ONE thing You'd Change About the Game

Speaking of dyes, iridescent dyes, please. Much like you'd see on the fate currency umbrella, but for regular gear. I wish to look like an atrocity mixed with a blended rainbow.

People have already said jobs, but I do want to echo that and say that the thing I'd prioritize above any other change is their job design ethos. They're all feeling homogenous, lack imagination, and the roles are more or less different colours of DPS rather than a proper trinity. The jobs are designed not to allow for skill expression, but just as a conduit to provide the minimum requirements to interact with a fight.

Jobs need to let us make some interesting moment-to-moment decisions, with proper risk and rewards, and actual gameplay depth.

Outside that, there's a bevy of glamour related changes I'd make, but it's hard to choose one of those to prioritize: removing role restrictions on glamour; implementing a proper glamour log; overhauling dyes, turning them either into currencies outside of inventory or into unlockables. Job design ethos takes priority for me nowadays.

Bring back TP but have it start at 100% instead of 0 and reduce resource(MP) regen during battle.

When we had TP and less resource regen, the devs experimented, tried new things. Most notable, Cast time for Physical Range, BRD used both TP/MP for their buffs, drawn clear advantage for bringing 1 job over the other e.g. BRD worked best with mages because of Mages Ballad while MCH worked best with melee because of Tactician. AST had both effects though Spire and Ewer.

Maiming offered more burst for more TP, Strikers offered balanced/sustained damage for moderate TP, Scouting(NIN) offered so much! moderate Burst, debuffs, Poison for moderate TP, Single target TP regen and aggro management. Aiming offered Buffs/Regen and sustained damage for moderate TP/MP. It made tanking more stressful as well, if you were out of TP you weren't getting aggro. Casters/Healers would actually run out of MP during encounters unless a BRD was in the group. Slashing, Piercing, Blunt and Magical were a thing. God it was so peak for me.

TP/resource management was hated by everyone though, we shouted and cried out:

"It was a pain to manage and ran out much faster than MP"
"If you attacked too fast you had to stop playing"
"AOE very quickly spent TP"
"TP just limited how much you as a melee got to attack"
"TP sucked, I have use it all to sprint or die to the AOE!"

All the above criticisms highlighted the NEED for support! The removal destroyed the ID's of NIN, BRD, MCH in 1 go, brought everything into categories Melee, Magical, Range with no clear advantage over the other except cooldown timers/potencies and was start of the destruction of AST. They could have overcame slowed down game play by buffing the MP/TP regen amount of support jobs, having second wind recover all stats and having us start at 100% TP instead of 0!

ShadowBringers was peak story wise but was the fall of gameplay and what we're left with today is a game with neither.

They had a chance to make Support so GOOD and by extension all other jobs but threw it away due to an audience that simply wasn't interested.

We now have a 'Playstation HOME' knockoff masquerading as a Final Fantasy game. Which is Fine, enough to keep me subbed all these years at least.

https://media.tenor.com/iTT_gxRq4j0A...unny-dance.gif

https://media.tenor.com/SAfnyVHhJmkA...ever-shrug.gif

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Originally Posted by CSX

Bring back TP but have it start at 100% instead of 0 and reduce resource(MP) regen during battle.

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TP already started at 100% by ARR, only 1.0 had it at 0.

That said, having TP again would be nice if Square is willing to experiment with it.

It's not an important or big change, but I would add Viera and Hrothgar as options for the Housing NPCs you can select. The Estate Man/Maidservant, Hokonin, Materia Melder, ETC.

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Originally Posted by CSX

Bring back TP but have it start at 100% instead of 0 and reduce resource(MP) regen during battle.

When we had TP and less resource regen, the devs experimented, tried new things. Most notable, Cast time for Physical Range, BRD used both TP/MP for their buffs, drawn clear advantage for bringing 1 job over the other e.g. BRD worked best with mages because of Mages Ballad while MCH worked best with melee because of Tactician. AST had both effects though Spire and Ewer.

Maiming offered more burst for more TP, Strikers offered balanced/sustained damage for moderate TP, Scouting(NIN) offered so much! moderate Burst, debuffs, Poison for moderate TP, Single target TP regen and aggro management. Aiming offered Buffs/Regen and sustained damage for moderate TP/MP. It made tanking more stressful as well, if you were out of TP you weren't getting aggro. Casters/Healers would actually run out of MP during encounters unless a BRD was in the group. Slashing, Piercing, Blunt and Magical were a thing. God it was so peak for me.

TP/resource management was hated by everyone though, we shouted and cried out:

"It was a pain to manage and ran out much faster than MP"
"If you attacked too fast you had to stop playing"
"AOE very quickly spent TP"
"TP just limited how much you as a melee got to attack"
"TP sucked, I have use it all to sprint or die to the AOE!"

All the above criticisms highlighted the NEED for support! The removal destroyed the ID's of NIN, BRD, MCH in 1 go, brought everything into categories Melee, Magical, Range with no clear advantage over the other except cooldown timers/potencies and was start of the destruction of AST. They could have overcame slowed down game play by buffing the MP/TP regen amount of support jobs, having second wind recover all stats and having us start at 100% TP instead of 0!

ShadowBringers was peak story wise but was the fall of gameplay and what we're left with today is a game with neither.

They had a chance to make Support so GOOD and by extension all other jobs but threw it away due to an audience that simply wasn't interested.

We now have a 'Playstation HOME' knockoff masquerading as a Final Fantasy game. Which is Fine, enough to keep me subbed all these years at least.

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Gotta be honest, I liked the removal of TP when it first happened, especially as a melee DPS main, but in hindsight, I now miss TP as a resource, and having to manage it. I also miss when MP was actually a stat that you could increase, rather than being locked at 10,000.

Take us back to storm blood job design with some minor adjustments. Some things introduced in DT are cool, and I'm willing to try out even something totally new. But this isn't it right now..

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Originally Posted by DeathNoodles

Take us back to storm blood job design with some minor adjustments. Some things introduced in DT are cool, and I'm willing to try out even something totally new. But this isn't it right now..

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what i wouldn't do to get 4.0 SMN back
if there was a time this game designed a perfect job, without a doubt 4.0 SMN post launch
i terribly miss it

remove level cap battle-crafted gear
this way people will have 2 choices, either farm tomes or savage for gear, just like ARR when PF was full of parties to farm coils gear, i know crafted gear was a thing since ARR, but making it was diffcult only top raiding groups could afford making it
(i wonder if it's a good idea to have clearing a savage tier required to access the next tier, it was a thing in ARR and i know because there was no story mode back then, but this would return a layer of progression that used to be present in ARR, and would give people something to do)

Here's a little history lesson for you all. Back in the 1.0 days, we didn't have aoe spells specially. We had spells that we could TOGGLE to aoe if we did so wish. Imagine how much design space that feature would open. Aoe mode? Your normal spells/GCDs acted differently. Circle around the target, cone, line? All just a toggle away.

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Originally Posted by SubmarineAlt

Here's a little history lesson for you all. Back in the 1.0 days, we didn't have aoe spells specially. We had spells that we could TOGGLE to aoe if we did so wish. Imagine how much design space that feature would open. Aoe mode? Your normal spells/GCDs acted differently. Circle around the target, cone, line? All just a toggle away.

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That’s kinda redundant in an era of something like the way PCT is designed where it’s AOE rotation is identical to its single target rotation as you either have direct AOE equivalents of single target spells (the aetherhues) or gain on 1 has AOE falloff (muses, comet, star prism and rainbow drip)

There is also something to be said about wanting to do something different in AOE. Like using the example of bane it’s functionally useless in single target (except for select add phases like T12 eggs) but it’s the cornerstone of making old SCH/SMN AOE rotation interesting

Between those two the old legacy system of AOE toggle is mostly redundant

I want a World Chat—as long as it’s at least as active as shout chat in Uldy-Bally. MSQing outside of the current patch cycle feels lonely as hell, and that’s not what I think an MMO should feel like. Novice Network just doesn’t scratch the same itch for me. It lacks that organic, random, and spontaneous sense of connection with other players. I know people say World Chat inevitably leads to bigoted messages, but I don’t see why that has to be the case—especially with how strict the report system is. Honestly, Uldy-Bally is basically World Chat confined to a single zone, and whenever someone says something bigoted there, it gets shut down pretty quickly. I don't see why the same culture couldn't be cultivated in World Chat.

I want the glowing hellhound not gatekept behind diamond.. I really want the feast's system of rewarding weapon skin

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Originally Posted by YISUG

what i wouldn't do to get 4.0 SMN back
if there was a time this game designed a perfect job, without a doubt 4.0 SMN post launch
i terribly miss it

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If they invested in a "Caller" job and brought back 4.0 SMN in that, I'd be happy. They could finally use Shiva, Leviathan, and Ramuh.

An impossibility but a rework of the combat system into something more skill and movement based rather than hotbar rotations. Would be nice to actually have movement matter a lot more in the game beyond "don't stand in red". Actual physical telegraphs of attacks from enemies and movesets and combos that take advantage of positioning yourself around the battle rather than standing still and doing 1-2-3 then gauge 1-2-3 with the occasional change of position (savage and ultimates not included).

I say impossibility simply cause it would basically be a new game altogether but alas I can dream.

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Originally Posted by Valence

A progressive dial down or total abandon of DDR scripted mechanics with a reintroduction of RPG flavored battle system intricacies instead.

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Mao seconds Sunie idea!

The first thing I would change is the one-sided friend removal. It’s obvious enough what’s wrong with not being allowed to remove yourself after accepting a friend request. People have talked about it for years. But I’ve never seen anyone bring up how awkward it can be for the person on the other end as well, not realising they’ve been removed...

Please let us decide for ourselves how to manage our friendships! As it stands now, it’s frustrating for those who need to end their involvement with another player, and fooling those who have been removed.

honestly ToS abuse like I understand we have to respect each other like we would in real life but I do think I don't play with kids that can get someone reported for simple criticism or giving advice

Get rid of unnecessary confirmations, I shouldn't have to click something just to walk through a door.
If the action can be undone in seconds, and costs nothing, then you should not have to click a "Are your sure" confirmation.

Let us end the retainer dialog stack by just walking away, like we can with vendors. Backing out one menu level at a time is just too tedious.

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Originally Posted by WutWut

Moderation for PvP

I think this one is mostly self explanatory? Nobody likes having AFKers in their Frontline games, or people who constantly leave matches in their ranked queues. It disincentivizes queuing for somewhat niche content in an environment where there's not many incentives to queue in the first place.

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Idea: When on a PVP battleground, you lose health steadily unless you help kill other players or do something else to help your team. Just standing around gives you a boredom, debuff that removes you in 60 seconds, with no credit for anything.

I would nerf tomestone gear, so Expert Roulette doesn't make gear rewards from any other content (except savage) obsolete.

One thing?

Damn, Hard choosing between CBu3 being removed or YoshiP being removed. Both do not take criticism, Both have egos, Both are responsible for the state of Endwalker, Post Endwalker & Dawntrail.

Endwalker memed The Empire, Memed Zodiark, Memed the 13th.

Dawntrail Memed the entire story, Memed Warrior Of Light, Memed the scions, Casually gave one of the WORST characters in years 4500 lines almost beating Alphinaud in one, ONE expansion.

Alphinaud has been around since ARR while trashselfdevinsertlamat has been around since post endwalker, Very disgusting push from SE.

. . I think i'll choose CBu3 Being completely retired.

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Originally Posted by Strigine

The first thing I would change is the one-sided friend removal. It’s obvious enough what’s wrong with not being allowed to remove yourself after accepting a friend request. People have talked about it for years. But I’ve never seen anyone bring up how awkward it can be for the person on the other end as well, not realising they’ve been removed...

Please let us decide for ourselves how to manage our friendships! As it stands now, it’s frustrating for those who need to end their involvement with another player, and fooling those who have been removed.

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I can't believe this is still an issue all these years later.

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Originally Posted by AshtonCrowe

One thing?

Damn, Hard choosing between CBu3 being removed or YoshiP being removed. Both do not take criticism, Both have egos, Both are responsible for the state of Endwalker, Post Endwalker & Dawntrail.

Endwalker memed The Empire, Memed Zodiark, Memed the 13th.

Dawntrail Memed the entire story, Memed Warrior Of Light, Memed the scions, Casually gave one of the WORST characters in years 4500 lines almost beating Alphinaud in one, ONE expansion.

Alphinaud has been around since ARR while trashselfdevinsertlamat has been around since post endwalker, Very disgusting push from SE.

. . I think i'll choose CBu3 Being completely retired.

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Us being robbed of a Garlemald expansion that properly works through the conflict there really sits sour with me. They should never have rushed the Endwalker storyline. Everything from level 84 on should have been covered from 90-100 in 7.0. The trial that happens at the boundary of level 83/84 quests should have been the 6.5 final trial or whatever to set up 7.0, and level 83 and earlier should have been properly fleshed out as the level 80-90 story for the Garlemald expansion and 6.x patch series.

I actually liked base Endwalker despite its flaws, but the more I think about it, the more frustrated I am about the decisions made with the story.

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Originally Posted by Illianaro

Us being robbed of a Garlemald expansion that properly works through the conflict there really sits sour with me. They should never have rushed the Endwalker storyline. Everything from level 84 on should have been covered from 90-100 in 7.0. The trial that happens at the boundary of level 83/84 quests should have been the 6.5 final trial or whatever to set up 7.0, and level 83 and earlier should have been properly fleshed out as the level 80-90 story for the Garlemald expansion and 6.x patch series.

I actually liked base Endwalker despite its flaws, but the more I think about it, the more frustrated I am about the decisions made with the story.

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I haven't finished EW yet, but the extremely underwhelming portion of the Garlemald arc is part of why I consider Stormblood the true end of the Garlemald Empire chapter thematically. I can’t remember who originally said it, and I might be butchering the phrasing, but the quote goes something like: “Fascism is imperialism turned inward.” I was really hoping the fall of Garlemald would give us a deep exploration of that idea: a once-expansionist empire turning its tools of violence and control inward as it collapses. But instead, we got a surface-level portrayal of Garlemald’s downfall totally lacking the sociopolitical nuance that the setting begged for.

Make "replica" versions of script-exchange crafters/gatherers gear, for all I care set it on mogstation but preferrably make it exchangeable with the now useless blue script of island sanctuary I farmed for 6 bloody weeks only to find out all my work was for NOTHING and I had to start from fresh for new, EVEN MORE tedious script farming that forces players to log in every day or at least 2 days a week or else lose out on it. (I quit after 2 weeks, I was so done)

i.e.: "all jobs" so they become glams... island sanctuary is gathering world and fake-crafting/animal tending....harvesting etc...perfect for this to make the blue scripts useful again. What I wouldn't do to be able to wear Fishers winter coat from level 80 script vendor .. sigh

Disconnect Au Ra Headscales from the face option and make it a separate category.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

I haven't finished EW yet, but the extremely underwhelming portion of the Garlemald arc is part of why I consider Stormblood the true end of the Garlemald Empire chapter thematically. I can’t remember who originally said it, and I might be butchering the phrasing, but the quote goes something like: “Fascism is imperialism turned inward.” I was really hoping the fall of Garlemald would give us a deep exploration of that idea: a once-expansionist empire turning its tools of violence and control inward as it collapses. But instead, we got a surface-level portrayal of Garlemald’s downfall totally lacking the sociopolitical nuance that the setting begged for.

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Returning to Garlemald would be an amazing expansion. Working within its walls to prevent another imperialistic army would be such a great narrative.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

Returning to Garlemald would be an amazing expansion. Working within its walls to prevent another imperialistic army would be such a great narrative.

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I would fully support this.

Imagine if it were to turn out that the “defeat” of Garlemald in EW was a fake out or a false victory, and if it turned out that, because there wasn’t enough effort put into the reconstruction/recovery, it allowed for shadowy imperial seeds to take root and for the empire to rebuild.

Additional low level things to grind for for the 1.0 crowd

I'm approaching 10,000 comms and there are no more comm achievements. Also approaching Lifer III (10,000 instanced duties) but I believe there is a 20K achievement for that. Seems odd.

I've long since run out of things to buy with the achievement points, because 1.0 sustained players got all that stuff up front. At least let me buy rare dyes :/

I've run out of reasons to do things on my Island Sanctuary; I got all the cowry rewards and the achievements alone aren't enough to drag me back in there.

(I LOVE the fact that one of the Levequest achievements requires seven years to get. That's amazing.)

Anyway, reward the long term grinders pls.

competetive open world content

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Originally Posted by Illianaro

I would fully support this.

Imagine if it were to turn out that the “defeat” of Garlemald in EW was a fake out or a false victory, and if it turned out that, because there wasn’t enough effort put into the reconstruction/recovery, it allowed for shadowy imperial seeds to take root and for the empire to rebuild.

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I can see this from a narrative point of view, but please no.

I understand Garlemald is supposed to be a cold, depressing, post-apocalyptic wasteland. And we spent more than enough time there already.

If there are to be shadowy imperial seeds sprouting, have them do so somewhere with a decent climate and flowers.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

I can see this from a narrative point of view, but please no.

I understand Garlemald is supposed to be a cold, depressing, post-apocalyptic wasteland. And we spent more than enough time there already.

If there are to be shadowy imperial seeds sprouting, have them do so somewhere with a decent climate and flowers.

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Actually, now that you mention it, what if it was on Othard that the seeds took hold, far away from the heart of the original Empire? I mean, I could theorycraft a potential post-imperial Garlemald storyline/expansion until I'm blue in the face. I'm open to all sorts of ideas! Maybe even having them take roots right in Eorzea, in some of the zones that have been unavailable, like the West Shroud and the Coerthas Lower Highlands (Coerthas Lowlands...?) and the like. Anything could happen! :D

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Originally Posted by Illianaro

Actually, now that you mention it, what if it was on Othard that the seeds took hold, far away from the heart of the original Empire? I mean, I could theorycraft a potential post-imperial Garlemald storyline/expansion until I'm blue in the face. I'm open to all sorts of ideas! Maybe even having them take roots right in Eorzea, in some of the zones that have been unavailable, like the West Shroud and the Coerthas Lower Highlands (Coerthas Lowlands...?) and the like. Anything could happen! :D

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Haha, go for it. I just have no desire to return to grey-on-grey hellscapes overwritten with white-noise snow.

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Originally Posted by Illianaro

Actually, now that you mention it, what if it was on Othard that the seeds took hold, far away from the heart of the original Empire? I mean, I could theorycraft a potential post-imperial Garlemald storyline/expansion until I'm blue in the face. I'm open to all sorts of ideas! Maybe even having them take roots right in Eorzea, in some of the zones that have been unavailable, like the West Shroud and the Coerthas Lower Highlands (Coerthas Lowlands...?) and the like. Anything could happen! :D

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I do prefer areas that don't make me depressed. :)

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Originally Posted by Illianaro

An Open World That Interacts with Itself and You and Incentivizes Exploration

Change: The current overworld in FFXIV is really pretty, but lacks in things that encourage you to interact with it or even engage in side quests. There are FATEs and Hunts, but Hunts are generally just: big monster sits waiting to be killed. Most of the time our experience with these big beautiful zones is as we move from set piece to set piece in a straight line, with little incentive to explore.

Idea: I think FFXIV is, actually, close to achieving something here, but need to take a few more steps. I think most of it could be achieved with some tweaks to the FATE system. To achieve a more “alive” open world, I would love to see:
- Hunt targets that roam, hunting other monsters, and even attacking settlements
- More intelligent regular spawns, like for instance maybe the pirates in Middle La Noscea could actually wander and attack things
- Placement of treasure that spawns at places around the world, which players could interact with for small amounts of treasure or loot. Maybe not dungeon level loot, but a little something to tickle your dopamine receptors.
- Open world dungeons. Similar to FATEs but these could be locations on a map with rotating spawn points that can be engaged with. Imagine you’re wandering around and then the music changes. You’ve found an open dungeon. The mobs are higher level, more aggressive, with more challenging mechanics.
- NPCs recognize you as you do more open world content and side quests in a zone. This is an idea I’ve gotten from playing City of Heroes: basically, as you play in a zone and do more quests, the NPCs start to recognize you and have little flavor text bubbles as you pass by that say “there’s so-and-so! I hear they helped Such and such with a bunch of brigands.” Other players might see this flavor text and get the itch to do stuff too. It’s such a small thing but it makes the world feel more alive even if a little bit, and gives the sense that what you do in the world matters and makes an impact. Heck tie achievements to “being recognized” for how much you’ve helped the denizens of a zone!

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I think this would be great in zoned instances of exploratory missions, that way nobody can just fly away.

Deep Dungeon solo achievements letting you skip the baby floors. Seriously boring every single run.

i'd change character creator. all the graphic updates are frustrating, we really just need more options to choose from so we have more freedom to change our characters and aren't forced to stick with the few we got, especially when those are changed against our will.