What is one aspect of MMO design past or present that wish was added or taken away.

[Vyrerus]

One Would

You see, the thing is, is that the faster they make travel the more that we the players will try to do. At a certain point this becomes unhealthy, and since there's really no bar on it, be that tedium of travel or actual difficulty, we don't respect our own time because we always feel like we can always make that next/concurrent node. Unless people are inhibited in the time they can put into the game, it makes those playing in an unhealthy way dig that much deeper in.

I get that you want convenience, because it works for you. However, there are tons of people who want world traversal to be more involved, because that's more fun for them. FFXIV is on the side of easy traversal, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but it does come at a cost.

Kind of like how we can never really take the narrative seriously when it drums up a humdrum reason for why aethereytes can't be used for this or that. Or like how Thancred gets around despite being aetherically inhibited after a certain point. Sometimes arriving faster than all other characters to a far away location.

Like what the Teledji Adeledji fan is really asking for is a dangerous overworld fraught with peril that he needs his buds to go with an actual journey with him on. Something like FFXI prior to Treasures of Aht Urghan. Overworlds like that tend to be insanely atmospheric. Completely, absolutely frustrating at times, but all the more memorable for it. Basically he wants to live in another world, not play a game. It's a call for greater immersion.

If something in the middle could exist, then I'd advocate for it, but I don't really see a non-segregated world being able to be an in between. Once frequent teleportation is added the size and scope of the world disappear, and unfortunately, this has been the case for FFXIV since its inception, as far as I know. Not really sure how aethereytes and travel were handled in 1.0.

Also I have no idea what a Hazzikostas is, but it sounds flamboyant.

[Caitlyn]

I wish they take away the long and boring level phase.
Nearly every MMO has it. Unfortuneately.

[Aurida]

Adding things specifically from past MMO design is a bit hard, but let's see...

They could add the FF11 style lock stuff, which lets you glamour any piece of equipment onto any job you have as long as you have at least one job that can wear it, that would be a real improvement. I think it also had a system via which you could freely sync your level down to match the level of another, lower leveled party member? Also the ability to repair other peoples' gear from 1.x.

Those are probably the only things from that era of MMO design worth keeping, though. The advent of teleportation and duty finder and actually being able to do content without shouting in a main city for a healer for three hours has improved the genre immensely so there aren't a lot of overarching things I'd change

[Neoyoshi]

+Voxel technology.

+Ability to build our own underground nuclear bunkers.

+Monthly Lalafell parades.

+Isekai mechanics.

[Hoehenflug]

Lovely thread.

Stats / Card / Gear system copied from pre-renewal Ragnarok Online. I think it's still the best system out there after all these years.

5 Stats, max at 99 with boni at 5 or 10. Want to be a Battle Priest with Agi, ASPD and Crit?

EACH Mob drops an individual card to slot into your gear. Cards give flat stats or even skills like Hide. Drop chance with 0,01% chance. Overpowered Boss Cards.

Pure, solo mob grinding. Sometimes I just want to mindlessly run my rotation on mobs to get some profit. Bozja just doesn't work, unless you grind out 10/10/10 beforehand.

Guild Sieges. Once the gold standard for many players. Ragnarok Online has a real in-depth biweekly castle siege. Alliances of multiple guilds trying to hold the castle against attacking guilds.

Dual Classes. FFTA and A2 are my favorite games, couldn't afford FF11 back then. I just love that about the FF series. RDM/ SMN. Assasssin/Sniper. BLU/Hunter.

Honestly, I could see it coming back in the form of forgotten fragments. I can't express how much potential I see in that. 2 meaningful skills that you can choose in trivial content feels amazing. Healing on my RDM feels amazing.

Call it Soul Skills. Once you master your Job, you can choose 2 Skills from a pool. Soul of the Mad Dragoon -> Jump (60 sec). Soul of the Lazy WHM -> Medica 2. Which would bring us full circle I guess.


Dual Wielding. Around 2000 dual-wielding classes were among the most popular ( L2, Rappelz, WoW, etc.). It's shocking that we only have NIN.

I could see Square adding in Assasssin with dual-wielding swords since it's always been a stable in pretty much every MMO. They could even make them wear SAM/PLD weapons to save resources.

IDK why Square said that it's too evil. It doesn't take much moral bending to implement that some evil baddies need to be (silently) assassinated with 2 giant, glowing swords in underwear.

Bold fashion designs. I think that Artifact Armors are superb. Lvl 50 Dragoon Armor is just iconic. That said, a lot of armor in the game feels a bit uninspired and bland in comparison.

[Calevr]

Additions
+ increased variety in Fates for every zone.

+ party battles (FFXI/XIV 1.2X).

+ additional hunt bills/ player leader boards (competition) for hunters.

+ Conquest mode (FFXI).

+ introduction of Beastmaster and Ranger Jobs.

+ Hunters guild (Beastmaster and Ranger). Further expansion to hunts marks.

+ expert group battlecraft leves


Removal/Change

- reduce drop rate of gear in dungeons.

- Increase item cost on NPCs to encourage more crafting/gathering.

- increase cost of teleportation

- separate battlecraft leves allowance from crafting/gathering leves.

[Payadopa]

Taken away:
Dungeons as a leveling mechanism.
Teleporting everywhere.
Flying mounts.
DPS tunnel vision job design.
Hallway simulator dungeon design.

Added back:
Forced party play to survive in the overworld.
Leveling tied to overworld content.
Flexible rotations.
Some gear verticality.
Punishment for getting hit while mounted.
Elemental weakness.
Less job homogenization.

A fellow XI? Nice!
I pretty much agree with all your points.
And I'd like to stress the party play. In a world where DF/PF exist you have no problems finding a party anyway. The MMO part gets dismantled more and more to cater to people who think running a trust dungeon unsynched is what cooperative play is about. It gets more and more shallow and people increasingly lazy.

[Awha]

+Voxel technology.

+Ability to build our own underground nuclear bunkers.

+Monthly Lalafell parades.

+Isekai mechanics.

Iselaki mechanics? Care to elaborate I am interested.

Personally I do think it would be interesting having to manually find groups via shout or something and have specs sure it largely amounts to an illusion of choice but I personally have always been a find of creating niche of meme builds for fun. I do think a skill tree system would add much if done right would give people the chance to make a ranger instead of bard as an example.

Yes fight design / class balance would have to overhauled and will never happen but still something I wish was the case specs have always been a joy for me.

[Jirah]

Dungeon design, we don’t have dungeons these days and SHB even lacked deep dungeons. No thought no planning no adventure no fun, the cynic That is me says they make it easier because it’s easier to design and balance ie the Gamefreak method. We need more of wanderers palace or Aurum Vale and less of Relict and grand cosmos

[SilverObi]

Probably already mentioned but I’d like them to bring back real-time ferry and airship travel. Not mandatory of course cause not everyone wants to wait but it’d be a lovely option for folks like me who want to take a 20 minute boat trip and just drink in the sights with other players. Yeah I know there is the Fishing Ferry and that’s a good start but can we have more please?