Immersive and deep, or archaic and annoying?

[Conradus]

totally agree with Op....i personally found it laughable and embarrassing that fire was my main damage dealing spell against Ifrit!!!!!! I mean COME ON SQUEENIX, wheres the common sense?

My first reaction that I would have to use Fire to defeat Ifrit was, "That's like trying to drown a fish."

[Dragonskin]

Biggest complaint I hear from FFXI players coming to FFXIV is that until level 35 the game is way too easy for everything. After 35 it's really only the dungeons that can be difficult and maybe some solo class duties.

I wish they would have kept some things from XI like the weather affecting things, elementals being healed if attacked with their own element. Rare mobs as FATEs is fine, but most of them need to be harder and spawn less often. FATE leveling in general should be toned down.. it's the best method to get to end game with a class period, especially 30+.

Overall I like FFXIV, but it has a some areas that need to be adjusted and it is still missing a lot to put it back up with FFXI. I do like that they got rid of some of the annoying parts of FFXI, but this game is clearly more designed for the casual gamer.

[Conradus]

Seconded. All those ideas sound so awesome, ESPECIALLY the elemental weaknesses. That's practically standard for JRPGs.

Unfortunately, we're unlikely to get it. They'd have to completely rebuild the magic system (again!) to introduce elemental weaknesses, because the way it designed now, you can't choose which element to use. THM/BLM? Your main attack spell is Fire, and you'll need to rotate to Blizzard to replenish your MPs. CNJ/WHM? Your main attack spell is Stone II. SMN? I'll admit I don't know enough about the Egis, but you appear to need to select from them based on non-elemental factors and in any case, you only get three of the elements. ACN/SCH? You don't even get elemental spells, so you're not part of the discussion. You can't choose another element because there's no adequate replacement.

[Kosmos992k]

Unfortunately, we're unlikely to get it. They'd have to completely rebuild the magic system (again!) to introduce elemental weaknesses, because the way it designed now, you can't choose which element to use.

Um, actually they do have elemental weaknesses in the combat engine, you can see your own elemental resistances on the character page, and specific items/armor can increase resistance to particular elements as can materia, so the capability is already there. There is no problem with casters only having 3 of the elements each, as long as enemies are neutral to one of their three elements, they will still be doing their base damage as normal, if elemental weaknesses were tweaked into effect, then using fire on Ifrit would produce poorer damage than using ice on him. It all depends on the elemental resistance that each mod is configured with. I see no reason why this could not be patched in with minimal effort (mostly the change of monster stats).

I also think that you can see elemental weaknesses in game, though their effect is minimal right now. I could be wrong in that but my sense is that THM has a much easier time with some enemies than others, and that suggests elemental weakness to their main attacks on some enemies, but not others.

[Klefth]

All of that is very cool but they'd have to write the AI logic to support all of it, that would lead to some immense costs including man hours and exposure to additional risk (more stuff to break and have to support). Would definitely be cool though, maybe they can implement this as the game matures?

Most of that stuff was in the original game. It's yet another thing that was stripped entirely for no reason. They could've just changed the behavior of "curious" mobs, but nooooo. It all had to go down the drain.

[Randalthor]

As a product manager, this game screams Minimum viable product (MVP). That approach works for certain products, but for an MMO, you have to have a little something extra to keep people engaged for the long term.

The FFXIV team need to start fleshing out this product quickly and make it more mature before you start losing subs.