This has really been on my mind a lot since I have played FFXI for a little under 5 years and have accomplished a lot in the game.  It's a simple question, what would you (to an extent) like to see carried over to the new FFXI and some things you liked to see scratched.  You don't have to be too in-depth, just a checklist will suffice.

Things I would like to see changed:  Leveling system, combat system (I do enjoy skillchains, though), Accessibility to casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike (let us choose what we want to be!), HNM spawn times (9-12 hour spawns?), More linkshell capabilities, Quests that aren't very time consuming and yield exp, No more finishing missions after JP midnight, Better crafting system, Somehow make gil less stressed in the new game (or easier to acquire via quests), Upgraded PVP system

Things I would like to be kept the same (to an extent): The community (possibly the best I've ever experienced in an MMORPG), Party system (with the ability to solo as well), level sync, HNM's (nothing more gratifying than claiming/killing an HNM), BCNM/KSNM's, Dynamis/Einherjar-type areas, Job system, Environment immersiveness, Difficulty

You would think I didn't enjoy FFXI from the things I would like to see changed, but since it gradually became outdated, FFXI showed there was room for improvement (in my opinion) with those aspects.  I absolutely enjoyed every moment of FFXI mostly because it really felt like you were in a real world, with, for the most part, people you tended to enjoy exploring/killing/leveling/progressing with.  So, with that said, what are your guys thoughts?

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

 

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

 

I agree with the list, but the 1 char per Acct is overkill. How about a master account name that is always a part of your toon's name. that way if someone is an asshat it will haunt them forever on that server.

1. Slow paced combat

2. Slow leveling

3. Group based combat

4. Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5. One character per SERVER, Always visible acct name.

6.Allow Server transfers, Rerolling nukes current server. Acct name is unchangable.

7.make perks for participating in both Group and solo content. Make them both necessary from a gear standpoint.

Originally posted by grndzro

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

 

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

 

I agree with the list, but the 1 char per Acct is overkill. How about a master account name that is always a part of your toon's name. that way if someone is an asshat it will haunt them forever on that server.

1. Slow paced combat

2. Slow leveling

3. Group based combat

4. Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5. One character per SERVER, Always visible acct name.

6.Allow Server transfers, Rerolling nukes current server. Acct name is unchangable.

7.make perks for participating in both Group and solo content. Make them both necessary from a gear standpoint.

 

One charecter is fine as long as its like FF11 and you can chnage your job anytime as mush as you like.

im fine with 1 character with the option of switching up jobs and lvling them taht way. what i would LOVE to see in FFXIV is an enchanced char creation system. i dont mean it needs to be insanely indepth with sliders for virtually every aspect of ur appearence. something minor, like skin tone options.  that's all, was the only real beef i had with FFXI.. well maybe a lil more solo friendly compared to FFXI as well.

Originally posted by grndzro

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

 

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

 

I agree with the list, but the 1 char per Acct is overkill. How about a master account name that is always a part of your toon's name. that way if someone is an asshat it will haunt them forever on that server.

1. Slow paced combat

2. Slow leveling

3. Group based combat

4. Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5. One character per SERVER, Always visible acct name.

6.Allow Server transfers, Rerolling nukes current server. Acct name is unchangable.

7.make perks for participating in both Group and solo content. Make them both necessary from a gear standpoint.

 

I really like your keeps here.  Especially with the perks for group and solo content.  As long as they keep HNM's there will always be a need for a strong community/linkshells which I feel is a very important aspect of FFXI.  I like the Master Account idea as well. 

How did you feel about gil in FFXI?  In comparison to most other MMO's, currency is so much easier to come by, and almost feels like it isn't as important simply because a lot of the best gear was acquired via quests/raids. A lot of the friends I attempted to bring into FFXI were really turned off by the inability to acquire sufficient gil without spending days/weeks farming.   In FFXI, a lot of the purchased gear was made by crafters, so if you weren't a crafter, you were almost crippled to an extent (especially if you didn't have a friend or a linkshell with a designated crafter).  The easy solution was to be a crafter, yet the time grind and the money it cost was very expensive for most.  I was lucky enough to take my Bonecraft to 100 early on, when gil wasn't at so much of a premium.
 

Originally posted by DeViLmAn0

im fine with 1 character with the option of switching up jobs and lvling them taht way. what i would LOVE to see in FFXIV is an enchanced char creation system. i dont mean it needs to be insanely indepth with sliders for virtually every aspect of ur appearence. something minor, like skin tone options.  that's all, was the only real beef i had with FFXI.. well maybe a lil more solo friendly compared to FFXI as well.

I feel the same.  I think I can speak on behalf of most long-time FFXIers that if you played the game, you often ran into a character that was exactly the same as yours.  It's a minor knock on the game, but it really does somehow take away from what should be the originality of each and every character.  I do hope they give many more options regarding hair (facial/head growth/color), body size (not just sm/med/lrg), facial features (brow, cheeks, jaw, etc.), and also musculature.  I don't want them to veer away from the clean, distinguished look of the FF character, though.  But I feel those aspects to customize would also enhance the experience.

Yea the Gill Farmers is the very reason I quit FFXI after 3 years. I hope their presence will be non existant.

I'm sure SE has learned that that is also the reason they lost hundreds of thousands of accounts in frustration.

Most of this has been mentioned but since it was asked... I'm only going to focus on "the same" part.

1) Ability to have all jobs on one character (ability to switch jobs basicly the same)

2) The dual job system (one of the coolest things in FFXI when it came to the US at least in my opinion).

3) Personally I liked the ability to play with a game pad... and I thought it made FFXI one of the smoothest MMO experiences I ever played.  The only reason I ever touched my keyboard was to reply to people...

That's my "big three" I guess... to keep.

Nice topic and good posts. 

I would love to see carried over:

Immersion, mysteries and riddles from quests(no ? and ! marks please), cut scenes from story line, lots of jobs, but almost all having to be unlocked after a number of difficult quests, difficult quests, optional bosses, unique end game activities, party based environment, length and emphasis on leveling and journey over end game, travel times, heavily re-used areas (as opposed to zones that you level through and never see again), central locations like Jeuno, localized auction houses, the community, rare/ex/hard to obtain items, breathtaking environments with hidden secrets scattered about, the danger of traveling in the world, the economy when it was solid before RMT ran so rampant.

Things I would love to see changed:

More engaging combat(keep skillchains, but enhance it and add more to keep players on their toes and reward for cooperation), no more expansions that seperate the player base, more leniency on party make up and less dependancy on specific job combinations, mog house that exits into any server if not full in the zone you were occupying, CRAFTING/harvesting/fishing, crystal system with orbs(just some tweaks to make it less grindy), the o. hat (I mean wtf), the subligar on elvaan males being allowed (I mean wtf), the pvp events (make them have more meaning and more fun, maybe like a team sport within the game.. an environment like that could be really cool), maybe some mini games like chocobo racing being added, or an arcade like in FF7.

I'm fine with just about every aspect of FFXI except for the insane amount of downtime it takes when healing without a spell in that game. If they decreased the downtime when you're kneeling in FFXI I'd be playing that game right now. I hate waiting forever to play games. The level synch thing fixed waiting too long for party's but even that I suppose could be better. Thankfully that's already been adressed in 14 so I won't worry about that. Kneeling for what seems an eternity when you are near death and have to kneel/heal to regain your hp, takes forever. If FFXI fixed that, like I said, I'd be all over that game again.

The only other gripes I suppose I could have, have already addressed. The lack of armor/weapon sets. You could tell what level someone was just by looking at them, and lack of character customization. Add more than hair sets and "small, medium, large" for charcter alteration, and it'll already be more of a game 11 was. Hopefully they provide a somewhat VG or EQ2 approach to CC. I'd hope for Aion, but I seriously doubt they've implemented a system like theirs, but it's always fun to hope.

I'm glad they're implementing more solo content, but I hope that doesn't mean they'll be nipping away at how fun it was to group in 11. I hope they don't forget those people who love to group too, and make grouping just as, if not more fun than it was. With the community being as great as they were, I really enjoyed grouping in that game. It took a while waiting for the groups, but once you got one, 9 times out of 10 you were having fun. I'll even admit it was funny when you had the stupid people in your group that pulled bad, couldn't tank, or the asshole healer. You could always tell who they were, and had your exit strategy mapped, for the zone, cuz you knew you'd be heading there. Get to it, leave group and flag up again lol....ahh....good times.

I'm fine with gameplay for the most part, but a couple of things that have really driven me up the wall over the years are soley based on coming from WoW back to FFXI. The camera controls and movement controls need an overhaul in my opinion. When I'm playing on a pc it really feels like they were designed for a console with the barest thought for the pc player. The fact that it's  a chore to look behind me when I'm running upsets me.

Originally posted by Grobyc12

I'm fine with gameplay for the most part, but a couple of things that have really driven me up the wall over the years are soley based on coming from WoW back to FFXI. The camera controls and movement controls need an overhaul in my opinion. When I'm playing on a pc it really feels like they were designed for a console with the barest thought for the pc player. The fact that it's  a chore to look behind me when I'm running upsets me.

I with you on the controls.  The only reason I don't play the game is I hate the controls.

Things I want to change:

1. Leveling - solo, WoW or Lotro style, via questing etc.

2. Tad bit more travel options, maybe being able to craft your very own airship or something. That would be an awesome carpentry recipe.

3. NM spawn ratio. Still give me NMs and stuff but lets make it so casual players can go for these.

4. Summoners - I want to be blown away by the summons like I was in the console FFs, big flashy entrances etc.

5. Auction House - this can always be improved and probably will be now that the limitations of the pS2 will be gone.

6. Maybe drop the Merit system and give us talent trees in each job, or alternate advancement methods in each job, how awesome would that be? would give each job on the one character so much more depth and work, would definitely keep players going alot longer than just maxing out a job's level.

7. Controls - at least give us the option to use WSAD and PC controls, for those who play this on PC. Also, lets get rid of the ancient resting to heal mechanic and give us auto regen out of combat and in combat like current MMOs give.

Not sure what else I'd change as it won't be the same game and alot will probably be fixed that I haven't even thought of.

Things I want to be kept:

1. One character able to be any job whenever they want. Subjob aspect too, or they can mess with this a bit to make it different.

2. Missions/Storyline/Cutscenes - I loved these in FFXI, lets not ruin a good thing and keep going, maybe even make some more FMVs instead of just ingame scenes, maybe add voice over as well at least to the movies.

3. Music and world size - although I always like to see the world get bigger and bigger in expansions and such. But lets not lose the token FF music which is a staple of the games.

4. Weather and time of day and day of the week should still affect game mechanics, I loved this aspect of FFXI alot.

5. Weapon skills and Skill Chains - I'm sure they will make something similar to this, but I did like these aspects of grouping and leveling up weapon skills.

Matter of fact, I think I will make a thread asking what people think should be added that is used in other current mmorpgs' and what shouldn't be added as well.

Solo/Casual friendly WoW style leveling would hurt the close knit community that grouping builds. I would find it difficult to swallow if SE did this.

---

Originally posted by grndzro
Solo/Casual friendly WoW style leveling would hurt the close knit community that grouping builds. I would find it difficult to swallow if SE did this.

---

NO. Sorry, but I made friends in FFXI not based on leveling with them. Matter of fact, I never had a static leveling party. NOt having the static leveling party, for many people, is the reason I and many others were drawn away by games like WoW and LOTRO. I play FF for the story anyway and the world building and music and the DEPTH of the game mechanics. Getting friends out of that is an added bonus.

I have MORE friends in games like WoW and LOTRO because I was never hindered by the leveling mechanic. FFXI hindered me with time spent and having to rely on other people for an aspect of the game that shouldn't rely on other people. The rest of the game(the non leveling part)is what parties are for.

Originally posted by grndzro

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

 

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

 

I agree with the list, but the 1 char per Acct is overkill. How about a master account name that is always a part of your toon's name. that way if someone is an asshat it will haunt them forever on that server.

1. Slow paced combat

2. Slow leveling

3. Group based combat

4. Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5. One character per SERVER, Always visible acct name.

6.Allow Server transfers, Rerolling nukes current server. Acct name is unchangable.

7.make perks for participating in both Group and solo content. Make them both necessary from a gear standpoint.

 

I love your idea of a master acct name that stays with all your chars.  Such as if you chose a last name for your 1st character all subsequent chars would have that last name and pms could be sent to the last name not the 1st.  This way your reputation stays with you no matter what character your on.

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Change

1.  The UI from console to PC.

 

Keep

1.  Slow paced combat

2.  Slow leveling

3.  Group based combat

4.  Allowing one to switch classes on same character

5.  One character per acct.

 

I agree with all of the above.

Keep:

1. uncluttered GUI

2. ability to change jobs

3. skillchains

4. cutscenes (I agree, no ! or ?'s please)

5. general feel of the world

Change:

1. amount of time it takes to heal

2. Subjobs

3. a new race

4. a system that won't be overtaken by RMT

5. get rid of 20 hour spawns

The UI is the main thing I would like to see changed. The other thing is give us regional servers for US, German and whatnot.