Better communication/quest system etc

[Eekiki]

We have this already. It's called Leves

Guildleves are very...the best word I can use to describe them is detached. You never even see the person who needs the quest done. Not to mention that guildleves are all repeatable, so you're doing the same quest over and over again. In Xenoblade you don't repeat any sidequests.

[Seif]

Guildleves are very...the best word I can use to describe them is detached. You never even see the person who needs the quest done. Not to mention that guildleves are all repeatable, so you're doing the same quest over and over again. In Xenoblade you don't repeat any sidequests.

Also they make exploring the world useless and like you hinted at the story behind them feels fake because you don't meet the people and completing quests doesn't DO anything. They don't lead to further quests allowing the npcs to have their own evolving lives.

I know a lot of MMOs have shallow stories but nowhere does the name "flavor text" fit better than on the back of each leve.

Personally what really gets to me is having all this landscape and then game design that makes me warp to same location every time to do the same recycled and time restricted, area locked favor to a rock.

Remember in XI when collect X amount of Y meant that you could do it in any way you want with or without help and whenever you felt like it and you could even buy your way out of some quests of it suited you. Not to mention there weren't any restrictions on how many quests you had open.

The writing was short but it stayed true to the melancholic theme of war and loss of the game. What IS XIV's theme?

Yes I broke the taboo of bringing up XI (0Oooo!) but honestly guys there is nothing stopping SE for giving us those nice things.
Even XIII-2 got it's act together and shoved they can do quest writing that is relevant to the game.

[Seif]

I hate doing this (not really), but again I have to reference Xenoblade Chronicles.

In this game, there are sidequests given by generic NPCs that are your standard (go kill X monster(s), collect X thing(s). Once you fulfill the objectives, the quest automatically completes.

Then there are sidequests given by named NPCs. These are the quests that have a little story to them, and on occasion are more than your typical run-and-fetch fare. These require you to return to the quest-giver, and sometimes they'll want you to do something else before the quest is completed.

This is the way to do it. This way, you don't have to think of some kind of backstory for the "traditional" MMORPG quests, and you still leave yourself with the ability to design more complex quests with good stories and unique objectives.

You took the words right out of my mouth.
Also FELIS if you think they're like leves you could not be more wrong. This difference is everything that's wrong with leves.

Xenoblade quests are tied really well to stories and the characters and writing is memorable. The cutscenes that pop up sometimes do the job well without any VOs.

Gah so simple fixes but what can you do...

[ShivenCasull]

Well, I for one would not have any issue with leve quests or similar low involvment ones using the NPC linkshell system to complete quests.

Complete quest A.
Quest linkpearl lights up.
Report your completion of the quest, NPC responds and sends the reward to your mog house.

You would still be rewarded the EXP and the player would have a reason to eventually return to town.

This method would not break immersion and it would still require a player to move their character to town.

[MrKupo]

Everyone talking about this only talks about how you can get your rewards and experience right away. But is that really what the quests should be about? There should be a story behind it and as such there should be cutscenes, dialogue, etc.

I understand that Guild Wars 2 does the quest system differently by making it so that the story is happening around you and whatnot, but that's just not how the story works in this game. Your choices may not have as much effect on how the story goes in this game, but you play a major role in the story itself.
That's the difference between the 2 methods of storytelling. In FFXIV, you are the one to save the world. You are the one among many. In GW2, you could be the one, but you may miss that opportunity.

This is also my issue with the quest system that WoW brought us (or at least popularized by WoW). You know you have a quest because of the exclamation point. You know that the 'quest log' will tell you where to go. So you can just skip right past all the story and dialogue. Why read it when you can auto-run to where you need to go or when the journal will tell you what to kill, right? There was a time when players would actually have to read the dialogue in order to have any idea what to do during the quest. Now it's all made easy and people ignore the stories.

anyways, thats my rant. what were we talking about?

[Eruantien]

For 1 some quests already do this, the latest quest with the amazing detective did this for one, and several others. I see no reason why all quests would be like this as it makes sense as a storytelling point of view for you to go back to them, imagree some should, some shouldn't but it's already like this.
In game messenger, I also don't get, you have tells for 1 to 1 and have party chat to chat to your party, say to chat to people around you and shout for everyone in an instance.

Moogle mail we are getting in 2.0

Groups that can flag themselves as searching for members, also already in the game, just no one uses it. It was the original way that parties were formed and no one used it. It's still there by the way under the party menu.