17 Suggestions from an MMO vet

[nmekiller]

I compiled a list of things that I found to be cumbersome, redundant, unnecessary, unhelpful, redundant, lacking, cryptic, redundant....you get the idea......I hope this is the most appropriate board to post something like this.

1) get rid of the “play screen”. it’s the one after the log in screen. Move the “square-enix account management system” button to the log in screen.

2) get rid of the start screen. This isn’t a single player FF and we’ve already gone through two screens indicating that yes, we want to freaking play. You can move “credits” and “opening movie” to the log in screen. “quit” can be moved to the character selection screen.

3) add an AH. Use retainers and the market wards for players who wish to sell their goods outside of the AH system.

4) add an in game mail system.

5) Would be nice to be able to link items to other players, and to ourselves from the chat window.

6) add all of the FF XIV config options in game. It’s insane that players should have to close out of the game, just to adjust their video or gamepad settings.

7) add a description when you hover over your stats of how those stats affect your character. This would affect the attributes and point allotment windows.

8) it would be nice if you guys added a “drag and drop” function to the Actions and Traits menu.

9) add a manual sort function to the inventory.

10) add waypoints and personalized marker options to the map.

11) macros are an important function to the game, please move them from deep
within the config window and give it it’s own tab in the menu.

12) I haven’t seen a macro tutorial.

13) add a crafting panel so we don’t have to scribble every single recipe down or look to 3rd party sources on the internet.

14) I see what you're doing with the mail, AH, and chat systems to fight RMT but it's ruining the fun for the 99% of players who aren't real money traders. You can implement these systems in much the same manner that you did with the airship pass in FFXI. Introduce epic quest lines for each of the three systems that a vast majority of the players are asking for. Let us unlock them at high levels, that way only true players are using the system, instead of the real money traders. This not only adds the much needed convenience that all other MMOs have, and you predecessor did, but it also adds some content to the game.

15) My toon is just standing there like a T-1000. Not even a damn Legend of Zelda like kicking the dirt off his boots, fidgeting, or stretching out and yawning.

16) to go back to crafting, it just takes too long to craft or gather even the simplest of items and materials. How about varying crafting time based on the difficulty or simplicity of the item you’re making?

17) give us some sort of chat channel functionality. Level restrict it if you have to, even if it’s just for high or max level players.

Some of these problems stem from the fact that the developers are doing everything they can to prevent RMT from happening in the game (3,4,17). But it seems to me that what they're doing is over kill and creating a police state where we have no freedoms, like a chat system, mail system, or AH.

The other problems come from a total lack of information and features or the horrible placement of the information and features we are given (5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,).

Then there's completely unnecessary redundancies (1,2)



And now for 3 things that You've done better then any other MMO in history.

1) your graphics are of such a high quality, it would make a lesser man weep in the presence of it’s beauty.
2) Your soundtrack is second to none. Truly astounding. Nobuo Uematsu has proved himself to be a brilliant composer, yet again.
3) I love the very customizable UI. Great work, seriously.