Make the game fun again - 2 suggestions

Just a little bit about myself: I picked up FF14 ten years ago back in 2.3 back when I was a college student, of course I had tons of times back then, doing all kinds of activities the game has to offer, but these days, not as much.

Although I've enjoyed each expansion and new features that the game introduced over the years, I've also noticed some disturbing patterns that I would like to summarize in 2 discussion points and hopefully brought to the dev's attention, moving forward.

1. Housing area purpose & World map size


In the past (patch 2.x) housing area was fun because it is an area where you can hang out with friends, neighbors, or FC members, waiting to queue into a dungeon for relic grinds, or running raids, or crafting. These days, however, you guys keep introducing stupid separate relic grinding zones (such as Eureka or Bojza), instead of duty finder task grinds for relic, so technically there's no incentive to hang out in housing area anymore. I'm sure you guys can easily notice that those relic zones are flooded with people for a short amount of time and then quickly turn into dead zones once the initial rush of players is over. It doesn't have to be that way. On the other hand, because of that, the housing game has lost its cozy, social magic touch that it once did, which is to act as a lobby zone facilitating social interaction in between gaming sessions. Not to mention that, starting with patch 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x world maps areas are grossly inflated and also split into separate instance that, it feels extremely lonely, and makes the game looks so disturbingly disproportionate, and therefore, lose the charm. To the game dev, I suggest you guys look back at the world maps in 2.x and learn from them, moving forward.

Look at the appeal of the Black Shrouds world maps, that IS the correct size for a world maps design. What's the point of making maps so BIG to just facilitate flying? Flying, to a certain extent, completely cuts out the visceral & emotional attachment that a player has toward the game, and it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, not every map in the game need flying introduced if you guys don't pump up the map sizes and screw up the character/environmental ratio to a ridiculous amount like that. How many people here have more vivid memories of A Reals Reborn maps and old cities like Gridania & Limsa than the maps & city states compared to those from subsequent expansions? Japanese JRPG fosters on the player's love for both character aspect and environment, and I'd say it's the environmental integration of the game that has started to veer off the right course.

Scaling down map size may introduce some technical difficulties, especially if there are so many players at once (I still remember how laggy it is during the Odin FATE in Black Shrouds), but to make an MMO game more fun, you need to see more people when doing activities in-game rather just your character drowning lonely in an oversized world map.

2. Weather pattern (in-game)


On some days I only get to play <1 hour. I really hate it when it's time for me to play out in the world maps and the weather is dark. I prefer sunny day weather all the time. But day/night transition is so long in this game, not to mention that if the daytime weather is rainy, when it's just dark like nighttime weather. Every player should have the ability to choose what kinds of weather they prefer when playing the game. There should be a toggle feature that dictate what weather a player wanna see personally, independent from the server-wide weather pattern, of course I don't think it is not that hard to incorporate because it's just a client-side visual overriding feature. Why can't you guys do it? I'm sure many people have requested it before over the past 10 years.

If you manage to reading this far, thanks so much for your attention. I love FF14, it has been and will always be a special place in my heart. I'm proud of the memories and experiences that I built up from 9000+ hours playing this game and I believe it has made me a better person (real-life work-ethics wise, probably as a side effect of ff14 grinding? lol)

i've been asking for a day/night toggle for many years and we've yet to get one even though i still want one, and before anyone says such a thing is not possible you are wrong shadowbringers proves that it can be done

The weather/day/night thing is not possible, even ignoring the fact that this is a dynamic game simulating an active environment (albeit in a limited manner), and that is because of gameplay reasons, specifically, a connection to questing and a particular Disciple of the Land that uses it. There needs to be a in-universe time and day-night cycle to oversee various gameplay functions such as FATEs and quests (some will only spawn at certain times), plus a number of Sightseeing Log vistas are only available at specific time of the day, in specific weather.

Additionally, for FSH certain fish will only spawn for fishing in certain weather (specifically, rain, which is why the weather will reset at a set time such as midnight, it's a concession for gameplay). Because of these gameplay requirements that are tied to the weather and in-game time of day, I do not see SE ever granting such an idea I'm sorry to say.

Honestly, the weather pattern and day\night manipulation bit should be added to GPose. The ability to freeze weather and time is nice, but sometimes it means you'll wait about an hour for a desired landscape change. Or worse, in those moments such as SHB or EW where the weather is only there for a moment. I'd rather not have to use New Game+ all the time just to replicate it.

I don't know where people are that things feel so empty, but on Primal, both Eureka and Bozja are still reasonably active. People need to be spread out honestly. Trying to play during EW's first month was a nightmare. If you want community, seek one out. There are plenty of people out there doing all sorts of gatherings and such.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Honestly, the weather pattern and day\night manipulation bit should be added to GPose. The ability to freeze weather and time is nice, but sometimes it means you'll wait about an hour for a desired landscape change. Or worse, in those moments such as SHB or EW where the weather is only there for a moment. I'd rather not have to use New Game+ all the time just to replicate it.

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They've denied this for reasons that they don't want players to have "god powers" to change things like that. As to why? dunno. maybe they just don't want players getting used to getting stuff like that and then demanding more.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

They've denied this for reasons that they don't want players to have "god powers" to change things like that. As to why? dunno. maybe they just don't want players getting used to getting stuff like that and then demanding more.

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you mean kinda like races and things like that lol

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

They've denied this for reasons that they don't want players to have "god powers" to change things like that. As to why? dunno. maybe they just don't want players getting used to getting stuff like that and then demanding more.

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Kind of a weird thing to say when GPose already comes with some weird features. That's more of a thing they'd need to define rather than dismiss outright. Because the option to "wait" is there, the option to go into NG+ and hang around the areas with special weathers is there too. Adding this to GPose would just cut the hassle in half.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Kind of a weird thing to say when GPose already comes with some weird features. That's more of a thing they'd need to define rather than dismiss outright. Because the option to "wait" is there, the option to go into NG+ and hang around the areas with special weathers is there too. Adding this to GPose would just cut the hassle in half.

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"but but, you added it to GPose, why cant we have it in the rest of the world too?"

would it cut the hassle in half? yes
would be likely be easier to implement but a smaller team working on just that and require no game changes" very likely
would some portions of the population state that wasnt enough and want it more places? most definitely

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

"but but, you added it to GPose, why cant we have it in the rest of the world too?"

would it cut the hassle in half? yes
would be likely be easier to implement but a smaller team working on just that and require no game changes" very likely
would some portions of the population state that wasnt enough and want it more places? most definitely

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I mean... :^) that's where Explorer Mode came from. And as I said, that's just something they themselves need to define.

...also, side-note, you really can't answer people without being snide can you? "kinda like the races", sis who you foolin'

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Originally Posted by RemTsuki

In the past (patch 2.x) housing area was fun because it is an area where you can hang out with friends, neighbors, or FC members, waiting to queue into a dungeon for relic grinds, or running raids, or crafting.

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"Can" is the operative word. Sadly the wards were doomed from the start, they just didn't offer the accessibility or the convenience of Limsa. Worse, they keep adding new ones that are story gated which cuts off a lot of new players and frankly older ones that are sensitive to travel fees.

As far as Eureka and Bozja go they still haven't quite figured out how to keep them relevant past their respective relic grinds and farmables (eg. Ozma mount). At least Bozja added leveling xp but gating Zadnor behind CLL and DR was big mistake IMO.

You're right, that this is by FAR the biggest problem with Eureka and Bozja - they make an entire type of tomestone, and therefore most of the duty roulettes, completely irrelevant past the first month or two of an expansion.

Things like Eureka and Bozja keep this from turning into a lobby game. Many players have asked for a more open world experience and those zones help to provide that without negatively impacting the existing content in other zones.

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Originally Posted by RemTsuki

On some days I only get to play <1 hour. I really hate it when it's time for me to play out in the world maps and the weather is dark. I prefer sunny day weather all the time. But day/night transition is so long in this game, not to mention that if the daytime weather is rainy, when it's just dark like nighttime weather. Every player should have the ability to choose what kinds of weather they prefer when playing the game. There should be a toggle feature that dictate what weather a player wanna see personally, independent from the server-wide weather pattern, of course I don't think it is not that hard to incorporate because it's just a client-side visual overriding feature. Why can't you guys do it? I'm sure many people have requested it before over the past 10 years.

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This gives me a chuckle considering my first MMO played was WoW that had day/night cycles that last 24 hours instead of just 72 minutes, and players constantly complained about a lack of "dense" weather effects until Blizzard started improving them in Mists of Pandaria.

Players can't have customized day/night cycles or weather patterns because those things affect some game play elements (primarily fishing but also some hunts and FATEs). Players would abuse the ability to customize them to their advantage.

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Originally Posted by Jennah

You're right, that this is by FAR the biggest problem with Eureka and Bozja - they make an entire type of tomestone, and therefore most of the duty roulettes, completely irrelevant past the first month or two of an expansion.

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Not everyone cares for that content and so doesn't do it (I'm one).

Don't do content because it's the most efficient/expedient. Do it because you enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Players can't have customized day/night cycles or weather patterns because those things affect some game play elements (primarily fishing but also some hunts and FATEs). Players would abuse the ability to customize them to their advantage.

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Then the server should only consider the server's status instead of the one the player has set. Anybody that cares about status dependent content is well past the handholding stage.