What are the largest issues plaguing XIV currently?

[DPZ2]

Neither Invigorate nor Lucid Dreaming add anything to the experience, especially now that Lucid Dreaming doesn't even Enmity-fade.

Lucid Dreaming is a nice way to restore MP during those times your healer has been going full-damage-mode during a personal duty.

[Shurrikhan]

Lucid Dreaming is a nice way to restore MP during those times your healer has been going full-damage-mode during a personal duty.

Except, again, what's its actual gameplay? An auto-clicker does the job just as well as an "optimized" use of the skill. It could just... not exist, with an additional 350 "Refresh potency" generated per minute instead, and there would be no difference. It's just bloat.

It doesn't have to be bloat. Equilibrium worked perfectly fine in giving both TP or HP when needed. For example: if PLD's Clemency gave TP in Sword Oath stance and HP in Shield Oath stance you have one button that performs different functions and also gave you the player a 'choice' in what to do when in a situation. Choice, is also something that this game is slowly losing in favor of balance.

Forgoing nitpicks into those particular examples... Agreed. MP, TP and their relevant abilities don't have to be just bloat. And I'd rather use both TP and MP than merely scrap those mechanics. But using them required that those mechanics amount to more than just a button you (auto)click every minute.

[Shurrikhan]

XIV model: any gear drop can be useful for one of your alternate jobs.
WoW model: what's an alternate job?

You're comparing apples to donuts.

In that case:

Apples: Gear can be useful for any of various jobs you may or may not have leveled or even intend to level.
Donuts: Right-click on your portrait -> Loot Specialization -> (Select which job [in WoW's case, spec] you want to gear.)

But you want to convince me that the latter loot model is somehow less friendly or more wasteful?

Similarly...

XIV: You can put all your jobs on one character, but doing so will sacrifice your ability to gear any more than a single armor class or weapon type via weekly rewards.
WoW: Gearing one job does not prevent you from gearing another, since, as different characters, they do not share loot caps. MSQ optional after the first character to complete it. Far faster leveling in general, atop a smoother ability acquisition curve. Significant alt catch-up mechanics, including for endgame progression.

[rofland]

Server tick and animation lock

[LariaKirin]

Alright, now I have greater combo complexity than exists in the current build of Dragoon atop, potentially, all the mobility of Elusive Jump, GCD-optimization akin to Life Surge but far more frequently and fluidly available, and window optimization in ways novel to Dragoon. I've still used only... 2 buttons.

This sounds awful.

Do the three modes use 2 buttons for the purpose of shuffling your buttons around? Is it designed annoyance you'll get used to or is it there just to reduce the number of buttons?

The charge mechanic cannot happen because this is a tab-target game. You press button, something happens. But assuming it would, how would this fit into the GCD system? Does this extend/delay your next GCD while charging? Do you have to time the release of your charge mid-GCD? It sounds like multiple versions of Kaiten in disguise. It sounds like a gimmick whose only purpose is to reduce the number of buttons.

You can currently reset your combo at any time. You can achieve the same thing with the current buttons by simply adding synergistic effects.

You've condensed the lack of choice into an illusion of choice and hid it behind unnecessary complexity just to compress it all into fewer buttons. No matter how you package this, it will be theorycrafted into an optimal rotation and, in the end, you've achieved nothing but fewer buttons.

[sarehptar]

The best answer to those problems is "abandon development on the current game and start development on the next one".

Be sure that is what you really want before asking for it.

Didn't think so.

Another answer: Start looking for another game that meets your requirements (about class balance, combat changes, meaningful horizontal gear progression). Surely there is something out there that matches what you desire that isn't FFXI. [OK, OK. Cheap shot. I promise I'll be good. Hashtag Satire]

Final answer: find investors and create your own game with exactly those features you desire the most. I understand there are any number of Crowd-sourced MMOs "in development", although they may have been so for five years or more.

I don't understand the point of your reply. On a thread about the game's biggest problems... I pointed out problems... And you for some reason seem to dislike that I did so?

[Cyreil]

We need an actual glamour catalog system. Not another storage box.

[Shurrikhan]

Do the three modes use 2 buttons for the purpose of shuffling your buttons around?

They use two buttons because there's no reason to have a third. If you're already in a given mode, why would you need a button for it? That's the equivalent of having a button to "stand still" when there's no force acting on your character anyways.

Is it designed annoyance you'll get used to or is it there just to reduce the number of buttons?

Depends. Do you like having a button for "Accelerate", "decelerate", AND "keep going at the same speed you're already doing"? If so, it might be a bit annoying to you, but that doesn't make annoyance a design intent. The example merely uses as many buttons as are needed.

The charge mechanic cannot happen because this is a tab-target game.

Charge mechanics exist in other tab-target games, you realize?

You press button, something happens.

Yes. In this case, charging happens. Stance-swap happens on button release. If you don't want the charge before that given swap, you merely tap the key rather than holding. The .05 seconds of charge in the interim is inconsequential. If this seems overcomplicated, then beware of learning how XIV's current systems actually work.

You can currently reset your combo at any time.

You can also technically spam True Thrust or refuse to use oGCDs. That doesn't make it viable.

You've condensed the lack of choice into an illusion of choice and hid it behind unnecessary complexity just to compress it all into fewer buttons.

Let's consider: Which exactly is the illusion?

You currently have 9 buttons which convey 1 choice per 10 GCDs. As it is not viable to reset a combo, you have no choices therebetween once the combo has started.

The above illustration has 2 choices permitted in every GCD, and consumes 2 buttons to permit them. Is that somehow hiding the number of choices you have?

If I have 2 buttons by which to manage 2 decisions, does that involve more "unnecessary complexity" than using 9 buttons to actuate 1 decision?

No matter how you package this, it will be theorycrafted into an optimal rotation and, in the end, you've achieved nothing but fewer buttons.

Putting aside your reductionism by which any amount of otherwise enjoyable complexity can only ever be reduced to zero, why would requiring fewer buttons to do even same job (not the case here, but let's follow your pretext) be a bad thing?

Regardless, you seem to be under a misconception.

Naturally, to take advantage of those different skills' unique effects, you'd want more buttons. Heck, you might even want all 12 of them. But that's only effective design when you let each amount to at least a decision each for every given GCD, rather than a third, fifth, or ninth of a decision as offered every 3, 5, or 10 GCDs. Having a lot of buttons is fine, but it ought to come with commensurate depth, rather than just depth in pretense -- the reality of which, by being separated despite marking no separate decision, is squandered.

The point is not necessarily to reduce button count, but merely to give each button a damn good reason for being there. With 8 buttons for each job I can manage depth equal to or greater than what is currently in game. Personally, I like about 16 regularly used buttons, and tend towards multiple of 4, and powers of 4, specifically (because that greatly helps controller support). But that would mean tremendously greater actual depth for XIV's combat. I'd look forward to that, but that may be excessive for many who'd, say, rather point at their bloated bars and, whilst retaining more casual play, claim mental superiority over games that use half that number but to far greater nuance.

[Reap00]

Posts like this are definitely an issue.

I'm against posts like "SE sucks, worst devs ever y so incompetent", that doesn't help anything, but constructive negative feedback and suggestions are absolutely vital to any game and this community goes out of its way to resist it. Most of us who complain actually love the game, that's why we play it and that's why we want to see it to continue improving and become even greater. No game developer ever has the opinion "our game is perfect, stop whining and play something else if you don't like it", so posters spouting nonsense like that thinking they're "defending" the game are actually a big thorn in the side.

It's important to be polite and constructive but also worth voicing your opinion when dissatisfied.

There are already a million threads on every single gripe in this thread. It does not need to be brought up again and again until the children get their way. This is not how life works.

[Marivaldi]

Bots are what's plaguing this game