What did FF14 have right, at launch?

[Tricksy]

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.

[Dakin]

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.

Not innovative, many games/MMOs had this system beforehand. FFXIV had little right, at launch.

[Neptune]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...11131-Be-brave

[indira]

thing they had right was they didnt shut it down.

[GemGenie]

The sp system was supposed to be good but they implemented it in a very bad way. Which is still one of the big problem in ff14 that the game is ruled by random number generator.

When at launch, imagine 2 same lv pug beating the same crab together, one get absolutely zero sp but the other guy getting 1k... And this pattern continues....

They could make it better by change sp system that every action you do, you get some sp, the more dmg, more healing, more combo give you bonus sp.

This eventually kill PL and everyone in pt will work hard together for lv up instead of some retard join pt and afk.

But SE is too lazy to think and went with the legacy way

[Gramul]

The class system.

Being able to switch on the fly.

[Arkine]

Graphi- no... the infamouse miqote ears and helms glitch...

They title art is pretty.

[Jocko]

The unique mob behaviors and traits. A complaint about a single mishap and they nix the entire thing. Really hope they bring it back

[Rau]

Autotarget switch after death, for the 2 days we had it

that first patch with the 5 NMs that dropped items you could craft.
IMO, that would have been ideal if the drops were actually meaningful. Instead we got gear that was useless.

The peiste that would never return and would just sit outside Ul'dah front gate owning everyone.

[Shurrikhan]

The unique mob behaviors and traits. A complaint about a single mishap and they nix the entire thing. Really hope they bring it back

What's sad is that the system to fix the problem without cutting out unique mob behavior already seems to be in place. Just today I constantly AoE'd level 52 mobs without pulling them (doing level 43 leves and at level 40 if those are factors).

Heck, the party leader could just have a Link Difficulty slider that determines whether anything more will be pulled. Gimicky, sure, but cutting out something that makes the game unique for such a fixable reason feels... wrong.
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I didn't start at release, but had been playing a while before Tanaka's replacement. The things that seemed "right" off the bat were the armory system and cross-class usage, even if it could have been better. I enjoyed the ability to stack linear cannons (Puncture, Skewer, Doomspike) on Archer, or even fire an air-fist Haymaker after a ranged dodge.

It didn't feel hugely class-specific, but to me the style of each classes's abilities felt more like the class than the reform's abilities for a long time. Skewer and Doomlance available within 12 levels felt far more Lancerish than True Thrust and Heavy Thrust. With Moonrise and Trammel also in Lancer's debilitation aspect, it truly felt like a Lancer.

That Thaum's already established lore was bypassed almost entirely in order to separate it from Thaum by a basically arbitrary method, or the reduction of original classes early levels into identical abilities with different names. Why dark-side element wheel over Light/Dark/Blood, even though it was already fitting to the Thaumaturge guild and its quest connections? If it was done just for raiding, couldn't a less intrusive fix have been made? And why must DoW classes only differ in only a little over half their abilities?

[This class gets a dodge-stun, this one a parry-AoE, this one a miss-rehit. This one gets Power Surge, this one Berserk, this one Fists of Fire, to the same ends but different enough. Yet True Thrust and Heavy Swing, and Fast Blade and Pummel are literally identical, and the majority of later combo actions follow the same problem.]