What would you like to see (differently) in the next Final Fantasy MMO?

[SamRF]

Assuming one will be made.

What should be done differently? What should remain the same? How should the game function? What kind of (new) features do you want? What are your expectations? ......?

(Forgive me if this thread has been made before, but I couldn't find anything with advanced search.)

[Kalise]

What should be done differently?

• No 1.0 garbage spaghetti code.
  
• No half baked Class > Job system that gets abandonded after the first expansion.
  
• Don't tie Duties to MSQ and then have to force Duties to be the ONLY content because you need to fill up the queues so newbies can complete the MSQ. (If you must, do what Astellia Online does and have the MSQ required event be a solo version of the duty)
  
• Healing should not be focused around oGCD healing spells for the majority of their output.
  
• There should be some actual choices in terms of gearing and class/job customization.
  
• Duties should be more than just Hallway simulators or "One dude in an arena"

What should remain the same?

• All classes/jobs on one character.
  
• Deep and interesting lore and story.
  
• Gold Saucer for mini-games.

How should the game function?

I'm not entirely sure. I have many thoughts about "What if it was this?" but it's hard to say what would be ideal. Like, it could continue to be tab target gameplay, or it could become action orientated. Maybe it could even work in a similar way to Wildstar where every skill was a skillshot that put down a telegraphed AoE? Who knows...

What kind of (new) features do you want?

Multi-classing. Not the BS 2.0 kind with the "Cross Role Actions" that required you to level up classes X, Y and Z in order to have your complete skill set... But the kind that's similar to in FFIII where you can optionally sacrifice part of one job to get part of another job.
E.g. If I wanted to make a Monk, but then gave up Chakra to cross class into Ninja and get Ninjutsu so I could attack like lightning with Greased Lightning + Huton. Or what if I wanted to be a Dragoon that sacrificed some leaps and damage to cross class into DRK to get increased defence and TBN.
All the while, "Pure" jobs can still perform just fine with their full kits without need of utilizing a second class.

Voices for PC's. These days, our character is actually doing a lot more talking. Only, silently for us... Given that we have options to pick voices on character creation, it would be neat for the next FF MMO to fully embrace it and allow us to pick a proper voice as well as personality.

Job mastery incorporated into MSQ. I.e. If after a battle, people are injured and you're playing a healing job, your character runs to go tend to them. But if after the same battle someone else is playing a tank job, they go to the front to protect against any suprise attacks etc. Different paths based on what your character is actually good at (So no, dueling Lyse and threatening her by... Holding a BOOK at her ) - Which would also give rise to replayability with NG+ as you could go through with different jobs to see different scenes.

Dynamic scaling FATES/Hunts. I.e. If you're the only one doing a FATE or taking out an A Rank hunt, it scales so as to be reasonable for you to do so. If, suddenly, 20 more people show up and start doing it too, then the Health, number and difficulty of said FATE/Hunt also increases proportionately. This not only makes them more viable with low population/engagement in the zone, but also adds in protection to stop Trains from zerging through content in 0.1 seconds.

[Silverquick]

[LIST][*]No 1.0 garbage spaghetti code.

Fair point and I agree.

[*]No half baked Class > Job system that gets abandoned after the first expansion.

Disagree,
That's one of the things I liked about the original ARR was the starting Class then moving on to a Job. I particularly liked the original SCH and how it worked and the way it combined with Arcanist even though I know the Devs obviously did not...

SMN well that's a mixed bag on both sides of the argument. I do like how it progressed from Arcanist with DoTs and Carbunkle and into the original Trances like Dreadwyrm and Aetherflow stacks the way was into Heavensward.

Not really that entirely enthused with the changes in Stormblood, that is kind of a mixed bag some good, some bad. The Demis obstructed view and caused just as many problems with evading mechanics as they gave in coolness factor which was pointless as you could have just done this with an Ethereal Trance Overlay instead, but the mechanics of how they work was pretty cool.. the Egi rework... well that wasn't half bad.

I also liked Cross Class skills and Subjobs from leveling multiple jobs from ARR. While they varied in effectiveness depending on the cross class skills you picked, they were a very unique addition that I had always loved in FFXI as well.

[*]Don't tie Duties to MSQ and then have to force Duties to be the ONLY content because you need to fill up the queues so newbies can complete the MSQ. (If you must, do what Astellia Online does and have the MSQ required event be a solo version of the duty)

That I also don't agree with.

I loved my newbie (as in new to the game entirely) days back when I started and did those dungeons in the MSQ in ARR. It wasn't until the later expansions that they became a nuisance as you were leveled so high that level syncing back to that levels was like putting on handcuffs.

Wait times are solvable with addition of either a Trust or beginning Squadron so they won't be as much of a nuisance to higher level players as the game ages.

BUT... having them attached to the MSQ was a ton of fun and mystery and really sucked me in like I was a part of the story.

[*]Duties should be more than just Hallway simulators or "One dude in an arena"

Totally agree with that, a lot of the original ARR dungeons are very like that which is what made them so fun as a newbie. Though... I admit they do need some changes in terms of what the goal of the dungeon is at the beginning. Like... one time the goal is to unlock several doors in a row using mechanics, another time its to get to a chest on the other side of a chasm, basically using ALL of the dungeon in various types of objectives from the beginning. Sometimes mob spam... sometimes multiple boss mobs, etc.

Then it will literally be different each time you go through.

[Kalise]

Disagree,
That's one of the things I liked about the original ARR was the starting Class then moving on to a Job. I particularly liked the original SCH and how it worked and the way it combined with Arcanist even though I know the Devs obviously did not...

Note, that I'm not against Class > Job as a concept.

But the fact that they half-assed it and then completely disregarded it after ARR is where I draw issue.

That I also don't agree with.

I loved my newbie (as in new to the game entirely) days back when I started and did those dungeons in the MSQ in ARR. It wasn't until the later expansions that they became a nuisance as you were leveled so high that level syncing back to that levels was like putting on handcuffs.

Wait times are solvable with addition of either a Trust or beginning Squadron so they won't be as much of a nuisance to higher level players as the game ages.

BUT... having them attached to the MSQ was a ton of fun and mystery and really sucked me in like I was a part of the story.

I honestly see too many issues with Duties as MSQ requirements.

Not only because the entire game has as a result, revolved around "Spam DF Roulettes" because they need to ensure that newbies can actually progress in the MSQ in a MSQ driven game.

But also, how absolutely terrible they are for immersion. Where 90% of the "Duty" content the MSQ implies you did it alone. With only a small handful of times where there's a comment or cutscene that suggests or shows you getting a random party of 4-8 people to help you. Due to reasons such as "You're literally the only one in the world who can do this" which also would preclude Trusts as a way to bypass this.

I find that Astellia Online's version of MSQ required duties far better, since when they hype you up as the sole "Chosen One" (An Astellian in their case, Hydaelyn's chosen here) and then you go and do the solo duty, alone, and kick butt it feels way more immersive than having to stop being a badass so you can group up with random people who pop up out of nowhere and then vanish completely once you're done with the duty and enter the cutscene at the end.

With the group version of these duties being unlocked later so you can farm them for your loot if you wish, but not being required for progressing the MSQ.

[SamRF]

I honestly see too many issues with Duties as MSQ requirements.

Not only because the entire game has as a result, revolved around "Spam DF Roulettes" because they need to ensure that newbies can actually progress in the MSQ in a MSQ driven game.

But also, how absolutely terrible they are for immersion. Where 90% of the "Duty" content the MSQ implies you did it alone. With only a small handful of times where there's a comment or cutscene that suggests or shows you getting a random party of 4-8 people to help you. Due to reasons such as "You're literally the only one in the world who can do this" which also would preclude Trusts as a way to bypass this.

I find that Astellia Online's version of MSQ required duties far better, since when they hype you up as the sole "Chosen One" (An Astellian in their case, Hydaelyn's chosen here) and then you go and do the solo duty, alone, and kick butt it feels way more immersive than having to stop being a badass so you can group up with random people who pop up out of nowhere and then vanish completely once you're done with the duty and enter the cutscene at the end.

With the group version of these duties being unlocked later so you can farm them for your loot if you wish, but not being required for progressing the MSQ.

I completely agree. Actually I believe they should do this in FFXIV right now, adding a solo option for all older MSQ instances. I feel like it could quite easily be done by just messing with the numbers. It won't have instance gameplay as originally intended, but it will be better than waiting ages for a queue and it would also satisfy all if it's just a voluntary option. They'll perhaps get obliged to do something like this because it will get harder and harder to keep older content relevant with each expansion.

Besides that, I'd honestly love it if literally all instances would have an optional solo equivalent that didn't give any loot/xp/rewards, not just MSQ ones. Immersion being a big factor, but also just the ability to do some content (e.g. that is difficult to get queue for) whenever you want and enjoy the art. They don't have to dedicate resources to introduce new mechanics for solo play for me. If it's an alliance raid for example, just literally take out all mechanics that require the alliances or just make the bosses basically like a mob that still does all the nice (transformation) animations during the fight, but without any mechanics. Just want to be able to enjoy the art first time I play an instance for immersion and at other times when nobody queues for it anymore, even if the combat will be equivalent of fighting a dummy.

You could argue that I might as well just watch a movie at that point, but being engaged in combat makes a big difference imo. I enjoy doing older content right now solo, although wish things wouldn't die as fast

[Kalise]

I completely agree. Actually I believe they should do this in FFXIV right now, adding a solo option for all older MSQ instances. I feel like it could quite easily be done by just messing with the numbers. It won't have instance gameplay as originally intended, but it will be better than waiting ages for a queue and it would also satisfy all if it's just a voluntary option. They'll perhaps get obliged to do something like this because it will get harder and harder to keep older content relevant with each expansion.

Yeah, though there are additional benefits for purely solo designed duties for MSQ relevancy, beyond what I mentioned above.

1) The ability to use cutscenes during said duty. SE learned their lesson about with with Praetorium and Castrum Meridianum what happens when they combine cutscenes and Duties. I.e. First timers want to watch the cutscenes, but people whom are just here for the roulette bonus want to skip everything and nuke all the enemies and get out asap. With purely solo designed duties from the outset, they have all the freedom in the world to put cutscenes into the MSQ required duty because there will be no people rushing ahead while you're sat watching the cutscenes. Meaning that when people are doing the group version, no-one has any cutscenes left to watch, so everyone can just get on with the thing.

2) Increased ability to put in books to read. Since, in a solo duty you can go at your own pace, you can stop and read the books. I know that some of the newer dungeons have some books in that I'd like to read, unfortunately, PuG's want to just blast through at 3000 MPH.

3) More room to put in optional paths. One of the main points against optional paths is that no-one uses them, because in DF content, people just want to rush to the end to get their Exp/Tomes. But with solo content, people are more able to partake in optional side paths and little puzzles (Such as the Lost Temple of Qarn, before it got nerfed to better facilitate DF zergs)

4) Potential for additional objectives. Instead of just having "Hallway of Trash" > "Boss" > "Hallway of Trash" > "Boss" > "Hallway of Trash" > "Boss" copied and pasted for literally every. Single. Duty. They could put in additional things to do. "Go disable the security of this Garlean base". "Optional: Destroy the armoury to prevent reinforcements". "Hidden: Find the top secret lab > Optional: Find the research notes > Defeat the head Researcher!". Since again, they don't need to create content that has to only facilitate zerging through because 99.99% of people are only playing it because Roulette rewards...

Like, we go visit so many places in the course of MSQ duties, but then most of the time we're just trying to keep up with the PuG we're with who've already done it 50 times despite it only being released 5 minutes prior...

Trusts/Squadrons help somewhat, but there's still that particular issue with regards to immersion, when we're referenced or shown to be alone. I.e. A fairly recent but notable example is Mt Gulg and the trial at the end. We head off to the Trial, alone. Then *Poof* 7 people turn up to help us smack down the boss and then *Poof* they're all gone and we're alone in the cutscene where everyone else catches up to us.

Maybe I'm delusional but I clearly remember filling out a survey from SE with one of the questions asking about this very thing.

There's been a few if I recall correctly.

I believe there was one way back in 1.0/2.0 and is the reason that there's a 2.5s GCD (As opposed to the industry "Standard" 2.0s or most modern MMO's 1.5-1.0s).

There have since been others, though I can't date them exactly.

[Lauront]

I find that Astellia Online's version of MSQ required duties far better, since when they hype you up as the sole "Chosen One" (An Astellian in their case, Hydaelyn's chosen here) and then you go and do the solo duty, alone, and kick butt it feels way more immersive than having to stop being a badass so you can group up with random people who pop up out of nowhere and then vanish completely once you're done with the duty and enter the cutscene at the end.

With the group version of these duties being unlocked later so you can farm them for your loot if you wish, but not being required for progressing the MSQ.

In the end, with such a solo system, they can use the presence of Trusts or similar NPCs as well if they want to reinforce that the boss is particularly powerful, in addition to any other story devices. One thing I do hope they do, from a narrative perspective for a future MMO, is build on their approach with Eden, where it's differences in memory that explain the "savage" mode, so like it boils down to you being bogged down in the heat of battle and forgetting some important details, and you see those play out in the group content with the help of some recording device or similar contraption. Maybe really double down on the mechanical difficulty of some bosses which, for lore reasons, should be particularly powerful, and are thus no longer hampered mechanically by being tied to the MSQ but rather an optional addendum to it, in addition to offering some difficulty options for the solo content. I'd like such an approach.

[Granyala]

Job mastery incorporated into MSQ. I.e. If after a battle, people are injured and you're playing a healing job, your character runs to go tend to them. But if after the same battle someone else is playing a tank job, they go to the front to protect against any suprise attacks etc. Different paths based on what your character is actually good at (So no, dueling Lyse and threatening her by... Holding a BOOK at her )

Yes please!

How often did I yell at my screen "Ifalna, do sth useful and heal them FFS!"....

BTW: She wasn't "threatening" Lyse with the book. She was preparing to bore her to death by reciting Aetheromathematical equations.
A far worse fate than getting smacked on your head with a 3K+ pages tome!

[Barachim]

Only one thing I can think of off the top of my head right now, something I always wanted. Make all the skills you've unlocked available on level sync.

I just always get bored out of my mind when I run a level ro, and end up in one of the early dungeons where I only get to push like 4 buttons.

[Theodric]

- A more efficient player housing system. Set up in such a way that all players get access to a small housing plot and, over time, they can pay to upgrade the size to a medium and then later large plot.
- A greater amount of character customisation. Especially where male characters are concerned. More options for tall, well-built guys that look like Gladio from FF15 or Snow from FF13. More options for stubble and so on.
- A greater amount of choice in regards to how our character reacts to the world around them and which factions/characters they can actively support.
- Death should be meaningful. No bringing back slain characters for what is obviously fan-service. No ridiculous levels of plot armour beyond that which exists for the player character, either.