I'm seriously curious - What do YOU want FFXIV to be?

[Ava]

Do you want the game a walk in the park and everything handed to you?

No, and I would be surprised if -anyone- actually wants that. I think this question spawns from the hardcore/casual misconceptions that plague gaming nowadays. Being casual friendly does not mean having everything handed to you. Casuals enjoy difficult content as well. I don't want to have to run 30 minutes between zones. I don't want the pace of my game to be based off of gimmicks in place for the sole purpose of pigeonholing everyone into the same playstyle. We need faster travel (sorry, travel isnt difficult no matter which way you twist it), we need an AH (running between MW counter and retainer to check prices and post your goods is very cumbersome), we need a more interactive crafting system (as well as the exp toned down a bit, it's too repetitive/boring), etc. Do these things make the game easier? They could, but if implemented properly, no they wouldn't.

Do you want the game challenging and rewarding?

Isn't this the same as the previous question? Well, whatever, I already answered that one.

Do you want the game a blatant clone of WoW like Rift is only with Final Fantasy Textures?

Clone? No. Similar? Probably. I want SE to follow the standards (that unfortunately WoW set) of the MMO genre. This means the basics like mounts, AH, custom UI, etc. But I don't want a clone, I want them to add their Final Fantasy twist to it. I want the unique job system, I want a buffer/debuffer to be its own role in battle, I want the FFXI style instance/dungeon content rather than WoW style instances, etc.

Do you want a clone of Tera where precision will be off unless you're on localized servers?

Can we have a thread that doesn't mention Tera? Just one? Please?

[Synapse]

I want it to be like WoW. The community, the battle system, the graphics, the music, the mounts, the pvp, and cool armor and bosses. The level system was good in WoW since it actually required skill rather then leveling off the same monster over and over.

WoW was such a good game. FFXI and FFXIV both are terrible and require no, or very little, skill. That's why WoW had so many more players, who aren't just immature kids like most of the children on these forums.

Basically if I can't get a WoW remake I'll be happy with anything so long as it's storyline doesn't suck as much as FF7's or FF3's (the worst FF's of all time).

Also, like, such as, if Africa could get more maps of the USA and like such as they were more educated than maps such as then like.

I'm dead serious.

I see what you did there.

[AlexiaKidd]

I want a world full of life and varied landscapes.

I want a lively and open community.

I want to be able to have a rich and engaging storyline with high quality cinematics.

I want to be able to group up with people to tackle varied and challenging content.

I want to be able to feel like I can make meaningful progress on my own while short on time.

I want a bustling economy that's easy to locate and find what I am after.

I want side attractions to keep me occupied and just to have fun like a Golden Saucer type thing.

I want to be able to raise and breed Chocobo's and have them take part in races.

I want Job's and Classes that feel different from each other.

I want to have a house to furnish and mount NM trophy kill's

I want to feel a sense of achievement for things that I have accomplished

Most of all I just want to be able to enjoy my time in Eorzea.

[Dubont]

I want FFXI-2 (Pre-Abyssea)

[Burn]

This is what I want from this game.

- Explain to me my purpose, I am an adventurer, there is little adventuring going on, where is the epicness at?

- Make leveling fun, I would like to meet npc's out in the field, learn about them and the conflict facing each area while leveling up, will I make any difference in the land? The game world currently has 0 substance.

- Content for everyone, we should have really hard content that tests the best players, casual content that can easily get groups for.

- Where is the chaos at?

[HappyHimitsu]

I want a world full of life and varied landscapes.

I want a lively and open community.

I want to be able to have a rich and engaging storyline with high quality cinematics.

I want to be able to group up with people to tackle varied and challenging content.

I want to be able to feel like I can make meaningful progress on my own while short on time.

I want a bustling economy that's easy to locate and find what I am after.

I want side attractions to keep me occupied and just to have fun like a Golden Saucer type thing.

I want to be able to raise and breed Chocobo's and have them take part in races.

I want Job's and Classes that feel different from each other.

I want to have a house to furnish and mount NM trophy kill's

I want to feel a sense of achievement for things that I have accomplished

Most of all I just want to be able to enjoy my time in Eorzea.

Here Here!!! This ^^ is everything I think ff should be!

Edit: I just want to clarify that I already think ffxiv IS most of that. Just needs a little rough edges ironed out and that will be done!

[giftforce]

Asking "what do you want?" to a rambling mob and expecting a consistent answer isn't a very logical approach.

Everybody wants something different, so it's no wonder there is such disagreement amongst the masses. You will never get an answer to the question "what do you want?". Just many.

[Venat]

Want it to be FFXI+FFXII+Elder Scrolls

/end

[Seikninkuru]

I want it to be like Ultima Online pre-trammel.

[Chocobits]

I want a world full of life and varied landscapes.

I want a lively and open community.

I want to be able to have a rich and engaging storyline with high quality cinematics.

I want to be able to group up with people to tackle varied and challenging content.

I want to be able to feel like I can make meaningful progress on my own while short on time.

I want a bustling economy that's easy to locate and find what I am after.

I want side attractions to keep me occupied and just to have fun like a Golden Saucer type thing.

I want to be able to raise and breed Chocobo's and have them take part in races.

I want Job's and Classes that feel different from each other.

I want to have a house to furnish and mount NM trophy kill's

I want to feel a sense of achievement for things that I have accomplished

Most of all I just want to be able to enjoy my time in Eorzea.

Very much this. And while I DO want FFXIV to be engaging and memorable in its own right, I feel there are specific elements that can be drawn from FFXI to help bring about balance:

*Improve party targeting and a incorporate flexible command-line macro system to quickly differentiate friend from foe. I think FFXI's targeting system was one of the strongest pulls for me. It was an easy thing to target nearby mobs, or to use the alliance list as a healer to instantly lock onto anyone that needed cures/buffs.

*While the party system has been "locked in" at 8 members, I would like to see an incarnation of FFXI's "alliance" system, where 2 or more parties could join together to fight/provide support, and large scale battles and content that encourages large groupings. The Abyssea leveling system, while not ideal, allowed up to 18 people to form one giant exp group, making it less of a hassle to find specific jobs to fill a slot. Also, the current system in FFXIV encourages micro friend groups, instead of the large flourishing linkshells found in FFXI, because only 8 people can participate in a given task at a time.

*FFXI had a very logical progression of mob difficulty, where the further you ventured from a starting city, the more mobs gradually increased in level. None of this level 3 mobs next to level 30 mobs, with level 90 mobs around the corner crud.

*Expansive maps that do more than just create the illusion of being big, with truly unique scenery. FFXI zones might give a feeling of being repetitive, but they didn't have literally copy-pasta'd areas. Also, this "rat in a maze" style mapping, especially in The Black Shroud is more than annoying; it's game-breaking. You have all these super narrow tunnels to navigate, filled with unreasonably high level aggressive mobs blocking your every path, making low level exploration/questing a chore. Add in the fact that we have zero type of sneak/invisibility spells/abilities/items, and you have a recipe for a lot of frustration.

*Nearly every mob in FFXIV uses ranged attacks of some sort, completing eliminating the usefulness of ranged abilities, spells or techniques, especially those like Gravity and Bind that impair mob movements. For those jobs/spells/abilities to be useful and to create a dynamic and strategically involving gameplay experience, all those mob ranged attacks gotta go.

*FFXI players had eventually figured out exactly where to position their mages/ranged attackers and their tanks/DD to capitalize on terrain/height differences. While I don't want the exact same thing in FFXIV, I WOULD like to see party positioning and distance play a vital role. Currently, the distance required to perform ranged attacks and spells is TOO CLOSE to be safe from area of effect attacks from mobs.

*Battle lag is still a very annoying aspect of FFXIV. Inconsistency between which abilities used back to back go off, the length of time it takes them to go off (causing people to use another ability thinking it didn't register), only to find out that ability DID register and you must wait for it to finish, or having abilities "eaten" by lag so that the recast timer starts but nothing happens and other glitchy/laggy behavior makes battles more of a chore than they need to be. I shudder to think if a "Stun" spell like from FFXI was introduced. By the time you got that stun off (if it ever went off), the battle would be over and/or everyone would be dead! Also, performing a TP move on a mob that's been dead for 5 seconds is always good for a chuckle.

So what I personally want from this game is a smooth flowing battle system that accurately and instantly registers commands entered, visually stimulating backgrounds that aren't repetitive, large scale battles that encourage teamwork from a large number of players, content that caters to both the casual and hardcore player, expansive zones that can be navigated reasonably without near certain death via the use of spells/items to hide your presence from aggressive monsters, challenging and memorable storyline quests/fights, a re-working of the awkward "affinity" system that penalizes spells/abilities equipped from another job, multiple types of transportation including teleport spells, airships, chocobos and other mounts, an option to choose between leve linking and old fashioned party grinding for those that want it (I do like to grind once in awhile) that is conducive to ranking up, abolition of Market Wards and the hyper sub-categorized item searches (although Retainers were a great idea!) in favor of a centralized economy system where items are easily found, and for Twelve's sake, get RID of the battle confirm and error noises, they're the most nightmarishly annoying sounds I've ever heard in my life!

tl;dr version: they got Behest right and everything else needs replacing