee just haveee at it” lol and it’s all fine and dandy. For Vargy and I it’s a relationship we’ve had for over 13 years and it feels great that we’re extending the circle of friends! It makes raiding more fun! Not saying there are no in fighting going on, oh you should see the fist fights /nods but after all the whining and complaining I do at our group, in the end everyone is super awesome and sweet and are good people, so THANK YOU! You can see some of our derps and bloopers here!
Tizzy Kills Us All
Nainsward… what?
I JUST HAD TO! I mean Nainward…. Heavensward…. Nainsward HOOOO! And you started it!
Nain and I are currently engaged in gathering and crafting activities almost exclusively whenever we have free time and when we’re able to be online together. It’s harder during work days but on the weekends, I cracks my whipses and Nain craftses /nods
Gathering is SO MUCH FUN with the collectibles addition. When Nain first read/saw it he immediately said to me “Aque, I think they just added the exact kind of content you like” and when I finally got around to leveling miner, I saw it and totally agree lol! I’m not even sure why it’s so much fun, but I love the idea of turning in as many items as you can acquire in whatever play time you have. I do agree with some parts of the community that says ‘this is going to take forever’ when referencing the red scrips weekly cap but… let’s take a look at what that means. It’s longevity for the content. It doesn’t feel super grindy, and I can do it while doing other things, so again in my personal opinion it feels just right. I also think this system is very unique for MMOs, I’ve not seen anything like this before, so I’m curious to see in the long run what kind of data they see on the back end and how they tweak the system to allow for more options for every type of players. As usual, juggling different preference is VERY HARD! Can’t make everyone happy!
Lalazea… Oh My!
So a little after 2.0 launched, I decided that Lalafells are master races forever and have since been making several videos centered around the glorious existence of our kind. My partners in this are Sprinkles Cupcake and Mad Platter! Though Mad Platter is himself a stinkie dragon shoo shoo person but at least he has a Lalafell alt that’s just adorbs!
Towards the purpose of advancing the Lalafell propaganda, I created the Lalazea videos. Please find them both below and a new 2015 Fall one will come in the next few months! Please look forward to it! /snerk
Lalazea 2014 – Spring
Lalazea 2015 – Spring
And with that self proclaimed lala-awesomeness, I bow out from my annual update, LALAFELL MASTER RACE! SEE YOU GUYS NEXT… YEAR? XD
Las Vegas Fan Festival Day 2 is over and tomorrow YoshiP and team will be on a flight to prepare for London Fan Fest next weekend! What did we learn today?
Patch 2.4 rolls out October 28th (nothing new here, everyone figured it’d be out very soon after the London Fan Fest but nice to have official confirmation!)
YoshiP is still a troll
The Live Letter didn’t give much more new information but did confirm a few things
New housing ward will be made available, but in the form of ‘subdivisions’. The explanation seemed a bit complicated so instead of typing it up, I just made a quick excerpt of that section below.
Final Coil of Bahamut will have 4 turns. First will be doable with current i110 gear, 2nd turn will be more challenging, turn 3 and 4 is supposed to be insane.
The Hildibrand quests are going to continue being hilarious but the storyline ends before 3.0. Pretty sure they won’t phase out Hildi but YoshiP would not commit to yes or no. Short intro to Ultros and Typhon from the questline below. The music is absolutely awesome and brings such nostalgia for the older games!
There was an interesting discussion about echo and adjustments to the difficulty of Second Coil of Bahamut. I made a clip of it below. I’ve heard many different view points on content ‘nerfing’ in a way, which you can tell the audience wants things to remain ‘hard’. I understand both view points, and agree with what the producers need to balance in term of financial profitability from content. It’s a huge discussion and everyone has their own opinions. My two cents: what does matter in the long run? Allowing more players to catch up means profit for the company which in turns allow them to create harder content for future patches which the 1%ers will eat up quickly and then move on.
Also of note, in content where there is a weekly lock out, they are trying to balance out a system which will allow players to assist other LS mates. We’ve been asking for this for ages, not being able to help friends after weekly Coil clear for example was the poop!
Ninja gear – looks like it’ll be sharing with Monk for contents up to 2.3. Then it starts to get specialized.
Ninja primary stat – dexterity
The marriage system is called Eternal Bond and a limit will be placed on number of ceremonies allowed per day. Sort of like RL wedding halls, gotta book it?!
Best of Show cosplayer was the amazing Garuda. So many awesome cosplays, very impressive
To everyone who got to go and then got to win a Titan at the Raffle … /stinkeye /jealousy!!!
KOJI FOX CAN SING HOLY FREAKING HELL!
A bunch more small details here and there, watch the full live letter below
Full Live Letter From the Producer at Las Vegas Fan Festival
Gondai’s small team works their butt off with amazing skills
Dark Knight (or something of similar name pretty much confirmed by TrollShiP)
Me: Vivid, yoshiP was trolling about jobs and batman and Nolan and shit, please decipher!
Vivid: Dark Knight
Me: oh… OH ohOHHHHHHHH!
My previous post about Samurai has apparently been making the rounds as “data mined at fan fest” wut….. rumormille machine chug chug chug XD
Welps, thank god I woke up in time to set up and watch the funnest kick off to a fan festival evar! (rivaled only by the PUP announcement hilarity back in the good ole ffxi days!)
Mini trailer will come after some bullet points about FFXIV 3.0: Heavensward Coming in Spring 2015!
Level cap raise to 60 for all Disciples
New large scale areas
All new primals!
NEW PLAYABLE RACE!
New High End Raids
More than 4 new dungeons
Ishgard as the 4th City State
Obviously the entire Ishgard story: Dragonsong War
MULTIPLE New Jobs! Japan/London will be revealing details
FC Airship – areas that are being hinted as being reachable only by these airships (they didn’t say but with the snerking going around it sounds like it?)
New Gear New Recipes (the usual)
They’re sharing the reveal details with London and Japan, so more details throughout the weekend and in another week
UPDATE:! New Beastman races (Dravanian is considered a beastman race)
FFXIV 3.0 Heavensward New Expansion Reveal Mini Trailer
the interblag 