What did FF14 have right, at launch?

[Nuinn]

After some thinking, my list sadly boils down to just graphics. Everything else, for me, that could've been done right was, in one way or another, plagued by lag or questionable development choices, too much to consider it as "done right."

[Sophia]

Miqo'te
/10

[Phe]

uematsu soundtrack for proper immersion.

[Niqote]

Miqo'te
/10

[Eekiki]

The music is great, but it was not properly mixed.

The graphics are great, but the engine is terrible.

The world is huge and semi-seamless, but the terrain is copy-pasted.

For everything SE did right at launch, there was at least one thing they did wrong to cancel it out.

[Nero]

For everything SE did right at launch, there was at least one thing they did wrong to cancel it out.

Some sort of "balancing". XD

[Velhart]

The music is great, but it was not properly mixed.

The graphics are great, but the engine is terrible.

The world is huge and semi-seamless, but the terrain is copy-pasted.

For everything SE did right at launch, there was at least one thing they did wrong to cancel it out.

Pretty much this.

I do remember back in the Alpha days, before the Stamina Gauge, there was an actual traditional ATB battle gauge. At the time I thought it was pretty cool and had potential to make a really strategic MMO. However it seemed like Dev's at the time were going for a fast paced game and the ATB gauge wasn't delivering on that. Thus, the laggy Stamina Gauge was born.

I did like the on paper concept of the armory system. It was kind of a way to make your own unique class from the ones given to you. Make a sword wielding mage, or be a heavy armored mage, it was your choice. However, like I said the concept sounded good only on paper and became a colossal unbalanced mess that the developers had an extremely hard time balancing. The point allotment system even was a good idea, if stats actually showed for something.

I was on board with the Physical/SP level system, but it was horrifying leveling your SP. I fight a really tough monster and I smack it and smack it and smack it and I get no EXP from that long fight while someone else got 400+ SP for it. This was a complete deal breaker for me at the time and realized how awful this game was when I was being optimistic as humanly possible. There is no way to justify this system.

People can throw the "WoW' clone at the upcoming 2.0 if they want, but seriously, sometimes going too original can really bite you in the ass, and SE found this out the hard way. But I still believe FFXIV 2.0 will still be original, but fall of WoW's success, not copy/pasting them. Successes such as "Content Finder" and basic UI concepts.

[Eekiki]

I keep coming back to this. There is a console MMORPG out there that has a fantastic UI, fast-paced combat, beautifully designed world and lore, and perfectly blends traditional MMORPG elements with newer ideas.

The problem is, it is actually a single-player offline RPG called Xenoblade Chronicles.

[Tricksy]

I guess I was not clear in my OP.

I don't give a rats behind how messed up something was at launch. Im asking what concepts ar features they had that you were a fan of, regardless of the issues that plagued them.

[Velhart]

I guess I was not clear in my OP.

I don't give a rats behind how messed up something was at launch. Im asking what concepts ar features they had that you were a fan of, regardless of the issues that plagued them.

You expect a whole forum of negative people to not be negative?