Positive and negative changes in patch 1.18

I sincerely hope that the Square Enix dev team reads these forums, because what I have to say is important to me and, I suspect, several other fans. Whether you agree or disagree with me, PLEASE RESPOND to this thread - let's make sure Square Enix knows what needs to be fixed.

1: Ranks required to participate in main scenario quests reduced. (dev 1084)
This is a good thing, in my opinion. It makes this part of the game more friendly to newcomers.

2: Main Scenario/Class/Levequests awarding skill points upon completion. (dev 1085)
Excellent! Anything that helps the players progress faster is a good thing.

3: The Grand Companies (dev 1003)
I like this idea. More storyline content and additional rewards make for more fun.

4: Gil rewards for guildleves have been reduced. (dev 1010/1011)
Not a good thing. Money is the lifeblood of any economy, whether it's a game or not. Reduced income makes things harder on players, especially new players.

5: Changing levequest difficulty & its effect on targets. (dev 1010/1011)
I am neutral to this change. I will point out though that while we can reduce a levequest's difficulty, we can't increase the difficulty. I would like to see an option to increase difficulty implemented.

6: New icons for factions/Guardian's aspect. (dev 1010/1011)
I am neutral on this subject, though it is kind of nice that the factions now have icons.

7: Changes to Behests. (dev 1069)
Again, neutral on this issue, but only because I have not yet participated in any behests and therefore have no experience with them.

8: Instanced Raids. (dev1079)
Excellent idea. More endgame content keeps the players playing, and it keeps them happy.

9: Mini-settlements. (dev1077)
A fun idea, but... what do they do for the players?

10: Changes in battle. (dev 1022/1065/1088/1023)
Auto-attack has been added... YES!!! I love this feature. Granted, it took a little getting used to since it changed the flow of battle, but fights feel much smoother now.
The stamina gauge has been abolished... good! Again, it makes fights smoother.
Recast timers on the action bar... also good. It's easier to track when abilities are available.
Toggling between active and passive modes while moving... excellent!
The enmity icon and changes to enmity... All good things, it makes each party member's job easier.

11: New conjuror specific spells. (dev 1032)
I think this is a good idea, and will be of great help to parties in particular.

12: Adjustments to class actions. (dev 1032)
There are several things for each class that could be seen as good or bad. Overall, I think these changes were neccessary for the new combat system, so I am neutral on this issue.

13: The fatigue system and surplus points abolished. (dev 1122)
I am neutral on this issue. Since skill points are now awarded upon completion of most quests, I feel this issue is no longer relevant.

14: KO penalty adjustments. (dev 1091)
I like that weakness has been reduced. The increased duration is fair, in my opinion. Brink of Death I am not fond of, but I understand it's meant to balance the weakness reduction.
Equipment durability suffers a further penalty when the return function is used... BAD IDEA. Especially in conjunction with the new repair system. Most new players don't form groups, and since not many people play as conjurors, this can be crippling.

15: NPC repair costs are reduced. (dev 1095)
Um, yay? The repairs still cost an arm and a leg, and still only restore the item to 75%. Considering how quickly items lose durability now, I fail to see how this change affects us in a positive way.

16: Changes to the repair system. (dev 1070)
This is the issue I have the most trouble with. The introduction of a "universal repair item" -aka Dark Matter- seems like a good idea but has several major flaws. First, Dark matter is both rare and expensive. It is a reward from some quests and occasionally drops while gathering, but not often enough. Yes, it can be purchased from NPCs, but it took me almost an hour to find out who sells it and the prices are outrageous. Picture this - on average, one player has twelve items equipped that will require repairs. With level 1-10 items, it's no big deal, it only costs 1,200 gil to repair them all. As the item level increases however, so does the cost. By the time you're wearing top level gear, your repairs will be costing you 54,000 gil. Add to that the fact that durability decreases faster, and quests now reward less money. In my mind, this is a DISASTER. That's more gil than I can typically make in one day, and with the rapid durability loss, it's looking like I'll need almost all my items repaired EVERY DAY. Now let's add the fact that new players will lack the skill to repair their own items... they're at the mercy of the NPCs or high level players. NOT GOOD.
I think the new mending system needs to be fixed, and I have some suggestions.
1. Put it back the way it was - mending worked great before, and was good for the economy, plus it awarded skill points, even if they sometimes seemed to be trivial amounts.
2. Okay, keep the new system, but make some changes. Dark matter needs to be freely available. It needs to be offered as a reward more frequently, or dropped far more often while gathering, or its NPC price needs to be reduced.
3. Durability needs to decrease at a much slower rate. I can afford 54,000 gil a week. I can't afford it every day.
As much as I love this game and most of the changes made this patch; if the mending system does not see serious improvement soon, it could be a deal breaker for me. I was intending to continue playing this game even after it switched to subscription mode. Now, if I have to deal with the frustration over the unreasonable cost of repairs, I will not be willing to pay.

17: Collision detection disabled for most small height discrepencies. (dev 1078)
Good work here. Everyone loved added mobility.

Summary: There are several changes that have been made that I have either not listed or not gone into detail about. This is because I either don't feel said changes affect me in any way, or because I feel they are trivial. If any responders to this thread feel I have missed an important issue, please bring it up in a similar manner. I created this thread with the intention of making things better for FFXIV devs and the game's fans. All you concerned fans out there, help me get the ball rolling. Square Enix devs, here's hoping you're listening. Keep up the good work!

There is not much in this patch that is negative in more than a short-term timeframe.

The one thing I would reconsider is the decision to not level cap on the r25 dungeon.

The developers already addressed the quest SP reward issue when they made it so you can't get a huge benefit on your lower rank class by finishing a high rank quest on a high rank class, then turning in the quest as a low rank class to get an SP reward based on the TNL of a high rank class.

But the problem still exists when it comes to the r25 dungeon. You can be rewarded with items that take much more work to be obtained when you have the intended rank for the dungeon as opposed to being much higher rank player and just breezing through the content.

Just like you should not be expected to be able to breeze through ranks on your lower rank class just because you have a higher rank class, you should not be expected to put in less effort when trying to acquire rare items for your low rank class just because you happen to have another high rank class.

In other games this is not possible, so there is no reason to have a level cap. This game, however, needs special rules by default.

Everyone should stand at least relatively on an equal ground.

I myself am a brand new player. Been playing Final Fantasy all of 3 weeks. The new changes have me so happy I could cry... and so mad that I curse.

The main point in this patch I am enjoying is how much smoother combat has become. Only doing leves one time was much easier, due to the combat being so much more fluid. UPGRADE!!!

But alas, I am already coming to my complaint. I do not have an extreme stockpile of gil. Like I said earlier, I have been playing for maybe 3 weeks, possibly less. Being used to the earlier system, I charged into my battle leves like I normally do. But I guess I should have read the patch notes. Unlike a couple days ago, all I lost for a death was a bit of time. Now that I died once, I lost all of the monetary gain I had received from all 6 leves I just finished.

The repair system and durability system as well as the reward system were right where it should have been a mere three days past. I would log on for a couple hours every few days and do my leves. About once to twice a week I would have to repair my sword, but hey, I had a spare. Every two or so log-ins, I could buy myself a new piece of gear from a player. Yay, upgrade! When I would repair my gear, I had plenty of money in my pocket to pay for the repair from a player. Just leave the cash in menders row. Unfortunately with this new patch, it looks like my entire stockpile of gil will be spent on repairs. My sword and shield would go down the fastest as I am the tank in the party. So I was accustomed to having to repair those two items on a regular bases (2-3 times a week.) However the rest of my gear would take between a week or two to get damaged enough for mending. My rings had never before had to be repaired, and I had them upon log-in thanks to a friend of mine.

Here was my experience with the new patch: I logged in, all of my gear was 80% or higher in durability. I completed several battle leves with a friend, commenting on the fact that I loved the new battle system, and also at how I was making half the money I used to make (Guess there goes making another set for a new profession. I am not making much at rank 30). By the end of the battle leves, just over an hour later, both my main sword and my secondary sword I keep on hand were under 20%. My shield was of course 0%. I wasn't bent out of shape at this point however. As I stated before, I was accustomed to having to repair those two items often. After we had finished our battle leves, my friend and I went our separate ways, and I was off to go mining for my two fieldcraft leves. Here was where the real trouble started. I found the first mine. Began to mine it, and by the end of the same mine, my jewelry had all gone from 50%+ to under 20%....... Off one mine?! Are you kidding me?! ::Sigh:: So upon inspecting myself I realized that I had lost over 10% durability in all my item slots... off one mine.

What ended up happening at this point is easy to guess. I ended up finishing my fieldcraft leves in my underwear. After finishing that and looking over all the equipment and finding most of it in the red, I logged, frustrated. The meager sum I gained during my time on-line was half the normal. And since my gear is high quality, I can't afford to buy dark matter rank5 X12 every day. That number increases if I go mining or do crafting. I also don't have high enough skill to repair these items myself. I am a new player, so I had grown accustomed to having some other player do it for me, giving them some of the gil I had received from leves, and taking the rest of the gil to buy better gear.

In summation, the new mending has only taken money from the players and transferred it to NPCs hands instead of other players. The rarity of this new Dark Matter will force players to buy from the NPCs. I can't afford that price every day. Once a week, perhaps, but not every day I log in. Kharaddonn's solutions to fix this problem are exactly right. At the current mending price and lack of funds being taken in by my character, I can't afford to play the game as it is. I will be watching to see if Square Enix fixes this particular problem with interest. When they do I shall return to the game. Until then, unfortunately, my character will collect dust.

Love these posts, great suggestions! (neutral on the level cap though)

I would also like to add that I believe the guildleve cooldowns to be extremely rediculous. Without a plethora of side quests to keep players busy and their pockets full, there isnt much to do in between resets for exp or money, except for grinding your balls off. Behest timers being an hour long is also a little overkill but as rediculous as guildleves. i havent been in a behest thats lasted longer than 15 minutes and waiting a full hour to do another is pretty boring. Until a ton more side quests are introduced, there just isnt much to do when waiting on timers unless a mindless grind is your kind of thing to do 24/7....