What would you do with XIV if you were in charge at Square.

At this point i would take the servers down and have a test server. There they could test & provide feedback(voting system for different in-game systems).
The lodestone would provide frequent updates and details of the content being worked on. A series of bi-weekly video updates going around the office and showing off a few things.

Taking many existing systems from the previous entries and modifying them slightly in a unique or fresh way. Previewing new updates periodically and having test sessions done.

Finally, i would promote the game "Revamped", "Revised" & "Reborn" (whatever) and have a release along with Ps3 once the game was ready.
Loyal fans who purchased the game previously would be rewarded with special/unique titles, armor in appreciation & patience, an extra free month once the game went live, & a limited time deal that their subscription would be lowered for every person($1) they could get to play the game ($5 decrease limit).

Upon release i would also promote special campaigns to draw people in. These would include special items & EXP rate increases on set days in the week/month.

Reform the battle system, then make a ton of storyline quests. Abolish the current rank system and make it so you rank up depending on how many of the main storyline quests you complete. I'd also retcon the storyline to make it more epic, and put in some of the more awesome soundtracks for the common areas and have Nobuo Uematsu redo the rest as he pleases.

And then I'd make it so "Classes" just give skills related to the weapon and "Jobs" give skills related to that job's role, with each job unlockable by a certain set of classes.

And I'd also give map instanced jumping.

No timeline.

EDIT: Also, vanity clothing. Some of it is purchasable in-game with Gil (it will be usable but not omfg awesome stuff) and give some of the previous Final Fantasy outfits some exposition in a Crysta-only cash shop. Make some cash since we're not using subscriptions yet. Once we charge subscription frees, all vanity clothing becomes gil-purchasable (and we will announce so when we open the vanity shop so none of that "BUT I DIDN'T KNOW IT WOULD BE FREE LATER" bull crap) but insane prices (like 2mil for some of the good stuff).

I'd also balance out the rewards that leves give and make them more...in-depth. And I'd make more levequests, too, since there's a rotation of about 6-8.

Scrap the whole thing and make Ivalice Online?

Getting to what there already is, I'd start with overhauling the areas. Make the Black Shroud more open, no more copy-pasted terrain, add some large structures to the area that stands out (similar to the crash site at Mor Dhona), add more levels to the land as it's very flat, try to create a more lively town area (moving npcs, more decorations).

Fix the battle system. Add in some target commands that were useful in FFXI. Pretty much what the dev team is working on this.

Leve system, people are too dependent on them as the primary leveling source and abusing the milk most of the monsters and abort to save the leve for the next reset. This was done I think mainly due to the disconnect issues way back around release, this change should be reverted back to losing the leve regardless. Adjust exp rates so a non leve party also looks appealing.

I'd still get rid of the whole durability system altogether. It's been better, but in some ways I still hate it. With that I'd change gear to only be equipped at or above intended level.

Fix quality obtain rates on synthesis. I churned out some 400 quality from a +3 mat and I still couldn't even get a +1 to appear on my final? Find suitable threshold limits where the +# will always show, and a % rate if you're in between certain ranges.

I'm not really good with finding content to add, I'm more on what would I fix that's present.

1) Fix the battle system more like FFXI with EXP & Skill chains and remove the need for the action bar... only optional for controller users.
2) Increase the difficulty of mobs to where parties have something fun to battle on (don't die as quick and require attention)
3) Make NM's near impossible to beat and require huge amounts of strategy, changing the NM's behavior based on the party setup.
4) Reduce the rewards from Battle Leve's and make them more Solo only, so casual/soloist players have something to fill their precious time with when they aren't partying.
5) Prepare for the rank cap increase to 60. (Building content and getting ready for the first expansion/ps3 release)
6) Add in 100's of repeatable quests that are simple yet provide fun and possibly fame (like XI)
7) Add more mobs types to the game, along with changing locations of mobs and making walks/gathering/anything more difficult to do.
8) Prevent Teleporting to Aetherytes you haven't been to before (Like the crystals from XI)
9) Create godly sets of armor and weapons people will need to work for, and be challenged to get
10) create new interesting zones with challenges in them
11) Modify the zones and make people venture to the new zones to rank up in parties
12) Fix the HQ rates for crafting and fix the drop rates on the HQ materials
13) Remove +1 and +2 Materials from the game, and only go NQ and +3. Also add in a +4 to finished products that only a godly crafter with amazing luck can create.
14) Make weapons and armor soul-bound once you equip it. (this is to keep crafters in business, as too many items floating around kills an economy)
15) Give proper LS tools to use, fix the kicking and other issues
16) Add in variously ranked dungeons everywhere! (level sync down to dungeon to ensure challenge is always there)
17) Create 100's of new Notorious Monsters everywhere that are shared spawns of the normal mobs that don't spawn in such a small area. (maybe can spawn in any zone of that type of mob)
18) Create PVP arena's so players can challenge each other
19) Create multiple mini-games inside of FFXIV, like Triple Triad, Crystal Defenders, etc... All based on actual play inside FFXIV. So the more you play, the more cards/jobs etc... you can collect and use inside the mini-games.
20) Reduce the time of many animations like pulling out weapon, crafting, gathering and equipping new armor/weapons.
21) Add in 100's more NPC's that do various things and give various quests.
22) Job system with the ability to create your own job, assign your stats based on the rank of that job/class. (I wont provide how this would be done here, but it would prevent all the best abilities for each person, kinda like BLU on XI)
23) make the map more interactive with abilities to mark it, and label items everywhere.
24) Provide contests inside the game for people who find issues etc, and offer them 1 weapon or armor of choice (no HQ)
25) Hire in-game people to find bots and give them ability to ban people.

I can go on and on... but those are the first 25 :)

Destroy & rebuild

Close this game down, then force them to work with Gamefreak to make me a Pokemon MMO.

Hire back all the original FF series, programmers and develops that were fired/let go in the past years.

I would make it more like a graphic mud with a pk system, dynamic content, dynamic weather, raidant AI (meaning npc have scheds and roam around their cities doing tasks), have full voice overs, Make jump with content you need it for and have it needed for exploration, make the world 100% seemless the best I could, have chat bubbles (optional) grouping is a much for harder content, soloing is optional for 20% of the game (leveling etc but not as good as grouping), have dynamic dungeon ( similar to mabinogi) but also have would dungeons, raident story questing based on play style. No levels, no classes, have 10K skills players learn from from a gradually scaled exp. (think merity system but exp scales) fully customized characters which include mix breeds of the races, fully customized clothing/ outfit system and armor system. Ability to lock styles no matter the gear. add places for socialising like taverns where players can sit at tables and eat and drink stuff.

Thats what I would do for ffxiv.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joeking

Close this game down, then force them to work with Gamefreak to make me a Pokemon MMO.

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already one around look for it :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

already one around look for it :)

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There are minor, fan based online Pokemon games that are strictly the single player game with multiple people in the game with you.

Not the same thing.