hear ye: FFXIV open Beta test: 1st Sept

Aurongroove

At this stage of completion it's more of a stress test on the servers and a few weeks free public play for demo/review/media hype purposes while the producers polish up the bed knobs and fine tune the chocobo warks for the official release. As far as I've been informed you just make a Square Enix Account and have a look for the download come 2 o'clock GMT Sept 1st


IMPORTANT:
If you plan on joining and meeting other boards members, it;s important you post which world you're on. (you cannot jump servers, once a player is made he/she's there for life or, until you pay some real world cash to switch him to another world)




Moderator, please dp not delete (if worried about double FFXIV thread): though it looks like a redundant second thread about FFXIV, It;s important the announcement gets, well, announced!
I get the feeling people will complain of missing out if it's being buried on "page 6 of 9" of the other thread in between two large posts about how slow the mouse is and how outrageous the Fatigue sytem apparently is.
Feel free to erase this thread once the game is released, or in like a week or two when the open test will be over.
this thread is for making sure no one misses the news, and so those that hear it, and plan to meet up, can relay the server names here for the rest to join.



Oh, and if your wondering, your avatar's looks and name can be kept for the full game (so far all beta character have been wiped after each phase) the stats will be reset, but your lil' guy will still have his identity/race/name and live on the same world, if you so choose it, oh, and providing he isin't called something like ****hole McTeabag

WhollyChao

Nice, cheers for the head's up.

Varik

what servers?

smithy1981

http://entry.ffxiv.com/eu/index.html

Open beta cancelled for the time being it seems.


"FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Postponed

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 02:00 (GMT) on Sept. 1, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be releaseｄ at a later date.

Along with the postponement of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, the issuing of registration code for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be postponed as well. With the download of client software's installer, it will be suspended at 02:00 (GMT) on Sept. 1, 2010.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

Newaglish

Starts at 2am for anyone who will still be awake at that hour! Think I may set it downloading and it'll hopefully be ready to go in the morning

Aurongroove

actually becasue of daylight savings it'll be going on at 3am

and anyone planning on playing tonight: there are some GIGANTIC downloads to get. I dont kow how much it has improved since beta, but the full download took me like, 3 days for beta 2.

with fast downloads it should take an hour, medium speeds you might get it overnight, and slow it might take half a week I'm guessing

Aurongroove

Oh yeah, and the beta is going up tonight, it was postponed for 24 hours. (from the 1st to the 2nd of Sept)

just trying to log on now and download, it looks like the entire FFXIV site has crashed, probably because of very, very heavy traffic, lol.

Newaglish

http://entry.ffxiv.com/busy/

Doh

Aurongroove

this is typical!

it;s like they're constantly expecting this game to under perform, and then can't handle the server congestion they generate at any sort of increase whatsoever.

for closed beta the servers were jammed, downloading the games the download client could barely handle the task, and now with the open beta they have to turn people away due to congestion.
I know it's probably not so, but it seems like this title is being treated as a failure before it has begun. It is constantly being under "served" but this is an open beta for a Final ****ing Fantasy title; not an FF Chrystal chronicle, not an FF tactic, not a member of the FFVII compilation again, it's a full title and people get a chance to play it for free before it comes out but the producers under-prepared and the server's been jammed for 7 hours since the game opened.

Aurongroove

I finally got in. currently download updates, which is taking ages.

cherryghost

Aurongroove wrote: »

I finally got in. currently download updates, which is taking ages.

At least you got that far, I can't even download the client:(

Kiith

I managed to add my beta account just there. Gonna download the client from an alternative site later, as its probably slow as hell from the official downloader.

choronzonix

I managed to get the code and activate it, but can't get into the test site. It asks me to log in but keeps reverting back to the log in screen. Anyone else having this problem?

I've never actually played an MMORPG but have always loved the (older) FF games, and have recently had my interest reignited by playing FFVII on my HTC Desire

Kiith

choronzonix wrote: »

I managed to get the code and activate it, but can't get into the test site. It asks me to log in but keeps reverting back to the log in screen. Anyone else having this problem?

Same thing is happening to me.

cherryghost

http://www.fileplanet.com/215249/210000/fileinfo/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Beta-Launcher

Dohnny Jepp

The game is installing so so so so so slow. I've downloaded the client, but the updates or whatever is taking ages. . .

2% after 4 hours. sigh

cherryghost

zzzzz

93%....

choronzonix

im on 64%. I transferred the download to do it via utorrent and that's sped things up quite a bit but it's still not going at full speed unfortunately. Christ this is taking forever...

cherryghost

97%.... 4% in 2 hours. And I think the patches are still to come.

choronzonix

My speed has picked up in the last while so i'm now at 80%. This is the second patch i'm downloading, the first one was quite small so i grabbed it in the FFXIV own downloader, but the one i'm grabbing now is 4.7gb and would have taken literally weeks with the speeds I was getting, hence why I transferred it over to utorrent.

Xyo

Microsoft security essentials found some virus just at the end of the installation

Kiith

Stuck on 98.4% of the patch for over an hour now. Super.

cherryghost

download timed out at 99.8%....

Kiith

I'm timing out at 99.7% now.

What really pisses me off is its sitting there, doing absolutly nothing, yet still using over 50% of my cpu.

Aurongroove

we've been putting up with this for all the phase updates.

I'm on the Besaid Server btw. "Hix Tennin" is my avatar and I started in the Gridania (the forest) it's currently really glitchy as is Ul'dah, unlike Limsa Lominsa which was where all the closed testing took place, most of those bugs there have been sorted...

Kiith

For anyone who is stuck on 99.9%, you can download the last patch from various sites, and copy it into your patch folder. I just did it there, and am about to login for the first time.

Aurongroove

their downloader client is the worst Downloader in the WORLD

cherryghost

Kiith wrote: »

For anyone who is stuck on 99.9%, you can download the last patch from various sites, and copy it into your patch folder. I just did it there, and am about to login for the first time.

Which patches folder?? See I have downloaded the 4.7gb client and then manually downloaded the 1.2gb patch, both are logged the same date thingy on them

Kiith

My patch files were located in (i think) C:\Users\*Username*\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version\downloads\ffxiv-beta\bca2a8ae\metainfo or C:\Users\*Username*\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Version\downloads\ffxiv-beta\bca2a8ae\patch. There were loads of patches with different dates, and the last one that the patcher was downloading just wouldnt finish. So i downloaded it from another site, and copied it into that folder. Worked perfectly for me.

I'd post the link to the file, though i'm not sure which side of grey it sits on with regards to copyright material.

cherryghost

I got it working after grabbing the patches off Megaupload

Aurongroove

I finally got it, I'm a level 5 thaumature and a level 4 conjurer

ArthurG

How are people finding it (assuming you can get in.....).

Now I'll preface this by saying I played FFXI exclusively for about 4 years, and loved the game. After taking an MMO break for 6 / 8 months, I decided to give WOW a quick blast (they have that fairly cool background download thing, so you can actually be playing the game in about 15 mins). Suffice to say I'm now playing WOW every day for the last 18 months....

I had really high hopes for XIV - new graphics, new UI and a game engine brought bang up to date.

Unfortunately what I've found is a slow, clunky, confused mess of a game lacking any sort of intuitive way of learning how to play it. Quest NPCs without markers to tell you where they are?. Hello, it's 2010 SE. A PC MMO clearly designed to use a cosole controller?. Ugh...... No shortcut keys?. No quest tracking on screen?. Help.

I'm gutted with how the game is right now. Maybe I need to spend more time. Maybe WOW's incredibly easy to use UI has spoiled me. But I fear that the fanboi's bleating on forums that 'this game is not for beginners' is not a great start. I've no doubt the servers will be overloaded at launch - but so were Aion's. The game is due to launch in about 2 weeks - I honestly don't know how it will go.

Anyway, perhaps I'm being unfair, I'll give it another shot this evening.

cherryghost

ArthurG wrote: »

How are people finding it (assuming you can get in.....).

Now I'll preface this by saying I played FFXI exclusively for about 4 years, and loved the game. After taking an MMO break for 6 / 8 months, I decided to give WOW a quick blast (they have that fairly cool background download thing, so you can actually be playing the game in about 15 mins). Suffice to say I'm now playing WOW every day for the last 18 months....

I had really high hopes for XIV - new graphics, new UI and a game engine brought bang up to date.

Unfortunately what I've found is a slow, clunky, confused mess of a game lacking any sort of intuitive way of learning how to play it. Quest NPCs without markers to tell you where they are?. Hello, it's 2010 SE. A PC MMO clearly designed to use a cosole controller?. Ugh...... No shortcut keys?. No quest tracking on screen?. Help.

I'm gutted with how the game is right now. Maybe I need to spend more time. Maybe WOW's incredibly easy to use UI has spoiled me. But I fear that the fanboi's bleating on forums that 'this game is not for beginners' is not a great start. I've no doubt the servers will be overloaded at launch - but so were Aion's. The game is due to launch in about 2 weeks - I honestly don't know how it will go.

Anyway, perhaps I'm being unfair, I'll give it another shot this evening.

I completely agree with your words. It's rubbish.I played with a 360 pad last night and found the whole experience better (not to mean that it's still good, because it's not).

VERY disappointed so far.

Kiith

I'd have to agree with the above, from what little i've played of it. Now i'll admit i've only played it for a few hours, but it just feels...i dunno, clunky. I guess i just wasnt prepared for the seemingly turn based battle system. I know it's Final Fantasy, but i really don't see myself liking the combat. I'll give it another try later, but i dont think i'll be buying this.

Great looking game though.

Ivan

Another MMO that will most likely be a victim of "If you build it, they will come" syndrome. If you release a game before it is ready, they'll still come but they won't stay and there is no coming back from bad reviews at launch. I look forward to being mistaken, but I think FFIV will be a victim of its' own mediocrity. Shame really, I said the same about FFXI and always regretted never investing a decent amount of time into it.

ArthurG

Uninstalled

Varik

Found this image of the world, seems people have been finding complete copies of towns and areas all over the world.



it not just a similar shape in the map, the area in game look the exact same.

Aurongroove

repeating graphic segments? ehh, who gives even a millimeter of a ****? Final Fantasy and every RPG and every computer game that's ever been made since the dawn of time does this.

the actual Problem is:

Lag and poor server speed making the software dependant mouse, menus, battling and game play a BIG FAT SMOULDERING ****E.
I was emagining SE would flick a big red switch by now with "beta" and "release" written on it and everything would flick into proper speed, and everything would stop sucking, but unfortunatly, everything still blows like 85% of the time. the only time the gameplay dosn't suck is if everyone in the immediate 500 virtual kilometers radius gets suddenly disconnected but you survive and the server is all yours.

I've been Beta testing for ages and so far I've had about 15 minutes proper frame rate and server speed, and as many minutes fun because the game started running at a proper speed.

this game will live and die by its frame rate and server speed and there's no point developing a (brillient if i may say so) real time fighting system if no one can experience it becasue of kluky, slow ass interface.
as it is now it's just a usless, but ever so beautiful, and nearly brillient lump of crap.

Hercule

this beta is only showing a shell of a game, (i don't believe that it will improve significantly in less then a year).

Bland and broken environments,
borderline broken combat,
hideous controls,

I advise anyone who is thinking about embarking on the massive download to give it a miss and be content in the fact that the beta in my opinion is farce and come launch will not be worth a cent.