Part 3:
Another problem the game has is the empty and boring overworlds.
Sure you see em if you do the story and cant fly just yet, but once you are through with that there is barely any reason to ever stay on the ground. Hunts, Fates a couple of settlements that don't matter.
Mobs that ignore you mostly unless like zones from final level quests. It just doesn't matter. They are boring. I still know ARR zones inside out cause we didn't have flying back then. It was also interesting to see how NPC changed dialogues after stuff happened. The Maps were smaller and felt more alive. As if people were actually living there and not just in the 2-3 Settlements that have an Aetheryte nearby. I think the 6 Big Maps per expansion is also a relic of the past that needs an overhaul. Now I am not saying they should completely abandon the Big Maps. But combine em with smaller ones. Maybe don't release all maps at the start of an expansion. We also don't need Only big or only small maps. Mix it up. Make some bigger, make some smaller. Make em feel alive. Having some zones be empty and wide is okay if it fits visually. While smaller settlements in more cramped areas are also fine. I would also welcome it if some zones would be no flying again ( the smaller maps). Have NPCs react to worldly happenings. Let us discover secrets again like Alpha roaming the world. This is not just a problem FF14 has. FF16 also suffers from this so this is very much a CBU3 problem.


Yet another big problem this game has, and this is sadly barely talked about because most long time players do not care that much. The new player experience sucks.
On-boarding of new players is sadly something a lot of MMO struggle with.
And I know many of you probably have never tried it. But Low level Game-play aka everything lvl 50 and under absolutely sucks. Dragoon only gets his first AOE attack at lvl 40.