A few things need to fix for FF14 to be more enjoyable

[zzen]

FF14 fails for MMORPG.

It’s not about how good the graphic looks, how detail the environment looks, BUT the game play, socializing, character progression, involvement and development.
Players would like to feel they are involved in game world, they want to feel being important and part of the story.
It’s sad that to begin with, FF14 failed at the story head on. I didn’t get the story nor have I the time to read all the text displayed at start. The main story line if there is one stopped at very beginning stage. There is no indication of events of what should happen next, neither a guide for players to the next point through quests, to me the story somehow ended before I set out for the world.

Then comes combat, it is more linear and boring combat system I have seen in all MMORPG. I don’t have to mention graphical effects; just targeting system itself can prove much of a drag. And I can't seen my action bar, I cant track down what skills I have readied.

FF14 is not an UI friendly game just like FF11. So many hot keys and graphical icons needed for this game. FF14 purely is just text.

Interact with environment (PvE) is time consuming and seems take days to do almost everything in this game. For example, you chop a tree to get logs. You will find out it’s a mini game before you get some decent grinds. SE puts a challenge where it should be simplified. This is the reason why craftings are so time consuming but not fun.

Class such as carpenter, alchemist, and weaver…etc should be a crafting skills rather than a class. And too many craft skills can be learned and explore, that FF14 does not have a focus on class orientation. It seems flexible to have many choices, but you will lose your way.

There is a limit needs to be set for players’ choice of class and progression, so a character can have “path” to be this or that with enhancement from crafting skills. With FF14, there is no such boundary; you can be anyone any class, without a focus. Sometimes too many choices result you don’t know what to choose.

Where things should be simple, like main cities, (they are too big and too complicated) there is none. Cities are lacking directory like NPCs for players to find places. (If I want to find a blacksmith, NPC will mark it on my map) Exploring FF14 takes hours of running on foot and map compass is too small to reveal the path ahead. I have to open map frequently to see the road ahead. Travel between major cities also not indicated. A simple quest ask player to take a letter to a city on chocobo ride will demonstrate that.

The only good thing about FF14 is character models, graphic details of environment.

Sums up: FF14 failed at major concerns in MMORPG: battle system, questing/story/lore, less grind more action, levelling and socialising. FF 14 prevailed at environment details and graphics which is secondary concern. If game play sucks who cares about cool looking environment?

Below are detailed points of what I found out in this game:

Combat system in FF14
1. Combat is very linear, static not much of challenge or interest. (Basically just kill mob or grind) Targeting system is a disappointment. (You have to click a spell or skill then CLICK back on the mob, not to mention you miss clicked)

Action bar is too small, won't reveal itself unless you double click a target. Spell or skill graphic icon is too small as well.

Description of spell or skill is lacking proper definition of numbers. (eg. Fire spell, it should have a number tells how much damage it does and increase by how much depends on magic potency.)

2. There is no intencity during the fight, mobs look scary but doesn't do much "scary" things.

3. Spell/skill effect is lack of imagination. They are too complicated when all appear on screen at once.

Guildleves: (Quest)
1. There's no quest relate to explore the game content and leads player in progress of story. And worst of all, there is a cool down, 48 hours before you can do more quests. This will limit enjoyable time if there is any.

2. Quest lack of proper set out, a journal screen displays quest information, but "too many words" and you have to ready them all before you get to the objectives.

3. The introduction quest happens at beginning stage of play some how "stopped'. There is no lead afterwards. It doesn't take you elsewhere to dig deeper into the story/lore.
It seems more like an event rather than story. Does any one read that story word by word to get what it is all about? (Too much texts on screen, lacking voice over)

4. No group quest I have seen so far, everyone just mind their own businesses.

5. If you d/c or logged out during activation of Guildleves, you failed the quest. And this setting sucks.

Interactivity:
1. There is not much interactivity between environment and players. It’s a beautiful looking world, but does not offer any attraction or point of interest you can interact with. (eg. Mining, logging points are too less, lack of easy tracking system)
2. Mining, logging, harvesting…etc are like a mini game themselves. In world of warcraft style: a lumberjack profession simply equips an axe and chops a tree, after a cast bar depletes, you get the loot. Simple and easy, not time consuming. This puts less stress on grind.
3. Profession has limited utility in this game. Not to mention the impact a profession relate to a certain class. (For example: A robe for Conjurer with Lv5 Weaving is helpful to players and makes them want to get ingredients to craft.) The end product must have certain utility to prove worthwhile. A bad example from FF14 is, Carpentry: you get a maple log, cut it into planks, then what do you do with it? Gils you made from selling planks hardly cover the log it self. (Flour is expensive than bread) And there is no available recipe for planks to be craft into attainable items. If there is, I can’t see them available by trainer. This makes crafting harder and boring.
4. Switching between professions needs a related tool to be equipped. This is time consuming and repeated work.

UI
1. Lack of hot keys for Character screen, quest/Guildleves, Attributes/status…etc.
2. Lack of chat channels in general where I cannot see verbal communication in FF14 world. A linkshell maybe their new idea, but I don’t know how to make it work, at least it should be simple form like a chart channel. I haven’t talked to any one or heard anyone typing a lot in FF14.
3. FF14 needs more graphic display icons rather than texts.
4. Camera movement is not flexible; you can’t run forward while looking at back. No free look around while a character is walking/running. If this function is available, please make it obvious without toggle on. (eg. hold mouse right click and turn camera around as default setting)

Reward and Loot, Inventory management
1. Drops from mob is messy, it does not have classification of trash items or ingredients for crafting. I run out of space in inventory so fast because I don’t know which one I should sell.
2. Quest/Guildleves offers rewards lacks gear that can improve a character attributes and looking.(that’s most players would want, a cool looking weapon does nasty damage or an armor piece enhance your looking)
3. Inventory item looked too small in graphic icons, and again too many texts.

Socialising:
1. No chart activities seen in chart box. The world literally is in silence.
2. Haven’t found any indication about guild/company, how to form up or how to join.
3. There is no group quest or dungeon that will force people to come together to explore.

[zzen]

The first online MMORPG I played was FF11, and it sucks. Seems FF14 shares similar experiences. Does SE ever learn from players all around the world?

[Gramul]

You need to keep up with the updates and Letters from the Producer.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

There is lore your just not reading it. Combat is getting fixed. An most mmo do require click skill then mob, this allows fore off target targeting. There isn't a general chat in ffxiv, and there is Linkshell npc who are marked.... to start a LS which is where most of the socializing takes place.

[Cairdeas]

I'm just going to bullet point my counter arguments to most of your arguments instead of just trying to number them like yours.

Yes The Graphics are Awesome.

Currently there are no defined roles by Characters because you are supposed to dictate it yourself. Your building a character not a class. Your experiances from everything you do in game are supposed to reflect on how powerful you are. You do not magically forget everything you learned to do with Magic just because you picked up a Sword. Thats ludicrous. I personally love the Armoury System as it is, but see where people are having problems which is why SE is releasing the Job System in the future, to allow a player to dictate easily to others what their role is and to give them a path to follow should they so chose. But it should be the choice of the player to do so, not a forced limitation by the game.

Guild Leves are not the only Quests in the game right now. We have Local Leves (Crafting), Regional Leves (Combat), Regional Leves (Gathering), Faction Leves (NM's), Story Line Quest/Missions, Side-Quests, Behests, Guild Tasks, and soon will have Company and Dungeon Quests.

The UI is lacking, they have already said they are developing a Keyboard friendly UI and one that more optimized for Gamepads. Right now the one we have is a hybrid. But it leans more to being more useful for Controllers.

A lot of people, including the gaming press actually applaud the interactivity of the Crafting and Gathering Classes. As it means you have more control over the outcome of a event instead of it being completely RNG. There is still RNG in place but you do have some control, even if its illusionary or negligible. A Full blown Recipe book is coming soon for players in game but you will have to have crafted the item yourself once, or an NPC told you it first.

Most of your complaints about Combat are UI based and as stated they are working on that.

All items in XIV right now are Craftable if they are tradable. No item is a dedicated "Trash Item" some one some where can use something that drops. Side-Quests do over gear for players to use. But XIV is a craft based game, most of your gear is going to come from crafters not from quests, or drops.

Linkshells are what you are calling Guilds. Companies are NPC linkshells basically, but they are not fully released yet. If you need a linkshell just shout for one in town someone will offer you one. If your looking to start your own then here. http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Linkshell

Right now the game is limited to rank 50. the intended final Level is guessed to be around 99. Because theres already monsters in the game that are that high. Theres also gear in the data files that shows gear for those levels.

[Elexia]

The first online MMORPG I played was FF11, and it sucks. Seems FF14 shares similar experiences. Does SE ever learn from players all around the world?

It doesn't matter. If XI sucked it would have ended service especially in this day and age. MMOs that suck, even back in the day, didn't run for 9 years.

How to make XIV more enjoyable?

Return the basic systems from XI
Add content

That's about it, a lot of what you want is stuff that makes other MMOs feel generic because they all do it. Why do I need to see 10 rows of spell and abilities? Oh and no, I don't need the game telling me the exact damage ability and spells will do, no real RPG does, at the most it will tell you a damage cap.

[zzen]

Thanks for explaining, I'm a new player to FF 14. Just a first hand experience that I get lost very easily in this game. Especially available quests you can do is limited by timer. The progression is slow, and this discourage me from playing FF 14.

[Cairdeas]

Thanks for explaining, I'm a new player to FF 14. Just a first hand experience that I get lost very easily in this game. Especially available quests you can do is limited by timer. The progression is slow, and this discourage me from playing FF 14.

Even that is wrong though.

Regional and Local Leves *8 Each totalling 16* Get reset every 36 hours (Not 48) So that they alternate for Prime time back and forth between Japan and the US.

Side Quests are one time quests and have no time resets.

Story missions are one time quests with no time resets.

Behests are every 30 minutes at all the camps.

Company Quests are not released yet just the lore quests to unlock them.

Dungeon quests are not released yet.

Guild Tasks reset every day at 6am PST IIRC?

[Kilta_Firelotus]

To ad there are TONs of markers on the map, if you need repairs look for the digi hammer icon (npc) or just put your stuff up. Its funny that you condradict your self, you want quests/guildleves for exploring... but then do not want to waste time exploring the cities.

Also i just started but I know some of the story in each of the cities. A game doesn't need VO to be good.

LL: talks of fishback attacks, The sea monster and possible treason are main keys to the story line. Aswell as you see the rivalry of the muscketeers and pirates.

Ul'dah: mostly about the goobue attack, why it happen, Other occurances such as a mine cave in.

Gridania: talks of elementals, moogles, the forest coming alive, and about a festival and rite of clensing.

Thats what I got so far from each city. Overall the story line is we are adventuers/ mercenaries keeping up our training after the garlean empire only attacked Ala mihgo.

[Xatsh]

I am going to start off by saying this is not a WoW clone. After reading through your complaints many are because the game differs from WoWs setups. From UI, to Icons, to Battle system, to Crafting/gathering.

Several of your points have merit, some are wrong, and some make me question how much you played this game.

The battle system while it is much slower then the recently released action mmos, it is not as slow as most the Pre-WoW mmos. The UI is not designed for Keyboard/Mouse is the other issue it works fairly well with keyboard only or controller. Battle Animations are lacking in my opinion.

The games has several different story lines in it, The guild leves are a method of leveling nothing else, they are not part of the story besides a little text. The main story is fairly well written with detailed CS, the Class quest (a whole story line for each class except armorsmithing and blacksmithing share) also have pretty good cut-scenes and a well written story. Go to youtube and watch the main story line quest and you will find your story line in the game, it beats out the majority of the mmos out there in story telling. The only complaint about the story line is it is not finished, it is sorta cryptic like a typical FF meaning you are not sure what is going to happen next, and there are not enough ingame in my opinion.

The Leve quest are group quest, while SE given you the option to solo by doing so you are reducing your skill points per hour by about 50-60%. Atm Notorious monsters, Guild Leves (battle and gathering), and Behest are designed with grouping as a focus. Atm almost everything besides the class/mainstory line quest are designed for groups.

As for quest objectives... if you have a hard time finding them in leves and side-quest you are just stupid it tells you exactly what to do and lights up your map. In missions and class quest just click the map button and it tells you where you should go... basically walks you to the mob.

Gathering classes have an ability that tells you exactly where to go to find a gathering point... once again the lack of easy tracking complaint is simply not valid. Liking the WoW gathering system is a personal opinion honestly it is incredibly shallow and uninvolved... honestly horribly boring.

If you say crafting has limited utility in this game you have not paid attention, crafting controls the whole economy and provides over 80% of the gear in the game. Without it you really cannot advance to far since you get almost nothing from quest, and the nms start at around level 30.

The maple plank thing... that makes 10 different items. You need to do your homework on crafting, an example of how you have no clue how it works and want it handed to you.

Switching classes in this game is easy as crap more so then ffxi. There is nothing wrong with the way classes are switched in the context you used it as... wasting time by changing a weapon... that takes less then 1 sec. Your complaint here is completely invalid. Now if you do not like that weapons are tied to classes that might have a better argument.

With Drops there is no icon for trash items for a reason... there is no trash items. Every single item that drops in the game has a use for something. There is no vendor trash.

Quest give gear rewards for the side quest, the leve quest do but they come from chest. The economy is player driven meaning you get stuff from crafters. Which leads to the point where you saying the professions are pointless as being false.

As for your socializing, over 80% of the quest are group quest you are doing leves wrong. The dungeons are not added I will give you that. Guilds are everywhere it is what those symbols are by players names... there is a npc in each city's adventurer guild that gives them out.

You need to read lodestone like the manuel says not all games are wow clones. Lodestone gives detailed instructions on how to do many of things you say the game needs but it already has.

The complaint about icons is personal opinion. The icons are typical FF style menu icons.

Honestly it sounds like you want WoW or a WoW style game. I honestly suggest you trying Rift if you have not, or playing ToR or Tera when they comes out. Those games have the style you are wanting in a mmo.