What did FF14 have right, at launch?

[Jocko]

And they're not afraid to show some nipples either, it seems.

Honestly, XIV is already quite risque ('pillowhouses', miqo'te NPCs offering questionable services, leve quests involving creating jewelry for genital piercing, and of course my NPC companion talking about spontaneous orgies and sex with beastmen), and with Japan's lax outlook on nudity, I'm surprised XIV hasn't already crossed that line

[Onisake]

Hmm...

Graphics...

Monsters actually were living breathing creatures unlike other MMOs where they're just kinda plopped down and have no "emotion".

....

What really hooked me, and how i hooked a friend, was the graphics engine. the game looked stunning. very few could come close, or had very ridiculous armor and obvious korean-grinder influences (Aion). the armor was realistic for the most part. how it looks is extremely important. but i think they focused a little too much on that, as gameplay suffered terribly.

I liked how it was unique as well. granted it was a little too unique. there was nothing familiar at all really. you had to create your own classes by essentially leveling everything.

I both liked and hated the fact you could use any ability on any character for the most part. I really didn't like the fact the traditional jobs were not present.

As some other people mentioned. they generated the right amount of hype.
---------------------------

Having played in Beta, i can say this is where things really really went south. A lot of stuff needed fixed.

The game was broken at that point. it was all over the forums. there was 'feed back' sections but for the most part they were only looking at hardware compatibility. having looked on both the JP and NA sides of the forums it was just sad how much was ignored by the devs at that time.

I think they have learned their lesson this time, but for the most part I saw the beta as an alpha. and the first 6 months were what the beta should have been.

My biggest worry right now is when beta starts for 2.0. The game is a lot more mature, but if they aren't taking all feedback seriously right from the beginning it's going to fail again.

[Tricksy]

Honestly, XIV is already quite risque ('pillowhouses', miqo'te NPCs offering questionable services, leve quests involving creating jewelry for genital piercing, and of course my NPC companion talking about spontaneous orgies and sex with beastmen), and with Japan's lax outlook on nudity, I'm surprised XIV hasn't already crossed that line

Game would be ahit regardless of bugs and lag if it was x rated.

[SuzakuCMX]

I know I posted this in another thread, but another thing SE did right at launch was pre-release hype.

Whatever game SE was advertising in this trailer, this was the game I wanted to play.

It was a flat-out lie.

"Gods-decreed sacrifice" -> I haven't seen anyone be sacrificed yet. I saw a guy get run over by a Goobbue and Ifrit steal some crystal energy.

"War rages unchecked, with no sign of surcease." -> None of the NPCs except the Ala Mhigans were thinking Garlemald was going to go to war, nor was there any war actually going on until the GC Quests came about and now we have random Imperials all over and Beastmen trying to kill our hamlets.

Also most of the footage is the CGI or the opening cutscene or a player walking in an area you don't go to very often at all.

[Nakiamiie]

• MONSTER BEHAVIOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Bring it back in 2.0! It's ridiculous to have monsters act like robots -- please!!!)

• Physical and class levels were split (give me back my physical level! ;_; ).

• More cross-class abilities (but I prefer the ability-scaling-to-your-level feature we have now -- stronger!).

• Disciplines of the Hand and Land were seen as a true adventurer classes, not complements (but with Hamlet defence, we are slowly seeing it come back -- I still maintain having basic fighting abilities and party bonus skills would have been more awesome).

• Stamina and SP, but they were poorly implemented (they definitively could have been better, but Yoshi-P decided to go with the standard exp path and timers -- he did the change well though!)

There are probably more, or not. Don't be mistaken though, I much prefer the current version than what we had overall (and where it was headed). These are just specific things that I believe could have been kept to make it even more awesome.

[Relic]

Graphics. Shiny shiny graphics.

[Amherst]

and of course my NPC companion talking about spontaneous orgies and sex with beastmen)

...why do I not remember this? XD; Just what companion did you choose, anyway? Nothing of the sort coming from mine (female Duskwight Elezen).

On-topic, Jinko said it pretty well. I really can't think of a single thing the game had right at launch personally. Whatever may have been there was probably blocked out by how absolutely horrible every single other aspect of the game was.

[XxOstiaxX]

Aside from Monster AI and maybe the graphics ? nothing else, everything else was really horrible....

[Dragon]

I think there are alot of things. Im just going to say one though.

The idea of SP, and how it was accumulated by using abilities.

Yes I know there was issues with it. But instead of dealing with those issues they removed it altogether and tacked on a generic XP system. Unfortunate in my eyes. An innovative, or at least uncommon, feature removed instead of ironed out.

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

In my opinion it was bugs and lack of effort and quality that ruined FF14 at launch, not the ideas and features in the game. Its just that almost everything was laggy and half baked. Instead of fixing these interesting features, most were just axed and common MMO features were slapped on.

With the OP's edits in mind, this is my list -

• Lack of auto-attack (as someone that used to hate voicechat, I hate auto-attack even more; I'd rather use voicechat 100% of the time than ever see auto-attack again)
• Character Models
• Realistic Aesthetics & Terrain (Thanalan actually looks like a savannah; Coerthas actually looks like a north mountainous region; La Noscea looks like an islands plain; only place that is screwed up is The Black Shroud - but that's because even in RL, even the best natural forests/jungles suck big)
• PLvl/CRank/SP System
• NPC Companions ('specially my Miqo'te NPC companion!)
• Mob AI
• Technocracy (Garlemaid is likely a technocratic republic, making them instantly awesome)
• Feeling of being more like a mercenary instead of a simpleminded adventurer.
• Optimal Level/Class Gear
• THM-Healer
• Conj-DD
• Stamina
• Self-Respect
• Artistic Integrity
• Artistic Vision
• Collision Detection

Of course it's worth asking, because otherwise the wholesale destruction/change of FFXIV could be for the worse if SE are set upon removing features which don't need changing in the first place.

And never mind the fact we're talking opinions here. No one is being forced to respond to the OP.

Honestly, XIV is already quite risque ('pillowhouses', miqo'te NPCs offering questionable services, leve quests involving creating jewelry for genital piercing, and of course my NPC companion talking about spontaneous orgies and sex with beastmen), and with Japan's lax outlook on nudity, I'm surprised XIV hasn't already crossed that line

It's because SE appeals to the western world just as much, y'know? The same western world that believes anything with a nude human must hereby be sexual in nature, the same group of people that believe that because they think of women's breasts as sexual toys, so too must everyone else.

...why do I not remember this? XD; Just what companion did you choose, anyway? Nothing of the sort coming from mine (female Duskwight Elezen).

On-topic, Jinko said it pretty well. I really can't think of a single thing the game had right at launch personally. Whatever may have been there was probably blocked out by how absolutely horrible every single other aspect of the game was.

It's the Miqo'te companion.

[Zantetsuken]

I'd say the design and coloring of the gear was much more realistic/historical and gave the world a concrete feel.

Things are getting a bit too outrageous now with Ul'dah looking more and more like a mardi-gras parade every day.