If i had the wheel

I love game design and have watched countless hours of videos on it so whenever an opportunity arrives for me to give it a go I usually try. These are things I would do if I had the reigns, I am presently looking for work and would love a shot at making ffxi a more beginner friendly game.

I hear that there has been large changes to the strategy for final fantasy 11. I have heard there is a new emphasis on the “New player experience” I’m excited for that and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for some quick things to help new players that would require what I would perceive to be small programming or easy implementation quick things. Generally, I see this as changing a single variable or copying another system over that already exists in game and adapting it to an existing bad mechanic.

One of the first things I see is that many jobs and subjobs don’t really add anything interesting, when ffxi first launched and for the many years I played it before lvl 99 and I-level, one of the fun things was all the random and weird and fun builds (elemental staff ninjitsu, subbing DRG for the assault earring, WHM.PLD,MNK bones parties, SATA dark knights etc.) Today the game feels so much more cookie cutter and there’s a lot less build diversity despite there being more classes or ways to approach enemy mechanics. I think by simply moving some “Iconic” features of classes to level 1 and 49 respectively a lot of more experimentation by beginner’s and a lot more fun. Here are the changes to some abilities for each class that could change the gameplay for ffxi to be more fun and exciting by only changing some small numbers in programming.

Main game mechanics:
Change it so removal effects will NEVER target enemy auras that cannot be removed, this is more of a trust problem than a player problem but sometimes non targetable removal like the debuff removing waltz will target things that cant be removed.
Change certain abilities to be “Stances” stances are undispel-able, and you can only have one “Stance” at a time … don’t worry we are simply modifying certain abilities already in the game to be unspellable and mutually exclusive. If you activate a stance, it removes any other stances you have and puts them on a decently long cooldown preventing you from getting both stances benefits in the same fight. With Samurai being the exception aka the “Scholar of melee”
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Basic Jobs:

Warrior:
Move provoke to level 1
change berserk and defender to level 15 and make them both “Stances”
change retaliator and aggressor to stances as well and at 49

Monk:
Move Chakra to level 1 and change it into a Regen ability that has its own buff slot stacks with other regen rather than it only causing regen when merited and each tic removes one of its debuffs it can remove (furthest to the left) , Equipment bonuses can be divvyed up to regen potency and duration.
Change Counter stance into a stance and adjust it to increase guard substantially, counter rate as it does presently, and enmity bonus, but impose a haste penalty and evasion penalty.
Change boost to enhance the next non stance monk job ability or add Weapon skill damage to the next weapon skill, because it is a job ability with a cooldown it should probably be a higher bonus to WSD than dragoon passive @ 49-52 .
It would probably be much easier for you to balance monk weapons in the long run if hand to hand either counted as two handed weapons so you can utilize grips or more likely should be a dual wielder with claws and fists to allow greater equip variety if you did so martial arts + can just function like dual wield + or heck give them dual wield 1 and have the traits interact.

White Mage:
Move divine seal to level 1
Afflatus Solace, Afflatus Misery become the new version of stances (undispellable and mutually exclusive)

Black Mage:
Move elemental seal to level 1
Create a stance called Magic Barrage that increases spellcasting speed and conserve mp, available level 49 (free nuke spamming)
Create a stance called Careful casting that increases the damage of a spell based on its base casting time, and adds magic burst damage II (revive the ancient magic strategy, high risk on timing, high reward) available at level 49.

Red Mage:
Move Stymie to Lvl 1, allow it to interact with Helixes (other jobs like whm and blm and scholar could really make use of this ability
Change composure to be a stance and subjob accessible and at 49, rune fencer, Scholar, and to a lesser extent WHM and PLD would probably really like access to this ability, and makes it far less of a chore to keep buffs up on these jobs.
Create an enhancing spell that is accessible by sub job that over time(1/3 tics ?) removes the furthest left dispellable debuff.
Give red mage access to all the same regen spells as Scholar (enfeebling and enhancing are supposed to be their domain)

Thief:
Change thief to get dual wield 1 at level 1
Change Steal to be level 1 accessible and all previous treasure hunter trait instead affect steal, successfully stealing from an enemy puts one of its drops into the treasure pool avoiding its normal rarity rating higher dex/agi and accuracy increase successful steal chance.
Change accomplice to be a stance and damage you deal while behind an allied player increases their enmity in addition to your own and you recieve a damage taken minus when hiding behind an ally. Accessible by sub job at 49
Change collaborator to be a stance enhances damage and crit rate while behind an enemy with no one between you and the monster.
Change hide to drop a percentage of enmity and guarantee the next attack is a critical hit.

I forgot to mention thief needs more boomerangs and they need crossbow options at end game.

I'm always for sharing ideas, and wanting to improve the game, but with that said:


I can't say I agree with these changes.

FFXI doesn't really need changes to level 1-50 to get people excited to try the game.

What needs to happen is FFXI needs to have a much more smooth and extremely simple install process, and then run smoother and faster.

Neither are going to happen unfortunately.

They could spend all day coming up with the most perfect changes to the game to make it a blast, but until the above two things happen FFXI will never grow in popularity.


FFXI is by far the slowest performing, and massive pain in the neck game to install and play. The problem is, it is one of the most engaging and satisfying games to play on the entire RPG market. Hence why we suffer through its issues to somehow still enjoy it.

You can reach level 5 in 5 kills with an EXP ring or a few more without. There's no reason to move level 5 abilities to level 1. If anything, unlocking these abilities as you level up is a carrot on a stick to keep you going, and by moving them to level 1 you remove the magic of unlocking said abilities.

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What needs to happen is FFXI needs to have a much more smooth and extremely simple install process, and then run smoother and faster.

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They did simplify the installer quite some time ago. Setting up your account is still painful, but that's not part of the install process.

yeah but neither of those are simple fixes, and im sorry i have recently added several people to the game through recruitment and you have rose tinted nostalgia glasses. as well as you are used to having every job well equiped and easily switchable to do any content you want.

The game is VERY exclusionary for people doing low level and early 119 equipping progress.

Out of the 12 i have recruited in the last few years 7 of them quit due to this wall.

As an additional point, some of these changes are geared towards also making the late game play more accessible and flexible .... the game has way too many "you need exactly this job combination to complete this" situations.

Also this thread is focused on job changes specifically, i will make a thread for game systems and programming. i think the changing the login/POL system is a lot more work than you think it is.

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Originally Posted by Delgear

yeah but neither of those are simple fixes, and im sorry i have recently added several people to the game through recruitment and you have rose tinted nostalgia glasses. as well as you are used to having every job well equiped and easily switchable to do any content you want.

The game is VERY exclusionary for people doing low level and early 119 equipping progress.

Out of the 12 i have recruited in the last few years 7 of them quit due to this wall.

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You make a lot of assumptions there, guy. I have little use for nostalgia, and you can't be nostalgic about something you never really left from. I've only seriously played a few jobs even in the span of 20+ years.

This wall you speak of is imaginary. This game comes from a different era before hand-holding was a such a big part of gaming. It's not for everyone, and I don't think anyone here pretends that it is. But with risk comes reward. That said the early game is *tramatically* easier than it was back in the day. I don't think it can really get much easier

No i dont make any assumtions in that statement i have some programming experience, neither of the competing answers you suggested are quick or easy to implement objectively. Please by all means start a new account and choose lets say SMN or THF and try to solo the content for omen or ambuscade. or hey have some more fun and see if you can get an oddysea party or Sortie party without asking in real life or online friends.

The game has some fundamental problems. the main problem i see is that a party is composed of 6 players, in very hard content one of those slots is generally committed to a tank, one of those slots is generally committed to healing. leaving 4 slots and one of the most unique things about ffxi is that instead of the holy trinity they offer a 4th option ... a support job, whose main purpose is to juice the other jobs in the party. and i believe from a design perspective they intended for parties to have 1 support and 3 dd's.
The community at large seems to prefer 2 supports however, if you simply look at the job distribution and the roles they can fill.
Tank:
Paladin, RUN, Puppet pet(mostly solo content due to poor enmity)

kinda tanks but really DPS:
Monk, DRK, NIN, WAR, SAM

Basically considered as only DD's:
SMN, BLM, THF, DRG, BST, RNG, SCH

Healers
WHM, SCH(weak at debuff removal)

Supports that also get to be DD's:
COR, BLU, DNC, RDM

the games job balance does not reflect the actual desired party makup, in addition several jobs have drastically less value when leveled to 99, they just dont always fit into common meta progress for a fresh 99.
The point is everyone should feel good and capable after leveling a job to 99 to at least step into Omen and ambuscade. each cycle ambuscade for a long time just keeps getting harder and harder to keep challenge the top elitist players (thats a good thing, we dont want to lose them to gain new pop) but this also raises slowly the bar for new players as most ambuscade changes were event wide although a few of the most recent ones were only tweaks to D and VD a good trend honestly.

The entire Omen span of the game most people didnt even consider monk a playable job. and that is more or less true if you just barely get to 99 and want to meaningfully contribute to any content , you kinda can't.
The barrier to entry isnt difficulty my friend its how long we fporce someone to play the game solo and not make any real meaningful progress.
I'm not saying it isnt too hard to play these jobs im saying to a new player it doesn't feel "rewarding" to do so. I think the game would be far more healthy and easier to balance if jobs had more flexibility and ability to slot into content they are generally presently excluded form due to bad design. I promise i will make a post later about larger changes that could take some time. The entire point of this thread is quick bandaides to help these jobs slot into more content and be more rewarding when used as a main or subjob. Please don't try to pretend that a huge percentage of endgame content isnt DRG or sub DRG +3-4 in all slots savage blade spam. That happens when other jobs don't have access to equally compelling options, and i realize there are far more options than people give credit, but thats just the problem you have to find an open minded FFXI player and as you demonstrated you have a derisive opinion of anyone that would want an easier play situation.
you arent the target audience for these changes, you like the games difficulty and so do i, but if you want this game to flourish and likely improve because it needs to flourish first to garner tthe funds to improve and "re-release" like wow classic you have to be able to pull these people in and at least get them hooked until they are interacting with other players.
The real thing i would focus on as a big project is inspiring current endgame players to relive the game at lower level ranges with restricted equipment. Thus reinvigorating the dead economy from level 1-level 85 ish. but that takes a lot of work, things i intend to show in a different post.
Just because the game is easier now doesn't mean it is now bad, most of the changes to make the game easier when soloing from 1-99 were made because it was prohibitively unfun to try to mash through content designed for 6 - 18 people at level.
thats why they added trusts, because that process was incredibly unfun. you likely experienced most of that content with your friends and othe rplayers playing it at the same time and your rose tinted glasses are preventing you from seeing the new state of those experiences.

The changes i am suggesting are intended to make job more "flexible" not more powerful. I want those jobs in the game most people first encounter to feel more meaningful so they feel like they have more when they get it to 99 than they presently do.
I am also suggesting stances becasue that allow developers to fine tune a specific aspect of a job without hurting other problem areas of a job. Like summo0ner for instance, they have received several shadow nerfs like th blood pact wall to thier game play because they were for a time very flexible and could low man content without engaging the game or fights mechanics, if you simply give summoner a stance for being a DD and giving a stance for Being a healer/support its easier to nerf or buff specific SMN situations without hitting it with the NERF nuke like they presently are sitting in obscurity only really being used so AFAC old content pre shadow nerfs.

So lets take one specific situation i mentioned THF. Treasure hunter is a powerful tool ..... but is it a gameplay benefit ? Is it fun and engaging to sit there and nub enemies with low damage weapons for eternity pushing up the treasure hunter proc ? no it isn't and im not just saying that for me no one i have ever met that still plays and loves the game enjoys specifically having to sit on your hands to treasure hunter something ....its bad game design regardless of its power to in gam eloot table. Moving that process over to steal and maybe adding mechanics the thf can do to improve thier steal change ACTIVELY, like maybe debuffs on the opponent enhance steal success rate ? there are a lot of options but it is a far more ENGAGEABLE mechanic than a pasive number you can only apply with autoattacks.

The point of moving dual wieldearlier is to provide more interesting options to subjob for lower level thf,s and for other jobs seeking to sub thf. Presently if i want to dual wield on a class that doesn't have it by default is NIN or DNC, i never have to think about and consider any THF abilities you cant get dual wield from subbing it. If you could however now there is more to consider and build off of DNC give heals and escapes from debuffs, SATA helps damage and controlls threat, NIN provides avoidance ...and so on. Maybemnk/thf or thf/mnk could be tooled up to dodge tank with the dodge ability.

these changes may seem small but there is a larger design goal at hand here we want more Knobs and Dials to be able to adjust jobs, and we want our tuning to be mutually exclusive for how the job perofrms only in that specific role. That way we can tweak one aspect of a job without dumpstering or overtuning another aspect of the job.

For SMN if they had a stance for DDing there would be no problem having them instantly be able to bloodpact again if they open or close a skillchain .... thats already something most melees have access to due to TP gain. but if you did that and that same summoner could also use those resets to heal .... maybe not so balanced.

By creating these small changes that exclusivate parts of a characters design makes them more resilient to game changes and easier to rebalance when they fall out of favor or fall into overfavor.
I also think each job should try to touch as many possible roles as they can so they are more able to slot into more types and numerically more of content.

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No i dont make any assumtions in that statement i have some programming experience, neither of the competing answers you suggested are quick or easy to implement objectively.

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You absolutely did make assumptions about me, and the rest of this sentence shows you didn't really read past those first few words. I never made any "competing answers," much less suggested anything based on any sort of ease of implementation. I have worked in the game development industry myself, and I know full well that people on the outside often comment on how easy or hard something is to do without having any experience on the matter. But... I never proposed anything so I really don't know what you're on about here.

One of the key problems with moving abiltiies to earlier levels is it creates bigger droughts of new abilities elsewhere. Part of the fun and excitement that comes with leveling up a job is the gradual unlocking of new skills, spells and traits for your job on reaching new levels. Jobs are already designed with this in mind, and tampering with that isn't likely to be beneficial.

Which is why i recommended only moveing 2 iconic abilities. Im pretty sure most classes have drastically more abilities and spells than 2. I didn't make any assumptions, you literally made a suggestion to not move anything. My whole point on this thread is that the majority of players will latch on to one specific job when they first start the game, they will level it to 99 maybe stopping long enough to support its subjobs levels and then when they get to 99 many of them may find they have a veritably useless job for engame content and even worse often a additionally a useless subjob. In 2025 with the state of most Ambuscades and Omen runs, if you are alone and trying to break into the game (the players we want to attract) because we already have the hardcore audience, and honestly i don't think the hardcore audience is going to suddenly hate the game for supporting more viable job and subjob combinations.

So if you are into game design you might want to brush up on a topic known as the "Illusion of choice" which is where you give a player a multitude of choices but so many of them are so bad that there is really only a few choices that actually "Exist".
If you start this game in 2025 as say a thief and play straight to 99 and maybe stop to level warrior because you happen to like it you don't even get dual wield until post 49 (83) the way most people want to and expect to play thief doesnt even kick in as a thf until you are level 83 !!!! before that you are kinda forced by game mechanics (fast swinging weapons like daggers benefit from dual wield) to play as sub DNC or sub NIN to even PLAY the idea of the thief job (dual wielding and being evasive) since thf has no way to really be extra evasive itself outside passive stats, theres no actual gameplay or skill expression in the class.

The idea here is if a new player levels something to 99 you want them to feel like they have in fact opened up a viable endgame job and many options to play with.
Lets say in this example they overcome that THF is not a demanded or popular job to request for most end game content as far as DPS or does it help the party much outside passive drops which are not presently interactive content they are passive and boring with no skill expression.

They level another job they happen to like to 99, in the current game meta what does thief provide to most jobs as a subjob ? you don't exactly see people legitimately trying to use it in any important content as a subjob, because all of its options that make it relevant to end game content come at level 55 or higher.

The longer we force new players to play this game completely by themselves and stomp on thier achievements and outgroup them through elitism the less likely we are to retain new players in the game.

Some new players may level to 99 and find they can't even play the game without being carried or they have to go back and complete the entre game again as a different job and likely different subjobs. It does not inspire new players to like a job and then find out it isn't desired.

Sure a top gear THF can put out some sweet damage and make more drops, but everyone seems to forget what that experience feels like to go from baby 99 thf to geared deadly assassin. Especially without other leveled jobs to just lean on to get the gear for you, or friends to carry you since they recruited you.