The biggest issue ffxi faces is capping out

Players capping out on the things they care about will lead to them not logging on anymore, even if they want to keep playing.

There constantly needs to be a thing to strive for, if you can keep this issue at bay then the game has a long future ahead of it.

The game is being kept alive right now off the back of job points (merc shouts for job points is actually bad for the game) and rema, there needs to be something else.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

Players capping out on the things they care about will lead to them not logging on anymore, even if they want to keep playing.

There constantly needs to be a thing to strive for, if you can keep this issue at bay then the game has a long future ahead of it.

The game is being kept alive right now off the back of job points (merc shouts for job points is actually bad for the game) and rema, there needs to be something else.

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I see multiple factors coalescing, in regards to the points you made.

Firstly, speaking for myself, while I enjoy novelty (new stuff) and shiny new things, I would keep logging into FFXI even if I had all the shiny new things already.

What I have enjoyed most in FFXI since I joined in 2004, was helping other players, if they are new players or veterans. I have spent around 75% of my FFXI play time, in the last fifteen years, helping other players with missions or NM-camping or whatever.

The game used to be harder to solo, and so people back then were more likely to socialise and make friends and ask for help. With the arrival of iLvl and Trusts, players can solo most of FFXI content without ever speaking to another person or forming any kind of bonds with people.

I miss helping new players with missions and NMs and things like that. Even if I had all the best gear in the game, I would still want to log in to meet new players and help them with stuff. But they don't need me now, because of iLvl and Trusts.

Similarly I miss the XP Parties from the past, the smaller amounts of XP available, which made the climb to level 75 an adventure, a bonding experience, and an achievement.

I solo'd my first two Jobmaster jobs, and with the first one, it was before the arrival of capacity rings, or any other ROE/KI/Quest/Mog-garden etc. capacity bonuses, and before the base level of capacity points per mob was raised. I was getting like fifty capacity points per mob, and I was still able to solo to Jobmaster. It was a huge sense of achievement.

I said at the time, on this forum, that I think it would be a shame if this achievement was lessened and even removed entirely, by speeding up the capacity points gain rate, and flooding the game with capacity points bonuses. In my opinion, the slow rate of capacity points at the beginning of the proto-Jobmaster era, was perfect. It represented commitment, and a long journey towards a huge sense of achievement, much like getting to level 75 was in the old days.

I pointed out that if everyone has obtained Jobmaster and afterglow weapons, in a very speedy process, many of those people will lose interest in logging in, as they feel they have no roads left to travel. Total Job Mastery and the ownership of Legendary Weapons, should always be a long-term goal, a dream that keeps calling to a person's heart. These legendary master achievements shouldn't be something that a person just adds to their shopping list and checks off ASAP.

I think also that the game has suffered greatly due to the non-inclusion of free-roaming / lottery-pop wilderness Notorious Monsters in the new iLvl game. I used to love travelling around Vana'diel and just camping free-roaming or lottery-pop wilderness NMs. But now, in the iLVL age, NMs are not camped, but are part of mechanical instance events of one type or another. These new iLvl NMs don't feel natural to me, I don't feel like I am hunting them, they just appear like orders at some sort of NM Drive-Thru window.

In your post you correctly state that merc shouts are bad for the game. Gilbuying and RMT /yells is also killing the game. I would suggest that making the game too easy and speedy, too easy to level up to 75 and beyond, too easy to skill-up by just using sparks papers, and too easy to solo with iLvl and Trusts, has also killed the community feeling that I so cherished in the old days. I really miss spending my free time helping other people, it is like a big hole in my life now.

But I will keep logging into FFXI for the rest of my life, or until the game stops being available online, whichever happens first. Because, simply put, I love being in Vana'diel. It is the only place that ever felt like home to me.

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Originally Posted by Pixela

(ALL merc shouts for job points is actually bad for the game)

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Mercs and RMT will end the game sooner than you think. These are the single most threat to anything else at this stage.

Why?
EVERYTHING is being sold. The entire yell, which was once full of content creating yells is now Buy Job Points and Buy everything else. It's become a standard practice and the new norm. People don't yell for content anymore because they have either already bought the stuff, or the people who they are trying to attract have already bought the stuff - And the cycle repeats itself.

How long is a game going to last when?
(a) People are buying the rare/ex weapons and the chances are will never engage in fighting said Notorious monster.
(b) People buying Job Points. Highly driven by bots and RMT.

In other words, they aren't engaging in joining genuine CP parties, and they aren't engaging with other people to fight a monster and overcome that challenge. The whole point of an MMO.

How long does such a person hang around for, once they have gotten so bored of just buying everything, and AFK'ing while getting Job points? I doubt very long at all.

Ive played enough mmos to see that this isnt a problem unique to FFXI.

Every MMO has the issue of players burning through content too fast. Whether its through botting or playing 18 hours a day.

If someone is going to buy their way through content/exp then so be it.

Im not saying i like it, i actually cant stand botters, dual boxing, third party add ons, all that crap i can do without.

But i dont hold SE responsible for human behavior thats observable in every MMO on the market.

I agree with basically everything Divaud Sirmarki and Stompa left as replies :^)

We are in desperate need of new content, seeing a lot of people quitting because they have little to do, it doesn't help that new players are skipping right to the end, buying wins, but for established players they have multiple weapons finished to RP 15, Omen is only used to farm detritus (If done at all).

New HTB doesn't count as long term content, Neither does ambuscade, it's been almost two years since dynamis was released

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Originally Posted by Divaud

Ive played enough mmos to see that this isnt a problem unique to FFXI.

Every MMO has the issue of players burning through content too fast. Whether its through botting or playing 18 hours a day.

If someone is going to buy their way through content/exp then so be it.

Im not saying i like it, i actually cant stand botters, dual boxing, third party add ons, all that crap i can do without.

But i dont hold SE responsible for human behavior thats observable in every MMO on the market.

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It's true, I went into shadowbringers and did all the story, but I'm bored to tears of FFXIV and the holy Trinity system, at least FFXI can satisfy my craving


As a person who has been playing FFXI for under a year now with my first JOB as a Dancer, it's more that I'm confused what to do now

~ @JKap_Goat DNC is in a difficult scene right now with the highest difficulty battle typically consisting of niche job arrangements. I would recommend you continue to progress the DNC job since it is your current top output/utility for general type adventuring.

To find ease into being a part of the most difficult battles, I would recommend bringing up a Runefencer, a WHM, a GEO, a BRD, a COR or a SMN on your main character as a means of having a capability to be a tank, healer, support or non-traditional dps.
All jobs take a great amount of itemization upgrades, some a bit worse than others.

JSE of usefulness for any job should be reforged to +3 for AF and Relic and ilvl 119 +1 for empyrean(abyssea armor). Collect all useful armors from Ambuscade and upgrade those to +2. Optimize and configure your macros and /equipset for efficiency and comfort. Find and acquire all relevant special use items and multiple purpose configured augmented items that could come from ambuscade JSE capes, accessories, skirmish, vagary, delve, SR, Gaes fete (Escha-Ru'aun/Escha-Zi'tha/Reisenjima). Seek out job veterans that are knowledgeable and are willing to give advice about item usage. Depending on how a job functions in a party, each job will ideally want to optimize /equipset for Acc, M.Acc, MB dmg bonus, WS dmg bonus, Haste, individual WS stat modifier bonus dmg, applicable trait/ability bonus, applicable potency enhancement bonus, -DT (also know as -damage taken), +Fast Cast bonus (very important for casters), hybrid -DT/Store TP, and +refresh/tick set for MP users.

Itemization is only one of many achievements to attain. Fully completing City/Expansion Missions is a big deal. Gaining entry access to all content and areas is a big deal. Escha has a vorseals objective collection process which is a fairly big deal. Beyond that, there are crafting/fishing, side quests, gathering/chocobos and 18 years of exploration of FFXI content.
Literally there is always something of value to be doing.

Legitimate new content delivered in bulk, and not just recycling all the old things, is pretty much what the game needs. Just looking at this month's patch notes and all I can really do is sigh since it's basically some meh BRD tweaks, the usual Ambuscade rollover, and yet another BC fight for niche loot.


Basically, I'd argue they need to overcome whatever "limitations" prevent them from further upgrading jobs/spells/abilities. Heck, I'd even lob boosting the subjob cap as a "what if?" here. The RMT/Mercenary issue will never really go away, however, as long as content can't be soloed or done with, say, 1 or 2 others. I stand behind my old belief that Abyssea revealed largely how players felt about those they were "forced" to socialize with now that they no longer had to. Trying to put that genie back in the bottle just isn't happening because many would rather profit than be kind, the mask is simply off now.


Otherwise, you've got the old requests like texture updates, working on the soundtrack for silent/windy zones, QOL stuff like more gear sets, possibly overhauling the macro system in general, various other UI updates, and so on. But there's still no real beating around the bush that XI needs a major expansion to drop and the sooner the better. That mix of nostalgia and personal attachment only works for so long in absence of Things To Do(tm).

Some new content I think that would be very popular would be 119 Abyssea remake, all new gear, new atmas, reworked monsters, new quests. Atmas that can be built up in a system similar to merits to maker them stronger would also be good long term boosts.

It could use all the current assets but just boost it up, that would be years worth of content alone.

I will quote myself from a previous topic.

An idea i had posted in another thread about an all new endgame content addition.
I would like to see some new powerful ilvl 119, enemy power level 135 challenging HNM created and established within areas of open air size from original FFXI. I'm suggesting La Theine Plateau, Valkurm Dunes, Konschtat Highlands, Pashhow Marshlands, Rolanberry Fields, Batallia Downs, Jugner Forest, Meriphataud Mountains, Sauromugue Champaign, Xarcabard, Eastern Altepa Desert.

Design would have to be extremely important and properly executed. 90 to 120 minute respawn times per NM. Advanced inclusive interface and accessibility that echoes the domain invasion wyrms.
A purely NPC collaborated reward system that mirrors ToAU assault reward vendors and Campaign Battle Allied Notes.
Pre-requirements to content access suggesting lvl 99 + potpourri initial permanent key item @ cost of 500 potpourri. Temporary key item for combat access per battle @ cost of 2500 conquest points. New temporary key item available from npc placed at most centralized < pos > map location available immediately after the defeat of previous combat. No artificial time limitations placed on encounter.
"Rage" conditional attack speed, attack power, defense, movement speed + draw-in for HNM incumbered by environmental obstructions with duration of 120 seconds.
Rewards that excel above Geas Fete content treasures and equally as significant in variety, applications and diversity.
These new NMs could take form in the depictions of beastmen, or geographically correlated enemy types, or evil anti-characters of storyline npc.
Bonus currency could be distributed to alliances that attain the highest three evaluations of enmity time sustained, total damage, least K.O.'s, status ailments healed and highest adherence to weaknesses and avoidance of player-produced ineffective actions (as in immunities) much alike campaign battles.
Trusts are allowed, but come at a penalty of -10% currency reward per total trust activated per encounter. Evaluations are dispensed upon alliance composition, if a player disbands from an alliance during an encounter they can not accept a party invite until the encounter ends or until they change areas which will remove the encounter status from their character. Characters attain encounter status once they have the temporary key item and successfully engage the combat through standard claim/enmity conditions.