Let Producer Matsui Know How He Should Catch Up on 2 Years!

[Eksis]

Summoner has been my main job for years and I absolutely love it. However, there are some major limitations to it that I think are largely unnecessary.

The job is essentially a hybrid of spike damage and support. Because Summoner can do so many things, there are various ways in which the potency of any particular style is limited. This is understandable, of course, but I think it is done to an extent that makes us nearly worthless in either capacity in a group setting when compared to other jobs.

Damage
Summoner can put out some pretty impressive damage. However, only every 45 seconds (or up to 60 seconds if your equipment isn't fantastic). Between using the blood pacts, the damage of our avatars is insignificant. What I would want is an individual cool down for every blood pact, or at least a significantly reduced cool down for them.

The alternative would be some way to increase the damage of avatars while they are not using blood pacts. For example, an increased rate of double or triple attack, increased critical hit rate or just increased melee damage overall. Right now, Summoner's damage output is not substantial enough to be useful in a group setting when compared to Black Mage and other jobs. This isn't because our blood pacts aren't good enough, but because we can't use them often enough. To me, lowering the cool down would be fair because of the high MP cost of blood pacts and because we are already limited in that we have to release and re-summon avatars if we want to use a different element of damage or a different buff.

Support
There are various forms of support we have spread across all of the avatars. The problem here is that we are basically limited to using one or two at a time. If we want to give our party members Garuda's Hastega and also Fenrir's Ecliptic Howl, we have to summon, buff, release, summon, buff, release. This takes quite a bit of time and because of how much time it takes, we aren't able to do any sort of damage in between, so the versatility disappears, especially since other jobs can do the same things much faster. My solution for this would be to either significantly lower the casting time for avatars (to the point where the casting time is about the same as the elementals), or to make the buffs so substantial that they are worth the effort. The sad fact is that there are few things a Summoner can provide that other jobs can't. Perhaps Summoner buffs can be extended to an entire alliance instead of just one party, or perhaps Summoner's can have some sort of cure or buff that no other job has.

I wanted to mention Avatar's Favor here as well. Avatar's Favor had a lot of potential, but is also unnecessarily limited as far as I'm concerned. For example, the range on it is very limiting. If I want to use Diabolos's Favor to give refresh to the mages, I have to just let Diabolos sit there and do nothing. Plus, I can't switch avatars because then the effect will reset. I would suggest that Favor be a constant effect that doesn't require the use of the job ability to take effect. As a compromise, take away the decreased perpetuation and the decreased damage output that comes with Favor being active. I would also suggest that the "Aura" sort of effect come from the Summoner him or herself instead of the avatar, so that I could hypothetically put the buff wherever I want it to be.

The Summoner
The main problem for Summoner in every aspect is the unfortunate problem of only being able to have one Summon out at once, each with its own set of abilities. This obviously is necessary, and in many ways a very positive thing. However, to really make Summoner unique and more useful, there needs to be some way to get around this so that we can be more versatile. My idea is to give the Summoner itself, distinct from the Avatar, a bit of power too.

My fantasy, if you will, is that there would be a set of spells specifically for Summoner to be used in addition to the summons. Perhaps there could be spells that are less potent versions of Summon buffs. These would not stack with their corresponding avatar buffs but be overridden by them. Keep it from being overpowered by making it so that if you release an avatar, the effects wear off. Also make it so that you must have an avatar out in order to use them. There could also be restrictions based on the element of the avatar you have out. For example, say you make a spell that is a reduced version of Garuda's Hastega. If I have Shiva out, I can't use it because of the conflicting elements of wind and ice. This would force Summoner to be more tactical and strategic, while still enhancing their abilities and making them more versatile.

Specific examples:
-A spell that would give a single target Shiva's Frost Armor (Ice Spikes), as long as Ifrit isn't summoned.
-A spell that would be a single target version of Leviathan's Spring Water, provided that Ramuh is not summoned.

Each of these could be limited in various ways to prevent them from becoming overpowered. Perhaps the use of a spell would reset the blood pact timer, or perhaps every active buff from the Summoner can add to perpetuation cost. The overall purpose of this is to allow Summoners to provide the various buffs they have access to, but without having to constantly shuffle through avatars, which is very time consuming. However, there remains incentive to do so because of the increased benefits of the Avatar's versions of these effects.

This could apply for offensive abilities too. Perhaps, for example, if Shiva is out, the Summoner gains access to some ice-based debuffs or damage over time spells.

Non Summoner Related Stuff

Early level progression
Some of my best memories with Final Fantasy XI are the ones where I'm grinding in places like Yhoater Jungle and Quicksand Caves, places people never visit anymore for experience. I have embraced the Grounds of Valor method of leveling lower level jobs whole-heartedly. I think it makes the leveling experience much more fluid and fun because it's not so redundant and slow.

However, I feel there needs to be some incentive for people to explore some of these overlooked areas. One way could be to replace Fields of Valor entirely with Grounds of Valor. Put those books in every zone so that there is incentive to exp EVERYWHERE, not just in areas with Grounds of Valor.

Also, give players some reason to go to higher level areas to earn exp so that they can in turn learn how to play their jobs more effectively. The exp in Gusgen Mines is so great at every level that there is no reason to go anywhere else. The only thing newer players learn how to do now is kill the same skeleton over and over and over. Perhaps augment Level Sync slightly. Level Sync was ingenious when it first was released, but is now outdated in a game that doesn't revolve around moving from place to place to grind. I would suggest putting some sort of limit on how far down you can sync or greatly lowering experience at higher levels so that players can't stay in Gusgen mines forever.

However, the elephant in the room here is Abyssea. I am a huge fan of Abyssea and what it has done for the leveling process. However, I very much miss leveling up the old fashion way. Why can't there be a way to get experience as good as what you'd get in Abyssea, but in older areas that are closer to the players level so they can learn how to play the game and experience all of the beautiful locations FFXI has to offer? I also think that the minimum level for Abyssea should probably be raised so something like 50 or 60, since getting level 30 these days takes so little time.

I hope none of this is redundant. If you took the time to read all of this, thank you so much. I know that was a ton to read, and it means a lot that you take the time to read what your players and customers have to say. For the record, I have played since about 2005 and I am a huge fan of the game. I have played countless modern MMOs that don't hold a candle to FFXI as far as the community and atmosphere. Thank you for keeping this awesome game going for such a long time and continuing to improve it ten years later. =)

[HFX7686]

Hello.

I'd like a separate Furniture inventory in my Mog House that's just for furniture items. This way I could decorate my Mog House with all the furniture I want and not worry about my inventory space. I've always wanted to decorate my Mog House.

I'd also like the auction house to release more selling slots than currently available. I think it would be good if there were an auction house quest line, like the Mog House Expansion quests, that let you increase by 3-4 slots each quest. I would sell a lot more low and medium level/priced stuff if I had more space to do so.

[Economizer]

I'm sure there are more things I missed, but here you go.

So I did a lengthy list before, but I'd like to add more. As not to misrepresent the people liking the previous post with an edit, I'll post again (and if you haven't, read my previous post - the one quoted - and Like it if you like most of the things in it!).

This list is roughly sorted by importance, from greatest to least.

• FFXI Books
  Translate the FFXI Ultimania, release another Atlas, translate the various other FFXI books that have been produced over the years (some were in every FFXI language except English!), make an FFXI Cookbook.
• Better Screenshots
  Let us take screenshots without hiding the chat log in the new UI.
• Copy/Paste in the New UI
  Allow for us to Copy/Paste in the new UI so we can copy links and translate foreign languages more easily.
• Red Mage and White Mage gear options
  More access to heavier armors for Red Mage and White Mage. Both get some access to certain armors that usually go to melee jobs, like Holy Breastplate for White Mage, and a few nods to these again would be nice.
  These two jobs aren't as strictly backline as Black Mage and Scholar, so it would be nice to see more gear options to reflect their hardiness compared to those jobs.
  So please give Red Mage more access to light melee gear, and toss White Mage on a piece or two of specially made gear too. While you're at it, make Reverend Mail upgradable, or have something new based on it.
• Float
  It could either be a purely cosmetic spell that just makes characters hover (especially Tarutaru!) or it could be like an Anti-Gravity spell that increases Evasion. But make it make us Float in the air.
• Mog Vault
  Give us more space at home to store things, particularly so we can have more furniture (in conjunction with Increase Mog House Floorspace).
  This could be done by giving us a Mog Vault, which would function much like the Mog Locker.
• Increase Mog House Floorspace
  Allow us to upgrade the space of our Mog Houses so we have more places to put Furniture.
• Allow us to Change the Moghouse Carpet Texture
  After ten years of looking at the same carpet gets old, especially since it is so low resolution compared to the rest of the house. Maybe this could be a furniture option (Clothcraft).
• Confuse
  A spell, like Paralyze, but when it takes effect, the mob hits itself. Give it to Red Mage.
• Reflect
  There has been discussion of this spell on the forums before. Keep working on it, and when it comes out give it to White Mage and Red Mage.
• Aquaveil, Blink, and Stoneskin Scaling
  Getting more then two shadows from Aquaveil or Blink by having higher Enhancing Magic would be great.
  Please allow higher amounts of Enhancing Magic to scale Aquaveil, Blink, and Stoneskin higher, or consider higher tiers of these indispensable spells that scale with Enhancing Magic better.
• Red Mage Merit Revamp and New Dia/Bio Spells
  Change the Red Mage Dia/Bio merits to increase duration and effect of all Dia/Bio spells.
  Then release higher tiers of Diaga for White Mage and Red Mage, higher tiers of Dia for Red Mage and White Mage, and higher tiers of Bio for Red Mage, Black Mage, and Dark Knight. Make sure Red Mage either keeps an advantage over the other classes with tiers, merits, or preferably, both.
• Make Storage Accessible from other Mog Houses
• Make a Way to Merge Stacks of 12 Crystals into a Cluster
  Bringing a distilled water to an NPC with 12 crystals or something simple and very cheap would be ideal.
• Make Curaga Spells Targetable on Monsters Too
  White Mages could use more opportunities to nuke undead.
• Increased Curaga Spell Radius
  Curaga is a great spell line. A slightly increased spell radius would make it easier on White Mages to use these spells more often.

There are a few more things I can't currently articulate a fix to well, like Dagan (the Empyrean Club weapon skill), or can't think of right now, but this list is pretty long like my previous one.

[ssj4gogeta0808]

i think that some spells and job abilites should be immune to paralyze. like the casting time on tier 1 anicent magic that still takes a very long time to cast even for a pimped out blm. An for some job abilities that like what 3 mins+ to recast. That spell or job ability could matter between winning and losing, and i know that happen to alot of ppl. I'm not sure if its possible but i would love to see something of the sort for players, especially for those that solo alot.

99 BLU/RDM

[Ixander]

Thanks for showing the desire to hear directly from the player base like this, it's really appreciated.
Here are the things I'd like to see in the game.

1) More defined role for THF: Currently DNC outclasses THF in almost every way, there's almost no situation where you would want a THF that you wouldn't prefer a DNC. Whether it's soloing, or contributing to a party, the job of THF is basically reduced to a single job ability, Treasure Hunter. I'd like to see that change.

2) As many have said before, tank jobs are largely ineffective because damage dealing jobs can generate both damage and enmity more effectively than tanks, once the cap is reached, tanks serve no purpose. As a consequence many abilities on other jobs intended to support tank jobs, are largely useless as well.

3) Sense of progression: Many things in the game are random, requiring repeating actions for a chance at success. This leaves open the possibility of horrible luck for individual players, which can be a frustrating game experience. A guarantee that a goal will be achieved after some maximum number of repetitions provides a more satisfying game experience even if that number is high. One will never feel like ones time towards a goal has been wasted since there will always be progress made. This is somewhat similar to what is done in the new Nyzul Isle content, or even in Abyssea/Magian where instead of random gear drops, players collect items from monsters guaranteeing that they will have the gear they want after at most a set number of NM kills. The Inside the Belly quest and very rare drops would be good places to implement this.

4) Focus on casual play. Add more content that can be completed with 1-4 players like Abyssea. Don't have story content that requires more than 6 players to complete. Content like Dynamis, Limbus, Sea, Sky, and Einherjar had almost no story to them so if you could never join a large linkshell to complete the content, you don't feel like you're missing out on a part of the game. Voidwatch has story content difficult to access for casual players since there's no motivation for players to repeat earlier missions.

5) Inventory: New items introduced into the game outpace new storage solutions. We need more space for stuff or different mechanisms for storing it. Also, I cannot decorate my moghouse the way I'd like because the benefits of moghancements and elemental auras are too good to pass up, and any item of furniture I add, takes up a valuable slot of mogsafe storage

6) Ease of transportation: A lot has been done to improve this area, but getting around is still annoying. Kupopowers Ease of exploration, and swift shoes should be permanent parts of the game. After reaching a certain level, moving around the game world should not be an obstacle or inconvenience for players.

[ssj4gogeta0808]

all i want is for some spells that take long to cast and recast to be immune to paralyze and i also want that for job abilities to. spells like ancient teir 1 magic and some job abilities that takes 3+ mins to recast.

[ssj4gogeta0808]

and blue needs better weapon combat skills cause any uber blue can solo alot of mobs but we can really only proc wit sword and club while other dd jobs have access to many red or blue procs. and if i sub war then i cant effective solo nm's. Considering blue can effective do the basics of most jobs u would think it was more skilled in weapons.

[TMG]

Make the moogle storage slips into permanent key items like the original AF/relic storage NPC has. Even if you have to charge us a fee to exchange our slips for the key items, I'd be happy with that. I'd gladly pay upwards of 50,000 gil per slip just to get my 10 or so inventory spaces back. Or just charge us 100 gil every time we remove a piece from the moogle for the rest of time. Our inventory space is far more precious than gil. Pretty please?

Also, would it REALLY break the game if we were allowed to place lesser R/E Voidwatch drops into the loot pool if we already have them? Not the glowy weapons and bodies since those are already under the cell system... just the accessories like Ganesha's Mask and Strendu Ring and such. It really sucks doing 30+ Hahava's in a row with the same people and while I've thrown away 5 masks, some poor MNK in the group who really wants one hasn't gotten it yet. Some people have really bad luck with the random number generator. It gets to a point where they just don't want to go anymore and face another 2+ hours of disappointment while their friends get the drop they want and are forced to trash them, multiple times.

I also vote to lower the number of heavy metal plates required for the 90-95 Empyrean trial. 500-750 is an acceptable number to me. If you can't do that then make them more accessible. Most people would rather go make a new relic weapon for less than the price of 1500 HMPs and the price will just keep going up as Voidwatch becomes less popular. Single plates from city T4s would be a very welcome addition. Add pouches to Jeuno T6s, though maybe not Ig-Alima and Botulus Rex since they have Riftdross/cinder. Singles from Tav/Aht Urhgan T1s would be cool too since people rarely seem to do them but once for the clear. Maybe even throw some single plates on that useless mystery box Goblin while you're at it, dial 5 only, with a decent drop rate so that we may see one plate a week if we're actively trading in coffer keys or testimonies for the extra 10 points a day.

As for Neo-Nyzul Isle, I think it would be appropriate to remove the order lamp floors at the very least. I know you all meant for floor 100 gear to be rare and take people a few months to complete one set. Thanks to the rampant use of third party tools, there's floor 100 gear everywhere and many people are sitting on 15/15 and profiting off of selling 100 floor wins to people who can't or won't cheat for 10mil+ per run. Since the cheating player base has already soiled the "rare" feeling of the gear, why not just make it more accessible to everyone. I assume at least some of the Neo-Salvage gear will outclass some of the floor 100 gear anyway in the near future. I know it's still very possible to reach floor 100 without cheating at a very low rate of success if luck is on our side, but all of the people who cheated to cap out on the gear fast have kind of worn off the novelty of the event for the rest of us. Events where you need to rely on luck so heavily are not a whole lot of fun. Everyone who's done it knows the order lamps are the biggest time killer and will make or break your run. Either give us the hints when we check them or get rid of them completely and I think we'd all be very pleased with you. I don't personally even want to step foot in Neo-Nyzul anymore because although I know I play with some well geared and well skilled players, we're probably not going to be hitting 100 without .dat swaps and fillmode and some form of voice chat, and nobody wants to set the floor stopper to 80 and then try to win that every day for a month just to trade for 1 piece of 100 gear.

I'm by no means asking to have the game served to us on a silver platter. These are just some of the things that have made the game a lot less fun for me lately and it's hard to want to keep trying certain content when it feels like no progress is being made. I'd rather go sit in Abyssea and farm up every single Empyrean weapon than spam the same VW NM 300+ times with nothing to show for it but logs and ores. Unless I can trade in those 300 logs and ores for the drop I want, then we might have a deal. There just needs to be some light at the end of the tunnel to keep us going.

[Raka]

Thank you for taking the time to hear us. I have a few things that I personally would really love to see.

1) Wings of the Godess: Campaign Battle
I'd love for a new Batallion of Allied Forces to be introduced that specialize in the defense of their Home Nation or the offense/defense of Northernland Campaign Battles to increase the rate of battles that take place there.

I'd also love to see Tavnazia Campaign Battles finally within the system. Was one thing I was looking forward to the most upon Wing of the Godess' release.


2) Ballista
One thing I've become attached to since my early days of FINAL FANTASY XI has been Ballista, by far one of the funnest things I've ever participated in. However, now it's just a thing of the past. I'd LOVE to see this rise back up and be something again. To test our teamwork, abilities against other players has always been a fun way to spend time on FINAL FANTASY XI.

Perhaps remove the Ballista Point cap, enable purchase of Voiddust/Cells, etc. with them or even Ballista gear would be great for people that love PvP more than anything else. Of course a new Storage Slip to hold the goodies. Also can we introduce new Ballista locations? I'd love to do Ballista Official Matches in Xarcabard or even Altepa Desert!

Increase the Experience yeild, remove the participation fees but still have gil rewards aswell. Fix the Mid-Entry for Brenner and the /search engine for Diorama/Brenner.

Can we have some sort of Ballista Royale event once a year?! I was never able to participate in the first and only Ballista Royale back when I started and was sad that there would never be another. Would love to see these take place again~!

3) HNM/Kings: Rare Drops/Long Repops
So at this point any HNM, etc. still wandering the world of Vana'diel...really have no purpose anymore besides Titles or Towngear for Collectors. Can we expect a method to upgrade their drops via Magian Trials or something? Also looking to see if possibly can the 48~72Hour respawn be reduced if no expectations for being able to upgrade their gear.

One very upsetting thing that came to pass in my opinion with the implement to the HNM of old: Fafnir, Nidhogg, Adamantoise, Aspidochelone, Behemoth and King Behemoth, was that more-so the rarity of Defending ring pretty much increased 10-fold. Can we expect a way to get this aside from spending millions of gil on pops/seals/weeks of our time?

4) Adventuring Fellows and their lack of intelligence
Although they can be extremely useful at times...they really need a better AI system. They senselessly spam spells such as Paralyze if something is completely resistant, or even Slow, over a Haste or Cure...aswell as using a Cure instead of Stona, etc.. Are there any current plans to fix this atm? If not, this is another thing I'd love to see worked on.

Also would love to see a new line of armoring to give them, perhaps weapons too! Wouldn't mind seeing them in Relic Armor of my choice etc. lol.

Well I think my list could go on...but really at the moment, this is what I, myself would love to see.

Thank you very much for your time and hearing us out again!

[Etrigan]

Hello Mr. Producer,

I would like to start off by saying thank you for reaching out to us to know what we would like to see from our favorite game.


COR
Please Add at least one to two additional Quick Draw Charges (scaled by level similar to SCH Strategem Charges)
Please Add more bullets with different additional effects (why should Crossbow THF and RNG get all the fun stuff)
An Extra Roll without having to waste my 2hr would be nice (regarding upcoming Job Abilities)


PUP
More attachments
More space for Attachments on the active Grid
Saved Attachment Sets (for quick frame changes)
A new Frame or at least a new head for a change of how the torsos react.
Please add some of the other attachments to different BCNMs or some other form of acquisition.

BLU
Saved Spell Sets (see Attachment Sets)
More Spells (Of Course) *I personally would love to see Mighty Guard


Weapon Related
Final Heaven with 99 Spharai still does absolutely terrible damage
Neo-Nyzul does not drop nearly enough Alexandrite to accommodate everyone attempting to create a relic (perhaps increase the drop rate here and in Neo-Salvage?)

Battles
I understand that you want people to keep doing Voidwatch so that things such as Heavy Metal Plates and Riftdross and Riftcinder are still attainable for those that choose to take their Empyrean weapons to 99, however the drop rates on many other items are absolutely abysmal. I have been doing Pil and Akvan since a week or so after they came out, and still have yet to obtain Omphalos Bullet or Toci's Harness, I would like to see an increase in the drop rates of items such as this.

General System
More Inventory Space, Many jobs (such as COR and SCH) take up so much space with the different gear sets that we need to carry around, it becomes difficult to figure out what to keep in our sack or satchel so we have room for drops.


Thank you for taking the time to read these posts and I hope you take many of the things written into consideration, I would have more to write but I have yet to wake up. Time to start brewing some Aht Urgan Imperial Coffee!