A few major game problems

[marcmy]

I am enjoying this game very much and looking forward to playing it for a long time to come, however I believe there are a few major problems that I see with the game that I believe should be addressed if the game is to keep its user base.

1. Better leveling. I know there are debates going on about FATE grinding and some people love it while others hate it. There's no question that FATEs are currently the most efficient way to level. I don't think SE should nerf FATEs, but I would like to see dungeons give more XP and rewards (like a daily loot chest for your level ala RIFT), and I think quests should come back for each new class that you create, and quests should give more XP and better rewards too. Quite simply, the alternatives to FATEs should be just as rewarding if not more than FATEs, so for those who would rather do them, there is always another option.

2. More variety and less grinding at endgame. Currently there is only one dungeon to grind for Mythology tomestones, and two story dungeons (which are plagued by the issue of cutscenes vs. no cutscenes and sometimes people quitting simply because you're not finishing it in under 20 minutes) for Philosophy. The game has so many great dungeons from lvl 15 through 47. How did it happen that these did not scale to 50 with hardmodes? If people have to grind for their tomestones, they don't want to see the same dungeon every day several times a day. This is the most troubling concern for me atm.

3. More class customization and specializations. I find it odd that the game allows you to allocate stat points when it doesn't seem necessary, yet there is no skill tree or specialization system. Every summoner is the same, every scholar is the same, every warrior, etc... The only difference is gear, rotation and the player themselves. You could un-job for more cross-class skills, but then you'd just be gimped and not desired. While I'm not saying the game needs a system as complex as RIFTs soul system, it would be nice to see more specialization options to spice things up a bit, so not every player with the same class is going around using the same skills and playing the same way.

4. Lower global cooldown. I know this is a big one, and I keep hearing from some people that it won't change and others that it will. I seriously hope it does. Coming from games where global cooldowns can be reduced to 1s to a game with a 2.5s cooldown just makes the gameplay seem very slow and boring, especially when you are doing the same rotation over, and over, and over. I would also like to see more skills not adhere to global cooldown, like a PLD's shield bash for example. OK, I know that can be overused to try to constantly interrupt enemies casts. Easy solution though, A) Give less time to react to a skill being cast. B) Give the enemy mob a stun immunity for a short period of time after being stunned. C) Put the stun skill on a short cooldown, like maybe 5 seconds? That should be more than enough time if GCD is reduced to 1.5s for example. I think this would help gameplay feel a lot less stale over time, and I seriously hope SE considers this.

Just a few of the major issues I see currently, I'm sure most of these have been discussed till faces turned blue, but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Anyone else notice anything they feel needs to be changed/addressed to ensure this game stays fun and enjoyable for everyone?

[Jayrune]

fyi, you can get around the 1000 char limit via edit.

And yes, all of these points have been brought up before, and at least one has gotten a dev response (the gcd one i know of, they are not going to shorten it).

[Vaer]

AOE sync/lag/whatever you want to call it. It just looks silly when people die clearly out of the AOE and in a safe spot.

[marcmy]

fyi, you can get around the 1000 char limit via edit.

And yes, all of these points have been brought up before, and at least one has gotten a dev response (the gcd one i know of, they are not going to shorten it).

Ah, thank you. I'll fix my original post. And that is a shame they decided against lowering it. I do hope they reconsider.

[Alavastre]

1. I believe they are putting in chests/gear/tomes every time you use the DF, or at least the dungeons ala Rift and WoW. This was coming in 2.1 I I think.

2. Yes, more dungeons, the better! I'm sure the extreme modes will give the Myth tomes, so you will get your wish, kind of. That is also in 2.1.

3. FF does it differently than other MMO's. Every Job will be the same. As every job is like a specialization unlike in other games. Like in WoW, you can be a Pally Tank, DPS or Healer. In this game they are just broken up into jobs. And more will be added. So the idea as you described will not happen in this game. They will just add Jobs.

4. Global cooldown will not be adjusted. This was obviously a very careful design feature of the combat system. I believe it's so the console people have a chance at being viable as they have to use a combination of commands to get to their skills. I wouldn't look for this to be changed any time soon.

[Dorfentyme]

The global cooldown is not going to change unless Square were to lose 90% of their playerbase and everyone's reasoning was "global cooldown was too long".

The game's combat was built around a 2.5 second global cooldown. Some of the animations almost take up the whole time. They'd have to revamp combat drastically to adjust to a 1s global cooldown. Animations would all be shorter(and would fire off so fast it would look ridiculous).

I thought I would hate the GCD after playing so many fast MMOs, but I was wrong. I love it. I wanted a slower paced combat system ala FFXI. Not AS slow as FFXI, but I didn't want a slower pace. Feels nice.

[marcmy]

4. Global cooldown will not be adjusted. This was obviously a very careful design feature of the combat system. I believe it's so the console people have a chance at being viable as they have to use a combination of commands to get to their skills. I wouldn't look for this to be changed any time soon.

Ah, that is actually solid reasoning. I didn't think of it from a console perspective. Still, I think 2.5s is just a bit too long. 2s sounds like a good number, since I'm hearing monks can get that low anyway. At the very least, if they don't reduce the GCD entirely, maybe they will make spell speed more effective to where it is reduced by that much.

[Alavastre]

Ah, that is actually solid reasoning. I didn't think of it from a console perspective. Still, I think 2.5s is just a bit too long. 2s sounds like a good number, since I'm hearing monks can get that low anyway. At the very least, if they don't reduce the GCD entirely, maybe they will make spell speed more effective to where it is reduced by that much.

True. As a healer, this sucks, as I have to watch the Tank get hit one or two times before I can heal them. Can get scarey if you're not on top of everything.