Suggestions of every shape and colour...

[Mychael]

Okay. I'm not even level 50 yet, but I have noticed problems that annoy the **** out of me. Rather than post each one in a different thread, I've just put them all together here. I'm sorry if I'm oblivious to solutions for some of these, or if I'll notice them being fixed in the remaining 15 levels before I hit 50 for the first time. To be honest, I have a ton more, but I can't think of them right now and/or am waiting until people can't use "Your highest job is only 35!" as an argument against everything I say. -_-

[SIZE="6"]Conjurer/DoM Suggestions[/SIZE]
• Low-tier Spells – While I appreciate how our spells grow with us both in MP cost and efficacy, this has made it especially infuriating to have to overkill nearly every time. Somehow, almost every time when fighting a mob, I manage to land them at 0-10% of their HP. It’s so annoying to spend large amounts of MP on a spell that I know will do 30-40% of their HP. I’m used to finishing with Drain…
• Different animations – Also, the fact that I’ll see the same animations from 1-50 is kind of stupid. You already have the tiered animations—maybe you could make our spells change at certain levels? I.e. a level 50 casts Fire and gets an explosion, while a level 10 THM casts Fire and gets a little flare? Maybe, even, the effect could change with the damage dealt, kind of like with critical hits? A level 50 DoM could get a well-planned and lucky hit and everyone around raises their eyebrow at the magnificently overdramatic animation! I feel like that’s how it should be. I’m sure everyone wants better animations for their skills, but I haven’t messed with many DoW classes.
• Combos on Resisted Spells – I know this made sense on paper, but when I cast Stone, I watch the animation, not the chat log. So if it fails, I notice; if it partially resists, I don’t. Then I cast Stonera, expecting the single-target and high-damage version, and suddenly have 3+ mobs on me. It’s really annoying, and I think there is considerable danger in this system of using the AoE spell to make a single-target spell to finish a combo. It would be one thing if my combo didn’t work and I did less damage; but it’s another entirely that this should cause me to have to flee or die.
• Water-based spells?! – Water spells need to exist, and preferably for conjurer. I know that we’re supposed to be more healer and less DD than Thaumaturges, but it’s difficult to solo when I only have two elements (three, counting Thunder from Thaumaturgy; I don’t count fire because it’s AoE-only and not cost-efficient). When a mob is earth-based, it takes years to kill it. The majority of my DD comes from earth, which is practically useless. Thunder, which some people may not even have, is pretty much useless. Sometimes (like with puddings) I just sigh and reduce my strategy to alternating Cure and Aero. Just having two elements from the wheel doesn’t work. Possibly, you should consider making Fire a single-target spell, but I haven’t played with Thaumaturgy enough to know how it works out in the long run.

[SIZE="6"]General Suggestions[/SIZE]
• Default Y/N dialogue options – Sometimes, dialogue options default to “Yes” (accepting missions, entering instances, etc.) and others “No” (airships, etc.). I feel like they should all be consistent. If it were up to me, they would all default to “No.”
• Announce the decision on character redesign for new races/genders ASAP – those of us that have been waiting on male miqo’te/mithra for yearrssssssss would really like to know if we’re wasting our time getting non-tradable items for our current characters. I know it’s been mentioned, but I mean…. I’m sure some would rather not pay their subscription knowing that they’re going to restart later; and others would at least stop trying so hard to get things they can’t transfer over.
• Make the game able to recover from things without a complete restart – In particular, FFXIV crashes if I unplug or attach a second monitor. It wouldn’t be as bothersome if locating and using my security token weren’t involved. This isn’t so extreme (many games crash when changing any graphic setting) but if FFXIV could just start again from the launcher (like XI started from POL), it would be nice.
• Bonus for Behest Difficulty – If I’m level 30 and complete a level 35 behest in 6 minutes, I get the swift completion bonus, but not anything for that 5 level difference. If I’m level 30 and solo a level 40 behest slowly, I lose my swift completion bonus, and gain… nothing…
• Offer us real-time support! We’re paying you now, and sometimes we can’t even use the service we pay for! See my thread here.
• Would it be possible to allow the forums to be able to detect when we're logged into the game, so we can avoid having to log in separately?
• When a spell isn't ready... make the console say that. Repeating the command back to you is how XI indicated a syntax error. :/ I keep thinking my macros are broken.
• The surcharge/delivery fee when buying from outside the AH is alright, but there really isn't enough notice that it'll be there. I was about to report a bug that the game charged me more than it should've. Not that I want another confirmation page, I just want an updated total so I know how much of a surcharge I'm paying before I pay it.
• When a garment has two layers (e.g. how some robes have an outer coat-like piece) it would look better if the belt was in-between the layers, rather than outside the coat. Do you wear your belt outside your coat? At the same time, I realize this is hardly feasible or important.