Category: Elder Scrolls Online

Modernizing Final Fantasy XIV

These are suggested modifications for FFXIV to make more in line with other modern MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2. There are several areas that, in my view, should be upgraded to keep FFXIV more in line with a better user experience and to make the new user experience better. These three MMOS are all approximately the same age and yet ESO and GW2 have modernized, or were created in a modern way that prevented some problems that with its older design FFXIV now faces.

The Leveling Experience

FFXIV is facing a severe problem with regard to leveling. The static, vertical leveling model has gone way past a reasonable limit. The amount of work that a new player faces to catch up to the current “End Game” is too daunting to expect a casual player to invest that amount of time and effort. Also the current design of the game locks the new features – new Jobs, new Zones, new Allied Races, etc. – behind this long progression. To bring FFXIV more in line with the current state of other modern MMOs changes should be made. For years now we have heard that folks must just push through A Realm Reborn and the game will get better. Well it may get better after ARR, but you are just nearing the tree line of the huge mountain you must climb to get to that class you want to play or that dungeon you want to do or that story you want to experience. “I’d like to meet the Loporrits”. Well in a few weeks you can do that.

Many MMOs that are now, sadly deceased, have tried to address progression by making the game just much easier. And this appears to fail most often. None of the suggestions here are attempting to make the game “Easier” or “Progress Faster”. The total time to play the entirety of the FFXIV game should take about the same amount of time. After more than 10 years there is a huge mountain of game play and world out there. The suggestions here are intended to add choice not make things easier. Tera changed things to make things easier. Made the game all about End Game and then after a few years died. Anyway, after many years playing Tera that was my observation.

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As MMOs Age

I’m an MMO addict. Let’s forget about Wow and ones before that. Recently I play Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2. Recently I got bored and went back to Guild Wars [1], but let’s ignore that in this comparison.

In these games I have many characters:

Each game has lots of choices for classes and races and so there are lots of combinations to try. Some I don’t find that interesting – Cat People [Khajiit] in ESO for example just aren’t that interesting to me personally. All the races in ESO are just head changes on basically the same body with or without fur. And new classes appear with new expansions. We just got Arcanist with the Necrom expansion recently.

For FFXIV, all classes [ jobs ] are available to all races and in every character. So you don’t have to make a new character to try a new job. So there aren’t so much as “Combinations” as just all the race choices. And more races and jobs with each expansion.

For Guild Wars 2, all races can play one of any of the classes [Professions] and each expansion brings along new “Specializations” for the classes.

So what happens as a game ages. All these game are more than or almost 10 years old at this point. What happens to the games over time and what does that mean for new players.

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ESO Easy Public Dungeon Event

Each day when I do Endeavors in ESO, I use this short cut page to find the easiest way to do them. However, when there is a Public Dungeon Event, I need to find the Easy Public Dungeon that I know about in Deshaan. So this page is an easy way to find that Easy Public Dungeon. I keep forgetting the name of the Dungeon here.

The name of the dungeon is Forgotten Crypts in Western Deshaan. Unlike many Public Dungeons in ESO, this one can be easily solo’d. The Group Event, which is the one required for an Endeavor, is in the Southern chamber.

The Kwama insects spawn quickly in this chamber. To the right and left are groups of lower level Kwama that must be killed, and after they are all killed, three larger Kwama spawn in the lighted area in the center of the chamber. When these are killed the event concludes. The event spawns again in about 5 minutes, so if the daily or weekly Endeavor requires multiple Public Dungeon events, just hang out and finish things here. Another interesting thing is that the gathering nodes spawn very quickly in this chamber.

Lighted Area where “Bosses” Spawn

Enjoy,
:ww

Colored Floating Orbs

In Elder Scrolls Online, there are three Gear Set Buffs, that I know of, that provide a colorful signal around your character that you are carrying the buff. These buffs provide a wide area buff to many of the group members around you.

Notice the buff that is listed when Five items from that set are equipped.

What the note does not say is that each buff is signaled by three colored orbs floating around you. Red for Ebon Armor, Blue for Worm Cult and Green for Hircine’s Veneer.

Each of these sets are dropped in a different dungeon. Check out these pages for a description of the items and where to get them:

You can combine two sets for more orbs:

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HarvestMap Add On

Update: Use Keen Eye to see nodes more clearly

Harvesting in Elder Scrolls Online is a pain without help from a plug-in. There are a few problems.

  • There is no way to see the nodes until you are on top of them. You literately have to be within a meter of the node and pointing at it with your cursor to see it. The Keen Eye passives from crafting skills mitigate this problem somewhat.
  • There is no Mini-Map built into the game, and if you use a mini-map AddOn, it does not show nodes either. Unless you use another Add On.

So HarvestMap Add On to the rescue. And it’s great, but it’s confusing to get started which is why I wrote this post. You can find the HarvestMap Add On here. I’m assuming that you know how to install Add Ons in ESO. If not there are lots of folks that will show you how.

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Show Some Leg

In all other MMO games I’ve played, glamour allows many options to “Show Some Leg”, but in ESO, it’s not an easy option. I’ve played for a while now and there are no glamour options for short-shorts. There are whole costumes, for example, the Nordic Bather’s Towel, but that is of limited usefulness. There are some other outfits, but none that look like Armor. Here’s one outfit from the Crown Store – Still no Leg really.

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Too Brutal to be Fun

Guild Wars 2 has recently released a chapter called “What Lies Beneath” in the End of Dragons Expansion. I decided to start to play through the chapter and later join on another character with my friend so that we could play though. All went well for a couple of story segments and I reached a new area of the map.

Here you can see where the new map zones are and you can see that my character is max level [which is required for End of Dragons expansion] and you can see that I have a full set of Exotic Armor with the last available Elite Spec for the Guardian class which is WillBender. Which is to say that I’m not new to this game or new to the class.

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Travel without Wayshrines

Within Elder Scrolls Online, fast travel can be expensive. When you use a Wayshrine the price goes up dramatically for a while. And the base price is never all that cheap for a lower level player. The cost scales with level and for a level 20 player is around 80 gold to anywhere in the world to a wayshrine that you have visited before, but as soon as you travel, the cost is about 6 times that for your next trip and the cost begins to count down every second until it reaches that base cost. However, there are free ways to travel – coaches, wagons and boats.

BenevolentBowd has made a very nice map showing the routes for free travel. However, given the way boat captains and wagon masters talk about their destinations, this map can be confusing. This map reports the destination cities, but leaves out the zones. And the travel vendors report the zones they travel to. I’ve taken BenevolentBowd’s map and added the zone names so that it can be more easily used by the novice adventurer. To use the full size map, right click and “Save Image As” to your hard drive. Enjoy. :ww

Fyrakin MiniMap Wheel issue?

In ESO I’m using MiniMap by Fyrakin [Masteroshi430’s branch] now that I’ve restarted playing ESO.

It works for me and I’m seeing this for “Wheel Mode”

But my friend is using either the Jan 2 version or the Jan 4 version and seeing this:

So the square / rectangle version seems to work, but the Wheel mode is broken. Again for both the Jan 2 and Jan 4 versions. Never used Addons before.

I’ll see if I can add shots of the Addon settings to complete this bug report.

Never Mind – My buddy fat fingered the archive expansion and broke the Add-On. It’s all working now.