Awesome changes made that weren't there when you started playing?

[Theodric]

Vast improvements were made to chocobo companions. The names of aetheryte destinations within city states were also changed to be less confusing and more descriptive.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

^All this. So many things in ARR we take for granted simply did not exist in the old broken 1.0. Things that would have thought to have been common sense to be included, but were not.

And, to add to that, not in the game itself but connected to it: direct credit/debit card billing.

That awful third-party 'Clicknbuy' thing SE originally used as the only subscription method for 1.0 prevented so many people from playing because they either did not trust that merchant or their debit/credit card had problems using it. Despite the fiddly nature of the current credit/debit card payment system for ARR, it's light years ahead of Clicknbuy was for 1.0. I'm so glad that's gone.

Oh God, I forgot about clicknbuy, must have forced that memory away...

[Hazama999]

Looking wet when it rains.

[radhaz]

Gear repair to 100% from a vendor.

[MikkoAkure]

Market board is definitely the best thing ever. Throughout my time in 1.0 I could deal with all the other weirdness but the market wards was the single dumbest thing from that time. I don't know why they thought the general public was OK with recreating the Rolanberry Fields Bazaar.

The job system is pretty neat too I guess.

And no more stamina bar.

[Esmoire]

Two more awesome features that only came out recently related to housing.

Furniture Preview
This is so, so, SO HUGE. This is awesome. We have great websites to check how furniture looks in-game, but really you need to have it in-front of you to get a real idea of how it looks. This has saved me a lot of time and money. I hope they expand this to allow you to preview multiple at the same time, as well as preview interior and exterior fixtures.

Interactions While Seated
This is cooler than people might give it credit for. While people might think of food at a table, I've found it useful for the interactive books if you want to have a sort of desk. My guestbook and The Unending Journey both have chairs by them and it would feel really silly if you would have to stand to interact with them.

[NessaWyvern]

Being able to change your hairstyle without having to use a fantasia. Back when I started playing, there was no aesthetician, and I had burnt through 9 before they released it. How do I know it was 9? Because fantasias used to be account-wide, and every character I make starts with 9 fantasias.

[hynaku]

Wasn't able to be aura and couldn't fly with a mount.

[MrKusakabe]

Adding red mage.

Hey....!! What do I type now?

Oh yeah, when I check my almost 6 year old video footage, I realized the HUD was unnecessarily cramped with stuff nobody needs to know:

TP as profession with no use for that.

Removed the role/bonus list into the party group. This was my first Aurum Vale run and it was fine, but made the tank to ragequit for no reason. Those were the days *melancholic sigh*

Removed the tabs "Resistancies", "Wallet", the weird BONUS chart (what was that for?) and "Profile".

Also, they added icons to the emote window and color-coded it (blue for sad, yellow for happy etc.)

[TheMightyMollusk]

Hey....!! What do I type now?

Oh, was this your Verthunder? I seem to have stolen it.