Thread: You can bring back 2 features from 1.0 what would it be?

If the features can merge with our current stuff, rather than be pure 100% how it was before then there are a few things like:

• Open zones (but with our higher level of detail)
• Animations (but with a smooth animation canceling system so each movement isn't a forced cutscene)
• Path Companions
• Hamlet Defense
• Ascians that appear as reapers, the no shadow thing also had me always looking at every character closely to see which was a fun little game
• Higher detail models (but no flower pots that have as many poly as my character lol, priorities...)
• NMs in the world often had unique items to obtain, so killing one was fun to get that special item. At this point B rank hunts (2.0+) are just there if you happen to get your 100 token weekly. I don't mind the latter's reward but I sitll miss the former's 'character' as I feel the items helped give life to the world.
• On that about life, our simpler gear often makes gear feel lifeless and 'just' a rung in the ladder. To the point gear may as well be just for glamour because the stat variations could be managed by a few Materia alone. I personally miss being excited to read a new item's stats, at this point that experience is largely irrelevant (almost always, especially if you're not at 'the' end game gear).
• Could just be the game is 'old' for me now but I felt there was a bit more mystery in 1.0, just like how things were written and presented. I played with the twelve stones so much with different animations just wondering if the devs snuck something into them, having the ring of your star, all that.. it's something I don't even consider anymore as I don't feel FFXIV would do it. Perhaps its a comment as a larger whole but I don't feel FFXIV is preoccupied with the fantasy role play which isn't awful (the game is still damn good) but it's something I wish someone there was responsible for attempting. And not in some weird obtuse way like "we made this content, job, feature, etc, useless because of role play" I mean like making sure it's still quality too lol (like as a random example if FFXIV wanted to let you roleplay as a werewolf a fun way would be more like how Skyrim does it, and an unfun way would be stunning and taking away control of your character while you watch the dumbest AI flounder about because you've 'gone mad'). One of the few things I point to WoW and still think they've done, and still do, a much better job at (naturally I still have a huge bias to FFXIV, but that would be one element where I think WoW has both more opportunities for fantasy role play via mechanics in game and when it does also does often better than FFXIV).

Originally Posted by Wyakin

I would like to bring back the ability to request repairs from a friend.

As an omnicrafter who gets frustrated when my static has to drop the instance so non-crafters can repair at a vendor, then queue back in... yes, this. Let me repair their gear in the instance between pulls and save us time. Please.

1: Springtime Coerthas. That was the most beautiful zone in the game and they completely destroyed it just to have an ice zone. They made the other areas looks so wonderful and dropped a big poo on Coerthas.

2: Overworld content that was more than fates. Like the original relics. They were complicated, they were difficult, they were not just handed out like Halloween candy. I am fine with making the questline a little easier, but everything in the overworld is just fates and it's frankly boring. Bozja and Eureka both had so much potential but they were reduced to just fate grinds. I would loved Bozja to be more like hamlet defense or the ffxi campaign that they were made out to be like. But nope, just fates with a different name and arbitrary rules like participant limits. They innovated so much during the course of version 1, but since relaunch its been corridor dungeons, arena mega bosses and fates. I mean, I know they want to cater to the casual crowd, but they can still be innovative while keeping things simple. /rantover

3: Path companions, the OG trusts.

4: buffs and debuffs, just dps and heals with strict rotations gets super boring

5: Notorious Monsters with decent respawns in general areas that dropped actually good loot

6: Shards and Crystals dropping from mobs.

7: Having to collect items to fight primals instead of just queueing at random.

8: The need to make friends because the world was dangerous and the content was easier (and a ton more fun) with friends.

9: Darker themes. Not every story needs a happy ending.

10: I would love the original zones to be expanded with new maps so we get more of what we lost back. We are missing at least 2/3 of mor dhona for instance. All zones are a fraction of what they were.

Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

They innovated so much during the course of version 1, but since relaunch its been corridor dungeons, arena mega bosses and fates. I mean, I know they want to cater to the casual crowd, but they can still be innovative while keeping things simple. /rantover

To be fair, I don't think this one is entirely on SquareEnix, or even on 'casual' players. ARR had some dungeons where they were experimenting with multiple paths and whatnot, and in ARR (and even Heavensward), raids had more than just a single boss fight in a big arena. They were clearly willing to follow that path!

But people started optimizing. Why take the side paths in Haukke Manor, when you can just blow through to the end? Why go into the treasure rooms in Qarn? Why even bother to get the pieces to solve the puzzle? Forget about particular mob mechanics, just gather everything and pull it as far as you can, burn it all down at once.

Even now, when the devs do branch out to try something different—like the Great Hunt (Extreme), or the mechanics challenge in Bardam's Mettle—a vocal portion of the playerbase groans about it being weird or different or just plain inefficient to run compared to other content.

I mean, the playerbase demonstrated that if given dungeons that had multiple side areas to wander into, puzzles to solve, and whatnot... well, we'd treat it as a corridor dungeon and pull until a wall stopped us, ignoring every puzzle possible to ignore. So SquareEnix started giving us corridor dungeons where you pull until a wall stops you. I kinda feel like we as players bear some of the blame there.

(I do agree with all your points otherwise, though.)

Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

The reason it's like this is because, like you said, the rewards do not match the effort. When it comes to innovating they also need to be a little more aware of the reward system. People treat things like corridor dungeons simply because there is no need not to. If SE tackled that issue and made effort more equal to reward, they could do a lot more in a variety of places. Dynamis in FFXI is the perfect example. You could go in there and skip packs as you go straight to the bosses and be in and out or you could farm the entire zone.

I agree, honestly. And CLL is a perfect example; you can blast through the middle section and ignore the prisoners OR you can try to save them and get extra rewards. People do the prisoners because the rewards are worth it... at least for now. (Though let's be honest, if you've got a healer with Essence of the Ordained and Lost Death, it's not really 'try to save them', it's usually just "click a button and move on.")

But the thing is, we also have a lot of people in the community who complain about effort entailed in getting things. And I won't even say they're 100% wrong; the overall MMO crowd's age has pushed older, and those of us who were playing MMOs in high school and over summer break and whatnot now have fewer hours to put towards them due to Life. Which can make some people less eager to tackle a longer effort to grind things than they would've once been willing to do.

If they had groups of dungeons where various side rooms had challenges where you could earn tokens that could be exchanged for glamour items or something? (Think Bozjan Clusters here.) Sure, people would be willing to do it! Some folks would want to run the dungeons over and over and get those tokens so they could farm all the glamour (or mounts, or whatever).

But there'd be some folks who were like "I want to do other things in this game than run the same three dungeons, that glamour should be accessible in the Mog Station as well." And there'd be folks like "This is terrible. I just want to get through and to the end when I get that dungeon, and all these people want to make it take longer by going in these side rooms."

And I wouldn't be terribly surprised if eight months down the road, we have people who have already upgraded all their Resistance gear groaning about people rushing to save all the prisoners in CLL when they don't have to bother doing it.

There's no decision that SquareEnix can make that will please everyone; that's true of any game, but it's particularly true with MMOs where your play experience is directly dependent on everyone else's. And it's not even like there's a wrong way and a right way to play; I might want an instance with more depth and branches where I can dig in deeply, and someone else might want a shorter one so they can log off afterwards and go do something non-computer related.

And neither preference is wrong, but they are in conflict.

And I think it's a sign of the original MMO crew getting older that the balance of player preference (or at least, vocal player preference) seems to have shifted since 1.0... and that SquareEnix has adapted accordingly. Even if there are parts of 1.0's design philosophy I miss. (Albeit maybe not always the 1.0 implementations of that philosophy.)