My suggestions to improve FFXIV

[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.