Wishlist

[Shurrikhan]

BASIC QoL IMPROVEMENTS

Remove the additional uptime cost equal to roundtrip ping currently tied to the game's "animation lock" (the period after using any action for which no further action can be performed).

I don't care how. It can be by axing how the server confirmation currently resets the animation lock's remaining time, or by just having the refreshed timer subtract the roundtrip ping, or whatever else. But do not arbitrarily punish latency in yet another way.

Basically, provide everything SimpleTweaks already does.

Full stat transparency, the ability to set the default confirmation option to "Yes" instead of "No," a less garbled Character Pane, support for better tab-targeting, etc., etc.

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GLAMOUR IMPROVEMENTS

Glamour Catalog

Glamour Dresser used only for setting Glamour Plates, if that. Spiritbonding any item automatically stores its appearance, at no cost and with no limit to capacity, in one's Glamour Catalog. One can also see therein the appearance of all other items in the game and where to find said items.

Glamours Attach to Slots, not Gear, on a Job-by-Job Basis

No more need to half-ass gear briefly until returning to town to reapply the plate. No more odd mixing and matching of plates.

Partially Mutable Glamour Plates

One can now determine what parts of the Glamour Plate they want to apply.

Free Un-Glamouring

One can now just switch any Glamour Plate slot to Transparent, causing the original gear to show through.

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BETTER APARTMENTS

Bigger Apartment Balconies (that can hold planters / potted plants / outdoor furnishings)

For a modest bit of gardening and a view. Balconies will imitate a view from any of 4+ available sides of the apartment complex. One can select what side they want their apartment to appear to be on.

Indoor Striking Dummies

So that apartments can actually have striking dummies.

Interesting, Decently Large Commons Areas in Apartment Buildings

Create some amenities sections, such as restaurant, library, instanceable training yard, etc., within the apartment complexes. Hallways lead discretely and seemingly naturally around corners so that players disappearing from view to their rooms or out of the complex don't disrupt the illusion of the space through animation-less teleportation.

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JOB/KIT DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS

Actually Gameplay-Focused Assessment of Job Actions (Build for Depth, Nuance & Fun, not Button Count or Random/Simplifying Tools)

Reassess job actions on the basis that increasing levels should gradually increasing the frequency and depth of decision-making the job obliges/rewards, rather than merely on what buttons they can press.

Prioritize fewer but more impactful actions (stop giving AoE | ST variants for all actions; combos consolidated or made into actually separate actions)

No, "I hit 3 after 2 after 1?!" and "Is there enemy? Or enemIES?" is not a worthwhile use of button space.

Remove actions that have a net negative effect on gameplay depth/nuance.

I.e., remove most actions that exist only to specifically undo a particular mechanic per fight and thereby waste the greater frequency and depth of decision-making that would be had if they simply did not exist (Arm's Length, Surecast, Panhaima, Liturgy of the Bells, etc.).

Reduce button bloat in its remaining obvious forms.

Lucid Dreaming -> passive MP; True North -> sudden forced boss spins ghost their positionals allowing them to check twice and take the better, and bosses become omnipositional after jumping to the arena's edge; the rest is the melees' or stack positions' duty to deal with. Etc., etc.

Replace what few Role Actions aren't bloat with job-specific actions.

Bake Rampart into increases to agency (frequency, synergies) across their other defensives. Bake the suppression possible from Feint into, say, their own CC variants also including a suppression effect based on damage or potency dealt thereafter -- making it possible to hold potency deliberately for that defensive purpose (a choice, instead of just something used basically on CD). Buff Life Surge's self-healing, the mitigation and charge count of Riddle of Earth, the frequency and charge count of Shadow Shift, give Bard a means of healing self with overhealing transferring to the nearest wounded ally or to all via Battle Voice, let SMN Physick scale with Intelligence and give it a further utility GCD option for each summon, etc., etc.

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BATTLE CONTENT

Greater variety in encounter objectives, arenas, and patterns/conditionality of scripts (e.g., not just this exact attack at these exact times)

Not just perfectly circular or rectangular arenas, and give parts of the arena useful to being leveraged for certain mechanics.

Give us more objectives than just 'Reduce enemy HP to 0'.

Use different means of varying boss ability use, be that by any combination of randomizing the particular ability within sets, randomizing the order of skills within the given set, randomizing the overarching script from the start, making either/both conditional, or even just allowing for certain actions to adjust the interval between steps/actions within sets. Anything to make it feel less scripted, really.

More variety in dungeons' sense of pathing, mobs, etc.

To be clear, I'm not advocating that we un-linearize dungeons necessarily. If we were to do that, at this point, it'd be better to just create a new content type for the purpose and allow players to queue for multiple roulettes simultaneously.

However, there needs to be some variety at least visually from the obvious pattern of 4 packs, wall, boss, 4 packs, wall, boss, 4 packs, wall, boss. Non-boss encounters help --as do encounters that might instead involve healing someone to full or protecting a particular node, or building a device while waves of demon monkeys try to steal your parts, or whatever else-- but we should also see variance in that basic template, too, perhaps even being able to pull down to bait a boss down to us at will and get a buff upon its death useful for taking on packs that would otherwise be suicide to pull together, etc.

Definitely do not allow for decision-making in (arguments over) what paths to take, especially if they'd take different amounts of time for different rewards instead of just having a best choice based on one's comp. But, it is totally fine to have more paths/pathing than is strictly necessary and have the path one takes set by RNG so that a small additional expenditure in dungeon paths and size can make that dungeon feel fresh for far longer.

More Content Types

Doesn't particular matter what. Maybe turn some existing Dungeons particularly fit the purpose into non-linear Delves. Maybe add 8-man dungeon-like content that actually requires a sort of strategy by which to attack a fort (call them Assaults, or what have you). Add additional things to do in the open world, from caravan to airship to ship escorts to pirate hunting to longer Hunt commissions, etc. Just... something new, ideally that a frame can be made for early on and then milked at relatively low development cost for what all we players are getting out of it.

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COMMUNITY-RELATED

React differently to harmless and potentially exploitative addons, and do not be taken to tacitly permit witch-hunting.

If you treat any and all addons --no matter whether they simply give the game a better color palette or make it possible to have all spell effects up while still being able to see one's target or even simply have the Yes/No confirmation popup default to 'Yes'-- as ban-worthy exploits, and yet refuse to keep up with obvious and otherwise seemingly fine QoL those addons provide, you're going to increasingly have people willing to risk a ban because the game does not, to them, seem worth playing without that QoL.

At which point, if everything is bannable anyways, what's the harm, to them, in reading the game's server-to-client information preemptively to reveal mechanics before even their visual cues? Two things world apart in function and intention should not be treated as the same, even if the distinction is informal.

More importantly, though, being merely better informed or higher performing --outside of somehow knowing where RNG-placed mechanics will arrive before there's any cue, etc.-- should never give excuse to threaten someone with a ban report. Arming a community against itself in that way just makes for a terrible feeling all around.

It'd be awful if the game were to continue to apply QoL only at a snail's pace on the basis that addons are already out there, since that screws over their massive console community, but giving the means and what seems too often be taken as a tacit go-ahead to witch-hunt players is even worse.

Ideally, for instance, we want every player to have that sort of QoL one might find, say, on SimpleTweaks, and perhaps even the kind of direct and experientable learning tool that parsers provide, preferably adjusted to perform, intentionally, that job far better than ACT does incidentally (e.g., by using relative potency instead of raw damage, and maybe even locking information about other's damage behind a larger, more contextualized view that doesn't lend itself well to at-a-glance blame-pinning*).

*Note here, though, that we already tend to pin blame with or without a parser. The difference is simply between what catches the eye. Without, it's whoever has the vuln stacks or damage down or weakness, even if they were pushed out of place by someone else's mistake and sacced as not to kill the group (context lost). With a parser, it's damage, which is slightly more reliable but still lacks context. Even a parser tends to cause a slight net decrease in toxicity and the severity of and time lost to pinning blame by the simple fact that we skip most of the skewed/biased report of what happened to now simply how do we mitigate the shortfalls. But it could be far better. A mere calculator, though, is not equipped to or even meant to deal with that. As such, an official parser, if ever implemented, should intend and succeed at being more.

Better help and encourage players to learn how to play well

I know we have this widely held perception here that those who want to learn will just naturally end up enjoying the consumption of third-party sources of information like the Balance Discord, YouTube job guides, etc., but that's pretty bogus. To many, that is painfully unimmersive, even if they are oceans apart from the kind of player who would use only Ice spells on BLM because that's their backstory or because the VFX are prettier.

XIV truly, truly sucks at teaching how to play it. And not just because it lacks in-game guides or updated tutorials. No, the problem is primarily, again, in the core game itself. The difficulty curve is painfully out of whack. It doesn't accustom players to the possibility of failure in ways they can enjoyably learn from. It takes way to long to ramp up to a decent kit, to the point you've accustomed players more to fighting boredom than fighting encounters.

There's a huge gulf in the readability of mechanics, from the likes of clearly marked AoE zones to "If I wear my phoenix as a shawl, it means I'll strike all but a rectangle around me, but if I wear it as a hat, beware the rectangle that may or may not be aligned with the grid in the floor" (hyperbolic example, but still). The UI makes it damn hard to interpret (the solution to / action expected due to) debuffs, especially on controller. Even what tells are given with eye-paining obviousness... aren't quite consistent despite throwing aesthetic matches to the wayside (as by, regardless of it be by wind, earth, or fire, declaring your tank a site for weirdly immediate roadwork or reconstruction in striped red-by-red-orange).

We should have more actions earlier on, and with more guidance on how they might be used. The Hall of Mentors, and likely Guildquests, should be rehauled or even replaced. We should probably get a parser-done-right as a learning tool (using relative potency over damage, relative uptime checks, suggestions for possible improvement, etc.) at least as available in various training halls.

We should probably have a lesser swing between minimum and maximum ilvl in lower-level (and especially current and former level-cap) content, greater exp rewards for doing old level-cap content, additional proportionate rewards for using the minimum ilvl setting and the ability to still use the matchmaker while going for Minimum Ilvl (able to queue for it separately and alongside the normal queue).

We should be able to respawn after wiping to a boss... right in front of the boss room. You can make fights more punishing (i.e., to the extent that one is well rewarded for learning them) without that punishment feeling awful; just make the punishment of a wipe be about resetting the progress on that fight, rather than a needless run back.

Finally, there is no need for current level-cap Dungeons... to be easier than leveling Dungeons. Just... no. They can be reliably quick without having to be easily doable skunk drunk.

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COMBATING INVENTORY BLOAT

Reduce Raid Currencies to just 2 per Raid (one for Normal, one for Savage).

There is no need to make people rerun Normal raids just to get their favored slot in competition with others, especially if it costs 6 times the number of items to support that RNG-extended grind. Nor is there any need to use a different currency for each floor when we could instead just restrict purchasing rights based on which Floor one has furthest progressed to.

Just have one Currency for Normal and one for Savage, with purchases restricted by progress. Done.

If people want to buy no Normal Raid gear until they've cleared the fourth floor of the tier and then spend it all on the chest, so be it. It's not worth the inventory space to prevent that and slightly increase grind times at random. Heck, neither of those are worthwhile goals in the first place.

Consolidate item sets for which appearances are identical apart from their dyes

If two items look the same apart from their dye, just make them the same dyable item. There's no need for every dungeon to have a piece for each sub-type; it's perfectly fine to rotate freebies to reduce inventory bloat, even if it means reducing the grind/burden of multi-leveling (...in a game allegedly about multi-leveling).

Item-less Materia (Rehaul)

Scrap Materia-as-items, streamlining instead into to a simple item-less customization system of minimum inconvenience. No more item-by-item Spiritbonding, no Extract Materia, no 80+ combinations of type and grade of Materia.

Replace it all with a simple Junction system, allowing one to allocate up to a fixed amount of bonus Secondary Attribute points towards whatever they please (SkS, SpS, Det, Crit, DHit, Tenacity, Piety), to a maximum determined by tier. (In that way it acts slightly as a gear-independent means of progression.)

One acquires these allocatable additional Secondary Attributes through doing any content that would previously cause gear to generate Spiritbond, but that's now given to the player directly in the form of SP -- with a simple 1:1 ratio between SP spent and the secondary stats thereby spendable.

For the sake of convenience, allow players also to set Junctures, priority thresholds such as 8% Haste, 20% Crit, etc., towards which additional Spirit Points (AP, per traditional XIV Ability Points) will allocated automatically if there are enough points remaining to reach it, or will otherwise skip that step. "Any Amount"/"Remainder" thresholds may also be used, as can balances, as to allow for a dump stat or dump stat pair.

There. Now the game has an actual no-fuss system of growth and customization pursuable each tier.

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USER INTERFACE STREAMLINING

Revise the way menus from interacting with NPCs or objects operate as not to prevent actions during their use.

Using a Market Board or vendor should not prevent one from opening other menus, changing gear etc. If at all possible, that should be fixed.

Allow non-action /commands (e.g., /bgm) to be used regardless of situation.

E.g., allow /bgm to toggle music volume even if one is in a cutscene or otherwise doing anything that maintains access to one's chat.

Allow Recommended Gear to draw from one's Inventory.

There's not nearly enough Armory Chest space for the Recommended Gear function to be as convenient as intended for multi-levelers who have yet to cap all gear classes, but allowing Recommended Gear to check the equipment in one's Inventory as well would be a huge step towards convenience.

[Ideally] Replace the Armory Chests with just a larger and improved Inventory.

Ideally, all that would look something like this...

The Armory Chests have been removed, replaced instead with 260 additional slots of inventory space (400 slots total) and greatly improved search and filter functions.
Note that there were 380 Armory Chest spaces, so total space has still been reduced by 120. This is compensated for in the four ways mentioned earlier:

• Glamours no longer require a base item. One retains access to the equipment’s appearance forever after initially soulbinding it. They are therefore free to destroy items that are no longer of use.
• Materia has been removed from the game, replaced with a new, more directly customization-friendly system that takes up no inventory space.
• Items which are mostly identical in appearance have been largely consolidated, easing the inventory burden of multi-leveling.
• A greater number of currencies have been moved to the Currency Pane.

Items are now by default split into two sets, Equipment (anything which can be equipped) and Items (anything which cannot be equipped).

One may open the entire Inventory together (which can be set to load in one or the other half first, and with a variable number of pages/slots loaded in at a time) or the individual parts (Equipment, Items) or sub-parts (see below) separately.

Equipment is further sorted and soft-divided, by default, into Immediately Usable Equipment (usable on one’s current class/job), Usable Equipment (usable by one of one’s classes/jobs), or Unusable Equipment (usable on any of one’s classes/jobs).

Equipment’s default sort pattern considers all Immediately Usable Equipment first, descending by slot and then item level, before considering Usable Equipment, from head to feet, earrings to rings, highest to lowest item level, and finally Unusable Equipment.

Items are further sorted and soft-divided, by default, into Consumables (Food, Potions and Infusions/Tinctures, specials like Phoenix Down and Antidote, and Baits/Lures), Materials (gathered or looted items useful to crafting), and Other (all else, including Currency-like items not yet stored in the Currencies Pane).

Beneath this, Consumables are further subdivided into Immediately Relevant Consumables (such as GP-increasing potions when mining or logging and/or Baits and Lures when fishing, or Potions and Phoenix Down in combat content, and Antidote only if the instance has at least one poison thus cleansable), Relevant Consumables (Baits and Lures when logging), and Other Consumables.

Materials, similarly, are further subdivided in either of two ways.

In the first, they are split into Immediately Usable Materials (those usable by recipes which your currently equipped crafter may produce and have all necessary materials for or can produce the remaining materials necessary for), Usable Materials (those which another of your crafters may produce), and Other Materials (those which are of no use to any no directly or indirectly EXP-granting or endgame recipes).

In the second, they are split into Recently Gathered Materials (whatever you have gathered since reaching the zone, prioritizing materials that were gathered multiple consecutive times), Peripheral Materials (materials which, alongside what you have gathered, could produce crafted items and equipment of near your highest difficulty levels available or which would grant significant EXP), and Other Materials (everything else).

Items’ default sort pattern is dynamic. When gathering, it prioritizes Consumables useful for gathering, then Recently Gathered Materials, Peripheral Materials, and Other Materials, respectively. When crafting or either on a crafter class or having opened the crafting menu prior to opening your Items (or specifically Materials) Inventory, it will instead default to the sort order of Immediately Usable Materials, Usable Materials, and Other Materials, respectively.

:: Virtually all sorting orders of even finer categories (such as between Food, Health potions, Attribute potions, and other potions) can also be set.

Because Equipment is no longer split between the Armory Chest and one’s Inventory, there are no longer any barriers to equipping saved or recommended gear.

A few final notes:

1. The appearance and ease of use of the Inventory has been rehauled and repolished. It now, among other things, allows one to scroll row-by-row *by mousing over the inventory grid itself) or section-by-section (by mousing over the header).
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2. One can now "Pin" up to 10 items, in either of two ways: "Pin (to Top of Section)" pins the item to the top of their category. "Pin (to Top)" pins the item to the top of Equipment, Items, or the Inventory as a whole. Pinned items can be clicked and dragged to adjust their order.
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3. Outside of Pinned items, the Inventory will no longer spend information to remember the position of each piece of inventory. Instead, all is automatically sorted.