How would you improve FFXI?

[Myrrh_Quetz]

It didn't bother my fun. I'm a Whm/Smn. I just mean I enjoyed the game more back in the basic days.

[ronin sparthos]

-Speed up airships or make them useful for something.
-Make maps useful. Half the maps in the game hide key points/areas which just leads to confusion in players who arent using websites.
-Update the damn quest log. Doing one quest in FFXI could take an entire day if you dont look up the quest - why is it so ungodly hard? why are the rewards so terrible?

[Gwynplaine]

Get rid of Playonline completely.

[montgomery]

Implement a few of the windower plugins as actual features of the game.. Scripting/Spellcast, Recast especially. Also TParty since a lot of mobs ai reacts at varying %s of HP. And if that means PS2/XB360 users can't be supported.. then cut them off.

[Arthars]

Daily Mog Bonanza.

2nd to this as it will prolly keep people interested forever

also will lessen the people overcrowding dynamis, or nyzul

[Wulfgang]

A -

Get rid of Playonline completely.

B - OP's versatile roll idea

C -

Raise drop rate of abjurations in einherjar wings.

A - Best suggestion; I think my enjoyment of this game would increase 10% if I could just boot up right to the main character selection screen.

B - This is a novel and good idea, would be perfect for those add-ish parties where you end up with like a BLM, SAM, WAR, WHM, etc.

C - I've done ~5 Odins, probably accumulated 60,000 ampoules, never seen a single abjuration in lesser tiers.

[Francisco]

Kinda wrote it a little like an actual version update... and kinda cut it short because I was getting tired...


Changes to Fields of Valor

Fields of Valor has been expanded to the following areas

- Eastern Altepa Desert
- Western Altepa Desert
- Cape Teriggan
- Valley of Sorrows
- Uleguerand Range
- Lufaise Meadows
- Miseraeux Coast
- Attohwa Chasm
- Sanctuary of Zi'Tah

Changes to Salvage

The following items have been added to Silver Sea Remnants

- Citadel Chelonian Card
- Gyroscopic Gears Card
- Gyroscopic Gear Card
- Powderkeg Yanadahn Card
- Hammerblow Majanun
- Dekka Card

These items drop 100% of the time from their corresponding NM, and are stackable. Twelve of these cards can be traded to a ??? somewhere inside Silver Sea Remnants for a more difficult version of the NM. This more difficult version is guaranteed to drop its level 35 armor.

The following changes have been made to Bhaflau Remnants

- Reactionary Ramparts are now guaranteed to spawn at least one Notorious Monster each. In order to balance this change, Reactionary Ramparts will no longer be able to spawn more than three Notorious Monsters each.

- The aggro range of the Archaic Gears on the fourth floor is now less severe during certain weather conditions.

- The Notorious Monster "Mad Bomber" is now accessible no matter which path players choose on the first floor.

The following changes have been made to Zhayolm Remnants.

- Satisfying certain conditions such as defeating Archaic type monsters and removing Pathos from additional party members can now increase the drop rate of armor from the Poroggo NMs on the fifth and sixth floor.

- The Poroggo Madame on the first floor can now be popped by satisfying ONE of these scenarios...

Puk Wing: Clear the entire wing without using any Incus Cells

Ziz Wing: Clear the entire wing without using any Praecipitatio Cells

Raptor Wing: Clear the entire wing without using any Duplicatus Cells.

Bugard Wing: Clear the entire wing without using any Opacus Cells.

- The time limit to reach the northern fourth floor Poroggo Madame has been increased to 45 minutes. Defeating the northern third floor Poroggo Madame will grant an additional 15 minute time extension to this limit.

The drop rate of level 35 armor in Arrapago Remnants will now function as follows.

- Defeating the Archaic Rampart on the first floor will drastically increase the drop rate of all Qiqirn NMs throughout the area. Neglecting the Rampart will decrease the drop rate of all Qiqirn NMs.

- Defeating any Qiqirn NM will decrease the drop rates of Deviant Bhoot, Psycheflayer and Archaic Chariot. Neglecting Qiqirn NMs will increase the drop rate of the opposing NMs.

- Defeating Deviant Bhoot, Psycheflayer or Archaic Chariot will decrease the drop rate of any subsequent Qiqirn NMs.

Changes to Einherjar

The following items are now obtainable in exchange for 150,000 "ampoules of therion inchor", after defeating Odin, clearing Nyzul Isle, completing the entire line of ToAU missions, defeating all three ToAU Beastkings, earning the rank of captain and defeating all four Salvage bosses.

- Defending Ring
- Velocious Belt
- Ridill
- Hrotti
- Algol
- Sirius Axe
- Hauteclaire

Players now will now receive an experience point reward associated with the amount of ampoules earned upon completion of Einherjar.

Changes to Moblin Maze Mongers

Players are now able to initiate job specific challenges with Moblin Maze Mongers. These solo challenges are designed to test the player's skill at their job.

EXAMPLE: At white mage might be required to keep an ill-equipped NPC party alive as they battle a ferocious Wyrm. Make it "ready" Spike Flail, but give the WHM a second and a half or so to get Flash off... if Flash lands, Flail misses everyone... if the WHM is too slow... it's a loss.

Successful completion of a series of these job specific challenges results in an amazing job specific award.

Examples of some of these awards... (think Ammo slot)

Melee Tathlum
STR+ 6 VIT +6
Counter +4
Enhances Kick Attacks
Lv. 75 MNK

Cleric's Tathlum
MND +6 Enmity -6
Cure Cast Time -4%
Cure Potency +5%
Lv. 75 WHM

Rogue's Tathlum
DEX +6 AGI +6
Treasure Hunter +1
Critical Hit Rate +4%
Lv. 75 THF

Valor Tathlum
VIT +6 Enmity +6
Magic Defense Bonus +5
Damage Taken -5%
Lv. 75 PLD


Job Changes

Monk

- The activation of Guard has been increased.

- While under the effect of Counterstance, defense will be severely penalized; but this penalty shall now be limited by a cap on how much damange can be done by a single attack or weapon skill.

- The weapon skill Asuran Fists can now produce critical hits.

Thief

- A thief may now use the ability "Hide" to briefly confuse an enemy, and deliver a Sneak Attack.

White Mage

- The spells Shellra III, Shellra IV and Shellra V now grant a magical resistance that is not native to their single target counterparts.

- The spells Protectra III, Protectra IV and Protectra V now grant a weak version of Phalanx. This effect is independant of the spell Phalanx and Phalanx II.

- At level 40, White Mages gain the job trait "Cure Mastery" - in which a Cure casting time is reduced, and a Cure spell may grant a regen effect.

- At level 45, White Mages gain the job trait "Auto Refresh".

[Valkrish]

Combat Skill: new hard cap @ 40
Magic Skill: new hard cap @ 30
Stats: new hard cap @ 10
Tier1 Merits: new hard cap @ 15



Mastery Tree: (Hard Cap of 5) Only jobs with 250+ Merits can upgrade these.

-Job Trait -- Smooth Pommel: Parrying activates more often (!) (6-7-8-9-10) Merits -- (2% 4% 6% 8% 10%) (All jobs)

-Job Ability -- Rough Pommel: Damage taken converts to TP [15 seconds] Recast 5 minutes. (one time upgrade) 10 merits (all jobs)

-Job Trait -- E-Vas-Ive: Increased running speed; 12%. (THF ONRY) Merits: 10 (One time upgrade) (stack-able)

-Job Ability -- Fragile Hands: Bonus to magic attack damage for the next offensive spell. Instant 30% Damage increase, -5% emnity, 15 minute recast. (one time upgrade) 10 merits (all jobs)

-Job Ability -- Heavy Handed: Increase two-handed damage 15% damage boost (uncapped) slow + 15% 10 Merits: Lasts 3 minutes, 5 minute recast. -15% Emnity (one time upgrade) 10 Merits (melee jobs apply only)

-Job Ability -- Nimble Hands: 4% chance to auto-barrage on next attack. 15 minute recast (one time upgrade) 10 Merits (ranger / corsair / thief)


I accept criticism, and enjoy comments. So please make some =)

[size=10]Changes to Einherjar

The following items are now obtainable in exchange for ---> 800,000 <--- "ampoules of therion inchor", after defeating Odin, clearing Nyzul Isle, completing the entire line of ToAU missions, defeating all three ToAU Beastkings, earning the rank of captain and defeating all four Salvage bosses.

- Defending Ring
- Velocious Belt
- Ridill
- Hrotti
- Algol
- Sirius Axe
- Hauteclaire

Players now will now receive an experience point reward associated with the amount of ampoules earned upon completion of Einherjar.

No you can't has cheeseburger :[ (it would be too broken)

[Maxxthepenguin]

Francisco's post is what I was expecting

Fucking lols

His THF change is beyond epic

[Lordwafik]

- Separate the PC game from the PS2 game. Allow version updates at the same time and such, and universal content, but separate the dependancy. For example, PC / XB ver gets new unique models on the new items while PS2 gets a shared model.

- Allow PC version to use the graphics card to full efficiency.

- Better network code so it's not just "Double sending" everything, but instead being programmed efficiently.

- Allow better Linkshell management: All LS members should be displayed all the time , offline members go greyed out at the bottom of the list, people who have the pearl but aren't currently wearing it will show up in italics under the dulled list, all sackholders up the top under shellholder(think like MSN), this would allow you to kick members that you don't want in your LS even if they dequip the pearl, as well as transform mules into sackholders and such.

- Have better customer support and not leave customers in the dark

- TAKE AWAY ALL "MYSTERY" FROM ITEMS/MONSTERS. It's no longer cute like it once was, nobody cares about solving a puzzle, hidden effects aren't a surprise anymore when the info is available on the internet, nor are monster strategies since they are all over the internet. When someone asks something a GM / Dev should be able to answer it, even if it's something like a Q&A on their boards.

- Stop adding so many jobs, take a note from other MMOs where they have a small set of jobs with each one in a defining role instead of the mistake FFXI has of 20 jobs and a lot of them virtually worthless and the game wouldn't really change with them removed (ninja , pup, blu, sch , smn, all melee who aren't WAR and RNG).

- Have a static path to unlock jobs. For example, to unlock DRK, you have to lvl up war to 37, to unlock BLM, you have to level up either WHM or RDM to 37, etc. It makes no sense that a WHM can go unlock NIN. Also have seen way too many gimpy people without properly levelled subs, this would only encourage people to take their subjobs up , and also help lead them into getting the right subjob for the mainjob for the majority of situations.


Before you say "But hurrr not all of these are FFXI" - they're all part of the FFXI experience.

[Francisco]

I might have mis-thought the amount of ampoules gained per run... I figured 2000 per run on average, twice a week.... That's about seven or eight months of doing Einherjar to hit 150,000 ampoules... seems like a fair trade off... Maybe boost it up to 200,000 which would take like a year... which is kinda pushing things... 400,000 would take two years, which is kinda sadistic, even for SE... and no one wants to undertake a project where they KNOW, that despite any good luck that befalls them, they're stuck waiting two years to reach their goal.

[Maxxthepenguin]

The ein things aren't the funniest parts

[Francisco]

The ein things aren't the funniest parts

Dare I ask, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Maxxthepenguin]

You created a tathlum for PLD that would be better than the best body piece in the game for PLD and you put the reward in a solo BC fight that can be attempted for the low cost of 200 gil and tried daily.

Seriously.

of course, valkrish seems to think that THF merits aren't good enough

[Francisco]

You created a tathlum for PLD that would be better than the best body piece in the game for PLD and you put the reward in a solo BC fight that can be attempted for the low cost of 200 gil and tried daily.

But it'd be hard!

Honestly, as good as that piece is... it's just gonna make controlled fights easier.

It wouldn't stop AV and PW from raping shit; but it'd make Tiamat and Cerberus a little easier...

I think the only real downfall of adding a piece like that is - it makes other shit look worse in comparison.

But the whole extent of the idea is to make it a series of 7-10 objectives you need to complete... kinda of like a mini-relic quest, except no currency, just being really good at your job... maybe require something like Kindred Seals to get in, and have a 5 day waiting period to retry a failed quest...

[Tulun]

World spawns were always a bad idea. (edit:I should correct myself.. World Spawns with ridiculous respawn times and insanely good gear you can only obtain from them is a bad idea. If 'world spawns' were just for fun and not necessary for some of the best gear, they would be a fine).

Be rid of them.

Truly instance Limbus, Dynamis.

Remove some of the annoying grind (we know what), make monsters harder, game fixed.

[Mesiah]

I think world spawns would be better if they would add in some that can actually be solo/duo/trio'd Not an epic battle that you need to bring your whole LS to. And not something you really camp for, but kind of like a gift, like "omg look what I found, I didn't believe this nm existed"

What I would like to see more than world spawns is world drops. Not necessarily epic game breaking pieces, but really good pieces that you would actually use, or sell if you couldn't use it. Merit parties would be more interesting if there was a .001 percent chance that a piece worth 10m might drop. I think SE was trying to head in that direction with the treasure caskets, but as usual it was a poor effort with sub par rewards.

And as far as being able to use hide to sneak attack a mob durring battle.... um... last I checked, as long as the mob detects and tracks by sight then you can already do this. And making it work for sound/scent tracking mobs wouldn't fit with the job ability.

[Gaea]

I'd make HMNs random aggro for claim.

When you pop trigger based monsters, they claim to the popper. I think the only true way to circumvent botting is to let monsters like Fafnir decide who gets to fight today.

Example, Fafnir, pops, everyone runs in front of Fafnir as he's loading. Fafnir finishes loading and is ready to aggro someone. The first person he sees he aggros. When he aggros, he claims to that person (and everyone in their party/alliance) and then engages.

This engagement process takes a couple seconds so a tank could actually provoke really quickly if the person aggroed was a mage (who should have Stoneskin and Blink) anyways. In the event the mage did get killed in one hit, no worries. Fafnir would stay claimed for a few seconds for the rest of the alliance. The mage should only die if the tank isn't mashing Provoke on Fafnir because there would be a window of a couple seconds as Fafnir engages the person he aggros.

Anyways, that's something I think would make FFXI better, because it would be at least more drama-free. It would eliminate the "this linkshell bot claims" drama, which would make FFXI just a little more fun and I think it would make Dragon's Aery a little more interesting. It would be like playing the lottery everyday.

Anyways, I think all supercamped HNMs should have this applied. Considering you can't get very close to these monsters without aggroing, I don't think it takes away from the ferocity of these NMs. Besides, I would think a monster of such caliber should have the ability to choose its battles just like we do to some degree.

[The Blackrose]

... So you're essentially going to create even further congestion in places such as Aery when 50 man zerg squads pack in and pitch their tents.

Didn't think your cunning plan all the way through there.

[Gaea]

People that want to kill Fafhogg are people that want to kill Fafhogg. The number of people wouldn't change.

You'd have A: the people who don't care for random claim because their group has reliable people that could get claim over other groups. These people would be more likely to stop coming.

B: legitimate players might be more interested because they would stand a random chance at claim.

It should balance out. I doubt there would be any notable change in attendance. The only difference is you might see more people that actually want something from Aery than people who don't and dont feel like playing Fafhogg lottery today. If anything the zone should be less congested, but I doubt there would be a change.

This isn't a random idea. This is an idea I've discussed with people since ZNM was released because there was a lot of talk about how peole wanted to see existing HNMs improved because they really liked the system of popping good NMs that drop good stuff. You are the first to think it's "completely stupid".

Didn't think your cunning criticism all the way through there did you?