FFXIV Bitter Sweet

[Kaizlu]

I agree with OP.

There are decisions within the game that are in my opinion a step-backwards on what we had in 1.0. The missing elemental wheel is one of them, I still feel bad/weird for attacking a mob with it's same element and I completely miss the fact that CNJs had a small upperhand with Aero + Cleric Stance in Ifrit (it was pointless fun).

The "FATEs shouldn't be the main way to level" issue is a great one. But nerfing the experience gained by FATEs isn't the solution, as giving dungeons more experience and incentive to run will create another problem: too much gear; which in turns takes out responsibility and usefulness of crafting classes in the game (this happens at level 50). SE needs to do something about it since just giving more or less exp in one or the later will not fix everything. I would suggest that in the meantime they could add mob grinding but they won't. They could probably give more experience to Guildhests and Levequests and add materials instead of gear to give more usefulness to crafters (imagine this with a player-made crafting levequest system ~ the possibilities)

The other issue that I've noticed in my pre-endgame month is how everything throws gear at you, it's crazy!!! I understand the desire to alleviate the player of thinking on what to upgrade but this is ridiculous. I imagine that the reason for this is that if you select gear over gil (Allagan pieces) you will be short (by default) on money at 50 and you'll have to do something to get it since you need gil to run dungeons (gear repair). This was working before - to some extent, but now it's meaningless since they made dark matter so cheap - and still not available to DoLs!!

There's much to be said but those are my two points that I feel add to the OP.

[AjoraOak]

I think the endgame kills me the most, once you have everything down 3 hours a week is about all you have to spend playing. You can level sure, but that just increases the amount of fate/philo/relic/AK/BC(/CT) grinding you'll have to do in the end. The grinds make everything mundane though, can't agree enough, you can say you play too hard or w/e to anyone but you'll find that grind eventually no matter how slow you go.

[MistressAthena]

Just as an FYI. Through the ingame "Suggestion" Contact tab, I did direct them to this thread :3... I wonder if any dev's actually looked at it.

Edit: I just noticed my thread has 10k views O.o;;;

[Permata]

Completely agreed with OP. Some ppl are just whiners, some are white knights. These are the communities lol.However to make changes to what OP had mentioned required tons of funds and it's very unlikely gonna change. Like how i mentioned about some animations and graphical problems, it's still happening. Due to how much money involved just to fix these things. However i feel the game is not grasping me. For example, archers can run backfacing the enemy while shooting arrows, and the arrows still hit them. There's no projectiles seen from the arrows, etc etc etc. well.. sigh. welcome to ARR.

[MistressAthena]

Completely agreed with OP. Some ppl are just whiners, some are white knights. These are the communities lol.However to make changes to what OP had mentioned required tons of funds and it's very unlikely gonna change. Like how i mentioned about some animations and graphical problems, it's still happening. Due to how much money involved just to fix these things. However i feel the game is not grasping me. For example, archers can run backfacing the enemy while shooting arrows, and the arrows still hit them. There's no projectiles seen from the arrows, etc etc etc. well.. sigh. welcome to ARR.

Well Look at how fast they screwed up FFXI with just 1 Abysea expansion, perhaps they can completely change ARR in a good way with 1 expansion!

[MistressAthena]

117 Votes so far! I wonder how many views and votes I'll need to get before an SE person comments.. hmm...

[KKV]

118, actually. And excellent articulation, Athena. I personally prefer an easier game; Final Fantasy XI was a drag after Lv. 10, and sitting around shouting for missions killed my enjoyment. I agree with you, though; Fourteen is entirely too easy.

[Inferiae]

I agree with OP.
I can't understand why have EXP and Level system, at all. I mean, if the game "starts" only at level 50 (if spamming one dungeon can be considered game), just make a whole tutorial that gives better items periodically, as quests from 1 to 49 do.
And about crafting, when I first played ARR I though to myself: "Nice crafting system, I hope the game puts them to use, like getting rare recipes and materials from several dugeons to make better items than drop/quest reward. I really hope it doesn't become useless as most of MMO's." Well......

And for those talking about OP wanting another FFXI, I've never played FFXI* and I still agree with OP.

*FFXI was so bad-advertised in my country that if you ask anyone about FFXI, they don't even know it existed or they say "Isn't that an online FF that failed?"

[MaverickEntity]

My post may seem confusing. Indeed, at this time at night it seems confusing to myself.

I may not really have a say being that I am casual and have not experienced endgame, but I would like to share a few thoughts.

Gear and Appearance: I had hoped that with the characters I spent some time creating that I could achieve a certain "look" to them. Maybe for an archer I would want fingerless gloves all the time, or a small spare quiver by my side, or perhaps even something like a hunting knife and sheath on my belt (one that is visible!). For a pugilist, say I want a jacket that hangs off the shoulders, or just a sash across my chest? Currently the gear appearance selection, as echoed by others, is lacking. I understand that it is difficult enough for all so far that has been made, but simply recoloring/re-skinning the same piece of gear (weapons included) every few levels is frankly the most saddening thing that I notice in various genres of games. Sure, vanity slots would solve the issues for many, but I believe that the "cookie-cutter" look will still be prevalent, in that whatever looks the best as a full set for a particular class will remain the choice for many. I mean, do you really believe that people will be inclined to wear a set of mismatched gear when they could look like "that" model of character, or run around in the "flavor of the month" getup?

Leves: Honestly, I don't know how anyone could enjoy them, in the sense that for every level tier of them you get a similar style of quest for each area and essentially you would be repeating them over and over again. No, I do not want to fight "insert enemy npc" who summons "insert number of adds" 50 times on that level of leves. Mix it up a little, make one travel out into the world a bit (some of the DoL certainly do more than DoW/DoM), or have to fulfill something unusual as part of the quest (and I don't mean emotes or "sprinkle something on it while it tries to murder you). Grand Company leves are my bane, since the seal rewards are pretty much mute considering what happens when you end up out-leveling the leve tier and even lower level fates offer more.

Grand Companies: I really do not feel connected to my Grand Company. The leves do not feel really connected to my "comrades" of the company. The supply and provision quests are like that as well. Turn in an item of some sort once a day? Why not have for crafters the challenge of filling out a large order of gear over time for a company squad? Perhaps some distant outpost needs warm clothing, and to get the supplies there, a caravan must be formed and guarded by you and other players of the same company. Road ambushes, coming to the aid of a beleaguered outpost, leading raids against beastmen camps where you cannot simply waltz through but must instead help your comrades (both player and npc) beat back seemingly endless hordes of beastmen that emerge to oppose you, all of that would make me feel more involved in my Grand Company. Heck, I would love to have a reason to wear the full gear sets of my Grand Company for quest involvement with other company members, but that is not something implemented at all.

Class Guilds: I enjoyed the story of the pugilists, and was saddened to find that after lv30 you essentially have no reason to return to your guild hall at all (I assume this is different from DoL or DoH). I would have liked to keep in contact with the wonderful npc's of my original guild, maybe run some sidequests for my master, or help teach newcomers by assigning them tasks. It really isn't a guild I feel, and it sort of discourages me from other classes in the sense that even though they each have their own little story, it ends far too soon no matter what pace you are at.

Duty Finder: The one matter that I am saddened by this is that it most assuredly places you with exactly no one from your own server world. I understand why, but it is sad when I meet someone who likes to talk or comforts newcomers to a dungeon, whom I myself feel grateful upon meeting, yet not only will I never likely meet that player again (since changing servers to do so is a bit silly), I cannot even send a message after the dungeon is over to give one last thank you or to send a person a tidbit about something. If it is meant to help bring the community of players together, let there be an option to do so on your own server. Someone may argue that you should join a FC instead, but I do not see myself doing so simply because often the only times I meet truly good players is within a dungeon (heavily off-set by the bad ones of course).

Now, my time runs out within less than a week, and so far I am considering waiting for some sort of update that will do something to ignite the spark of players before I return. Maybe I am just tired from games in general, or I am just too pessimistic about matters (most likely true) but I feel truly sad not only for the community, but really for the game world itself. It seemed so enticing, so alluring, so, well..., final fantasy-like. Even not being at endgame, it already feels like a dead world, which is sad because I like to think every game has some form of passion flowing through it by both its creators and those who embrace it.