[Dariusamede]

So I played FFXI a long long long time ago... I was wanting to come back to the game, but I looked and saw there was no free trial to return or anything like that right?

Also, is it worth even coming back to play with FFIV around the corner?

[Corrderio]

Let me ask you this first. What made you quit in the first place?

[Dariusamede]

The clunky-ness of the game, lag, the leveling scheme, and overall horde of people ruining the prices on the AH.

[Sho]

FFXI sucks, don't come back.

[Aeonknight]

Dariusamede, on 29 July 2010 - 08:18 PM, said:

The clunky-ness of the game, lag, the leveling scheme, and overall horde of people ruining the prices on the AH.

Clunkyness... I think that needs to be a bit better defined before you can be given a straight answer. Clunkyness could range from the battle mechanics, to forgetting to flag a quest so you didn't get the CS you needed. Whatever it is, chances are it hasn't changed.

Lag, not really a huge concern. Could be your end too ya know...

leveling scheme. There's been massive changes to the leveling process throughout the years. XP rings are made of win. FoV made solo leveling viable at low levels (and BST pets made it viable all the way to 80), parties are usually pretty good xp as long as you're with competant people and the job selection makes sense. For fast track leveling there's SMN burns and now Abyssea, which replaced TP burns for the most part (although a good TP burn still rakes in xp.)

tl;dr Leveling is a joke now.

people ruining AH prices.... you mean RMT or crafters?
either way the economy is for the most part where it should be. SH ain't 10M gil anymore, it's where it should've been all along.


You get to decide if you wanna come back or not. I wouldn't say FFXI ain't worth playing because FFXIV is around the corner, there's still a veritable mountain of content to do, both old and new... if that's your thing go for it.

[Dariusamede]

The "Clunky-ness" im referring to was mostly the battle system. Alot of stop, wait, cast/attack, without much fluidity.

The leveling where you were forced into groups around level 10 or so... then spending hours and hours in a group for minimal amounts of exp. I dont mind grouping, but being forced to do even have a chance of leveling was just a pain.

The AH at launch went from decent prices (lower than probably should be) to fair market values, then to 10x what items should be just because everyone jacked up prices of rare items from NMs.

Also, the fact that everything was open and there were no "instances" except for dynamis and some quests made it really annoying when looking for keys or quest items.

I think I will hold off because I dont have the most of the expansions (I only have CoP) and since most of the game has stayed the same... meh.

[Corrderio]

The game has changed a lot since the CoP era, but from how it sounds the same problems that made you leave are still in the game.

1. SE has made solo a bit more easier with Fields of Valor and Level Sync, but partying is the only real way to get EXP.

Fields of Valor starts off fast, but comes to a standstill around the 50s or so IIRC. Level Sync allows you to PT with other people and scale down to someone's level, but a lot of people only sync on Colibri and even then only certain jobs will be wanted. And then there's the fact that your combat/magic skills will be underleveld if you sync a lot so that's more work you need to do to keep yourself up to date. Abyessa can make a lot of EXP, but I think that's for high level only.

2. AH has changed a lot since your time. RMT were the main cause of the high price spikes. However SE took care of it and everything is pretty reasonable now. Although you'd still have to take time off to make money to get some equipment/spells/etc. every now and then.

3. SE has made more instanced endgame events since ToAU, however all of XI's endgame feels like a payless fulltime job for the most part.

[wigglestyx]

Corrderio, on 30 July 2010 - 12:29 PM, said:

The game has changed a lot since the CoP era, but from how it sounds the same problems that made you leave are still in the game.

1. SE has made solo a bit more easier with Fields of Valor and Level Sync, but partying is the only real way to get EXP.

Fields of Valor starts off fast, but comes to a standstill around the 50s or so IIRC. Level Sync allows you to PT with other people and scale down to someone's level, but a lot of people only sync on Colibri and even then only certain jobs will be wanted. And then there's the fact that your combat/magic skills will be underleveld if you sync a lot so that's more work you need to do to keep yourself up to date. Abyessa can make a lot of EXP, but I think that's for high level only.

If you have an LS that will let you leech, you can enter abyssea at 30, open chests and still get good exp once colors are built up

Corrderio said:

3. SE has made more instanced endgame events since ToAU, however all of XI's endgame feels like a payless fulltime job for the most part.

I feel endgame has changed alot over the years. No more "HNM drama", if fact almost no more HNM camps for that matter.
I really like the VNM system, I isn't as gimmicky as the ZNM with taking picture. I just wish the items they dropped (t3 rings mostly) where better, being that now you can get +6 rings off the AH.

Dariusamede said:

Also, is it worth even coming back to play with FFIXV around the corner?

While its not a korean mmo, that doesn't mean it cant fail, I really dont see it taking off for atleast 6mo. down the road.
XI didn't get good till Zilart. (NA release) and didn't really pick up till CoP.

I have seen people move to WoW then come back to XI.

[treelo]

Quote

Also, is it worth even coming back to play with FFIV around the corner?

Only if you didn't suck.

[Tigerlily]

Actually that is a good question to be asking whether it's worth to come back. What caused me to quit 5 years ago was the fact that the game was played by a majority of US and JP players with some small pockets of mixed European and Italian players, but the European pockets were so small that they often gave up trying to make their own linkshells and joined US ones instead. The problem with that was that large endgame events were done past midnight to benefit the US players that I couldn't keep up with them and I got a lot of grief from the linkshell leaders for not attending most of them. With me having a job I still won't be able to do that, unless the game has specific region keys so that US players get a different list of servers from the European servers. But then XIV is round the corner, and the same thing applies to that too.

wigglestyx, on 30 July 2010 - 07:16 PM, said:

I have seen people move to WoW then come back to XI.

Admittedly I am one of those people. XI had its problems as I mentioned above, aswell as a super-long login system, maintenance during prime European time (for the Japs it was their bedtime), and a reputation that was hard to resolve down to over-excited malicious players looking for someone to pick on. I could've realm swapped, but at the time there was only 1 other realm and I was tired of the late hours and grinding and fancied something a bit more simpler that was more playable for European players. WoW was that, but since the last expansion it's gone retardedly simple. I'm on the beta for their next one Cataclysm and that doesn't look any better. tbh the players ruin it, like as someone mentioned here about the XIV beta the players are less helpful because they want to get ahead of the game before release, and although there's been a few landscape changes, new races and new quests added it still feels like I'm playing the same old crap again and going through the hassle of dealing with half-wits and loot ninjas. Blizzard is trying to get players to start exploring again since they stuffed in a dungeon teleportation system so that players from different realms can join you in them, but the attitude now is "I have to find the dungeon first before I can join LFG for it? Screw that I'll quest grind instead." Could you imagine these kind of players wanting to play FFXI/XIV? They'd think just trying to log in was too hard.

This post has been edited by Tigerlily: 17 September 2010 - 03:26 AM