Alright.. I'm not sure how this topic will be received. But there isn't a discussion board on this site for XIV yet. Just know I am only trying to spark discussion of what YOU would like to see.

Final Fantasy XI was released a few years before the popular MMO's of today. Square-Enix opted for something different and chose the UI that works well with a game pad (makes sense, since most players were on the PlayStation 2 when it was released).

But now since a lot of MMO's have been using the mouse-based UI's, do you think SE would adapt to this new system? (I know it was used in EverQuest and what-not before FFXI and the popular MMOs of today--but SE didnt use them). I'm figuring they'll probably use a similar UI because of it coming for the PS3/PC. But personally, I think that is what I would like to see changed the most for FFXIV--a new-user friendly UI.

Let's try and keep the flames to minimum here.. :)

I prefer they stick with the console UI, even though it'll once again be on PC.  I have no love or desire to see another hotbar MMO, besides the console style keeps in touch with Final Fantasy and makes it really unique and stand out from everything else!

Players that consistently have come here and complained about the UI in FFXI never gave it a chance and expect everything to be handed to them and really easy to figure out so they can blast through the game.  There is just no reason to rush through an MMO like FFXI and considering that the same storytelling element will be present in FFXIV I don't see a reason there either.  One should slow down and take in the lore and all the rich stories that are ever present in FF!

I hope they stick with support for gamepads (obviously will, since it will be avail for consoles).

But... I do think they should work out a friendlier control setup option for PC users. Why? Because I know a lot of people who would have loved to play FFXI, but couldn't because the controls were just too off-putting for them. It's a shame to have to miss out on a great game for that reason. For me, the UI was fine and I had no trouble with it; but that's me and I'm not about to speak for everyone. It was kinda the situation in XI due to the restrictions of it having been a PS2 title ported to PC and all that goes along with it. But this is a new MMO, they've had years to learn and can do things differently now. There's no reason to repeat history and implement a control system that's fine for console play, without an option for PC players. I'm not selfish enough to say "tough, it worked for me, they can deal with it, too".

So.. whatever they do UI-wise, I hope they have at least *options* that are friendlier to PC mouse/keyboard users.

That said... things I would also like to see in FFXIV:

- Grouping still being important enough to be a valid form of progress. This has been discussed several times now, but it bears repeating, I think. As has been mentioned, no MMO has pulled off the feat of making a game where both solo and group play were valid forms of play where the majority of people haven't just ended up soloing most of the time, while those who like to group are left struggling to put groups together.

I don't know what SE has in mind, but I do at least have the faith in them to come up with *something* different from what we've seen... some new implementation. Will it work? Well, we'll see. But, as I'm sure we all know by now... never underestimate players' persistence in finding a way to avoid grouping completely if they can. And also, if the way SE handles it is perceived by the aggressively anti-group crowd as "requiring groups" at all, ever (even if it's not preventing them from playing), then I fully expect to hear waves of complaint and cries of travesty that they're yet again being "forced to group", to do content in the game. It's not all people who prefer solo play who are like this, of course.. but those who are, are quite vocal about it. You can make a MMO 95% solo content and 5% group content, and they'd complain about how groups are being favored and how unfair it is.

My point being... the balance between grouping versus solo play is almost certain (in my opinion) to be a contentious one.

- Maintain the depth of storylines and character development in XI. This *is* SE, and it is a Final Fantasy game, so I think this is a given

- Maintain the depth and detail of different systems... like how elements affect so many things in FFXI, even if in a subtle but meaningful way... or how what you put in  your moghouse actually has an affect on the gameplay. I love how almost nothing in FFXI is added as mere "window dressing", but has some affect on the game.

- The variety of content. There really is *tons* to do in FFXI. If one was to list it all out (and I believe people have) it comes out to like 20 or so different activities. It's not just "grind levels", "do quests" or "raid"... It goes far beyond that in XI. I hope they carry that to XIV. Of course, most players will gravitate towards the "fastest leveling options" and all but ignore the others... but at least they're there for those who will want more options.

- Continue kicking ass against RMT as they do in XI. They are, in my opinion, the top of the heap when it comes to combatting RMT in their games; up there with Blizzard.  I hope they continue it in XI.

- Remain focused on community. Even after all these years, I still think there are those who don't recognize the difference it makes in a MMO overall when you add content to bring the players together... be it group mechanics or seasonal events. It's brought FFXI one of the best communities I've seen in almost any MMO (Lineage 2 has a great community as well, though it's a bit more of an antagonistic relationship given the nature of the game; Matrix Online, in Beta and for a time after launch had an amazing community as well, before the game started rapidly spiraling down).

Annd.... I know there are other things I can think of... I just can't atm :-p

 

As someone who uses a keyboard even on his 360, I don't have much to say anyone the controller. Personally I can't see how ANYONE can use it. To each his own I guess, but I 'll take my CTRL+# for my macros (btw ... this helps a lot to use just a keyboard for something like WoW surpringly) 

What I would like to see:

I'd like to see the end of the Job system (at least the way we know it) to be honest with you. With how the game is now you have person X who might have 10 jobs leveled and person Y who only has 1. They might both have BLM leveled and person X never plays the job for sake of argument. In all honesty someone who has a single job leveled and that is it should get gear over someone who never plays. In my experience person X will somehow get the gear over person Y. Be it person X is a better lot (has a lot bot?) or the LS leader and demands the gear or they have more points to lot or some crap. The whole job system leads to a lot of loot whoring. It is great in the aspect that a single character can level everything and get a sampling of the world. It is also great -- or really bad based on how good of a person you are -- that people can see your name and what to party with you because of your rep even though you are only a lvl 30 SAM because they know you can play. It is a great thing, but it is a bad thing too.

Integrated voice chat. Maybe? I don't know. I don't use Vent or Team Speak. I might talk to people if it was a part of the game -- ala not using windower put playing in windowed mode now. Granted there are many people who I'd rather never know they exist outside of a line of txt (I'm on the asshole capital of Vana'deil in Asura remember this). There is also is the potential language barrier thing. I'm torn.

And finally ... the suggestion I have always had for FFXI .... INTEGRATE TETRAMASTER INTO THE GAME!!! It isn't hard, but having some kind of card game that you can sit there and play with your friends in game would be so great. Something to do while lfp that you do play anywhere with anyone. You could have a card shop. Tourneys for high end cards. Gamble cards. Just something to do while lfp.

I personally don't think we have to worry about it being like anything we've seen before (although it is likely to have something similar to FFXI in terms of the interface).

I think that keeping a job system is exactly what I wanted to see.  Hopefully another job mixing system that will allow more customization... but I don't want to see "mandatory" ones like NIN/WAR or PLD/WAR... there should be at least some reason to be a RDM/WAR!

That leads to character creation.  I hope it is much more complex than in FFXI.  WIth the improved job system and an improved character creator I would be pretty content... but hey, I'll keep going!

I hope the world is vast.  Huge.  I expect great things from SE cause FFXI was gigantic!  I want to spend as much time exploring as I do developing my character.

I would also like to see a similar guild system, like the linkshell, but have the community website up and running before people scatter around.  It would make things so much easier for casual players like myself.

TETRAMASTER.  OMG as stated above PLEASE make an ingame mini game.  It would be fantastic.

What else... well I guess I just hope that everything that they have learned, developed, and upgraded in FFXI is moved to FFXIV.  It just wouldn't be right if some small things like level sync weren't included (ok... that one is kinda big lol).

If I think of more I'll post them.

Food for thought. I'd think that with no POL there would be no content ID. With no content ID i'd think that you wouldn't have to pay per character. We might see something like in other MMOs where you can make multiple character for one price. That could be nice.

Originally posted by mrkyleonline

I personally don't think we have to worry about it being like anything we've seen before (although it is likely to have something similar to FFXI in terms of the interface).

I think that keeping a job system is exactly what I wanted to see.  Hopefully another job mixing system that will allow more customization... but I don't want to see "mandatory" ones like NIN/WAR or PLD/WAR... there should be at least some reason to be a RDM/WAR!

Thing is... SE has only limited control over this in the long run. Players are the ultimate judge of what's "standard" or not. Using the ever-popular Ninja as example... Ninja was not intended to be a tank initially. Players discovered that by using Utsusemi Ichi/Ni that they could mitigate damage, thus saving the WHM MP, thus reducing down-time. It also led to a lot of crappy tanks and lazy White Mages, incidentally (never been a fan of the NIN tank thing). They then decided that /NIN was "The Job" for tanking and, for a long time, if a group's tank didn't have NIN somewhere in their job combo, they were given a hard time.

That wasn't something SE imposed... it was something the players picked up on and ran with.

In short... There's two "versions" of a MMO. There's the way the developers/designers developed the game to be played; and then there's the way the players actually play it. The two "versions" frequently diverge.

So.. it's kinda the strength and the weakness of the job system as it is in XI... It allows players to come up with interesting combinations and different styles...  The problem is, once players find something that "works", they tend to latch on to it as "the only way you're supposed to play" and reject anything else (this is true in pretty much any MMO). That is, until someone comes along and discovers another build that works as well, if not better than the current "standard"... then that becomes the new standard and everyone's expected to change accordingly.

The same goes for "where you're supposed to level". If you're not leveling in the "standard" location at a given level range, or suggest leveling elsewhere, people think you're nuts.

It's something that's always bugged me... Players ultimately limit themselves in the pursuit of "the most efficient xp" and then blame the developers for it. I've always said "Don't blame SE for your unwillingness to try new things".

That leads to character creation.  I hope it is much more complex than in FFXI.  WIth the improved job system and an improved character creator I would be pretty content... but hey, I'll keep going!

I agree. I reall hope there's more flexibility in character creation as well beyond character size, hair style and color.

I hope the world is vast.  Huge.  I expect great things from SE cause FFXI was gigantic!  I want to spend as much time exploring as I do developing my character.

I'm sure it will be. Not at launch, perhaps... but you see how large FFXI is now after 4 expansions. I see no reason XIV will be any different. I'm hoping the world is more seamless as well with zoning only where absolutely necessary.

TETRAMASTER.  OMG as stated above PLEASE make an ingame mini game.  It would be fantastic.

Never thought of that, but I agree with Icon in that regard as well. More mini-games would be fun.

I would like to keep the same UI as I will be playing on PS3 and tbh I really hate hotbars. As for the Job System I like it the way it is only problem like mrkyleonline said we are forced to use certain subjobs. People say they want Nin tank but seriously Nin can't keep hate I play a Drk and before the Nin can get his 2nd voke off I'm being attacked and nearly at half HP. So I like the current job system in FFXI but I would like to freestyle my main and sub to whatever I want it to be not because oh you do more damage or oh you can save the Whm MP. I mean I pay for the game also should I not be able to decide what I want to play as my main and sub job without people sitting there yelling because I don't have whatever sub for whatever main.

Now as for payment I don't mind the way it's setup now since I only have 3 characters 1 being my main 2 being an alt to play when I get bored with main and 3 being my Mule so pretty much paying $15 a month and I have all that I need. Now if you can only have 1 job per character then I think it should be 1 set price and be able to create as many characters as there is jobs so you can try each. But if your able to use all jobs on 1 character then again I will only use 3 characters.

I would be happy with XI if they had solo play from 1-75 with an option to party for more xp this way if you only have a few hours can get on level a bit instead of having to LFG or if you have plenty of time you can LFG and level. I really hope they keep the way we quest the same I don't want it to turn into a quest grinding MMO like all others out there. So for me the main thing I would like to see that is not currently in XI is solo play.

I liked FFXI's UI because its so minimalistic.  You dont' have macro bars and menus and buttons cluttering your screen.  Yes, it takes awhile to learn the slash commands or program your macros, but that's part of the fun for me.  Feels cool when you can keep a tank alive all while swapping people in and out of an alliance and chat at the same time lol.

I loved that you have access to all jobs on one character.  Don't need to add someone and 637463 of their alts to your friendlist or try to keep track of who is who v.v.  The only thing that was a downfall was having to have equip for all your jobs lol.  Your inventory + mog safe + storage filled up fast XD

The sub job system is neat, its interesting to see how people make the different combinations work.  I remember in the beginning PLD/NIN was completely frowned upon because you didn't get provoke.  A few months later PLD/NIN were tanking dragons and healing themselves for aggro.

I think the quest system could have been better.  Quests are pretty much pointless to do, they take tons of time and don't give any good rewards (most anyways).  I liked the Missions with the story line and cut scenes, not many MMOs have cutscenes.

I agree, decorating your mog house was cool, but it would have been even more awesome if other people could come inside your mog house to visit!

I think the party system with the EXP chains is good, but it was very time consuming and you always needed that "perfect party" makeup.  I hope they keep a good party system but do something to make it easier to group (like Level Sync).

More ways to customize your character would be cool both with hairstyles/faces/etc and items.  And it was a little upsetting that all end game healers used the elemental staves and that Healing Brauit (sp?) and RDMs had Errant and DPS had Scopion Harness or Haubergeon.  Everyone ended up looking the same :/  I hope they have more equipment variety.

Hmm...that's all I can think of atm.

Because it's a Final Fantasy game, I'm sure more or less I'll enjoy the battle system, party play, community, etc. Therefore, I don't have much preference - I'll learn how to play and enjoy the game as with every other Final Fantasy. Just one thing...

I would prefer a complicated crafting system. I like FFXI's crafting system more than all the other titles that I've played. I'm actually fine with it causing a bit of frustration - the amount of work and research put into crafting when I was leveling my skill just to maximize what I can do with the little currency that I had is absolutely nostalgic.

For weeks I camped with competitors at guild stores to open every hour when I'm logged on. I had to decide between making items that sell slowly for good profit or items that can NPC for small profit/loss so I can avoid bottlenecks when I'm trying to increase my skill. Because of all the headache, seeing 0.2 and 0.3s in later levels makes it that much sweeter.

At high levels, it becomes a battle of wits and survival of the fittest in auction houses!
However, at its core the FFXI crafting system is using a crystal, throwing in synthesis materials, and praying that luck swings your way. I think there can be a lot more to that part of FFXI, and I hope FFXIV can be crafting heaven for me.

Originally posted by Melieza

 I agree, decorating your mog house was cool, but it would have been even more awesome if other people could come inside your mog house to visit!

You can let party members enter your mog house now!

:O I didn't know that!

Originally posted by curiindi

Originally posted by Melieza

 I agree, decorating your mog house was cool, but it would have been even more awesome if other people could come inside your mog house to visit!

You can let party members enter your mog house now!

It would be better if you could do something in you MG with the people you invite in ... ... ... ... ... omg not that >.> 

I mean being able to interact with things in the room or maybe have a poker game (Tetramaster ... plz SE pick up the ball you dropped 7 years ago already)