New player feedback (AKA reasons why FFXIV has seems troubled keeping newer players)

[Blanchimont]

You mean the gating of going to Ishgard (and therefore the vast majority of Heavensward content) until after finishing the full 2.x storyline? From what I understood, that gating is pretty fundamentally built into the story itself. It's there to stay and has nothing to do with temporary issues surrounding release day.

The gating of content occurs at all levels and not just for the expansion. It causes a lot of problems for new players due to the high number of players at the level cap with fewer people at the lower levels. You must do the story quests in order to unlock some of the dungeons and then beat those dungeons to proceed. I spent nearly 1/3 of the time as a DPS while I was playing the main story up to 50 waiting for there to be enough people in queue to attempt one of the trials or required story dungeons. At some point, I just gave up and started going in queue for other dungeons just to pass the time. On average, I was 10 levels above the story quests until I hit around 46. I caught up due to taking forever to find groups to finish Garuda and Cape Westwind. Luckily, this is not as much of a problem on Tanks or Healers, but it can still take a while to find groups for those.

[Nenithil]

Post incoming, and it will be long as I tried to answer everything from my view as a new player to FFXIV.

Firstly, let me share my MMO "cred" with you: I play three MMOs regularly, and just stopped playing the fourth one because of morality and ethics issues I have with it's company. FFXIV is the MMO that I am newest to, having only started playing it regularly about a week and a half ago. Now that this is out of the way, here's how I personally see your points.

1.GCD is WAY too long.

I quite disagree. Of the three MMOs I am still playing, all three of them have gcd of about 2-3 seconds. The one I dropped happens to be the one with a one-second gcd, and it was so tiring to sit there spamming attacks without really paying attention, because if I looked at my skills even for one moment, someone (usually me) dies. I love the slower starting pace here, because it really allows me to get a feel for my class, as well as adding in skills later so I can get used to the new mechanics those skills bring.

2.There are way too many main story quests. This is mainly an issue due to so much content being gated behind main story quests.

Again, I disagree, even as a newer player. See, I get tired of MMOs where the story quest takes a back seat to... everything else. "Oh, we have this huge threat to deal with! But before that, go over here and clear out a nest of snakes because reasons." Yeah, no thanks. The story SHOULD be the main feature in an MMORPG, and so far, I'm loving it. I just finished helping the sylphs (and oh, my word are they ADORABLE!), and I can't wait to see what my character gets sent to do next. Also, I'm a lorehead, in any game I play, and the story just helps me feel more connected to the world and the other characters and even players as a whole.

3.Tab targeting is atrocious, the worst I have ever seen in any game ever.

I wouldn't say it's the "worst" I've ever seen, but I would agree that it could be refined a bit. However, in the meantime, because of the way tab targeting works, I've found that I am more aware of what's around me, and I often pre-select my targets just to avoid the tab-target issues. For me, this is actually feeling pretty second nature at this point, but I realize that not everyone likes such a workaround, so yes, I would advocate for the tab-targeting to be improved, probably via targeting by distance rather than screen location.

4.Cross class abilities, base class vs job. You only get 5 period, but it's on per 5 levels with base class, one per 10 for job, meaning at 30 when you get your job, you lose two abilities.

Again, I honestly think this is a good thing. I haven't gotten my job yet (obviously), but from the research I've done on it, it looks to me like you learn quite a few new skills when you get an actual job. The restriction of cross-class skills therefore teaches you to A. Prioritize skills that you really want to focus on. and B. Deal with a slew of new skills while having a few familiar ones to fall back on. This is nothing but helpful, as from what I've read, jobs are a bit of a jump in difficulty from your starting class.

5.Cannot send tells/whispers while in a dungeon.

This is one where I just have to ask: What is so important for you to be talking about with someone outside a dungeon, when you're supposed to be focusing on the tasks you need to complete inside it? Personally, there is NOTHING outside a dungeon that I want to be dealing with while I'm in the dungeon, I'm there to help defeat bosses, keep my party members alive, and get nifty items, and I don't like being disturbed by random whispers when I have a job to do. I didn't even know that it wasn't possible to send tells while in dungeons, but I honestly hope they never change that, partly because when I'm outside, I tend to get a lot of gold spammers whispering me, and I still haven't figured out how to report them or make them leave me alone before adding them to my blacklist.

6.The game holds your hand too much, sometimes, and I think that might be a large reason why so much content is gated the way it is. Example? I hate that freaking gate in Gridania and any other place in the game where it assumes you are too stupid to realize you should run away from monsters higher than you rather than fight them.

Honestly, this is where you're missing the point a bit. It's not that the game assumes that you're "stupid". This is part of appealing to people who have never played MMOs before. As hard as it is to believe, some people are coming into this game with no background in any other MMO, and this is a part of teaching them how to deal with things they are probably not used to. I see nothing wrong with it. As far as that goes, I see the three cities as different game comfort levels. Gridania is perfect for fresh, brand-new players. Uldah seems more suited for people with a little experience in MMOs, so medium skill. And Limsa Lominsa seems, to me, to be where the most experienced players should start. I have characters that started in each city, and that's just how it strikes me, personally.

7.Can't join group finder queue with a chocobo companion out.

You yourself already pointed out that this is going to change. I personally think your accusation of "polish being unimportant" is rather uncalled for, as it very well could have been a small oversight, and is well on the way to being fixed.

8.Invisible walls. These are never okay.

I haven't run across any invisible walls that weren't on the far outer edge of whatever map I'm on. Basically, if you're running into invisible walls, you're trying to go somewhere that you shouldn't be, i.e. off the map. They're there to keep your character from dying or getting lost in the code.

9.The reply function is very...clunky.

Again, people have already pointed out that it's not merely "r" to reply, it's "Ctrl+r". However, if that's not working for you, I suggest you go into the keybinds and rebind the reply function, as I've already done with a few things that were irritating me. (I switched the inventory bind with whatever "b" originally was, because I'm more used to hitting "b" for my inventory.)

10.Combo highlights need to be more prominent.

Considering that I'm usually looking at the ground around my character anyway, and that's where I keep my hotbars, I haven't noticed this issue, but I see no reason why they couldn't be made more prominent. Personally, any improvement here, I would like to see as a checkbox "Brighter combo highlights" or something similar, so that players can choose whether or not they'd like to use them. Choice is always good.

11.High level roulette is completely stupid to unlock.

As I haven't gotten here yet, I looked it up, and came to the conclusion that it's the dungeon duty roulette that you're referring to. Honestly, I like the fact that you have to go to each dungeon physically to unlock it. You've already stated an interest in going back and soloing dungeons, well, you'd have to go to them anyway to do that, so why is it bad that you have to find them before doing them at level? Either way, you're hoofing it eventually.

12.Work on the crafting RNG. Or remove it. ...(Yes, I know about Steady Hands. Don't throw that at me, or you're just totally missing my point.)

Firstly, from the crafting I have done so far, the only time I fail seven times in a row is when I'm trying to mass craft something five levels higher than my current skill. (Tried it just to see if I could, I'm odd that way.) And while to you, mentioning Steady Hands is missing the point, I think that you've actually missed the point by dismissing that skill so readily. You see, FFXIV did something I never thought I'd see in a game of any kind: They acknowledged that professions actually require SKILL. It's not just a "set it and forget it" the way it is in so many other games, it actually requires some focus and patience to master. In my personal opinion? That's brilliant.

Example: I sew with beads as a hobby. I didn't just pick it up and start doing that, I had to work with "baby" sewing kits, work my way up to using non-printed cloth, and from there figure out what I wanted to specialize in. Professions in FFXIV are very much like that, you can't just train it and be good to go, you have to work to get better.

13.Housing. There's not enough of it. ... This allows more people to have housing and doesn't more or less force people into guilds for single rooms as opposed to full on houses, due to how finite and limited housing plots are.

Honestly, this is something they're already working on, however, to address your point about "forcing people into guilds", why play an MMO if you don't want to play with other people? As far as the limited number of houses and wards, honestly, I prefer to see it limited in this fashion, rather than have an overabundance of housing leading to half-empty wards such as can be seen in some other MMOs. Housing is a tricky beast, and I like that the wards and plots are limited. I tend to visit them often, going inside every house I can, and saving all my gil to eventually have one of my own. That's my personal endgame content right there.

14.Can't underman dungeons. ...I'm told this one will be changing soon, too. Good to hear, if so.

You've already admitted that this has already been addressed, so bringing it up in spite of that just seems petty. Further, the game rewards you for going through dungeons with new people to them, so why wouldn't you just want to roll through the older dungeons with a group? Seems like a great way to promote cooperative gameplay to me, rather than "bad design".

15.The particle effects are too much.

I can agree that a more intuitive slider or other method could improve this, but I wouldn't consider it a priority in any way. Partly, it's a stylistic choice, due to the fact that FF games have always had these awesome attack animations which work great in a turn-based or pause-combat game, but admittedly can require some fine-tuning for a real-time game like this.

OKAY THE REST OF THESE ARE MOSTLY NITPICKY STYLE RELATED STUFF BUT HERE IT IS

1.Don't really like the art style.

That's personal preference, so there's really nothing I can say to change your mind or discuss this point. You don't like it, I do. I'm sure if we asked twenty other people, we'd get twenty-one different opinions on it. Not much more I can say to that.

2.Character creation in general is very limited, particularly if you're not a huge fan of the art style. Not much I can say about this, only the hope to expand on it over time. More sliders, and make them effective.

Considering one of the sliders in question that you mentioned, you do realize that this game was going for a more realistic look for the characters, rather than an over-the-top look such as you might find in a certain well-known fighting game. (SC for those interested.) The sliders ARE effective, but they have a certain aesthetic that they're going for, and extremes on either end don't fit that aesthetic. This again is going to come back to personal preference though. If you already dislike the art style, the aesthetic choices based around that style aren't going to make you happy either.

3.Can't make a midlander that doesn't look really young or old. This seems like a design oversight. You are either 20 or younger, or you are 50+.

This is nothing but tinfoil theory on my part, but considering that in shows and games from Japan that I've watched and played, that's about how all the characters are, that could just be a subtle nod to that particular trope. I do agree that some minor adjustments on that could help the game, but I'm always big on more choices over fewer.

I'm told that if you only have one IP ever this is less of an issue, and to that I say....Adopt the GW2 method. Verify once per IP, then stop locking me out all the freaking time. I swear I have to verify three times a week because I have poopy internet that bounces between three IPs, and occasionally use my phone to connect (surprising, but it does actually work) which has different IP's too.

This can actually be fixed by YOU rather than by the game designers. I too have internet that usually bounces between IPs, but it is entirely possible to set your IP to "static" so it stops doing that. Sadly, I'm a technical idiot, so my advice to you would be to do what I did: Find or make a friend who is very computer proficient, and have them walk you through fixing your IP so it stops "bouncing" like that.

The glamour system. Unrestrict it significantly. Wanting to achieve a certain look for yourself and your character to me is fundamental in an MMORPG. Particularly in an MMORPG that mandates a monthly payment.

Actually, I'm wondering what monthly subscription MMO you play that doesn't restrict a "glamour" or "transmog" system. The only two I play that allow full clothing customization from the get-go are both "buy-to-play", with optional store models. Every subscription MMO I've played except one had the "glamour" system restricted. Aside from that, the levelling gear in this game is significantly better than in most games I've seen, and you can also craft suites of gear for yourself if you dislike something you found in a dungeon or received from a quest reward.

I really see no harm in keeping the system as is, myself, but at the least, I would not unrestrict it to the point where any level one character can adjust their looks as soon as they're done with the tutorial.

[E-Zekiel]

Post incoming, and it will be long as I tried to answer everything from my view as a new player to FFXIV.

Firstly, let me share my MMO "cred" with you: I play three MMOs regularly, and just stopped playing the fourth one because of morality and ethics issues I have with it's company. FFXIV is the MMO that I am newest to, having only started playing it regularly about a week and a half ago. Now that this is out of the way, here's how I personally see your points.

I'm going to try not to be rude, but some of these points are kinda pretty far gone I just don't know what to say, because in some cases you defend things that there's just not excuse/justification for, in ways that are just senseless to me. Gonna try not to be a dick, but I do have to ask if MMOs are new to you? Because I imagine if you don't have much to compare FFXIV to a lot of this stuff would slide and I guess be largely acceptable. Though for me, personally, if FFXIV was my first MMO I'd probably never play MMOs again because I would have the wrong impression that they're all incredibly slow and dull and restrictive - and I would have based this assessment on the free trial levels 1-20.

I quite disagree. Of the three MMOs I am still playing, all three of them have gcd of about 2-3 seconds. The one I dropped happens to be the one with a one-second gcd, and it was so tiring to sit there spamming attacks without really paying attention, because if I looked at my skills even for one moment, someone (usually me) dies. I love the slower starting pace here, because it really allows me to get a feel for my class, as well as adding in skills later so I can get used to the new mechanics those skills bring.

I'm sorry...You're either blowing smoke or you're new enough that you don't really have a feel for how long GCD's are, or you've found the slowest-paced MMOs in existence and I haven't played the ones you're talking about.

WOW - 1.5 sec. Rift - 1-1.5sec (varies). Aion - 1 sec. Vanguard - 1.5 sec. SWTOR - 1.5 sec. On ascale of 1-2.5 seconds, one whole second has a significant impact on how fast or slow combat feels.

Not to mention, see some of the later posts. This could be alleviated by, like warrior does I recently found out, adding a couple of short-cooldown attacks early on that are off the global cooldown. They don't have to do a ton of damage, just be something to use. Warrior is the only class I've played below 30 that I can say I enjoyed before getting the upgraded class, relative to other MMOs, because I have enough to do and with that 20 second cooldown low-damage stun, it just works.

Again, I disagree, even as a newer player. See, I get tired of MMOs where the story quest takes a back seat to... everything else. "Oh, we have this huge threat to deal with! But before that, go over here and clear out a nest of snakes because reasons." Yeah, no thanks. The story SHOULD be the main feature in an MMORPG, and so far, I'm loving it. I just finished helping the sylphs (and oh, my word are they ADORABLE!), and I can't wait to see what my character gets sent to do next. Also, I'm a lorehead, in any game I play, and the story just helps me feel more connected to the world and the other characters and even players as a whole.

You, like many others, seem to miss my point here and only read what I said selectively. I DON'T MIND STORY. I CAME FROM SWTOR WHICH PRIDES ITSELF ON GREAT STORIES. The difference is you can do the story as you please, at your own pace, what you like, without suffering for it. This game probably about 500-600+ main story quests now with the expansion, and the problem is that content is gated behind these main story quests that include dungeons and raids. I love story. I don't like doing story for a million years to unlock content I want to play with my friends who have had it unlocked for a long time. Sometimes I want to take a break and just kill stuff without feeling like I'm dragging people back.

Again, I honestly think this is a good thing. I haven't gotten my job yet (obviously), but from the research I've done on it, it looks to me like you learn quite a few new skills when you get an actual job. The restriction of cross-class skills therefore teaches you to A. Prioritize skills that you really want to focus on. and B. Deal with a slew of new skills while having a few familiar ones to fall back on. This is nothing but helpful, as from what I've read, jobs are a bit of a jump in difficulty from your starting class.

No, you get one skill per quest. You do not get a plethora of skills just from attaining your job, you generally get one. At least I know this is the case for ninja and paladin. And you miss my point entirely, I used the example of pugilist and lancer skills as ninja. I already had access to these skills. They were compatible with my class - ninja uses pugilist and lancer skills However, because I got ninja, I lost two of them because my cross class ability count went, for dumb reasons, back down to 3 from 5. This was not a compatibility issue, this was just an oh you lose two slots issue. I'm sorry, but there is just no defense for this that makes this in any way a good thing. It can be "okay" or "acceptable" or "something you deal with", but it no way is it ever actually GOOD to simply lose skills for advancing your characters, when that advancement doesn't inherently conflict with the skills you have selected. It's okay to restrict them based on class, but based on level, for advancing in level and with your class, is just plain stupid.

This is one where I just have to ask: What is so important for you to be talking about with someone outside a dungeon, when you're supposed to be focusing on the tasks you need to complete inside it? Personally, there is NOTHING outside a dungeon that I want to be dealing with while I'm in the dungeon, I'm there to help defeat bosses, keep my party members alive, and get nifty items, and I don't like being disturbed by random whispers when I have a job to do. I didn't even know that it wasn't possible to send tells while in dungeons, but I honestly hope they never change that, partly because when I'm outside, I tend to get a lot of gold spammers whispering me, and I still haven't figured out how to report them or make them leave me alone before adding them to my blacklist.

I have friends I like to talk to. I don't just sit in queue and do absolutely nothing else and talk to nobody. Queue pops? Basically it's like I have to temporarily put them on ignore. It's not a matter of how important it is, it's a simple quality-of-life issue. Obviously focus goes on the group, but I type fast, and this is a stupid, obligatory restriction. If YOU don't want to talk during a dungeon, that's fine for YOU. It shouldn't be imposed on everybody doing any dungeon. And if someone in your group is non-funtional because they can't stop talking and it's totally holding the group back, just vote to kick.

[/quote]

Honestly, this is where you're missing the point a bit. It's not that the game assumes that you're "stupid". This is part of appealing to people who have never played MMOs before. As hard as it is to believe, some people are coming into this game with no background in any other MMO, and this is a part of teaching them how to deal with things they are probably not used to. I see nothing wrong with it. As far as that goes, I see the three cities as different game comfort levels. Gridania is perfect for fresh, brand-new players. Uldah seems more suited for people with a little experience in MMOs, so medium skill. And Limsa Lominsa seems, to me, to be where the most experienced players should start. I have characters that started in each city, and that's just how it strikes me, personally.

The idea of having tutorials is supposed to be a medium or compromise on the field between "people new to MMOs" and "veterans who don't need to be treated like children".

These ideas are not mutually exclusive, but this game's setup insists that it is. It's okay to hold hands and assume people don't know what they're doing as long as there's a way to bypass this for people who do not need it.

You yourself already pointed out that this is going to change. I personally think your accusation of "polish being unimportant" is rather uncalled for, as it very well could have been a small oversight, and is well on the way to being fixed.

It's not uncalled for, because there are so many things that essentially lack polish, and I primarily base this on the model of NEW CONTENT NEW CONTENT NEW CONTENT NEW CONTENT FOREVER NEVER GO BACK AND POLISH. I like new content, but sometimes quality of life actually matters, you know.

I haven't run across any invisible walls that weren't on the far outer edge of whatever map I'm on. Basically, if you're running into invisible walls, you're trying to go somewhere that you shouldn't be, i.e. off the map. They're there to keep your character from dying or getting lost in the code.

You're not an explorer type like me then. It's fine to have them on map edges, but as an example, in the Sahagin hideouts, there are so many holes/pools on the beach you have to constantly navigate around that you could easily, plainly and visibly jump right over the top of without any issue, but there are instead invisible walls over them. The same can be said by a number of cliff-faces in the world you can get on top of, that have ground below that you can walk on, but they have invisible walls between them despite the fact both of these are able to be traversed. This usually happens if there's a river between the two cliffs - nevermind the fact the jump could very, very easily be made.

Again, people have already pointed out that it's not merely "r" to reply, it's "Ctrl+r". However, if that's not working for you, I suggest you go into the keybinds and rebind the reply function, as I've already done with a few things that were irritating me. (I switched the inventory bind with whatever "b" originally was, because I'm more used to hitting "b" for my inventory.)

It has nothing to do with the keybind and everything to do with the game responding to hitting the keybind. It doesn't consistently go to the last person to send me a tell when i hit reply. It just doesn't. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes I have to scroll through my list back and forth to find the person I'm trying to reply to. But every time I hit the button, it does in fact bring up my chat window and put it in whisper mode. Just not consistently to the correct person.

Considering that I'm usually looking at the ground around my character anyway, and that's where I keep my hotbars, I haven't noticed this issue, but I see no reason why they couldn't be made more prominent. Personally, any improvement here, I would like to see as a checkbox "Brighter combo highlights" or something similar, so that players can choose whether or not they'd like to use them. Choice is always good.

It's another of those quality of life improvements, with regards to combo highlighting. Later in the game, when you have more accuracy, it's less of a big deal, but earlier in the levels I would rather watch the action, my character, and the AE fields to avoid, than have to glance at my hotbar to confirm that an attack hit and the next hit in the combo is ready. You can also watch for the number instead, but there are enough awkward pauses in combat at the low level as it is.

As I haven't gotten here yet, I looked it up, and came to the conclusion that it's the dungeon duty roulette that you're referring to. Honestly, I like the fact that you have to go to each dungeon physically to unlock it. You've already stated an interest in going back and soloing dungeons, well, you'd have to go to them anyway to do that, so why is it bad that you have to find them before doing them at level? Either way, you're hoofing it eventually.

You miss my point on this, but understandably so because you haven't gotten to it yet. The reason this was, prior to Heavensward, so frustrating to unlock, had nothing to do with having to run the dungeons once to add them to the list. I'm fine with that. What made me so angry was I had to do a million story quests to get to ONE DUNGEON. ONE. OOOOOONNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEE. That was buried ridiculously deep into the main story quest (Snowcloak) relative to everything else on the high level roulette. Almost all of the other dungeons, you could meet their unlock conditions relatively quickly, then it was just a matter of running them. But not Snowcloak. It was gated behind tons of story that I was getting really, really, really burned out on running just to try and unlock the freaking roulette.

Firstly, from the crafting I have done so far, the only time I fail seven times in a row is when I'm trying to mass craft something five levels higher than my current skill. (Tried it just to see if I could, I'm odd that way.) And while to you, mentioning Steady Hands is missing the point, I think that you've actually missed the point by dismissing that skill so readily. You see, FFXIV did something I never thought I'd see in a game of any kind: They acknowledged that professions actually require SKILL. It's not just a "set it and forget it" the way it is in so many other games, it actually requires some focus and patience to master. In my personal opinion? That's brilliant.

I think brilliant is reeeeeeally misleading way to describe crafting in this game, but to be fair to the crafting system, these issues are mainly only an issue when using crafting facilities. If you do the Ixali beast quest series, you'll be more familiar with what exactly I find so annoying.

Honestly, this is something they're already working on, however, to address your point about "forcing people into guilds", why play an MMO if you don't want to play with other people? As far as the limited number of houses and wards, honestly, I prefer to see it limited in this fashion, rather than have an overabundance of housing leading to half-empty wards such as can be seen in some other MMOs. Housing is a tricky beast, and I like that the wards and plots are limited. I tend to visit them often, going inside every house I can, and saving all my gil to eventually have one of my own. That's my personal endgame content right there.

I do play to play with other people. I came here with a group of people. We formed a guild. However every housing plot was taken up. So what does that mean if we want housing? We have to join one of the guilds that already has a plot. I don't know how else to put this. Maybe you have open plots and are on a low population server, but there are exactly zero, all the time, on populated servers. Once in a great while someone will throw up an add to sell one for a significant profit on party finder, but...I hope you can see the issue with that without my having to explain it.

It's cool that you think limitations are cool, but they just...aren't. And they can be done so much better. See: EQ2.

You've already admitted that this has already been addressed, so bringing it up in spite of that just seems petty. Further, the game rewards you for going through dungeons with new people to them, so why wouldn't you just want to roll through the older dungeons with a group? Seems like a great way to promote cooperative gameplay to me, rather than "bad design".

Look at the post date. This was posted before those patch notes were there, and as far as I knew, the change was still a rumor. Anyway, the problem with being unable to underman dungeons isn't because I don't want to play with people - you're looking at it all wrong. In fact you look at all of this wrong in general, because you keep seeing everything as YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT IT THE WAY IT IS INSTEAD OF HAVING OPTIONS. Options are good. Options are great. Options create a more diverse experience. The kind of stuff I'm talking about it like this - let's say I'm on my ninja and I want to go get something for my ninja from a dungeon, and I'm paired with a healer, and I just happen to have tank jewelry. Well, let's say there are also no tanks queueing that night, so I'm just hosed if I want to just run with my healer friend. I don't see why it should be impossible for us to be able to get started as we are, and then if people have "join dungeons in progress" marked, they can join us as we go. Try to expand your viewpoint, because I feel like you keep looking at all these subjects through a funnel instead of thinking of ways to expand the game to have more options and just being better overall for it. :/

On all of the art responses:

Most my my issues with the art style of the game have been alleviated by the inclusion, now, of DX11. It can be made to look grittier, with higher contrast and darker shadows and all that, and it does wonders. I still wish they would expand on character creation a bit though, for the reasons mentioned.

Actually, I'm wondering what monthly subscription MMO you play that doesn't restrict a "glamour" or "transmog" system. The only two I play that allow full clothing customization from the get-go are both "buy-to-play", with optional store models. Every subscription MMO I've played except one had the "glamour" system restricted. Aside from that, the levelling gear in this game is significantly better than in most games I've seen, and you can also craft suites of gear for yourself if you dislike something you found in a dungeon or received from a quest reward.

I really see no harm in keeping the system as is, myself, but at the least, I would not unrestrict it to the point where any level one character can adjust their looks as soon as they're done with the tutorial.

I said "unrestrict it significantly", not entirely, while mentioning I would be okay with unrestricting it entirely too. I wasn't really talking about having access to every armor in the game as soon as you roll your character, I'm talking about this kind of stuff:

There are no hoods for anyone other than mages (so no shady thief types), except for one cowl model, which can't even be glamoured because it's multi-slot.
Bards kept getting better color selections than my ninja did. On the i110 robes for example, the lining of his robe was BRIGHT PURPLE, and there was not one single thing I could do about it. Bards however? Their lining was red. It was the same model, but different colors, and nothing I could do about it because **** me. This kind of stuff is stupid.

I just want to be able to use more stuff with glamour, but it's so restricted that it just doesn't do much for me. Now, there are more armor sets with Heavensward, but a big part of the problem was just that there were not a lot of armor sets. Leveling up from 1-50? There are maybe...Four different armor styles? Then at 50 there were maybe five or six more. So a total of about ten, give or take. To me, that's just not a lot. I like it when games have variety.

As for games without restriction - I don't know why you specify subscription games because there are non-sub games that are even less restricted, but anyway:

EQ2 had appearance slots that were virtually unrestricted. Only thing was you had to be able to equip it. Now, that sounds similar to FF, but here's the thing...in EQ2, just because something isn't *your* stats doesn't mean you can't use it. So maybe there's a mage item or a priest item, it's all int and wisdom, and you're a warrior who focuses on strength and stamina...Well, while you shouldn't "need" on that item, as you don't need it, guess what? You can still equip it, more often than not. On top of that, there are a million non-class-specific armor sets you can buy via coins you get monthly for being subscribed. There are so many. Everything from head-to-toe plate, to cultist robes, to pirate outfits. So while it sounds similar, it is very different in execution because they did not take on the attitude, predominantly, of IT DOESN'T HAVE YOUR STATS ON IT SO YOU CAN'T EQUIP IT, SCREW YOU! But yeah, if you could, for example, equip a pair of cuffed boots that look like pirate boots that are classified as cloth, you could show them over heavy plate gussets. You just had to be able to equip them, and more often than not, you were able to.

GW2 had transmutation which was based on armor class. That, too, might sound similar, but you know what the difference was? Every armor class had 30+ different sets of armor to mix and match. Over three times as much as this game had, per class, at the time of my original post. Even then, the restrictions were sometimes met with a few complaints, though - there were only a few looks for cloth men that didn't look ridiculous or flamboyant, as an example.

SWTOR has several ways of doing this - with moddable gear, you basically find moddable gear you want to wear and put stat mods into them. Basically your gear is your shell, and you just upgrade the stats. This is a great way of doing it. With November's Shadow of Revan expansion in 2014, they also put it appearance slots. They had the same restrictions as EQ2 - you only had to be able to equip it to show it, regardless of armor class.

FFXIV more or less does the "you have to be able to equip it to show it" thing, but the problem is the armor is too restrictive when it comes to who can equip it. More classes should be able to equip more things, but keep those need and greed tags in place so that, for example, a machinist can't roll need on a black mage hat. But they can still roll greed, and if they want, glamour it over their hat. The whole multi-slot restriction needs to go too. WHat about people that want to show their Odin armor (that they can actually equip, just that they can't glamour it)? What about people like me that want to wear their cowl (which can actually be equipped) without being hounded by a stat loss because it can't be glamoured onto single items?

[ShdwBlade]

I lol'd hard at some of Nenithil's remarks. Especially the bit about story taking a backseat to go kill some snakes....Have you PLAYED the MSQ? That's like the whole gripe about there being too many MSQ's, all the main good stuff is bogged down with fetch quests and nonsense.

As to the OP's complaints, a lot of them are valid. Some are just personal preference but the bit about there being too many MSQ's and that all future content is gated behind it is a real issue. 1-50 I feel like the MSQ's are nice, good pacing with a good story (minus the archaic way they speak, good god, sometimes I seriously can't understand what the hell they are trying to say.) and so it flows well for a new player to get to 50 with a pretty epic storyline. However, after the Praetorium big story arc is done it gets STUPID. As many have pointed out, for people who were already 50 it's not bad, you knock out some quests then do your thing for a few months, then knock some more out when they release it. Okay, not bad, have to have new content to keep a game alive. But for new and returning players there are literally 106 MSQ's that must be done before you can enter Heavensward and they are long, and require dungeons and trials to be completed which can take more hours of waiting if you didn't choose a healing/tank class. I just did this because I only had a short amount of time to get it done before HW since i'm a fairly new player and only hit 50 a few weeks ago. 106 quests before you can move on to an expansion is ridiculous. I know alot of you are all, it's about the story, and if you don't like story this isn't the game for you....I do like story, but to gate an expansion behind 106 quests is CRAZY. Especially if you want new players to purchase and pay for your game. The business model is just mind boggling. It'd be like ordering a pizza, but before you can eat it, you have to complete a scavenger hunt of 106 items. Madness is the only description. All they need is an explanatory cutscene for people who want to skip to Heavensward when they hit 50. Anyways, that's my thoughts on it. I like story, but not wanting to be left out at early access and launch, i found myself skipping most of the story just so I could play the expansion I paid for.

[Niwashi]

106 quests before you can move on to an expansion is ridiculous.

No, it's not. If you don't like the first 106 quests, what makes you think you're going to like the next 106 quests any better? Either you like the game enough that you're going to want to play all that content anyway, or you don't like so are unlikely to like Heavensward either. Why are you trying to reach part of a game if it's a game you don't want to actually play?

[Vandril]

No, it's not. If you don't like the first 106 quests, what makes you think you're going to like the next 106 quests any better? Either you like the game enough that you're going to want to play all that content anyway, or you don't like so are unlikely to like Heavensward either. Why are you trying to reach part of a game if it's a game you don't want to actually play?

Just as you can hate a feature of a game but like the game itself enough to continue playing, so too can you hate a game but like a feature of it enough to continue playing. Some people might only like this game for its dungeon/raiding scene. Others might only like it for its PvP. Some may even only like it solely for its questing and solo play. There are as many things to like about a game as there are to hate.

It's obviously plausible that some might like the content that is gated behind quests while hating the quests themselves.

I'm not one of them, but it's worth noting that they exist.

[Kydi]

They perhaps don't frustrating me quite as much as the OP, but I can certainly see the annoyance.


The 2.5s GCD is long compared to other MMOs. Coming from a 1.5s world, the extra second was really noticeable, particularly at lower levels. However, I think in part it is necessary for FFXIV, partly to make life easier for console players. For instance, my level 50 DRG has 24 hot keyed abilities, the majority of which are used regularly in the course of a boss fight. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get around having the next set of abilities bound when I hit 60, but I can imagine a console player will need a little longer to find an ability than a pc player (although speculation) so a longer GCD could be a solution there.

Dungeons being tied to story is also a bit of a pain, particularly the hard modes. I can understand wanting to make sure that everyone experiences the background to a dungeon, but why not make it optional for all Bar the main quest ones. For instance, as soon as you hit the level for the dungeon, it is open in duty finder Derbyshire, but if you want you can find the story quest, complete it and get some extra xp. Having duties outside of the mq gated by a FedEx quest is frustrating, especially if it also then affects which roulette you can do.