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Also, if anyone has cool pictures of places that we're currently hanging out in the LP, feel free to share it (preferably with the timg tag). The game's really nice to look at, and I've seen people get some crazy good shots. I'm probably going to share similar images at the end of all the updates, but I imagine there'll be a few folk that play the game that can take better shots than I ever would. If I really like it, I'll probably add it in a later update if it's set in the same place (with credit, of course). e: New update on the first page for those jumping to this page and may miss it.
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Aug 26, 2014 13:40
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I do have a couple shots of Ul'dah, but we haven't really come across the places yet, so I could post them then. FF14 was my second favorite game of 2013, so I'm really looking forward to this. Momodi's great, anyone who started in another city missed out - in fact I'd definitely say Ul'dah is the best place to start in in terms of story.
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Aug 26, 2014 14:59
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CrashScreen posted:"'Course, I do enjoy hearin' a lady muse on the many manhoods of her acquaintance from time to time." 
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Aug 26, 2014 15:24
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Acquaintance can also be defined as a person's experiences. Like how you can acquaint yourself with things. She's saying she likes to hear dem dick stories. 
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Aug 26, 2014 15:42
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CrashScreen posted:Also, if anyone has cool pictures of places that we're currently hanging out in the LP, feel free to share it (preferably with the timg tag). The game's really nice to look at, and I've seen people get some crazy good shots. I'm probably going to share similar images at the end of all the updates, but I imagine there'll be a few folk that play the game that can take better shots than I ever would. If I really like it, I'll probably add it in a later update if it's set in the same place (with credit, of course). 
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Aug 26, 2014 16:04
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Smart Car posted:Well, since you're in Ul'dah right now I'd be missing out by not posting this picture of the city taken from a distance: drat, that's actually a pretty nice shot. It's way better than the night one I was preparing. Terper posted:I do have a couple shots of Ul'dah, but we haven't really come across the places yet, so I could post them then. If it's roundabout Emerald Avenue, it should be alright. The next quest will make me explore it a little. Even if I don't give it any focus, I'll be passing most of them anyway so that'll be okay. I'll be giving info on everything at some point, though, so it's up to you. quote:Momodi's great, anyone who started in another city missed out - in fact I'd definitely say Ul'dah is the best place to start in in terms of story. Momodi was also a factor in choosing to start in Ul'dah. You can probably assume the third big factor at this point, but I obviously can't give away any more on that for a long time. CrashScreen fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Aug 26, 2014 |
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Aug 26, 2014 16:13
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This game sure looks great. How is it as a buy?
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Aug 26, 2014 16:31
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FF14.txtquote:If it's roundabout Emerald Avenue, it should be alright. The next quest will make me explore it a little. Even if I don't give it any focus, I'll be passing most of them anyway so that'll be okay.    These are fairly low graphical options, to make it run at ~30 fps on my laptop. Game is gorgeous no matter what, though.
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Aug 26, 2014 16:35
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The localization team for FF14 got away with a LOT of innuendo, some of it not so subtle. Expect to see lots more dialogue along these lines.
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Aug 26, 2014 16:48
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IthilionTheBrave posted:The localization team for FF14 got away with a LOT of innuendo, some of it not so subtle. Expect to see lots more dialogue along these lines. The localization team for FF14 is a miracle of the universe.
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Aug 26, 2014 16:50
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IthilionTheBrave posted:The localization team for FF14 got away with a LOT of innuendo, some of it not so subtle. Expect to see lots more dialogue along these lines. Although judged by this image (linked for possible spoilers) her older dialogue was a little bit loaded.
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Aug 26, 2014 17:10
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IthilionTheBrave posted:The localization team for FF14 got away with a LOT of innuendo, some of it not so subtle. Expect to see lots more dialogue along these lines. Seems fair enough. Nothing wrong with a reality being earthier than our modern world, so long as it's even-handed! The inclusion of cat-boys in ARR suggests they're at least trying to aim for "saucy" rather than "creepy".
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Aug 26, 2014 17:52
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Oh, cool. A friend and I were going to do an LP of this ourselves (and ran into technical issues for a long time), but it looks like you're saving us the trouble! If you'd like, we could at least put our efforts to use and record/post the Limsa Lominsa and Gridania storylines, or even other job quest lines. How about it?
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Aug 26, 2014 18:00
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ZenVulgarity posted:This game sure looks great. How is it as a buy? It's currently basically a very polished version of an "old-school" MMO. If you like MMOs or just want to try one out, it's probably worth buying. But now that there's a free trial, if you want to try it out, just grab the trial. The game tries very hard to be approachable by people completely new to MMOs. It goes out of its way to ensure the difficulty curve ramps up slowly as it introduces new concepts. I can't say how well it works since I'm not new to MMOs, but there's a ton of stuff to do in it and if you play on Excalibur (play on Excalibur) there are a ton of goons who can help you out.
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Aug 26, 2014 20:23
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Certain themes and NPCs that become prominent later on do make Ul'dah feel like a more "natural" starting point for the story than the other two cities, though by a pretty slim margin -- the rest have their own strong points. Something to take note of is how the "Adventurer's Guild" is its own distinctive set piece in town. That's not just a matter of gameplay convenience. Adventurers, in-universe, are the economic lifeblood of Eorzea, and when we see more of Eorzea, it becomes pretty clear as to why.
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Aug 26, 2014 21:36
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Ghostwoods posted:Seems fair enough. Nothing wrong with a reality being earthier than our modern world, so long as it's even-handed! The inclusion of cat-boys in ARR suggests they're at least trying to aim for "saucy" rather than "creepy". While it's not 1:1 in terms of being even handed, the game comes pretty drat close. I guess I'll have to show off something relevant to this when I get the chance. Shoopuf posted:Oh, cool. A friend and I were going to do an LP of this ourselves (and ran into technical issues for a long time), but it looks like you're saving us the trouble! If you'd like, we could at least put our efforts to use and record/post the Limsa Lominsa and Gridania storylines, or even other job quest lines. How about it? I've actually got somebody already recording Gridania's storyline for me, to save time. If you'd be willing to post the Limsa storyline, that'd be great though! They all share similar elements, so it'd be easy enough for you to gloss over. I plan to do the side quests when I reach there, but the main story would be a big help. Obviously, that's after the Ul'dah storyline is finished because of spoilers and all that, but yeah, that'd be pretty great! As for classes, I have a rough idea how I'll be approaching that. I'll be having the thread vote on what class storylines they want me to do first, so I should be fine on that front. The only thing that might be an issue is showing off the Lightning Returns event, since the finale is at a high level (level 45, I think). I have an idea on how to approach that and some of the previous seasonal events (and anyone familiar with XIV might be able to guess the gimmick), but that also depends heavily on my own screenshot archive. If there's any fresh footage that can be taken of that, then that would be really useful. Obviously, that's only if you've not done it already, because I can't expect you or anyone to level a new character to 45 for that.
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Aug 26, 2014 22:15
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Tip of the iceberg. This game loves its innuendos.
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Aug 26, 2014 23:01
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I started playing the game recently, and as my first MMO it does a fantastic job of introducing itself to you. The PS4 version is brilliant as well, especially due to the controls, although every version can use either a controller or a mouse and keyboard. Being able to use the touchpad to click on elements of the hud is something I couldn't live without, although if you're on the PS3 then you could probably combine a wireless mouse with the controller.
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Aug 26, 2014 23:39
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CrashScreen posted:As for classes, I have a rough idea how I'll be approaching that. I'll be having the thread vote on what class storylines they want me to do first, so I should be fine on that front. The only thing that might be an issue is showing off the Lightning Returns event, since the finale is at a high level (level 45, I think). I have an idea on how to approach that and some of the previous seasonal events (and anyone familiar with XIV might be able to guess the gimmick), but that also depends heavily on my own screenshot archive. If there's any fresh footage that can be taken of that, then that would be really useful. Obviously, that's only if you've not done it already, because I can't expect you or anyone to level a new character to 45 for that. You are correct, it's level 45 for the final Lightning Returns event. If you want someone to go around and grab footage of all the FATEs as they happen, I can do that. As for the cutscenes related to it, it sounds like you've got that covered if I know what you're talking about. And I leveled a fresh character up to 45 the first time the event happened explicitly so I could have her cosplay as Lightning. 
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Aug 27, 2014 00:01
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Xenoveritas posted:You are correct, it's level 45 for the final Lightning Returns event. If you want someone to go around and grab footage of all the FATEs as they happen, I can do that. As for the cutscenes related to it, it sounds like you've got that covered if I know what you're talking about. Yeah, that'd certainly be appreciated. I should be able to get the FATEs myself with my actual character, but if you're in the neighbourhood when one pops then I'd definitely appreciate it if you decide to capture it. Sadly, there'll be no Snow cosplay for the LP character. As tempted as I am to level just to try and get that, I don't think I have the storage capacity for all the footage leading to that point. I ended up buying a new hard drive just for this. That loving Sned posted:The PS4 version is brilliant as well, especially due to the controls, although every version can use either a controller or a mouse and keyboard. Being able to use the touchpad to click on elements of the hud is something I couldn't live without, although if you're on the PS3 then you could probably combine a wireless mouse with the controller. Yeah, the mouse works pretty well with the PS3 version as well. Keyboard and mouse can work almost exactly like it does on PC/PS4 on the PS3, but the hotbar functions are missing. I'm pretty sure that's all, though. Also, since we're on the subject, it's neat on the Vita too. I certainly wouldn't run some of the more demanding content later in the game, but it's pretty cool for the solo stuff. Doing it away from home can be a bit difficult at times though. There's a good few choices on how to play the game. It's rather cool. CrashScreen fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 00:21
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CrashScreen posted:Also, since we're on the subject, it's neat on the Vita too. I certainly wouldn't run some of the more demanding content later in the game, but it's pretty cool for the solo stuff. Doing it away from home can be a bit difficult at times though. One time I was fighting an infamously difficult end-game boss with a Duty Finder party, and one party member in particular seemed to get hit by every single AOE. After dying half a dozen times, they finally said "I'm playing on a Vita."
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Aug 27, 2014 01:50
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That loving Sned posted:I started playing the game recently, and as my first MMO it does a fantastic job of introducing itself to you. I'm really happy with how they fixed the controls and UI. After the original FFXIV team was reshuffled, the UI team got a huge overhaul. The size of the UI team was tripled and Hiroshi Minagawa (FFXII, Tactics Ogre PSP, FFT: WotL) was made the made the lead UI designer. Minagawa is a very talented UI designer in that he likes snappy, legible menus that minimize lag and selecting the right command (outside of crafting in Tactics Ogre PSP). FFXIV 1.0's development team was art/animation heavy but lacked leadership and subdivisions for its UI and network programming. The server-side UI problems alone were just crippling. Most MMORPGs have entire teams dedicated to just these aspects of development. When FFXIV 2.0 was announced, a lot of the new staff didn't necessary replace old FFXIV team. They fulfilled roles that should have been there in the first place, such as a UI lead artist. You can see how Minagawa's past work affected the look and design of FFXIV:ARR's new UI. Players can add FFXII style target lines with the '/targetline' command or through the menu. You can even see the War of the Lions influence on the style of the dialogue boxes. Between him and Akihiko Yoshida's artwork, ARR always felt like an unofficial FFXII sequel to me. Well, not counting the DS game.
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Aug 27, 2014 02:08
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So does this game have the "classic" Final Fantasy jobs, or do you just have to use some imagination, where "pugilist" = Monk, "conjurer" = White Mage, "thaumaturge" = Black Mage, etc?
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Aug 27, 2014 03:58
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Conjurer, Pugilist, and Thaumaturge are classes. Jobs (Monk, Black Mage, Warrior, etc.) are basically modifiers that you equip which add extra skills and some stats.
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Aug 27, 2014 04:17
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Gizmo Chicken posted:Conjurer, Pugilist, and Thaumaturge are classes. Jobs (Monk, Black Mage, Warrior, etc.) are basically modifiers that you equip which add extra skills and some stats. Jobs also limit the cross-class skills you can take, both in number of slots available and the classes you can take skills from. I think the general idea was that classes are more generalist and flexible while jobs are specialized, but no one in their right mind would try doing any post-30 group content in a class rather than a job if they can help it.
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Aug 27, 2014 04:49
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Oh, cool, I love this game. I might run around and take pictures of all the places you visit, albeit on a different server and all. I've got a decent PC, I might be able to make them look good. On the subject of control schemes, I play on PC these days and I still opt for the dual-mode of controller & mouse. The cross hotbars are amazing. I used to play FFXI with just a keyboard, not even any mouse, but I can't find a keyboard control scheme that even comes close to approximating FFXI's, and even then I'm not sure I'd want to. I put all my most-used abilities on the cross hotbars and the stances, long cooldowns and items on the vertical ones up the sides. It works well; I just like the controller more for moving around and dodging stuff, and I feel like I'm a little faster on the reactions with a controller rather than keyboard shortcuts of mouse movements.
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Aug 27, 2014 06:40
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Schwartzcough posted:So does this game have the "classic" Final Fantasy jobs, or do you just have to use some imagination, where "pugilist" = Monk, "conjurer" = White Mage, "thaumaturge" = Black Mage, etc? A lot of the classes are designed to match the lore of the world, rather than be exactly the old jobs. The jobs were eventually brought back in, which led to changes in the class system. I'll be discussing some of those changes in the LP, but just wait and see. All of the jobs have cool lore stuff too. I don't plan to hide that they exist, though. We'll be seeing plenty of black mages, summoners and so on throughout the game, even before we start unlocking them.
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Aug 27, 2014 09:02
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CrashScreen posted:A lot of the classes are designed to match the lore of the world, rather than be exactly the old jobs. The jobs were eventually brought back in, which led to changes in the class system. I'll be discussing some of those changes in the LP, but just wait and see. All of the jobs have cool lore stuff too. I don't plan to hide that they exist, though. We'll be seeing plenty of black mages, summoners and so on throughout the game, even before we start unlocking them. It seems like the classes are "things normal Eorzean adventurers do", since you encounter plenty of low-level examples of all of the jobs (even Arcanist), whereas Jobs.. are different (but it's not time for that). Niton fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 09:06
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Since I got into this game originally to join with the RP community (they've basically declared one of the servers an RP server. Gilgamesh I think) it always makes me wince when people ignore the naming conventions that Square so painstakingly put together for the lore and just use whatever name. Jeez. Immersion, broken.  http://ffxivrealm.com/threads/official-final-fantasy-xiv-naming-conventions.5077/ The naming conventions they set up are actually really interesting, especially for the Miqote where your name actually details your background and social standing. They really put tons of thought into this and it's awesome they went that far since this kind of thing is basically ignored by everyone but the RPers. Getsuya fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 09:28
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At the very least,I believe that someone in the game refers to adventurers frequently registering to the adventurers guild using nicknames. I'll need to recheck that though, but given how self aware the game usually is, I wouldn't be surprised. I do really like what they've done with the names though. It really is a shame that it goes unnoticed a lot. I ended up using it a little for my character back at launch because of how cool that effort was. CrashScreen fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 09:36
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Sunning posted:FFXIV 1.0's development team was art/animation heavy but lacked leadership and subdivisions for its UI and network programming. The server-side UI problems alone were just crippling. Most MMORPGs have entire teams dedicated to just these aspects of development. When FFXIV 2.0 was announced, a lot of the new staff didn't necessary replace old FFXIV team. They fulfilled roles that should have been there in the first place, such as a UI lead artist. You can tell they were really trying hard with the graphics and art design of 1.0. It looked great but it ran like molasses. It probably didn't help that a single flower pot had as many polygons as a player model
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Aug 27, 2014 10:42
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CrashScreen posted:I do really like what they've done with the names though. It really is a shame that it goes unnoticed a lot. I ended up using it a little for my character back at launch because of how cool that effort was. I remember making my character with a traditional "name I reuse for games" name. When I read up on the Miqo'te names, I kinda went over with my friends how her name is spelled differently to make it more realistic to the world. I now hang out on an EU RP server when my NA server is dead and my char there fits the roegadyn naming convention. They really did put too much thought into it to have everyone named Tisdane Sephircloud.
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Aug 27, 2014 12:18
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CrashScreen posted:At the very least,I believe that someone in the game refers to adventurers frequently registering to the adventurers guild using nicknames. I'll need to recheck that though, but given how self aware the game usually is, I wouldn't be surprised.  Though of course despite that particular NPCs protestations the name there is a perfectly possible real name for a female Lalafell, even if it's a joke at the same time.
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Aug 27, 2014 12:31
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BurnMyBread posted:You can tell they were really trying hard with the graphics and art design of 1.0. It looked great but it ran like molasses. It probably didn't help that a single flower pot had as many polygons as a player model It wasn't just that. The Crystal Tools engine was just not made for handling MMO gameplay: quote:Gamer Escape: 2.0 is going to be a new client, new servers, new engine. Is this still a form of Crystal Tools? Is this the Luminous engine? What can you tell us about that? Is there going to be support for Direct X 11? http://gamerescape.com/2011/10/19/gamer-escape-interview-with-naoki-yoshida-the-truth-is-out-there/ There should have been an internal inquiry about the use of this game engine for an MMO. FFXIV was in development for several years as Project Rapture and it shipped in a state most developers would have barely called an alpha. You had to write macros to bind your action bar. However, I imagine they were too far into development to switch engines, there was strong pressure to ship in time since just about every other Square-Enix project was missing deadlines, and they honestly thought they could pull out a win.
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Aug 27, 2014 14:27
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Sunning posted:You had to write macros to bind your action bar. Are you sure this wasn't intentional? FFXI had the same thing, hand-typed macros to set up your action bar.
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Aug 27, 2014 15:11
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Here's a little touch that doesn't really come across in screenshots and is even hard to miss in video: the guard who "finds" a bag of illegal drugs in the merchant's wares actually pulls the bag out of his own back pocket. Basically the Brass Blades are corrupt as poo poo.
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Aug 27, 2014 18:06
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Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that today marks the one year anniversary of the launch of A Realm Reborn! If your playing in game, there are some commemorative items you can pick up to celebrate. Here's to another great year!
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Aug 27, 2014 18:51
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Sunning posted:It wasn't just that. The Crystal Tools engine was just not made for handling MMO gameplay: It's not just that, though, the engine they launched with was completely terrible at graphics too. Silly things like:
1.0 was just so terrible it's really amazing both how much better ARR is and how much from 1.0 manages to survive in ARR. But I'm sure we'll get a chance to cover things like that later.
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Aug 27, 2014 19:47
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I managed to sneak in and get the FFXI crossover event recorded before it disappears, but I'll be showing it off a little further down the line. It won't be accessible after today, so anyone who is playing might want to do that before it's gone. Showing it off shouldn't be too far down the line, either. Terper posted:I suppose I could post a couple. All of these are about a year old at this point. The game's texture quality isn't particularly great, and it's already been discussed in this thread as to why (change in focus). All the same, the game somehow looks fantastic whether you're on a low or high resolution. I've been playing it since the phase 3 beta in June, and I still find myself regularly taking snapshots of things I've passed through several thousand times.
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Aug 27, 2014 23:04
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So I logged on today for the anniversary event and Square did something that I thought was really neat. At the end of 1.0 when the world was destroyed, they had the song from the End of an Era trailer, "Answers", playing in the background of the game audio. Today, if you went to any of the festival areas in the three major cities, they had Answers playing in the background. I had no idea it was coming and it was a very nice touch.
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Aug 28, 2014 04:43
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