Meenk's Pros, Cons, and suggestions. Rants welcome!

*tosses in two cents*

You don't know if something will work until you try.

SE flopped in many areas....but FF14 is a great base for an incredible game.

For the heck of it, I'll rant a bit....

Teleport system
-This greatly speeds up organization for people getting somewhere. Personally, I hated trying to grind or get people together in FFXI and having to wait FOREVER because some yahoo didn't get a telepoint active or there's no WHM wherever they are.
-Personally, I'd like to see a way to SEARCH for people, invite them, then teleport to them if you're in the party. The current search thing is screwy. FFXI's search function was simple. /sea all whm 70-72 Simplicity and perfection.

Quests and side quests
-Kudos for making it easy to find that NPC and area you have to go for the goal. Sure, for some it takes a bit of fun and realism out....but face it, there's a ton of sites out there that list what to do and where to go and this keeps it in-game w/o having to surf for the answers and destinations.
-COUNTERPOINT There's not enough quests to keep players happy (I know it's still kind of in a test phase). The rewards are also kind of.....too little too late. Getting a level 10 robe would have been nice a loooong time ago, not so much now. Maybe throw in bonus EXP/SP if you do the quest at a certain level range....or add the ability to restrict your level to one where the quest would be a challenge. Right now, I'm doing quests just because I can....out of boredom for an item I'll probably NPC after earning. How about adding some Key Item rewards? Like some lucky trinket that's just in your Key Item box, not taking up space, just a little boost in some small way?

Armory System
-It's nice to have my own character with abilities I've earned to create a character that can do whatever I want.
-COUNTERPOINT This system goes WAY too far with this though. There's practically no uniqueness to any class aside from the weapon you're using and some HP/MP stuff. Yay, I can dress my mage up in heavy plate armor....Why? Who knows?
Imo--Make a lot of the abilities classes unlock specific to that class. Keep the Abilites/Traits that you unlock with Guild Points open to all jobs. That way, there's some crossover that you have earned....but the classes keep most of the uniqueness. (And while they're at it....how about adding more things to get with Guild points? Gear for that class that's unique maybe? Or maybe some abilities that don't borderline on the silly and retarded? Overkill in choices would be great even!)

Battle system
-This will be very hard to fix....parts are fine, parts are broken.
-I'd love an auto-attack option. How hard would it be to set that to the 1st eaction action? Choose which you want (stab vs. slash, etc.) and your character will do that on the mob whenever possible (maybe having to hit it once at the start to prevent auto-attacking the wrong mob). Oh, and make it so it doesn't take stamina. If only the special moves used stamina the flow would be more.....dynamic. Sure, it'd take more stamina to do things....but hey, we're adventurers! Slashing a sword is supposed to be easy! Spinning and slashing takes more effort, it makes sense!

-Auto-shield maybe? >.> Just restrict damage a bit perhaps? Kind of like Defender, but more class/wep specific.

-Battle regiments....Great idea, very poorly executed. They're easy to screw up, mistime, and tricky to put into action. The SkillChain system in FFXI was rarely used beyond a few levels when Freeze was awesome and some end-game battles. Sure, it was extra damage....but waiting for your teammates to get TP sometimes was aggravating and wasteful.
With everyone able to use pretty much any WS ability now....it gets complicated and fairly silly.
-Maybe try this;
Instead of focusing on the Abilities people are using, focus more on the timing. Right now, some WSs focus on a particular body part of the enemy to create an effect. Maybe take this a step further and just have everyone with a same-area-hitting-attack go at once?
For example; Someone counts down with a macro, 3,2,1 GO Head Attacks! Three people with Head-Aimed WSs nail the mob at the same time compounding damage and having some sort of effect on the mob. Simple, and easy! (of course, WSs would need to use a LOT more stamina...can't have people just spamming that. Unique WSs to each class along with auto-attack, this could be nifty!)

SE, props for trying something new and creative....and even more props to admit that some isn't working. Thanks for listening to us. Let's make this the best MMO out there! :D


~Meenk