If it ever did happen, what would like to see in the next FFXIV MMORPG?

[Reyna_Balmore]

The combat and visuals would be that of FF7 remake, with BDO / BnS levels of character customization and runescape questing, skilling, and valuable monster drops

[Ayuhra]

-more fluid combat
-fewer buttons for rotations but similar number of abilities (just have mutually exclusive spells on one button, let spells upgrade or downgrade themselves via traits for synced content etc)
-more dynamic and immersive open world
-better character customization
-better inventory management
-everything bought with real money account wide

Mostly I just want to see what this team could do with a more flexible and future-proofed game engine.

[linayar]

Story is mandatory.

A focus on sword and magic with no gun, no vehicle, no airship, no alien, no outer space (including the moon), no time travel, no different world/reality/realm. (This might mean no Gilgamesh, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. ;p)

I like something like the world of Conan the Barbarian, but with FF magic spells and monsters and whatnot, and I guess rated T for ESRB (though a rated M might be interesting too).

Plan out your race and gearing system. No need to add races down the line if it's going to have limitations. Just have all the races that you want right at the beginning. In fact, when it comes down to it, I'd rather just have one race and make the customization really good along with how gears look on that race.

And does every FF game has to have chocobo and moogle? If not, maybe try not having them. (I don't hate or dislike them at all, and actually like them, just want it to be a little different.)

And wasn't there a similar topic recently? I think in that other thread, I also mentioned something along the line of no PVP, no profession/tradecraft, no player market or player trading of any kind.

On the other hand, no arbitrary gil sink like teleport and repair and glamour fee.

Controller support, of course.

Tab targeting/GCD as opposed to action combat, although I hear DQX has a turn-based combat, and that might be interesting.

No M+ (or at least remove the timer and just have the affixes).

Only two group sizes: one for dungeon and one for raid (no normal vs alliance raid size shenanigans). Ideally, the raid size is just twice the dungeon size (whatever it may be, maybe try a bigger dungeon group size, like 8 or 10) so you can just have two dungeon groups join without anyone needing to switch class/job.

I have to be honest: I've never enjoyed any open world content beyond just doing the story quests, but I only have experience with it in WoW and FFXIV. So give me more instanced contents outside of quests.

There may be other things I've forgotten, but this will do for now.

[Shougun]

Oh yeah that, I know people are always hyped for housing but imo this is doing more damage than good because it's less likely to run into eachother by chance in this game since everyone is either sitting all day in their own house or FC housing area...

Hardly true already with the housing system, at least if it was instanced it would be significantly more creative, less restrictive, and generally more feature powerful - allowing for a larger more creative community and justified resources to add features to it. I'd trade that cost of seldom seeing people for the significantly more powerful system.

I visit the housing ward every single day on one of the largest server of the game, for context. There is 'one' house that has members very rarely outside of it. The rest are in effect dead / ghost houses, at least never on when I'm on. One might say 'but if you go out of your way to make these special things happen then it's a thing! That's true for an instanced system too, so such a "I go out of my way to make the neighborhood vibe real" would be a rather irrelevant and sad argument for the benefits of FFXIV's current system (as it rings true for pretty much anything, when you go out of your way of course things happen).

You can still have seeing other people like systems via an instanced system. Like actively encouraging players to visit other people's houses (something SE could technically do in this system as well). Or you can simply reference a game like Wild Star where there was a huge community based on the power and creativity if offered (not the only game with emphasize housing community, just the one I like to example as it was likely the only thing keeping it from collapsing entirely and instantly on release- and had a lot of smart features, especially for the time it came out in).

Furthermore if we actually wanted lively neighborhoods in our current creatively and logistically shackled system then remove player housing, you'd have much better community environment if all the houses were FC only.

Instanced housing != dead housing. That's a myth. Especially when for many the housing system for FFXIV is already dead housing. Blue moons and going out of one's way being the major components to making it community based currently. Some wards of course would be more active than others as very like minded players gather (to go out of their way to make a community), but again when you do such a thing then that power (of going out of your way) is entirely present in instanced systems too.

So I'm going to say, no it doesn't do more damage than good (or at least more accurately "it doesn't have to, and it can add more power at the same time"), it can be your opinion that it has to but it's not backed up by any fundamental rule of law. In so much that there are systems more instanced yet better community, and that our system doesn't even do the community part as well as any other system could have if that was it's goal- currently the system does everything but very poorly (imo). That instances are less community driven is countered by some game's systems that are more instanced yet more community driven events, and actual community exist around them, due to their enhanced power- which allows the devs to make them a more center piece content rather than an 'aside'.

Bottom line, that is an imo, I hope to never see this exact housing system again lol. I think it is truly bad. Nearly every single thing I've seen someone say it did alright another system did better, and offered more at the same time. The only good thing I'd say about it is that the objects that you can use in your house are pretty cute / cool looking, and that's not really a credit to the system. The system, well it's just a bad system (imo ).

[Shurrikhan]

No M+ (or at least remove the timer and just have the affixes).

I don't think I'll ever understand this one. The timer is merely what keeps it from becoming an unbearable slog (well, the weekly high may still be, but at least you won't have groups regularly taking take >90 minutes for what should have been <40 minutes each time until then).

You still get the dungeon and weekly rewards, after all, whether you complete on time or not. The only difference is that it doesn't give you an even harder key next time.

I.e. if you don't finish on time, WoW doesn't punish you with a key that will take you even longer. Instead, it'll give you one that is just slightly easier and thereby feel more in your wheelhouse. That hardly seems a player-unfriendly feature.

(For my own part, getting each key to where their rewards and that of the weekly chest were capped was pretty easy even playing very casually, PuGing at least half the group, having terrible loot luck, and doing zero raids, so it's not exactly inaccessible. It just adds an alternate progression experience for those who don't like the pressure of raiding.)

No one really? Action Combat.

I feel like its lack of mention is mostly because both its definition and gameplay effects are fairly ambiguous, and the XIV forum is... uncommonly divisive when it comes to anything that breaks away from XIV's means for pretense of complexity (be it through intuitive gameplay, visuals matched to effects, lesser button bloat, timing not based solely around gaps between GCDs, etc) even if in favor of... actually greater depth.

[linayar]

I don't think I'll ever understand this one. The timer is merely what keeps it from becoming an unbearable slog (well, the weekly high may still be, but at least you won't have groups regularly taking take >90 minutes for what should have been <40 minutes each time until then).

You still get the dungeon and weekly rewards, after all, whether you complete on time or not. The only difference is that it doesn't give you an even harder key next time.

I.e. if you don't finish on time, WoW doesn't punish you with a key that will take you even longer. Instead, it'll give you one that is just slightly easier and thereby feel more in your wheelhouse. That hardly seems a player-unfriendly feature.

(For my own part, getting each key to where their rewards and that of the weekly chest were capped was pretty easy even playing very casually, PuGing at least half the group, having terrible loot luck, and doing zero raids, so it's not exactly inaccessible. It just adds an alternate progression experience for those who don't like the pressure of raiding.)

I understand that, but if there is a timer, why wouldn't you want to beat it? At least, that's just me.

As for being an "unbearable slog," I think the tried and tested method has always been to leave the group if it's taking too long. At the high end, there should be ways at incentivizing and keeping the party moving without having a timer.

[Shurrikhan]

I understand that, but if there is a timer, why wouldn't you want to beat it? At least, that's just me.

Why wouldn't you want to beat an Enrage timer? Should we remove those too?

By comparison, the M+ timers are far, far more lenient and still allow you their rewards. They just change the experience from throwing enough corpses at it or having unlimited strategy session time into an actual run.

The progression system merely asks you to get your strategy down to something increasingly more coordinated as you progress up the keys, all while rewarding whatever value you can glean from further gearing. As progression should.

[linayar]

Why wouldn't you want to beat an Enrage timer? Should we remove those too?

By comparison, the M+ timers are far, far more lenient and still allow you their rewards. They just change the experience from throwing enough corpses at it or having unlimited strategy session time into an actual run.

The progression system merely asks you to get your strategy down to something increasingly more coordinated as you progress up the keys, all while rewarding whatever value you can glean from further gearing. As progression should.

But an enrage timer is part of the fight. Like you said, you can still beat the dungeon without beating the timer.

I actually would love it if not beating the M+ timer means failing the run. Then it makes it part of the fight.

[Shurrikhan]

But an enrage timer is part of the fight. Like you said, you can still beat the dungeon without beating the timer.

I actually would love it if not beating the M+ timer means failing the run. Then it makes it part of the fight.

As for being an "unbearable slog," I think the tried and tested method has always been to leave the group if it's taking too long. At the high end, there should be ways at incentivizing and keeping the party moving without having a timer.

And herein lies the crux. Imagine a system like that in XIV's community for instance, where people frequently leave clear parties after a single, even near-enrage, wipe. Any of the first couple pulls a bit slow to die = "Meh, they're probably not going to make it..." = leave the group since it only really directly harms the one guy who started the party = they literally can't refill = automatically failed run.

If the team doesn't look guaranteed to ace it, there'd be no reason to stay and chance wasting your time on the run. Is that really the gameplay loop or community interactions you want? That sounds like a hotbed of toxicity.

Compare that to WoW's more balanced system. Those who miss a week still have reason to help out lower geared players in the climb even if they don't need gear from the run. There's still enough reward behind dungeon completion to make it worth finishing the dungeon, rather than pulling the plug for everyone else the moment things look like they might eventually go sour. Once per week, or once per dungeon that could provide a specific gear upgrade for each in the team, it's totally fine to take your time; they just tend to be listed as 'gear' or 'untimed' parties instead of 'prog' or 'climb' parties. And so long as your intent is solely to climb, a failed timer is a failed run, just with enough reward not to oblige you to grief everyone else. Honestly, it's a surprisingly damn good compromise that supports a huge range of player types and desires.

[Sathona]

better coding
better engine

some system improvements here n there
better character creator