Certain Aspects needs changing

well i been playing for 6+ years and seen ffxiv grow and there is some glaring issues that needs a overhaul entirely

1 - Mentor
when people think of a mentor, they auto assume its a player who is helpful towards those who asks for advice, but majority of mentors are just people doing it for the crown

A - My suggestion
Remove mentor from the game and add a new system which players have to agree a terms service, which allows them to take up to 3 sprouts who are brand new to the game, by the end of each month those sprouts can rate the mentor base on helpfulness, guidence, etc which result rewards towards that mentor base on their rating

Now i know what people are thinking and will say "but u can have a friend cheat the system with an alt" but this is where they add a new icon for brand new players which be a seedling who does not have any characters past level 15 to prevent cheating the system


2- Lominsa
in all my years of playing, i have found that lominsa should be monitored daily, as i feel this where majority of ffxiv drama comes from which causes bad behaviour towards other players, due to alts trolling, large amount of AFK players, even to the point that u will have a group of players bullying others out of sheer bordom, or a lot of sexual assults, spamming, stalking etc

A - My suggestion
i feel that atleast 1 gm should always be present in limsa at all times, to let players know that bullying or bad behavior is not acceptible, but these gms should be visible to the community, they could also provide help and assistance to new players aswell

3- Friendlists
in all my years playing mmos, i feel that ffxiv have the worst friendlist system in all mmos, as even know u can blacklist a player and remove them from "your friendlist" the other player can still keep you on theirs and stalk u or send friends to stalk you instead, or even make alt characters to continue the problem

A- My suggestion
When a player remove a friend it should also remove them from the other player friendlist aswell, when the player blacklist a person it should block their account against that player so no futher interactions can be made

i have seen people drive others of servers and even follow the player to the server they transfered to aswell to continue the consent attack, you are not safe until you decide to change data center entirely, but some players can just check your lodestone to see where. u transfered to..... i honestly feel their is zero privacy within the game and that it is TOO easy to follow players ingame


these are just a few things i have consently seen over the years of playing this game, i have been a mentor and often help players in need, even know majority of the help i have given is just sheer basic advice, like for example how blood of the dragon works to get life of the dragon, or how enochian works and how to keep it active

I mean the best solution is just to make the Crown icon a buy able on mogstation and remove any rewards from being a Mentor outside help another player could boost your token/exp rewards when team up with them. Creating a Reward system for helping will always draw in people who will abuse it and not help what so ever The only way to fix that is, remove the reward completely or make it so low that only people who truly want to help others will do it.

As for the friendliest thing you can already do that you just have to manually type the name into blacklist.

As for Lominsa I have yet to see anything like that and I spend a lot of time there the most you see is a few jokes in shout which are just funny, innocent, harmless jokes to the point you have to be extremely over sensitive to have an issue with it. Then most people afk in lines, but Really its nice to see people gathered afk or not.

the only thing I see in Lominsa is continuous FC advertising and fishing timers

The mentor system was put in place so vet players could help new players. SE can't directly control how people act outside of warnings/bans. I will admit I decided to be a mentor so I could acquire the 2k mount Astrope. I will also admit during that "grind" I wasn't necessarily the nicest person in the world. I made a mistake. It was put into place to help new players. That is not a fault in the system. I also did end up in a gaol cell due to an interaction and had a strike placed on my account due to my behavior. What it comes down to is I think you have to approach the status as a way to help people and not focus on what you are getting out it. The status could be updated in some way I just don't know how you would get it done that would make the majority happy.

I do agree the RP etc gets out of hand in certain areas. I created my main on Mateus long ago when there was no RP whatsoever on the server. After Balmung closed the ERP/RP community decided to make Mateus their second home. I think the rep speaks for itself these days. I could not even enter Ul'dah without someone yelling out some erp nonsense. I never went back to Ul'dah. That shouldn't be necessary. I should not have to change my behavior due to the "play style" of another group. I am not sure if they could man someone in these areas on every server 24/7 but something along the lines of your solution sounds reasonable outside of that.

Easiest and fastest solution to most of the Mentor issues: Change that dang Burger King crown into a watering can or a mortarboard. Make the crown an achievement for getting X comms or something, idk, you already get a king outfit and an actual crown for that /shrug

This is a weird thing that they created the mentor system. It somehow means the FC don't play their role. On one hand, that's nice thing we can play alone and clear dugeons with the DF, it solves the time sync problem between players (I mean we are not always avaialable in the same time) but on the other hand it makes we can play without FC.
There is another thread about recruitment and that's a part of the problem in the game. I've seen a lot of FC dying because of both drama or people leaving the game for IRL reasons (the main is lost of interest/lack of time).
Statics are often a reason to create FCs but people realize to late it is not enough. FCs need something that make people play together and find some kind of entertainment. As long as the static is up, that's fine but if someone starts to lose interest, both the static and the FC run out of steam.

2 - With 68 servers (if i did count it right), and with an average of 3 gms per server (24h/8h of work per day), you are talking of recruiting 68x3 = 204 new gms (because the ones we have are already doing something else). Are you ready to give up yet another part of the game content to match the costs involved ? Plus i dont see that much trouble in Limsa to begin with.

3 - I believe that they said that one of the reason for that is that some people could pe pissed of when they see that you removed them from your friendlist. Still dont change the fact that toxic people can indeed continue to track you though.

Yes, the Friend List should be that if one party removes the friend name, it also removes the reverse for the other party.
As in:

• Jill and John are friends
• Jill decides to remove John from their friends list
• In doing so, Jill is removed from John's friends list
• Now, neither Jill nor John can see each other in their friends list

Currently:

• Jill and John are friends
• Jill decides to remove John from their friends list
• John still has Jill in their friends list
• Now, John can observe where Jill is at anytime, send in game mail, and/or easily find/follow/message Jill and while Jill can Blacklist John, they can't hide from John

Mentor system served me very well as returning player. People were very helpful and answered question, I was pretty sad when I had to leave it when I started Shadowbringers since it was a nice general chat as well as very handy to get questions quickly answered (which are hard to look up).

I don't want to join an FC because I don't want to to get too involved in the game. I like playing it solo with pugs to keep "anonimity" and distance. NN was perfect for me.

I wish fellowships offered a chat, or if there would be some kind of linkshell browser in which you can create and join established linkshells created for various purposes.

I definitely agree the friends list issue needs work.

I’ll usually accept random friends requests from people after running content or whatever, but I usually don’t interact with them much unless they seek me out. However, I will wave at people on my friends list when I see them in the wild but I always wonder if they’ve removed me (due to us not interacting) and I look like a maniac.

Personally, I hate LL...I wish they'd do something to make other cities more appealing to hang out in, and spread people out a little bit. I've always preferred the atmosphere/music in Ishgard, just wish it was more lively and active with players. I like the Crystarium, too...and kinda suprised it isn't busier, considering how busy Kugane usually seemed last expansion. /shrug

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kirika-

Yes, the Friend List should be that if one party removes the friend name, it also remove the reverse for the other party.
As is:

• Jill and John are friends
• Jill decides to remove John from their friends list
• In doing so, Jill is removed from John's friends list
• Now, neither Jill nor John can see each other in their friends list

Currently:

• Jill and John are friends
• Jill decides to remove John from their friends list
• John still has Jill in their friends list
• Now, John can observe where Jill is at anytime, send in game mail, and/or easily find/follow/message Jill and while Jill can Black List John, they can't hide from John

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The above is bloody ridiculous. It makes no sense that becoming friends is something the game makes you agree upon, but unfriending does not make that agreement void so it allows a person you unfriended to continue to easily track your activity and even contact you in ways only those on the friendlist can.

Added to this the state of blacklisting is so irritating. You also can only blacklist someone by right clicking their name if they say something or emote in your chatbox. So if you really don't want to talk to someone anymore you have to wait for them to do something in your presence before you can filter their activities from your chatbox. It's so stupid.

1. if SE is going to grant any sort of reward for just being a "mentor" then majority of people aren't going to give a shit for teaching sprout players.

2. please no, this is awful. imagine a GM is sitting in limsa and moderating the zone as if they are a recess monitor. this is a game, not real life. if you have a problem with other people or encounter one, then you're free to report them. dont try to limit everyone freedom in a game just because someone is sensitive. if anything, you're just increasing the potential unwarranted bans for numerous individuals, like the dude that got banned for using holy spell repetitively. Why make the game more less fun and annoying?

3. i agree that ffxiv has shitty friendlist system, but a lot of mmos still suffer the same thing even if you blacklist a person. you can still be found no matter what due to the utilization of having another account.

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Originally Posted by BunniEclair

I definitely agree the friends list issue needs work.

I’ll usually accept random friends requests from people after running content or whatever, but I usually don’t interact with them much unless they seek me out. However, I will wave at people on my friends list when I see them in the wild but I always wonder if they’ve removed me (due to us not interacting) and I look like a maniac.

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One of the non-FC associations I have is working with a group of dedicated The Hunt S-Rank spawners.
We do most all of the leg work needed in spawning the S-Ranks on our world server, and we do so for the benefit of all hunters both on our server and CW.
As is, we do not spawn and insta-kill, we spawn and announce across dozens of LS and then wait/schedule a Pull Time.
That said, several of the team have "ex-friends" who now "stalk" them so that they can troll the hunts and spawns by insta-pulling or MPK'ing.
Because they can't hide from the ex-friend, they are now forced to either do less spawning work or drop out all together.
All because the ex-friend still has the team member in their friend list, even though the team member has removed and blacklisted them.
This specific example would not happen if removal from a friends list was two-way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kirika-

One of the non-FC associations I have is working with a group of dedicated The Hunt S-Rank spawners.
We do most all of the leg work needed in spawning the S-Ranks on our world server, and we do so for the benefit of all hunters both on our server and CW.
As is, we do not spawn and insta-kill, we spawn and announce across dozens of LS and then wait/schedule a Pull Time.
That said, several of the team have "ex-friends" who now "stalk" them so that they can troll the hunts and spawns by insta-pulling or MPK'ing.
Because they can't hide from the ex-friend, they are now forced to either do less spawning work or drop out all together.
All because the ex-friend still has the team member in their friend list, even though the team member has removed and blacklisted them.
This specific example would not happen if removal from a friends list was two-way.

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To be fair in this aspect, the player search function would work the same way.

Not saying the friend list thing doesn't need changing, but it's pretty easy to find people in the games over world if you know their names.

Just leave mentoring in the game as is but, take away the rewards. I've been working towards mentoring since I started thinking this is all it was. I'm fine not getting a reward. I just want to help people. Also, your suggestion turns the mentor into a job and that's just bad. Mentoring shouldn't be a job it should just be something you want to do.

Oh, yeah I’ve heard of the issue with hunts and known spawners being stalked. Can you currently search for someone who has you blacklisted in player search? If so, then that’s another thing they need to fix, imo.

Yeah, Player Search is used in stalking, however if the stalker also has several of the team members as friends (which is unfortunately the case) then they can pretty much stalk them all at once, where as Player Search would need to be reset and spammed for each different player name.
Just close/open the Friend List for an updated stalkees location.
Also, they can find out what CW Server you are on too, which Player Search doesn't do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yhisa

3- Friendlists
in all my years playing mmos, i feel that ffxiv have the worst friendlist system in all mmos, as even know u can blacklist a player and remove them from "your friendlist" the other player can still keep you on theirs and stalk u or send friends to stalk you instead, or even make alt characters to continue the problem

A- My suggestion
When a player remove a friend it should also remove them from the other player friendlist aswell, when the player blacklist a person it should block their account against that player so no futher interactions can be made

i have seen people drive others of servers and even follow the player to the server they transfered to aswell to continue the consent attack, you are not safe until you decide to change data center entirely, but some players can just check your lodestone to see where. u transfered to..... i honestly feel their is zero privacy within the game and that it is TOO easy to follow players ingame

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Didnt YoshiP address this point directly and say that the current set up is intentional? Something that was like pretty much while they can see where you are at on their flist, that the concept was that it would be a straight up signal to them that youve unfriended them and tended to provoke harassment more frequently. Tends to make sense cause unfriending is typically seen as a slight against people, even if it might be justified. Not to mention thta most MMOs Ive played had a player search function that actually bypassed a lot of the safeguards in those games (including a blist function). They unfriended me? Well let me just player search and see where theyre at.

Beyond that, doesnt Blisting prevent you from being contacted by them or them joining parties you create (and in cases where you both join a third person's party, you dont see what they say in party chat), even if theyre on your flist? So if its a harassment issue, if the person is blisted, you shouldnt be having these problems? Unless youre super worried or scared they might show up in limsa next to you. Which, not to be overly flippant, makes you a silly person cause really? Them just being there doesnt constitute harassment if they cant even interact with you. Theyre worse off than an NPC at that point.

Even if they can’t talk to you directly, it’s still an issue that they can follow you around (creepy), and possibly create alts to harass you since your blacklisting doesn’t apply to their whole account, just the specific character.

Also should you decide to move worlds, change names, or whatever to try to avoid the person they can just see all that info in their updated list and bother that player some more.

I’d like to think these are extreme cases in which you could just take the issue to a GM, but I’m getting the impression that it might be a more widespread issue with some gray areas that can be avoided with a little adjustment to the current system.

That being said I do get that Yoship and the team are concerned about not being able to quietly unfriend someone. However, if you never interact why would they take it personally? And if you do interact then I’m going to guess in most cases that it wouldn’t come as a shock to the other party if they were unfriended due to a falling out.

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Didnt YoshiP address this point directly and say that the current set up is intentional?

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Yes.

It borrows both from an eastern idea of human interaction, and from older MMO's where friends list were one-sided for both players.

Quote:

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It should be borrowing from the GLOBAL idea that stalking is bad.

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Its an incredibly small game world with multiple ways to find you, this one specifically requiring you to have said "yes, this person can forever have me on their friends list if they so choose".

You cant fix stupid or malicious, you can only deal with it when it happens.

The vast majority of "stalking" in a virtual world is fixable by blocking/ignoring the person than then following through with that.

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Originally Posted by Barraind

Yes.

It borrows both from an eastern idea of human interaction, and from older MMO's where friends list were one-sided for both players.

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It should be borrowing from the GLOBAL idea that stalking is bad.

The Mentor crown should just change to a watering can, FULL STOP.

Limsa can be left alone. Every game has it's ECBay, it's Greaterfaymart, it's Barren's Chat, it's crafter's channel. Limsa is just this game's hub. Any attempt to suppress it would just cause it to move elsewhere. Besides, I love how lively Limsa is, I'd like to keep it that way. It might be wretched hive of scum and villainy, but it's MY hive wretched hive of scum and villainy and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

The friend list does need to be updated though. If you remove somebody, it needs to work both ways.

**edited for spelling**

Blacklisting someone should remove you from their friends list
If it doesn't, I mean... Why TF not?