Suggestions To Square Enix: Part 1

I have made this as a topic on several FFXI and FFXIV message boards and forums. So I suppose I will go ahead and add it here to my blog as well. These are commonly agreed upon issues, that need fixing, changing, and and that we do not want to see in FFXIV. There are many issues that have held FFXI back over the years, from being the top MMORPG in the world, and for one reason or another, while many things were changed, many things didn't. They were ignored, or never updated (as of this post at least) and have lead to many people quitting FFXI, many people grieving, much unneeded drama, and simply a feel that should not be in a MMORPG.

However, not everything is bad. There are many things FFXI Did right, and I would like to recognize, honor, and suggest more of the good things FFXI had, that most people including myself, would openly welcome in FFXIV. So without further delay, here is the list.

Less ways to lose hard earned work, effort, and time.

There are many systems in Final Fantasy XI online where you can easily lose a lot of work, effort, and time. This is real people's real time, real life, and real effort they put forth into a game, so it should not be taken so lightly. The main reason for this, is because a lot of systems are left up to a players discretion. This is bad, because many people are anonymous online, and will take the opportunity to manipulate others for their own selfish gain. They will also kick others, and do wrong doings to others at their own discretion whether it is right or wrong, and there are no implications for this.

Real people can lose thousands of hours, and years of time out of their real lives over this. The playerbase no longer wants to see systems like this, where they are left so random and openly, and where the player has no insurance that their hard work and effort won't be in vein.

Less Random Reward, and Less Hard Work going Unrewarded.

There are to many times in Final Fantasy XI, where some one can get something out of pure luck, when they might not even appreciate it, or have earned it, all while some one who has put much effort in, can not obtain the said reward. Some times, people will hunt for a Notorious Monster for a long time, and kill it many times over, waiting and waiting, and hoping to obtain a certain drop from it, but because of the random luck factor (on most of the Notorious Monsters) they may not get it. All the while, some one might wander through, at the right time, kill the Notorious Monster, and get the spoils. I see this as a unfair, and majorly flawed system, and know many others do as well.

There are also many end game events, where a player will work very hard for a long time to obtain something. But they might not see it fall, and there might be many people who need it as well, who will get it before them because they have been in the particular group for a long period of time, and have build senority. Again, when it's left up to player discretion, there is nothing protecting them. The group could simply disband, or the person could get removed for no good reason at all, losing all their hard work and effort. All the while, many people will go to the right group at the right time, and obtain all the spoils they want very quickly, not having to work hard or earn it much at all. We need less systems like this in Final Fantasy XIV.


Less Life Consuming Events that take far too much Time and Effort.

It's fine to have large scale systems that take some one a long time and much effort, but it must be done in a way that people are not sacrificing their real lives, or having to cheat to accomplish it, which many do have to in Final Fantasy XI. These Systems include things like Dynamis Relic Weapons, and Mythic Weapons.

Less Long Session Events, which take too long at a single sitting

A very big complaint people have is how long some events take in game. You have to allow and figure in time for everyone to gather together, time to do the event, time to enter, time for people to gather supplies they might need, and time for many people who end up late. You also have to remember, not everyone will be in the same time zone, so if an event takes too many hours at a single time, it excludes a lot of people from doing the event together. A long event is good some times, but only if it is every so often, and really worth the effort. It should not be a means to an end though. And should not be a common practice.

No More Sub Jobs!

It seems to be a pretty common theory that people do not want the sub job system anymore. They want ways to specialize their jobs, and be versatile at them, however they don't want to have to level other jobs to be complete on the job they wish to play. It allows for too much confusion, and also takes away from the uniqueness and feel of some jobs. Each job should be good at what it does in it's own way, and with it's own abilities and trade marks. You should have ways to do different things differently, but the use of sub jobs seems to be something that people no longer wish to have to bother with. It simply has too many drawbacks and problems.

Less Grind, in the same area, for too long, in the exact same way.

Grinding is just fine, it's part of any Massive Multiplayer Online Game. But with grinding, you also need variety. In Final Fantasy XI online, there is very little variety as far as grinding goes. Most of this is attributed to the fact that certain monsters will yield a much more decent amount of experience points than others. It needs to be more even across the boards, and perhaps allow different types of monsters to be killed better with different setups, and many to be killed with all kinds of setups.

Less time being Idle (Standing around doing nothing)

This is a very major flaw and upset within the Final Fantasy XI community. Having to stand around for what can be hours and hours, and some times even DAYS, just for a CHANCE to be able to fight something is Ludicrous. People want to play a game, and have fun fighting things and conquering tough foes, traveling, adventuring, and exploring. They do not want to sit in one spot, for a very long period of time, doing absolutely nothing.

Less Job Exclussion

No job should be laughed at, or made fun of, all jobs should do things differently in different ways, and should exceed at different things individually. But at the same time, for many missions, and quests in Final Fantasy XI, there are only certain job combinations that people will use. This leaves many people excluded, and feeling disgruntled because they are not able to accomplish many things, or progress as what they are.

No More Gear Swapping (changing gear mid battle).

Situational Gear is fine, and having different gear for different events is fine as well. But there should be some sort of penalty for changing your gear, and should not be something that is done every few seconds in the midst of a battle. It makes things very confusing, very hard on people, and very stressing on your inventory. Again, different gear for different situations is a good thing, but changing gear every few seconds to maximize performance during a battle is simply troublesome and annoying.




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Now, with that being said, let's move on to the next part. The things we DO want to see in Final Fantasy XIV online. These things include most commonly, but are not limited to...


More In Game Point Systems!

For many years people have been trying to figure out how to implement point systems properly in Final Fantasy XI online. It becomes a whole other job just figuring it out, and it is never fair, not can it ever please Everyone. There needs to be point systems already setup in the game, to distribute rewards to players, that Square Enix sets up themselves. This will keep things a lot less stressful, especially for leaders, and keep things a lot more fair. It will also alleviate a lot of "Drama" in the game.

More Places to Gain Experience Points, with Variety and Adventure

As mentioned before, "Grinding" or gaining experience points, is suppose to take awhile, but there also has to be variety to it to keep people from getting too bored. There should also be more than one way to gain it, and perhaps ways to gain is solo at some levels and at some points, without hurting the dynamics of working together as a team. Meaning, you should be able to do it for a lesser reward to your experience points, but still enough to make small progress if you are unable to group together at a certain time for any certain reason.

More Systems like Assault/Einherjar, and more point systems in General

I'm sure Square Enix knows themselves, how widely agreed it is that these systems are far more fun, more rewarding, more fair, and more favored these systems are than any other in the game. It's because people know that for their hard work, they will eventually be rewarded. It does not make the items any less rare, or any less valued. They can be hard to obtain, or take a long time, but knowing you are making progress makes people feel very happy and content, and feel less like they are going to lose hard work and effort.

More Systems like Campaign/Fields of Valor.

Systems like this, where you can just sporadically go with a friend, or a few friends, and enjoy yourself, make some progress, and do something fun together on your own time, is HIGHLY desired and appreciated. This kind of system allows people to have fun on their own time, or with a friend (or several!).

More Systems like BCNM/KSNM/ISNM/ANNM

Which stands for Burning Circle Notorious Monsters, Kindred Seal Notorious Monsters, Imperial Standing Notorious Monsters, and Assault Note Notorious Monsters. These battles can yield great rewards and are fun to do on your own time with friends or random company you might pick up along the way, and really test your skills and abilities.

A bigger inventory, and more storage space.

One of the biggest flaws in Final Fantasy XI online, is the inventory and storage space issue. Once you acquire so many items, especially many that cannot be stored by a NPC, it gets very intensive and stressful on a player on where to keep all their stuff. For people like me, who have 10+ level 75 jobs on Final Fantasy XI online, and with all the situational gear, and all the gear that you cannot send some where else, or cannot be stored by a npc, it means you have to "mule". Muling means you have to put gear on other characters, and if you wish to change jobs, you have to retrieve it from them. This can take upwards of an hour at times, and takes a huge chunk of time away from the game you should be enjoying, just because you wanted to change your job.

The Ability to Change Jobs.

With the inventory Issue out of the way, I think it is widely agreed that one of the greatest things about Final Fantasy XI is that you are able to change your job or profession on a single character. This allows people to have so much more fun and personalize who they are so much greater. I do not want to see people having to make different characters just because they wish to level a different job. This is one of many things Final Fantasy XI did right!

Player Vs. Player (PvP)

I very much agree with the Square Enix view that a MMORPG should be more focused on storyline/conquering foes together/player vs. environment (PvE) than PvP. However it is a aspect that you need at least a small amount of. The PvP system in FFXI was sadly not very well done. I think there should be some small scale scenario's to it, and possible some larger scale scenario's to it if the time called for it, sort of like a instanced event either way.

I've always though one neat idea, would be sort of like an Arena, maybe more than one, where people could go, sign up, and test their skills against one another. Perhaps in one of the main towns, so other people could watch the fights. It could turn out to be very entertaining!



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So, now we have that out of the way, and I thank you for reading. You can also read the posts I have made on this issue in these threads as well, which contain even more suggestions and opinions on the subject.

On Allakazham, my main thread "Suggestions to Square Enix".

On Eorzeapedia, my Suggestion thread there.

And the main suggestion forum on Eorzeapedia (Some very good suggestions there as well, some... Not so good).