Classic Server

[Alhanelem]

> You can lock a level 75 character on Merit Points, and not do any further limit breaks. This means you will stay level 75 forever.

> You can play the old areas, level 75 content, NMs etc. on your level 75 character, with five Trusts in party. Or find some other people who want to play at level 75.

> Or play at level 119. The new FFXI is cool too.

> The game has increased base movement speed, so you walk and run faster. Also you can get Jumbotender bonus etc. for even faster movement speed.

> The game now has /lockstyle feature, which means you can wear any clothes on the outside of your battle armour, so your character will still have all the stats from the battle armour, but your appearance will be whatever your /lockstyle gear is (Chocobo Suit or Seasonal Event Clothes or w/e.) This means you can wear ugly armor for the stats, but still look cool on the outside.

> You can now obtain RME weapons, with a more realistic amount of time involved.

> Vana'diel is still the same Vana'diel as it was in 2004. Some things have changed, and new areas added. But underneath it, the original world of Vana'diel is still there for you to enjoy.

> All kinds of other cool and fun new stuff.

> I love playing FFXI in 2019, and I don't mind the changes really. Vana'diel is still the same world I always loved, and FFXI is still the same game I always loved.

And if you couldn't tell, the point here is that FFXI gives you a lot of freedom to play the way you want to play. I just fully completed the relic staff (barring augmentation and having fun finding ways to leverage it that people didn't expect. Just because something isn't necessairly the most efficicent or popular doesn't mean it can't be done or can't work. And this is FFXI's charm for me.

[Krashport]

Couldn't SE just let us set our levels to anything and be done with it. I mean then we wouldn't need a Classic Server.

[Alhanelem]

you can already sync your level to (technically) anything you want, i t's just not exactly convenient right now. I'm all for letting people sync to an arbitrary level so you don't have to have someone with you at the desired level.

It really would be the simplest way to let people play the way they want. Something FFXI has always been good at doing (hey look at me with my fully upgraded Claustrum being swung around on SMN! )

[Laughlyn]

I'd love to play on Classic servers!

Would i pay the normal subscription fee? Hell Yeah!

As long as i can keep my normal mode / to-day game.

Benefits of Classic servers:

More new / low levels players enjoying that awesome old insane grind !

The game as it is right now don't really need much more content, but rather a fresh
start / reboot / reroll for even younger generations to experience the real FFXI.

I'd pick FFXI Classic over WoW classic, but since that's not an option or even "rumors" about that happening... im pretty sure my choice is obvious.

(still loving my FFXI more than anything)

[Sirmarki]

More new / low levels players enjoying that awesome old insane grind !

Highly unlikely in today's society. SE had to adapt many aspects of FFXI to fit with the modern day. If Asura is anything to go by; people just pay one of the hundreds of merc's shouting each day because they don't want/can't be bothered to work for it.

[saevel]

Why won't this just die in a fire where it belongs.

[Alhanelem]

They should just lock this thread.

If you really really want a server that's frozen in time with no new content (becuase that would destroy the classicness of it!), search around on the internet and you'll find options. Illegal options, but most of the people who want this badly enough don't care about that.

Aside from that, there is really nothing stopping you from just teaming up with like minded people to do things the way you feel like doing them.

More new / low levels players enjoying that awesome old insane grind !

Very few gamers in today's age would be able to tolerate the level of grind the game had in the early days. Talk to anyone who plays literally any other MMO and tell them about FFXI and how the grind used to be and nearly all of them would tell you "that sounds terrible."

As i've said before, I would totally be cool with them adding a feature to arbitrarily sync yourself to any level you'd like. That would even be useful in some cases, even if you're not specifically interested in running old content the old way. That's all they really need to do, then you can just sync yourself to level 75 and knock yourself out, everyone's happy and they don't have to waste resources redeveloping an old version of the game (plus you still get your conveniences like home point teleports, etc)

[Vanisher]

I like the idea of a classic server, it already works in the form of private servers at the moment. And to those who think it will take too much resources from SE to realize this, are entirely wrong. Many of the private classic servers are/can basically be done by one person. It's a one man job.

I think many players will have different opinions on what to keep and what to remove, though. And many players are lost because of the private servers are taking them from SE. So I would recommend SE to give players the ability to start their own "World", hosted by SE, where they can set their own rules, and add basic content. This solution might also work for those who want to play single player or with some friends, they just have to adjust the rules accordingly.

So imagine this:
You log into your Square-Enix Account, then you pay a fee to activate "Custom World". And then you can go and set the rules and add content to the server. You can choose a setup wizard, and/or go advanced for more in depth adjustments.

Rule examples:
Main/subjob melding rules, how stats and levels are put together.
EXP bonus.
Movement speeds.
Drop rates.
Level Caps.
etc.

Content Examples:
Make, add, remove or adjust abilities and traits. (Simply make abilities from a set of drop-down menus).
Make, add, remove or adjust magic.
Adjust stats on gear.
Adjust magic potency.
Make simple quests.
Add NPC's and shops.
remove NPC's.
Make new jobs.
Make, add, remove or adjust items.
etc.

Once this is done, you can choose if it's a "Private world", only accessible for you and your friends. Or a "Public world" for everyone to join, who will be able to select the World when they create a new character or if world transfer is requested.
When undergoing a World transfer, you will have to pay a fee as usual. But what does not exist in the new world will not be available, untill you transfer back to the original World or to a world that has the same rule(s).

This might take a bit more resources from SE, but I wouldn't overstate that. You leave the game changing to the players, SE will just provide the ability to do so. I think the option to make a Custom world would make the game appeal to more players.

I hope SE will do this, and it would be a selling point if they announced a graphics refresh to breathe new life into the game, and at the same time announce the Custom World feature.

I think it might be alot of fun. I hope you agree.

[Alhanelem]

Funny enough Star Trek Online (and another game from the same studio) both featured a custom content component (essentially, moddable MMOs, within limits- you could create custom adventures which other players could search for and play, with rewards and everything using almost any of the game's assets), but those features were eventually removed because it was too difficult to both update the game while maintaining support for the custom adventure features. So clearly, it was a significant undertaking to maintain support for that feature, which is essentially what you were describing.

But I stand by my opinion that FFXI gives you plenty of ways to play your way, and a "classic server" is unnecessary. A server frozen in a particular point of time has limited appeal because it will eventually get boring with no updates, and as mentioned multiple times in the past, you'll lose out on many of the quality of life improvements made since whatever bygone day you liked best; and as noted, if you really want that, private servers are a thing (that aren't supposed to be a thing, but there's no denying they are a thing).

[Vanisher]

Funny enough Star Trek Online (and another game from the same studio) both featured a custom content component (essentially, moddable MMOs, within limits- you could create custom adventures which other players could search for and play, with rewards and everything using almost any of the game's assets), but those features were eventually removed because it was too difficult to both update the game while maintaining support for the custom adventure features. So clearly, it was a significant undertaking to maintain support for that feature, which is essentially what you were describing.

But I stand by my opinion that FFXI gives you plenty of ways to play your way, and a "classic server" is unnecessary. A server frozen in a particular point of time has limited appeal because it will eventually get boring with no updates, and as mentioned multiple times in the past, you'll lose out on many of the quality of life improvements made since whatever bygone day you liked best; and as noted, if you really want that, private servers are a thing (that aren't supposed to be a thing, but there's no denying they are a thing).

That depends on how it's implemented. It would be easy to implement updates to the custom worlds I've talked about. It would be up to each Custom World holder to enable the new updates or keep the old settings. So updates for a custom world will be available if they are wanted on the Custom World. I also mentioned that the server holder would be able to add custom content and items, so it wouldn't be without updates. This would in all make private servers less of a thing, and SE would keep the support they need to keep the game running.