Gimmie my GuildLeves! (FFXIV was made for ME!)
Let me 1st state that GuidLeves are awesome (in theory but not as implemented))
1.Dump SP and replace with GP
Guild Points should be the focus of this adventure not general skill points. The SKill Points are essentially meaningless except for designitating a lvl up and rank. They really have no bearing on your abilities other than the "Skills" that miraculously appear after a lvl up. I would prefer to earn Guild Points for each class and then spend my points as I see fit (with due peer-pressure, of course). ALL Spells/Abilities/Weapon Skills should be bought AND/OR granted from the various Guilds.
I know it's a Fantasy Game but I still expect some logic to back up the fiction. Why do I just suddenly "Know" how to cast a spell or perform a WS? And why do the Guild Leaders ask if you want to join their Guild but ignore you completely untill you reach Lvl 20 in that profession? And even then their interest and mine is lackluster, which brings me to the next change...
2a.Start every Class in the respective City for each Guild.
AND
2b. Move the majority of the GuildLeves to the Guilds. ("Duh, Winning!") tm pending
...and you rank up each Class primarily from that Guild (with special Guildleves that
send you to other cities/areas). I need stronger ties to my Guild and to my city and it should start at Rank 1 NOT Rank 20 !
Why the Guildleves are not in the Guilds is beyond my understanding. And why am I offered a Leve that is not for my current class? I would prefer to get my GP related Leves from the proper Guild but EXP Leves from the General Counter.
3. Split GuildLeves into 3 seperate catagories: Solo, Small Group, Large Group.
Solo Guildleves: These are issued solely from each Guild to each adventurer that wishes to prove their worth and earn more GP to learn more skills/spells (and possibly some rare items)
Small Group Guildleves: These are also issued solely from each Guild but involve traveling to other cities and areas to team up with adventurers from the other Guilds who have the same Leve. Possibly NM quest's with rare/good drops to encourage replay but can be beaten by a good party of 6, very good party of 3 or an insane party of 2.
Large Group Leves: These Leves are not issued from the Guilds, tho they tell you when a call to arms has been sent or received. The Call to Arms come periodically from each city/state, "Ul'duh requests the best Archers and Thuamawhatevers (I HATE that name) that Girdania can spare", and so off you go to Ul'Duh, check in at the front desk and sign on for glory as you once again save the Pugilists from really nasty invaders. Basically Behest but with one big improvement (if possible)...
...Auto-Party.... you can sign up as a party of 1-6, the "BattleWarden" can team everyone up to a maximum of 18 in an Alliance (with hopefully smart Class balancing). If you are snobby or don't wanna risk getting stuck with a noob or worse an ass, then turn off Auto-Party and take your chances with a partial group.
These 3 changes, which I don't think would be that hard to do would greatly improve the overall experience while other tweaks are made to various game mechanics. I can be patient for improvements to Battle-systems, Retainers, WS DMG, spell effects and even Class Abilities, but I cannot be patient for much longer waiting for something to do and a reason for doing it. (My Number One vote in Poll #1 was for "CONTENT"!)