FFXI Suggestion / Random Idea Thread

[Charismatic]

Basic Magic
simplify the basic magic system skill to just white magic skill and black magic skill. Yes, that changes a lot but really, seeing that blue magic, ninjutsu, bard songs, etc cover a WIDE variety of effects in their purview, it would make things a bit more consistent. Would save everyone a lot more space as they wouldn't require nearly as many gear sets to accomplish their job to a respectable degree.

Partying in General
At any level, there's so many mobs that are not even approachable for EXP as they have so many nasty moves or are just generally tough whereas other mobs are almost impaling themselves on your weapon and in either case they both types will give the same amount of EXP, assuming that they are the same "level" of difficulty. Make tougher types mobs give inherently more EXP; they are more dangerous, you should be gaining substantially more for defeating them. If they'd use a system reminiscent of http://www.returnergames.com/ord/ind..._Two:_Monsters for monster creation, I would be very pleased (I recognize the scales of FFXI and FFRPG are completely different but having a similar monster design pattern would be nice). This might help generate parties at higher levels that aren't primarily melee burn, if the exp difference is considerable enough (I mean, one should get at least double the exp for defeating an Malboro than I would for defeating a Colibri of the same level, as the Malboro is inherently more dangerous).
I'd also like see partying against multiple opponents more viable as that would give AoE spells and attacks a better name then simply being a hazard to avoid.

BLM
Make the elemental spells of the same tier have the same mp cost and the same damage scale (i.e. casting thunder would yield the same amount of damage as casting earth on a mob that was neutral to both, both of which would cost the same mp). I should NOT be able to do MORE damage with a higher level spell of the same tier that the mob is neutral to than the spell of the element the mob is weak to. The corollary to this is to rebalance the mobs so that there is a closer to having equal share of mobs weak to each element. This would also hopefully breathe some more variety in what to merit instead of only focusing on Ice and Thunder.
Also, I don't know about you guys, but I'd be more than willing to trade a few levels of Clear Mind for some enmity down traits and a few levels of Auto-Refresh that are innate to blm (that said, i think any job that uses MP should get Auto-Refresh at some point).

SMN
To encourage smn's to use their pets more, change the perpetuation system. Instead of having pet be available for as long as the summoner has MP, change it to the avatar can be out for (60 or some other static base value + summoning skill) seconds, using the value of the summoning skill value that they were summoned with. This would allow a summoner to have a pet out to help and still do other things! Bloodpacts would still require MP, but now the burden of the perpetuation cost would be no more.

That's all I can think of for now. Will post more whenever the muse strikes with more inspiration (need more Glamour!!!).

I'm gonna go ahead and +1 this.


+1

[Yuri-G]

He's basically suggesting a completely new game... :rocl:

[BRP]

Yeah... some of them are noble, but you can't logically ruin the perp cost system with so much invested into it. Not so much an improvement as an entirely new job.

I won't touch the other stuff. Maybe on their next game.

[Breemer]

The "Thunder spells do more damage than any other" have always pissed me off in ffxi to be honest, in past FF games the weak element would do either 1.5x or 2x the damage of a neutral spell, it makes no sense that Stone does less than Thunder to a fire based mob for example.

[BRP]

The "Thunder spells do more damage than any other" have always pissed me off in ffxi to be honest, in past FF games the weak element would do either 1.5x or 2x the damage of a neutral spell, it makes no sense that Stone does less than Thunder to a fire based mob for example.

It's logical to have such a system, but I think only on HNMs, otherwise, you are just annoying BLMs. My solution was a JA that made a spell the current highest damage for it's tier(basically bumping any IV spell to your highest IV spell, but same could be said for III or otherwise) and giving a +15% MAB bonus when it's used against a monster with correct elemental weakness.

10% would be there to counter merits, 5% for HQ staff if the BLM has only three-four HQs and NQs for ones like Earth or Water.

[Bonisagius]

It's logical to have such a system, but I think only on HNMs, otherwise, you are just annoying BLMs.

Having played a BLM since I picked up FFXI over 4 years ago, I made every effort to know what the elemental weakness of the mob I was facing was. I personally believe that it is part and parcel of the BLM job to know what the elemental weakness of your opponent is. The information is READILY available and has been for years in most cases, it just means going and looking for it. It's easy enough to attain that I find it poor taste for a BLM not to have the data on hand if not already known. Call me draconian if you will, I like to have high expectations of BLM's I play with.

[Bonisagius]

Yeah... some of them are noble, but you can't logically ruin the perp cost system with so much invested into it. Not so much an improvement as an entirely new job.

I won't touch the other stuff. Maybe on their next game.

I respect your observation of the amount invested in the perpetuation cost system. However, I unfortunately hear the sound of a fallacy tradition in your post. "This is the way it has been, therefore this is the way it must be" is not a good argument.

To me IMHO, the core concept of a Final Fantasy SMN is a mage who has the ability to conjure a proxy of a great primordial force that will serve the mage for a small period of time. Never did it say how long that the avatar can manifest or that it requires MP to maintain itself. The change wouldn't create a new job but looking at the same job from a different angle. Of course, I expect there to be a number of changes to counterbalance this upgrade: summoning the avatar as well as Blood Pacts become much more costly, amongst other things. Gear that lowers perpetuation could instead directly add how many seconds the avatar lasts, seeing that's nearly the same, (if not using MP refilling or additional refresh medicines, given a SMN's level, gear, Current MP, and the avatar its summoning, I can tell you how long it'll last). You don't need a new game to do this, just a development team with enough pith and vigor to do it in this one.

[Yuri-G]

The thing is, you're talking about changing fundamental aspects of the way the game works on a level even deeper than the recent 2-hander update. Regardless of their pith and vigor it's just not something that the development team is going to focus on. They have limited resources, and there are going to be less difficult ways to uprade SMN that they will work on first simply because the overhaul you're asking for would take a relatively huge amount of effort. The same with some of the other changes you've suggested - some of them are good ideas based on accurate observations of the FFXI world but they are simply unrealistic.

And aside from all that, it's a simple fact that many people have played this game for years now. Completely altering the way one job works isn't really something you want to do with a 4-year-old MMO, it's something you do by either a) creating a new job in the game or b) creating a new game.

[BRP]

I respect your observation of the amount invested in the perpetuation cost system. However, I unfortunately hear the sound of a fallacy tradition in your post. "This is the way it has been, therefore this is the way it must be" is not a good argument.

Uh hmmm, it's more like throwing out the use of dozens and dozens of items might be too much. It's akin to "Okay, Attack is now decided by Accuracy(and Skill), all attack gear, spells, and JAs in the game is now just for looks".


EDIT: Oh, and I'd gut the man who took away my Clear Mind. Must have for soloing.

[BRP]

I think one of FFXI's biggest problems is the great search system only benefiting exp. In fact, it seems incredibly hard to get anything done in a pick-up group(or PUG as people call them). Finding a LS is always a good solution, but sometimes that doesn't work for everything or you can't find a LS that's interested in such. Additionally, the LS Community Beta is not using it's full potential. I'm going to combine these two for an awesome search system(along with other improvements). LS Community Beta shortened to Lscom

-LS Community Beta - General Changes

*Update information at log-out(or /lscom).

*Make LS Community Beta more accessible by letting players sign in from the front page.

*Players can sign into the LS Community Beta through POL. This means it is accessible on Xbox360 and PS2/3. A /lscom feature is added and is pretty much like the old temp log out, but logs you instantly into the Lscom playonline page.

*Make redirects for the LS page equivalent to playonline.com/lscom/serv/lsname. Serv is replaced with the first four names of the server. Example: playonline/lscom/baha/orderofthebluegartr.

*Just like above but for player pages: playonline.com/lscom/serv/playername.

*Make Server forums. Split into: Chat, Event, Trade, Q&A/Help/Question(the last one shared by all servers). Every version update or something similar(like fanfest) make a stickied post for players to discuss. These forums would be heavily moderated and rules broken on the forums could lead to in-game warnings or bans. Further split into language filters. Allow Q&A/Help/Question forum have guest posters(people interested in the game, have the website point people to this direction). Also have a forum search feature.

*Above these forums make a single calendar that marks that "Publicly known" events on all LSes calendars. This is effective in recruiting people for events(like a coffer key hunt) or as a Dynamis calendar for multiple LSes.

*Add an "Auction House viewer" feature that allows players to search the prices of items in their own current nation's auction house and Jeunoan auction house. When an item is clicked on a player's current equipment, it searches that item on this feature.

*Add a "Bazaar viewer" feature that both allows players to search all bazaars on a server and displays a player's current bazaar on their user page. On the auction house viewer there is a link to see if anyone is selling the item in their bazaar.

*Add a title/furnishing reward to those who post 500 times, then again 1000 times. Maybe a final one at 5000 times. They pick these up from a specific NPC in town.

-LS Community Beta - Linkshell Pages

*Change Purpose to be unlimited and allow players to choose which remain visible(though all the others are still picked up on searches).

*On the front page, replace "Community message" with "News Entry" which can be expanded to feature three forumpost-like entries that each host three semi-large images each. These are set up in a blog-like fashion. They can be set to private or public. Comments can be made to them like a forum thread. They can be archived as a "Old Thread". Pictures however remain limited and must be deleted to make space for new entries(though it would be possible for them to link to the images that were once there).

*Maximum character limit is greatly increased, especially in the OP.

*Allow players to change skins to "Eastern"(current) or "Western"(what you find in a forum). Additionally, allow players to create sub-forums within the forum section. Maximum amount of displayed "active" threads increased to 50. Maximum amount of "old" threads increased to 400.

*Calendar feature is more closely tied to SE's announcement of events, updates, and maint(I'm not really seeing them keep up to date). Click on their icons will take you to the thread sticky on the public server forums.

*Add a "Point Counting Feature" as an optional calculator that allows leaders to add point figures or rank to players in the LS list(set to public or private).

*Add a forum search.


-LS Community Beta - Player Pages

*"Last Online" and "Last On LS Community Beta" text displayed on player's page.

*Allow players to comment on a player's page, like a single forum thread.

*Much like the LS change, allow a blog-like format extremely similar to above. Limit the possible pictures uploaded to 1 per entry. Allow these to be archived as an "Old Thread" in their LS's page.

*Make an optional "Seeking LS" feature where players can pick purposes they seek in a LS. Someone will be able to search players seeking a LS by these purposes, making for easier recruitment.

*Display current location and homepoint within the "Title" section".

*Make a new, but entirely private section: "Inventory" which displays all items in their inventory, safe, storage, and locker.

*Allow players to imagelink their: Title, Current Job/Equipment, Job level, Craft skill, and Mission sections of their page as pictures(like signatures).

In addition make a hybrid/customizable section to be linked. Displays over their page image as a background: Title, Race/Gender, Rank/Nation, Location, Current Job/Sub, Highest level Job(or second higher job if first is already current job), Highest Craft Skill, Current Missions(number and which of choice). Ideally someone could delete portions of these and just link image of entire sections(like this-Highest level job+Job level section), along with curent job/equipment.

*The key part: Looking For Event/Player feature. This ties in greatly with the game:

Players can pick any accessible/active quest or mission in the game(including Ops and Assault) that they deem "looking for party". They can also do this for jobs and battlefields. Another perk of it would be able to look for specific items to be bought, sold, or crafted.

*An always public history of servers the player has been on, previous player names(matched up with the servers), and when.

-Advanced Search

*Under party, a new option named "Advanced Seek" is available. There, players choose to seek under things like "Assault", "Windurst Mission", or a specific quest by typing it in. They also pick other jobs to seek on. This uses the Lscom's data.

*Under search, a new option named "Advanced Search" is available. There, players can search for a job seeking exp, any mission/quest/battlefield/etc by name, or to find someone looking to buy, sell, or can craft an item by typing in the correct name. This will pick up anyone currently seeking using the lscom's data. This system would allow people to seek on multiple jobs, for specific(and multiple) missions/quest/battlefields(especially assaults), and for items just as if they were seeking for an exp party on one job.

*To accompany the above, every quest/mission/battlefield/etc name can be put into auto-translate using the /translate feature.

-Lscom/Game interaction

*Players can look up their currently equipped LS's calendar under "Linkshell". From there players can unfilter the results and see their server's calendar.

*Under Help Desk, see current news posts on playonline.com(without images of course).

*Considering allowing players to check an item from their national or jeuno AH from anywhere using a search feature(probably under Status or Help Desk). Still wouldn't be able to make purchases or sell items of course.

[ronin sparthos]

~Housecleaning 2~

-Repop on various ???s used for Notorious Monsters repop in 5mins instead of 15mins. (15min timesinks for no real reason, nothing that cant become a 5min timesink.)

-After clearing CoP missions, the player cap on level will be lifted within certain CoP zones. Mission BCNMs will be unaffected.
(If you clear the mission in the area, whats the point of the level cap anymore? do away with it. It directly makes people avoid them for things like uncapped mammet fights, monarch linn ENMs etc.)

- The quest 'Waking the Beast' has been adjusted. 18man prime-battles have a chance of dropping their respective weapons. The avatars 'eyes' are only required to enter the Carbuncle Prime fight and will not be lost upon completing of the quest. A wait time of 72hours is required to re-enter any of the 'Waking the Beast' BCNMs upon clearing. Carbuncles drops are unaffected.
(No idea why the individual avatars dont drop their weapons, its also silly you have to beat ALL the avatars again to get any shot at weapons. The fights are challenging enough to get something outta them.)

[Nyuneko]

*Above these forums make a single calendar that marks that "Publicly known" events on all LSes calendars. This is effective in recruiting people for events(like a coffer key hunt) or as a Dynamis calendar for multiple LSes.

Actually, if I didn't misunderstand what you are saying, this function is already avaliable on the LS community site? I am not sure if sign-in is required, but on the World Portal page, there is a Linkshell event calender(divided into EXP/Mission/Quest/Item/Battlefield/Synthesis/Others), problem is just that, not many people use the site to begin with.

[ronin sparthos]

Its stigmatized is why many avoid it.

[Gwynplaine]

He's basically suggesting a completely new game... :rocl:

QFT. Some people would do well to come to terms with what the game is and isn't. Desiring big fundamental changes in the game itself is fairly silly, and just unrealistic. Especially for a 5 year old game, and more so for a title played on consoles.

Lowering or removing respawn time from spawned NM targets however... that sounds like a good'n.

[BRP]

*Above these forums make a single calendar that marks that "Publicly known" events on all LSes calendars. This is effective in recruiting people for events(like a coffer key hunt) or as a Dynamis calendar for multiple LSes.

Actually, if I didn't misunderstand what you are saying, this function is already avaliable on the LS community site? I am not sure if sign-in is required, but on the World Portal page, there is a Linkshell event calender(divided into EXP/Mission/Quest/Item/Battlefield/Synthesis/Others), problem is just that, not many people use the site to begin with.

You might be right. I basically thought out this vision of the Lscom a year ago, probably before that was around.

-Repop on various ???s used for Notorious Monsters repop in 5mins instead of 15mins. (15min timesinks for no real reason, nothing that cant become a 5min timesink.)

I think it has something to do with how dungeon monsters repop... and in that respect every single thing in the game outside special quest monsters or NMs should have a respawn rate of 5 mins.

[Imskel]

Add Digging, Gardening, Mining, Harvesting. Logging, Excavating to the tradeskill list and give them proper due worth.
So a lvl 1 Miner wont have a much luck as a capped 100.
Digging mainly tho, would be nice to see what level im actually at, and as someones already suggested, Make it so a A10 digger can dig more than the current 100 fatigue cap.
Oh and add "+chance to dig up items" to the choco gear

[ronin sparthos]

I think it has something to do with how dungeon monsters repop... and in that respect every single thing in the game outside special quest monsters or NMs should have a respawn rate of 5 mins.

I always wondered why dungeons have 16mins timers at this point in the game? Everyones better able to stand on their own legs now and it'd be a semi-copout way of making old camps more viable.

[Alistaire]

Easy fix to the limitation of seeking on only 1 job:

Incorporate seeking for party into the job levels menu. So by each job you have an on/off switch to seeking party. Something like this:

Warrior 37 Red Mage 75
Thief 37 White Mage 37
Monk 52 Black Mage 75

etc..

[Imskel]

Also to add new merits for agro.
1 Merit In Monster Agro = EP no longer agro
2 Merit = DC, obviously not going much higher than that, but its annoying having to sneak/invis in zones where mobs are DC-EM at most.

[Alistaire]

Also to add new merits for agro.
1 Merit In Monster Agro = EP no longer agro
2 Merit = DC, obviously not going much higher than that, but its annoying having to sneak/invis in zones where mobs are DC-EM at most.

That would completely change Aspid camp, with lots of QQ'ing from people without those merits/put merits in other selections in the same category. (What category would you put it in anyway? "Other"? lol @ skipping on crit merits and enmity +/- for that.)