FFXIV : Vast Improvements Wanted

Silaqui

   Honestly I've been playing the game since it was released and had been excitedly awaiting it's arrival since the game was announced. Unfortunately all that waiting has seen little reward and only much aggravation. It could really be an incredible game if  SE would actually take the time to go through the game and make it functional.



   I know many of you play the game. Think about it. What would you give for more storage? How about a search system right from the get go in the market wards so you don't have to hop from one ward to the next, much less search through hundreds of retainers hoping they have your item and a decent price. I can tell you I have had several moments of extreme frustration when I buy an item and then find the same item on another retainer for a lower price. An interconnected system would be even better. Connect all the cities market wards. I'd hate to find something I wanted in Limsa and then find a better deal in Gridania. Simple things could take hours of frustration out of the game and turn it into minutes of a quick search and then you can be back out there questing.Or what about potions and food? Just like in FFXI it's trial and error which is a wasteful way to figure out which item does which effect. Wouldn't it be better if the item description actually told you what the item did? I personally don't want to go through thousands of gil worth of food and potions to discover that only 1 works for a mage.



 Oh and the "beautiful" crafting system. It's nice being able to do all crafts, but it would help if in order to craft a level 1 item you didn't need a level 20 item from a different profession or the fact that many of the recipes require certain techniques that can only be learned after you reach level 20. I'm glad they are going to put in a form of recipe book and hopefully it will make things much easier. Frankly I believe that many of the recipes need a complete overhaul to make them more level appropriate. The high rate of synthesis failure is also a huge thorn in the side. I'm a level 10 alchemist.....and I failed several times just in trying to make honey which is a basic level 1 recipe. The loss of materials and crystals can be infuriating, especially when its senseless for a higher leveled crafter to fail at a low level recipe. Perhaps if we didn't lose both gil and material for a failed synth it wouldn't be so bad,but many times you end up paying 20,000gil for 1 component and then when you finally try to craft your item that you should be able to breeze through.....you fail and loose everything.



  Another issue is the ability to quickly switch between classes as well as being able to store all that equipment. Generally its a lengthy process to change between classes because you have to search through your bag for all the gear to equip 1 piece at a time. Then you have to go through and equip the abilities for that class before you ever start to fight, gather, or craft.  Another problem with this is the need to keep all of these different equipment sets in your bag. They don't leave your bag when they are equipped so valuable space is filled up by all your different class equipment. I'd like to see a tab menu that allows you to simply equip you gear for each class instantly as well as stores it on your person rather than in your bag. It would be even better if each class tab had it's own paper doll that held the equipment for it's class until you needed it.  Wouldn't it be nice to know that you had your mining, fishing, botanist, blacksmith ,etc gear all ready to be equipped but none of it was taking up you bag space. Makes sense to me considering how limited storage is for this game.



   What about travel? The anima has got to be one of the biggest pains in the rear to deal with.  I know that SE plans to increase the rate of anima regeneration,but does anyone really know how fast ?  They made it so that you have to travel from city to city if you want to be able to use the guild facilities for each profession, yet you're forced to ration your anima and hope you have enough to get back to the camp for your leve quests. I think I've been at 40 anima for a week now.  Not to mention that when you have to run somewhere it takes forever in a day to reach it. There are no chocobo stables in between so you could rent a mount. Hell I have no idea how you would rent one. The stable handler in each of the cities has yet to even give me that choice. Hopefully it will be easier once people are able to actually scroll their map so they can tell which direction they need to go.  The chocobo whistles and ability to raise you're own birds in FFXI are dearly missed at this moment.



     Actually, a lot of the elements from FFXI are missed.  The mog houses were my top choice. Even if I didn't feel like going out and grinding, I could enjoy my mog house. Plenty of space especially once you really started crafting you could fill it with whatever you wanted and  really give yourself some trunk space. Mail is another big deal. At the moment I know of no other way to send money or items to another character except through trade or selling it. It would be really nice to be able to make gear for my husband's new toon and be able to send it to him, or to be able to send items to friends without having to wait and hope you catch them online.  The screen could also be organized a bit better. How frustrated have people been to start a fight only to discover that they can no longer see their HP,MP, or TP because the action menu has suddenly covered it up.

    Overall, this game is beautiful. The graphics are amazing and the landscapes themselves are rich and breath taking to see. As frustrating as the areas are to navigate and traverse I actually appreciate the large size because it allows for plenty of room for a great number of players to explore without being crowded. Just a few way stations in between where you could rent a chocobo or sell some of your extra items to free up bag space would be nice. The cities are marvelous if a bit confusing in their layout.  That being said it does make the leves in the cities a bit problematic when you're trying to navigate this huge metropolis in search of one NPC and no clue whatsoever as to their location.  I love the game and I hate to have to disassemble it like this, but facts are facts. There is an incredible amount of potential to this game that is being wasted by the lack of functionality.

   This game went through Alpha and Beta stages. Did SE listen to the player reviews or did the test players just not do their job?  There are a lot of improvements that need to happen. This could be a great game, incredible even if SE would just listen to the players. No one wants to spend hours sitting around just trying to find the items they need or running in circles trying to find their way to the next camp. Hopefully SE will read this and take notice.