As Wicked stated in her last post this will be the last set of NDA breaking information. So, for my last post I will be explaining my findings on the harvesting, mining, and logging, systems and a little bit of our experience of how the beta actually went this week. I'm just warning you. This is a lot to put into words so it will be a long post. You might want a snack or something...it's ok I'll wait.
Our first full day of server stress testing went off without a hitch, aside from some lag which was expected. During this I was able to thoroughly experience the 'Disciple of the Hand' class. To my surprise I was completely enthralled so much to the point that I leveled 4 times before realizing. It was great to be able to play with Wicked! Sadly, the rest of the week's Beta was canceled due to a login error. This is part of Server Stress Testing, however, and is expected to happen at some point. There are quite a few things SE needs to work on concerning FFXIV so quite a few of the testers started to suspect that the game should stay in beta longer and postpone the release date. I'm hoping they're just overreacting. This is part of the Stress Test and now that they know the problem they can start working on it. We'll see.
Just to start off I want to say that I'm predominantly a mage. In XI my main was WHM and the only other job I felt necessary to level to 75 was BLM. Otherwise, I chose to spend any spare time I had crafting and farming. That was what I enjoyed doing. At the beginning of the Alpha all the way through to the beginning of Beta I was sure I was going to start as Conjurer. After this last Beta session I am now going to be starting as a DotH class and will just buy a Rod and/or Wand. It will end up being cheaper for me and just because of the fact that you can level your physical level off of gathering is enough merit to be what I start out as.
I actually tried out Mining first but during the Alpha it was very tedious and glitchy with no explanation as to what you were doing. It also gave almost no items and absolutely no experience. Since the Beta they've added tutorials, experience, and a plethora of items to be rewarded with. The experience points given are presumably capped as 1010 every time for everything, killing monsters included, is a little suspicious. This does lessen as you gain levels though. For this explanation, we'll start with Logging!
Find more videos like this on FFXIVLOUNGE
To start Logging you have to buy a hatchet. Each crafting/gathering class has a secondary 'weapon' to equip in your off-hand. This will be a secondary part of your gathering class. For Logging it's a Scythe which is used to Harvest. I'll have to get to that later but it's worth mentioning that each gathering class seems to coincide to a crafting class. Mining, for instance, seems to connect directly to blacksmithing, although I'm sure it will also go along with any smithing crafts. I wasn't able to experience the secondary gathering/skill of mining that day.
After equipping said hatchet you can then use an ability referred to as 'Arbor Call'. You can use this to find your logging points which will, for the most part, be a glittering point. For more information concerning 'Arbor Call' please refer to my Beta post Sugar edition IX. After you find your logging point you open your main menu, select from an 'interactions' tab, and select 'Log'.
The first thing to pop up will be a small slider and window explaining that you're supposed to make a 'mark'. In other words you're deciding where on the tree you're going to begin logging. This is more figurative as at the top of the slider is "Niche". It seems that the higher you mark the slider the harder it is to find a 'sweet spot' but you get better items and vice versa for logging low. After you have marked where you want to start logging the slider will disappear and a gauge that looks like a sideways fan will appear. A small indicator will begin traveling along the outside curve of the fan, up and down. This will determine the angle of which you will swing your hatchet. This will match up to your 'mark' deciding whether or not you receive items. As you swing your hatchet in accordance to the fan gauge the small window will tell you your results and give you a hint. The hint will tell you how far off from your 'mark' you are and allow you to correct your angle. For example you choose to angle high then you get a message saying, "You feel nothing promising", "You feel your are getting closer/father away to/from the mark", or "You are close to something but cannot make the final cut." So, step by step, you 'mark' your tree, angle your swing, and 'log'. You can only do this so many times as the 'mark' has a life bar. After you have depleted the life bar a message will come up telling you how many times you can log from this point before it's exhausted or that there is nothing more and you should move on. Logging and Mining are both a lot like mini games and it makes them enjoyable in their own right.
Moving on to Mining; the same rules apply. You buy a Pickaxe and use 'Lay of the Land'. This is the same as 'Arbor Call', refer to Beta Blog Sugar Edition IX. After you are directed to your glittering Mining point you menu, interact, and mine. Again, a slider will appear but this slider decides your 'target'. "Decide on a portion of exposed ore and begin mining." Again, higher on the slider will be more difficult but yield better items and vice versa. The next gauge looks like the kind of targeting system you'd find on a gun in an FPS game. A circle will start small from the center, grow out to the edges, and back again. This decides how hard your strike is or how deep you are digging. Your character's animation will reflect how much force you set. Afterward a message will pop up, in the same fashion as Logging, giving you a hint similar to the ones stated for Logging.
After Logging and Mining it seems Mining points stick around longer taking more hits to exhaust. I was able to mine a point almost at least 3 minutes longer than my logging points. I'm not sure if this is unbalanced or perhaps I was just getting lucky with my mining points. I'll look into it more after the Beta on Tuesday starts.
Harvesting doesn't really require too much of an explanation. Harvesting is secondary part of Logging. This is where equipping a Scythe in your off-hand comes into play. For the secondary part of your gathering class there is no interaction involved. Instead of a tree to log or mountain face to mine you will be searching for patches of vegetation ie. high grass, bushes, etc. If they're not exhausted they'll glitter. Again; menu, interactions, harvest. You're character will magically produce you Scythe and begin to harvest. The cool thing about harvesting is that there are usually a few points collected in the same immediate area, see Beta Blog Sugar Edition IX. So, when you find one you can expect to find another close by.
Harvesting seems to yield items used more for Cloth and Leather crafts. While Logging coincides with Carpentry; twigs, wood, etc. but also for Botany; honeybee hives. As you level you gain more skills, as expected, but one of the upgrades increases your scanning range in all directions and gives you a boost to movement speed. I'm curious to see how the other gathering classes connect to crafting skills. I'm very eager to see the other Gathering classes,the different ways they can gain experience and abilities, and how those abilities facilitate you.
Well, that's all I got on gathering. I hope you enjoyed our information because I enjoyed bringing it to you. I apologize I couldn't bring more information on the other gathering classes but that's all SE gave us for the Beta. I'm really eager to try out Cooking! Look forward to our future FFXIV journals and I hope we succeeded in psyching you guys up for the release of the game. If you have any questions or requests feel free to comment!
NDA breaking Sugar is delicious, no?
Awesome post. Very informative.
I'm in Beta and I'm putting together a list of actions for every disciple. I was wondering if you could help me fill in the blanks for the Disciples of the Land in terms of what their actions are. I got a lot of the Disciples of War and Magic done. Here's what I have so far: http://ffxivstrawhats.com/jobs/
I'm also from http://www.ffxivstrawhats.com.
One thing worth noting is that I found mining to be more of a hot/cold game. For instance.
When I swung to the outer rims of the circle and the message came up "your getting closer", and swinging inwards to the circle said I was getting further away. The next attempt I would move the slider up one level, and swing to the inner parts of the circle which would produce a yield.