[Suggestion] Quality of *GAME* improvements thread

[Daniolaut]

So you, Square-Enix, and the player base have heard of the "Quality of Life" suggestions, well, I present to you the quality of game suggestion thread.

If you have contrasting views about this thread, or post, please view this thread:

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

as most likely your suggestion or input would be more appropriate there.

Lets stay on topic of the original post, thank you.

The topic at hand here:

is more so, in contrast to quality of life items.

Example:
Quality of life "improve visibility of quest destinations"

Quality of game "hide quest destinations, player must search by clicking. Similar to traditional Final Fantasy games."

The reason behind this is for people who have the time to play the game, and enjoy exploring, depth, or mystery, and other such traits not currently found/existing in the game.

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With that out of the way, lets get started.




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User Interface:


-Auto hide chat log
(Existed in 1.0, as well as XI. Some people like to play without the chat log constantly in their view of sight, but also dont want to miss important /tells from their RMT buddies, or linkshell conversations.)

Yes the RMT thing was a stab/joke at how out of hand it is.

-Option to hide quest markers
(Quest markers are just clutter in my opinion.)

-Option to hide visual zone lines
(Zone lines are needless clutter. Its extremely easy for any RPG veteran to decipher where a zone is.)

-Option to hide "Quest accepted" and "FATE joined" indicators.
(it is common sense when one accepts or joins a FATE.)

-Option to hide all "THANALAN" and "The Bismarck" and "The Drowning Wench" notifications.
(Anyone playing the game for more than 15 hours can pretty much know where they are, if not they can open the map. These notifications, in my opinion, seem absurdly redundant.)

-Option to hide FATE zone markers on a map.
(FATE zone lines, FATE JOINED prompts, music change, and FATE Joined jingle are extremely over redundant.)

-Option to glamour pieces of gear to *gear sets* not gear, this way, i can glamour one piece of gear to Paladins set, then another to Dark Knight.

-Option to adjust flying text, so that you only see numbers, from the damage or heals you do.
(See the text for every action and spell is completely redundant.)

-When starting the game, option for preset settings
(For example, if youre new to "mmos' you select "new player" then the options presets the settings in the User interface with all the quality of life settings. But, if youre experienced and still want some guidance, you select "guidance" setting, that would hide zone lines, but keep quest markers up. Then if youre a FFXI veteran or wish to explore, you select "Explorer" setting, which has an asterisk stating that using this setting hides all guidance from the user, and implements all quality of game settings.)

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What would be nice would be to have a toggle to make all newly received quests disabled so they do not appear in your active quest list automatically.

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Character animations/movements:

-Please create step/turn movements for Standard Camera users.
(Currently if someone turns their camera while in /cpose the character turns into a spinning top and it looks very unpleasant. Or if the user turns their camera the character doesnt move on their screen. Its very unpleasant to the eye.)

-Please create character movements for each /cpose and movement
(For example, when using /cpose with weapon drawn the character makes movements to move into the /cpose position, but when using it again to move back into default the character just jerks and slides. Very unpleasant.)

-Please create character lower body movements for all races to move into "active" or "battle" stance.
(currently when a character draws their weapon, their hands move towards their weapon to ready it for battle, but their legs stay planted on the ground, and slide. Very unpleasant.)

-Please create lower body movements for Bard and Machinist. Then separate them from the upper body, so when a player starts to move, the lower body movement is canceled and the running/moving animation begins.
(Bard had lower body animations In Alpha testing and when the players pointed out how bad the sliding was, instead of taking the time to create/program movements to transition from doing a battle animation to moving, SE took the easy approach and just took away most of bards lower body movements. This is very unpleasant.)

-Please change the emote the character performs when completing a battle, during the cutscene from /joy to /vpose
(This isnt all that important, it just would be a very nice touch.)

-Please create a mounting and dismounting animation.
(at least for chocobos. It would be a nice touch. Especially since we have to wait for a spell to cast while mounting anyway.)

-Please adjust the position where doors open, so then when riding a chocobo, or sprinting the door is open before i run through it, so i literally am not running through it.
(Any beast tribe door location for example.)




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Quests:

-Please turn all "Entrance" points and exit points from giant glowing things into residents of Eorzea (NPCs.)
(IReplace the giant glowing "Entrance" points into "NPCs" because a giant glowing white thing in front of the door to say Haukke Manor, makes for terrible screen shots, and is visual indicator overkill. Clearly there is a door there already, we dont also need a giant glowy thing as well as the words "Entrance.")

-Please create some quests that arent a riddle, but instead simply hide information from you. Similar to traditional Final Fantasy games.
(For example, when you do a quest in Final Fantasy VII, there isnt a giant glowy thing telling you were to go, you simply must talk to the worlds residents to gain information. A better example is Final Fantasy XI, as its an MMO to start with.)

-Please create dialog for all interaction-able residents (NPCs)
(Currently when seeking passage on an airship, taking a ferry, or riding the elevator, the person with which you are interacting with says nothing at all. That is strange and unnatural. "Do you wish to take the airship to Gridania" ::Prompt appears to respond yes or no.:: To resolve the issue of people trying to spam yes, make the default selection yes. Instead of no. Thats the reason your talking to the airship attendant in the first place.)

NPC quest giver asks us to go fight such-and-such baddie
objective: go fight such-and-such baddie
<fight ensues>
objective changes to: take the note you found back to NPC so-and-so
Huh? Note? What note?
<open inventory window and go to Key Items where a new "note" item has mysteriously appeared that wasn't there before>
Ah, well, ok, I guess a note must have dropped from that fight. Guess I'll take it wherever the quest objective is telling me to.

I'd like to see finding that note (or whatever item) being added to the action of the quest, where it's our in-game character (rather than just the quest journal and tracker) that finds it and decides what to do with it.

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Music and sounds:

-Option to turn off only "town" ambient noise.
Or
-Fix the town ambient noise so one doesnt have to hear ::lalafell laugh:: and "put it on a hot plate" every time it loops. This is overly obvious and not pleasant to the listener.
(in other words notice-able sounds and noises are not "ambient."

-Create battle music that is different for every major location.
Ex: battle music for La Noscea, music for Dravania, etc.
(This was done in Final Fantasy XI. That was a successful MMO. If you wish not to take the time to create new music for 2.0 zones, well luckily there is already music that exists for that, simply reuse the old 1.0 music. Thank you.)

-Return to all 2.0 dungeons, and loop their intro music.
(Just as you did with Pharos Sirius. Please and thank you.)

-FATE music only starts/plays while player is inside the zone, as well as actually in battle.
(I did not, nor cannot join a FATE for experience points while on botanist or miner.)

-Create, and or loop music for every zone.
(Botanists, and miners are left in the dead of silence while gathering. Or, even worse, end up near a FATE and hears that music constantly starting and stopping for the next 15 minutes as they move from node to node.)

-Please look into a way for botanists and miners to have a pleasant experience while gathering in 3.0 zones.
(currently you either must spend the extra time walking from node to node, which is seriously time consuming, or you mount up and fly to the next node. When doing the latter, you hear ::initiate mount music for 5 or so seconds:: .... ::initiate zone music for 15 or so seconds:: ... mount-zone-mount-zone. Its not pleasant.)

-Please place precedence of the "Level up" music over "Leve complete" and other music/sounds.




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Battle Mechanics:

-Please create some, or more *leveling* enemies that dont have giant red glowy things on the floor to dodge, but mechanics that require you to learn the *leveling* enemy's movements and plan accordingly.
(This goes for open world enemies only probably. Its kinda repetitive to be dodging a red glowy thing at level 1, then being level 60 and dodging a red glowy thing, and that being all the mechanics of nearly every enemy in the entire game.)





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Classes and Jobs:

-Please adjust animations that prioritize the weaponskills or important moves.(or global cooldown, as most like to call it.)
Ex: When player performs "Chaos Thrust" then immediately does "Leg sweep" the leg sweep animation is ignored, and the Chaos Thrust animation continues to be performed as normal. Currently it works that each button pressed, takes precedence over the previous. Thus resulting in the character looking very unnatural. Some job specific animations could still take place such as elixer field, or jump, etc.



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Markets and Retainers:

-Please move the market boards.
(Take all the market boards, and place them back into the market wards. This will free up Limsa from being overly cluttered, and will give a place for that wonderful shopping music we used to have in the 1.0 market area. This will also create a more immersive feeling as you must go to the market wards to utilize the market boards.





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Other:

-Please create a cutscene for riding the airship to Foundation

-Please create a cutscene for riding the airship to the Gold Saucer

-Please re-introduce the cutscene for riding the elevator in Limsa and Ul'dah

-Please introduce a cutscene for taking the bridges from Limsa to La Noscea, Gridania to the Black Shroud, etc etc.

-Please restore MP and HP and the ATB (global cooldown) when touching an Aetheryte

-Please disallow players from riding mounts into sanctuaries.

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And the ferries, too. We get a ship cutscene when going between Limsa Lominsa and Vesper Bay, but not on any of the ferries (Limsa to Aleport, Aleport to Isles of Umbra, Gridania to East Shroud, Gridania or Cental Shroud to Lavender Beds, etc.)

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Any posts players make, i will add them to their respective locations in this thread. Giving Square-Enix a nice and easy to access thread to read.

This is Final Fantasy, and I like to believe Square-Enix prides themselves in creating a quality video game.

[Daniolaut]

Reserved for later use

[Daniolaut]

reserved for later use.

[ChameleonMS]

Battle Mechanics:

-Please create some, or more enemies that dont have giant red glowy things on the floor to dodge, but mechanics that require you to learn the enemy's movements and plan accordingly.
(This goes for open world enemies too. Its kinda repetitive to be dodging a red glowy thing at level 1, then being level 60 and dodging a red glowy thing, and that being all the mechanics of nearly every enemy in the entire game.)

The only real problem I have with this idea is screen overload. To properly see the animations it would become almost required to basically turn off all the effects animations from other players just to see the mob.
While gaining a nice game play mechanic, you lose a game play aesthetic.

[Daniolaut]

The only real problem I have with this idea is screen overload. To properly see the animations it would become almost required to basically turn off all the effects animations from other players just to see the mob.
While gaining a nice game play mechanic, you lose a game play aesthetic.

You make a valid point.

This wouldnt be easily implemented for boss fights no.

But, for overworld enemies, it would be very nice. I even tried to make mention its for the leveling enemies. I will try to clarify even more. Thank you.

[Atoli]

Half of these are actually QoL improvements that have been asked for in the thread you mentioned at the beginning (like looping the intro music in the old dungeons, etc.),
the other half is either very specific to YOUR tastes and therefore a huge waste of development time ("I don't like this one particular lalafell laugh, let me mute it", seriously?)
and most of it would probably not be enjoyed by 99,999% of the playerbase
(because it is "please make this game incredibly cluttered and a pain to play again like it was in 1.0 with lengthy cutscenes for every little movement and 5 million zone ports just to buy one single item").
What's left are things that are already in the game (you know that you can just turn mount music off, right? So no mount-area-mount-area every few seconds when gathering, just area music until you are sick of it).

As for a mode that hides all the "guidance" you don't seem to want:
it's called "interface off"
No questmarkers, no text over items you have to find on the ground, no map, no idea who anyone is, no tooltips, no nothing.
You can turn the HUD back on for a bit while reading NPC text.
There, you have your optional "I hate everything that makes my life easier"-mode

[Daniolaut]

...)

I'm equally, if not more aware of the settings in the user interface than you are deary. Of that i am certain.


These arent just my tastes. Many people in Alpha and Beta testing asked for these very things, but the team was very busy getting the game ready they didnt implement.

I'm bringing them back to light now.

Turning the UI off or hiding it, disallows the player from interacting with residents of Eorzea (NPCs.) So that is not an option.

I already have mount music turned off because of 3.0 gathering mechanics.

I am aware that some of these requests are in the quality of life thread, and are more considered quality of game.

Your statement "a huge waste of development time" doesnt apply. They spend a great deal amount of time creating hair styles, emotes, gear, that cater to the player base that wants to act silly the entire time.

I'm asking they spend just a bit more time, or even half the time on those needless items, and focus a bit more on quality.

Giving transitional movements when changing poses, or having the character take steps when someone uses their "standard camera setting"

So please, if you dont have anything productive to say, dont say anything at all, your post was not inspired, clearly, as even your signature indicates you lack inspiration.

[Tonjiar]

Internal DPS/HPS/TPS meter that by default is only shown to you. Option to enable sharing meter information with party/alliance members that are also sharing. Meter sharing is disabled by default when queuing up for any roulette.

Listing damage done in chat windows for DOTs and HOTs. I'd love to see numbers here to see how much I'm healing or damaging and how often I get a critical with each spell.

Option for breaking apart the party window to a 2X4 list or something different than 1X8....
Option to enable colors for the party window for HP/MP/TP

Enable a FATE countdown if you leave the area by accident. Doing the YoKai watch event has show me that ranged classes can sometimes kill the mobs spawning outside of the FATE area of interest before any melee classes have a chance to assist. So either chance the spawn position of FATE mobs or give a countdown as you leave the area of interest.

[Niwashi]

A lot of great points, many of which I've wished for myself quite often.

-Please look into a way for botanists and miners to have a pleasant experience while gathering in 3.0 zones.
(currently you either must spend the extra time walking from node to node, which is seriously time consuming, or you mount up and fly to the next node. When doing the latter, you hear ::initiate mount music for 5 or so seconds:: .... ::initiate zone music for 15 or so seconds:: ... mount-zone-mount-zone. Its not pleasant.)

They've already got a mount music option in Character Configuration, but it'd be nice to have an easy way to toggle it back and forth, perhaps a chat command we could put in a macro. (For that matter, a lot of the configuration options could do with such macro toggles.)

-Please create a cutscene for riding the airship to Foundation

-Please create a cutscene for riding the airship to the Gold Saucer

-Please re-introduce the cutscene for riding the elevator in Limsa and Ul'dah

-Please introduce a cutscene for taking the bridges from Limsa to La Noscea, Gridania to the Black Shroud, etc etc.

And the ferries, too. We get a ship cutscene when going between Limsa Lominsa and Vesper Bay, but not on any of the ferries (Limsa to Aleport, Aleport to Isles of Umbra, Gridania to East Shroud, Gridania or Cental Shroud to Lavender Beds, etc.)

the other half is either very specific to YOUR tastes and therefore a huge waste of development time ("I don't like this one particular lalafell laugh, let me mute it", seriously?)

He didn't complain about the lalafell laugh itself but about the presence of sounds recognizable enough to make the looping of the ambient sound track too obvious. If you can hear the loops, then it doesn't sound like ambient sounds.

[Daniolaut]

He didn't complain about the lalafell laugh itself but about the presence of sounds recognizable enough to make the looping of the ambient sound track too obvious. If you can hear the loops, then it doesn't sound like ambient sounds.

Thank you. Your post was refreshing, because you were actually capable of understanding. Even if you didnt agree, at least you respond with reasoning. (not sarcasm.)