If Final Fantasy XIV Had A "Hardcore" Mode Server or Setting

[KageTokage]

When I think "hardcore", I tend to think more of changes that add proper difficulty instead of just making things tedious or depriving the player of fundamental gameplay aspects.

IE, make all avoidable AoEs do five to ten times as much damage to stress to new players that they shouldn't be standing in the orange.

[Driavna]

I love how for some players "hardcore" equal to tedious mechanics instead of any really challenging (and fun) content.

[HiraQin]

Like I already wrote in a similar thread last week,when i have the urge to eat drink and sleep then

I WANT TO POOP too.

If you make it real life,or hardcore like you said,then go all in and not take just some things.Like mentioned above,if we eat and drink we should need to poop too..next step then will be:is the poo affected by the food?bad food=diarrhea?
What if a char needs to poop in a dungeon?
You mentioned a lot of walking too..will we get stronger by walking a lot?Our feet should at least..and our shoes should break faster on the other side.
So much things..

[Ashett]

Hardcore mode, or tedious mode?

Tedious is unknown to everyone in FFXIV. The moment they start fate grinding, spamming PotD, or do a relic quest they are immune.

All this would make this less a "game" and more a chore of a "reality" simulator.

Not bad ideas if going for some kind of extreme realism, but not very good ones either.

The what-ifs are heavily inspired by Fallout New Vegas's "Hardcore" mode, and Fallout 4's Survival difficulty.

[akaneakki]

All this would make this less a "game" and more a chore of a "reality" simulator..

The game being a chore, is already in there. However, yeah those things Op mentioned is really hardcore xD.

Edit: When I think ''hardcore'' I think more strategy gameplay than dancing.

[Zojha]

I love how for some players "hardcore" equal to tedious mechanics instead of any really challenging (and fun) content.

Think of it like this:
When you put a piece on the grind stone, the soft layers quickly erode until only the hard core remains.

[Lilseph]

Few ideas:

* Upon failing a FATE involving a city or an specific area, said zone is now taken/destroyed. No quest giver/vendor NPCs are present until a new event gives you the chance to re-take/rebuild that territory.
* Depending on weather, it now afects your stamina and energy. Rain increases your TP consumption by 20%, heat slowly drains it, stuff like magic weather (umbral wind) affects caster jobs instead, lightning storms have a chance to hit the player and kill them. Etc.
* When your character dies, it dies. You need to create another one.
* As your gear's durability drops, so does your stats. 50% durability = 50% of all its stats.
* Housing now requires monthly taxes or the house is taken by the government.
* The possibility of surviving a long fall is now removed. You'll die inmediatly as you land the floor, no matter if you had aggro or not. The falling distance has been reduced.
* Retainers can now die in ventures.
* Open world PvP is now enabled.
* Overworld monsters can now level up when they kill a playable character. They also do it overtime if not killed.
* Teleport Aetherytes are now removed from the game.
* Mounts now can also be killed by monsters/players/long falls, losing them until you revive them with phoenix down, or any resurrection spell.

[Felis]

some changes to point 5:
self repair will repair the gear to 100%. Repair NPC will cost 200 gil for every repaired %
Dark matter vanish from the game, instead various mats will be used for repair (like walnut wood to repair stuff made of walnut wood)


To create a "hardcore" server some mechanics have just to change how they were in 1.0 ^^
Like a failed materia meld don't just destroy the materia, but also the whole gear

[SilkaN]

Watch how these servers eventually will get shut down because no one cba playing on them.

[Vhailor]

In general, I'd play on this server if it existed. I'd hardly call it "hard-core" though; besides your 11th point, none of this is all that dissimilar from FFXI. We're babied far too much by FFXIV's overly-convenient mechanics, so far as I'm concerned. I'd add in three other requests for a hard-core mode, though, which tie back to FFXI as well:

• Monsters that are at your level should truly feel like the "even matches" that they are. Buff monster stats until this is the case.
• There should be a significant XP penalty for death, including the potential for down-leveling.
• Abilities and spells should have to be earned in some fashion. Bring back the "weapon skill" and "spell skill" attributes, and tie ability gain to those instead of raw character level.

PS - My post isn't intended to be sarcastic. I would vastly prefer to play a version of FFXIV that takes away the guard-rails, so to speak. A version that demands players at least pay attention to what they're doing, and punishes them if they don't. FFXI, pre-Abyssea, generally nailed this feeling for me; demanding of me, but not so frustrating that I wanted to pitch my monitor across the room very often. Bringing these mechanics back into a server or three for FFXIV would do more to ensure my continued subscription than anything I've seen planned for Stormblood thus far.