Long-winded; Several changes I hope to see

Please do not view this post as a negative rant. I respect the current team in its endeavor and I hope they will find encouragement in every form of feedback. I wouldn't be typing this if I didn't care for the game; I hope to see FFXIV surpass every game in the genre.

The most obvious issues have been talked about and are going to be addressed, but I want to submit some feedback either way.

I know I'm not speaking for everyone, but I think it's important to prioritze changes that will attract new or up-and-coming players first. Adding high-level content to keep endgame players interested is great, but I don't think it should come before eminent core problems. Making the gameplay more compelling will go a longer way than adding shiny new loot.

I played for a couple of weeks at launch, then stopped playing altogether until patch 1.19. I have tried to get as much enjoyment out of FFXIV as possible, but there are countless obstacles that get in the way of just having fun with it. I know it's common to compare FFXIV to FFXI, so I will try to avoid that. I will say that many of the problems I had with FFXI are still present with this game.

For example, scrolling down through 200 items to see if I have a specific ingredient, then scrolling through my retainers' inventory. I think we're spending too much time on micro-managing our inventories for crafting while the UI works against us. A large part of an average player's time will be spent as a DoL or DoH, so it's important that inventories be faster and easier to navigate. I don't want to scroll with the down key or the mouse wheel and it's tedious to grab that little slider and try to browse quickly without missing anything. Turning the single column window into a double column isn't a perfect solution but it's an improvement. Also, the window can be moved around but not vertically resized. I read where drag-and-drop functionality will be implemented much later. It could not come sooner; we need a user-friendly interface with far less lag.

Crafting is pretty much essential in being self-sufficient and prosperous. That being said, I personally care more about advancing my DoW/DoM classes than making sure my DoH/DoL classes are all caught up. Experience gained through crafting items equal to my level seems far too low, resulting in a monotonous grind. Crafting a single item just plain takes too long. I don't think players are developing an affinity for spamming the "Standard" button. It's a chore that does not fit into my equation of fun.

If experience was increased I would set aside the time to gather and craft. As it is now, it is too time-consuming. The argument will be made that I don't have to craft, but instead level only DoW/DoM classes, and buy gear with gil obtained through leves and quests. This is the route more and more players will take, but will likely find the levequest grind to be just as daunting.

One broad problem at the forefront is the sense of community. Players are always mentioning the absence of shouts in towns. It would seem that everyone is doing their own thing, idling, or coordinating an event privately via LS. Finding parties pre-level 25 or so is rare, save for the occasional behest. A "LFG" status and a friendlier player search function are MUCH needed.

Linkshells are essential in immersing players into a rewarding experience. I know we all have a shared concern for LS functionality, and changes are on the way. I just want to be one more voice on the forums to encourage the devs to help our community.

With respect to combat and in no order:

I think the "slider" or "selector" ring should be removed and tooltip mouse-overs for abilities added.

I also dislike the sound effect for selecting an ability. I play with system sound effects on, but if I'm chain-killing monsters, I turn them off so I don't have to hear that when I'm spamming TP actions.

There is also a lot of lag for me when casting. The cast bar will finish, but it takes a couple of seconds after to show the animation. It takes around 3 seconds after the cast bar fills for me to see the effect my spell has on the target.

I think running around with a weapon drawn should not reduce movement speed. The inability to regen HP/MP seems a sufficient enough penalty.

Other issues & wishes:

Universal Auction House and phasing out of market wards. Retainers replaced by a personal moogle. Mog House accessible in major cities. Nomad moogles?

Changing classes could be initiated by a class change menu whereby gear information can be saved and changed out manually or automatically. Any gear absent from the inventory would simply leave that slot empty.

Mouse-over tooltips

Map markers. I understand maps are being revamped. I just want to be able to mark my maps. And a LOT more than 10 per zone or whatever the limit was in FFXI.

The player model disappears and reappears repeatedly upon using a gear-swapping macro, sometimes taking 5 or 6 seconds to be able to issue a command. FFXI players will recall one simple gear-swap blink animation which was hardly imposing.

The presence of monsters so high in level that no number of players could challenge them. Some are aggressive and impede passage (e.g. impossible enemies in the narrow corridors of The Black Shroud), and some are just tucked away in corners never to be touched.

This post is too lengthy so I'll cut it here. Thanks for reading and best wishes!

"Universal Auction House and phasing out of market wards. Retainers replaced by a personal moogle. Mog House accessible in major cities. Nomad moogles?"

Why moogles? Why Mog Houses? Those are FFXI solutions to FFXIV problems. (Although I -sincerely- hope they link all the market wards together, either when they perform their changes to the item search counter - which probably won't be feasible - or in 2.0, wherein it would be. Ul'dah wards congestion, no thanks :( )

Although, I agree with most of your points - and it seems the dev team also does, you'll be glad to know! I just would much rather see housing that fits into the given concepts for FFXIV's world, with the /functionality/ of mog houses like we're used to from XI. Or something even better!

Out of curiosity, have you read Yoshida's letters to the fans? I'm not sure how closely you've been following development news, but if you haven't read the PDFs associated with the announcement of the reboot of FFXIV, I think you should, they'd probably bring a smile to your face as a large number of your concerns are explicitly addressed.