[SIZE=5]How to fix this mess (in order of importance):[/SIZE]


Rebalance leves so that the best ones are not all in Thanalan

They are already moving towards that goal by instituting a set SP reward upon leve completion.

If all leves give out the same rewards for the same amount of effort, there will be no reason to stay exclusively in any one area like there is now.


Ensure that there are convenient ways to get SP in all regions of Eorzea

As long as there is suitable content that lets players get SP in each region, players will go to that region.

As long as any one region is not overwhelmingly better than the other, players will be able to freely spread out according to personal taste.

An emphasis on open-world grinding will also help in this regard. If there are more viable places in the world to grind mobs, players will go there. The developers would do well to encourage this and to get players to explore their world more by rewarding them for doing so.

See here for more details how:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-How-to-Fix-it

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Dynamic-Erozea



Combine the market wards from all 3 cities into the same instance

Recently, FF11 did this with their auction houses because really, there is no point in having them all be separate. Currently, you are punished whenever you go to Limsa or Gridania because the market wards over there are barren due to the reasons I stated above.

If all the cities' market wards were combined, it would make all 3 cities equal in convenience with respect to market ward economic advantage. For pure merchants, that would meant that there is almost no reason to have to stay in Uldah all the time. All 3 cities would have equal convenience and money-making potential.

Carpenters, Armorers, Leatherworkers, Culinarians, etc who need to use guild support can do so in their respective cities without having to feel like they are missing out on sales due to not having access to the Uldah market wards.

This alone would go very very far to achieve what YoshiP stated his main objectives were - not to decrease Uldah's convenience, but to increase the convenience of the other 2 cities.


Encourage players to do leves in different locations

There is a current mechanic that does that now - leve exchanging. Exchanging leves from different leves gives you a higher multiplier bonus. However, this only lets you get more gil and guildmarks, which we all know are pretty much useless.
  1. Make the rewards for leve exchanging more varied and desirable
  2. Make it easier and more intuitive for players to exchange leves
  3. Increase the relative value of gil (hard to do) See this thread for ideas: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11434-DevTalk-GIL-SINKS!-Ideas-to-Stabilize-the-Economy-and-Curb-Inflation
  4. Increase the value of guildmarks by giving us more abilities to buy, as well as items and equipment that are only obtainable by purchasing them from the guilds with guildmarks.

Implement Chocobos and Airships already!

Why oh why were these features not already in the game at retail launch???

The players need more methods of transportation, and the current 2 choices (walking and teleporting) are woefully inadequate.

Players need a quick way to travel between the cities that does not eat up anima.

In-depth outline for chocobo implementation can be found here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Want-Your-Fix


Fix behests so that SP is not so strongly dependent on the number of participants

Mainly, have each behest spawn the max amount of mobs whether you have only 1 participant, or 8.

See this thread for additional ideas: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ehest-Feedback


Implement global shout channels so that players can interact with each other more easily even if they are in remote locations.

I know this is a controversial topic, but I feel that this would do more good than harm. Currently, social interaction is too dependent on location, because no one is going to hear you if you don't shout in Uldah.

De-link that association, and players will be free to move elsewhere without repercussions. I laid out a plan for this in a previous thread:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...g-Improvements

Quote Originally Posted by Rentahamster View Post

Additional Chat Log Improvements:

Add the functions /l1, /l2, /l3, /l4 etc so that we can change linkshells without having to access the menu.

Add more tabs for each window.

Add more categories for chat text color. Specifically, the ability to alter only the chat log text about "parry", "evade", and "block", so that it is easier to use reactionary skills like Phalanx, Fracture, Haymaker, and Jarring Strike.

Add 4 new global shout categories that broadcast to the entire server rather than just the immediate area. Each one would be for each of the different languages (Japanese, English, German, French) (/jp, /en, /gr, /fr)

Add 1 global shout category just for party finding. Limit each player to one shout per 20 minutes to prevent spamming.

Add 1 global shout category just for buying/selling. Limit each player to one shout per 20 minutes to prevent spamming.

Improve the party search feature

No one uses it now because it is very unintuitive. Just copy the system from FF11 where you can set up a "looking for party" flag along with comments, so that party leaders can find YOU, instead of the other way around.

The current implementation is TERRIBLY flawed now because there are more people looking for parties than people who want to make parties. The current implementation assumes the opposite and is designed to favor the opposite, for some odd reason.


Give us /sea please

Look at how much easier it is in FF11 to put together a party: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.htm...614&howmany=50



Well, that's pretty much the bulk of it right there. Of course there are many other details and nuances regarding the Limsa/Gridania depopulation phenemenon, but if the devs take the suggestions I laid out into consideration, I'm confident that it would solve a lot of the current problems.

Please add your ideas and contribute to the discussion below. If you think any of my points are misguided or wrong, feel free to elaborate.

More ways to fix FF14: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/s...vBForum_Thread