What did FF14 have right, at launch?

[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.

[Arcell]

It's the Miqo'te companion.

Actually it happened with the female Hyur companion too.

A lot of the ideas at launch had potential but were unfinished and poorly implemented. Some of them could be good if tweaked or actually finished but the game was pushed out in the state we got it in. They made some incredibly stupid decisions in how to implement the half-finished systems though and a lot of them were made even worse because of it.

Fortunately or unfortunately this is now Yoshida's game and he's going to do with it mostly as he sees fit. 2.0 is going to be where we all have to decide if it's the game we want to play.