A Realm Reborn Revamp / Lack of Race Diversity / Class locked glamours

[Yoshihara]

First time posting on the forums, I didn't know where to leave suggestions, but given this is a prime time for picking up new players I'd just like to discuss a really serious gripe I have that affects enticing new players into joining the current playerbase. Well, 3 of them, the last of which is easy to fix.

I have attempted to convince many new players into playing FFXIV and staying, many players are those who wish to defect from World of Warcraft given its current state.

• However a lot of these players are put off by how outdated the "A Realm Reborn" content is. and quit playing the game before even hitting lvl 30. So far I've been able to convince 1 out of 10 players to stay as a result. The Heavensward and Stormblood content is great but so few players are willing to play through A Realm Reborn content to get that far, which would convince them to stay.
  
  One could argue that you could "Pay" to skip that content, but good luck convincing new players to do that.
  
  Given we have been able to shed the limitations of the PS3 and its memory problems, would it be a good time to update and inject new life into ARR content without changing it too much?
  
  
• Another major complaint that drives potential players from the game is the character creation:
  People were generally upset that the only class choices were varying forms of human of varying sizes with features stuck onto them. The upcoming Viera race is essentially also just a human race with bunny ears (and feet). Some people have been interested in playing less human-looking races but have been turned off from the game because of the lack of race diversity. This may be a bit harder to implement into the game though.
  
  
• The last thing which should be incredibly easy to fix is to lift the restriction on class restricted glamours. A handful of players refused to even start playing because they like to check what they can eventually mix, match and wear. When they find out that a certain class can only wear a certain piece of clothing even after glamouring due to a class restriction, they don't even pick up the game.
  
  I'm pretty sure almost nobody would miss a restriction on class based glamours.

I'm pretty sure some of these must've been mentioned before but it'd really help in getting new people to play and stay in the game.

[Yoshihara]

Another argument given is:

"Just play Palace of the Dead"

I admit that Heaven on High has made some serious improvements on the Deep Dungeon concept, but can you honestly tell me that grinding Palace of the Dead over and over again for new players (which new players have to also find out is the most efficient way to get classes to lvl 50 / 60) is engaging content? The one person I've convinced to stay in the game is taking a break from the game because of how mind numbing the grind is from lvl 1-60 from just playing Palace of the Dead over and over again. He's a bit of a completionist so he wants to be able to choose which class to play through Stormblood content as.

That being said, said friend of mines should probably just buy the level skip instead of slowly murdering his soul

Palace of the Dead can be pretty alright, but once you get to your 100th+ play-through for the sake of experience grinding, your soul may as well join the dead inside the palace. Now this won't affect me at all given I have all my classes at lvl 70, but is there a possibility to add or buff alternative ways of getting experience from lvls 1-60, or simply further buff the experience points received from Palace of the Dead?

[MistakeNot]

Another argument given is:

"Just play Palace of the Dead"

Palace of the Dead is boring in large doses, but luckily there are many other ways of leveling your characters. I have never found it necessary to do PotD for leveling purposes, even though it does help when you are on your third or 10th class.

[briarth0rn]

As far as I'm aware, the devs are working on streamlining the quests in ARR and cutting down on the filler, but it's a lot of work and at the moment no one can be sure if that'll be ready for Shadowbringers' release or not. It's a known issue and gets brought up frequently though, I'm sure it'll be update eventually.

Regarding races: If we take the devs' at their word as of last Fan Fest, Viera are probably the last new race we're getting, so there's not much else to be done about that. There's rumors/speculation of a second race coming in ShB that supposedly resembles the Ronso from FF10 which might satisfy people wanting a more bestial looking race, but they're still fundamentally human shaped. Viera heels have been said to be enough of a hassle to model gear around, so I really doubt we'll ever get a playable race that's not human-shaped. Which is too bad, I would've loved to see bangaa or seeqs at some point.

As for glamour restrictions, most people want this, but it seems like SE is sticking to the approach of just making new, restriction-free versions of particularly popular sets as glamour rewards occasionally. Whenever a new expansion is released a lot of gear from the last one gets recycled and the new versions might be restriction-free or available to a new role or dyeable where they weren't before, but I think they've said they're against lifting all restrictions in the game. I don't mind the current approach, but I really wish they'd give casters/healers some heavier or metal armor that isn't gated behind being the top 100 in competitive PvP on your datacenter.

[Yoshihara]

As for glamour restrictions, most people want this, but it seems like SE is sticking to the approach of just making new, restriction-free versions of particularly popular sets as glamour rewards occasionally. Whenever a new expansion is released a lot of gear from the last one gets recycled and the new versions might be restriction-free or available to a new role or dyeable where they weren't before, but I think they've said they're against lifting all restrictions in the game. I don't mind the current approach, but I really wish they'd give casters/healers some heavier or metal armor that isn't gated behind being the top 100 in competitive PvP on your datacenter.

Yeah I never really understood the class restriction. Everyone knows what class you're playing from the icon next to your name and what abilities and weapon you're using. I mean yeah sure, it makes sense you should class restrict glamouring the weapon you're using but for everything else just seems a little fundamentally flawed.

The Lupin race looked like a suitable candidate for another race given they're essentially humans was squashed dogfaces, and we've seen that they can wear other clothing other than Doman and Imperial copy pastes (Hildibrand Adventures "Wolf Burglar" Ninja Lupin, Shirtless "Young Lupin" FFV Warriors of Dawn Reference in Eureka Cutscenes). That being said I can imagine having to remodel every headgear being a nuisance, that and there don't seem to be any female Lupins.

It's nice to know they're considering updating the Realm Reborn content despite the amount of work it would take though.

[Melichoir]

Yeah I never really understood the class restriction. Everyone knows what class you're playing from the icon next to your name and what abilities and weapon you're using. I mean yeah sure, it makes sense you should class restrict glamouring the weapon you're using but for everything else just seems a little fundamentally flawed.

Their position is that it would impact the look and feel of the game. They want certain classes (or roles) to have a certain look and feel. Now that argument kind of goes out the window when I can dress up like a stripper or run around in a pig suit.

However I will say this, Im not for just unlocking glamour with no restrictions. The way I feel it should work is pretty simple: If you want to glamour it, you have to have a class that can wear it. So as an example, if I want my WHM whos lvl 60 to wear PLD lvl 50 gear, I need to have the PLD class leveled to 50 and be able to equip that gear. Level restrictions also still stand, so if I had a lvl 60 PLD and a lvl 50 WHM, I cant glamour the lvl 50 WHM in lvl 60 PLD gear because the WHM isnt high enough. I think this will cut down on the concept of 'weird glamours' that the devs worry about while also providing more incentive for people to level alternate classes/roles.

[Yoshihara]

Their position is that it would impact the look and feel of the game. They want certain classes (or roles) to have a certain look and feel. Now that argument kind of goes out the window when I can dress up like a stripper or run around in a pig suit.

However I will say this, Im not for just unlocking glamour with no restrictions. The way I feel it should work is pretty simple: If you want to glamour it, you have to have a class that can wear it. So as an example, if I want my WHM whos lvl 60 to wear PLD lvl 50 gear, I need to have the PLD class leveled to 50 and be able to equip that gear. Level restrictions also still stand, so if I had a lvl 60 PLD and a lvl 50 WHM, I cant glamour the lvl 50 WHM in lvl 60 PLD gear because the WHM isnt high enough. I think this will cut down on the concept of 'weird glamours' that the devs worry about while also providing more incentive for people to level alternate classes/roles.

That's actually great, I really like that idea.

[Gemina]

Their position is that it would impact the look and feel of the game. They want certain classes (or roles) to have a certain look and feel. Now that argument kind of goes out the window when I can dress up like a stripper or run around in a pig suit.

It would throw it out the window; if that was the position they wish to hold, but I've actually never read it anywhere of them making this statement. While I am sure that the devs appreciate it when players stick to form when choosing the glamours for their chosen job; if they were adamant about them looking a certain way, the pig suit type glamours would not exist. What I think gets misconstrued is when restrictions are placed on gear, it is the gear that they want to maintain an identity with; not the job/role that wears it.

However I will say this, Im not for just unlocking glamour with no restrictions. The way I feel it should work is pretty simple: If you want to glamour it, you have to have a class that can wear it. So as an example, if I want my WHM whos lvl 60 to wear PLD lvl 50 gear, I need to have the PLD class leveled to 50 and be able to equip that gear. Level restrictions also still stand, so if I had a lvl 60 PLD and a lvl 50 WHM, I cant glamour the lvl 50 WHM in lvl 60 PLD gear because the WHM isnt high enough. I think this will cut down on the concept of 'weird glamours' that the devs worry about while also providing more incentive for people to level alternate classes/roles.

This goes back to my previous statement. If they did this, they might as well abolish restrictions all together. There'd be no point as absolutely nothing would have an identity anymore. The moment they lift the restriction on a WHM Cleric's robe, the exclusivity that is intended for that piece of gear goes right out the window. This will never happen during this game's lifetime, or at least so long as Yoshi-P is at the helm.

[Melichoir]

It would throw it out the window; if that was the position they wish to hold, but I've actually never read it anywhere of them making this statement. While I am sure that the devs appreciate it when players stick to form when choosing the glamours for their chosen job; if they were adamant about them looking a certain way, the pig suit type glamours would not exist. What I think gets misconstrued is when restrictions are placed on gear, it is the gear that they want to maintain an identity with; not the job/role that wears it.

Maybe its a mandela effect or something akin to that, but I remember one of the Devs addressing it a long time back stating that they wanted to keep certain classes with a certain look and feel with the game, hence why theres no cross class/job equipment when it comes to glamour.

This goes back to my previous statement. If they did this, they might as well abolish restrictions all together. There'd be no point as absolutely nothing would have an identity anymore. The moment they lift the restriction on a WHM Cleric's robe, the exclusivity that is intended for that piece of gear goes right out the window. This will never happen during this game's lifetime, or at least so long as Yoshi-P is at the helm.

Actually there is some middle ground to how this can be handled. We could boil down gear into 3 categories:

Class Specific
Race Specific
Job Specific

The new system could function in this manner: Gear broadly is broken down to be wearable by both Class and Job. So this would be like seeing a piece of armor that has GLD PLD MAR WAR DRK. With the new Glamour system as proposed, Anyone can glamour into this so long as they have the appropriate Job leveled (In this case, a GLD or MAR to the appropriate level).

For gear that remains very class specific - such as Relic Gear - That gear is not able to be glamoured to other Jobs. So if it just says PLD or DRK, you cant glamour into it regardless if you have the appropriate level. This would keep some gear reserved for a class.

Race specific gear needs to be changed all together that you can buy the version of that gear regardless of race (Hempen Camise comes to mind).

The Alternative to this would be simply create a new designation on all gear that states whether or not it is cross Glamour-able. So much like if it could be traded, converted, or overmelded, a new designation on the gear would state if its cross glamour-able. If set to no, then only the class its built for can do it. Again, this would allow for class specific gear to remain while opening up other gear to all classes so players get the look and feel they want.

[Iscah]

I really wish they'd give casters/healers some heavier or metal armor that isn't gated behind being the top 100 in competitive PvP on your datacenter.

There isn't a lot, but there are bits and pieces around. Some of the PVP gear (not top 100 prizes, just the gear from the vendors) includes armoured helmets; other pieces can come from the Lv50 Daystar set, Lv60 alt version, Lv70 Lost Allagan and Bonewicca sets. Body armour is harder to find, and the best bet is old event gear from Mog Station - the Legacy Warrior set. This WHM glamour I made has the Legacy armour and Daystar sollerets.

The Proto Ultima armour from Idyllshire/Dun Scaith could also be used for a heavier healer look. Have been thinking of combining it with scholar's Lv60 Aethercell Gloves.

Their position is that it would impact the look and feel of the game. They want certain classes (or roles) to have a certain look and feel. Now that argument kind of goes out the window when I can dress up like a stripper or run around in a pig suit.

However I will say this, Im not for just unlocking glamour with no restrictions. The way I feel it should work is pretty simple: If you want to glamour it, you have to have a class that can wear it. So as an example, if I want my WHM whos lvl 60 to wear PLD lvl 50 gear, I need to have the PLD class leveled to 50 and be able to equip that gear. Level restrictions also still stand, so if I had a lvl 60 PLD and a lvl 50 WHM, I cant glamour the lvl 50 WHM in lvl 60 PLD gear because the WHM isnt high enough. I think this will cut down on the concept of 'weird glamours' that the devs worry about while also providing more incentive for people to level alternate classes/roles.

It's just a guess, but I think they specifically don't want us to be able to use relic gear on other jobs (that part might have been specifically said in an interview), and currently that's achieved by the gear only being equippable by its one job, and it's prevented from being glamoured onto other things because of the "can't equip = can't glamour rule".

If they unlock glamours entirely, or even the "could equip it = can glamour it" system you suggested, then the relic gear is no longer protected.

And if their infamously clunky programming means they can't set an exception, then everything might be locked down just to keep the relic armour 'safe'.