Critical issues that need to be addressed

[IzanamiNoMikotoo]

Yes, yes, "another one for the collection." I just want to give my two cents. Or two million. This will be long.

I haven't dropped a sub in 7 years. I've done nearly all content: fishing, blue mage, ultimates, you name it. I've seen almost everything the dev team has made.

Disclaimer: I'm neither doomposting nor white knighting. “Game bad, no excuse” and “Game perfect, you just hate” are both dumb.

Disclaimer 2: FFXIV was my first MMO, but I've also tried WoW and other games, so I'll draw comparisons where it makes sense.

Here we go:

• Level Sync System
  At level 100, most content removes half our skills. I avoid roulettes because I don't want to play a watered-down version of my job. WoW's timewalking lets you use your full kit while scaling damage appropriately. FFXIV needs a similar system to make old content more enjoyable.
  
  
• Regional Cross-Datacenter Partyfinder
  I'm on Light (EU). Since cross-DC travel, Light dominates PF while Chaos is nearly dead. Chaos players suffer. no retainers, no FC buffs. Other MMOs let you group across the whole region or even cross-region. FFXIV should too.
  
  
• Gearing System
  Gearing is dull and restrictive. We need ways to gear multiple jobs on one character efficiently. More sources, upgrade paths, and variety are essential. Right now, it feels boring and like a waste of time.
  
  
• Glamour System
  Make it a collection system. Every MMO has this. Pick up an item, it's unlocked. No glamour plate limits. Adventurer plates should also just reflect your current gear instead of being tied to plates.
  
  
• Replayability, Rewards, Motivation
  This is one of the game's biggest problems. Why repeat content for materia or a mount? Once done, content is dead for most players. In WoW, nearly all content gives upgrade items. Some get buffed weekly with extra rewards, including recipes and mats worth selling. In FFXIV, dungeons, criterion, and side content feel pointless after the first clear. Just any type of horizontal progression would do a lot already, but in reality a lot more than that is needed.
  
  
• Housing System
  Compared to WoW's new housing: guilds get instanced zones, every player gets their own home, and a thousand items are available from the start. In FFXIV, we draw lots for limited houses and risk losing them if unsubbed. It's outdated.

And that's it. I boiled all of these down a lot here to stay inside the 3000 character limit and there is a lot more to them and way more exist. I created a Pastebin if you want more context on any of my points. Read that before you comment on one of them. I will probably not reply since this was more of a dump by me.
https://pastebin.com/1QUgSDwV

Also, no I do not just want wow in ffxiv. Wow has loads of issues. But what it has done is come back from the exodus. It now actually has well designed and engaging systems that just work. Embrace Competition!

[Jeeqbit]

I contributed my answer to a similar thread the other day at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...blems-of-FFXIV

There isn't one problem with the game. There are lots. The longer that goes on, the more problems accumulate. If we are to generalize:

- Lack of cross-DC PF is obviously an issue.

- Lack of QoL and passionate improvements to old patch systems, that you see in a lot of other MMOs.

- Lack of depth to systems in order to keep them simple for casual players, which makes everything boring. Job design and power progression is one example. Island Sanctuary is too rigid, underdeveloped and casualized to be Stardew Valley, Sim City, The Sims or a themepark sim.

- Lack of replayability in systems design. This is partly a consequence of casualization and lack of system depth, but partly due to just not developing things with a view for them to provide a different experience each time like PvP does.

- Saying things are impossible to solve, such as network data limits and database limits. Nothing is impossible. Where there is a will, there is a way. I can think of easy solutions to these issues, and frankly, every other MMORPG has solved them.

- Overhauling the housing system that holds the game back, to separate houses from plots so you can have a house with no plot.

[Atreus]

Pretty much agree with all of the points on this thread (I didn't go to the pastebin).

[Moonlite]

If the housing is such a real world resource cost. They should have done what they did with retainers give a base house with sub and the tier cost the bigger you want. Truth is they built a system that is just not designed for current mmo players.

[hydralus]

If I were to put forward the most important one, cross-datacenter partyfinder would probably be it.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Agree with all of these, but would add more character customization options added to character creator. Whether that’s adding more clans to races to inject some variety, or more face and body options in general, or allowing sharing of all available options within the same race alongside some new additions.

Instanced housing is long overdue… all we really need is a plot that works the same as a ward plot, inside and outside, just plopped in a small area by itself with some background scenery of the different neighborhoods. Of course, bonus points if they add new backdrops over time, like they occasionally add new housing skins/wall sets! But if they won’t a truly standalone instanced housing system (which of course I think they should), just add the above to a special area of the Island.

[Haru304]

We don't need our full kits in older content. What we do need is for them to stop neutering that content, while making class design/progression somewhat enjoyable again. If you allow us the full kits, as they stand -at the moment-, you'd be taking an already mundane experience and slapping a fast forward button on it. .. I'm not a big fan of fast forward buttons - at that point I'd rather just let people skip content entirely to get to the 'good content', or whatever.

Regional Cross-DC stuff is always a thumbs up if it 'works'.

I have no problem with how gear is distributed between characters, but I find stats largely redundant and a waste of time in the current iteration of the game.

I'm alright with the current glamour system but I'm always in favour of expanding it even further, so big thumbs up there.

I'd argue that 99% of content in an MMO feels boring after the first clear, and this is why MMOs largely attract a grind-player mind-set. I'd like the content itself to be more enjoyable, via class design and boss design being more enjoyable and less streamlined. The reward should be engagement. Not giving me a shiny trinket for performing a mundane activity.

Housing system... I don't disagree, but I'm still juggling around in my head how WoW can possibly promise an infinite number of self-generating housing neighbourhoods? It feels incredibly lofty, but what they're promising, is, indeed, pretty damned swell. The housing system in FFXIV may be dated, but I'd argue the housing system in WoW is over fifteen years too late for me to care about.

[Oizen]

We don't need our full kits in older content. What we do need is for them to stop neutering that content, while making class design/progression somewhat enjoyable again. If you allow us the full kits, as they stand -at the moment-, you'd be taking an already mundane experience and slapping a fast forward button on it. .. I'm not a big fan of fast forward buttons - at that point I'd rather just let people skip content entirely to get to the 'good content', or whatever.

Counterpoint is a lot of jobs simply are not fun without their full kit. Jobs are not designed with Level Sync in mind, the devs just slap a bunch of potency early on and call it balance for sync'd content.

[Atreus]

We don't need our full kits in older content.

Yes, we do. You're just thinking about it in absolutes. There are absolutely creative ways to scale abilities that are different than what WoW does, such as through traits.

What we do need is for them to stop neutering that content, while making class design/progression somewhat enjoyable again. If you allow us the full kits, as they stand -at the moment-, you'd be taking an already mundane experience and slapping a fast forward button on it. .. I'm not a big fan of fast forward buttons - at that point I'd rather just let people skip content entirely to get to the 'good content', or whatever.

We need both. Most content gets "neutered" because of item level caps. Item level caps need to be reduced for most pieces of content to either at or close to minimum iLv or the entire experience will remain as mundane as it always has been.

[Haru304]

Counterpoint is a lot of jobs simply are not fun without their full kit. Jobs are not designed with Level Sync in mind, the devs just slap a bunch of potency early on and call it balance for sync'd content.

Yeah. That's largely the problem. The instanced content is not going to be more fun just on the basis that kits are fully unlocked. It'll just mean things will die faster. And they die pretty quickly already.

Class design and progression across the board genuinely needs a decent, not-lazy overhaul, along with balance reworks across all content.