Anybody having the crash on character creation (just after the cinematic, before you do anything) glitch and actually found a solution?  Official forums are currently down but here's a link to the issue in case you're having it too and it comes back up:

http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuopc/posts/list.m?topic_id=5108

Thanks and have fun.

It's on the Lodestone.. and the launcher.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

I think it's a bit of SE realizing that their product currently isn't where it needs to be for them to feel good about charging for it and a bit of clever marketing.  From their plans to fix things, however, by the time the 60 days is up they still won't have fixed the major issues, just the little usability tweaks that people want.

Still happy and playing right now, though.  Cheers.

Things that I like about the game...

I like the graphics.  They're awesome, and they make me like my character more as well as the world around me and the critters.  I find myself preferring to kill certain types of creatures just by how awesome I think their models and behavior are (Coblyns/Doblyns!).

I like the story and the real quests.  I wish there were more than there are but I really enjoy everything about how they are presented and done.  When you're doing them it feels more like a real RPG than any other MMO that I can think of.

I like the combat.  I like picking and choosing my abilities, I like the stamina idea, TP, Battle Regimens and how they do MP.  I also have some problems with this, such as some things being too easy or far, far too hard for your level or class, but I still enjoy fighting things.

I like doing leves.  Good experience, good money, some monsters you can't fight anywhere else and I love treasure chests.  Once again I wish that you could do more of them along with more quests but oh well.

I like the world.  In some areas I truly feel like this is the closest to a world I've felt in a long time.  Most other games feel like a game rather than a world.  That being said some areas really detract from that feeling as well, so it comes and goes but when it's there.. it's one of my favorite things.

Crafting's neat.  Most of the crafters I know are faaaar higher base level than I am and everybody's reliant on crafters for pretty much everything.

Those are my big ones as far as likes I think.  The big problems that I have are the UI and the 'missing things' such as chocobos not being out yet, not even as caravan rides (they just give an excuse if you talk to the NPC), tons of items and monsters being missing, blah blah blah.  Most of my negatives about the game can and obviously will be fixed with time because they are the things that all games fix with time.. mostly content.  I'm kinda mad that SE didn't release with some of these things but.. considering that that's one of my biggest gripes I'm fine with it.

This all being said the biggest gripe that I had with WoW was that endgame got stale and became like a job.  That was pretty much it, but still enough reason to quit WoW until new content comes out.  That being said I'll still probably have a subscription to FFXIV then, too.

Originally posted by Wiezard

OP what level are you? because game shows its ugly face past lvl 20. i was also gushing and blushing when i was only lvl 10.

 

Now i am standing naked with my lvl 27 armor on retainer for last 2 days hoping for someone to fix it and i can go back to killing squirrels and some more crabs. NPC can't repair my jewellery and to repair armor from NPC costs me close to 300K gils.

Bronze set, lols.  Ah, yes.  Wearing gear beyond your level is wonderful, no?

I don't know how the crafting community has evolved on your server but if I were to stand in Limsa Lominsa for a few minutes advertising for repairs of that high a level then I'd get a response pretty quick.  It's possible that there aren't too many high-level crafters about, though; the game is still young and you're wearing some high-ish level stuff.

Maybe stick with gear closer to your level (unless you are rank 27ish, then.. I'll simply rescind my comment there?) to make repairs easier.  I'm 22 with level 15-23 rank suggested gear and repairs for me are cheap from the NPC.  Only jewelry requires repairs from players and that's easy enough.. I can do it myself if I don't mind failing 50% of the time.

Agreed, OP.

That's why I miss 3/6 and Chrono Trigger.  My two favorites as far as oldschool RPGs go.

And yes, I was just addressing the 'doesnt' feel like Final Fantasy' quote with the most obvious examples.  If you aren't attentive in FFXIV you'll surely stare are yourself dead on the ground for all eternity as well.  :)

Hmm, I don't know, the combat is pretty quick when you aren't surrounded by lag.. which unfortunately you are in starting areas right now, hopefully that will be addressed.  When things are working right combat is epic.  Maybe you need to lower your graphics settings too if you're still playing; when I tried to turn everything up to full I could run it but the combat seemed sluggish and unreponsive compared to before.  I turned it back down and then combat was far smoother again.  ..unless I was surrounded by lots of players and lag.

Oh well, problems, choices and to each his own.  Why isn't this in the FFXIV forum by the way?  o.O

I rarely notice it in game.  Mostly when I'm going up or down a guided incline like the ramps leading down to the northeast and northwest of Ul'dah.  But a post was already made on page 1 by me and another that included a very good explanation as to why tiling was used.

Plus, when you do see something SUPER unique it really stands out, and there are a lot of those areas, too.  :)

Everything is more obvious if you run around looking for it because someone else told you to.

Originally posted by VooDoo_Papa

Originally posted by Fortenc

My assumption is that you'll be billed for one month of the character slot even if you create it and delete it after five minutes.  It would be stupid not to, and that's what buyers should be expecting, right?  Otherwise you're just cheating the system and I'm sure they'd be aware of that.

The 30 day free trial just refunds $12.99 when you open your first character slot.  That's all it does.  If you were to open two character slots you'd be paying $3.00, $15.99 - 'free trial' $12.99.  Just be aware of that when you make more characters.  If you open more of your slots, let's say 5 beyond your first for a total of 6, then you'll be charged for $15.00 eventually if not immediately and then recurring at your monthly pay date.

Gotcha.  Thanks for clarifying

since I got you though, wasnt there suppose to be an "inventory only" character slot option for only $1?  what is that exactly?

Those are retainers, you get one for free but you have to go and talk to the retainer person in game in one of the major cities to get one for yourself.  I don't know how you get permission to hire more.. I'm sure it's in the options on the site there somewhere, or maybe it isn't yet.  My assumption is that if you attempt to add a character to your SE account it will give you the option to add a retainer instead.  You're looking for retainers, anyway.  Cheers.

Originally posted by slim26

The point is I do not see any type of FF in FF14, the combat is to damn slow, it is fucking boring! why did they do this why? where is the action? I am a FF fan but this FF14 online is bs! They could have done so much better... it angers me.

Let's see.. Final Fantasy.. traditionally.. turn-based combat...  Could technically be hours between attacks if you're in a battle, go out and do some shopping, brew some coffee, vaccuum the house...  FFXIV is Final Fantasy.  Online.  It takes themes, gameplay and other things from many Final Fantasy games.  That there movie isn't a game.  If you were expecting FFXIV to be a movie.. I don't know what to say, but.. there's a cinematic!  It has one of those, too, and it looks better and is faster paced!

I really have no idea what you mean.  To complain that you don't like things in the game is understandable, like that you find combat slow and boring, but.. that was what people said about RPGs who didn't like RPGs.  This is very Final Fantasy.  o.o

Yes, it's unfortunate when people jump on a bandwagon, especially a hating one.. glad you're enjoying...

My assumption is that you'll be billed for one month of the character slot even if you create it and delete it after five minutes.  It would be stupid not to, and that's what buyers should be expecting, right?  Otherwise you're just cheating the system and I'm sure they'd be aware of that.

The 30 day free trial just refunds $12.99 when you open your first character slot.  That's all it does.  If you were to open two character slots you'd be paying $3.00, $15.99 - 'free trial' $12.99.  Just be aware of that when you make more characters.  If you open more of your slots, let's say 5 beyond your first for a total of 6, then you'll be charged for $15.00 eventually if not immediately and then recurring at your monthly pay date.

I think they'd ask "Where the hell are my ridiculous hairstyles?"

Not true.  The game only refunds $12.99.. the cost of the subscription and one character.  Purchase other character slots and you'll be paying for them.  I don't know when it will be billed exactly, but.. yeah.

I think the main hand / off hand thing is for Gladiators and allows them to use shield abilities and sword abilities on different cooldowns, but I really have no idea.  Main hand is what you want things on so far as I can tell but I haven't even tried off hand.

I like that rings and necklaces now have models.  Yay, even more crazy visual customization.

It's far closer to Everquest than it is to WoW, so if you're looking for a more WoW-ish experience then probably wait or don't bother.  If you're looking for a more Everquest-ish experience then it's worth giving a shot.  Just be aware that there are issues.. odd UI decisions due to a PS3 version down the road, et cetera.  If you take the most moderate and least extreme ~50% of both the 'troll' and 'fanboi' opinions then you have a pretty good idea what to expect.  It really depends what your tastes are.

If you're looking for a WORLD to really get into and experience.. this is the first game in a long, long time that made me feel like I was part of a world.

If you're looking for a fast paced PvE adventure hack and slasher, more along the WoW road, then this probably isn't for you right now.

Cheers and enjoy.

There are a few posts on this already.. or maybe, due to the poster, they were deleted.. not sure.  Some good points were made, and I'd just like to state two of the major things.. the first being the best point in defense of terrain tiling and the second my experiences.

1.  Terrain tiling is a good way to save memory space.  The game could not look as good or have as many things going on at once without this tiling feature.  Also the game would be impossible to run on the PS3 or the world would have to be a lot smaller or the PS3 version would look like.. pixels.  It's unfortunate that we, the PC users, were semi-optimized to make the PS3 version work, but.. considering the steep system requirements and how damn gorgeous the game looks it was a design choice and not laziness that likely led SE to choose tiling over unique bump mapping, and they did it quite well.

2.  While it's more noticable in some places than others if you're not running around the world specifically looking for repeating terrain.. then you won't notice it nearly as much as some videos, screenshots and opinions show.  You'll notice the same sorts of things every now and then but it's not nearly back to back.  That being said, some places are worse than others and some are completely unique.

Those are my two cents.. one good point and one opinion.  It doesn't bother me too much; it isn't even in my top 10 complaints list, and my top 10 complaints aren't game breakers.  Cheers.

Nope Itchy, they only refund $12.99 which is the cost of 1 character and your account so far as I know.

I still don't think that SW:TOR looks all that great myself.  Its graphics and animations leave a lot to be desired and due to its odd gameplay choices it's got a hard rope to walk even as a Star Wars game, but I'll probably pick it up for the story.. and I even liked the tunnel shooter space combat!  Favorite part of the game I've seen so far, sadly!

GW2 looks epic though, as does TERA, not so much Rift for me.  I hope they all do spectacularly well; who wouldn't want a choice between fun MMOs to play?