So, I recently got Beastmaster to level 78, so I was soloing in Bibiki Bay to cap off my skill and got to thinking.
With how quickly you can level now, there's very little motivation to get AF1, outside of personal interest. That brings you forward to AF2, which depending on the job may also be something not worth hunting down when you can easily just go for AF3 in abyssea wearing the level 78 then the level 87 gear.
So I had an idea.
At level 99 you should be able to get AF4, gear that is reminiscent of AF1, but with an updated look and feel -- advanced end-all, be-all stats that are completely applicable and potent for you job, and maybe even add a special Job Ability or spell for some.
The idea I had for how to acquire this gear, though, is the important part.
To get a single piece of AF4, you should have to have the corresponding AF1+1, AF2+1, and AF3+2 piece, and then go through a final quest line for your job for each piece of armor.
Me personally, I like the idea of forcing each player to solo bosses specifically designed to be difficult, but not impossible, to solo on their given jobs -- but I'm guessing not everyone is game for that.
Maybe add in currencies that drop from bosses from older content to augment the time investment required to get the new gear.
It just seems to me that there's no real respect being shown to people who invested all of that effort into the old gear. And I know, I'm usually the first to spout "Its an MMO, things get updated and some become irrelevant" -- but the fact that there's absolutely no reason to revisit old content except out of personal interest kind of makes me sad.
Just an idea.