Bring Back the Soul To FFXIV:ARR

[Litre]

Call FFXIV a Lobby Game.
Want NM's.

I don't get it. In one game you can run around and do other things while you wait for a queue, in the other you stand for 4 hours doing nothing only to lose to a claim bot. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

We're not asking for FFXI-2 in this thread, I guess that's the feeling you get from some posts but the original OP asked for two things, really three but he realizes the last isn't possible. We are not asking for FFXI-2, but we think some things were done well in FFXI and should be incorporated into FFXIV, that's all.



1. More Life to the environment
2. Open World Content (NMs,HNM,Force Pop NM)


1. More Life to the Environment
I hope everyone agrees the open world is bland, FATEs are just zerg fests and are super easy, if you get in trouble you can just run away from them. The world needs more adventure and risk, that's why we call it a lobby game/themepark, you can sit in town or your FC house all day and play the game. That's fine for a while, but I argue it will lead to FFXIV's downfall because there are tons of games just like it, and if we don't go out and fall in love with the world, then when the next shiny game comes out players will just substitute FFXIV with [insert new game here].

In FFXI we actually got to explore an intriguing world where things could actually kill you, add a decent death penalty and we had lots of adventures in the open world and plenty of memories, that's why the FFXI players here have such fond memories. In spite of stupid things like NMs and waiting for parties, we've mostly forgotten that, but what lingers is our love for the world we explored and adventured on our own two feet. I don't see what's wrong with adding that feeling to FFXIV. Time crunched players can still log on and run dungeons quickly through Duty/Party Finder if they want.

Plus you teleport everywhere so even if there was any life to the world you'd skip it all anyways, teleporting from one quest goal to the next then teleporting to the quest NPC. This also has the side effect of making the world feel really small, using WOW as an example, besides city teleports, at least when you move to small towns you need to take the flying transport and you actually fly over the locations and get a sense of how large the world is. I mean that's what the chocobo porter was made for, but if teleporting is so cheap who cares. This needs to be rebalanced in my opinion, so what if you need to travel 5 minutes between towns, if you're a casual player just pick Uldah or whereever as your home town and be done with it, let the rest of us players enjoy a game with more life to it.


2. Open World Content (NMs,HNM,Force Pop NM)
This is the touchy subject everyone is hung up on, lets be clear NMs/HNMs are not force pop NMs

NMs/HNMs are stupid monsters on a timer and claimed by someone who camped hours etc... I don't think anyone wants this, no one is asking for it

Forced pop NMs, this isn't so different from what we already have now with FATE grinding for Atma, except imagine the Atma has to be used at a location in the open world to trigger a boss fight (the boss is claimed by your party so others can't help you). I really don't care for the arguments for this, FFXIV won't change much if we get it or never get it. It's just another type of RNG quest except the combat takes place in the open world and not an instance. It'd still be nice in my opinion though, walking through a zone and seeing a high geared coil party spawning a crazy dragon and battling it, just scenery, that's all - would add life to the environment though.

[Mishini_Dracoto]

SERIOUS NON-FLAME POST!
(who am I getting, this post will be lost in the annals of time & trolls.)

I made a post elsewhere, and i referenced that I have a strong desire for more story, outside of the main storyline. We could have separate quests that hint at big ominous foes that aren't in the game yet, to start getting us excited about them, before they hit the game. more quests, Similar to hildebrand, only, use them to foreshadow incoming quests. Not just with text either, but short cutscenes, possibly showing us early images of some of these bosses.

I think a large amount of dungeon runs are just about going in, killing random trash as fast as possible, move on to burn the boss, move on. Nobody knows or cares what the boss is or does aside from beating it.



I think it would also be neat to have dungeons with multiple clear parameters. "Encounter the foe behind Door # 1, 2, or 3" You have 3 locked doors, and one key. Going through any one of those doors will eventually bring you to a unique set of clear conditions.

add more puzzles: that have more mechanics than just dying or taking damage. RPG's have never been about brainless killing. MMO's are getting away from that, but I think dungeons with complicated puzzles (these would need to have a randomly generated factor, so that it's not just super easy to run through) with high rewards would be a blast.

I think a big part of an MMO yes is gearing up and using that gear, but it doesn't have to be only about gear, some non-combat "Dungeons" and puzzles could be a lot of fun.

[Litre]

Yes, unpredictability and random events in dungeons would be good I agree. Mix these dungeons with the current farm dungeons and we'd have a happy balance between players looking for some quick tombs and others who want more depth.

[Dejectedbunny]

Someone's going to have to elaborate on what a ZNM is; I've researched these things previously in order to understand more about the things FF11 players refer to most often, but there are a ton of different NM categories, so if someone could actually explain what they are, it not only makes it easier to understand, as well as add player perspective on why its supposed to be awesome. Plz and ty.

ZNM = Zeni Notorious Monster. Basically it was a pop system added during the Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion in which players would trade plates (pictures) into an NPC in exchange for Zeni. The Zeni could then be used to purchase pop items for particular NMs. In addition to specific drops, each NM also dropped a key item that was used to access the next tier. The system fell to the wayside rather quickly due to a few implementation factors such as the tediousness of obtaining plates that didn't stack (adding to an already cramped inventory system), having to get the key items again each time you wanted to fight an NM that was higher than tier 1, and that the final tier NMs didn't always drop the key item needed to challenge the end boss (Pandemonium Warden) meaning that all your work might have been for nothing. Ultimately, the system had potential as it largely eliminated the whole camping aspect of NMs.

Personally, the only things I would like to see carry over from XI to XIV: ARR are the mob linking behaviors when it comes to beastmen (seems kind of silly that I can pull a beastman out of a group and the others don't even care) and more customization on gear. I hate that at level 50, my whm is exactly the same as every other lvl 50 whm. We have the materia system that has so much potential, but it's stymied by a lack of materia slots on end game gear. Other than that, I'm content to leave XI in XI; especially scrolls. Scrolls can die in a fire and have their ashes pissed on by the collective Whm/Blm/Rdm community.

[Luxx]

But WOW made more money than probably those three combined, but that's because they were able to capture more of the market.

It's depressing that FFXIV went the route of make the most money, instead of creating a real/memorable MMORPG, but after the failure of 1.0 it had to prove itself and it did, I just hope Yoshi-P takes this game in a different direction with the next expansion.

tis what happens when the game was originally a huge ass flop, and they rush it out the oven to try to recover asap.
imo the game needed a lil more time in the oven back then, but it's gradually getting better as we go. this game lacks a lot of fun stuff
because all it is dungeons, raids, dungeon, raids and no casual fun stuff. we should be seeing some stuff in 2.3.
we're getting close. but ppl can't really say that this game isnt just another generic mmo in mmo land...because it is.

you've played 1 mmo, you've played them all. and if you played wow for most of your time, yeah it's going to kinda hard
to see anything else different. that game just happened to capture and "wow" people for a decade and it's running strong ever since
and they just happen to really grab em BUT it took years for them to build. we need to be patient here.
i mean ppl can hate on wow all day, but those ppl played that game for 8+ years and stuff lol. something
there you must have liked for playing for so long if ya hated it. but yeah just give this game time to grow. 2.0 was boring as jesus
but im having fun in 2.2 its only going to get better from here on.

[Logo]

There were so many types of nms. Some drops were rare/ex and not camped as often, there were ones that popped in lvling areas just to be annoying such as Guivre, ones in BCNMS, HNMS in high level areas that were hard to get to, etc. The fights were much more varied and fun rather than hitting one button over and over.

Guivre was awesome, you would be leveling and all of a sudden all hell started breaking loose.

[Litre]

Haha yes Guivre, see I haven't played FFXI in over 5 years and that still brings back fun memories, simply because random stuff happened in the world that turned ordinary days into memorable days.

I doubt FFXIV will leave me with such fond memories, that's my major gripe and why I agree with OP about adding life to the environment.

Eventually all these theme park rides get boring, why can't a sandbox and a themepark co-exist? Players that want to teleport / run Duty Finder dungeons can go right ahead, but at least make the open-world a bit dangerous so those of us that want to go out and adventure can as well! It won't bother the theme park crowd, they can just pay the extra gil and teleport (but it really should be a lot more expensive!).

[Magis]

I don't get people who complain "NMs are boring so don't add it". If NM's were added and you found it boring, then don't fight NMs and do something else? It's an activity added to a bunch of other activities.

[i2agnarok]

stuff

Unfortunately, with all of the back-and-forth you have to do in this game, I would be strongly opposed to teleport rates being raised. Like, murderous rampage opposed. Quests are just too spread out and require too much travel, specifically the main story ones. On the other hand, as I've said before, I'm totally for stronger-than-usual enemy patrols. I'm not saying put a lvl 50 Omega Weapon outside of Gridania, but an optional added challenge. Like someone said before, decent gear for the challenge, nothing extremely "I must have this or a fail at life, so it isn't truly optional," tier, but decent enough rewards for the challenge and vanity options if nothing else. Obviously, something nice for the lvl 50s, as well. Behemoth and Odin are this done in the extreme; they're so rare and require so many people....its like the other side of the Fate system having hints of things that people like but extremely easy.

ZNM explanation

Thanks a bunch. That sounds....extremely convoluted. Considering drop rates for anything in that game sound extremely low, I don't think it would be anything I'd be interested in personally...yeah, if they add them, add the basic levels of patrolling and popped (or at least add like more challenging leves; there's even a system already in place that can be taken advantage of) and be done with it, I say.

[Kirinichibon]

Nostalgia has a tendency to cause you to remember the best of times without remembering the 'meh' times.

The NM claims, the exploration, the 'living' world...all wonderful. The hours spent mindlessly farming crap to try to afford food that was necessary for parties that often took hours to form then grind trash mobs for more hours to try to level a sub job...etc etc. No, I don't miss this.

Kids these days like to ragequit after one wipe. Imagine deleveling after a few wipes when that 1 level took many nights to achieve in the first place.

The FFXI that we remember in NA also started for us already with one expansion. Give ARR another year to mature.