Idea for future Final fantasy online game

[SXTC]

After playing the game 10y and listening to people's compliments and complaints, including running my own communities all this time I think I have an accurate idea on what the people enjoy & don't enjoy. I think however its more important to focus on the aspects that keep people from subscribing since this is what benefits SE's income and therefor should get priority.

What I think they should have done different:

- The game has too many area's and keep adding which spreads the playerbase too much and makes the game feel less crowded/active in time. People who believe the game isn't active enough are more likely to take breaks or steer away from the game.
I advice making 1 main capital for all to start in where each grand company has a building and a quest on how to join them. Change how this city looks based on how far you have progressed in the story and make these city layouts in each season so it switches based on the actual IRL season (and add props around holidays).

- Skills and spells have effects that are almost blinding during fights which may ruin people's experience or lessen your systems performance. This should be turned on low at all times so the effect never hides what is going on.

- Every expansion the game updates/rebalances. It's not enjoyable to see skills and spells removed... new skills and spells should be added to the list to choose from instead to allow people to attune to the playstyle they prefer the most.

- There are too much side quests and duties/dungeons that feel like a waste of time + there are too many area's. Instead of adding 6 new area's for each expansion... it should instead be 1 huge area where most of the quests and fates are done in combination with dungeons that may be related to important content (basically less dungeons). This in turn will make each area feel more lively, granting SE more time to work on other content.

- The game lacks functions to keep players invested. Right now the game lacks PVP options, FC options, casual group content & end game content (since patches are released too slow, likely because they lose time on adding too much area's, dungeons and side quests). Instead of wasting time on that, they should instead add more functionality such as:

[SXTC]

1) FC vs FC PVP (4-8-16 Vs 4-8-16 players) with rankings (the top 3 would get special armor, weapons & mounts to gloat & convince other people to try it).
2) Custom events function which allows players to join teams and load a pre-set game such as hide and seek, jumping riddles, find the location/item/NPC riddle event, etc... SE can add more games along the way. You can set a rule where people can pay gil to participate and the winner gets all that gil (based on the set rules).
3) Each trial & raid released should automatically be available in ALL difficulties from release. The only difference between difficulties would be the frequency of the bosses attacks and the time you get to dodge them (+ amount of each group of enemies in raids/dungeons). That way even a noob can easily grow without having to study mechanics hours on end. You would just have to train at the easiest, then move up a notch till you are ready for ultimate/unreal.
4) Add new skills & spells, never delete them or alter them so players have an easier time learning how to play good with a class, increasing their chances at higher content and giving people more chances to do the content they love doing (the challenging content).
5) Housing wards should be deleted.. houses are more often empty then full so all it does is cause strain to the servers. Instead the main capital city should have Grand company Estates (slightly bigger then mansions) that you can walk right into without a load. Each grand company estate would have it's own design, furniture & seating that can be used by all but the perks would only be usable by those affiliated by that company. However if you owned an FC you would get choices of which pre-set interior to use (this could be interiors of people who won a competition). Based on which one the leader set for his/her FC... every member would see that layout by default. There would also be a function where members could see each layout on their own (without the ability to save it) and vote on it... that way leadership could see at all times which layout is most loved by members currently in their free company. And more layouts could be added to the list later if SE decides to add more.

[SXTC]

Moral of the story is... Se should add less side quests (or useless quests in general).. less area's... less dungeons... but add more engaging content that keeps people having fun and bring them together so they are more likely to form friendships. You have to give them a reason to stay logged in, to stay subscribed.

Less is often better if you make it engaging & fun... the hildibrand quest was such an example but it got overused and became stale eventually.... we don't need a lot of content... we just need more "finished" content (and we need it a bit more often)... having an FC house with a balcony that doesn't even have a sequence to use the door to get on that balcony is such an example... I'm sure that if they stop wasting time on less important things... they will have the time they need to give us more frequent content and keep us entertained with originality and not just "more of the same". All we need is more frequent content for the content that matters AND for SE to add more options on things to do... things people actually love to do in their free time.

I for example love to chat with people so add a few things to do when you don't feel like playing the game (because you got home and are too tired but still want to hang out with people in game). Adding mini "competition" games could be a nice addition to that.

(had to do this in 3 posts since I didn't have enough space)

[Jeeqbit]

its more important to focus on the aspects that keep people from subscribing

They only really expect people to subscribe at patch releases tbh. That's why they say the play other games thing. Contrary to what you've been saying, most people subscribe for the new quests then quit after completing them, so it wouldn't make sense to stop making quests.

The game has too many area's and keep adding which spreads the playerbase too much

I disagree. They mostly hang out at the new areas, housing areas, or starting cities. That's it. They are not very spread.

spells have effects that are almost blinding during fights

I agree, but the default settings are bad in general. If new players started with good settings, they'd probably quit less.

Every expansion the game updates/rebalances. It's not enjoyable to see skills and spells removed... new skills and spells should be added to the list to choose from instead to allow people to attune to the playstyle they prefer the most.

Would be nice. It's not necessarily impossible but could be complicated because the battle system would need to read entirely different tables and use different functions depending on the duty configuration.

There are too much side quests and duties/dungeons that feel like a waste of time + there are too many area's.

I mean maybe but they are nice for people into lore, so... they should stay.

Instead of adding 6 new area's for each expansion... it should instead be 1 huge area

Sorry but I like the variety of new areas each expansion. Lakeland, Il Mheg, Rak'tika, Amh Araeng and Kholusia were nice but after 2 years you need a change of scenery.

where most of the quests and fates are done in combination with dungeons that may be related to important content (basically less dungeons).

Like treasure maps? The reason it works the way it does is because maps don't have a matching system ie. you only play with people on your own world. In contrast, dungeons can match you with people from across the entire data center, increasing the pool of people to match with you and thus the speed at which you can fill your party. This in turn saves you time.

This in turn will make each area feel more lively, granting SE more time to work on other content.

The same way bicolor gemstone farms do? It doesn't really do that much overall. People could do these things already and grant SE time to work on things, but instead they come to the forums and say all that is boring. With maps as a proof of concept, I don't particularly see anyone coming to the forums saying that is exciting either, and Skirmishes in Bozja weren't much different.

FC vs FC PVP

The lore just wouldn't work for it. In the lore we're all friends with eachother. I think it's a good idea, it just isn't the right MMO for it.

Custom events function which allows players to join teams and load a pre-set game such as hide and seek, jumping riddles, find the location/item/NPC riddle event, etc...

Would be cool. They did all of this with the halloween dungeon and it was extremely good. It's unfortunate that they can't do it anywhere else in the game. I feel the same about a lot of other seasonal event ideas they've had.

Each trial & raid released should automatically be available in ALL difficulties from release.

That would be a backwards step. It causes raiders to skip the story. Having a delay so they can experience the story then start raiding the following week is so much better.

The only difference between difficulties would be the frequency of the bosses attacks and the time you get to dodge them

That is already the case. If you actually study the normal version of extreme or savage floors, you will actually discover they share a lot of the same mechanics, with the only differences being: faster casts, not telegraphed, tankbusters = tankswaps, stacks = 2 stacks (1 per healer), automatically placed AoEs are placed by players, more damage from the attacks.

Easy examples: Endwalker EX2 is almost exactly the same as the normal version except with the changes above, M2S just gets the automatically placed bees and has you bait them and a lot of its other mechanics do happen in normal but with telegraphs ie. telegraphed spread AoEs while being in or out, a shared stack instead of healer stacks. I could give so many other examples. E4 normal is actually crazy similar to E4S first phase, but it doesn't feel like it because it's not telegraphed as much in Savage.

move up a notch till you are ready for ultimate/unreal.

The order of difficulty works like this (easiest to hardest): Extreme/Unreal > Savage > Ultimate. In other words, Unreal is just Extreme.

add a few things to do when you don't feel like playing the game (because you got home and are too tired

That has been a big focus for them with features such as: Ocean Fishing, Island Sanctuary, continual updates to housing. Hunts, FATEs, maps, crafting, gathering, unsyncing and really a lot of easy content is pretty good at that already since it's so easy you can just chat while doing it and not pay attention.

Adding mini "competition" games could be a nice addition to that.

Like Triple Triad, Chocobo Racing, GATEs, Doman Mahjong and Verminion? All of these support PvP and PvP tournaments.

[BelegErkhten]

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[Kandraxx]

They simply have no talent for anything that’s not 90s turn based RPG stuff. Even the new FF7s are a complete mess. The absolute worst low point WoW was ever at is still a 100 times better experience than this entire game and I'd rather not see another MMO from them.

Yoshi P wouldn't be able to create just 1 single good encounter that's not just a combination of the same 6 copy paste telegraphs mechanics this game has even with a gun to his head.

Or maybe they should just outsource the game to Blizzard to let them fix it?

[Aidorouge]

They can't even get this game right and FF11 isn't perfect either, I don't think there's any reason to believe they'll "totally get it" on the third try.

[RenegadeInferno]

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The geographic origin of the post means nothing.
Believe it or not, even people of the US have bad ideas.

I know, who'd have thought?

[Tulvi]

As someone who started playing at the end of Shadowbringers, I do think it’s just time for SE to move on and make another MMO. I recall Yoshi saying that he’d like to make one more MMO before he retires.

What they should do differently / add:
1. FC achievements (to boost the social aspect of the game - too much time was spent in FF14 to improve solo player experience while group experience was left behind).
2. Better glamour system (it’s appalling that there are not at least as many glam plate slots as there are jobs in the game).
3. Abandon the repetitive “dungeon formula”.
4. Instanced player housing (although I liked the scarcity of it even before I got my own house).
5. I’d finally like to have at least one normal / boring / standard looking horse mount without stupid overly-fantasy jewellery or accessories attached to it.
6. Fix the friend list nonsense when unfriending a player doesn’t remove you from their list.
7. Dungeon quests.
8. Wall off every boss encounter that has a cutscene until the last cutscene in the group is over (I’m just tired of impatient and arrogant idiots pulling the boss early if there’s only one cutscene in the group).
9. 1v1 arena PvP battles.
10. Large scale seasonal events (take inspiration from WoW).

What they should keep:
1. Hard no on damage meters (or create an official one, but limit it to Ultimates).
2. The concept of relic grinds.
3. Deep dungeons.
4. Synced PvP (not dependent on gear, but skill).
5. Systems and overall progression locked behind MSQ (it is a brilliant way to introduce new players to the game and lore - something that WoW does terribly by abandoning its own rich story / detaching it from the essential player experience). In other words, the next FF game should stay non-endgame oriented.
6. Balance between casual and endgame content (FF14 always offered me plenty of stuff to do even when I was a sprout - you can pause your MSQ progression and still have a lot of fun in Gold Saucer or with crafting without FOMO).

[Arohk]

Or maybe they should just outsource the game to Blizzard to let them fix it?

so they can replace women with fruit?