My suggestions to improve FFXIV

[Krotoan]

Lemme ask, would you enjoy the larger zones for example?

I don't feel they'd add anymore to the game for me. As it is now it takes a fair amount of time even with flying if I need to get from one side of the map to the other. Progression on the maps during initial exploration takes a significant chunk of the time since you are not only limited by ground mount speed but map geometry. ... I don't feel like the maps are "tiny" like you do . They feel appropriate and since I don't know what we would have to sacrifice to make them expansive (every change will have a price, the technology is not unlimited) I do not have a need for unnecessary additions.

Also, I want to raise the question, if a medium could be found for both crowds...why not take it? I tried to make suggestions that wouldn't disturb the gameplay you enjoy as much as possible, while giving us hardcore players some stuff to enjoy as well.

I will raise a counter question: Why should the current playerbase compromise at all if they enjoy the game the way it is? Why spend developer resources (quite a limited commodity it seems) on content we will never play and features we don't want?

[MelnaMilos]

I don't feel they'd add anymore to the game for me. As it is now it takes a fair amount of time even with flying if I need to get from one side of the map to the other. Progression on the maps during initial exploration takes a significant chunk of the time since you are not only limited by ground mount speed but map geometry. ... I don't feel like the maps are "tiny" like you do . They feel appropriate and since I don't know what we would have to sacrifice to make them expansive (every change will have a price, the technology is not unlimited) I do not have a need for unnecessary additions.

I will raise a counter question: Why should the current playerbase compromise at all if they enjoy the game the way it is? Why spend developer resources (quite a limited commodity it seems) on content we will never play and features we don't want?

Zones can be bigger and there can be more teleport points, for those that dont care to explore or adventure.

Because there are people, like me, who do enjoy those things. When more people play the game, theres more money. More money to add more content. Why does it matter to you if its added into the game if you dont care about it at all? Im shocked that some of you think your game is perfect.

I like the idea of the mobs being unique and more dangerous ai. all of them kinda feel the same. Auto attack for a few seconds then do an aoe attack then return to Auto attacking. I've always liked those big dragon things when i first encountered them, you know the ones that act a bit random on who they attack and you have to read their body language to avoid the attacks?

Me too! I feel the exact same.

They won't do a graphical overhaul if it is going to gate other players who play on other platforms. It's not all about the PC players, you have console players to consider. I am sure when a PS5 edition comes out they might consider doing a graphical overhaul, but they aren't going to abandon people who play on PS4/PS4 Pro which DO make up a significant portion of the player base.

This game isn't just for the PC elitists.

Thats true. However, the consoles are getting pretty dang powerful these days. I mean, they figured it out back in the day with XI on the xbox and PS2. Im not a technical person in anyway, so correct me if I am wrong, but if it was possible on the older platforms and PCs, why is it such a problem now?

[Krotoan]

Zones can be bigger and there can be more teleport points, for those that dont care to explore or adventure.

Because there are people, like me, who do enjoy those things. When more people play the game, theres more money. More money to add more content. Why does it matter to you if its added into the game if you dont care about it at all? Im shocked that some of you think your game is perfect.

I apologize if I gave the impression I thought the game is perfect. there are hundreds of improvements I would like for the game. I too would like a graphical improvements as well as inventory expansion and expanded capacity for housing so that all can participate, but while more people does equal more money, changing the game or spending development time (once again a very limited resource which has been cited time and time again by the devs) on something we don't want would cost us content that could expand the things we like. This isn't an unlimited well we are drawing from. If they make something for a certain crowd beyond the usual scheduled updates, it means something else wasn't made for another crowd. In a perfect world where their budget, staff, and resources increased dynamically with the income of the game I would be all for anything to draw in all the players possible, but that's not how to online persistent games work in the world. They have to concentrate their efforts on the largest crowd they can and please them as much as they can. I have no animosity for "hardcore" gamers (used to be one.. now i have responsibilities), I just don't want the things they do and would prefer to have the kind of content we have been getting.


I Played 1.0 for quite a while trying to convince myself it was what I wanted but after all my friends left and I found I was simply grinding because I paid for it.. I stopped. I also Played FFXI for quite a while, but once I realized I was actually unhappy with what my "gaming" had become: hours of partyfinding, then hours of grinding the same mobs to level along with needless XP loss for mistakes made by other party members and overly dangerous areas surrounding leveling areas and objectives, I stopped immediately.

The developers themselves have specifically said the problems they're encountering now aren't a matter of "throwing money at it". They need resources like committed and talented workers who are ready to be in it for the long haul. They also need the permission from their uppers to acquire these people. YES I would love it if this happens and sure once they have a huge team pumping out all the content we can possibly stomach then yeah.. make stuff for outlying groups, but right now there is no reason for the currently barely satisfied customer base of FFXIV to say "sure.. make stuff we'll never use".

Thats true. However, the consoles are getting pretty dang powerful these days. I mean, they figured it out back in the day with XI on the xbox and PS2. Im not a technical person in anyway, so correct me if I am wrong, but if it was possible on the older platforms and PCs, why is it such a problem now?

Because they need to keep the game playable for people who use the bare minimum hardware requirements. Just because the higher end PCs and PS5's can handle it, doesn't mean they're willing to alienate the people using lower end old PS4s and cheaper PCs.
It has been suggested to make the graphic overhaul optional like a texture pack but that's again a huge development investment which won't benefit all players. So while Yoshi-p and his team have expressed interest in it in the past, they're careful to say they're unable to fit it into their current schedule.

There's quite a long discussion about adding more "endgame" content here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...d-Game-Content

if you have some time you can read through a lot of peoples opinions on "additional" content. ... as well as some weird arguments for no reason.

[MelnaMilos]

I understand resources and devs are not coming from a bottomless well. It sounds like it all relies on getting more money to higher more devs to produce such content. I will reiterate, if -some- effort was spent to bring back some of the hard core players they alienated, like me, and I know entire discords of 1.0 and XI fans, there'd be more money coming to them so that they would expand to produce content for both sides of the opinion. I myself, would be subscribing way more than I have been if the game had some more content for oldschool/hardcore players. There is a reason MMOs are considered "Trash" and "Dead" these days. Theres currently a push for classic or old school servers. Just a few months ago, there was a boom in XI streaming, showing the game and its principals are not dead. Even Square attempted to put more 11 inspired content in the game with Eureka. One of my favorite additions to the game. I was watching a very popular XIV and XI streamer the other day, Mr. Happy, who was talking about adding more dangerous lands and eureka style content to the game. Even these casual players are starting to sound like they are getting tired of the same concepts being done over and over. You seem to imply that noone would enjoy such content. Again, Not to sound stuck up, but look at the thumbs ups my original post is getting. There IS a market for this stuff. People are willing to throw more money at Square for this. Not just my ideas, but in general.

My point was; Lets not disturb what you guys are enjoying, let's find some ways to add more content other people are craving currently to the game. Im not arguing to add the lengthy grind sessions, or the removal of the party finder from XIV. I just want more content where players have to team up and tackle stuff that isn't the same old instance raid boss fight over and over again.I'd like to see a larger world to explore, more party quests and content. Like fates, open world bosses, non-linear dungeons, deep dungeons, etc. I wanna play WITH people, not a mostly solo MMO. Not take out what is in the game already, just give us more options.

[Krotoan]

I understand resources and devs are not coming from a bottomless well. It sounds like it all relies on getting more money to higher more devs to produce such content. I will reiterate, if -some- effort was spent to bring back some of the hard core players they alienated, like me, and I know entire discords of 1.0 and XI fans, there'd be more money coming to them so that they would expand to produce content for both sides of the opinion. I myself, would be subscribing way more than I have been if the game had some more content for oldschool/hardcore players

This is not the case. FFXIV is one of the most profitable things Squeenix does right now, but the budget for the devs seems to have varied very little. More money incoming has been shown to influence development rates little to none. Before any talk of extra content beyond the current cycle is even considerable, they need to fulfill at least the previous expansions rate and volume of content for it's current users, which they are barely able to do. It is highly unlikely they will splurge on the resources needed to support MORE content before having more income. Just saying that people might come if they make stuff for them means very little to an SE exec.

. There is a reason MMOs are considered "Trash" and "Dead" these days.

I've not heard this. In fact even WoW is doing well, without counting the classic wow fad. By it's previous standards it may not have the lions share of the pie anymore but WoW is by no means anything but one of Blizzards biggest moneymakers. People who say MMO's are trash or dead are probably just getting older and realizing they don't have the time to spend on that kind of stuff anymore.

Theres currently a push for classic or old school servers.

Because people have nostalgia stained glasses. I have friends who are playing who swear up and down they're enjoying it.. however when I sit in their Discords it's just constant complaints and the only reason it's fun is their friends are there to suffer with them. It's hilarious to me that Blizzard has managed to squeeze so much more money out of people by releasing old content again and nobody's called them on it. It's the same jazz that happened last time. It isn't changing, it isn't even that much better, they've even made sure to put in the old bugs and issues to make it feel right.. however people are paying to sit and fight over trash mobs in the overworld because hey "was fun the first time right? or why else did I pay so much money for so long". WoW is fun for a certain type of player, I played for 6 years in fact.. you couldn't pay me to go back now, I realized I was only playing for my friends and my smarter friends have moved on.

Just a few months ago, there was a boom in XI streaming, showing the game and its principals are not dead. Even Square attempted to put more 11 inspired content in the game with Eureka. One of my favorite additions to the game. I was watching a very popular XIV and XI streamer the other day, Mr. Happy, who was talking about adding more dangerous lands and eureka style content to the game.

Great.. NO. Eureka was a disaster. It's dead content now and it was a horrendous grind that embodied everything I hated about FFXI and why I left. The only reason I even tried to play through it was they locked the relic in it and by forum evidence this was usually the only reason a LOT of people did it. Yes there were people who enjoyed it and extolled how it was this grand throwback to XI with "dangerous" lands and rewards for grouping up and how the community in there was so strong. The content was so crazily repetitive and group necessary that people got bored and HAD to talk to each other to amuse themselves. There was nothing else to do between fates. I hear Baldesion Arsenal was great but I never got to it because it now takes HOURS of investment just to grab a couple levels in progression, something I left FFXI for. I don't have time, I don't need progress threatened by some random monster aggroing me while I try to complete an objective or a fate. You can't even really party with friends unless they're within 1-2 levels unless you want to be a glorified babysitter or a giant burden. FFXI is still very much alive and it has players, but I left that game and don't need it smushed into the game I like now at the cost of other content I might actually enjoy. While I can appreciate you liked that content please understand it represents MANY things I left FFXI for.

Even these casual players are starting to sound like they are getting tired of the same concepts being done over and over. You seem to imply that noone would enjoy such content.

Never said that. I'm sure some would. However SE would do better to cater to it's large playerbase that it already has.

Again, Not to sound stuck up, but look at the thumbs ups my original post is getting. There IS a market for this stuff. People are willing to throw more money at Square for this. Not just my ideas, but in general.

Sure a few people liked your post, not to sound arrogant but: 10 people does not make a compelling argument. Sure there's a market for it, they play FFXI and other old school grindy MMO's, games like BDO or EVE would be dead without those kinds of players. Again: why should we , the established and mostly content playerbase of FFXIV support the introduction of what is ALREADY PRESENT IN OTHER GAMES while we have so much of what we are provided and enjoy?

My point was; Lets not disturb what you guys are enjoying, let's find some ways to add more content other people are craving currently to the game. Im not arguing to add the lengthy grind sessions, or the removal of the party finder from XIV. I just want more content where players have to team up and tackle stuff that isn't the same old instance raid boss fight over and over again.I'd like to see a larger world to explore, more party quests and content. Like fates, open world bosses, non-linear dungeons, deep dungeons, etc. I wanna play WITH people, not a mostly solo MMO. Not take out what is in the game already, just give us more options.

And my point is we have established over and over that FFXIV's dev team does not simply add on content. They have a limited pie and making one share bigger makes the other smaller. I will always oppose introducing content I have left other games for.

[MelnaMilos]

This is not the case. FFXIV is one of the most profitable things Squeenix does right now, but the budget for the devs seems to have varied very little. More money incoming has been shown to influence development rates little to none. Before any talk of extra content beyond the current cycle is even considerable, they need to fulfill at least the previous expansions rate and volume of content for it's current users, which they are barely able to do. It is highly unlikely they will splurge on the resources needed to support MORE content before having more income. Just saying that people might come if they make stuff for them means very little to an SE exec.



I've not heard this. In fact even WoW is doing well, without counting the classic wow fad. By it's previous standards it may not have the lions share of the pie anymore but WoW is by no means anything but one of Blizzards biggest moneymakers. People who say MMO's are trash or dead are probably just getting older and realizing they don't have the time to spend on that kind of stuff anymore.

Because people have nostalgia stained glasses. I have friends who are playing who swear up and down they're enjoying it.. however when I sit in their Discords it's just constant complaints and the only reason it's fun is their friends are there to suffer with them. It's hilarious to me that Blizzard has managed to squeeze so much more money out of people by releasing old content again and nobody's called them on it. It's the same jazz that happened last time. It isn't changing, it isn't even that much better, they've even made sure to put in the old bugs and issues to make it feel right.. however people are paying to sit and fight over trash mobs in the overworld because hey "was fun the first time right? or why else did I pay so much money for so long". WoW is fun for a certain type of player, I played for 6 years in fact.. you couldn't pay me to go back now, I realized I was only playing for my friends and my smarter friends have moved on.


Great.. NO. Eureka was a disaster. It's dead content now and it was a horrendous grind that embodied everything I hated about FFXI and why I left. The only reason I even tried to play through it was they locked the relic in it and by forum evidence this was usually the only reason a LOT of people did it. Yes there were people who enjoyed it and extolled how it was this grand throwback to XI with "dangerous" lands and rewards for grouping up and how the community in there was so strong. The content was so crazily repetitive and group necessary that people got bored and HAD to talk to each other to amuse themselves. There was nothing else to do between fates. I hear Baldesion Arsenal was great but I never got to it because it now takes HOURS of investment just to grab a couple levels in progression, something I left FFXI for. I don't have time, I don't need progress threatened by some random monster aggroing me while I try to complete an objective or a fate. You can't even really party with friends unless they're within 1-2 levels unless you want to be a glorified babysitter or a giant burden. FFXI is still very much alive and it has players, but I left that game and don't need it smushed into the game I like now at the cost of other content I might actually enjoy. While I can appreciate you liked that content please understand it represents MANY things I left FFXI for.



Never said that. I'm sure some would. However SE would do better to cater to it's large playerbase that it already has.



Sure a few people liked your post, not to sound arrogant but: 10 people does not make a compelling argument. Sure there's a market for it, they play FFXI and other old school grindy MMO's, games like BDO or EVE would be dead without those kinds of players. Again: why should we , the established and mostly content playerbase of FFXIV support the introduction of what is ALREADY PRESENT IN OTHER GAMES while we have so much of what we are provided and enjoy?




And my point is we have established over and over that FFXIV's dev team does not simply add on content. They have a limited pie and making one share bigger makes the other smaller. I will always oppose introducing content I have left other games for.

Hmmm. I cant say you are wrong. This is clearly a matter of opinions here for us both. We will just to agree to disagree. I think the game should cater to ALL, not just what casual gamers find fun. I also sort of find it kind of dismissive to claim that anyone enjoying Classic WoW, or other old school MMOs, are just enjoying it because of nostalgia. Noone would force you to enjoy the content I suggested, I was asking to make it optional stuff or offer ways to get around it if it isnt enjoyed, like more aethernet points if the larger world was included. I personally wish the MMO genre would return to its roots and stop being so catered to casual players, alienating the people that made the genre what it was. I blame WoW for this, but thats a different topic. Us older gamers have to play much older games and dont get to enjoy the games with the fancier graphics that much cause they are just too easy or arent enjoyable for us. We're kinda shoved into a corner. I also find it just baffling that you'd actively oppose adding anything to your game that you may not enjoy, but others clearly do. Anyway, you've been very polite and pleasant to debate with, Thanks for giving your opinions!

[Krotoan]

Hmmm. I cant say you are wrong. This is clearly a matter of opinions here for us both. We will just to agree to disagree.

Sure.

I think the game should cater to ALL, not just what casual gamers find fun. I also sort of find it kind of dismissive to claim that anyone enjoying Classic WoW, or other old school MMOs, are just enjoying it because of nostalgia.

I won't argue that it would be NICE for it to cater to all and for the game to grow huge and all encompassing with funding and resources to pump out tons of content for all playerbases... but based on past history with these developers and their company.. it seems unlikely. And it may be a little dismissive, but I'm basing it on my observations of forums and actual friends who play the game. I recognize patterns of gameplay I used to be locked in myself and apply that experience to my current observations. Maybe I'm wrong though, it's possible they're actually enjoying the experience, but the fun things happening don't seem to be in game, they seem to be enjoying the company.

Noone would force you to enjoy the content I suggested, I was asking to make it optional stuff or offer ways to get around it if it isnt enjoyed, like more aethernet points if the larger world was included. I personally wish the MMO genre would return to its roots and stop being so catered to casual players, alienating the people that made the genre what it was. I blame WoW for this, but thats a different topic. Us older gamers have to play much older games and dont get to enjoy the games with the fancier graphics that much cause they are just too easy or arent enjoyable for us. We're kinda shoved into a corner. I also find it just baffling that you'd actively oppose adding anything to your game that you may not enjoy, but others clearly do. Anyway, you've been very polite and pleasant to debate with, Thanks for giving your opinions!

It's not that I have to play it, it's that I would be sacrificing content because of it. I don't know how to explain that any better so I may just drop this but currently if we get Raid A and Feature A one patch we won't be getting Raid B AND C AND Feature B next patch. If the content changes we miss out on something. Like we would get Raid B and New Area A instead of Feature B. For the people waiting or targeted for Feature B that sucks. It's what has happened since launch. There is only so much content they will put out per patch and per expansion.


I am an older gamer as well too and honestly I do not miss the days of heavy time investment and difficulty as a way of making things "last". I started my gaming days with trade wars on a BBS but now have realized that time is really the only real currency I have to spend and if I'm doing drudgery I am not spending it wisely. I should simply be able to pick up a game and have fun, and while I understand that "fun" is incredibly subjective I have narrowed what I find fun down and FFXIV currently ticks a lot of those boxes. There are many options out there for those who still find a grind and harsh penalties "fun" but I, with no malice to them, hope they do not bring it into this game.

I'm glad you took it as a polite debate, others on this forum do not appreciate my particular approach. May you find what you are seeking.