Quote Originally Posted by Rinsui View Post
Quite possibly, the upcoming "cataclysm" (new umbral age) will see the destruction / de-aspection of crystals and eatherites anyway. So bye-bye to warping around and talking to floating stone pillars.
I'll definitely have fun crafting with de-aspected shards then. I hope they work as well as fire shards to make a fire hot. But really, that's not viable at all, blowing up the aeths...

Keep the aeth's and the gates. They provide a nice place to pinpoint areas to relax, and the removal of those will just destory what aesthetic appeal this game had left.

Anima needs to be changed, yes. And people's attitude towards it. Right now, people are merely using it as a constant tool, using it to teleport everywhere, even to areas that take less than 2 mins to walk to. They use it, use it...then complain about the anima usage in-game. If anything, I believe that it's the community who is abolishing and pulling apart the anima system.

I've seen too many people using anima to teleport to the direct outside camp of each city. Too often I have I seen people do BW leve, then go to Halatali, the back to BW once someone gets their leves, repeat and rinse. They blow their anima faster than they can fight, when, if they learnt to do leves at one place at a time, they'll conserve their anima. If people learnt to conserve their anima for necessary instances, then perhaps we won't be having this problem at all.

Right now, as the game is, it will NOT be a good idea to change anima and restrict it. Without more modes of transport, I don't think that the acceptance of such a restriction will be well-received.

But after they implement chocobos and airships? A new ferry line between Gridania and Limsa? Yes, it will be fine to change it.

I like the idea of locking teleporting to the aetheryte, or what FFXII does. And perhaps increasing the cost, or slowing the regen rate of the anima, to encourage people to use other types of transport. Slow the regen to 1 per earth day, or increase the costs to camps by a 2 or 3 anima, depending on where they are. But I do not support the total destruction of teleporting, as I feel that it's necessary for casual-friendliness, which is what this game is apparently striving to be.

Or instead of using 'anima', we can use 'crystals', for a better lack of term, to teleport around when we're at the aeth, and remove the use of anima. I know I'm stealing the idea from FFXII again, but we can get these 'crystals' from quests, or missions, so we actually feel like we achieved something that allows us to teleport. New people to the game get a set amount to start with, and once they finish, they need to do these quests in order to replenish their stack. Perhaps not the most ingenious idea, but I throw it out there anyhow.

I agree with the "home aeth" concept; it will work well for live 'return' options. However, they should really add another option that allows you to teleport to the last aeth you touched, but usable ONLY when you're dead. This will allow for the 10-minute limit on the Return option, while still letting dead players to return back to the aeth. This could also lead to the introduction of ailments resulting from death, if you use that option.

So, I'll summarise it like _C-a-e-r-i-t-h_ has...
  • Introduce other transport means
    • Airship between cities; direct, fast and peril-free. Attach a cost, in gil or tickets or something like that.
    • Ferries between cities; slower, can have monsters appearing randomly, but free of charge.
    • Chocobos. Refer to _C-a-e-r-i-t-h_'s post, since I can't explain it better than what has been said in that post. Link here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post207123
  • Changes to teleporting system
    • Make teleporting viable only from aeth to aeth to gate. No longer able to teleport in the middle of nowhere.
    • Allow for a "Home" aetheryte, where cost is negligible, and can change on player preference.
    • Teleport option to only appear when in the presence of an aetheryte crystal or gate or node.
    • Return option to have a time-limiter, but also remove cost of returning.
    • Add another option in main menu, only usable when dead, to return to last-touched aeth. Separate from Return on the main menu list.
    • Anima usage changes
      • OPTION 1: Make anima regen slower, or the anima cost higher depending on where you're going. Also, making the max amount of anima lower to encourage players to use other modes of transport. Also introduce "Teleport" skills for mages etc. Perhaps even make an "MP -> Anima" skill, but having a long timer on it, usable every 4 hours or something like that.
      • OPTION 2: Take out anima altogether, and use "Teleporting stones", obtained through quests or as rewards for leves and missions. Perhaps can also be bought under certain conditions. Teleporting requires use of these 'stones', allowing players to do something to 'achieve' a sense of reward when teleporting. New players get a set amount to start of with, then when they use them up, they have to go restock via quests or missions.

Everything has a price, and currently, the only price Anima has is it's regen rate, which is rather fast. With the introduction of more transport modes, it need to be balanced, so it becomes an emergency use rather than something that overtakes chocobos and airships as the main mode of transport.