Beginner questions

[bioxz]

Hi, as there is a weekend sale on XIV right now (I noticed it a bit late, so just one more day) I though about getting into it. Played DCUO on PS3 and Neverwinter in the past on consoles and had much fun, but:

 

• Does XIV have microtransactions? Those basically destroyed the later DCUO and Neverwinter for me, as I won't spend much money for digital stuff. I can live with a monthly fee, but I won't play any more games where you can pay 2 win or pay 2 progress faster. In Neverwinter it felt nearly impossible to get perfect gear without spending (a lot) money. By buying the game and paying my monthly fee I want to be equal with all other players.
• How much content can be played without the time to play daily? Some MMOs tend to force you to play daily to progress as fast as possible and have a limited progress you can achieve per day to keep you playing. I'll play most likely only on weekends.
• Is there a nice, diverse community? Having primarily male teenagers in the playerbase tends to be pretty toxic...

[TheLiamK]

Hey, I haven't played in a while but I can answer your questions the best I can. 

 

Once you buy the game there is a £7.50(I believe) monthly subscription needed in order to play. There are some 'optional items' but they are all cosmetic and there is not a lot of them. There are somethings that are annoyingly charged for, such as changing your race(you get one free), getting married in game, changing your name changing server and if you need more inventory.

 

There are some optional daily quests(I'm not far that in). The big one is the 'daily roulette', basically every day you can do a random dungeon in order to get an exp/money bonus. There is also daily 'requests' for you to craft specific items using the crafting/gathering classes. Again, not essential. I know there are more in the later game but I've not got past level 30 - 35.  As far as I played at least, your level and gear progression was paced really well with how far you are in the story.

 

It's pretty diverse, one of the best gaming communities I've seen so far. Different genders, ages, and countries are represented pretty well. PC and PS4 players can also play together, so there was always a new face/name to see. 

 

I hope this helps. As far as I know you also get a 30 day trial on the subscription so it can be one of those 'see for yourself' sort of things.

[Tesla_Rules]

Good to know, is the monthly subscription mandatory for online play, or is it just for added benefits in the game?  (DLC etc)

[bioxz]

15 minutes ago, TheLiamK said:

Hey, I haven't played in a while but I can answer your questions the best I can. 

 

Once you buy the game there is a £7.50(I believe) monthly subscription needed in order to play. There are some 'optional items' but they are all cosmetic and there is not a lot of them. There are somethings that are annoyingly charged for, such as changing your race(you get one free), getting married in game, changing your name changing server and if you need more inventory.

 

There are some optional daily quests(I'm not far that in). The big one is the 'daily roulette', basically every day you can do a random dungeon in order to get an exp/money bonus. There is also daily 'requests' for you to craft specific items using the crafting/gathering classes. Again, not essential. I know there are more in the later game but I've not got past level 30 - 35.  As far as I played at least, your level and gear progression was paced really well with how far you are in the story.

 

It's pretty diverse, one of the best gaming communities I've seen so far. Different genders, ages, and countries are represented pretty well. PC and PS4 players can also play together, so there was always a new face/name to see. 

 

I hope this helps. As far as I know you also get a 30 day trial on the subscription so it can be one of those 'see for yourself' sort of things.

Thanks! The problem with the dailies would most likely occur after you're done with the main story to get end level stuff, so I'll wait for more answers on that. But it's good to know you can't (or have to) throw money at everything in this game I would take advantage of the ongoing sale to get at least the main game for 15€ (and I don't want the game on disc, just a disc more to change and it's worthless once the servers are dead anyway).

 

9 minutes ago, Tesla_Rules said:

Good to know, is the monthly subscription mandatory for online play, or is it just for added benefits in the game?  (DLC etc)

It's a mandatory fee, no pay no play.

[TheLiamK]

1 minute ago, bioxz said:

Thanks! The problem with the dailies would most likely occur after you're done with the main story to get end level stuff, so I'll wait for more answers on that. But it's good to know you can't (or have to) throw money at everything in this game I would take advantage of the ongoing sale to get at least the main game for 15€ (and I don't want the game on disc, just a disc more to change and it's worthless once the servers are dead anyway).

 

No problem, for the time I played it I loved the game, worth a go for sure. Only stopped because I got a little addicted to Overwatch lol. As far as I remember, there are no mentions of real world money inside the game, apart from the damn gold sellers in chat, but hey MMO. I played Neverwinter for a bit and a huge turn for me was always being promted to buy something so I was glad to see nothing of the sort in FF14. I got the game on PS3 back in the day on disk and as far as I remember it was just used as an installer and I never touched it again, digital is the way to go I'd say. 

[bioxz]

Neverwinter was annoying, but most things looked optional too me. Until I reached the end game content. To upgrade stuff you need items you have to grind for, including upgrade stones. And the upgrade has a 1% chance to go well, otherwise, those stones are lost (and dozens hours invested for nothing). And guess what: You can buy a 100% chance item for real money (about 10€ I think...). That made me loose interest in Neverwinter and I don't want to have the same experience again in another game. It's so frustrating playing a great game and ending with bad end game content.

 

New question: If I buy that Starter Edition on disc, is the disc required to play the game? Is there even a disc or just a code in that case? ?

[AffectatiousDonk]

It's a great time to start if you are interested. I began playing again about 2 months ago and there are still a wide range of players. I have a feeling many are older, few kids but that might just be on the server I am on.

 

There is a monthly subscription fee after the initial 30 day trial. The only real grind to lvl and unlock MSQ for me came from lvl42-48, there seems to be a shortage of story quests at this point to help leveling. If you do daily roulettes for the bonus on any day you do play you should be well overleveled and avoid this problem.

 

I would recommend considering the time of day you play and choosing a server that will be active around that time. There are mandatory story dungeons and trials that need between 4 to 16 people so you can be waiting a fair while if you are playing off peak times. Also find a free company as soon as you unlock the option as joining one will really help later on in the less popular dungeons / trials.

 

All that aside it is a sensational game jam packed with story, enjoy 

Edited November 12, 2017 by CjShai

[bioxz]

Well, looks like this stupid account system is stopping me. Created an account on the website, connected my PSN account. But I can use that account only on the Square Enix page, not on the FF XIV page nor in the FF XIV login screen on my console (which is also asking for an one-time password?!). Password recovery tells me, that my mail isn't used. Never seen such a complicated procedure for ANY game on the PS4...

 

Got the game working and sitting in front of the character creation for hours Maybe we'll see us soon in game.

Edited November 13, 2017 by bioxz

[Virdeborn]

5 hours ago, bioxz said:

Got the game working and sitting in front of the character creation for hours Maybe we'll see us soon in game.

 

Wohoo!

 

What server are you on? I see you're from Germany. Shiva is considered the unofficial German server, in case you want to play primarily with fellow Germans.

[bioxz]

1 hour ago, Virdeborn said:

What server are you on? I see you're from Germany. Shiva is considered the unofficial German server, in case you want to play primarily with fellow Germans.

 

I'm still working on class, name and server Thanks for the advice, I think I'll just try that one. Sadly every server does not accept new players as soon as I'm done with everything, Shiva included. Tried Odin first (that was recommended from the game), Lousoix next (EXP bonus sounds nice) and looks like now I'll wait until I can select Shiva. Dozens of tries later I just entered Shiva . The time spent in the character editor might be worth the 15€ alone

Edited November 13, 2017 by bioxz

[Virdeborn]

Haha! I'm on Moogle myself. I can't speak for the American or Japanese servers, but the European ones are full of friendly peeps! Honestly, I think part of the reason for why the online community is so good is because it seems about half of it are made up by women. Compared to so many other online communities I've experienced, FFXIV has a much more grown up vibe to it as opposed to a bunch of sexually deprived teenage boys and keyboard warriors. It's really rare to see name calling and other rude behaviour.

Just beware, level 1-20 is the most boring part of the entire game (which is why you should have started off with the free trial, which lets you play until you hit level 35 - but what's done is done). The game starts of very slow, although that also gives you a lot of time to learn all the basics and stuff, but really it only gets better. I beat Stormblood last month and this game has now firmly established itself in my top 5 FF ranking.

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, Virdeborn said:

 Just beware, level 1-20 is the most boring part of the entire game (which is why you should have started off with the free trial, which lets you play until you hit level 35 - but what's done is done).

 

Just my 2 cents the trial is nice but it would make communicating with others terrible as you literally can't. You also can't join FC or use MB. Its quite limiting. If 1-20 is boring, the trial may cause game to be more boring.

[Virdeborn]

I guess that's one way to look at it

[bioxz]

I had about 2 hours of gameplay with the free trail before the sale ended. Still bought the game, I really liked what I saw, can't do much wrong with 7,50€ I thought it would be 15€, but that is the original price. Community is really great, I've already found a small FC (someone just whispered and helped me) and after a wipe in my first dungeon they said sorry for being too fast/pulling too many enemies instead of flaming me

[Seasonreaper]

Welcome to XIV! Yeah, people are generally really nice compared to a lot of MMOs around, although there'll naturally be some assholes here and there. Even in lategame content (I'm running current endgame stuff right now) it's still pretty chill, honestly. Honestly the only timesink of mediocre content is that between the end of A Realm Reborn and the start of Heavensward, so many worthless quests in there and you don't get much experience from doing them either due to them originally being postgame. Guildhests are also kind of a grind I guess, as most people don't bother with them, plus some people don't bother with the mechanics for some of the later ones which can lead to wipes (looking at you, Marlboro Bubble Hell).

 

Really unless you're going to be grinding out top-tier gear and content when it's still fresh, there's no problem at all in playing casually a couple days a week. Right now you should be able to coast through everything in the story without many issues if you do a daily roulette at least one day a week you're on, at least up to the end of Stormblood. Originally endgame gear from ARR and HW is given out or been made considerably easier to get now to prepare people for the new expansion, so you'll be up to speed in no time.

[bioxz]

1 1/5 months later, I'm almost done with the content-patches of HW . I finished everything in ARR before I bought Stormblood, so that exp was lost anyway. Right now I enjoy all those HW raids, they are pretty cool and leveled me already to 64. And I'm really hyped for Stormblood . If anyone here got interested in that game, it's on sale again (at least in Europe). 7,50€ for ARR or 26€ for everything are more than fair prices for the game. The music score alone was worth playing.