My suggestions to improve FFXIV

[MelnaMilos]

Preface
I want to direct this primarily to the devs, with the hope that someone from the NA Square team could pass it to the JP team, so that these suggestions could actually have a chance to make it into the game. Hopefully some of these suggestions seem doable, or others want them as I do. I'm skeptical that the JP devs will ever see any of this though, and I am going to prematurely assume that some of my ideas either cannot be done, or will be unpopular, due to the fact that a lot of the game is already built around it's current principals, while others are based off older school MMO principals, that many hated during 1.0 or XI. -- Yes, Im one of those in the minority that thought 1.0 was cooler, and I fully recognize that many of you do not like it, you can tear me a new asshole if you want to, I anticipate this. I think there was some elements that 1.0 had that were good things, and could be transferred over to our current version.

I also heard that there is talk of a major graphical overhaul that is possibly on the horizon, and I felt that, if that is true, it would be a good time to add additions into the game. So anyway, here's my list. Feel free to discuss them, tear them apart, and maybe if I'm lucky, maybe a dev will see it, and think it's a good idea.

Graphical or Aesthetic Suggestions
These suggestions are things that could be added into the game in an effort to make it more immersive or feel better. They don't affect core gameplay, and are merely there for looks, due to that, it's probably the part of my suggestions that will be least debated.

Mount Improvements
In XI, the animations for getting on or off a chocobo clearly had more time and effort put into them. When you have your companion chocobo deployed with you, I'd like to see my character hop onto the mount after I have selected the mount option, instead of the current process of you and your chocobo disappearing, and reappearing as mounted. An example of this is another MMO Archeage, your mounts would follow you around, and you could run up and just hop onto them, or even call them over and hop on. I have included a video showcasing what such an animation could look like below. I feel this addition would do more to get you even more immersed in the world.
>> https://youtu.be/Apb_WGd0__c?t=79 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Also, calling a chocobo should have some more animations as well. Currently you blow a whistle, then wait for a little meter to charge, before appearing on the top of a chocobo. I feel like this meter could be replaced with a chocobo riding in from off screen and your character hopping on the saddle, instead of just standing there after blowing the whistle. Again, because this would be more immersive, and the opposite happening for dismounting. In XI, when you would get off your chocobo, it would ride off until it was out of view, here's a video showcasing this sequence below.
>> https://youtu.be/dCG8_bMu4yA?t=220 <<

My last suggestion for mounts; Why do we have to get off mounts to speak to NPCs? I feel this is kinda silly and interrupts gameplay flow. Is there a technical or balance reason for this that I am not privy to? I'd really like to see that done away with.

Small aesthetic additions and polish

Logging in and out of the game
I like the cool teleporting effect that occurs when using the Aethernet to travel from place to place. I feel like that same effect could occur when logging into, or out of the game. Sure, Its ultimately pointless, but I think it’d make me feel more connected to the world, like I was transported from the real world, into the game world when logging in. You could even include a message to nearby players that says something like “Tifa Lockhart has appeared in our realm” instead of “Tifa Lockhart has logged in”. This is just to add some more immersion.

User Interface is sorta boring
I want to say I thought 1.0’s interface was more appealing to look at it, it’s font, sounds, buttons, even the title screens and general theme of it looked better. The traditional blue and white final fantasy text boxes were great. I’d like to see those elements come back without having the horribly clunky menus and counter intuitiveness that 1.0 had. To clarify; Just that look and feel, and not it’s problems. The current user interface is just sorta...bland and boring, it doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy game. XI and 1.0’s UI and sounds had an aesthetic that was just better, and more inspired. Atleast... in my opinion. I think we should keep the current interface, just reskin it to be more like 1.0’s.


More Interface ranting
This is related to the user interface, but the scrolling text is another thing I’d like to bring back. XI, and 1.0 had text that slowly moved upwards when text was entered in chat. This looks more polished, and is easier on the eyes to follow. I feel this should return.

Sounds
In XI and 1.0 player’s footsteps changed depending on what they were wearing, and what they were stepping on. This is a petty request, but I’d like to see that return. Yes. I'm aware its in the game, but its only to an extent. If you listen closely to this video, you can see how footfalls change depending on the ground you’re stepping on. Snow crunches, dirt crumbles, grass sounds soft.
>> https://youtu.be/J5lV0t5t3E0?t=1903 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Animations
The animations in 1.0 were more fluid, more expressive, just overall -- better. I’d really like to see these make a return with a graphical overhaul. I think we can all agree to this.
>> https://youtu.be/8yx6GAnC9K4?t=542 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Battle effects and animations
In the current game, animations are overly flashy, with blinding effects to them. When fighting a boss or participating in PVP, you can hardly tell what in the seven hells is going on. I am aware you can turn them off in the menus, which I often do, but there’s something that’s nice, simple, fluid, and flows better with the 1.0 battle animations. I can actually tell what's going on, and what I'm hitting. -- This is probably going to be a very subjective opinion. I am very well aware that people playing current XIV do not want to go back to those animations, as they found them slow, and less impactful. I'm also aware that the current generation of gamers enjoy these flashy effects and overly done animations. I think the problems stemmed from 1.0’s combat system, rather than the animations and effects. Maybe I'm just old, but I think there's just something nice and subtle about them that appeals to me more, plus it helps that I can actually tell what's going on, rather than flailing around like a superhero with sparkly effects flying off my blade that take up half the screen.

Before I get a bunch of angry comments about how noone wants the old combat back, Im not saying to bring back the old clunky slow combat. Hear me out, take another look at the combat here, forget the combat system for a moment, and study just the animations and effects when attacking only. Don't they look alot better with less chaos flying all over the screen? Maybe if they were a little faster and edited to be a bit more impactful, would they be better? I think so. I'm curious of your opinions.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JF4QMVTuSA <<

Seasons
I love the immersive weather in XIV currently. You know what would be neat? Seasons. It’d be so cool to see it snow in one part of hydaelyn, while it's summer time in another part, that change in real seasonal time, and put up relevant decorations in the towns to fit that season.

Day and Night
Back in the day, WoW used to have day and night that matched real time. I’d like to see the day and night actually last to a real time of day and night. Why? Because it’s immersive and makes you feel like you’re living in a living breathing world.Also, you could do cool stuff like making undead mobs harder at night, or certain world bosses appearing during certain day times. -- I recognize that there is potential game problems with that, like some players not having time to do certain content with jobs or kids, or that a player who can only play during night time, may grow tired of seeing night in game. I’d still like to see this regardless, as WoW has been doing it for years and it’s just something that people have gotten used to. This is also a change that affects gameplay, and I'll get into that subject deeper in my suggestions.

Environmental noise and background fluff
1.0 used to have birds and airships flying around in the air, creatures on the ground, just general stuff that made the world feel more like a world. I’d like to see this make a return. For immersion sake. Can you tell I like my world immersive yet?


Graphical enhancements
1.0’s graphics were debatably better. We can all agree. They were more colorful, crisp and vibrant. They just were. When 2.0 they were toned down to be more optimized. For good too, because I read a single plant in 1.0 had more polys than a human character and even lowered framerates. Now I'm not advocating that we bring back such poor design choices like that, but with a graphical overhaul possibly on the horizon, and Square no longer having to ensure the game has to run on PS3 anymore, plus computers being more powerful now, we can finally have some better graphics we were meant to have, optimized a lot better this time around, no?



Cosmetics with glasses and hats
I feel like glamorous should be split up into 2 parts, Lower head and upper head, so things like glasses or masks could be worn in conjunction with a hat. This may be a challenge for the dev team, but with a potential graphical overhaul on the horizon...why not go for it while they in there correcting things to begin with?

Monster stuff
Back in FFXI, when there was a large monster walking near, their foot falls would shake and rumble the screen. I want to see that back...It was just plain cool and made the big enemies scarier, and theres really no good reason not to have it. Here a small sample of a monster stomping about
>> https://youtu.be/p6A4LaFX7K4?t=483 <<



Gameplay Suggestions
The following are things my suggestions that could greatly affect gameplay, and where probably the most contention from fans may come into play. I suspect there will be people who hate or love these ideas. Probably hate, but hear me out.

We need more open world group content
I feel like this game is more of a single player JRPG, rather than a MMORPG, this deeply bothers me. While I don't want to remove any of the story elements or take anything away from this game, as I feel it’s a great game, I really just would like to see some content that involves me partying up with people, making friends and going on adventures for hours. I played with my mate, and we kept having to stop, and run off in different directions to go complete instanced content only meant for one person. This deeply annoyed us. I don't mind instanced content, but there should be an equal amount of group content, and Im not just talking about instances like raids and such. I mean more open world activities for parties, like Eureka, and treasure hunts and fates. Easily some of my favorite content, this segways into my next point...

Dangerous World
The world needs to be dangerous again. I normally just run past tons of enemies that give up chase quickly and hardly even threaten me at all. I can whip like 4 - 6 high level dragon enemies with hardly even thinking or trying. Not even some of the bounty board hunt “notorious monsters” are anything but a damage sponge. I want to feel challenged, with dangerous monsters that will give chase and actually pose a threat. I want to have to ask for help from other players to take some of them down to get past them, I love interacting with the community to tackle stuff...ya know….LIKE A MMO. Other than savage raids, the game is just too easy.

Back in FFXI, the monsters had multiple ways of detecting you, some of them could see you, others could hear you, and something that was super cool, was that they could smell you. Monsters could lock onto your trail and ambush you later when you think you are safe. Some monsters in FFXIV 1.0 had traits, and would run away in fear, making you have to give chase and possibly aggro some of his friends. Some monsters were social and would attack you if you attack it’s friends.

I’d love to see super dangerous boss type monsters that roam freely and threaten people more often than we do. I loved Notorious monsters in FFXI. Notorious mobs are important and help. Here's a video detailing their importance.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsDv5TcMRfc <<

Yes, I realize that elements like this may just come off as plain annoying to some players, but to me...these things just immerse me in the world, and make me feel like I am accomplishing something, going on a satisfying adventure through a dangerous world, going through failure, makes me feel awesome when I actually pull stuff off. Being one of the people that found the way to slay that epic dragon in a MMORPG back in the day made you a hero.

PVP
PVP is fine mostly. I just wish it was given more love. I’d like an open world combat zone where PVP or even a castle siege or territory war scenario could be played in some persistent ongoing war., rather than just some battlegrounds. I know, I know...Almost noone in the community wants this, because PVP is generally toxic. However I think I may have come up with a solution; ESO has a zone called Cyrodiil where players could do this, and it was completely optional. Players didn't have to quest in there, or go in there if they didn't want to. This same idea could be applied to FFXIV. There's plenty of uncovered map to make such a zone, and we could make this a completely optional zone, so PVP nuts could go bonkers in there all day without disturbing the PVE players one bit.

If I had to complain about one other thing with PVP, it would be the fact that I hate how all the gear is scaled to be equal, if I get a super awesome death sword, I’d like to be able to use that to destroy people. But I have come to terms with the fact that this game is not really set up for PVP and that this was the only way to ensure balanced PVP happens. I’d prefer it wasn't that way and a different solution could be found, but I'm not super fussed over it.

Bigger zones
In FFXIV 1.0 we had a massive non-instanced world. Current FFXIV feels so tiny, like even smaller than much older MMOs do. If I had to pick any one of my suggestions, it would be this one. Square, Please, PLEASE; Make FFXIV big again. My jaw was on the floor when I logged into 1.0 and saw how expansive the zones and world were. I loved how you could get lost adventuring around, and that there was even non-instanced dungeons and caves you could explore, filled with enemies, scattered around the maps. When this was taken away in 2.0, my heart sunk. -- I know. It was an optimization nightmare back then, and it had to be toned down, but I feel alot of those problems were issues from having to ensure the game, at the time, ran on the PS3. (not to mention, the game was using not very optimized models and assets.) Please bring this back. It’s just so cool. I feel with proper optimization we have now, that a larger scale world is much more possible. I love exploration, I love huge open worlds, Im sure others do, and this doesn’t really break too much of the games core features ...so why not give it another shot? Just look at how cool this is! It’s impressive, you have to admit.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yx6GAnC9K4&t=542s <<

I know that there may be a few complaints with this, some people don't want to spend hours trying to trek somewhere, but with the aethernet teleportation points, and chocobos, I think it’d work out really well! Also, if Square is still worried about optimization, we can still have instanced towns, I just want the adventuring world zones to be large and expansive again with exploration in mind and open world events in mind, like in the video above.

Non-linear dungeons
I think only the story dungeons make sense to play linearly, as they are relevant to the MSQs, and the hero of light stuff, but...can we have some more dungeons that parties can tackle that aren't on a rail as well? I really like the concept of the Heaven on High and Palace of the Dead dungeons, more rogue-like stuff, with randomized enemies, and treasures to be found. With my previous point about expanding the world to be massive, I could envision having some dungeons that just sit out in the open that people can run into and spend time inside getting cool loot, cosmetics, and EXP from. I remember in Ragnarok Online, dungeons were open, you just ran inside, nothing was on a rail, there was no structure, enemies roamed randomly and dropped loot if you were lucky. There were hard and you never knew what you were in for.
>> https://youtu.be/l_TEB9T9Tdc?t=47 <<

Attributes, Stats, Skills, Customization
What happened to the character customization? You used to be able to select your stats, mix some classes together to create interesting skill trees, and customize your characters with elemental resistances or endowments to tackle enemies quicker. Why is that gone? It's like the devs only want you to play a certain way, and fuck you if you want to go off that rail. Everytime I pick up FFXIV, it’s become more and more restricted, and we’re forced more into a mold. I hate that. FFXI was a sandbox and let you try all sorts of stuff just to see what worked. Maybe Im old school, but I prefer being in complete control of my character.

Squads and NPC allies
I HATE the concept of these NPC party members. I hated the Trusts in FFXI too. I think this does nothing but make the game even more anti-social. The founding principal of any Final Fantasy game is the party dynamic. I feel we should be stepping towards more content that forms bonds and people to come together to tackle together and actually interact with one another. I hardly see anyone in dungeons say anything other than “hey” these days. I can see the use for these NPCs if someone doesn't have alot of friends, time, or a guild, but ...uhg….this is such a bad concept for a MMORPG.

Conclusion.

I know my ideas may not be necessary. Some are just merely aesthetic, while others aren’t important in the slightest. I also recognize my ideas are not popular with alot of people. However. I feel what I have suggested doesn't interrupt what we have with FFXIV currently, and can merely be added onto the game. We can appeal to both types of gamers. Why cater to one or the other, when you can cater to both? Clearly there is a market for this older school stuff. People still play and pay for FFXI. WoW Classic is a big success. Even the concept of Eureka was to pay tribute to the concepts XI had, Some people hated it, others love Eureka. I feel more of the open world should work like Eureka personally. Newer kick starter MMOs, like Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, are vowing to bring back to social aspects and difficulty to the MMORPG genre. I'm personally tired of playing games that hand things to me on a silver platter and lock me into decisions. I’d love to see some of these elements I suggested make it into the game.

Early in 2.0’s development, they publicly said “Never back down, Always aim to amaze”
I'm sure that if Square put some of these suggestions in, it would appeal to even more people. The old school crowd that enjoys them, and the new crowd that enjoys FFXIV the way it is, as most of these suggestions don’t interfere too much with the current game. Merely add upon it. I did my best to sit and think of these suggestions carefully, mostly to ensure these ideas, if implemented, don't interfere with the game that we have currently too much, if at all, so as not to disturb the crowd that loves it.

[Jybril]

You can bypass text limit by editing the first post.

[MelnaMilos]

Thanks so much!

[Schan]

you are... nitpicking over some really minute things in this game o.o

an animation when you log off? really?

i'll edit this later to add more stuff once i have more time.

EDIT:

Mount Improvements
In XI, the animations for getting on or off a chocobo clearly had more time and effort put into them. When you have your companion chocobo deployed with you, I'd like to see my character hop onto the mount after I have selected the mount option, instead of the current process of you and your chocobo disappearing, and reappearing as mounted.

You are technically doing something while the bar is filling up. You're whistling. Now if you mean a different animation... I don't really care.
How would having an animation interact with getting off though? there's no cast time for getting off your mount. No delay. As much as I dislike the hyper efficient people I feel having an animation to get off would impact people's efficiency. It's more from a time management kind of thing. those 2 seconds add up. If you have limited time to play or you're rushing to get to a gathering node on time that dismounting animation will be seen as an incovenience more than anything by others.

In XI, when you would get off your chocobo, it would ride off until it was out of view,

Same thing happens in XIV. It just fades a bit earlier.

My last suggestion for mounts; Why do we have to get off mounts to speak to NPCs? I feel this is kinda silly and interrupts gameplay flow.

I think they were working on this? I think it was mentioned before, but regardless if you weren't forced to dismount people with fat mounts would be covering the NPCs. I find annoying that I have to dismount but I can live with it because the alternative is so much worse. I take this minor incovenience on myself over causing trouble to others and since this is the internet I can tell you people will sit their fat mounts on the NPCs if they can.

Logging in and out of the game
I like the cool teleporting effect that occurs when using the Aethernet to travel from place to place.

I log in and out at the inn more often than not. I like the idea that my character gets some rest while i'm not there better than disappearing into the void. Also if you look at other people when they log out i think you do see the aethernet animation.

More Interface ranting
This is related to the user interface, but the scrolling text is another thing I’d like to bring back. XI, and 1.0 had text that slowly moved upwards when text was entered in chat. This looks more polished, and is easier on the eyes to follow. I feel this should return.

I can get behind that.

Sounds
In XI and 1.0 player’s footsteps changed depending on what they were wearing, and what they were stepping on. This is a petty request, but I’d like to see that return.

Okay... I think this would be in the backburner for ages since there are other things that are more important than this. It depends on how it's done. I have games where I hate walking over certain surfaces because the sound effect is so obnoxious. This is a double edged sword.

Animations
The animations in 1.0 were more fluid, more expressive, just overall -- better.

I don't know... I didn't really like what I saw in that video but i could be because the combat is so slow. I don't mean speed is quality mind you. I don't see much difference other than currently it's flashier. I personally find it more annoying that the awesome animations we have is more often than not hidden by a diahorrea of christmas lights. Go sit on gpose and turn the christmas lights off. The animations are pretty neat more often than not. Basically this:

Battle effects and animations
In the current game, animations are overly flashy, with blinding effects to them.

Day and Night
Back in the day, WoW used to have day and night that matched real time. I’d like to see the day and night actually last to a real time of day and night. (...)Also, you could do cool stuff like making undead mobs harder at night,

No. I don't unerstand how is it less immersive to play a game where days fly by faster than real life? The day-night cycle is still there. it just moves faster.
Regarding the mobs, Black Desert has that for every monster. I don't find it immersive at all. More of an annoyance since they also give more exp so if you are a slave to efficiency you will grind at night. However it's not like we kill overworld mobs for experience here anyway so I don't really see the point of this.

Environmental noise and background fluff
1.0 used to have birds and airships flying around in the air, creatures on the ground, just general stuff that made the world feel more like a world.

We at least kept some of the birds, but funnily enough you will notice them more in dungeons and raids.

1.0’s graphics were debatably better. We can all agree. They were more colorful, crisp and vibrant. They just were. When 2.0 they were toned down to be more optimized.

You either pick optimization or epic graphics. You can't have both. Not everyone has a recent laptop. How would that affect people who play on older laptops? If you were a business would you be willing to sacrifice accessibility for prettier graphics? I can tell you that accessibility gives you more money. pretty graphics probably won't. I think they did a great job at finding a middle ground and I feel the game is probably one of the best optimized games out there. The graphics aren't rubbish and it's not making my laptop scream at me.

Cosmetics with glasses and hats
I feel like glamorous should be split up into 2 parts, Lower head and upper head, so things like glasses or masks could be worn in conjunction with a hat

That would be neat but I feel it would be so much work for the devs when there are other things tht are more important. Also i'm pretty sure the Viera and Hrothgar would be pissed off if they prioritized this over enabling them to wear more hats.

Monster stuff
Back in FFXI, when there was a large monster walking near, their foot falls would shake and rumble the screen.

Eh... it would be a cool touch at first but i wouldn't be surprised if people found it annoying after a while. How big would they qualify to trigger that? Because the overworld ones aren't that big (and thank goodness because i'm getting really fed up of fighting sky scrappers)

We need more open world group content
I feel like this game is more of a single player JRPG, rather than a MMORPG, this deeply bothers me.

I wouldn't mind if they tried again... just no more eureka please. On the other hand i don't know how they would deviate from Eureka.

Dangerous World
The world needs to be dangerous again. I normally just run past tons of enemies that give up chase quickly and hardly even threaten me at all.

“notorious monsters” are anything but a damage sponge

i don't know... we are the warrior of light... it's a shame that things aren't threatening but at the same time we are a "god" slayer. I don't think a squirrel has much chance against that.

About notorious monsters I wish they had a bit more mechanics to them. they are indeed sponges hich is kinda sad.

With that said there's a fate I have yet to finish because they will all aggro you, you need people but because it is old content no one wants to do it. That basically means I have no chance of ever doing that fate since it requires more than a couple of people and I can't gather that many people to help me. This type of things can potentially lock you out of stuff you want to do.

PVP
PVP is fine mostly

I just wish it was given more love.

PvP and fine shouldn't be used in the same sentence imo and yes it definetely needs more love. I actually enjoy it despite its severe shortcomings.

If I had to complain about one other thing with PVP, it would be the fact that I hate how all the gear is scaled to be equal, if I get a super awesome death sword, I’d like to be able to use that to destroy people.

This depends on your type of mentality when it comes to pvp. Do you want to win because you outgear people or because you've outskilled them? I fall on the second one so I don't care if everyone has the same stats regardless of gear. If you rule out gear it becomes a match of skill and strategy. Some people like that, others don't.

Bigger zones
In FFXIV 1.0 we had a massive non-instanced world. Current FFXIV feels so tiny, like even smaller than much older MMOs do. If I had to pick any one of my suggestions, it would be this one. Square, Please, PLEASE; Make FFXIV big again.

I don't know... As someone who is playing Tales of Berseria the moment the areas became huge they became annoying. They paced it incredibly well and shortly i started hitting those areas they did give you something for you to travel faster but it still feels sooooooo slooooow. I would like to play the game not spend most of my time going from point A to B. Also i'm not keeping my faith up that they will be able to fill up those massive areas with stuff unless they pump a massive ammount of time and resources into it... which then I will consume in 30 minutes that is if i even pay attention to it...
With that said I wish Diadem did cave exploring better. It was just tunnel with a couple of monsters and no awesome things to discover... =_=

Non-linear dungeons
I think only the story dungeons make sense to play linearly, as they are relevant to the MSQs, and the hero of light stuff, but...can we have some more dungeons that parties can tackle that aren't on a rail as well?

Here we go again xD
No. The dungeons are the way they are due to feedback. You still have non-linear dungeons in FFXIV. They are the most hated ones. On top of that how many people have taken toto-rak's other route? I can probably count on one hand how often I took the other route and that's because I was the tank and I made them take a different route. People will find the most efficient route and that will become the only route. That is how gamers operate. The majority of gamers prize efficiency which in turn it becomes very annoying because we can get to this extreme where only the absolute best is viable when in fact you can get stuff done with less efficient means. They just won't accept it and then you have other people blocking you from doing what you want to do because you can't do it without them. Great. This will not foster positive things within the community.

I really like the concept of the Heaven on High and Palace of the Dead dungeons, more rogue-like stuff, with randomized enemies, and treasures to be found. With my previous point about expanding the world to be massive, I could envision having some dungeons that just sit out in the open that people can run into and spend time inside getting cool loot, cosmetics, and EXP from. I remember in Ragnarok Online, dungeons were open, you just ran inside, nothing was on a rail, there was no structure, enemies roamed randomly and dropped loot if you were lucky. There were hard and you never knew what you were in for.

So tell me... how are you creating a randomized dungeon if it's in an open zone without a loading time? You can't have both at the same time. You will need a loading screen for the game to generate a randomized area.

Oh yes Ragnarok Online. You could also teleport around the map with a specific card or stack of items. This also brings the Sphinx to mind where you literally only have 1 path to reach the next level because... mazes. You teleported in on point A and the deeper level of th dungeon was on point B. It was on a rail. You just had the freedom to not go in and just roam that level but if you wanted to go to the next level you needed to go to point B. You didn't have alternatives to point B more often than not.

Attributes, Stats, Skills, Customization
What happened to the character customization? You used to be able to select your stats, mix some classes together to create interesting skill trees, and customize your characters with elemental resistances or endowments to tackle enemies quicker. Why is that gone? It's like the devs only want you to play a certain way, and fuck you if you want to go off that rail. Everytime I pick up FFXIV, it’s become more and more restricted, and we’re forced more into a mold. I hate that. FFXI was a sandbox and let you try all sorts of stuff just to see what worked. Maybe Im old school, but I prefer being in complete control of my character.

I do wonder if you're wearing nostalgia glasses here. Yes you could make your own builds... yes you could do your own skill tree but the community itself would shun you if you didn't have "the right build". You couldn't kill the valkyrie without certain skills in Ragnarok online.
Sure hindsight Sage was fun but you would get destroyed in harder content because you don't have the required skill to survive / help the party survive so people wouldn't want you and if you wanted to get the right skills? you had to start a new character.
FFXI was pretty much the same. People demanded certain jobs to do certain content and if you wanted to progress you needed other people so how can you progress when others shun you because you decided to "have fun" which in their perspective is the same as "wasting their time" because you're not efficient?

Squads and NPC allies
I HATE the concept of these NPC party members.

I don't mind them. I don't use them but i see how they are useful. People are different. There are a lot of people with mental health issues that play games. yes socializing would help them but it's a double edge sword and the internet has its share of bad apples that could potentially hurt them a lot.
NPC party member provide people a judgement free environment where you can do your thing at your own pace, get some confidence and then go out there into the world. Some people will only cling to the NPCS and treat the game as a single player game and that kinda makes me sad but it's their journey. I'm not here to shove them into things they feel they are not ready for and they like this game so wo am i to judge. I personally only use the duty finder. Even over my friends. Who knows what's around the corner?

Conclusion.
I feel what I have suggested doesn't interrupt what we have with FFXIV currently, and can merely be added onto the game. We can appeal to both types of gamers. Why cater to one or the other, when you can cater to both?

Because there is a finite amount of time and resources and choices have to be made. You can't have the cake and eat it too.

[MelnaMilos]

you are... nitpicking over some really minute things in this game o.o

an animation when you log off? really?

i'll edit this later to add more stuff once i have more time.

I know, I know. It's very silly and minor. I acknowledge this. I am just sharing some ideas on how to add some more polish to things Im very passionate over. I do not want this to come off as "FFXIV is bad and we should just make everything like 1.0 again." and I don't want this to come off as "complaints", but rather, suggestions and potential ideas. Im very grateful to have what we have. I think it's fantastic.

To clarify what I was speaking about with logging in and out. I included a clip of another MMORPG, I fast forwarded it to the spot I wanted to showcase, in the left side of the screen, you can see a player appearing in a glow of blue light with a little sound effect. That player was logging into the game. I always thought that was neat. We already have animations for teleporting around the world in XIV, the devs could simply add that effect to logging in and out, without having to come up with new assets. But yes. It's not needed in the slightest.
>> https://youtu.be/s_H4xcnxbo0?t=617 <<

[linay]

I’d like to see the day and night actually last to a real time of day and night.

That would hinder gathering.

[MelnaMilos]

That would hinder gathering.

Thats a good point! Thanks for pointing that out to me.
If such a day and night system were implemented, they could adjust stuff, but for a aesthetic addition? probably not worth it.

[Ruinfeild]

I did a quick skim and from what I did see it was 'make it more like FF11 and 1.0'

[MelnaMilos]

I did a quick skim and from what I did see it was 'make it more like FF11 and 1.0'

more of, "hey, FFXIV 1.0 actually did had some good things about it, can we take some of the good stuff and give it to 14?"
There is a market for it and alot of people that want these things. I mean, there's a 1.0 private server in the works for a reason, and people who still play and enjoy XI. If we can have content that will satisfy both sides of the opinion, rather than one or the other, isn't that better?

[dinnertime]

Most of these suggestions are just aesthetics. Some are good but not really necessary.

For the combat animations, I don't think the more fluid animations of 1.0 will work with the current combat system because it functions with a 2.5 second GCD, so they have to be pretty fast or else we'll suffer clunky animation locks. It can be less flashy but I think most people prefer the flashiness of the combat.

I kind of agree with the zones. If you ignore 1.0's copy-pasted terrain/settlements and barren-ness, the world was more relevant...mostly because you level up via leves or behests than instanced dungeons like it is now. It had a sense of danger and there's a sense of adventure and discovery about it. Even the monsters have a unique AI that made them react differently instead of bule = neutral, red = hostile like it is today. Although I like how ARR areas look more than any other version, I wish they were more expansive and relevant.