This game is in need of character customization

[Xenor]

It doesn't work for darklight gear. The face is attached to the mail so there's no option to turn it off.

Try playing BLM. The head piece isn't even attached to the body yet half your face is covered by the body piece. Allagan is the only decent looking BLM gear and we've had 0 body drops since we started Coil in September. No one actually needs it now.

[Lycieus]

[*] Introduce 5 new Class-Exclusive abilities for each class along with Class Guild quests from lvls30-50. A decent amount of these new abilities should be usable cross-class.

I would expand upon this. After thinking about this, I should have said something in my initial post. I think increasing the number of xclass abilities would be helpful, but I also think it worth pointing out that the abilities we are given should be substitutable for one another. That is to say, for each functionality a given ability provides, we should have at least 2 more that provide similar functionality. An example would be a cross class ability that grants a stun, a suitable substitute would be another ability that grants silence. Doing other things with the abilities lends itself to people picking the "best" ones always.

[eagledorf]

• Add Class AF gear -- Craftable, but it should require special rare mats from dungeons as well as dungeon currency purchased items (potash, coke, etc..). Like DoH/DoL AF, it should be meldable. Also, it should look more 'realistic' and less flashy than Job AF. Something along the lines of:
  

That gear is almost all already in the game. Most of it is dungeon gear (of really disparate levels..) and, I believe, can't be dyed. It does look awesome though....

[Naunet]

All future endgame Job-exclusive gear should be unmeldable, unconvertable, undye-able, and it should be gained via dungeon drops or currency purchases.

Emphasis mine because... why? Pointless restriction is pointless now and would be just as pointless in your idea. >_>

[Gamemako]

Being able to build and work on personal strategy to assist a group is a bad thing now?
Horizontal progression and options are bad?

Because it's an illusion. There is one right answer and a lot of wrong ones. If you allocate INT on a WHM, you are doing it wrong. Or VIT, or STR, or DEX, or PIE. Everything is wrong except more MND.

That gear is almost all already in the game. Most of it is dungeon gear (of really disparate levels..) and, I believe, can't be dyed. It does look awesome though....

Only one I don't recognize is the LNC gear. Almost looks a bit like the Allagan, but it might just be PvP gear or something else. Most are the i17 Sastasha-Copperbell or i34 Brayflox gears. Reading left->right, top->bottom, it's the Direwolf (i90 tank PvP gear), Cavalry (i34, Brayflox), something??, Infantry (i34, Brayflox), Foestriker (i17, 3 early dungeons), Vanya (i70 crafted), Battlemage (i34, Brayflox), and Acolyte (i17, 3 early dungeons).

[Ildur]

Emphasis mine because... why? Pointless restriction is pointless now and would be just as pointless in your idea. >_>

Everyone knows that the most important tradition that reflects Final Fantasy's essence is pointless arbitrary restrictions. If you don't have them, then it's not a Final Fantasy game!

[Zantetsuken]

Emphasis mine because... why? Pointless restriction is pointless now and would be just as pointless in your idea. >_>

Mostly because Job gear (AF, Coil, CT, Darklight, etc) can't be dyed now... and because Dyeing along with the Materia, Class/Armory, and Stat Allocation systems represent the (underused) Customization aspect of the game.

The devs should keep all Customization systems in the same (Class) bucket -- and then actually BUILD on that.
Likewise, put all focused, single-purpose systems in the other (Job) bucket -- and also build on it. Well actually, they ARE doing that now, but to the exclusion of the Class system...


It's not pointless at all really, it's about utilizing what already exists in-game to create parallel paths and real options for players in the endgame:

Jobs: built around efficiency, focus, and party coordination
Classes: built around customization, flexibility, and experimentation.

[Dhex]

Only one I don't recognize is the LNC gear.

Gryphonskin gear.

[Gramul]

Because it's an illusion. There is one right answer and a lot of wrong ones. If you allocate INT on a WHM, you are doing it wrong. Or VIT, or STR, or DEX, or PIE. Everything is wrong except more MND.

Yeah, if you implement concrete stats like that. Things like elemental damage and resistance have more freedom to be versatile.
If the classes where more freeform, you would be able to allocate stats to fit your playstile like it was originally intended; and without causing trouble for group play. Most of the content and progression in this game is very clearly set and linear. There are exact ways to do things and if you don't do them, you fail. You must play like they want you to play. You must have the same gameplay experience as everyone else who chose that class.
While that might not be necessarily a bad thing, it's not something I personally enjoy as much.

[Naunet]

The devs should keep all Customization systems in the same (Class) bucket -- and then actually BUILD on that.
Likewise, put all focused, single-purpose systems in the other (Job) bucket -- and also build on it. Well actually, they ARE doing that now, but to the exclusion of the Class system...

So essentially you would only get gear customization when you're not actually playing the game. No thank you. We don't need more restrictions in XIV, we need less. That includes being able to dye all the gear that is not currently dye-able (even though NPCs repeatedly wear different colored versions of many undye-able sets).