Current State of FFXIV

[Nero]

NO.. not another one, you may think and that is fine. Careful.. Wall of Text and i did not even type down the half of what i wanted... x_x

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and is free to form their own conclusion and so am i. Inspired by a similiar Japanese Post, which was translated into english, i wanted to give a different point of view. This is totally my personal feeling about the Game and of course subjective. I don't want everyone do agree with me, so feel free to have a fine discussion about it and how you see things different.

I am going to divide the Content into different Aspects and will compare it to other MMO's on the Market. I also like to compare Games to Cars, so be prepared to some Pictures of Cars you may like or totally hate. And this is also how Games "work"; Regardless of how great a car is, it may is something you dislike because of the look, the engine, the price and so on. You don't have to like all the cars out there and everyone has their own favourite.

Like this is how i did see WoW when it was released:

VW Beetle, that is correct. I really dislike the look of it and it is designed. Regardless of that, it is still running and has a lot of fans around the World. I never would buy an old VW Beetle, since i dislike it totally and did i mention that i dislike it? And what did it become after a good amount of work?

Yes, that is the very same Car. And while i appreciate and admit that it does look way better, i still dislike the overall look of it. A lot people do like it and would drive that car, but i would not even tho i "tested" it. As you can see after a lot of Work, they turned an ugly pile of crap, into something good looking, good running piece of "fun". The engine is working better, the chassi got better, the brakes were improved and so on. And still while a lot people love, i do hate it and even tho i can say it is a lot better than it used to be, it is still the ugly thing i have in my mind.

So how do i see FFXIV, compared that?

FFXIV 1.0:

That is one of my favourite Cars and as you can see, it is broken everywhere, burning, not going to see the light of the day again. Even tho i love the Car itself, i can not drive that anymore after this Crash. I did love FFXIV 1.0 the same way, but it had so many flaws, it was not even funny. Regardless of that i did play it from the first Alpha until the very last day, but did admit that a lot was wrong, not working, broken, out of place, burning!

FFXIV 2.0:

Does not look good you may think, but for me it does. It is unfinished, it does need a lot of work until it is done. It does need fine-tuning, it does need some highlight, it does need an epic engine, good brakes, some important pieces are still missing etc. But the Chassi, so the base to speak, is great looking to me and i can't wait for the day until it is ready to roll and burn the tarseal away, while outpacing every other car out there.

It does have the potential to be a beast on the street, but will it be? That depends on what the "workers" will do with it. Will they perfectly get everything done? Will they do a compronise on certain components? Will everything run smooth? Only time will tell and throwbacks are nothing new, but you can overcome them.

It can end up like this, which would be awesome:

Or it could end up like this:

But who's fault would that be? The Drivers fault? Something was wrong with the car? The workers did not work properly? We really can't know right now.

So lets get into some Details of the Game:

Leve-System:

Great System, but lacking some highlights. The 100 Allowances Cap can be annoying and also diversity is not as high as i would like it to be. SE could add some "hidden" elements, like minions, Wanted Monsters ( those are there ), but add some rewards to it like a Treasure Map, Myth tomes, some exclusive Items after you have finished a certain amount of Wanted Mobs etc.

Fate-System:

Same thing basically as for leves. It has a lot of potential but the factor x is somewhat missing. Even if they are more used now, due Atma Farming, they still do lack the diversity of giving you something beside a little Gil and Seals. Some do give minions, why not have a Goblin Fate giving a Goblin Hat? Don't have to be 100%, can be low like atma, but you would aim for something. SE also could implement other Gear-Pieces, Rare Materials, Some super-secret Items, which will be needed for a Craft, certain Encounter or whatever.

Both Systems does have a lot of potential, but that "certain something" have to be added, otherwise they do seem pointless to a lot of people.

Gathering & Crafting:

While i do like both and also do both, there is also something which i do not really like. The current System makes crafted gear not as good as it should be. It seems pointless compared to Dungeon Gear. Some may would say that Dungeon Drops should be the best Option, but making crafted Gear straight obselete in comparsion does not solve the Problem itself. Horizontal Progression would be something in this case and could exist along and beside Dungeon Gear. While BiS could be either from Dungeon or Crafted gear, also Tome-Gear should be an Option. This would also mean that SE have to do some balancing and that some Stats should not be superior to others. Different Gear-Sets with different Specs should work in Endgame, while currently a good amount of people, would not go for a certain Route.

Gathering is simply what it sounds like. Gathering... that's about it and while can be fun for a lot people and also is for me sometimes, i also miss the diversity here. Hamlet was an great option for DoL and DoH, but it is sadly gone. Having both in certain type of Content would be fun as hell. Let's say taking 1 DoL and 1 DoH with you, beside the usual 8 man setup ( s0 10 total ), could add a lot of diversity to the Content. Which also means SE could add a lot more mechanics to the different encounters. Mechanics is the key-word, but it is discussed in the other thread, so i will not into that one right now. This could lead into a total new kind of Content beside Raids, Dungeons and Primals.

Battle-System and Classes:

Well, this is way to controversial and a too complex topic in itself, so i will just scratch the surface a little. We do need more Jobs, not only to add more possible setups, also the "Support" itself is missing like we had BRD, COR etc in FFXI. BRD can support, but songs are no often used and is played more as ranged DPS than anything else. I am not saying this is wrong, but personally i do like true straight support classes. I am sure some of them are in the work allready, so let's hope they work out well in the System. In the end i hope for a 2 Tank, 2 Healer, 3 DPS, 1 Support Setup. Does not have to be exactly like that, but that is what i would like.

And also a thing i would like to say, is that Classes are not used as often as they should be. Classes are more for Solo, or actually people use them in PvP but they are totally left out of Endgame. MRD and LNC are great classes to play, but i will never in Endgame. XIV 1.0 did not really have "endgame", but i used THM over BLM in Neal Darnus ( hard ) and beat it with that. I think leaving Classes makes them pretty pointless and people do not even use them in Solo-Content anymore, while there they would be the better option.

While still being at Levelcap 50, i would like SE to say something about the higher levels. When can expect it, what can we expect and how will it change the actual Content.

EX Primals & Coil:

Both are great for me and i like to participate in both. I do believe that the EX Primals should be more, than just a source for Weapons, because that is all there is to it. Farming Mounts was a step in the correct Direction, but what about adding some more to it? No, not mount.. xD What about actual Gear? Material for crafted Gear? Which can be used together with Glamours and the Gear-Designer, which was mentioned by SE a while ago. That Designer would allow you to add Titan/Levi etc Parts to the Gear you are wearing and add a little resistance to the given element. Like Ifrit-Scales could be used to higher your resistance against fire, but wont change the Main-Gear itself. It would be basically an additional feature of the Glamour-System, with some little side-effects.

About Coil.. well.. there is only 1 little thing i really do not like about it, just one...This is being discussed in several other threads, so i would like to just add something i would like: Add % to the Health-Bar and add a similiar little meter to the Character, like the one for enmity. But that one should show how good you do in dmg and may be in colors, so you can see it faster/easier. Lets say you do bad it will be red, yellow you are doing ok and green you are doing good. Being haxors 1337 #1 dps can be blue blinking or w/e. Just so people do not get into the position of having to use 3rd party tools and risk their actual account. Something along those lines would be nice, which would help seeing your actual performance.

Housing & Gardening & Breeding:

I really love these features and now SE needs to make them for personal use and not exclusive to FC's only. I love my FC having a Large house, with all the nifty stuff in it.. also the gardening patches, but that does not benefit me as an individual person at all. I want my own house, my own garden and my own choco-breeding stable. Player housings should have been in the game, but it has being pushed back over and over. Yeah i don't mind it being delayed until it is working properly, but we also did not get any Informations about it the last couple of month, so the only thing we know is "private room" in the fc house... Should i plant my weed inside of the house or something?.. I am not sure if i like this or not, but personal housing should be in the game before the actual expansion, rather than having a "room" somewhere. I have an Inn allready.


Hm.. i guess i will leave it at this for now lol. I love the Game and totally enjoy it, so even if i dislike certain aspects, i will still play it as long as possible. But yeah, sorry for any typo's, or if something does look that i want things different, i really do not want a changeover, just little additional features for the sake of QoL and even more fun. Have fun reading, i had fun typing and may add a couple more points to the OP, while the Thread will progress.

tl:dr

Have fun, enjoy the Game. If something does not please you, does not mean the Game have to be less fun.

[Starlord]

I agree with the Fate system, I person feel it needs to be reworked or replaced. Everything else I am personally enjoying .

[AmyNeudaiz]

Yes please rework FATEs they are horrendous. Otherwise they will forever be the flat tire of FFXIV

[JayCommon]

Very interesting read! I like your comparisons between phases of games to cars. Was a nice visual cue to complement your views on the state of the game. I happen to agree with a lot of what you say. I enjoy many aspects of the game and take part in mostly all of them, but expanding on many of the systems in the game would benefit all of us.

Especially the part about primals dropping mats to add on to gear. That would be sweet!

Should i plant my weed inside of the house or something?

I lol'd maybe too much at that

[Double]

Good read, While I do respect Yoshida would like some privacy when discussing future content; I can't help but have that lingering feeling of disappointment since we don't know or have a single clue of the roadmap he set for the company and the game in general.

We need more jobs, we need many more jobs; however at the same time, I don't want obsolete mechanics put in just because it's different. I wouldn't rather one job being the absolute better choice over another(FFXI BLM < Any DD job) either.

Only time will tell.

[jellosnake]

I can relate to most of this stuff. If SE could find a way to get really rare blueprints or something similar to drop off of the hard bosses that make items comparable to the top end stuff, I think the profession people would have something to at least motivate them. Even if it's just for the sake of gil.

[DragonFlyy]

On the topic of FATEs. They are kinda a catch 22 now. If people stopped doing FATEs in large amounts SE would see they have a problem with them, but now, they tied Atma weapons directly to them so people are "forced" to do FATEs. Now we have a false inflation on the number of FATEs being done.

So even when someone complains that FATEs suck, SE will fall back on the data they have and see that people are using FATEs.

[Double]

On the topic of FATEs. They are kinda a catch 22 now. If people stopped doing FATEs in large amounts SE would see they have a problem with them, but now, they tied Atma weapons directly to them so people are "forced" to do FATEs. Now we have a false inflation on the number of FATEs being done.

So even when someone complains that FATEs suck, SE will fall back on the data they have and see that people are using FATEs.

SE will see that people are doing FATEs because there's a reason to..

[Prototype909]

SE will see that people are doing FATEs because there's a reason to..

There's a reason to because they forcefully created one even though people objected to it, not because people want to do it.

[Enepttastic]

There's a reason to because they forcefully created one even though people objected to it, not because people want to do it.

Doesn't change the fact in the slightest that people are doing em because they want the reward. Not that I believe in the slightest that the Atma/Animus "quests" are anything but lazy and insulting design. MMOs are time-sinks by nature, if the best idea anyone on your design team has for content that's supposed to be a straight-up time-sink is to make it absolutely tedious, they need to lose decision-making privileges for a bit. Honestly, the only reason I finished the Atma grind was by the time I realized it, combined with the Animus upgrades, were as bad as they were, I'd managed to get eight of em and didn't want them taking up space on my retainers.

On to other points:

Class system:
I disagree with you here. I think the last thing the game really needs, despite the fact that they're coming, are new classes/jobs. I'd much rather the classes be reworked than anything. There's too many skills that are absurdly situational and/or useless and that's before getting into some of the absurd decisions made with the cross-class options. Traits should be reworked as well, every class has three of em that exist as nothing more than filler anyways(Enchance <Attribute> line).

Also disagree with the idea of having a DPS removed for a dedicated support position. DPS queues are bad enough as-is, if the standard 8-man party removed one for a support job, they'd be even worse.


Crafting: To me, crafting is weird. The mechanics of actually crafting something is probably one of the better, if not best, systems I've seen in a game. It has a good mix of participation with a reduction in tedium. Decisions made in regards to recipes however, I often feel are completely insane. CUL seems to exist almost completely to give BOT items to gather, not to mention that I seldom see people using food, even in Ex fights they haven't beaten yet.

I don't even want to get started on the shard/crystal/cluster situation either.

As for gear being top-notch. I'm fine with crafted not being the best. Now, if one could craft untradable gear that's near top-quality but requires effort(not tedium) to obtain mats for and produce, I wouldn't complain about that.

Gathering: A complete 180 from crafting. It's tedious, and tedious, and tedious. The only good thing I have to say on it is how refreshing it is to NOT have to fight others for nodes.

Leves: Like the concept, and despite profiting from it(exp-wise), it's horribly flawed. To be honest, tradecraft leves have no business rewarding exp with absolutely no crafting required. In regards to fieldcraft(BOT and MIN, hadn't done FSH ones) and hunting leves, I feel that the difficulty bonuses are rather lackluster as well.

FATEs: Open-world events are nothing new nowadays and I honestly think the Atma grinding hurts their intended purpose more than anything. If you're trying to level using FATEs one becomes more concerned with tagging mobs over killing them before the Atma train rolfstomps their way through it.

Primals/Coils: With one exception, most of the problems I have with these is really on the community and not the devs. That exception is the several "save or die" mechanics that float around the fights. Between latency(and I honestly don't believe for a moment that it's 100% on the player's side) and the fact that I'm about 100% positive some of the tells aren't 100% accurate in depicting the safe-zones(Landslide and Self-Destruct, I'm looking at you), I don't believe they should exist at the moment. Also, before the responses happen: I don't get hit by landslides or SDs once I learned that the markers are incorrect. Unlike how some people assume, I call out bad designs even if I can get around em.

Now, probably forgot something here or there I originally meant to mention but getting tired of posting on the forums at the moment.