[Brian]

And the February edition of Crystal Core is online. You can listen to it here. :)

Danny joins the podcasting team this episode and we cover the following topics.

Roleplay in FFXIV (article from guardianknight)
How to overcome fears about FFXIV (article by Ralsu and spin-off thread about hardcore vs. casual by Obscura)
Dengeki translation (map of Eorzea, mark of a beastman tribe?, Primals, amount of completed game available in beta)
Connect!On March translation (capital cities)
Fake FFXIV Beta Download site (thread)
FFXIVCore.com wiki team adds Mooga, who has made some nice signatures for the staff and is enthusiastic about keeping the wiki the best on the web...

Check out the show, let us know what you think. :)

[Forseti]

Another awesome release!

[Roy]

I really like the idea of having an indication of who is roleplaying. I personally don't do it but it is a smart idea with the flag or maybe a server for people who want to do it.
I was definitely one of the players who like the part of not being able to finish the game in a month and then start doing endgame things. This is one of the reasons WOW was kind of boring for me, but ffxi was hard...maybe even a little to hard i just hope they find that perfect spot not just for me but also everyone else
I didn't know there was a fake site out already but thank you for the warning lol... not like i would have downloaded it

[Tusk]

I'm new here, so this is my first day checking out the Crystal Core series. I've got to say they are a really good addition to this site. People are always discussing on the forums, but it's nice to hear a vocalized approach to the collective thought aura surrounding the upcoming release of FFXIV. Crystal Core initialize!

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General Roleplaying
I do appreciate role-playing to a certain degree, but feel that everybody's definition is differing in extent. For me, it's just separating the game from real life. I don't want to be making small talk about the latest adventure to the eastern plains for materials, and then some other character interjects with information about the SuperBowl. I'm sure a lot of you can agree with me.

Flagging
I agree with Brian. I think the possibility of some sort of flagging system would be interesting, and also the option to be able to throw in a little bit of background information about your character on some type or publicly available character ledger. It's nice to be able to instantly recognize a player's style of preferred game play.

Fraidy Cats
A lot of speculation here. One thing stands for sure. A player feels a sense of accomplishment and value revolving around his/her character when it has taken much effort to achieve his state of expertise. I have about 10 years of MMO gaming experience, and the games i have liked least are the ones that were the easiest to "beat". However the issue of accessibility is important for any game company hoping to expand their range. Obviously FFXIV won't be built purely for the pros. For instance, what if I want my girlfriend who has no gaming experience to play? Surely Square Enix wants her to subscribe. Food for thought for sure.

Danny
You are indeed well informed in your speculation. I'm glad you joined for this episode of Crystal Core.
Yes, very astute observations.

Fake Beta Site
Haha for sure this is the first of many attempts to PWN people out of their personal information.

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Thanks guys for the segment!

This post has been edited by Tusk: 07 February 2010 - 11:43 PM

[Ralsu]

epic post, Tusk. Thanks for the detailed feedback and the compliments. I had a blast with Brian and hope that he will invite me back in the future.

You make some good points about the feeling of accomplishment that comes with earning something in a game and the appeal of attracting more casual players for SE. If you haven't done it already, I encourage you to check out Obscura's thread, where many community members have written up their thoughts. That thread is full of good comments.

[Hotcakes]

Just on a technical note regarding how the 'seamless' environment will be calculated on your machine, the game will no doubt still internally have zones, probably about the same size as the zones in XI and your computer will receive info regarding the people in your zone and the surrounding zones (or if the maps are built well, just the immediately visible areas of the surrounding zones). This will obviously cut down the processing your system has to do, though the main factor here would be bandwidth - 'broadband' at its weakest is still only 4-5x that of dial up speeds so there is no way the server is going to be able to stream real-time info about too many players to you at once (receiving info about ppl in other cities for example is a complete waste). If you think in terms of 4x the bandwidth needed in XI, that basically ONLY covers the zone you are in + surrounding zones...

[Brian]

Hotcakes, on 07 February 2010 - 08:38 PM, said:

Just on a technical note regarding how the 'seamless' environment will be calculated on your machine, the game will no doubt still internally have zones, probably about the same size as the zones in XI and your computer will receive info regarding the people in your zone and the surrounding zones (or if the maps are built well, just the immediately visible areas of the surrounding zones). This will obviously cut down the processing your system has to do, though the main factor here would be bandwidth - 'broadband' at its weakest is still only 4-5x that of dial up speeds so there is no way the server is going to be able to stream real-time info about too many players to you at once (receiving info about ppl in other cities for example is a complete waste). If you think in terms of 4x the bandwidth needed in XI, that basically ONLY covers the zone you are in + surrounding zones...

Good point. :)

The real bulk of the work will be handled on the servers. And since those are more powerful (way more in fact) then they were 8 years ago (or even 12 ago when FFXI started being developed) we should be able to see some great advancements in how the game runs. Just like you said, with the players local system only interested in an area that is directly around him, and only loading in the data as it comes into the players personal zone, or as the player moves from one place to another. Still, I'm super excited and can't wait to see how big the world is. :)

[TheFatHousecat]

'da-danana! dadada-da! dananana-dada!'

love this podcast.

[guardianknight]

Great podcast Brian and Ralsu, and awesome discussion both of you on my article on roleplay. I really enjoyed hearing the discussion about that. The flagging for RP or the RP server would be great and very welcome additions to the game.

[Mooga]

Realhy nice episode, thanks for the welcome Brian! :P

General Roleplaying
I like the ideia of that private server that is only for RP, Wow had RP serves, but even being RP there were people that didn't do. So RP fans made an Addon, (I don't like addon but can say that is nice) that made and show every person that was using that addon, were persons that RP, it would show the first and secound name and little bio.
Also in wow you needed to have a background on the char in order to be in the roleplay server. I'm giving a exemple of wow because was one of the games that I did a bit more serious with some friends and people.
About the Pause, I had some of those acusions, and I did comment such has "Let'me think.", "I let me find in my bag a thing" a possible escuse that may give time.
Also Walk/run, the way you talk its very importante that.
About the voice chat, I used skype to talk to my friends to RP, and not to RP but to assist the RP, it realhy depends!.
I hope I can RP on FFXIV and have many people that want to rp.


Flagging
YEah I aggreed with tusk and brian, he said what I wanted to say.

Fraidy Cats
I agree with Brian. Its true, many people are affraid that FFXIV wont be so hard has FFXI, in the first days getting to lvl 75 the persons were a GOD. It was acomplishment that would give you popularity and also, achivement. I think that what makes a person play a MMO is the sence of acomplishement that you get from the game. If there is something that is hard to achive it will make people stay on the game. People are diferent and they play in diferent way, they like PVP, they like to get the max things, they like to be the best "type of" player and so one. It realhy depends of the person and how that person plays. This is my thought.

Ralsu
Don't worry be happy! :D
Thanks for being on this episode of CrystalCore. :D

Work in the city
OMG, "shut down the lights plz!" yeah I like that in jueno I think that would be great that we could work in the city I would say that would be a kind of globla daily that only 1 person could get in certain time.

Travel
Since there is alot of machines, I would say that is possible to have a hover or somthing of the kind that we could use. Like there was on FFX. Donnu maybe trains that connect the cities. Donnu. :P Sugestions.

Garlean Empire
They need recourse, or they are making a HUGE ARMY where we can see a seige!. :P

Moogle
Hmm I would say! that..... Moogles will be the new race! (maybe nnot) but I'm seure we will have more information about it in the future(after FFXIII).

Thanks for the new podcast Brian and Danny keep the nice work! :D(Abbadon where did you went?)

This post has been edited by Mooga: 08 February 2010 - 06:49 AM

[AndrewN]

Hey guys thanks for the podcast, another good listen.

One thing you mentioned was the 'seamless' world was interesting to me because it is something that my linkshell leader has brought up a few times in conversation. I don't have a lot of MMO experience, but one game that is mainly seamless is Runes of Magic.

In RoM you can run the through the whole game world and never see a loading screen but some bits do have loading screens. Firstly there is a teleport system, which I think you were discussing in the podcast (sorry I haven't played FFXI so the term may have applied to something else). The teleport system was basically a short cut between game areas for a small cost, you needed to walk to the other teleport device first but could then always use it in either direction. Secondly there was a loading screen when you entered an instanced area, the reasons for this should be obvious. There was also a loading screen when you entered your characters house but as there has been no mention of player housing in FFXIV (maybe something to talk about next time) it is a moot point at the moment.

Now you did talk about travelling between the islands in FFXIV, in RoM an expansion added a starting island for the elves when they were introduced, but when leaving the island you don't spend 2 hours on a ship, there is just a loading screen and you appear on the mainland and I would expect SE to do the same in FFXIV.

A point that has come up in our discussions is monsters and how far they chase you if you run away. Now in RoM they chase for a while but then give up and go back to their spawn point and as everything moves at the same speed (unless you are mounted) then escaping is always an option.

As a point to notice RoM is a F2P game so you could always have a go to see how it was done there, I am not saying this is how it will work in FFXIV but it may give some ideas.

[Ralsu]

Mooga, on 08 February 2010 - 06:48 AM, said:

About the Pause, I had some of those acusions, and I did comment such has "Let'me think.", "I let me find in my bag a thing" a possible escuse that may give time.

Simple enough solution. Whenever somebody needs to go afk, he can say he is rummaging through his backpack, lacing a boot, or something like that. Good idea.

[Ralsu]

AndrewN, on 08 February 2010 - 08:29 AM, said:

One thing you mentioned was the 'seamless' world was interesting to me because it is something that my linkshell leader has brought up a few times in conversation. I don't have a lot of MMO experience, but one game that is mainly seamless is Runes of Magic.

Yeah, I have played quite a bit of RoM in my day. It's a good example because it has the seamless over world but still uses instances inside some dungeons. During beta, I remember seamlessly entering a cave and fighting my way down to the second level, where a portal teleported me and my group to an instanced boss.

The example I gave, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, was seamless in principle. Instead of zones with a loading screen, VG used chunks with no loading screens. Even so, the game hitched every time you crosses a chunk line and poor optimization made performance bad overall. Had VG launched with zones, I believe the game would have performed better and many of us would still be playing it. I hope Square Enix does a better job.

[AndrewN]

Ralsu, on 08 February 2010 - 09:16 AM, said:

Yeah, I have played quite a bit of RoM in my day. It's a good example because it has the seamless over world but still uses instances inside some dungeons. During beta, I remember seamlessly entering a cave and fighting my way down to the second level, where a portal teleported me and my group to an instanced boss.

Yep, there are a number of dungeons that still do that including a couple in the starter area. In fact one has a boss monster in the standard area and a portal off to an instanced dungeon to another boss.

[Mooga]

Ralsu, on 08 February 2010 - 09:10 AM, said:

Simple enough solution. Whenever somebody needs to go afk, he can say he is rummaging through his backpack, lacing a boot, or something like that. Good idea.

Yeah, there is many possibilities to disconect of the world. I had a exemple that we were talking about a subject and then he told a friend to call him outside, which he did.

Depends alot of the role play and with the people you play, if you need a pause ask a friend by whisper that you need a call, he calls and you must interupt the conversation but you will say that you will come back. :D

[national_op]

so seamless world means no zoning!! ahhhhh!

what other means of escape will there be??? that will work sufficiently? maybe smoke bombs? but as beginning players those most likely will not be available. or it will be costly. hmm...

thoughts?

[Jeo]

Always love listening to podcasts.. great work keep it up!

[Brian]

national_op, on 08 February 2010 - 12:43 PM, said:

so seamless world means no zoning!! ahhhhh!

what other means of escape will there be??? that will work sufficiently? maybe smoke bombs? but as beginning players those most likely will not be available. or it will be costly. hmm...

thoughts?

Have no fear, since their won't be zones, monsters won't follow you all over the world... My hope is that there will also be NPC guards placed here and there, and if a monster follows you to close to down they will attack, rather then watch you die... ;) but that is just my hope. We will know more, hopefully soon. :)

[national_op]

Brian, on 09 February 2010 - 07:33 AM, said:

Have no fear, since their won't be zones, monsters won't follow you all over the world... My hope is that there will also be NPC guards placed here and there, and if a monster follows you to close to down they will attack, rather then watch you die... ;) but that is just my hope. We will know more, hopefully soon. :)

Good point Brian! That does make me feel better... But then I just thought about the areas where a lot of people go to lvl, like the Dunes [if FFXIV would have areas like these]. What if a lot of PTs or Soloers are having trouble, like a whole bunch of Mobs spawn in the vicinity. Do you think these NPC guards would be efficient enough to help everybody? [Or would they call reinforcements haha]

This post has been edited by national_op: 10 February 2010 - 01:21 PM

[guardianknight]

national_op, on 10 February 2010 - 01:20 PM, said:

Good point Brian! That does make me feel better... But then I just thought about the areas where a lot of people go to lvl, like the Dunes [if FFXIV would have areas like these]. What if a lot of PTs or Soloers are having trouble, like a whole bunch of Mobs spawn in the vicinity. Do you think these NPC guards would be efficient enough to help everybody? [Or would they call reinforcements haha]

That...would probably be a good time to run away screaming like a Miqo'Te kitten.