Please keep: Surplus, repairs, stat point allocation and job flexibility!

[gifthorse]

In practice, none of those things work very well besides repairs. Durability/repairs are a good way for crafters to still earn money even after the markets have been saturated with items. Unlike FFXI where gear-crafters were often left without much to do once the game grew tired, in FFXIV they still have a role to play and can still feel useful.

Stat reallocation is perhaps the obvious flaw in the game. While you are premitted to change your class at the drop of a... hammer, you can't become feasible in that job without hours of point reallocation. Reassigning stats by spamming enter and enter for ten minutes isn't exactly very enjoyable either. Another issue is that the stats themselves have to be demerited to prevent the system from being abused and becoming overpowered. So it fails in some ways. Flexibility is good, I just think they need to readjust the system to still allow for the flexibility, but at the same time make it less of a chore to reallocate stats and also make the stats do more than they currently do.

Surplus is interesting, but I think a bonus system would prevent a lot of the complaining. Most people just perservere through surplus nowadays as if it is the new norm. So i think having surplus be the norm and making a rested bonus system would alleviate much of the issue. It's psychological as much as it is an actual flaw with the system. People who play only a short time every day will never be able to experience the game as fully as those who play every day for hours and hours, so a rested-bonus system helps those people gain more for their short playing time as compared to the more hardcore people.

So my suggestion is to flip the surplus system so that being in surplus is the norm & being out of surplus is called a "rested bonus". The same effects can be achieved with less of the mutiny/crying.

[KRTGDL]

In practice, none of those things work very well besides repairs. Durability/repairs are a good way for crafters to still earn money even after the markets have been saturated with items. Unlike FFXI where gear-crafters were often left without much to do once the game grew tired, in FFXIV they still have a role to play and can still feel useful.

Stat reallocation is perhaps the obvious flaw in the game. While you are premitted to change your class at the drop of a... hammer, you can't become feasible in that job without hours of point reallocation. Reassigning stats by spamming enter and enter for ten minutes isn't exactly very enjoyable either. Another issue is that the stats themselves have to be demerited to prevent the system from being abused and becoming overpowered. So it fails in some ways. Flexibility is good, I just think they need to readjust the system to still allow for the flexibility, but at the same time make it less of a chore to reallocate stats and also make the stats do more than they currently do.

Surplus is interesting, but I think a bonus system would prevent a lot of the complaining. Most people just perservere through surplus nowadays as if it is the new norm. So i think having surplus be the norm and making a rested bonus system would alleviate much of the issue. It's psychological as much as it is an actual flaw with the system. People who play only a short time every day will never be able to experience the game as fully as those who play every day for hours and hours, so a rested-bonus system helps those people gain more for their short playing time as compared to the more hardcore people.

So my suggestion is to flip the surplus system so that being in surplus is the norm & being out of surplus is called a "rested bonus". The same effects can be achieved with less of the mutiny/crying.

I basically agree with this against the OP, fwiw.

[ieatsocks]

About surplus: Ugh.

What I'd like to see implemented is a version of the empress band. I used those EXP bands from FF11 on other lower jobs I wanted to level. If I spend all my time playing a job, then realize I need to play it again later but for no benefit? no thanks.

[Abriael]

Really? Many people proposed a rested system back then, on various forums and places on the internet.

Many people had seen it in action by then, and the developers, er, seem to have listened, seeing as how fatigue is on the docket of things to be looked into.

I proposed the rested system or a mitigation of the system since the very beginning of the beta 2 phase. But I'm also aware that telling a developer "just scrap it" simply doesn't work.
If you want to get something from developers you need to mediate.

Also, the experience curve gets slapped around quite often during a release and in the following weeks. You cannot judge a system that influences it until it stabilizes.

As I said, the system isn't "Bad" per se, but it can be done better, and now that the team has changed, there's a serious possibility that the new director will consider just replacing it with something equally functional but less convoluted.

[Hexaemeron]

I guess I just don't understand the logic of gating someone's experience. People will not pay for being told they can only do so much and that's one big reason why the game has the stigma it currently possesses, deserved or not.

[Abriael]

Stat reallocation is perhaps the obvious flaw in the game. While you are premitted to change your class at the drop of a... hammer, you can't become feasible in that job without hours of point reallocation.

No. You're perfectly viable (i think this is the word you were looking for) in any job even without reallocating any point, even more so due to guild mark traits. The current system doesn't allow you to min/max to a cookie-cutter spec for ALL jobs, but between that and viability there's an abyss.

[Magic]

World of Warcraft does a great many things right and exp is one of them. Rested EXP bonus is much more favorable than the current fatigue system. Even the in-game messaging is silly. "Your skill bonus increases." Yaaa... sure it does. Just tell me the truth and say I'm being penalized for playing to much. How people react to systems is all in how you present them.

Bottom line - the fatigue system is presented and feels like a punishment.

[Raim]

I hate to make it sound like everything should be handed to you, but in an MMO, you should have the choice to play what you want to play without being hindered. This means the fatigue system needs to do, not only from a gameplay standpoint, but from a business one. You realize how much bad reputation came from the system in the early stages? Same with repairing. I believe an item should still be required for each individual weapon, but forcing players to level crafting jobs turns away a lot of potential players.

The other two points I can agree with. The stat distribution should be kept in, but on a class to class basis.

[Warp]

Yes. Please keep all the systems that made this game fail in the first place. I like feeling like I'm playing a single player game in the first place.

I am currently playing the game, but I agree with this. Obviously the terrible ideas didn't pan out too well for them, time for a change.

[Abriael]

Same with repairing. I believe an item should still be required for each individual weapon, but forcing players to level crafting jobs turns away a lot of potential players.

Sorry but this is laughable at best. Item degradation and repairs do not, in any shape or form, force ANYONE to level crafting jobs. The new "repair required" bazar icon ensures that anyone can get all of his items repaired cheaply and fast.
I didn't repair any of my items myself (despite being plenty able to repair my armor) lately, because just putting them in my bazar and walking around the city 2 minutes is faster and easier than getting the materials from my retainer and switching to the hammer.