My suggestions to improve FFXIV

[MelnaMilos]

Preface
I want to direct this primarily to the devs, with the hope that someone from the NA Square team could pass it to the JP team, so that these suggestions could actually have a chance to make it into the game. Hopefully some of these suggestions seem doable, or others want them as I do. I'm skeptical that the JP devs will ever see any of this though, and I am going to prematurely assume that some of my ideas either cannot be done, or will be unpopular, due to the fact that a lot of the game is already built around it's current principals, while others are based off older school MMO principals, that many hated during 1.0 or XI. -- Yes, Im one of those in the minority that thought 1.0 was cooler, and I fully recognize that many of you do not like it, you can tear me a new asshole if you want to, I anticipate this. I think there was some elements that 1.0 had that were good things, and could be transferred over to our current version.

I also heard that there is talk of a major graphical overhaul that is possibly on the horizon, and I felt that, if that is true, it would be a good time to add additions into the game. So anyway, here's my list. Feel free to discuss them, tear them apart, and maybe if I'm lucky, maybe a dev will see it, and think it's a good idea.

Graphical or Aesthetic Suggestions
These suggestions are things that could be added into the game in an effort to make it more immersive or feel better. They don't affect core gameplay, and are merely there for looks, due to that, it's probably the part of my suggestions that will be least debated.

Mount Improvements
In XI, the animations for getting on or off a chocobo clearly had more time and effort put into them. When you have your companion chocobo deployed with you, I'd like to see my character hop onto the mount after I have selected the mount option, instead of the current process of you and your chocobo disappearing, and reappearing as mounted. An example of this is another MMO Archeage, your mounts would follow you around, and you could run up and just hop onto them, or even call them over and hop on. I have included a video showcasing what such an animation could look like below. I feel this addition would do more to get you even more immersed in the world.
>> https://youtu.be/Apb_WGd0__c?t=79 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Also, calling a chocobo should have some more animations as well. Currently you blow a whistle, then wait for a little meter to charge, before appearing on the top of a chocobo. I feel like this meter could be replaced with a chocobo riding in from off screen and your character hopping on the saddle, instead of just standing there after blowing the whistle. Again, because this would be more immersive, and the opposite happening for dismounting. In XI, when you would get off your chocobo, it would ride off until it was out of view, here's a video showcasing this sequence below.
>> https://youtu.be/dCG8_bMu4yA?t=220 <<

My last suggestion for mounts; Why do we have to get off mounts to speak to NPCs? I feel this is kinda silly and interrupts gameplay flow. Is there a technical or balance reason for this that I am not privy to? I'd really like to see that done away with.

Small aesthetic additions and polish

Logging in and out of the game
I like the cool teleporting effect that occurs when using the Aethernet to travel from place to place. I feel like that same effect could occur when logging into, or out of the game. Sure, Its ultimately pointless, but I think it’d make me feel more connected to the world, like I was transported from the real world, into the game world when logging in. You could even include a message to nearby players that says something like “Tifa Lockhart has appeared in our realm” instead of “Tifa Lockhart has logged in”. This is just to add some more immersion.

User Interface is sorta boring
I want to say I thought 1.0’s interface was more appealing to look at it, it’s font, sounds, buttons, even the title screens and general theme of it looked better. The traditional blue and white final fantasy text boxes were great. I’d like to see those elements come back without having the horribly clunky menus and counter intuitiveness that 1.0 had. To clarify; Just that look and feel, and not it’s problems. The current user interface is just sorta...bland and boring, it doesn't feel like a Final Fantasy game. XI and 1.0’s UI and sounds had an aesthetic that was just better, and more inspired. Atleast... in my opinion. I think we should keep the current interface, just reskin it to be more like 1.0’s.


More Interface ranting
This is related to the user interface, but the scrolling text is another thing I’d like to bring back. XI, and 1.0 had text that slowly moved upwards when text was entered in chat. This looks more polished, and is easier on the eyes to follow. I feel this should return.

Sounds
In XI and 1.0 player’s footsteps changed depending on what they were wearing, and what they were stepping on. This is a petty request, but I’d like to see that return. Yes. I'm aware its in the game, but its only to an extent. If you listen closely to this video, you can see how footfalls change depending on the ground you’re stepping on. Snow crunches, dirt crumbles, grass sounds soft.
>> https://youtu.be/J5lV0t5t3E0?t=1903 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Animations
The animations in 1.0 were more fluid, more expressive, just overall -- better. I’d really like to see these make a return with a graphical overhaul. I think we can all agree to this.
>> https://youtu.be/8yx6GAnC9K4?t=542 <<
(I've fast forwarded the video to the part I'd like to showcase, please be advised, it's a much longer video, and the rest of the video has no relevance to my point.)

Battle effects and animations
In the current game, animations are overly flashy, with blinding effects to them. When fighting a boss or participating in PVP, you can hardly tell what in the seven hells is going on. I am aware you can turn them off in the menus, which I often do, but there’s something that’s nice, simple, fluid, and flows better with the 1.0 battle animations. I can actually tell what's going on, and what I'm hitting. -- This is probably going to be a very subjective opinion. I am very well aware that people playing current XIV do not want to go back to those animations, as they found them slow, and less impactful. I'm also aware that the current generation of gamers enjoy these flashy effects and overly done animations. I think the problems stemmed from 1.0’s combat system, rather than the animations and effects. Maybe I'm just old, but I think there's just something nice and subtle about them that appeals to me more, plus it helps that I can actually tell what's going on, rather than flailing around like a superhero with sparkly effects flying off my blade that take up half the screen.

Before I get a bunch of angry comments about how noone wants the old combat back, Im not saying to bring back the old clunky slow combat. Hear me out, take another look at the combat here, forget the combat system for a moment, and study just the animations and effects when attacking only. Don't they look alot better with less chaos flying all over the screen? Maybe if they were a little faster and edited to be a bit more impactful, would they be better? I think so. I'm curious of your opinions.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JF4QMVTuSA <<

Seasons
I love the immersive weather in XIV currently. You know what would be neat? Seasons. It’d be so cool to see it snow in one part of hydaelyn, while it's summer time in another part, that change in real seasonal time, and put up relevant decorations in the towns to fit that season.

Day and Night
Back in the day, WoW used to have day and night that matched real time. I’d like to see the day and night actually last to a real time of day and night. Why? Because it’s immersive and makes you feel like you’re living in a living breathing world.Also, you could do cool stuff like making undead mobs harder at night, or certain world bosses appearing during certain day times. -- I recognize that there is potential game problems with that, like some players not having time to do certain content with jobs or kids, or that a player who can only play during night time, may grow tired of seeing night in game. I’d still like to see this regardless, as WoW has been doing it for years and it’s just something that people have gotten used to. This is also a change that affects gameplay, and I'll get into that subject deeper in my suggestions.

Environmental noise and background fluff
1.0 used to have birds and airships flying around in the air, creatures on the ground, just general stuff that made the world feel more like a world. I’d like to see this make a return. For immersion sake. Can you tell I like my world immersive yet?


Graphical enhancements
1.0’s graphics were debatably better. We can all agree. They were more colorful, crisp and vibrant. They just were. When 2.0 they were toned down to be more optimized. For good too, because I read a single plant in 1.0 had more polys than a human character and even lowered framerates. Now I'm not advocating that we bring back such poor design choices like that, but with a graphical overhaul possibly on the horizon, and Square no longer having to ensure the game has to run on PS3 anymore, plus computers being more powerful now, we can finally have some better graphics we were meant to have, optimized a lot better this time around, no?



Cosmetics with glasses and hats
I feel like glamorous should be split up into 2 parts, Lower head and upper head, so things like glasses or masks could be worn in conjunction with a hat. This may be a challenge for the dev team, but with a potential graphical overhaul on the horizon...why not go for it while they in there correcting things to begin with?

Monster stuff
Back in FFXI, when there was a large monster walking near, their foot falls would shake and rumble the screen. I want to see that back...It was just plain cool and made the big enemies scarier, and theres really no good reason not to have it. Here a small sample of a monster stomping about
>> https://youtu.be/p6A4LaFX7K4?t=483 <<



Gameplay Suggestions
The following are things my suggestions that could greatly affect gameplay, and where probably the most contention from fans may come into play. I suspect there will be people who hate or love these ideas. Probably hate, but hear me out.

We need more open world group content
I feel like this game is more of a single player JRPG, rather than a MMORPG, this deeply bothers me. While I don't want to remove any of the story elements or take anything away from this game, as I feel it’s a great game, I really just would like to see some content that involves me partying up with people, making friends and going on adventures for hours. I played with my mate, and we kept having to stop, and run off in different directions to go complete instanced content only meant for one person. This deeply annoyed us. I don't mind instanced content, but there should be an equal amount of group content, and Im not just talking about instances like raids and such. I mean more open world activities for parties, like Eureka, and treasure hunts and fates. Easily some of my favorite content, this segways into my next point...

Dangerous World
The world needs to be dangerous again. I normally just run past tons of enemies that give up chase quickly and hardly even threaten me at all. I can whip like 4 - 6 high level dragon enemies with hardly even thinking or trying. Not even some of the bounty board hunt “notorious monsters” are anything but a damage sponge. I want to feel challenged, with dangerous monsters that will give chase and actually pose a threat. I want to have to ask for help from other players to take some of them down to get past them, I love interacting with the community to tackle stuff...ya know….LIKE A MMO. Other than savage raids, the game is just too easy.

Back in FFXI, the monsters had multiple ways of detecting you, some of them could see you, others could hear you, and something that was super cool, was that they could smell you. Monsters could lock onto your trail and ambush you later when you think you are safe. Some monsters in FFXIV 1.0 had traits, and would run away in fear, making you have to give chase and possibly aggro some of his friends. Some monsters were social and would attack you if you attack it’s friends.

I’d love to see super dangerous boss type monsters that roam freely and threaten people more often than we do. I loved Notorious monsters in FFXI. Notorious mobs are important and help. Here's a video detailing their importance.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsDv5TcMRfc <<

Yes, I realize that elements like this may just come off as plain annoying to some players, but to me...these things just immerse me in the world, and make me feel like I am accomplishing something, going on a satisfying adventure through a dangerous world, going through failure, makes me feel awesome when I actually pull stuff off. Being one of the people that found the way to slay that epic dragon in a MMORPG back in the day made you a hero.

PVP
PVP is fine mostly. I just wish it was given more love. I’d like an open world combat zone where PVP or even a castle siege or territory war scenario could be played in some persistent ongoing war., rather than just some battlegrounds. I know, I know...Almost noone in the community wants this, because PVP is generally toxic. However I think I may have come up with a solution; ESO has a zone called Cyrodiil where players could do this, and it was completely optional. Players didn't have to quest in there, or go in there if they didn't want to. This same idea could be applied to FFXIV. There's plenty of uncovered map to make such a zone, and we could make this a completely optional zone, so PVP nuts could go bonkers in there all day without disturbing the PVE players one bit.

If I had to complain about one other thing with PVP, it would be the fact that I hate how all the gear is scaled to be equal, if I get a super awesome death sword, I’d like to be able to use that to destroy people. But I have come to terms with the fact that this game is not really set up for PVP and that this was the only way to ensure balanced PVP happens. I’d prefer it wasn't that way and a different solution could be found, but I'm not super fussed over it.

Bigger zones
In FFXIV 1.0 we had a massive non-instanced world. Current FFXIV feels so tiny, like even smaller than much older MMOs do. If I had to pick any one of my suggestions, it would be this one. Square, Please, PLEASE; Make FFXIV big again. My jaw was on the floor when I logged into 1.0 and saw how expansive the zones and world were. I loved how you could get lost adventuring around, and that there was even non-instanced dungeons and caves you could explore, filled with enemies, scattered around the maps. When this was taken away in 2.0, my heart sunk. -- I know. It was an optimization nightmare back then, and it had to be toned down, but I feel alot of those problems were issues from having to ensure the game, at the time, ran on the PS3. (not to mention, the game was using not very optimized models and assets.) Please bring this back. It’s just so cool. I feel with proper optimization we have now, that a larger scale world is much more possible. I love exploration, I love huge open worlds, Im sure others do, and this doesn’t really break too much of the games core features ...so why not give it another shot? Just look at how cool this is! It’s impressive, you have to admit.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yx6GAnC9K4&t=542s <<

I know that there may be a few complaints with this, some people don't want to spend hours trying to trek somewhere, but with the aethernet teleportation points, and chocobos, I think it’d work out really well! Also, if Square is still worried about optimization, we can still have instanced towns, I just want the adventuring world zones to be large and expansive again with exploration in mind and open world events in mind, like in the video above.

Non-linear dungeons
I think only the story dungeons make sense to play linearly, as they are relevant to the MSQs, and the hero of light stuff, but...can we have some more dungeons that parties can tackle that aren't on a rail as well? I really like the concept of the Heaven on High and Palace of the Dead dungeons, more rogue-like stuff, with randomized enemies, and treasures to be found. With my previous point about expanding the world to be massive, I could envision having some dungeons that just sit out in the open that people can run into and spend time inside getting cool loot, cosmetics, and EXP from. I remember in Ragnarok Online, dungeons were open, you just ran inside, nothing was on a rail, there was no structure, enemies roamed randomly and dropped loot if you were lucky. There were hard and you never knew what you were in for.
>> https://youtu.be/l_TEB9T9Tdc?t=47 <<

Attributes, Stats, Skills, Customization
What happened to the character customization? You used to be able to select your stats, mix some classes together to create interesting skill trees, and customize your characters with elemental resistances or endowments to tackle enemies quicker. Why is that gone? It's like the devs only want you to play a certain way, and fuck you if you want to go off that rail. Everytime I pick up FFXIV, it’s become more and more restricted, and we’re forced more into a mold. I hate that. FFXI was a sandbox and let you try all sorts of stuff just to see what worked. Maybe Im old school, but I prefer being in complete control of my character.

Squads and NPC allies
I HATE the concept of these NPC party members. I hated the Trusts in FFXI too. I think this does nothing but make the game even more anti-social. The founding principal of any Final Fantasy game is the party dynamic. I feel we should be stepping towards more content that forms bonds and people to come together to tackle together and actually interact with one another. I hardly see anyone in dungeons say anything other than “hey” these days. I can see the use for these NPCs if someone doesn't have alot of friends, time, or a guild, but ...uhg….this is such a bad concept for a MMORPG.

Conclusion.

I know my ideas may not be necessary. Some are just merely aesthetic, while others aren’t important in the slightest. I also recognize my ideas are not popular with alot of people. However. I feel what I have suggested doesn't interrupt what we have with FFXIV currently, and can merely be added onto the game. We can appeal to both types of gamers. Why cater to one or the other, when you can cater to both? Clearly there is a market for this older school stuff. People still play and pay for FFXI. WoW Classic is a big success. Even the concept of Eureka was to pay tribute to the concepts XI had, Some people hated it, others love Eureka. I feel more of the open world should work like Eureka personally. Newer kick starter MMOs, like Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, are vowing to bring back to social aspects and difficulty to the MMORPG genre. I'm personally tired of playing games that hand things to me on a silver platter and lock me into decisions. I’d love to see some of these elements I suggested make it into the game.

Early in 2.0’s development, they publicly said “Never back down, Always aim to amaze”
I'm sure that if Square put some of these suggestions in, it would appeal to even more people. The old school crowd that enjoys them, and the new crowd that enjoys FFXIV the way it is, as most of these suggestions don’t interfere too much with the current game. Merely add upon it. I did my best to sit and think of these suggestions carefully, mostly to ensure these ideas, if implemented, don't interfere with the game that we have currently too much, if at all, so as not to disturb the crowd that loves it.