Don't change a thing!!!

[DoctorMog]

I need to explain a few things so that people aren't mislead by others putting words in my mouth.

-I enjoy the game. (Shocking I know!)

-The game needs tweaks, but it is already FAR deeper than people understand. Many people just don't know because they would rather see things handed to them or changed and made simpler. Take a good look at monster weaknesses for instance, has anyone even tried using weapons to exploit monsters weaknesses for leveling up? If you have, bravo ^.^ if not, I think you should look deeper into the games systems before you cry that it needs an overhaul.

(Also see:
Element wheel (and monster weaknesses)
Incapacitation
Monster weapon type weaknesses (slashing, blunt etc...)
Monster directional attacks received weakness (rear, right side etc...)
Weaponskills that do additional damage vs monsters
Afinity with weaponskills and their damage on class vs off class
Class specific standard attacks with additional effects
Effective stat allocation
Battle regimen types (and their additional effects)
Additional damage from BRs (combined with any of the previous in this list)

Point is, its deep... people are just lazy. (on a side note, if you are thinking about any of the above when killing things, you are doing it right XD)

-My linkshell and I worked very hard to get ahead efficiently and gain levels and knowledge faster than others by means of teamwork and cooperation. I work a full time job and have a wife, so I am not the unemployed grinding machine a lot of people think I am. I play with effectiveness in mind and I get the best use of my playtime.

So, while I am not in the opinion that playing more gives my voice more weight because I understand the game more than some others, I am in the opinion that a lot of people just don't know how deep this game really is. With its current mechanics, an overhaul would ruin so many wonderful things the game offers that people just don't know about or are willing to do. (see above paragraph)

I am trying to show some of these things in my videos, I hope people take a look at them sometime.

My final note is that I do kind of find it funny how hostile people get when I say I like FFXIV. Just because you don't enjoy the game doesn't mean someone else can't possibly enjoy it. Please think about that before you rant on about how terrible things are for you and how you lost $80 buying the box lol. Please be smart enough to see both sides of the table before you post potential changes, they could break the game.

~Mog

[Choc]

I need to explain a few things so that people aren't mislead by others putting words in my mouth.

-I enjoy the game. (Shocking I know!)

-The game needs tweaks, but it is already FAR deeper than people understand. Many people just don't know because they would rather see things handed to them or changed and made simpler. Take a good look at monster weaknesses for instance, has anyone even tried using weapons to exploit monsters weaknesses for leveling up? If you have, bravo ^.^ if not, I think you should look deeper into the games systems before you cry that it needs an overhaul.

(Also see:
Element wheel (and monster weaknesses)
Incapacitation
Monster weapon type weaknesses (slashing, blunt etc...)
Monster directional attacks received weakness (rear, right side etc...)
Weaponskills that do additional damage vs monsters
Afinity with weaponskills and their damage on class vs off class
Class specific standard attacks with additional effects
Effective stat allocation
Battle regimen types (and their additional effects)
Additional damage from BRs (combined with any of the previous in this list)

Point is, its deep... people are just lazy. (on a side note, if you are thinking about any of the above when killing things, you are doing it right XD)

-My linkshell and I worked very hard to get ahead efficiently and gain levels and knowledge faster than others by means of teamwork and cooperation. I work a full time job and have a wife, so I am not the unemployed grinding machine a lot of people think I am. I play with effectiveness in mind and I get the best use of my playtime.

So, while I am not in the opinion that playing more gives my voice more weight because I understand the game more than some others, I am in the opinion that a lot of people just don't know how deep this game really is. With its current mechanics, an overhaul would ruin so many wonderful things the game offers that people just don't know about or are willing to do. (see above paragraph)

I am trying to show some of these things in my videos, I hope people take a look at them sometime.

My final note is that I do kind of find it funny how hostile people get when I say I like FFXIV. Just because you don't enjoy the game doesn't mean someone else can't possibly enjoy it. Please think about that before you rant on about how terrible things are for you and how you lost $80 buying the box lol. Please be smart enough to see both sides of the table before you post potential changes, they could break the game.

~Mog

Nearly everything you listed there isnt even implemented properly.

Theres plenty of things I like about this game, if there wasnt I wouldnt still be playing. However I also know that if things DONT change then I wont be around for too much longer.

"elemental wheel" - Yeah I have tried this many times over, and it goes with the stats being broken (something yoshi has admitted to!). Being a conjurer I have tried different elements, boosting lightning affinity and carrying a walnut wand of storms while casting thunder II hardly does any extra damage against water types than casting earth or fire even without all those boosts

"Incapacitation"- Normally done just for better chance at loot (buffalo horns) but at times it can be useful in battle (knocking down buffalo with flashfreeze). This is actually one aspect I love but it doesnt have too many uses yet, and the fact that conjurer doesnt get any part damage without taking from other classes is annoying.

"Monster Weapon type weakness"- Dont play any melee classes but I havent really seen this make any sort of difference in combat, nor have any of my friends noticed it.

"Monster directional attacks received weakness" - isnt this a norm for pretty much any mmo? Attacks from the rear do more damage....not really original.

"Weaponskills that do additional damage vs monsters"- First time I ever heard of this, as their desciptions dont provide any info on damage calculations or anything. Again I dont really play melee though.

"Afinity with weaponskills and their damage on class vs off class"- Another reason why the system doesnt work well, weaponskills on other classes arent worth using over the ones you already have on yours besides the ones that do something extra (part damage)

"Class specific standard attacks with additional effects"- im assuming you mean the difference between something like "heavy" and "Light" thrust. I would hope that everyone knows the difference between these...

"Effective stat allocation"- Again Yoshi already said stats are broken, while I do my best to get the most effective stat allocation they really dont mean much. Im going to heal for maybe 30 extra hp with 140 mnd than a conjurer with 50 mnd. Im going to nuke for maybe 30 more dmg with 140 int than a conjurer with 50 int.

"Battle regimen types (and their additional effects)
Additional damage from BRs (combined with any of the previous in this list)"- Yoshi has admitted that this dont work properly as well. I do notice a difference in damage from BR, but they are horribly clunky and having to stop and wait for everyone to queue up is absurd, yes with a very organized group you can make this semi fast but your not always going to have that luxury and its very difficult to get this down without voice chat.

Some effects from BR like lowering defense is nice but the wasted time that 4-5 members spend in br kind of offsets that, and people like healers cant even contribute because you dont want to be stuck in br mode while people die.

[darkstarpoet1]

yes choc as you pointed out each of the things mog mentions have issues, but as you also mentioned each of them have a specific issues that are easily remedied. it takes alot less time to make the adjustments to those that need to be fixed and working off the things that work than it does to completely remove them and start from scratch and hope the new set of things work. just think if they change completely they will have to fix issues with those also and in 6 more months we will be right back here complaining, but with even less people.

[DoctorMog]

Nearly everything you listed there isnt even implemented properly.

Theres plenty of things I like about this game, if there wasnt I wouldnt still be playing. However I also know that if things DONT change then I wont be around for too much longer.

"elemental wheel" - Yeah I have tried this many times over, and it goes with the stats being broken (something yoshi has admitted to!). Being a conjurer I have tried different elements, boosting lightning affinity and carrying a walnut wand of storms while casting thunder II hardly does any extra damage against water types than casting earth or fire even without all those boosts

"Incapacitation"- Normally done just for better chance at loot (buffalo horns) but at times it can be useful in battle (knocking down buffalo with flashfreeze). This is actually one aspect I love but it doesnt have too many uses yet, and the fact that conjurer doesnt get any part damage without taking from other classes is annoying.

"Monster Weapon type weakness"- Dont play any melee classes but I havent really seen this make any sort of difference in combat, nor have any of my friends noticed it.

"Monster directional attacks received weakness" - isnt this a norm for pretty much any mmo? Attacks from the rear do more damage....not really original.

"Weaponskills that do additional damage vs monsters"- First time I ever heard of this, as their desciptions dont provide any info on damage calculations or anything. Again I dont really play melee though.

"Afinity with weaponskills and their damage on class vs off class"- Another reason why the system doesnt work well, weaponskills on other classes arent worth using over the ones you already have on yours besides the ones that do something extra (part damage)

"Class specific standard attacks with additional effects"- im assuming you mean the difference between something like "heavy" and "Light" thrust. I would hope that everyone knows the difference between these...

"Effective stat allocation"- Again Yoshi already said stats are broken, while I do my best to get the most effective stat allocation they really dont mean much. Im going to heal for maybe 30 extra hp with 140 mnd than a conjurer with 50 mnd. Im going to nuke for maybe 30 more dmg with 140 int than a conjurer with 50 int.

"Battle regimen types (and their additional effects)
Additional damage from BRs (combined with any of the previous in this list)"- Yoshi has admitted that this dont work properly as well. I do notice a difference in damage from BR, but they are horribly clunky and having to stop and wait for everyone to queue up is absurd, yes with a very organized group you can make this semi fast but your not always going to have that luxury and its very difficult to get this down without voice chat.

Some effects from BR like lowering defense is nice but the wasted time that 4-5 members spend in br kind of offsets that, and people like healers cant even contribute because you dont want to be stuck in br mode while people die.

Elemental wheel still exists, and even though stats are not effective as they can be, elements still exists and this is still more than most other MMOs can say that don't carry this feature. Wow, Aion... All have elements, but play almost NO role in monster weaknesses. Fix stats, and this becomes a WONDERFUL strategy to pay attention to. It already is worth doing, so don't get me wrong here, pay attention to it.

Monster weapon type weakness is more effective than people give credit for, I urge you to test for yourself and find 2 player with equal stats but with different weapons, one effective vs the monster you are fighting and one ineffective, nothing ground breaking but it is definitely worth paying attention to.

Affinity isnt what people think it is. Affinity KEEPS class uniqueness by penalizing the skills off-class. The classes in FFXIV are unique on their own right because of affinity. When you fight a crab NM for instance, you want archers and lancers for piercing weaponskills and attacks that are innate to the classes. While you CAN have your PUGs and MRDs use piercing attacks, they will never be as effective as LNC and ARC at dealing with crabs and this creates the class definition people are complaining doesn't exist. Well, it does.

Light strike and heavy strike are not the only skills in the game, far too many people aren't purchasing these skills with guild marks, they are HIGHLY effective if used correctly:

Archer:
-Close Shot: Attack with your bow, dealing projectile damage and rendering the target immobile.
-Light Shot: Attack with your bow, dealing projectile damage.
-Heavy Shot: Attack with your bow, dealing projectile damage and reducing the target's TP.
-Far Shot: Heighten the angle of your attack, increasing range and reducing attack power

Lancer:
-Heavy Thrust: Attack with your polearm, binding the target.
-Light Thrust: Attack with your polearm, dealing piercing damage.
-Pierce: Attack with your polearm, dealing piercing damage to the target and all enemies between.
-Full Thrust: Attack with your polearm, dealing piercing damage and increasing TP

Gladiator:
-Light Slash: Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage.
-Light Stab: Attack with your sword, dealing piercing damage.
-Heavy Slash: Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage and increasing enmity.
-Heavy Stab: Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage and increasing enmity.

I wont go on, too much spam, you get my point... there is more here than heavy and light attacks. People aren't using them, if you are, good for you!

Yoshi admitted battle regimens in their form, not functionality were not working correctly. The mechanic of using them is indeed clumsy, but the idea of teaming up for a larger attack like skillchains in 11 is not "broken" simply the mechanic of how it is being done is what they are going to take a look at. Do not mistake the method of doing battle regimens with the outcome or effect of them. These are different things.

It does not change my point that battle regimen EFFECTS are something that people are not looking at or using effectively. Regardless of HOW they happen, people aren't using them for their effects.

Also, coordinating BRs with a group of people that know its coming and know how to look and see that another player has TP doesn't take 20 seconds to accomplish. My shell does them effectively and efficiently in anything we do. Yes it takes practice and coordination to do them. BRs are only as effective as the people behind the keyboard sir. Don't blame the mechanic because you are playing with people who can't do them.

And finally, healers didn't skillchain in 11 either, doubt that's going to be a ground breaking thing here, not sure why you brought it up... In this game however, they can if they want and healing isn't needed. The mele in this game all have heals at their disposal and if healing is at all an issue for you in this game, well, you are bad. AOE healing is absurdly simple, keep all the mele together and you should have no issue Cure 3ing them to full pretty easy. Unless of course you mean NM's, in which case your healers shouldn't be BRing anyway....

[Shikyo]

I'd be up for that.

Square-Enix is so adamant on making XIV that unique to FFXI that they're losing out on a lot of the beautiful things that made FFXI a complete success. FFXIV is FFXI's successor, Square seem to forget this fact. It's ok to borrow and copy little area's.. A delivery box.. Class names.. And AH..

I don't even think SE need to make FFXI-2.. I just think they have to accept that an MMO that ran for 8 years and is STILL running can be of a great benefit to the game at hand considering most of us are ex-XI players

Thank you thats all i am saying too, if u have a winning recipe that ppl loved and that withstood the test of time, keeping ingredients from that recipe cant hurt...

[Shikyo]

doctor mog you are obviously in love with this game as is and that is ok but all i can say is that for better or worse i think we all know some drastic changes are needed and that they are gonna happen, now to what degree idk only the team that is in charge of that does the rest of us can just wait and hope its along the lines of the things we would like to see. but for you who seems to want nothing at all changed sorry to tell you but you are shit outa luck my friend. your like that one dude that just loves the homely unkept girls.... you can have'em champ.. keep fighting the good fight for no change at all gl with that...

[Catapult]

I am in agreement that the game as it is is not essentially bad, but is indeed a skeleton.

What we need are not fundamental changes, but fundamental *additions* to build some meat on to the bones.

[Linnear]

well going to exactly like wow would be just that. it would be a complete overhaul that drastically changed rules of the game. that, i believe, is why it has been pointed out so many times that the question was too vague because the majority of the mmo player base in whole prefers that type of game.

is that what i want? not at all. to use the poll as to exactly what a player base wants to make the game better though needs more specific questions not a general thing that most people agree with, but for different reasons.

I will admite that the question was vague and SE can impove on that, but what I don't like is where does it say SE wants to make a wow clone, or where the community wants to make a wow clone. I have seen a lot of posts from people saying they don't want a wow clone but I didn't notice anyone advocating for one. Did I miss something vital? Or is everyone jumping the gun on some inner fear that SE all of a sudden wants a wow clone.

I will try to help by expaining my position here.

A clean UI that responds to a command when entered does not make a wow clone it is called a clean UI!

Differentation between class types in combat style is not a wow clone, it is an element of an RPG where the classes are unique!

Flashier animations on abilities is actually what SE has traditionally been good at, THis does not mean peope want XI-2!

If you get the impression that the majority of people posting comments for improvemtns are looking for a wow clone or for FFXI-2 then either I am missing something drastic, or your misinterpreting people comments.

Give the fearmongering a break and aruge something specific for a change intead of rehasing generalized Us-vs-Them fears.

Also, Dr,

The elements of game play you listed above are ALL included in XI or WoW with the exception of the incompasatate, which as someone already stated is more for items then for combat effecivness. I personally don't know how true this is but it reminds me of spellsteal from WoW. It was really usefull for one boss fight and was a gimik move other than that outside of PvP.

All of the elemens you like about the combat system, BR (similar to SC and the LoTRO thingy) attack from behind (like WoW) are from other games and they added to the FFXIV experience. So my question is why are you adverse to them adding more elements from other games since you seem to enjoy them so much? One of the reasons for WoW success is that they recognise a good idea for what it is, assimilate it into their system and make it work. You don't get to build an airplane by ignoring every generation or modle build before no do you?

Incompasatate right now ppears to be a gimik that is a good idea IF it's use becomes widespread etc, but just becuase lancers pierce and pug use blunt does NOT make them unique classes, just unique damage types, they all still play the same way and more importantly "Feel" the same. If you want to spend hours to find subtle differences in their game play to maximize their skill thats great, but it does not make the classes sufficiently diverse for my tastes.

[darkstarpoet1]

I will admite that the question was vague and SE can impove on that, but what I don't like is where does it say SE wants to make a wow clone, or where the community wants to make a wow clone. I have seen a lot of posts from people saying they don't want a wow clone but I didn't notice anyone advocating for one. Did I miss something vital? Or is everyone jumping the gun on some inner fear that SE all of a sudden wants a wow clone.

I will try to help by expaining my position here.

A clean UI that responds to a command when entered does not make a wow clone it is called a clean UI!

Differentation between class types in combat style is not a wow clone, it is an element of an RPG where the classes are unique!

Flashier animations on abilities is actually what SE has traditionally been good at, THis does not mean peope want XI-2!

If you get the impression that the jority of people posting comments for improvemtns are looking for a wow clone or for FFXI-2 then either I am missing something drastic, or your misinterpreting people comments.

no i do not believe anyone wants a wow clone. the statement was when someone uses the vague statement of drastic changes none of us really know what was meant by them. the questions to really get a good feel for what people wants to change it to.

if it's the xi route that majority wants that's up the the overall community. if it's sub jobs and trees the majority wants that's what the game needs. i just wouldn't want that type of change and would more than likely leave over them, but i am just one person so the game would not miss me.

if the majority wants a wow type concept that's what would be best for the game, but i believe most of us here would leave over those.

all i was saying was using that as an example of drastic changes and how that line of questioning could be interpreted. i was not now nor have i said that is what i want or that's what should happen. i was promoting trying to get more specific questions of changes not the general do you want changes. if this game was the best ever you would have people still not happy with it and want changes, but specific questions would allow them to see what the majority of people want.

[BadJoeRed]

I also agree with Op for the 'most part'. I want the advanced job/job diversity/classic names things to happen for sure. However, I'm good with the rest of it. Just wanted to cast my vote in case they're keeping score.