What would you do if you had control over FFXIV?

[Shurrikhan]

Oh, boy... to start...

• Rework netcode and physics engine to the point that...

• we can have cloth and hair physics (at multiple available levels, as such can be quite the performance-burner) and pinion/guide/wrap/anti-clipping frames (there are lots of different names for this same functionality by which to reduce clipping) for gear,
• dynamic movement is possible (your Heavy Shot actually aims at your enemy, rather than rigidly towards your character facing, as does each strike in a multi-strike sequence, including taking on a different stance as necessary in tracking enemy movement or as you, yourself, move),
• safe-pathable detection is possible (allowing a movement skill to 'snap' to a safe position nearest it's normal destination, though still only up to some 5% beyond its normal maximum),
• AoEs have more precise and progressive hitboxes (think Trample, from the Chariot boss), and even auto-dodging actually involves your character shifting out of range of the attack through safe-pathable terrain,
• larger enemies, especially, have more precise hurtboxes, such as a colossus requiring that we attack what we can actually reach, rather than the empty space between its legs,
• mobs and players can move across non-terrain (or, special-terrain) surfaces, such as the backs of boarded dragons, rather than merely being affixed or the dragon having to essentially just be part of a thereafter-blocked-off/emptied terrain map,
• mobs and players again have a Z-axis (height), and may leap over or cross under attacks (think Jump... as a potential evasion tool, or Elusive Jump against being able to leap from one rooftop to another),
• mobs can have sub-units, often positionally or height-accessed, such that climbing up/boarding and fighting a large enemy actually feels like such and allows for deliberate orders of attack,
• some degree of ragdoll physics is possible, allowing for enemies to be launched upward, knocked down, buckled, or displaced in reasonably realistic ways (at least... for the XIV universe),
• units can hold additional value spectrums, such as (Effective) Mass, Heat, Charge, etc., which can anchor new and meaningful undermechanics (such as related to Gravity<-->Levity, Ice<-->Fire, staggering enemies, etc.),
• spell effects could linger across the nearby area without having to be designated specifically as a terrain-affecting action (fire creating sight-occluding smoke, ice spells leaving an area frozen slick, etc., etc.)
• movement skills could still allow for WASD movement mid-animation (allowing you to granularly decide to move, via WASD or joystick, short of the target, as far as the far end of their hitbox, to its left or right, etc., depending on that particular skill),
• and PvP no longer feels like every character's operating under a drunken stupor.