Costume system

[Afania]

Technically it sounds like an option you can not use if you'd like. So there's that.

It would be the best if we can choose whether we blink or not. Utilize blinking to get rid of animation lock is 1 way of playing the game.

On the other hand, playing healing without using 3rd pt tool is quite annoying because of blinking.

[Sapphires]

I have wanted a costume system forever, this makes me so happy to finally get it.
I've mainly wanted this for my character when its fighting in the tp building phase because that tends to be the most visually ugly and mismatched set that you spend a majority of your time in.

[Vivik]

I can finally wear full blu relic!

[Blace]

Ok. That's...nice and all. Now that:

• We've lost 3/4 our player base to XIV or other alternatives
• You are recycling content we've had since 2003 (RoZ)
• Important events REQUIRED for weapon upgrades are dying/dead (Voidwatch)
• REM players are forced to spend weeks/millions to make their weapons viable again after being shafted to begin with for almost a year.

The fact that a project level of this capacity is even being CONSIDERED by the staff bothers me. The new armor sets, including these new sparkly new AF upgrades, look like Vana'diel just puked out a 99 [insert job here] from Valkurm Dunes. While I always appreciate new things to do and new content to be challenged with, am I supposed to expect to be fighting Hard/Extreme mode Promathia in a year from now in my Leather Jerkin? A simple adjustment to a monsters level and SE labels it as new content. That's pretty embarrassing, even for me.

Vanity system is great. I'm sure a lot of players will be happy about it. But SE, you have far bigger problems to worry about. You're not going to win back players and retain current ones without picking up your slack everywhere else. You've deemed it necessary to give us vanity slots, before we ever get race changes, character customizations, a plethora of other additions or fixes for bugs that have existed for years, and updates for currently viable (but now dying/dead) content.

I've been fairly quiet and understanding over the past 12 years, but this bothers me.

[Cabalabob]

Ok. That's...nice and all. Now that:

• We've lost 3/4 our player base to XIV or other alternatives
• You are recycling content we've had since 2003 (RoZ)
• Important events REQUIRED for weapon upgrades are dying/dead (Voidwatch)
• REM players are forced to spend weeks/millions to make their weapons viable again after being shafted to begin with for almost a year.

The fact that a project level of this capacity is even being CONSIDERED by the staff bothers me. The new armor sets, including these new sparkly new AF upgrades, look like Vana'diel just puked out a 99 [insert job here] from Valkurm Dunes. While I always appreciate new things to do and new content to be challenged with, am I supposed to expect to be fighting Hard/Extreme mode Promathia in a year from now in my Leather Jerkin? A simple adjustment to a monsters level and SE labels it as new content. That's pretty embarrassing, even for me.

Vanity system is great. I'm sure a lot of players will be happy about it. But SE, you have far bigger problems to worry about. You're not going to win back players and retain current ones without picking up your slack everywhere else. You've deemed it necessary to give us vanity slots, before we ever get race changes, character customizations, a plethora of other additions or fixes for bugs that have existed for years, and updates for currently viable (but now dying/dead) content.

I've been fairly quiet and understanding over the past 12 years, but this bothers me.

You sound like a homeless person who when given an apple says "what's the matter mr. Money bags? Too cheap for a hamburger?"

When the previous director answered people's cries to fix blinking he basically said it was impossible, now we have a new director who is looking for a way around it AND giving us a system where we can wear what gear we want and all you can say is "why you no do good things?"

[Blace]

You sound like a homeless person who when given an apple says "what's the matter mr. Money bags? Too cheap for a hamburger?"

When the previous director answered people's cries to fix blinking he basically said it was impossible, now we have a new director who is looking for a way around it AND giving us a system where we can wear what gear we want and all you can say is "why you no do good things?"

Terrible, terrible analogy. It shows you either skimmed my post or missed the point entirely.

What I sound like is a homeless person who's been given new shoelaces when my shoes are falling apart. New shoelaces are nice, but do absolutely nothing for me in the long run when things as a whole are breaking down. [EDIT: And if we're considering this analogy, I'm not a 'homeless person', I'm a consumer that has paid upwards $3,000 in subscription fees in support of SquareEnix's continued operations.] "We're aware the game is falling apart, dying because we aren't making proper adjustments for the player base and the game's current condition. To compensate, here's a cookie."

So no, Cabalabob. What I am saying is "why you no do relevant things that affect the game's drastically failing health". People have dealt with the gear blinks for all these years and it's never been game breaking, and this is coming from a WHM. To try and pose it as some sort of godsend of an adjustment in comparison to real game problems is laughably ridiculous, at best.

[Catmato]

So no, Cabalabob. What I am saying is "why you no do relevant things that affect the game's drastically failing health". People have dealt with the gear blinks for all these years and it's never been game breaking, and this is coming from a WHM. To try and pose it as some sort of godsend of an adjustment in comparison to real game problems is laughably ridiculous, at best.

Yeah, how could adding an industry-standard feature do anything to keep people from leaving?

[Blace]

Yeah, how could adding an industry-standard feature do anything to keep people from leaving?

You must be new to gaming, but that's ok. Industry 'standards' for games do not involve fluff content. Standards are structures that affect day to day operations within the game's environment, economy, and player progression. I'm sure it must be very difficult for you to comprehend so I'll put it another way.

At this point in a game's age, it doesn't matter how much extra fluff content there is or how many vanity options there are. A vanity system is not, and will never be a "standard" of games; it's an option. Regardless, the player base needs more than Barbie Dress-up for the last remaining 500-1000 per server if they expect the lifeline to lengthen. If that's your highest expectation from the dev team's resources towards this game's future then there's a problem. Logic dictates otherwise, but it's becoming very clear that's not a strong area for some here.

[Zhronne]

I'm all for the "blink me not" integrated functions, but while what I'm about to say may seem anachronistic, I'm against features that allow you to look like you're equipping an item different from the one you're equipping.
I know such a feature became quite liked in other games (WoW, soon FFXIV too) but personally I don't like it.
I recognize its value and its pros, but they do not counterbalance their cons, imho.

Especially in an "old" game like FFXI, child of another era, how your character looks is part of your "social status", of who you represent, of the hardship to obtain that specific item you're showing off.
Destroying this "social mechanism" would mean that yet another thing of what FFXI used to be and represent would be lost forever because of fanservice.
I know I'll probably be a lonely voice, but I'm against such a feature if it's not LOCAL on your machine, but for everybody.
If it's something just local (like some Windower addons) then it's no problem. It would change how YOU see your character, not how OTHER PEOPLE see you, I have no problem at all with this.

[Afania]

I'm all for the "blink me not" integrated functions, but while what I'm about to say may seem anachronistic, I'm against features that allow you to look like you're equipping an item different from the one you're equipping.
I know such a feature became quite liked in other games (WoW, soon FFXIV too) but personally I don't like it.
I recognize its value and its pros, but they do not counterbalance their cons, imho.

Especially in an "old" game like FFXI, child of another era, how your character looks is part of your "social status", of who you represent, of the hardship to obtain that specific item you're showing off.
Destroying this "social mechanism" would mean that yet another thing of what FFXI used to be and represent would be lost forever because of fanservice.
I know I'll probably be a lonely voice, but I'm against such a feature if it's not LOCAL on your machine, but for everybody.
If it's something just local (like some Windower addons) then it's no problem. It would change how YOU see your character, not how OTHER PEOPLE see you, I have no problem at all with this.

I like how you look reflect your social status too, but I think they're planning an option to turn it off or something. So you can still show off gears if you just choose to turn it off.