Final Fantasy XIV: A Blog Reborn

 It’s been a long time since I have blogged, however the thought of return to my blog has always been in the back of my head and awaiting a decent opportunity for me to start again. I recently got this opportunity when I realised that Final Fantasy XIV was offering a 14 day trial to those who had not tried it before. So I signed up and headed in, eager to see what was on offer, how this experience felt in relation to the Final Fantasies of old and exactly how much could I achieve in one day on this game.

So after a rather straightforward account setup and somewhat lengthy download I started the game and instantly recognised the music, tapping in to fond memories of Final Fantasy VII the musical score had clearly been given a lot of consideration.

Right from the start one thing is abundantly clear, Final Fantasy XIV is BEAUTIFUL! All of the character models are sharp and regardless which of the many face, body, hair or decorative options you choose your character will look absolutely stunning.

So having opted for creating something that resembled a human cat and choosing conjuror as my starting class, I set off for my adventure in to the world of Eorzea. It kicks off with a gorgeous cinematic in which I am told I need to ‘Hear…. Feel….Think’ before showing me a rather ominous looking person in a mask who my character then proceeds to attack with spells!

I wake up in the back of a cart all of the previous images all being the result of a dream (yeah right!). Suddenly I am visited by some old final fantasy favourites, a couple of Moogles appear (imagine a cat with a giant head crossed with a tiny bat!) and tell me that I am special before drinking all the wine and disappearing.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Our caravan is beset by Lizard men, some brave warriors hold them off while we make for Gridania, the starting city for my chosen class. At this point FFXIV begins to feel like a lot of other MMORPGs as I am given a variety of fetch and carry quests to help me to find my bearings. I get myself all registered at the Conjurors’ Guild and head out for my first taste of combat.

It was time to take out some squirrels and as a conjuror commanding the elements this meant only one thing, throwing big magic rocks at them! A few quests later I am still killing things with big rocks but I also have the option of laying down a whirlwind for a bit of variety.

Combat looks and sounds amazing.

After gaining a few levels I begin to notice some of the features of FFXIV that make it slightly different from other MMOs. Firstly all equipment for your character is stored separately from crafting and other items, which results in a lot of spare bag space. This is tied in to another difference, you can completely change your class (once you have reached level 10 in your starting class)! Bored with your archer? Pop over and join the Lancers guild! Crafting follows much the same process, once you hit level 10 you can register with the crafting guild of your choice and change to that class by replacing your weapon with the tools of your crafting class (a knife for leatherworking for example). 

I am tipping this guy for major evilness!

The main story goes along a decent pace and in my first day I was attacked by an angry tree as well as some over excited lumps of clay. I also bumped in to a fellow who looked suspiciously like the masked menace from the opening cutscene! All in all it feels like I have been able to achieve a lot in the first day, getting to level 12 in my starting class as well as level 5 in a crafting class. I have also participated in a few FATE battles, area events that draw players together to achieve a specific objective (such as defeat a certain number of enemies to protect a village).

There are limitations to the free trial, trading and communication options are limited and class levels are capped at 20. The game itself is very enjoyable due to its beauty and the Final Fantasy feel of it, battle-music plays whenever you are in combat, spell names and creatures are very familiar. It pushes all the right buttons to bring a Final Fantasy experience to an MMO environment. However the world itself can seem a bit empty at times, particularly if you are used to the constant activity of a populated WoW server. There are also a few questionable quests, one of which has you learn to use in game chat by talking to an NPC who will only respond if you type EXACTLY what is asked, punctuation and all.

 
I am not sure if I will subscribe once I have finished my trial, but I am certainly enjoying the experience so far! The game and free trial can be downloaded through steam, just press the download demo option on the page.

EVE: Get Offa My Land!!

Well it finally happened, after much waiting and debating our corp finally hauled it’s collective asses down to nullsec! This area of space is often referred to by many EVE players as ‘where the money is’ and so as something of an exploration fan I have been seriously looking forward to getting my hands on some decent ruins to explore and databases to raid.

This friends is an intergalatic piggy bank. Pass me my space hammer!

With every packed up and ready to be shipped the first challenge that presented itself was exactly how to get down there in the 1^st place, to which our CEO simply responded ‘Oh that’s easy just kill yourself’. Lo and behold I was able to move my clone over to a station in null and then simply self-destruct. So that was my first hurdle overcome, the second one was a tad harder, all my stuff was in high and would not be able to be freighted down until things had settled. Again, through another stroke of luck (and admittedly some very fast flying) I was able to fit a basic exploration heron. So my Adventures began…………

Within 5 minutes I had already tracked down an untouched relic site, despite a few mistakes (of the making ruins explode variety) 5 minutes later I had finished that site and was heading to the next. On route to another system I thought I would check my estimated cargo value 50 million, I did a double take, 50 mil from a single site, this was 3 times my highest ever take in high sec! Truly it appeared Null-sec was truly the land of milk, honey and power circuits!

However it was not to last, merrily scanning away as I was I noticed I was being hailed by some friendlies, who (once I had responded) promptly told me to ‘Get of their land!’. Not wanting to cause a scene, I profusely apologised and explained I did not know this was their turf (while admittedly finishing the hack I was midway through). Chalking it up to my newbieness I went on my way and lo and behold a few systems on another group told me to sling my hook.

Juuuuuuuuussst leaving system, give me a few secs!

‘Right’ thinks I, ‘I will just stick to systems with no-one in’. So again off I go finding empty systems and appropriating whatever I could find. All told I managed to make about 490million over the course of a couple of days and so at least, despite my run-ins with grumpy landowners in tengus, this looked profitable.

Not only are these sites valuable, they are pretty too!

However this was also not to last, merrily scanning down in an empty system someone pops in and politely asks me to leave. This person seeming the more affable type I asked them to explain why. ‘Oh don’t you know, the alliances around here stick to scanning in their own systems.’ At least I now had a sort of answer rather than the old rocking-chair, shotgun, tengu approach. Although this now leaves me with a bigger problem, our alliance is a small old thing and I can scan down our 5/6 systems in about an hour or so, so what do I do with the rest of the time?

I stayed with EVE because I got hooked on exploration, just for the shear freedom it offered. Rock up, fire your probes and race to the sites. Someone beats you there, tough, they got lucky, but you’ll get there next time. This whole parochial approach to scanning, while understandable (people need the isk to pay their system rent) does seem to go against the pioneering spirit.

I am still waiting for my covert ops skill to finish, but once that’s done I think its wormholes for me. At least it truly it no-mans land there and the worst they can do is blow you up, as opposed to politely asking you to leave! In the meantime I think I will sit around and play with planetary interaction. Wonder if I can name a planet……………………………….

EVE: Raiders of the lost Comm Tower

Often there are features in games that keep us coming back for more, that little mini-game or part that for whatever reason we cannot seem to stop playing and for many of us that is often enough to carry us through the more troubling aspects of the game. In the exploration elements in Eve online I have found something so addicting that I try to make sure I am online at low population times in order to maximise my chances of finding something.

Exploration takes the form of an interstellar treasure hunt; upon warping in to a system you scanners will let you know if there are any anomalies (an ‘x’ on the treasure map of the system if you will) hidden in the current system. It is then a matter of firing off some probes and positioning them in space to try and get a more specific location, reducing their range and the distance between them until you can warp to the site.

It may not look like much, but this holds the key to great wealth (maybe)

My main targets in space at the moment are data sites and relic sites, in that order. In high-sec space data sites are undefended and contain materials that are worth at least a few million ISK, occasionally there is the odd blue-print, but I have not yet found one of any value. Relic sites usually contain parts which sell for significantly less, however there is the occasional gem hidden amongst the rubbish. Each of these sites requires you to play a hacking mini-game which causes loot to erupt out of the site once completed. In a manner similar to the crystal maze your time is limited and you need to grab as many of the containers as you can before they disappear.

All of the above are indeed fun, however they are not the reason that I cannot stop playing. As soon as I enter a system with possible sites I know I am in a race, but in this race I usually cannot see my competitors and even if I do I have no idea if they are in front or behind me. Every second counts as I reposition my probes and reduce the ranges in order to secure that elusive site location, hoping against hope that I am just far enough in front of the competition. Often it will take 4 or 5 systems worth of looking before I find something viable, making the desire to beat everybody else even stronger.

Nothing quite beats the high of warping in to a data site and finding all of the data points untouched and yours for the taking! A quick scan to identify any super high value targets and then I set to work taking as much as I can as quickly as possible because even after you win the race does not stop. That’s one site in one system and in Eve there are A LOT of systems, each one being searched for by any number of players all hoping for that elusive score.

An untouched comm tower, my holy grail!

I recently sold my exploration findings and made about 120million ISK for a few hours work which, although not big-league profits, is a fair amount for someone operating in the safer parts of space without much experience. Once I have the skills this will be being spent on better probes, a better ship and a decent cloaking device because, although high-sec exploration is fun, the real excitement (and money) is in exploring the parts of space where there is no security. Guess where I’m going…………….

Eve Online: That's my goal! (maybe)

SO my Eve online trail has come to an end and all things considered it has been an exciting couple of weeks for me.

After the initial information overload passed and I had completed the tutorial mission (which are a MUST for completely new players) I had sufficient money to strike out on my own and see a little more of space. With an infinite number of possibilities before me I decided to charge headlong into the unknown as a miner!

The shear excitement as I sit in an asteroid belt focusing intently upon the rocks before me cannot be put in to words, will they move, will I hear their screams as my mining laser rips through them or will they serenade my with Queens greatest hits? Excitement to one side mining is a good and relatively safe way to get started in eve and not just because it’s a stable income stream.

Mining buys you time to think, which is a much needed resource in Eve, as I sat there orbiting a rock that had a particularly stoney expression I began to look at my skills and form a plan in my head over where I wanted to go. The plan was simple get some skills behind me and get a better mining ship, I worked out what I wanted to aim for, checked the skills I would need and dutifully set myself to training them.

It was like that when I got here!

I took occasional breaks from mining to make sure I had covered all of the available tutorials and at the end of the advanced combat tutorial was pleased to be rewarded with a shiny destroyer. Having seen that I would take a mere 40 mins or so to train the skills needed to sit in it I overrode my previous skill choices and set my destroyer skill to train.

40 mins and several asteroids later I sat in my destroyer and dutifully kitted it out with all of the gear I had been given/picked up during the tutorial missions and headed off for my first level 1 security mission. Some scientists had become stranded in the middle of a gang war and I needed to go in and rescue them, so off I trotted. I cleared through the first bandits without any difficulty taking down 4 or so in my destroyer and only losing 25% of my shields in the process. 

Fuelled by the rush of victory I plunged in to the next area of space and took care of the two bandits on radar. Then their friends turned up, about 8 of them and promptly took apart my beloved destroyer in an exceptionally short space of time. I had a small bit of gamer rage at this point because I didn’t understand where I went wrong or how I could have done better, I used the best gear I had.

And it was at this point that one of the great features (which I touched on in my earlier post) saved me from quitting and missing out on this great game, the community. I posted into rookie chat that I had just lost a destroyer to a lvl 1 mission and yeah there was quite a lot of light-hearted mocking, apparently it should have been easily doable, but one of the people from the channel private messaged me and took me through the errors I had made.

First off none of the starting equipment is particularly useful, anything with civilian in front of it needs to be replaced with the real versions of it (apparently my civilian shield booster was a bit of a chocolate fireguard). Secondly because of the race I was playing and my lack of experience missiles and missile launchers were my best option to start with. So he talked my through a cheap fit and then got me to message him a copy of the fit to check I had done it right. With a nod of the head he said that was a good start and to give him a yell if I had more questions and I went on my way.

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

I returned to the room of doom with my new destroyer decked out in missile launchers and I tore through it. The massive range of the launchers meant that I could easily out range each of the attackers, the afterburner the guy had suggested meant that I stayed out of their range and a shield-booster that restored in 1 second what my civilian took 4 to do meant I was basically unscathed. 5-10 minutes of advice, that made the difference between struggling and striving.

Yes Eve is a daunting world, it is so much about how much you know, but the people are there who are willing to share their knowledge with you. I was given some advice by The Ancient Gaming Noob which I want to pass on ‘set yourself a goal’, try out those tutorial missions and think about what appeals most, then message rookie chat for advice. You will get a million and 1 opinions but it will give you plenty to think about.

Having decided that mining was the way for me, I promptly set about training as a miner and then I found exploration. This has had such an affect on my gaming life in Eve that I want to write a supplementary post about it in order to fully explain why exploration is (for me) the most addictive thing in this game so far.

You can try Eve Online for 14 days for free, with some restrictions so it’s worth checking out. However to go back to another piece of advice I received ‘you get out what you put in’ so make sure when you do take that trial you make sure you have time on your hands. Finally if you are still debating whether to join us in New Eden have a read of The Ancient Gaming Noob and pOtShOt to give you an idea of some of the fun that can be had when you get further along in the game.

And yes I have subscribed to the game!