My kingdom for an efficient search system.

This post is a copy-paste of another post I made on the ffxiclopedia forums so long ago. That topic was eventually locked (after 8 replies or so) because it was a "dead horse" as they liked to call them, a topic that was old and served no real purpose for inviting new discussion. I would like to refocus my efforts here, at the main source of SE's intake of suggestions.

The search system, I think, should be able to give you a detailed report on peoples' progress in the game. Say you did /sea all Raxiaz, clicked on my name, and a window came up saying "View Character Info? Yes/No"...Upon clicking yes, you will be taken to another window which can give you:

- All my jobs currently leveled (that I should be able to toggle hide/show for each separate job, or all jobs at once. Filter it to let people see what you want them to see). With each job, the user should be able to set to "Invite" status (displaying their interest in leveling that job, and other jobs as well). Want to campaign on BLU but seek an invite for PLD? Well, this would solve that problem.

- Current combat skills, magic skills, crafting skills, and merits attained.

****** Mission/quest status. It could give you a menu much similar to what you'd get yourself (Nations, Zilart, Promathia, Aht Urhgan, Altana, and Add-ons) which you can navigate to see THEIR status.

I know this is probably going to be shot down. I realize that SE has already stated the search feature is too difficult to recode or readjust. There is also the issue of privacy. But really, who cares if people know about their in-game character's stats? It would be a good thing. Especially if you wanted to seek on multiple jobs, and be able to hook up easier with people who have the same missions/quests as you. Honestly, being able to /sea by these criteria would really help the game.

If not these, then at least consider a revision to the search system. A massive overhaul is desperately needed. Adding the Magian category was a step in the right direction. But I think an even bigger leap would be to allow us to set a comment for each of the categories. Allow us to keep these comments in place and allow users to see what we've put for each one. By "allowing us to keep these comments in place" I mean that they stay there until:

*The command "/seacom clear [variable]" is issued by the user. (Vari = EXP, Mission, quest, battlefield, Item, Synth, Magi, Other, All). "/seacom clear" would be the same as "/seacom clear all", whereas if a category is specified, it clears that category only.

*The search comment itself for the category is changed or erase by the user in the "Edit Comment" menu.

This would make the search system so much more useful and efficient. I would actually click the "Search" menu option now if these changes took effect. The playerbase needs to get used to utilizing this function. If these changes were applied, I think more people would be open to putting a comment in each category that actually pertains to that category. These days, most Mission comments aren't really for missions at all. They're just nonsense. Would that happen to most if not all categories if these changes took place? Maybe, but would they still help? Most definitely.

Would be nice but I think the Auction House needs to be overhauled first.

The AH does need a desperate overhaul. A search function should be #1 priority on SE's list for adjustments to the AH, if they were to have any.

But an enhanced search system would greatly benefit the game more than an enhanced AH, especially now with so many different things players may be interested in (Missions, abyssea, magian trials, etc). The less-used categories like synthesis and other would just be icing on the cake when it comes to being able to comment them alongside everything else. Not to mention the ability to put your flag up for grouping and the jobs you have available at different levels for anyone at ANY level who would /search and have you pop up.

Enhanced search feature would speed up the game, make getting into groups faster and finding people easier, more than an enhanced auction house could ever hope to accomplish. Not to condescend your opinion or anything; I agree with you. But /seacom is #1 to me, AH #2.

Well, if a player adds themself to FFXIAH, it keeps a list of mission and level progress from the Linkshell Community. If one site can read the LS community, why can't the game itself? The only trouble is fitting all that information on the screen for a console user. /check fills the screen already.

Adding themselves to the FFXIAH takes time and effort and gil, surprisingly. As for the console user problem, it would be very easy to compress most of that information to display through lists similar to how it's already done when you're viewing your own mission progress.

A problem with the current search system is that one can only have a flag up for one job at a time, and only one kind of flag; mission/battlefield, want to buy, etc.

I'd like to see a system such as you suggest, but SE has never been big on making GUIs for FFXI, where they're desperately needed for Synergy, displaying real time information. PS2 Limitations?

Then again, from what i hear about 14, SE can go crazy with windows when they wanna! Maybe it's better this way...