I started playing Final Fantasy XI in November 2003, less than a month after it released. It was my first graphical MMORPG, and I played it for a little more than a year, until shortly after Chains of Promathia was released. I have some good memories from that game, but also quite a few not-so-good memories. When I left FFXI, I did so with a bitter taste in my mouth. Good memories include getting all the Avatars (including Fenrir), getting the Red Mage Artifact Armor, the crazy Chains quests that no one had figured out yet when they were still new, making some awesome friends (NA and Japanese alike), and having a real sense of accomplishment near the end game. The bad memories reflect what I want to see changed. FFXI took its notorious monster loot ideals directly from the Everquest era. You had to sit in an area for hours, waiting for a notorious monster to pop, and when it did, you'd better hope you're the first one to claim it. If you're the first one to claim it, you can fight it; if you can defeat it, you have an extremely small chance to get a valuable item. I want to see that changed. That is straight-up tedious, unfun, and (for the most part) unchallenging game play. You sacrifice many hours in the hopes of winning a lottery. Similar to that were the end-game bosses. They were just like notorious monsters, except they had huge pop times and entire end-game guilds had to compete with each other (while also camping for hours on end) to claim the mob first. So even if you could avoid NM camping before the end-game, you're guaranteed to be forced into it eventually, and it's even more annoying and tedious then. Also, the politics and atmosphere of the end-game were terrible... you could only participate if you were part of at least a halfway-decent NM Linkshell, and those were all filled with selfish, cliquey, immature people. Also, the fact that most (though not all) of the non-artifact armor looked like crap could stand a change. The FF series lately has been about beautiful visuals, and there's really no need for butt-ugly armor outside of the very first newbie zones. Crafting (except for Cooking) was incredibly hard to get started with, amazingly tedious, and you actually LOST a great deal of money most of the time unless you had mastered the crafting skill, the stars aligned (literally), and you got lucky. And yes, they need to ease up on the XP grind, and mix things up a bit. FFXI has an oldschool mega-grind by today's standards, not nearly as bad as Lineage II, but comparable. Finally, I don't know how they'll handle this, but they need to make the economy not be a steaming pile of donkey dung. Seriously, I've never played any game (not even EVE Online or text MUDs) where it's so tedious, difficult, and annoying to afford some decent equipment. FFXI took the cake on that one. DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how much the game has changed since early 2005, when I stopped playing. Maybe all that stuff got fixed, but... well, I kinda doubt it.
They changed a lot since you played. Treasures of Aht Urghan came out in 2005, and honestly, it could've been FFXIV with all the different systems it introduced into FFXI. Assaults, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMS, Pankration, Nyzul Isle, and Besieged just to name a few. They also added Sanction (ToAU's signet) which allowed you to have refresh, regen, or longer food effects for the duration of the buff. Not only that, they also added an xp bonus while you had sanction on. Toss that ontop of how they made the mobs easier to kill, and lvl 55+ was able to chain and get tons of xp from these newer areas. It elminated the grind of kuftal tunnel, bibiki bay, boyhada tree, and cape terrigan. Plus no more xp pts in sky. They also added xp bonus rings that you could buy with conquest points. Last Summer they added level sync, which allows you to sync you level down to a pt member, and it adjusts the stats on your armor so you didn't have to carry different armor. This also helps on level capped bcnms, cop fights, etc, so you don't have to worry about keeping other armor.
As far as AF goes, the Blu, Pup, Cor af were very good looking. Sch and dnc was ok. Drg not finding a pt back in the day, wasn't because of SE, it was because of players. We decided what jobs we wanted to xp with, or not. SE did eventually decide to help out DRG, by addind "Straps", an item that could be placed in the offhand slot to give benefits to 2 hand weapon users. They also changed how 2 handed weapon damage was dealt. Thus, really making SAM the best DD in the game. It really helped DRK out alot to.
They tried to fix bst, by taking the xp hit away for having the pet, but that damage was already done, and ppl still don't level with bst. Pup also has problems finding a pt, but they can solo. BLM was the hardest job hit though. After ToAU was released, BLMS had to solo from 50 on, because the xp mobs either had high magic defense, or reflected magic.
They added Fields of Valor a few updates ago, which allows you to select a quest once every vana'diel day (in the original areas), that will yield you bonus xp and TABS (a form of currency that can only be used at a FoV book) upon completion. You can purchase Regen, refresh, and some other stuff with tabs. Also, treasure caskets now drop off of enemies in the old areas, that have goodies inside that can help speed up leveling (in a group or solo).
WoTG brought about campaign battles, which yield a damn good amount of xp for solo players (at higher levels), and are pretty fun. A lot of ppl campaign while lfp.
They added two new HNMs, that spawn in random zones, and can switch zones. One of them also has to be claimed, by using a throwing weapon that you have to farm. This is their attempt to elimanate botters from monopolizing nms. Einherjar also drops abjurations (ones that drop from the king hnms), but at a worse drop rate. Once you get to Odin though (final boss of einherjar) he drops abjurations too. It was their way of allowing an alternative to camping hnms, which btw, some people really like to do.
ISNM's, and ANNMs (two new bcnm areas), are good ways to make money, thus lowering the need to farm all the time. Also, while you knock crafting, there are a ton of ppl in the game that make exceptional gil from crafting. Sure, it takes some time, and if you try to power level your craft you will lose money. But crafting isn't worthless in ffxi, like it is in wow. You can make money off of a craft at almost any level if you want to. I make a good deal from clothcraft, and it's only level 40.
The economy is player ran, and npc'ing stuff doesn't really provide a person with much gil. Also, loot, potions, food, etc, doesn't drop in droves like is does in WoW, thus adding importance to the player ran economy. I personally like xi's approach more than wow, and games similar to wow.
They even added Chocobo raising, racing, etc. They have listened to the players, and have made a ton of changes to the game that have made it better, but, also has still remained difficult and satisfying. As far as grind goes, you can get to 75 faster in FFXI than you can get to 60 in WoW (let alone 80), 80 in AoC, 40 in War, etc. Its not hard these days (did I forget to mention they dropped the amount of xp needed to level from 50-75, back in 2005).
As far as people wanting to have personal relationships with players ingame, that's their business. SE didn't make the game for matchmaking purposes, but, they enabled us to have the freedom to do what the hell we want in this game. WoW, and every other modern mmo lacks the depth of FFXI. Maybe if you would reactivate and play it for 2 days, you would notice the difference.
SE will not cheapen XiV (I honestly think they are incapable of making a casual game). I have faith that it will still have the same japanese design standards and philosphies, and they will make us work for everything we get. And make us figure out all the minor details that are hidden behind the scenes.
Oh, and one more thing....Salvage is the best endgame they ever added, hands down. No other MMO has an endgame area that takes that much strategy, with armor that is that hard to acquire.
Well, if that's the way it's going to be then I guess I'll see you on the Diablo III HC servers! There's a game that cannot miss.
I still want FFXIV dev's reading my list though
Well for sure a good dev would look at all the sides :P I don't know if SE would ever get anything we say on mmorpg.com but I know they've listened to fan sites like Dreams in Vana'diel and sites that FFXI has on their official list, and there's a great many!
The one thing above all things i would like them to keep is linkshells there the best form of Guilds i've ever found in a game and the best thing is, you can have have more then 1!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just wanted to toss in my 2 cents as i have decided to abandon waiting anxiously for aion to wait anxiously for this game
I really hope they keep:
1) Puppetmaster type job- though it was shaky and seen as underpowered back when i played, i found the class beautifully done. Probably the best pet class of any game ive played. The pet really felt like my partner rather than a tool. It could adapt to different situations/parties with different frames. /cry i miss Otto...
2) variety of weapons- not many games out there where u get as many choices on weapons as this one...
3) campaign/besieged type battles- maybe because it was a breath of fresh air but i LOVED leveling this way. i felt like i was really fighting to defend my country/world from invaders. One adjustment id like however would be making it more accessible at lower levels, perhaps it was done aimed at 75's due to the time of its release but thats somethin i would have liked.
4) grouping- its what made the community what it was. wouldnt change a bit! soloing wasnt impossible, just harder.
few changes:
1) make mobs a little more different. crabs and bunnies for the first 60 levels felt repetitive. suggestion: maybe mobs gradually change with level. like lower level crabs look like snippers/clippers/every other crab from ffxi but as they grow in level get larger and develop huge claws and large spiky shells.
2) as stated earlier-campaign type stuff throughout game.
3) more customization with characters. ie faces, heights, body types, hair, etc
There are rewards for quests already, if you're talking about massive amounts of free, unearned XP like every other MMO out there rewards for super easy quests.......absolutely no thanks!
1. Character Customization needs more options: Character customization in FFXI was very limiting... 4 or 5 heads, no hair choice, you got a face/hair combo and each choice only had two hair color choices.. I believe the choices among all heads only totaled 4 hair colors per race, not 100% sure on that, but there seemed to be blonde, brunette/black, grey, red/orange, and pink. You also only had three sizing options... If they utlize a similar character custimization as Aion, but within reason per race, it would make for more unique characters.
2. Combat: I really only have one annoyance with FFXI's combat.... If a creature is moving you have to wait to melee.. You can cast and hit them with ranged, but not with melee, that's just sad!
3. Rest Time: As a previous poster mentioned, the rest time to get MP back up causes for a lot of down time in FFXI, that needs to change.
4. Zoning: They need to minimize zoning, and create more of a seamless world this time around.
One charecter is fine as long as its like FF11 and you can chnage your job anytime as mush as you like.
Why? Why just dont give the option to have few characters per server so everyone can have different classes & races?
you can be every single class in the game with that one charecter ff11 lets you change class anytime.
Yeah but what about changing the race? I like testing (and lvling up) new classes & races (with different racial habilities) in every game i try. I dont understand what u guys would support just 1 char / server
In ff race is just a skin so it didnt really bother anyone
Well I like to play different races and sex.
I love my cute female Taru whm and blm. She is cheerfull and very kind.
My mithra is nin and thief. She is a little bossy and doesn't like to wait.
My hume male pld is more calm and mature, but when he is seeing a cute female he can be flirty.
I like to play every character/race/sex different. That's why I play different characters. I guess I would have to play on 3 servers. I don't like that.
But there should be a limit on how many characters you can make. (3 or 4 characters max, depends on how many races you will have in the game)
What I want to keep:
Cutscene / missions : This is were FFXI is much better then other MMORPG, imo.
Community: well SE doesn't have much influence on this. But I love the community in XI
All Jobs 1 character: I love you can do everythng with 1 character, even when I use more characters. I wouldn't want to erase it.
Level Sync
VoF (or maybe improve that. a little)
What I want to change:
Traffel time. I don't have much time to play each day, sometimes half of my time I spent to get were I want.
Leveling: Leveling for hours on the same mob isn't really exciting for me.
More varition. Your own characters, enemies, armor etc. I like to have more of an ID and don't look like most other people.
Also killing worms that all look the same through leveling just with different names is a little boring.
Able to solo: Groups are great in FFXI, and it should have an advance in FFXIV also. But Solo must be doable and fun. Grouping must be a little better, but not such a huge of a difference as in FFXI.
Money making: Make it easier to make money, but not too easy.
Easier to gather a group around. Maybe some spell for special job that can warp a player to the group. or something like that. Also a party leader should be able to set a job the party is looking for, so people that play that job can see parties that need them. Be able to invite to group all over the world.
Things I prefer to change: (but not so important)
Linkshell options: I love to see more options in a LS. Maybe give ranks to a LS to give them special stuff at each rank, and special misisons for LS only. Maybe at high LS rank, give a nice LS design, for armor / shields, maybe shown capes with a LS symbol. Something like that. Maybe a LS house with telepoint that LS members can tele to (no matter which job you play)
Having a chocobo around level 10 or even earlier. Let it be like a virtual pet. No whistle with charges, just feed it proparly. Maybe let the chocobo help you in fights, it also should have a level then and have special chocobo jobs. Like train it as a whm, blm or war.
Not sure where you are getting your information but levelling in WoW has -always- been faster than FFXI, and it likely still is. You can go from 1-60 in 3-4 days, then 60-70 in 2 days, then 70-80 in 2-3 days which means a week to go from bottom to top. Yes that's playing a goodly bit of time, but without any power levelling services or anything like that. You can do that solo and without ever grouping.
Now WoW to me was the KING of quest grinding. In EQ1 and FFXI you could do quests, but most of the time your levelling came from just finding a party and killing stuff. EverQuest was kind of a misnomer since the amount of quests around was actually somewhat limited. WoW has -way- more quests than EverQuest 1 did, but EQ2 and WoW had a TON of quests for grinding levels.
I hope they make it take a long time to get from bottom to top in FFXIV, makes it have that sense of accomplishment that doesn't really exist in WoW or EQ2 anymore. EQ2 used to be a great game when it first came out imho, then they dumbed it down to be way to much like WoW imho. I hope and pray that FFXIV while being more accessible to the 'solo' and 'casual' mindset doesn't make it so easy it removes the sense of accomplishment from FFXIV that FFXI had.
Most of the mechanics are fine.I would like to see much of the same stuff but done even better or more in depth.You cannot take anything away from the grouping aspect otherwise it becomes a single player game,witch has nothing to do with hardcore or casual.
One master account is a no win idea,i cannot believe people can't see why.The biggest reason is because we do not have enough inventory space,most of us who had as many as 5/6 mules had all of them full as well.Try playing a ranger,by level 50 you have tons of different arrows/gear then you add in crafting,and playing other jobs takes a ton of inventory space as well.This is all on top of the added TOAU lockers,witch did not exist in the beginning of the game.Square makes a few extra bucks by selling mules at a buck each,so i highly doubt they would remove a win win for both us and them.
As many have mentioned here or in other threads,we need the RMT activity to disappear,that would make the game 100% better,because the economy would be realistic,not like F2P games economies that are ridiculous.The BEST way to remove botting would be to make drops much better,there is no reason the drops had to be as crap as they are in FFXI.
The way FFXI does their mathematics in game really removes the importance of gear,they could easily make drops better on both the low end and the rares.The reason is because Square likes to fool people ALOT.You get a +50 dmg item it really equates to far less in game like 5 or so.I laughed at items that had stats like +1str or +1 agi,just a waste of time even if you had a full set,because like i said they make the numbers meaningless due to other aspects in the equations.
The crafting is another area that needs better numbers.Food was a biggie,they gave stats like +22% but the cap would make it so it was near useless.A cap of 50 dmg is as i pointed out earlier often times only 5 more damage sometimes none at all.How about adding MP to high level gear like +10 mp..RLFMAO that is not even one decent cure for a level 50+,the items should have been adding 50mp minimum by the mid 50's,at least enough for a couple more cure 3.
Basically the game became more of a gil grind than anything.You would have to spend more time making gil than playing,that is a fail by most players standards.NOBODY and i mean nobody plays a game for the reason of making gil,we play to have some fun killing mobs or other players or exploring,crafting.This is why the whole economy/rmt/drops thing needs to be done much better.Another example would be you buy an item for 10k from a npc yet he buys it back at 100 gil,just a ridiculous setup and a very unrealistic one at that.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Until you played three years of FFXI and then tried other MMOs after that and constantly having to reroll a new guy, with a new name (Shocker, Shockker, Shokker, Shoccker, et, et etc) just to try different jobs, you don't know what suck is.
Having subjobs and being able to stay in your moghouse and just flip mains and subs in literally one second without having to log/relog/log/relog was the best character feature ever. I can remember many a time in a group of four and needed two dps types.
Well, we found another WHM and RDM lfg, so two of us just switched from our WHM and RDM mains and went RNG and MNK right in the moghouse while talking in party without having to "Okay, I'll brb on my RNG. His name is Sharpeye. No wait, that's Sharrpeye. Sharpeye is my NIN".
The best part was when you had a BLM -> RDM change and you kept all your staves and most of your ringbling, only changing a few items. Simplicity and easy as pie.
I really hope they stick to linking the communities together (FFXI) and not create an official forums like other games. WoW has officially the WORST community ever. Kids are always QQing on the forums and demanding huge amounts of changing. They die and they are like "NERFFF THIS, NERFF THAT, OMG BUFF THIS, THAT". That's how WoW has changed so much... because of all the whining on the forums, the devs took their word and ruined the game. FFXI has an extremely mature (social) community and I hope it will be that way with FFXIV. FFXI did a good job of keeping the kids away. WoW pretty much attracted kids (and on the forums). As I said before, I seriously hope FFXIV's community will be as mature as FFXI's community.
2) AF Armor Quest should be doable by a Duo, or even Solo. With the quest being designed around each job, to see how well you understand and are capable of playing your job. Something like the old EQ2 base class quest like the one for Assassin that had you sneaking around. They should be HEAVILY story driven, and not necessarily revolve around killing and camping mobs.
3) Keep the rentable transportation, but lower the level. Self-owned transportation should be high end stuff.
4) Do something about the no healer no group situation.
5) Level Sync at option right from the first day of service.
6) Keep the XP loss, but remove the level down. Give players a free pass for their first death of a level.
7) Sub-job should gain XP about 1/4th the rate of current main job.
8) Keep the Conquest Point system
9) Keep Bastilla fights, but revamp it.
10) Revamp the Auction House system.
11) Rethink the economy. If you make money hard to come by or tedious to get you only increase the number of bots and RMT's that will show up in your game.
12) Make crafting less mind numbling tedious.
13) Add Weapon and Armor decay.
14) A system to add procs to a weapon or armor would be nice.
15) More story driven quest even if they don't have rewards at end.
16) Keep the mission system (loved it and the cut-scenes for some of them)
17) Revamp the Fame system. It's annoying to have a nation you aren't a member of call you famous and a hero. Only to treat you like a nobody when you switch to their nation. (That is if FFXIV will have a similar system)
18) Don't nerf classes and skills down just because people feel they are OP. Instead try to buff up other classes to player expectations.
19) A little less clunky of a UI would be nice.
20) I would love to see a nice balance of Open Dungeons, and Instanced Dungeons. Open dungeons for general XPing. Instanced dungeons for story moments. With multiple parts and multiple layers. So that each time you came back to the Instance dungeon you would be looking for a new part of it. Relating to a new part or continuing part of a story.
In War - Victory. In Peace - Vigilance. In Death - Sacrifice.
Change everything or almost everything. This is Square's chance to make the Final Fantasy MMO the Western world wanted. FFXI is a great game for those that enjoy it but I would much prefer something that isn't as grind heavy and doesn't require a party 100% of the time.
WoW wasn't out when FFXI released, it took it's cues from Everquest 1. Why do I have to keep saying this? )
he eh.
What did anything I said have to do with WoW except for the paragraph of mine you didn't show where I said I would like some of the qualities from WoW to be considered?
Originally posted by Roin 13) Add Weapon and Armor decay.
I dont agree with your point on this.
Its hard enough to make gil in ffxi and if they are planning to keep that the same in xiv then this is gonna be a pain in the ass seeing as every MMO asks you to pay a certain amount to repair your armor and weapons (take wow for example - between level 1 and 40, it doesnt cost much to repair stuff, but at max level it costs you lots (and i mean lots) of money) if they do this in xiv i will get so annoyed because again its degenerating it to be like most MMOs. FFXI was unique, lets keep FFXIV unique too.
Change everything or almost everything. This is Square's chance to make the Final Fantasy MMO the Western world wanted. FFXI is a great game for those that enjoy it but I would much prefer something that isn't as grind heavy and doesn't require a party 100% of the time.
WoW wasn't out when FFXI released, it took it's cues from Everquest 1. Why do I have to keep saying this? )
he eh.
What did anything I said have to do with WoW except for the paragraph of mine you didn't show where I said I would like some of the qualities from WoW to be considered?
Why would you want qualities from WoW added? It was focused towards little kids and well quite frankly "newbs" to make them feel like theyre acomplishing something. FFXI was a lot more mature in the way it is and the people who played on it, keep 14 like that otherwise it gonna end up like every other MMO
1) No Genkai Quest 2) AF Armor Quest should be doable by a Duo, or even Solo. With the quest being designed around each job, to see how well you understand and are capable of playing your job. Something like the old EQ2 base class quest like the one for Assassin that had you sneaking around. They should be HEAVILY story driven, and not necessarily revolve around killing and camping mobs. 3) Keep the rentable transportation, but lower the level. Self-owned transportation should be high end stuff. 4) Do something about the no healer no group situation. 5) Level Sync at option right from the first day of service. 6) Keep the XP loss, but remove the level down. Give players a free pass for their first death of a level. 7) Sub-job should gain XP about 1/4th the rate of current main job. 8) Keep the Conquest Point system 9) Keep Bastilla fights, but revamp it. 10) Revamp the Auction House system. 11) Rethink the economy. If you make money hard to come by or tedious to get you only increase the number of bots and RMT's that will show up in your game. 12) Make crafting less mind numbling tedious. 13) Add Weapon and Armor decay. 14) A system to add procs to a weapon or armor would be nice. 15) More story driven quest even if they don't have rewards at end. 16) Keep the mission system (loved it and the cut-scenes for some of them) 17) Revamp the Fame system. It's annoying to have a nation you aren't a member of call you famous and a hero. Only to treat you like a nobody when you switch to their nation. (That is if FFXIV will have a similar system) 18) Don't nerf classes and skills down just because people feel they are OP. Instead try to buff up other classes to player expectations. 19) A little less clunky of a UI would be nice. 20) I would love to see a nice balance of Open Dungeons, and Instanced Dungeons. Open dungeons for general XPing. Instanced dungeons for story moments. With multiple parts and multiple layers. So that each time you came back to the Instance dungeon you would be looking for a new part of it. Relating to a new part or continuing part of a story.
I can agree with most of these points.
1) Meh, they weren't a bad idea IMO.
11) I totally agree. They need to revamp the system so it's not so susceptible to RMT activity and botters.
13) I don't agree here. I think weapon decay is unnecessary.
20) I pretty much like how SE handled instancing with FFXI and I hope they don't over-instance the game world.
Status Effect on Enemy- I'd like to see the status effect icon on/above my targets lifebar to see when the effect wears off. I don't want to have to watch the combat dialogue to figure it out!
Auction House- I don't like seeing the entire list of everything that has EVER been auctioned, let's have a couple of new menus, current items up for auction, history of items auctioned including last sale price, and your items that are up for auction.
Stackable items- Why is 12 the maximum number? Let's increase that to at least 25.
I never played FFXI so maybe I dont fully understand, but I think that the ability to change jobs anytime could also be a bad thing. I would not like it if any group I joined could tell me "we have enough of your class - change to healer plz". I tend to choose the class I like and play it till I get good at it. Alts are not really my style. Pressured to play an alternate class would be a big bummer for me.
I never played FFXI so maybe I dont fully understand, but I think that the ability to change jobs anytime could also be a bad thing. I would not like it if any group I joined could tell me "we have enough of your class - change to healer plz". I tend to choose the class I like and play it till I get good at it. Alts are not really my style. Pressured to play an alternate class would be a big bummer for me.
You wouldn't have to worry about that. If the group needed a healer they won't have invited you to begin with unless they knew you well enough. And if they knew you well enough then probably you'd be cool enough with them to accomodate. Give the trial a chance and see how it works. http://www.finalfantasyxi.com
I thought I would add that I think NMs should make a return. They were a lot of fun and my Bro and I bonded a lot hunting them. People hate on them but you can't make everyone happy!
Maybe if they made the NMs instance based that would make them easier on casual players. That way you don't have to camp one for hours on end, hoping for a claim!
I thought I would add that I think NMs should make a return. They were a lot of fun and my Bro and I bonded a lot hunting them. People hate on them but you can't make everyone happy! Maybe if they made the NMs instance based that would make them easier on casual players. That way you don't have to camp one for hours on end, hoping for a claim!
I am 0 for fuckilostcount on Leaping Lizzy's shoes. I am torn in reguards to NMs. I don't have hours and hours to spend camping things anymore and I can't stay focused enough to actaully do it if I did have the time. I'd like to have items be exculsive so you don't have person X camping nonstop and just reselling, but I'd like so be able to buy them for when I have enough money and I give up on camping. I'd like like to see the drop rates increase by a lot, but I don't want to see the market become flooded with things that peoepl eventually don't ever want.
It is a hard balancing act and glad i'm not making the decision.
I hope the AH stays similar....I can't stand current auctions inother MMOs when people list stuff with no BO...its like damnit I want it now, and you'll more then likely get way more for it with a BO instead of auctioned. Sometimes I don't mind paying way over priced for an item if I want it that bad, and in FFXI you can do just that at anytime with anything!
Also if it hasn't been mentioned yet, keep armor scarce and somewhat hard to come by and eventually make it all player made further along in the game. As well as don't add in the stupid BoE, BoA bullshit....allow us to resell our gear to others or use it on another job...or heck even an alt if you is inclined to play a 2nd character, etc! The only gear that should have any kind of binding is Race/Job specific and super rare items that very few players will have!
Comments
They changed a lot since you played. Treasures of Aht Urghan came out in 2005, and honestly, it could've been FFXIV with all the different systems it introduced into FFXI. Assaults, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMS, Pankration, Nyzul Isle, and Besieged just to name a few. They also added Sanction (ToAU's signet) which allowed you to have refresh, regen, or longer food effects for the duration of the buff. Not only that, they also added an xp bonus while you had sanction on. Toss that ontop of how they made the mobs easier to kill, and lvl 55+ was able to chain and get tons of xp from these newer areas. It elminated the grind of kuftal tunnel, bibiki bay, boyhada tree, and cape terrigan. Plus no more xp pts in sky. They also added xp bonus rings that you could buy with conquest points. Last Summer they added level sync, which allows you to sync you level down to a pt member, and it adjusts the stats on your armor so you didn't have to carry different armor. This also helps on level capped bcnms, cop fights, etc, so you don't have to worry about keeping other armor.
As far as AF goes, the Blu, Pup, Cor af were very good looking. Sch and dnc was ok. Drg not finding a pt back in the day, wasn't because of SE, it was because of players. We decided what jobs we wanted to xp with, or not. SE did eventually decide to help out DRG, by addind "Straps", an item that could be placed in the offhand slot to give benefits to 2 hand weapon users. They also changed how 2 handed weapon damage was dealt. Thus, really making SAM the best DD in the game. It really helped DRK out alot to.
They tried to fix bst, by taking the xp hit away for having the pet, but that damage was already done, and ppl still don't level with bst. Pup also has problems finding a pt, but they can solo. BLM was the hardest job hit though. After ToAU was released, BLMS had to solo from 50 on, because the xp mobs either had high magic defense, or reflected magic.
They added Fields of Valor a few updates ago, which allows you to select a quest once every vana'diel day (in the original areas), that will yield you bonus xp and TABS (a form of currency that can only be used at a FoV book) upon completion. You can purchase Regen, refresh, and some other stuff with tabs. Also, treasure caskets now drop off of enemies in the old areas, that have goodies inside that can help speed up leveling (in a group or solo).
WoTG brought about campaign battles, which yield a damn good amount of xp for solo players (at higher levels), and are pretty fun. A lot of ppl campaign while lfp.
They added two new HNMs, that spawn in random zones, and can switch zones. One of them also has to be claimed, by using a throwing weapon that you have to farm. This is their attempt to elimanate botters from monopolizing nms. Einherjar also drops abjurations (ones that drop from the king hnms), but at a worse drop rate. Once you get to Odin though (final boss of einherjar) he drops abjurations too. It was their way of allowing an alternative to camping hnms, which btw, some people really like to do.
ISNM's, and ANNMs (two new bcnm areas), are good ways to make money, thus lowering the need to farm all the time. Also, while you knock crafting, there are a ton of ppl in the game that make exceptional gil from crafting. Sure, it takes some time, and if you try to power level your craft you will lose money. But crafting isn't worthless in ffxi, like it is in wow. You can make money off of a craft at almost any level if you want to. I make a good deal from clothcraft, and it's only level 40.
The economy is player ran, and npc'ing stuff doesn't really provide a person with much gil. Also, loot, potions, food, etc, doesn't drop in droves like is does in WoW, thus adding importance to the player ran economy. I personally like xi's approach more than wow, and games similar to wow.
They even added Chocobo raising, racing, etc. They have listened to the players, and have made a ton of changes to the game that have made it better, but, also has still remained difficult and satisfying. As far as grind goes, you can get to 75 faster in FFXI than you can get to 60 in WoW (let alone 80), 80 in AoC, 40 in War, etc. Its not hard these days (did I forget to mention they dropped the amount of xp needed to level from 50-75, back in 2005).
As far as people wanting to have personal relationships with players ingame, that's their business. SE didn't make the game for matchmaking purposes, but, they enabled us to have the freedom to do what the hell we want in this game. WoW, and every other modern mmo lacks the depth of FFXI. Maybe if you would reactivate and play it for 2 days, you would notice the difference.
SE will not cheapen XiV (I honestly think they are incapable of making a casual game). I have faith that it will still have the same japanese design standards and philosphies, and they will make us work for everything we get. And make us figure out all the minor details that are hidden behind the scenes.
Oh, and one more thing....Salvage is the best endgame they ever added, hands down. No other MMO has an endgame area that takes that much strategy, with armor that is that hard to acquire.
Well for sure a good dev would look at all the sides :P I don't know if SE would ever get anything we say on mmorpg.com but I know they've listened to fan sites like Dreams in Vana'diel and sites that FFXI has on their official list, and there's a great many!
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
The one thing above all things i would like them to keep is linkshells there the best form of Guilds i've ever found in a game and the best thing is, you can have have more then 1!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just wanted to toss in my 2 cents as i have decided to abandon waiting anxiously for aion to wait anxiously for this game
I really hope they keep:
1) Puppetmaster type job- though it was shaky and seen as underpowered back when i played, i found the class beautifully done. Probably the best pet class of any game ive played. The pet really felt like my partner rather than a tool. It could adapt to different situations/parties with different frames. /cry i miss Otto...
2) variety of weapons- not many games out there where u get as many choices on weapons as this one...
3) campaign/besieged type battles- maybe because it was a breath of fresh air but i LOVED leveling this way. i felt like i was really fighting to defend my country/world from invaders. One adjustment id like however would be making it more accessible at lower levels, perhaps it was done aimed at 75's due to the time of its release but thats somethin i would have liked.
4) grouping- its what made the community what it was. wouldnt change a bit! soloing wasnt impossible, just harder.
few changes:
1) make mobs a little more different. crabs and bunnies for the first 60 levels felt repetitive. suggestion: maybe mobs gradually change with level. like lower level crabs look like snippers/clippers/every other crab from ffxi but as they grow in level get larger and develop huge claws and large spiky shells.
2) as stated earlier-campaign type stuff throughout game.
3) more customization with characters. ie faces, heights, body types, hair, etc
There are rewards for quests already, if you're talking about massive amounts of free, unearned XP like every other MMO out there rewards for super easy quests.......absolutely no thanks!
1. Character Customization needs more options: Character customization in FFXI was very limiting... 4 or 5 heads, no hair choice, you got a face/hair combo and each choice only had two hair color choices.. I believe the choices among all heads only totaled 4 hair colors per race, not 100% sure on that, but there seemed to be blonde, brunette/black, grey, red/orange, and pink. You also only had three sizing options... If they utlize a similar character custimization as Aion, but within reason per race, it would make for more unique characters.
2. Combat: I really only have one annoyance with FFXI's combat.... If a creature is moving you have to wait to melee.. You can cast and hit them with ranged, but not with melee, that's just sad!
3. Rest Time: As a previous poster mentioned, the rest time to get MP back up causes for a lot of down time in FFXI, that needs to change.
4. Zoning: They need to minimize zoning, and create more of a seamless world this time around.
Why? Why just dont give the option to have few characters per server so everyone can have different classes & races?
you can be every single class in the game with that one charecter ff11 lets you change class anytime.
Yeah but what about changing the race? I like testing (and lvling up) new classes & races (with different racial habilities) in every game i try. I dont understand what u guys would support just 1 char / server
In ff race is just a skin so it didnt really bother anyone
Well I like to play different races and sex.
I love my cute female Taru whm and blm. She is cheerfull and very kind.
My mithra is nin and thief. She is a little bossy and doesn't like to wait.
My hume male pld is more calm and mature, but when he is seeing a cute female he can be flirty.
I like to play every character/race/sex different. That's why I play different characters. I guess I would have to play on 3 servers. I don't like that.
But there should be a limit on how many characters you can make. (3 or 4 characters max, depends on how many races you will have in the game)
What I want to keep:
Cutscene / missions : This is were FFXI is much better then other MMORPG, imo.
Community: well SE doesn't have much influence on this. But I love the community in XI
All Jobs 1 character: I love you can do everythng with 1 character, even when I use more characters. I wouldn't want to erase it.
Level Sync
VoF (or maybe improve that. a little)
What I want to change:
Traffel time. I don't have much time to play each day, sometimes half of my time I spent to get were I want.
Leveling: Leveling for hours on the same mob isn't really exciting for me.
More varition. Your own characters, enemies, armor etc. I like to have more of an ID and don't look like most other people.
Also killing worms that all look the same through leveling just with different names is a little boring.
Able to solo: Groups are great in FFXI, and it should have an advance in FFXIV also. But Solo must be doable and fun. Grouping must be a little better, but not such a huge of a difference as in FFXI.
Money making: Make it easier to make money, but not too easy.
Easier to gather a group around. Maybe some spell for special job that can warp a player to the group. or something like that. Also a party leader should be able to set a job the party is looking for, so people that play that job can see parties that need them. Be able to invite to group all over the world.
Things I prefer to change: (but not so important)
Linkshell options: I love to see more options in a LS. Maybe give ranks to a LS to give them special stuff at each rank, and special misisons for LS only. Maybe at high LS rank, give a nice LS design, for armor / shields, maybe shown capes with a LS symbol. Something like that. Maybe a LS house with telepoint that LS members can tele to (no matter which job you play)
Having a chocobo around level 10 or even earlier. Let it be like a virtual pet. No whistle with charges, just feed it proparly. Maybe let the chocobo help you in fights, it also should have a level then and have special chocobo jobs. Like train it as a whm, blm or war.
Not sure where you are getting your information but levelling in WoW has -always- been faster than FFXI, and it likely still is. You can go from 1-60 in 3-4 days, then 60-70 in 2 days, then 70-80 in 2-3 days which means a week to go from bottom to top. Yes that's playing a goodly bit of time, but without any power levelling services or anything like that. You can do that solo and without ever grouping.
Now WoW to me was the KING of quest grinding. In EQ1 and FFXI you could do quests, but most of the time your levelling came from just finding a party and killing stuff. EverQuest was kind of a misnomer since the amount of quests around was actually somewhat limited. WoW has -way- more quests than EverQuest 1 did, but EQ2 and WoW had a TON of quests for grinding levels.
I hope they make it take a long time to get from bottom to top in FFXIV, makes it have that sense of accomplishment that doesn't really exist in WoW or EQ2 anymore. EQ2 used to be a great game when it first came out imho, then they dumbed it down to be way to much like WoW imho. I hope and pray that FFXIV while being more accessible to the 'solo' and 'casual' mindset doesn't make it so easy it removes the sense of accomplishment from FFXIV that FFXI had.
That's the biggest thing I want to see kept.
WoW leveling has never been faster than FFXI's.
When new jobs come out in less than 48h's some people are 75 already.
Right now you can get to 75 from 10 in around 10 hours, too. Hard to beat that.
Some group went from 37 to 64 in around 9 hours using the normal exp method.
Only reason why WoW feels faster is because there's no lfp times and less overall waiting around.
Most of the mechanics are fine.I would like to see much of the same stuff but done even better or more in depth.You cannot take anything away from the grouping aspect otherwise it becomes a single player game,witch has nothing to do with hardcore or casual.
One master account is a no win idea,i cannot believe people can't see why.The biggest reason is because we do not have enough inventory space,most of us who had as many as 5/6 mules had all of them full as well.Try playing a ranger,by level 50 you have tons of different arrows/gear then you add in crafting,and playing other jobs takes a ton of inventory space as well.This is all on top of the added TOAU lockers,witch did not exist in the beginning of the game.Square makes a few extra bucks by selling mules at a buck each,so i highly doubt they would remove a win win for both us and them.
As many have mentioned here or in other threads,we need the RMT activity to disappear,that would make the game 100% better,because the economy would be realistic,not like F2P games economies that are ridiculous.The BEST way to remove botting would be to make drops much better,there is no reason the drops had to be as crap as they are in FFXI.
The way FFXI does their mathematics in game really removes the importance of gear,they could easily make drops better on both the low end and the rares.The reason is because Square likes to fool people ALOT.You get a +50 dmg item it really equates to far less in game like 5 or so.I laughed at items that had stats like +1str or +1 agi,just a waste of time even if you had a full set,because like i said they make the numbers meaningless due to other aspects in the equations.
The crafting is another area that needs better numbers.Food was a biggie,they gave stats like +22% but the cap would make it so it was near useless.A cap of 50 dmg is as i pointed out earlier often times only 5 more damage sometimes none at all.How about adding MP to high level gear like +10 mp..RLFMAO that is not even one decent cure for a level 50+,the items should have been adding 50mp minimum by the mid 50's,at least enough for a couple more cure 3.
Basically the game became more of a gil grind than anything.You would have to spend more time making gil than playing,that is a fail by most players standards.NOBODY and i mean nobody plays a game for the reason of making gil,we play to have some fun killing mobs or other players or exploring,crafting.This is why the whole economy/rmt/drops thing needs to be done much better.Another example would be you buy an item for 10k from a npc yet he buys it back at 100 gil,just a ridiculous setup and a very unrealistic one at that.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Hands down: The multi-job system.
Until you played three years of FFXI and then tried other MMOs after that and constantly having to reroll a new guy, with a new name (Shocker, Shockker, Shokker, Shoccker, et, et etc) just to try different jobs, you don't know what suck is.
Having subjobs and being able to stay in your moghouse and just flip mains and subs in literally one second without having to log/relog/log/relog was the best character feature ever. I can remember many a time in a group of four and needed two dps types.
Well, we found another WHM and RDM lfg, so two of us just switched from our WHM and RDM mains and went RNG and MNK right in the moghouse while talking in party without having to "Okay, I'll brb on my RNG. His name is Sharpeye. No wait, that's Sharrpeye. Sharpeye is my NIN".
The best part was when you had a BLM -> RDM change and you kept all your staves and most of your ringbling, only changing a few items. Simplicity and easy as pie.
"TO MICHAEL!"
I really hope they stick to linking the communities together (FFXI) and not create an official forums like other games. WoW has officially the WORST community ever. Kids are always QQing on the forums and demanding huge amounts of changing. They die and they are like "NERFFF THIS, NERFF THAT, OMG BUFF THIS, THAT". That's how WoW has changed so much... because of all the whining on the forums, the devs took their word and ruined the game. FFXI has an extremely mature (social) community and I hope it will be that way with FFXIV. FFXI did a good job of keeping the kids away. WoW pretty much attracted kids (and on the forums). As I said before, I seriously hope FFXIV's community will be as mature as FFXI's community.
1) No Genkai Quest
2) AF Armor Quest should be doable by a Duo, or even Solo. With the quest being designed around each job, to see how well you understand and are capable of playing your job. Something like the old EQ2 base class quest like the one for Assassin that had you sneaking around. They should be HEAVILY story driven, and not necessarily revolve around killing and camping mobs.
3) Keep the rentable transportation, but lower the level. Self-owned transportation should be high end stuff.
4) Do something about the no healer no group situation.
5) Level Sync at option right from the first day of service.
6) Keep the XP loss, but remove the level down. Give players a free pass for their first death of a level.
7) Sub-job should gain XP about 1/4th the rate of current main job.
8) Keep the Conquest Point system
9) Keep Bastilla fights, but revamp it.
10) Revamp the Auction House system.
11) Rethink the economy. If you make money hard to come by or tedious to get you only increase the number of bots and RMT's that will show up in your game.
12) Make crafting less mind numbling tedious.
13) Add Weapon and Armor decay.
14) A system to add procs to a weapon or armor would be nice.
15) More story driven quest even if they don't have rewards at end.
16) Keep the mission system (loved it and the cut-scenes for some of them)
17) Revamp the Fame system. It's annoying to have a nation you aren't a member of call you famous and a hero. Only to treat you like a nobody when you switch to their nation. (That is if FFXIV will have a similar system)
18) Don't nerf classes and skills down just because people feel they are OP. Instead try to buff up other classes to player expectations.
19) A little less clunky of a UI would be nice.
20) I would love to see a nice balance of Open Dungeons, and Instanced Dungeons. Open dungeons for general XPing. Instanced dungeons for story moments. With multiple parts and multiple layers. So that each time you came back to the Instance dungeon you would be looking for a new part of it. Relating to a new part or continuing part of a story.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
WoW wasn't out when FFXI released, it took it's cues from Everquest 1. Why do I have to keep saying this?
)
he eh.
What did anything I said have to do with WoW except for the paragraph of mine you didn't show where I said I would like some of the qualities from WoW to be considered?
I dont agree with your point on this.
Its hard enough to make gil in ffxi and if they are planning to keep that the same in xiv then this is gonna be a pain in the ass seeing as every MMO asks you to pay a certain amount to repair your armor and weapons (take wow for example - between level 1 and 40, it doesnt cost much to repair stuff, but at max level it costs you lots (and i mean lots) of money) if they do this in xiv i will get so annoyed because again its degenerating it to be like most MMOs. FFXI was unique, lets keep FFXIV unique too.
WoW wasn't out when FFXI released, it took it's cues from Everquest 1. Why do I have to keep saying this?
)
he eh.
What did anything I said have to do with WoW except for the paragraph of mine you didn't show where I said I would like some of the qualities from WoW to be considered?
Why would you want qualities from WoW added? It was focused towards little kids and well quite frankly "newbs" to make them feel like theyre acomplishing something. FFXI was a lot more mature in the way it is and the people who played on it, keep 14 like that otherwise it gonna end up like every other MMO
I can agree with most of these points.
1) Meh, they weren't a bad idea IMO.
11) I totally agree. They need to revamp the system so it's not so susceptible to RMT activity and botters.
13) I don't agree here. I think weapon decay is unnecessary.
20) I pretty much like how SE handled instancing with FFXI and I hope they don't over-instance the game world.
A few more things.... (after playing FFXI today)
Status Effect on Enemy- I'd like to see the status effect icon on/above my targets lifebar to see when the effect wears off. I don't want to have to watch the combat dialogue to figure it out!
Auction House- I don't like seeing the entire list of everything that has EVER been auctioned, let's have a couple of new menus, current items up for auction, history of items auctioned including last sale price, and your items that are up for auction.
Stackable items- Why is 12 the maximum number? Let's increase that to at least 25.
Thinks to keep:
-Job system
-Party requirement to lvl (not as hardcore as FFXI)
-Keep it Difficulty
-LvL sync
-The way the cities are built. The attachment I had with my home city. I hope they bring that back
-Mog Houses
-Keep the servers region mixed
-Unlocking Jobs after a certain lvl/quest
-rare/ex items
-Ranks
-Airships
-HNMs
-Loss of EXP when dying
-Chocobos
Changes:
-A little bit of solo content would be nice (more so than FFXIs)
-I liked FFXI's AH, but kind of want it to go similar to WoWs
-Leveling up. Some sort of skill tree would be nice to add variety to the jobs. Would be an awesome way to replace SJs.
-An open would where load screens are a minimum.
-PVP. I dont even need open world pvp/ganking. Just something more smoother and easy to get into.
-Crafting.
-LS. I liked the old one, but add a little more to the rank system. And add online/offline status (within LS, not game).
-More character customization
Kept:
- Missions (Storyline CoP rules, the same way)
- Level and Party System.
- Auction House
- Crafting
- Notorious monsters
- Events
- Difficult
Changed:
- Customizable Character (give us more and more)
- Skillchain, i like now, but could be good to improve.
- Give maps a lot more of explorationg (some places where terrains changes cause of strange phenomena)
- Tetra Master implemented in game
We Are Blind .. To The Worlds Within Us .. Waiting To Be Born
I never played FFXI so maybe I dont fully understand, but I think that the ability to change jobs anytime could also be a bad thing. I would not like it if any group I joined could tell me "we have enough of your class - change to healer plz". I tend to choose the class I like and play it till I get good at it. Alts are not really my style. Pressured to play an alternate class would be a big bummer for me.
You wouldn't have to worry about that. If the group needed a healer they won't have invited you to begin with unless they knew you well enough. And if they knew you well enough then probably you'd be cool enough with them to accomodate. Give the trial a chance and see how it works. http://www.finalfantasyxi.com
I thought I would add that I think NMs should make a return. They were a lot of fun and my Bro and I bonded a lot hunting them. People hate on them but you can't make everyone happy!
Maybe if they made the NMs instance based that would make them easier on casual players. That way you don't have to camp one for hours on end, hoping for a claim!
I am 0 for fuckilostcount on Leaping Lizzy's shoes. I am torn in reguards to NMs. I don't have hours and hours to spend camping things anymore and I can't stay focused enough to actaully do it if I did have the time. I'd like to have items be exculsive so you don't have person X camping nonstop and just reselling, but I'd like so be able to buy them for when I have enough money and I give up on camping. I'd like like to see the drop rates increase by a lot, but I don't want to see the market become flooded with things that peoepl eventually don't ever want.
It is a hard balancing act and glad i'm not making the decision.
I hope the AH stays similar....I can't stand current auctions inother MMOs when people list stuff with no BO...its like damnit I want it now, and you'll more then likely get way more for it with a BO instead of auctioned. Sometimes I don't mind paying way over priced for an item if I want it that bad, and in FFXI you can do just that at anytime with anything!
Also if it hasn't been mentioned yet, keep armor scarce and somewhat hard to come by and eventually make it all player made further along in the game. As well as don't add in the stupid BoE, BoA bullshit....allow us to resell our gear to others or use it on another job...or heck even an alt if you is inclined to play a 2nd character, etc! The only gear that should have any kind of binding is Race/Job specific and super rare items that very few players will have!