In regards to your first point, I assume you never noticed that the plans for the reasonably near future are for maximum party sizes of eight members, with 'small' parties of four members. These changes to the Skill Point gain at the moment are the first thing to try and get people used to the idea of an eight man party. Expect the changes within the next couple of months, if some of the interviews with Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) are anything to go by.

As for Solo play it is important to note that solo should never, never be better than Party play if you ever want people to actually party up with others outside of purely Linkshell, or heck, even party up within Linkshells. People are driven by numbers - this is obvious by the way people flocked to the Coblyns for easy Skill Points before the recent change. Don't get me wrong, I play almost exclusively Solo, be it Botany, Lancer or whatever, but I see no reason why I should be entitled to more Skill than those putting the time and effort into grouping up with others. You gain the choice of whatever, whenever, you lose the chance for more Skill. Seems like a decent trade off to me.

To the Guild Bank, I think we should wait and see what Public Companies have in store before we get into that kind of discussion, as the original team stated them to be the actual idea of a 'Guild' from other games. Linkshells are the baseline group of communication at the moment, I don't think they have ever been intended to be the proper Guild focus itself. Of course, the implementation may be radically different now - but one of the things mentioned about Companies way back was the construction of Company ships and the like. We shall see.

Also, I disagree that you should be able to check the prices across the different cities. Part of what drives buying and selling in areas is not knowing how much you could get it for elsewhere. For example, I can sell Pine for a heck of a lot more in Gridania, than I can in Limsa Lominsa due to the abundance of Pine in La Noscea compared to the trip to Coerthas as the closest to Gridania.

I'll agree that transportation is bad, however, I have managed to avoid going below 80 Anima since I started playing, by walking. It takes time, yes, but it does save that Anima for if/when you really need it. If you have enough time to be blowing through the Anima, I'm sure you can deal with walking for 10-15 minutes.

Hopefully the future addition of Chocobos and Airships aids out in the transport department - it is obvious it should be there, what with the airship docks and Chocobos standing about. Heck, there is even an Airship dock underneath the Gridanian Adventurers Guild if you go down the stairs.

Crafting I have to disagree with, entirely. I don't mind if you have mass synthesis in that once you complete one item, it automatically starts the next one, but to remove the player input into the crafting would just immediately kill off one big section of the game, leaving it as dull as other crafting systems. If someone were to suggest that Botany should just be an automatic gather - as you suggest for synthesis - I'd be most displeased. Were it automatically gathered I'd have been bored of it after the first five minutes - like most other games were you can gather resources. These aren't side Classes, they are a main part of the game in which many people will spend most, if not all of their time. Also, just because some people are botting doesn't mean that the people out there who don't, and enjoy the crafting process - be it dealing with the sparks, gearing up, or merely being capable - should have something they enjoy stripped from them because of people ignoring the terms of use.

Personally, I don't enjoy crafting, at all. Nor am I much of one for fighting - that doesn't mean that I'd kick them down so I can make things easier for me to Gather. Remember, while many people seem to think that you do everything, one of the reasons I enjoy the game is because I don't *need* to fight, I don't *need* to craft. Crafting and Gathering are choices, that require time and dedication in the same way as any Fighting class does, with gearing, repairs, and general advancement.

This strikes me as one of the biggest issues, and something I hope doesn't happen to the game, where in fighters become the be all, end all, and anyone wishing to purely be a gatherer or crafter is missing out on more than battle content. Many of the more...strongly worded opinions I have read over the time since the game launched, have definitely been from those mainly focused on fighting, and dabble in crafting, sometimes gathering, if really needed. What you don't seem to understand is the impact that this could have on those who enjoy the style of gameplay involved with those two other branches of the game.

This, as yourself, is just my opinion. This is of course where the problem lies, as I disagree with some of your statements, if not fully, then at least in part. It is up to the developers to make the decisions in the end, and have to make do with the general feeling they get from people. However, Star Wars Galaxies made the mistake of kicking crafters and other non-combat people right in the gut (particularly crafters, who they made worthless with the implementation of loot basically always better than what crafters could create) and the game took a massive nose dive, from a population that was 'ok' and fairly stable, to depths unknown. It has slowly recovered, but I never want to see something like that happen to Final Fantasy XIV. Improvements, yes, things that kill off interesting differences such as the crafting and gathering, no.