Collective thoughts and suggestions for FFXI

[MattyWS]

As the title suggests(the title is a spelling error lawl), these are all of my thoughts on FFXIV and what I think should be done. Before I go on, remember that if you like what you read, please press the like button, SE will take it seriously with more likes.

Quick things to note;

• All examples given are theoretical and are subject to be altered (numbers, times, prices etc)
  
• All things listed are opinion based and may not be factual
  
• If you do not like what you read, you are more than welcome to give constructive criticism, otherwise don't post
  
• All of these suggestions are for the good of the whole player base, not myself. I will even suggest things that will make the game harder on myself if I feel it is the right thing to do.

Now, before I start I'd like to say that I have full confidence that Square-Enix are a competent group of people and that the Dev. team currently working on Final Fantasy XIV are doing a great job at turning things round for the better. These suggestions reflect that. Some of my ideas may need work, but I'm sure that you guys can do that yourselves.

Right now let's start shall we?

Learning Spells, Abilities and Weapon skills

Now this is a touchy subject, some people think learning the spells just from reaching a certain rank is good, however, I think that this leaves no sense of accomplishment for the player. Some players have said they gained abilities without even realising when they were in battle, this suggests that the abilities do not have any impact on players, they aren't special, they are just there for the sake of it. I think this is the wrong way to think of abilities (when I say abilities I mean spells and weapon skills too, same for both others ^^). Abilities should make you feel special and unique, learning abilities should make you feel like you have gained some experience and skill.

The way to do this is simple, no more automatically learning abilities! Now hold on, before you get all angry and call me a troll, here is a list of ways around auto learning abilities.

• Only some basic abilities will be auto-learned, these will be milestones in your characters levels (1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 is an example). Learning automatically every 2 levels is ridiculous and some things need to be learned the hard way!
  
• Abilities should sometimes drop off mobs in the form of scrolls. A spell that may be level 40 does not need to come from a level 60 NM, it could come from a level 40 normal mob or something similar/challenging for the player, but not impossible.
  
• A spell doesn't need to be of a drop rate of 1% when it could be of a drop rate of 20% (kill 1 out of 5 mobs will likely drop the spell scroll).
  
• A spell can be rare and exclusive, meaning you cannot trade or sell the spell and you can only have one at a time. Meaning use it or drop it.
  
• A spell can be bought from points (guild points or company seals).
  
• A spell can be quested, but the quest doesn't need to be tedious, hell the quest can even be interesting!
  
• Some basic and common spells can be bought from a vendor for quite cheap, doesn't need to be expensive and this way there is no inflation if only NPC's can sell it, and no one can scam anyone else.
  
• Maybe it's too late now, but in the future, any new spells should use one OR MORE of the above suggestions instead of being auto learnt.
  
• This doesn't have to be for spells, it can be for abilities and weapon skills too!
  
• If BLU (Blue Mage is introduced, I think it should be the same as in FFXI, that was one of the most fun ways of learning spells and it felt so good to learn a new spell like that, especially given BLU spells are rather unique and fun.
  
• Another way, similar to BLU maybe to have a spell like "Absorb-Spell" where you use on the enemy and learn a spell that this enemy may use (not BLU spells though, just the normals) but this may be best suited for a dark magic type job.

Feel free to add more if you think there is anything worth adding. I may actually edit my post to add it to the list!

These are prime examples of a working system, obviously all suggestions need ironing out but you guys get the idea.

Righto, on to the next subject!

Travelling about Eorzea

With the upcoming changes I know there will be Airships and Chocobos to come, and while I'm excited about this, I'm also rather unsettled about Anima. Again, a touchy subject, people like having it the way it is and others think it ruins the game. Now I know Anima will be seeing some changes in the next few patches too, but I will still suggest a few things, so here goes!

We need to be able to quest to get an airship pass, otherwise, no ride! it's not to late for this. That pretty much my only suggestion for airships. :P

Chocobos! I think rent-a-chocos should be there, but so should the ability to raise your own, similar to FFXI, so here are some points to make, again, numbers are just theoretical, so don't take them literally.

• Rented chocos should kick you off after a certain time of riding them, in which case you start walking or just go to the next closest rent-a-choco stand (from now on known as choco stand) or airship or whatever you wanna do.
  
• Raising a chocobo should be the "quest" that you need to do before you can rent one. Sounds silly, but if dunno how to ride one, why would they let you rent one? They need to know you're a safe person to lend you their chocobos!
  
• Raising a chocobo's quest should involve looking after the chocobo from egg to adult, gaining it's trust and strengthening it's stats, working out it's personality and eventually gaining the chocobo's trust in you. Once you gain it's trust, you will gain the choco whistle that lets you ride it, and also finishes the quest, granting you the ability to rent chocos too!
  
• Chocobo whistles will have charges on it, you will need to do [something] in order to get these charges back once you run out. I dunno what yet, a quest? maybe pay someone to repair it for you? I dunno, you guys can suggest?
  
• Now it's probably too late for this but you guys are redesigning the zones so I can only hope I'm not too late with this. Lets say you rent a chocobo and after 30 minutes of riding you get kicked off. How about adding zones where you need a chocobo to get to through long, thick grass, slightly deep water or high cliff edges that only chocobos are able to traverse. The best part is that some of these zones can be more than a 30 minute chocobo ride away, so in order to get into some of these zones you will need to call your own chocobo when you get closer to the zone's entrance (or whatever's blocking your way that you need a chocobo to get past). These zones will be now known as ChocoZones, just for now..
  
• ChocoZones can be anything, secret zones to explore, beastman encampments, perhaps even a zone for chocobo digging! (hot or cold anyone?)
  
• Renting chocobos will cost more if renting from an encampment than it would in the cities.

Well now we have my chocobo ideas out of the way.. how about we talk about the Ferry. Now it's so boring compared to barges and ferries in FFXI.. You had mobs and sometimes NM's spawning on board, sometimes even pirates! give us this fun back.. And while you're add it, add some damn scenery. Maybe dolphin type things at the front of the Ferry, or a whale or something. It needs to be fun to travel.

Now it's time for the Anima talk. Sorry to bring this up, I do not want another heated thread about this, but with other transports coming in, Anima becomes more obsolete so it shouldn't matter too much what I say.

Anima takes the fun out of the game, sure it's fast and everything, but it's not an accomplishment using it, how can you call yourselves adventurers if you don't even do that. Here is what I suggest;

• Anima should cost points earned by Behest, quests and levequests alongside gil.
  
• You can only have a maximum of 25 to start off. to go above this, you need to quest for it.
  
• Each quest you do to raise the max Anima will get progressively harder.
  
• Each quest will raise Anima a certain amount, for example "Quest 1 raises to 40, Quest 2 raises to 55, Quest 3 raises to 70, Quest 4 raises to 85, Quest 5 raises to 100".
  
• In the future, more quests should become available to get more maximum Anima.
  
• To get the ability to use anima, there should be a basic starting quest from starting the game (maybe challenging to rank 5 and almost impossible for rank 1).
  
• Do not make it possible to be able to get teleported by someone else using Anima to a place that you have never been! Otherwise you would not have earned that area yourself. I do not know if this is fixed now but it used to be possible from my knowledge.

Well, that's my Anima ideas, and as you know, numbers are theoretical and and whole concept needs ironing out but I think I explained it well enough. And remember, airships and chocobos will be added so Anima will matter less. The reason I suggest this system be in place is because being able to teleport anywhere is a massive gift and at the time is the only transport, but with more transport options this should be an ability that you need to work for, just like riding chocobos or getting the airship pass. Auto-regen anima points is something that you aren't working for, and thus is free transport, something that needs to change. This also means that I will have a harder time getting around, so like I said, it's a system that may not sound good to you, but it's a system that is there for the good of all players, not myself.