To those who played FF11...

[Starkbeaumont]

exploration was better in 11.

stuff like the magi gate or the weight plates made the world a more fantasy place compared to 14.

the zone design in general was better and more unique in 11. 14 has a lot of similar designs and half of the zones aren't fully used.

[Skeltal-Bons]

Like many players have said, the world felt dangerous, I'm reminded of when I first started playing, my mother got me into the game when the level cap was 75, and she, like the game, did not hold my hand, she said that if I wanted to team up with her, I had to get to San d'Oria...from my starting city of Bastok.

Needless to say, she was quite surprised to find me there after I had sneaked through everything in between at just level 8, lol

[Cidel]

Reading through a lot of these replies... I agree with pretty much all of them. But the two points I'd like to reaffirm are:


- "Variety of endgame content." This is probably the most important for me. There were more than "just a couple" current activities you could do for your 75* job(s) that, as pointed out, the lockouts on them didn't really limit your endgame options since pretty much all of them felt relevant, diverse and worth doing. You might even have had different linkshells for different events thus more people to interact with. As opposed to here where it mostly just feels like: "okay, new bunch of boss fights! All the new better stuff is here now, so you can stop doing the similar thing from 2 months ago that you no longer need stuff from! But you only get one or two things a week! See you in another 2 months!"

- Gear longevity. This goes hand-in-hand with the above point. If I got/bought something in XI (near or at endgame), I was happy with it because (due to the extreme horizontal progression) I knew I would get a lot of use out of it... For like, say, other endgame content. Whereas in XIV the extreme vertical progression doesn't make gear feel like an accomplishment at all (and I understand that's where they decided to go) because either something of equal strength will come along in about a month and a half or so and take half of the effort, or something better will already be released. So... glamour turns into the true endgame and if I don't like how something looks, I won't bother.


It was a different time and I do agree many ideas and types of content would not work today, but honestly, there are a lot of good concepts that the devs don't have to totally emulate but should consider basing some new content off of.

[Tanathya]

I started FFXI a few expansions in, but I loved how you didn't get baby sat for everything you did.

And this sums it up. It's what people who complain about FFXI point out, basically.

[PatronasCharm]

End-Game Content variety...

Enemy Grinding Choice, so I was leveling a lowbee job and I just wanted to play with it and level up, I didn't want to enter a DNG or Palace of the Dead, and nobody is doing FATEs, I exhausted all the quests already, I just want to kill some enemies and level up!

FFXIV has this thing called: Palace of the Dead, which reminds me of Nyzul Isle, a fun little end-game activity in FFXI

-FFXIV could easily convert that into an End Game activity, perhaps have a lock out like in FFXI, where you could do 3 runs, per I believe 3 days? I forgot what the time gate was.


-Eureka reminds me of Dynamis, especially since its linked to Relic.


They could easily add this content and again have its special Time Gate, Dynamis on release was what, 4 days before you could do it again?


All I'm saying is, FFXI had so many end game activities to do I remember having a Limbus LS (AF+1) (Ultima / Omega parts for what? Unique GEAR), a Dynamis LS, a Sky LS, of course, eventually we had HNMLSes.

Now, the only thing I can see with this is just the design FFXIV has with gear, there's a BIS piece that generally Savage stuff, then below that Tomestones? Then Eureka gear.

• So a way they could slice it is dividing End Game Gear into activities, so Head and Feet drop off this End Game Activity, has a time gate.
  
• Hands and Legs drop of this end game activity
  
• Body piece drops of this End Game Activity
  
• Weapon drops off this End Game Activity
  
• Then have the Hard Core Savage stuff

Idk, I'm no gamer designer, I just enjoy doing things and being productive when I play an MMO, and some of the end game stuff I just can't get into, like Savage Raids, I did enjoy Eureka though!

[Justuas]

In XIV pretty much everyone wears the same gear because the gear system is so simple-minded. That's not the case in XI which I like.

[Mysticales]

Uniqueness of the races.
Communication with other people.

I really think this right here sums it up. Races... In XIV.. they really DONT feel unique from one another.. in XI.. Each race and city they lived in.. seemed to have a certain style to them.
We "used" to see some differences in ARR quests with Lalafels. But come SB... not really.

Communication, yea.. a server was a home. People knew who to look for, band up with to get something done.

I miss seeing the player bazaars too. It helped encourage to be in a social area.

I miss "proper" spells too.. Comon.. Summoners.. dont even really summon much of anything... White Mages... we "stone" people... comon.. where is my Banish and Dia light based spells...

I love the graphics of XIV, but I miss the lore, the music, and quite a few other things of XI.. wish they would just give us a city from XI to visit.. that would keep many of us happy I think.

[Mokkabron]

Eureka

It was suppose to be the XI experience but they didnt even get close.

Also XI gave us new content every new update. XIV has been using the same content since 2.0

[Gemina]

In XIV pretty much everyone wears the same gear because the gear system is so simple-minded. That's not the case in XI which I like.

Only time I see people walking around in the same gear, is when something new is released in the cash shop. Seriously I don't know where this comes from. I'm not sure how XI is now, but when I played it you had very specific sets of gear and little to chose from. The glamour system did not exist, and many endgame items could be acquired before actually getting there because of the way that system worked. Again, I don't know how it works now, but as I remember it, it was vastly inferior to XIV as far as choices and diversity amongst players go.

If you're griping because you see 3-4 peeps with the same body piece you just acquired, I can understand how that might pluck a nose hair. But that doesn't have to do with the system being simple-minded, it has to do with 3-4 peeps liking the same body piece you do. They will still very likely glam the other pieces of their gear differently than you, and thus they are not a mirror copy of your avatar.

[RethDaron]

Pet jobs.
World building.
Endgame up until the last level cap raise.

I still spend more time in XI on a monthly basis than XIV.