If square made another FF MMO, what improvements over FF11 would you guys like to see?

To make soloing a little more easier. Right now it's hard for me to find a party. Also fix the economy and add a more variety with the weapons and armor.

To make soloing a little more easier. Right now it's hard for me to find a party. Also fix the economy and add a more variety with the weapons and armor.

Soloing is a bitch. I took the solo route till about lvl 17, and all I did was fight sheep and rabbits lol. Traveling is really slow so when you finally get in a group, and you die, u have to travel really far on foot to get back to the party' if your home point isnt close. Theres alot to see in the game but you wont see anything good until level 20 or so. Question is how fast will you make it to that point?

I would like them to change losing XP after a death.

No Maat! I'm 0/2 on him and i'm a drk, the apparently "easy" fight.

I'd like to see more jobs that arent defined by their weapons. It's a bit boring *having* to use a specific weapon constantly on whatever job you play because anything else just doesnt cut it damage and accuracy wise unless you have merits.

We have at most, war to do that for us an 99.9999% of wars use 2 axes and a great axe, nothing else, the most varied it gets is in the dunes when new players use a sword and shield or a weapon they think looks cool.

Time sinks are a big problem in the game too, like small ones that over time that can make you miss an airship (the animation of walking through the door slowly on your way to an airship, 2 seconds before its ready to take off).. and having to wait between each purchase at guilds on items that don't stack (i'm looking at you, copper an silver ores).

Last improvement would be ditching Play online and its crap music and just letting me load up the damn game. That, and being able to alt+tab. ;)

Not too much to ask for, is it?

Too much for me to sum up in a single post.

No Maat! I'm 0/2 on him and i'm a drk, the apparently "easy" fight.

I'd like to see more jobs that arent defined by their weapons. It's a bit boring *having* to use a specific weapon constantly on whatever job you play because anything else just doesnt cut it damage and accuracy wise unless you have merits.

We have at most, war to do that for us an 99.9999% of wars use 2 axes and a great axe, nothing else, the most varied it gets is in the dunes when new players use a sword and shield or a weapon they think looks cool.

Time sinks are a big problem in the game too, like small ones that over time that can make you miss an airship (the animation of walking through the door slowly on your way to an airship, 2 seconds before its ready to take off).. and having to wait between each purchase at guilds on items that don't stack (i'm looking at you, copper an silver ores).

Last improvement would be ditching Play online and its crap music and just letting me load up the damn game. That, and being able to alt+tab. ;)

Not too much to ask for, is it?


I hate when you log onto playonline. That music sucks!!! Most of the FF11 experience is really inconvenient.

I hate when you log onto playonline. That music sucks!!! Most of the FF11 experience is really inconvenient.

Like the eBayers?

To make soloing a little more easier. Right now it's hard for me to find a party. Also fix the economy and add a more variety with the weapons and armor.

I agree on the soloing part. The higher you level, the more "whacks" it takes to kill a monster. I mean, I know why. It extends play time and the money flow for Square-Enix coffers, but really... When I was a Lv.60 RDM, a Lv.72 RDM Quadav could kill me in 4-5 hits, if that much. Now I'm Lv.72, but I can't even kill a Lv.50 mob in 4-5 hits. And I can only kill a Lv.60 mob in 4-5 minutes.

The economy. Where to start... The Auction House allows the greed of players to come into play, and it invites RMT. Of course, lately Square-Enix has been doing a lot to take care of that. Still, I thought of an alternate way of making gil. Each item would have a set value. You list yours for sale and the first listed is the first sold. This would encourage people to look at the items that are currently available so they'll know what they can farm that will sell a little faster. The new buying/selling system would also allow players to see how many of a particular item (or how many stacks) have sold each day for the last 10 days or so. That way if you see that about 40-50 stacks of beehive chips have sold each day for the last ten days, and there are 30 stacks available now, chances are if you farm beehive chips, your will sell very soon.

Another alternative would be to keep the auction house as it is now, but have some kind of key item or ability you can get from a crafting guild that would greatly increase the drop rate on certain items related to that craft. For example, leathercrafters might get a "skinning knife" key item. With that, maybe 8 out of 10 kills of a sheep will net a sheep skin. This would help crafters make money from their craft rather than only being able to depend on HQ alone to make a decent profit. As for who can get the item... maybe you would have to be a Lv.90+ in a craft to get it. Or even better, you can get one at about Lv.30 that increases the skin drops a little, then another at Lv.60 that increases skin drops a considerable amount, then at Lv.90 you get the final upgrade to your skinning knife with a great increase in skin drops. Alchemists might get an item that increases drop rates on beehive chips, Ahriman Tears, slime oil, scorpion claws, etc... Clothcrafters get better drops on saruta cotton and other items.

I agree with you on the gear selection. I'd like to see more race-specific gear, or just a wider variety of gear at lower levels. But the main thing I want concerning gear is the ability to store more types of gear on the NPC, and I'd also like to be able to store my AF weapon with my AF armor as a six-piece set.

I would have boughtit if not for a monthly fee.

I think if the players were given exp for quests, leveling would be much easier. I might be wrong on this but from what I remember there was no exp given.

I would like to see better loot dropped by monsters. I think in my time of FF11, the best thing I recieved from a drop was an Axe.

I was a warrior when I played. I remember the ability that got me put of trouble was might strike. The only problem is its an ability that you can only use every 2 hrs. Even with that,, my HP would be low after a fight. To get HP back up, you have to sit because HP doesnt charge while walking. This makes the game extremely slow. To top it off potions are expensive so if you're not making money in the game, then you're screwed.

I think npcs that have anything to do with your quest should be highlighted in some way. I remember a quest where I had to give out flyers to certain npcs in san doria. There are so many npcs around and sandoria is so huge. Maybe I missed something and there is a way to search for an NPC, but I didnt know about it.

I'd definately like to see it more solo friendly. I mean somtimes you can spend SO long finding a party and only then to have to stick around trying to get everyone raised for about an hour before everyone gets their act together and then your friend is in the area and dies and they ask you for a raise. but on the way you see a lower level being aggro'd so ya take the mob and zone it. I do miss playing it though! :P

I think if the players were given exp for quests, leveling would be much easier. I might be wrong on this but from what I remember there was no exp given.

I would like to see better loot dropped by monsters. I think in my time of FF11, the best thing I recieved from a drop was an Axe.

I was a warrior when I played. I remember the ability that got me put of trouble was might strike. The only problem is its an ability that you can only use every 2 hrs. Even with that,, my HP would be low after a fight. To get HP back up, you have to sit because HP doesnt charge while walking. This makes the game extremely slow. To top it off potions are expensive so if you're not making money in the game, then you're screwed.

I think npcs that have anything to do with your quest should be highlighted in some way. I remember a quest where I had to give out flyers to certain npcs in san doria. There are so many npcs around and sandoria is so huge. Maybe I missed something and there is a way to search for an NPC, but I didnt know about it.

Obviously you didnt get too far into the game then.

You only get good items from monsters, i.e weapons, if you camp NMs. You keep what normal monsters drop, stack them to 12, and sell the stack for money; its called farming. Then, you can eventually afford to buy gear. This is not like Diablo 2 were you go out and kill things for gear.

2 hour abilities are for emergencies, each job has a different one, you aren't meant to use it everytime it becomes available, its meant to save a party from dying to a too high monster, as in the white mage has just died and the monster is still sitting at 40% HP, if you dont use mighty strikes the party will die. It is not for soloing with, it wasnt designed that way, its a panic button.

Did you even play it further then the free first month? you can hardly expect a game to shine by playing it for 30 days, I've been playing it for 2 years and can tell you once you get to level 20 and have your sub job unlocked and leveled, and then make your way to Jeuno, everything changes.

Obviously you didnt get too far into the game then.

You only get good items from monsters, i.e weapons, if you camp NMs. You keep what normal monsters drop, stack them to 12, and sell the stack for money; its called farming. Then, you can eventually afford to buy gear. This is not like Diablo 2 were you go out and kill things for gear.

2 hour abilities are for emergencies, each job has a different one, you aren't meant to use it everytime it becomes available, its meant to save a party from dying to a too high monster, as in the white mage has just died and the monster is still sitting at 40% HP, if you dont use mighty strikes the party will die. It is not for soloing with, it wasnt designed that way, its a panic button.

Did you even play it further then the free first month? you can hardly expect a game to shine by playing it for 30 days, I've been playing it for 2 years and can tell you once you get to level 20 and have your sub job unlocked and leveled, and then make your way to Jeuno, everything changes.

Pardon me for saying this, but by saying that, you're admitting that the first 30 days of FF11 was boring. Now if it takes THAT long for it to pick up, I personally wouldn't bother with it, it's simply too fucking long.

As for suggestions, add pokemon and have it play like KoF

lol

It would help greatly in places like Valkurm Dunes and Buburimu Peninsula if there were nomad moogles in Selbina and Mhaura. I don't understand why these areas don't have them. And having nomad moogles in those places wouldn't rob anyone of the experience of their first spooky run to the dunes, usually before finding out that there are such items as prism powder and silent oil.

Nomad moogles would help with parties that end before they get started. People love to come to the dunes, spend two hours trying to form a party, then the party ends before anyone gets experience because someone dies and their home point at the Cape Teriggan outpost or something. I've gotten to the point now where I typically solo to Level 18, and then I go to Qufim Island. People don't seem to die quite as often there.

Pardon me for saying this, but by saying that, you're admitting that the first 30 days of FF11 was boring. Now if it takes THAT long for it to pick up, I personally wouldn't bother with it, it's simply too fucking long.

As for suggestions, add pokemon and have it play like KoF

lol

Its not so much boring as it is tedious. You spend a lot of time running to and from your home city and the Valkurm dunes. Sure, it learns you how to avoid aggro but its still very tedious.

Pardon me for saying this, but by saying that, you're admitting that the first 30 days of FF11 was boring. Now if it takes THAT long for it to pick up, I personally wouldn't bother with it, it's simply too fucking long.

As for suggestions, add pokemon and have it play like KoF

lol


You took the words right out of my mouth.

It takes too long to get the game going. If you cant party (because its a bitch to find a good party) most of the game is solo. If I check a monster and it says decent challenge or easy match and I fight it and win confidence goes up. Next monster I check same out come and it kicks my ass, you better believe Im going to use the 2hr ablility to save my ass. Theres XP on the line for death. And what sucks is your health doesnt regen while you walk, you have to sit there. The game is very tedious. Sure you can go to the dunes and level. Lets say Im in Sandoria, how long does it take to walk to the dunes? A long ass time!!!!! The game is good if you are willing to take the time out and really grind it out. If I play the game for 1 month and I cant get to level 20 its B.S. And for the record I played the game for much longer than a month.

It would have been cool if I can play the game with friends. My uncle had the game and my 2 cousins also had characters. Why couldnt I play with them, because the game randomly throws you into a server which is just retarded. Sure you can buy a world pass but why go through that? You finally switch servers only to start you character all over again. Its really tedious, the game needs an overhaul.

PLUS YOU PAY AN EXTRA $1 PER CHARACTER? Thats B.S!! In wow you can have 8 characters for the regular monthly price.

I played FFXI for about 2 years when it first came out for release on the PC. I experienced all of the endgame and was in the Leading LS on my server. We killed jailer of love and I quit for a better game. I spent so much time in FFXI just sitting in jeuno and later on in tavnazian safehold just staring at walls and using windower(illegal mod in ffxi) to check web pages. The game overall sucked completely, but it was my first MMORPG experience and I don't regret it. Since moving to WoW I see so many things I wish FFXI had had.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

It takes too long to get the game going. If you cant party (because its a bitch to find a good party) most of the game is solo. If I check a monster and it says decent challenge or easy match and I fight it and win confidence goes up. Next monster I check same out come and it kicks my ass, you better believe Im going to use the 2hr ablility to save my ass. Theres XP on the line for death. And what sucks is your health doesnt regen while you walk, you have to sit there. The game is very tedious. Sure you can go to the dunes and level. Lets say Im in Sandoria, how long does it take to walk to the dunes? A long ass time!!!!! The game is good if you are willing to take the time out and really grind it out. If I play the game for 1 month and I cant get to level 20 its B.S. And for the record I played the game for much longer than a month.

It would have been cool if I can play the game with friends. My uncle had the game and my 2 cousins also had characters. Why couldnt I play with them, because the game randomly throws you into a server which is just retarded. Sure you can buy a world pass but why go through that? You finally switch servers only to start you character all over again. Its really tedious, the game needs an overhaul.

PLUS YOU PAY AN EXTRA $1 PER CHARACTER? Thats B.S!! In wow you can have 8 characters for the regular monthly price.

1. How can you judge a game from one month of playing when the game is absolutely HUGE?
2. Why not go through the bother of buying a world pass, getting the cash is like getting buttons, they arent expensive. I play in Ramuh but I'm not originally meant to be in there.

3. Who the fuck wants 8 characters in the first place?

1. A single month may not be enough for most people to see the entire game world and achieve all it has to offer, but it is enough to decide whether you like the gameplay systems and the community. If you dislike either of those, you're better off not playing the game. And besides that, if the game is too slowly paced for someone to enjoy, the fact that there's still a lot more to see probably won't mean anything to them at all, nor should it.

2. Iceberg's point about random world assignment stands. Whether or not you can get a pass, having to work for it just to start over on a new server is pretty lame, and players in most other MMORPGs laugh at the game for it.

3. There's a damn good reason to want more characters. Different characters can have different skills and access different areas according to their levels. If a new player joins and wants to play with a friend whose character is a high level, then the veteran has to shell out for a new character slot in order to join up with his/her friend. Also, let's say that a player wants to complete a quest they've already done once, perhaps to see another outcome or get a different reward (assuming the game allows such things; I don't remember), but their level is too high or it's something a character can only do once. A second character would be really handy in that case. And then there's mules, which if you didn't know, are characters whose only purpose is to carry excess inventory from other characters who've exceeded whatever storage space they had available.

Its not so much boring as it is tedious. You spend a lot of time running to and from your home city and the Valkurm dunes. Sure, it learns you how to avoid aggro but its still very tedious.

I laughed at this, what's the difference? Games are supposed to be constantly engaging and interesting. Games which are that tedious are synonymous with boring. You may say the the game is very expansive, yes it is, but it is also just as horribly watered down. Anyone would be bored half to death if they have to suffer doing the same thing for one month straight before the game even picks up.

1. How can you judge a game from one month of playing when the game is absolutely HUGE?
2. Why not go through the bother of buying a world pass, getting the cash is like getting buttons, they arent expensive. I play in Ramuh but I'm not originally meant to be in there.

3. Who the fuck wants 8 characters in the first place?


Reread my post. I said that I played the game for much longer that 30
days. The funny thing is the game looks really good on video. Go to
youtube and you see groups fighting bahamut and leviathan. That makes
the game look really attractive. But for me, playing the game more and
more made me cancel my account. Its just too tedious.

I remember when ff11 was being promoted, the big thing was community.
Isn't the best way to play an MMO with family and people you know
personally? I can easily go get a world pass but why? Really think
about it. At the start of the game you should be able to pick a server. Its
just that simple. I think if that were the case I would have played the
game a lot longer. I played the game casually for about 1 year. This is
including frustration breaks I took in between. If I remeber correctly
I stopped at level 18. And within this time I found a party (that
actually knew what they were doing) once. So 99% of my gameplay was solo. Fighting the same rabbits, sheep, orcs, and carrion worms, in the same 2 areas. I actually saw only 4 areas of a game that is soooo expansive. The game became extremely boring.

I think FF11 had so much potential. If done right the game could have
even had a bigger fanbase than WoW. The best thing for SE to do is go
back to the drawing board and start from scratch.

I agree 8 characters are not needed. I play wow and I have 8 characters
made and I only use 4. Besides all the reasons Prak mentioned, being
able to make more character adds variety to the game. I was already
paying $13 a month for FF11, why pay an extra $1 for each character? In
warcraft having different characters gives me a different experience
everytime I log on to my alts. It also adds longevity to the game.

1. A single month may not be enough for most people to see the entire game world and achieve all it has to offer, but it is enough to decide whether you like the gameplay systems and the community. If you dislike either of those, you're better off not playing the game. And besides that, if the game is too slowly paced for someone to enjoy, the fact that there's still a lot more to see probably won't mean anything to them at all, nor should it.

It's a fault of FFXI's that the beginning is the worst part for many, many reasons. If they gave it a chance, it just gets better with time, before dropping off and being terrible.

It's the same progression WoW has, just spread out more - kinda fun at first, then gets really fun, then sucks shit.


2. Iceberg's point about random world assignment stands. Whether or not you can get a pass, having to work for it just to start over on a new server is pretty lame, and players in most other MMORPGs laugh at the game for it.

Fuck, if you can't take 10 minutes to reroll your character to get the server you want then you probably don't have the patience to play an MMO. It's a pain in the ass, yeah, and it should just be pickable, but with such a ridiculously easy workaround it's not a valid complaint.
For the record, it took me ~1 minute of rerolling my character three times to get the server I wanted. My other friends took between 5-15 minutes because they weren't as lucky. It's a simple solution.


3. There's a damn good reason to want more characters. Different characters can have different skills and access different areas according to their levels.

Nope. Characters all are the same except minor stat differences between races.
Maybe you're thinking about jobs, but one character can be every single job.


If a new player joins and wants to play with a friend whose character is a high level, then the veteran has to shell out for a new character slot in order to join up with his/her friend.

Nope, they have to shell out gil to buy gear for their lower level job, but that's it. No extra character slot needed to change jobs.


Also, let's say that a player wants to complete a quest they've already done once, perhaps to see another outcome or get a different reward (assuming the game allows such things; I don't remember), but their level is too high or it's something a character can only do once. A second character would be really handy in that case.

True, there are some quests worth doing more than once... don't believe there are multiple rewards or outcomes for anything, though. But they're very few and far between and it's usually easier to just farm and buy what you want off the auction houe than to raise a new character to that level. Also, there's no such thing as being too high a level for a quest. If you're "too high a level", usually the game makes your job the correct level while you're doing it, usually meaning you'll have to buy lower level gear in game again, but that's it.



And then there's mules, which if you didn't know, are characters whose only purpose is to carry excess inventory from other characters who've exceeded whatever storage space they had available.

2 mules are more than you'll probably ever need in the game, and that would cost $15/month. What else costs $15/month?

I don't think you know enough about FFXI, Prak, to talk about it. :/




I played the game casually for about 1 year. This is including frustration breaks I took in between. If I remeber correctly
I stopped at level 18. And within this time I found a party (that
actually knew what they were doing) once. So 99% of my gameplay was solo. Fighting the same rabbits, sheep, orcs, and carrion worms, in the same 2 areas. I actually saw only 4 areas of a game that is soooo expansive. The game became extremely boring.

Woah, really?

I played for about a year and got multiple jobs to level 30, one to 35 or so, and explored almost every non-Promathia area to some extent.

I think you just weren't very good at it, which is probably why you enjoy WoW instead.

It's a fault of FFXI's that the beginning is the worst part for many, many reasons. If they gave it a chance, it just gets better with time, before dropping off and being terrible.

It's the same progression WoW has, just spread out more - kinda fun at first, then gets really fun, then sucks shit.



Fuck, if you can't take 10 minutes to reroll your character to get the server you want then you probably don't have the patience to play an MMO. It's a pain in the ass, yeah, and it should just be pickable, but with such a ridiculously easy workaround it's not a valid complaint.
For the record, it took me ~1 minute of rerolling my character three times to get the server I wanted. My other friends took between 5-15 minutes because they weren't as lucky. It's a simple solution.



Nope. Characters all are the same except minor stat differences between races.
Maybe you're thinking about jobs, but one character can be every single job.



Nope, they have to shell out gil to buy gear for their lower level job, but that's it. No extra character slot needed to change jobs.



True, there are some quests worth doing more than once... don't believe there are multiple rewards or outcomes for anything, though. But they're very few and far between and it's usually easier to just farm and buy what you want off the auction houe than to raise a new character to that level. Also, there's no such thing as being too high a level for a quest. If you're "too high a level", usually the game makes your job the correct level while you're doing it, usually meaning you'll have to buy lower level gear in game again, but that's it.




2 mules are more than you'll probably ever need in the game, and that would cost $15/month. What else costs $15/month?

I don't think you know enough about FFXI, Prak, to talk about it. :/





Woah, really?

I played for about a year and got multiple jobs to level 30, one to 35 or so, and explored almost every non-Promathia area to some extent.

I think you just weren't very good at it, which is probably why you enjoy WoW instead.

Why should I have to reroll my character? Why not skip that and just have you pick a server. I mean I am paying to play right?

Read the post again. I played for about a year "CASUALLY". While taking breaks. These breaks are months at a time. What you have to understand is FF11 isnt difficult because of the quests or enemies. Its not that one lacks skill to be good at it. It requires patience because the game is really, realy tedious. Tedious for no reason at all. Bad design choices lead to this.

The progression in Wow Is totally different compared to FF11. WoW progression is much quicker and less tedious. The game is more accessible. Anyone who has played the 2 should be able to tell you the same.

Why should I have to reroll my character? Why not skip that and just have you pick a server. I mean I am paying to play right?

I didn't say it's not a pain in the ass. However, it is so easy to create your character, exit out, log back in and see what server he's on, then rinse and repeat until you get the right one - I don't think it's a huge issue. It's an improvement that should be made, yes, but the game has faaaar worse problems than that.


Read the post again. I played for about a year "CASUALLY". While taking breaks. These breaks are months at a time. What you have to understand is FF11 isnt difficult because of the quests or enemies. Its not that one lacks skill to be good at it. It requires patience because the game is really, realy tedious. Tedious for no reason at all. Bad design choices lead to this.

All MMORPS are really, really tedious.


The progression in Wow Is totally different compared to FF11. WoW progression is much quicker and less tedious. The game is more accessible. Anyone who has played the 2 should be able to tell you the same.

I'd rather play FFXI at level 50 than play WoW end game. WoW end game is not accesible at all, it's boring as shit, and makes me want to take a revolver to my head and just end it. Luckily, I just quit instead.

WoW's progression is incredibley tedious, it just tries to hide it with quests which really are just pointing you in directions of where to grind for hours on end. FFXI skips that shit and says "Fuck, we're not going to put up a facade like some pansies, this is the game and that's it". Grinding at high levels in WoW is so tedious that I was alt+tabbing out to read forums and stuff instead of watching the game because it is so fucking boring.
At least in FFXI you have to be active to level.

I didn't say it's not a pain in the ass. However, it is so easy to create your character, exit out, log back in and see what server he's on, then rinse and repeat until you get the right one - I don't think it's a huge issue. It's an improvement that should be made, yes, but the game has faaaar worse problems than that.



All MMORPS are really, really tedious.



I'd rather play FFXI at level 50 than play WoW end game. WoW end game is not accesible at all, it's boring as shit, and makes me want to take a revolver to my head and just end it. Luckily, I just quit instead.

WoW's progression is incredibley tedious, it just tries to hide it with quests which really are just pointing you in directions of where to grind for hours on end. FFXI skips that shit and says "Fuck, we're not going to put up a facade like some pansies, this is the game and that's it". Grinding at high levels in WoW is so tedious that I was alt+tabbing out to read forums and stuff instead of watching the game because it is so fucking boring.
At least in FFXI you have to be active to level.

Some people would argue that WoWs end game is where the game really begins. I disagree totally. When I hit 60 I barely touched the game. My friends and guild members ran instances all the time for better armor and shit. I wasnt into that. But level 1-59 isnt tedious at all. Most quests in wow are good enough to solo. If you want to party up it makes the questing faster and makes it much easier to level. The good thing about questing in wow is that you get exp for finishing the quests. You also get money and equipment' so its worth the bother. In FF11, exp comes from just fighting sheep after sheep. GRINDING!!!!!!!!!

In wow, I think lvls 61-70 takes a long time. Ive seen people do it in a week. Ive also seen people go from 1-70 in 2 weeks. Dont ask me how, but they do it lol. Leveling in WoW is much faster than FF11.

Fuck, if you can't take 10 minutes to reroll your character to get the server you want then you probably don't have the patience to play an MMO. It's a pain in the ass, yeah, and it should just be pickable, but with such a ridiculously easy workaround it's not a valid complaint.
For the record, it took me ~1 minute of rerolling my character three times to get the server I wanted. My other friends took between 5-15 minutes because they weren't as lucky. It's a simple solution.

I was unaware that it was a viable option. It still sucks ass and is a bad design decision.


Nope. Characters all are the same except minor stat differences between races.
Maybe you're thinking about jobs, but one character can be every single job.

From this point on, you were under a dire misconception. I was not addressing the issue of multiple characters in FFXI alone. I was speaking in very general terms about basic MMORPG design in context with the post I was answering. Therefore, I will not reply further.

I didn't say it's not a pain in the ass. However, it is so easy to create your character, exit out, log back in and see what server he's on, then rinse and repeat until you get the right one - I don't think it's a huge issue. It's an improvement that should be made, yes, but the game has faaaar worse problems than that.



All MMORPS are really, really tedious.



I'd rather play FFXI at level 50 than play WoW end game. WoW end game is not accesible at all, it's boring as shit, and makes me want to take a revolver to my head and just end it. Luckily, I just quit instead.

WoW's progression is incredibley tedious, it just tries to hide it with quests which really are just pointing you in directions of where to grind for hours on end. FFXI skips that shit and says "Fuck, we're not going to put up a facade like some pansies, this is the game and that's it". Grinding at high levels in WoW is so tedious that I was alt+tabbing out to read forums and stuff instead of watching the game because it is so fucking boring.
At least in FFXI you have to be active to level.

So, what you're saying is that you rather have genital herpes than a urethral infection?

Post by Prak:
3. There's a damn good reason to want more characters. Different characters can have different skills and access different areas according to their levels. If a new player joins and wants to play with a friend whose character is a high level, then the veteran has to shell out for a new character slot in order to join up with his/her friend. Also, let's say that a player wants to complete a quest they've already done once, perhaps to see another outcome or get a different reward (assuming the game allows such things; I don't remember), but their level is too high or it's something a character can only do once. A second character would be really handy in that case. And then there's mules, which if you didn't know, are characters whose only purpose is to carry excess inventory from other characters who've exceeded whatever storage space they had available.
Erm, I dont know about you, but I dont know anyone nor have I heard of anyone that has all jobs at level 75, thus no need to create a second character for the purpose of levelling. FFXI is not a game like Diablo2 where you have one job per character, you can switch jobs at any time. Also you dont generally get different rewards for low level quests, they arent even worth doing for the gil. The only exception I can think of are the Drain, Aspir and (now defunct) Warp scroll quests, which you could have done on your mule anyway. Each character is given a mog safe with 30 something inventory and their own inventory with 30 spaces to begin with, theres barely any need for more then 1 mule unless you keep absolutely everything you buy levelling other jobs. Besides, the difference between races isnt even noticable untill the higher levels and I doubt you're going to level each race to 75.



By Joan-Michele
I laughed at this, what's the difference? Games are supposed to be constantly engaging and interesting. Games which are that tedious are synonymous with boring. You may say the the game is very expansive, yes it is, but it is also just as horribly watered down. Anyone would be bored half to death if they have to suffer doing the same thing for one month straight before the game even picks up.
Laugh if you want, I don't consider it watered down at all, if you're going to put the time in to play this game you get use to the time sinks. It can take less then a month, it can take half a year, it depends on how much time you put into the game, and it would suprise you just how much time many people who play these games have.


By iceberl235
I remember when ff11 was being promoted, the big thing was community.
Isn't the best way to play an MMO with family and people you know
personally? I can easily go get a world pass but why? Really think
about it. At the start of the game you should be able to pick a server. Its
just that simple. I think if that were the case I would have played the
game a lot longer. I played the game casually for about 1 year. This is
including frustration breaks I took in between. If I remeber correctly
I stopped at level 18. And within this time I found a party (that
actually knew what they were doing) once. So 99% of my gameplay was solo. Fighting the same rabbits, sheep, orcs, and carrion worms, in the same 2 areas. I actually saw only 4 areas of a game that is soooo expansive. The game became extremely boring.
Wait a minute, so first of you're questioning why you should buy a worldpass then the next minute you're complaining that you can't pick worlds? If you could pick worlds it would be extrememly dis-proportionate eventually. Not many people go into this game knowing others, they go in on their own and make friends so it shouldnt matter what server they go on, if they want friends to join, they can fork out the 5k or so gil for a worldpass.

You only got to level 18 and it took a year, did you even play the game often? The Valkurm Dunes are notorious for bad parties so that shouldnt put you off the game when you uncovered maybe 2% of the total game, and thats not even including end game stuff.

How seriously would you take me if I bought WoW, played to level 10 then said "this game is too fast/boring/slow/anything you can think of" and quit, thinking the rest of the game was like that? You wouldn't take me seriously at all. You keep comparing high level WoW to low level FFXI, and its just a farse.

Comparing the start of FFXI to the mid and higher of FFXI is like comparing cheese on toast to a steak dinner.

Besides, the difference between races isnt even noticable untill the higher levels and I doubt you're going to level each race to 75.

That's when it's least noticable, unless things have drastically changed since I quit. ?_?

Erm, I dont know about you, but I dont know anyone nor have I heard of anyone that has all jobs at level 75, thus no need to create a second character for the purpose of levelling. FFXI is not a game like Diablo2 where you have one job per character, you can switch jobs at any time. Also you dont generally get different rewards for low level quests, they arent even worth doing for the gil. The only exception I can think of are the Drain, Aspir and (now defunct) Warp scroll quests, which you could have done on your mule anyway. Each character is given a mog safe with 30 something inventory and their own inventory with 30 spaces to begin with, theres barely any need for more then 1 mule unless you keep absolutely everything you buy levelling other jobs. Besides, the difference between races isnt even noticable untill the higher levels and I doubt you're going to level each race to 75.

You made the same mistake 3 Musketeers did. Read my previous post.

Erm, I dont know about you, but I dont know anyone nor have I heard of anyone that has all jobs at level 75, thus no need to create a second character for the purpose of levelling. FFXI is not a game like Diablo2 where you have one job per character, you can switch jobs at any time. Also you dont generally get different rewards for low level quests, they arent even worth doing for the gil. The only exception I can think of are the Drain, Aspir and (now defunct) Warp scroll quests, which you could have done on your mule anyway. Each character is given a mog safe with 30 something inventory and their own inventory with 30 spaces to begin with, theres barely any need for more then 1 mule unless you keep absolutely everything you buy levelling other jobs. Besides, the difference between races isnt even noticable untill the higher levels and I doubt you're going to level each race to 75.



Laugh if you want, I don't consider it watered down at all, if you're going to put the time in to play this game you get use to the time sinks. It can take less then a month, it can take half a year, it depends on how much time you put into the game, and it would suprise you just how much time many people who play these games have.


Wait a minute, so first of you're questioning why you should buy a worldpass then the next minute you're complaining that you can't pick worlds? If you could pick worlds it would be extrememly dis-proportionate eventually. Not many people go into this game knowing others, they go in on their own and make friends so it shouldnt matter what server they go on, if they want friends to join, they can fork out the 5k or so gil for a worldpass.

You only got to level 18 and it took a year, did you even play the game often? The Valkurm Dunes are notorious for bad parties so that shouldnt put you off the game when you uncovered maybe 2% of the total game, and thats not even including end game stuff.

How seriously would you take me if I bought WoW, played to level 10 then said "this game is too fast/boring/slow/anything you can think of" and quit, thinking the rest of the game was like that? You wouldn't take me seriously at all. You keep comparing high level WoW to low level FFXI, and its just a farse.

Comparing the start of FFXI to the mid and higher of FFXI is like comparing cheese on toast to a steak dinner.


Its funny cause I asked many people wheres the best for a low level to get exp from and Im always told the dunes. I wish I could have seen more than 2% of the game. The game just doesnt allow you to. I always seem to be interested in this game. I canceled my account and around the time the last expansion came out I decided to play it again and try to level to get more out of it. I just couldnt do it. Why should I have to rely on a party to get every bit of exp? The thing I love about wow is they have quests designed just for grouping and the majority of the missions are very solo friendly. Most of the quests I've done have been on my own.

I wouldnt take you too seriously if you played wow to level 10 and quit. You know why? That can easily be accomplished in roughly 1hr 30 mins- 3 hours. In those 3 hours, I can see more of azeroth than I could see of vanadiel in FF11.

No, you dont allow yourself to. I've seen plenty because I bothered playing the game further then the valkurm dunes.

Why shouldn't you rely on a party? Its a party orientated game, each job has strengthes and weakness's that come toghether in a party and works out nicely. If you want to solo, thats what the beastmaster job is for.

Wow may be solo friendly, and thats the last thing I personally want in an online rpg. I dont play so I can solo things, I play so I can play with my friends and help/get helped, if you like to solo through games then maybe some of the previous offline Final Fantasies might suit your taste.

How long does it take to allow yourself? I played till level 18 and I couldnt get to any new area without enemies ripping me a new asshole.

I can understand what you mean about MMOs being about grouping but with wow you atleast have an option to tackle quests alone. Theres a mixture of group missions and solo missions. Atleast that option is given to the player. Start quests in FF11 are easy to solo but after that, your pretty much stuck partying. Plus you get into a party that someone doesnt know what they fuck they are doing and you lose xp because of some idiot. That really sucks.

I want to able to play solo sometimes cause I do pay for my account. I dont want to have to rely on other players to get my moneys worth. Sure group quests can be fun and Ive done plenty in wow. But if my friends or guild members arent online, I can atleast tackle quests alone. Its more accesible.

1. How can you judge a game from one month of playing when the game is absolutely HUGE?


True. I've been playing FFXI now for over two years and I still haven't been to all the areas, but I've had a lot of fun. I've logged about 235 days of actual play time, last time I checked, and I don't stay logged in unless I'm actually playing, save for running to the kitchen to shove a pizza in the oven or something.

I like FFXI because you get all the same life experiences, virtually speaking, as you would in real life. Fun, excitement, boredom, anger, frustration, laughter, maybe even a tear or two. People talk about how long it takes to level. Yes, it does take a long time. But for me, that just makes each level more of a prize -- more of an accomplishment to be proud of. At the same time, that also makes Square Enix another $27.95 a month from me (I have 15 mules). Good business model. lol

Some people would argue that WoWs end game is where the game really begins. I disagree totally. When I hit 60 I barely touched the game. My friends and guild members ran instances all the time for better armor and shit. I wasnt into that. But level 1-59 isnt tedious at all. Most quests in wow are good enough to solo. If you want to party up it makes the questing faster and makes it much easier to level. The good thing about questing in wow is that you get exp for finishing the quests. You also get money and equipment' so its worth the bother. In FF11, exp comes from just fighting sheep after sheep. GRINDING!!!!!!!!!

I can't play WoW. The visuals were okay, but the locomotion gave me motion sickness. I like to play in the first-person view, and the character movement is unrealistically fast. All I had to do was tap the "move forward" button and I was all the way up a flight of stairs, for example. Plus, when we, as humans, take off running, we are first stopped, then we accelerate, then we run. When we stop, we first decelerate, then stop. But in World of Warcraft, you're either dead still or full speed. There is nothing in between. That kind of jerky motion also contributed to my motion sickness. Also contributing was the same behavior when you pivot left and right. You're either facing north, or you're spinning like a top... nothing in between. Barf all over my screen. I could only play WoW for about 2 hours, and then I had to go lay across the bed for four hours to recover from the motion sickness. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, doesn't give me motion sickness because character motions are more realistic. You stand still, accelerate to a run, then you run at a steady speed that's relative to your environment. When you stop, you decelerate first, THEN stop. When you turn left, your turn also accelerates and decelerates.

Hmmm... more specifically, this seems to be Simulation Sickness. lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_sickness

Maybe it would help if I bobbed my head up and down while I play WoW. But since I can play Final Fantasy XI for 16 hours on end with no ill effects, and I can't play WoW for more than 2 hours without feeling like squirting grits, then I think some research should be done by game companies to determine what in their animation engines causes simulation sickness so more people can enjoy the game.

I can't play WoW. The visuals were okay, but the locomotion gave me motion sickness. I like to play in the first-person view, and the character movement is unrealistically fast. All I had to do was tap the "move forward" button and I was all the way up a flight of stairs, for example. Plus, when we, as humans, take off running, we are first stopped, then we accelerate, then we run. When we stop, we first decelerate, then stop. But in World of Warcraft, you're either dead still or full speed. There is nothing in between. That kind of jerky motion also contributed to my motion sickness. Also contributing was the same behavior when you pivot left and right. You're either facing north, or you're spinning like a top... nothing in between. Barf all over my screen. I could only play WoW for about 2 hours, and then I had to go lay across the bed for four hours to recover from the motion sickness. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, doesn't give me motion sickness because character motions are more realistic. You stand still, accelerate to a run, then you run at a steady speed that's relative to your environment. When you stop, you decelerate first, THEN stop. When you turn left, your turn also accelerates and decelerates.

Hmmm... more specifically, this seems to be Simulation Sickness. lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_sickness

Maybe it would help if I bobbed my head up and down while I play WoW. But since I can play Final Fantasy XI for 16 hours on end with no ill effects, and I can't play WoW for more than 2 hours without feeling like squirting grits, then I think some research should be done by game companies to determine what in their animation engines causes simulation sickness so more people can enjoy the game.

Hmmm, thats the first time Ive ever heard that complaint lol.

How long does it take to allow yourself? I played till level 18 and I couldnt get to any new area without enemies ripping me a new asshole.

I can understand what you mean about MMOs being about grouping but with wow you atleast have an option to tackle quests alone. Theres a mixture of group missions and solo missions. Atleast that option is given to the player. Start quests in FF11 are easy to solo but after that, your pretty much stuck partying. Plus you get into a party that someone doesnt know what they fuck they are doing and you lose xp because of some idiot. That really sucks.

I want to able to play solo sometimes cause I do pay for my account. I dont want to have to rely on other players to get my moneys worth. Sure group quests can be fun and Ive done plenty in wow. But if my friends or guild members arent online, I can atleast tackle quests alone. Its more accesible.

Play as a Beastmaster, then.
You can solo, you can party, you can do whatever you want.

Play as a Beastmaster, then.
You can solo, you can party, you can do whatever you want.

Im not interested in the job. Should be able to have the option to solo and not rely on a party all of the time.

You're not even a FF fan are you?

You're not even a FF fan are you?

who?

How long does it take to allow yourself? I played till level 18 and I couldnt get to any new area without enemies ripping me a new asshole.

I can understand what you mean about MMOs being about grouping but with wow you atleast have an option to tackle quests alone. Theres a mixture of group missions and solo missions. Atleast that option is given to the player. Start quests in FF11 are easy to solo but after that, your pretty much stuck partying. Plus you get into a party that someone doesnt know what they fuck they are doing and you lose xp because of some idiot. That really sucks.

I want to able to play solo sometimes cause I do pay for my account. I dont want to have to rely on other players to get my moneys worth. Sure group quests can be fun and Ive done plenty in wow. But if my friends or guild members arent online, I can atleast tackle quests alone. Its more accesible.
After Lv20 and you make your way to Jeuno the game starts to open up, you join linkshells, you make friends, if you havent already, and you start going to new areas. Its not very hard to find your way to Jeuno if you're careful and there are many high level players that would be more then happy to bring you there, thats how I got it. The game relies on help from other people and in turn they will rely on your help in the future when you're high enough. Thats the way I see it. It doesnt mean you rely on them for money and equipment, you do that yourself. Things like artifact armour which cant be bought arent soloable and with good reason.

As far as partying with idiots, that stops around level 20 aswell when people get to know the game, I personally party with people I know going through the dunes or solo and keep the beastmen's seals for myself to make some cash.

It's not a perfect game, far from it to be honest and there's loads I'd want to change, there are times I just can't be bothered with it like getting frustrated at guild stores being closed when I need them, trying to get help with missions (currently trying to get sky) or people whinging at each other in linkshells and I just close the game and do something else. Thats part of the game though and if I can't get frustrated or annoyed at it then its not a challenge thus not worth playing in the first place.

After Lv20 and you make your way to Jeuno the game starts to open up, you join linkshells, you make friends, if you havent already, and you start going to new areas. Its not very hard to find your way to Jeuno if you're careful and there are many high level players that would be more then happy to bring you there, thats how I got it. The game relies on help from other people and in turn they will rely on your help in the future when you're high enough. Thats the way I see it. It doesnt mean you rely on them for money and equipment, you do that yourself. Things like artifact armour which cant be bought arent soloable and with good reason.

As far as partying with idiots, that stops around level 20 aswell when people get to know the game, I personally party with people I know going through the dunes or solo and keep the beastmen's seals for myself to make some cash.

It's not a perfect game, far from it to be honest and there's loads I'd want to change, there are times I just can't be bothered with it like getting frustrated at guild stores being closed when I need them, trying to get help with missions (currently trying to get sky) or people whinging at each other in linkshells and I just close the game and do something else. Thats part of the game though and if I can't get frustrated or annoyed at it then its not a challenge thus not worth playing in the first place.


I know the game takes off at lvl 20. The thing is for me that takes too long to get to that point. For eveyone it can be a different experience. My friend played it. When he bought the game his girlfriend was lvl 60 or around there. She tok him to the dunes and power leveled him. He leveled really fast. For him the game was cool. Of course he stopped and got back onto warcraft lol.

I really wanted to enjoy FF11. I read about the game before it was released for the ps2 on a ps magazine. It was like a 10 page blowout on the game. I was really interested. I got into it but like I said, the game (to me atleast) was really tedious, and sometimes boring.

To this day i sometimes think about reactivating my account, but I think of the tedious aspect of the game and I log onto to WoW. If square does another MMO I will, without a doubt, try it out again. Hopefully it can be much better than FF11.

I should probably mention the new update is allowing players to chose their world now.

Im not interested in the job. Should be able to have the option to solo and not rely on a party all of the time.

You do have the option; you're just not interested in it.

Also, multiple jobs can solo up to at least 20.

I should probably mention the new update is allowing players to chose their world now.

If you're talking about Final Fantasy, I don't think you'll be able to take an existing character to a new world. I think the update will just allow people to choose the server they want to be on when they create a new character. I can't imagine Square-Enix allowing people to change servers at will with existing characters since each server has its own economy. They'd claim that such an ability would unbalance each world because people would be able to farm on one server, sell on another, and buy things on one server to sell on another.

They do mass-migrations every now and again where you can apply to a new world, theyll probably do one soon.

You do have the option; you're just not interested in it.

Also, multiple jobs can solo up to at least 20.

But soloing to 20 takes long. Thats the problem that I had. I wanted a sub job. I wanted all the perks for being 20, just took way too long.

It doesn't really. you just need to solo in the right places.

It doesn't really. you just need to solo in the right places.

So If I decided to play again, what place should I solo. I tried San doria, la thien plateau and the dunes....also the kings tomb and I forgot the orc territory. What would you recommend?

So If I decided to play again, what place should I solo. I tried San doria, la thien plateau and the dunes....also the kings tomb and I forgot the orc territory. What would you recommend?

It kind of depends on your style and whether you can make potions with alchemy. When I level my low-level (1-12) jobs, I keep stacks and stacks of dried sage and lizard tails, along with a water tank. I make my own potions. I never start a fight without at least three potions made. Once I get down to 3, I make more until I'm at 60/60 again. Like that, I fight even match or tough monsters and I level pretty quickly. But without potions, once I get beyond Lv.4 I mostly fight easy prey. I find that it makes for faster leveling to run around and kill three or four easy preys, then rest, than to kill one even match or tough and have to rest between every fight. Once I get into the teens, the same applies. It goes remarkably fast if you run psychotically from one monster to the next. Keep a bow and arrow or some kind of ranged attack gear on you. Spin around and keep a watch on nearby mobs. Once you've nearly got the current monster dead, go ahead and range another nearby monster and try to keep it on your screen so your character will auto-target it next, avoiding the annoying delays between fights. Experience builds surprisingly fast using this method. If there are no monsters nearby, you can unlock from your current mob and let it chase you to where some more monsters are.

IMHO,
Windblade

It kind of depends on your style and whether you can make potions with alchemy. When I level my low-level (1-12) jobs, I keep stacks and stacks of dried sage and lizard tails, along with a water tank. I make my own potions. I never start a fight without at least three potions made. Once I get down to 3, I make more until I'm at 60/60 again. Like that, I fight even match or tough monsters and I level pretty quickly. But without potions, once I get beyond Lv.4 I mostly fight easy prey. I find that it makes for faster leveling to run around and kill three or four easy preys, then rest, than to kill one even match or tough and have to rest between every fight. Once I get into the teens, the same applies. It goes remarkably fast if you run psychotically from one monster to the next. Keep a bow and arrow or some kind of ranged attack gear on you. Spin around and keep a watch on nearby mobs. Once you've nearly got the current monster dead, go ahead and range another nearby monster and try to keep it on your screen so your character will auto-target it next, avoiding the annoying delays between fights. Experience builds surprisingly fast using this method. If there are no monsters nearby, you can unlock from your current mob and let it chase you to where some more monsters are.

IMHO,
Windblade

I didnt have any potions and I would just grind. Id fight even matches and less. Sometimes Id beat and even match and sometimes it would just kick my ass. I felt that was a little retarded. Id rather see the monster's actual level then seeing even match or decent challenge.

You people DO know that as of recent, you can pick your own servers right? So that's not an issue anymore. Also, there is absolutely no need for an extra character in FFXI, since every race can play any combination of jobs they want. At later levels, race choice doesn't even affect your performance anymore(never really does to be honest). On the subject of soloing, Beastmasters are NOT the only jobs that can solo, you just need the right combos(Red Mage and Ninja is one example), and it's doable. The only thing is, this game was designed around team play, and that's where it's the most fun.

In comparison to WoW, it is not as accessible, for sure. Leveling is slow, VERY slow at later levels. You will always get about 100-200exp per kill, even when you need 30,000exp or so to level, and every fight can take 1-2 minutes to finish, and people usually only fight one mob at a time. But, the actual fighting never felt like grinding to me. Why? Because it's involving. In WoW, the game is almost on auto-pilot, requires little thought or effort to actually play, so it's no wonder so many people play it. FFXI is more for the hardcore gamer, the ones that have the time and effort to put into it. Fights don't boil down to going through your skills, you need to work together in order to succeed. Everything from doing Skillchains, magic burst, linking mobs together for higher exp, makes the game more exciting.

The only problem is that, the game takes too long to get rolling.This is a problem most people face. They are expecting to go in, do a few quests, get levels fast, and see a lot of things, FAST. It's not the case. The game starts when you get to level 20, have a subjob, and a chocobo license. You can then see a lot more, and you get introduced to deeper party mechanics. When you do, I find it hard to believe people can still go back to WoW and find it fun at all. People do, it just amazes me. I mean, the game is HUGE, so much larger then WoW, and you get to see much more impressive sights(at least in my opinion).

Another thing to talk about is end game. This game's end game is rich. WoW progress is a linear, keep questing and grinding, from one zone to the next, until you reach it's end game, which then backs you into a corner of PvP or raids. Thats it. There's nothing else to do in WoW at later/capped levels then that(or the whole game for that matter). In FFXI, the game truly opens up at the later levels. You get to do so many things, from meriting(let's you further improve your character, customizing him to whatever you want at level 75), to doing all kinds of events like Limbus, Dynamus, and the different missions, which assuming most of us here are actual FF fans, will enjoy all 8 different stories for quite an impressive considering it's an online game.

But, to answer the post, there are a few things that can be improved. Things like the running speed, and general time sinks which aren't needed. It IS a little too slow, and can take far too long to actually get from point A to B. Also, redesign the interface to show recast times and effect durations on the screen, and just in general be more friendly and require less menu navigation. And also, better PvP would be nice, because as it is, it's far too hard to actually get into a PvP match. Being able to challenge people into duels outside towns would be nice, but I wouldn't want any ganking in a game like this.

Over all, most people will only get into the game If they give it a serious chance. Yes, it takes a long time, so it's understandable if don't have the time, and the game can be a pain in the ass at times, but I honestly find myself hard-pressed to actually be able to be interested in less challenging MMOs.

Holy crap, Vagrant Story imagery... You sir, win this thread~

Anyway, yes, FFXI is a very team-oriented game. Even with the many 'solo-friendly' additions SE has made in the past couple of years, the near-necessity of party play remains very much in tact, and that is obviously quite intentional on their part. Forcing people together makes things tougher for everyone in the long run, and definitely isn't the best strategy for encouraging teamwork, and yet, the same situation is responsible for giving Vana'diel, on the whole, a very close-knit 'family' community. Double-edged sword, I guess.

As for improvements, I think it's about time the average non-crafter could make some money. Many once lucrative activities including fishing, mining, chocobo digging (all specialties of Typo's at one point) among others, have been rendered pretty much useless, mainly due to RMT-deterring patches that actually punish the player-base at large as opposed to just the few bad apples. I simply don't know how brand new Average Joe is supposed to survive off the land and get by in this day and age...

I think an overhaul of the economic system and a way to make the game less time consuming to get anything done is really all you need to make it better.

Basically, a new game based off the same ideas. ;)

Everyone constantly complains "i want to solo" or "soloing is to hard" or "I die when playing alone". When i hear that, i think to myself, if you wanted to solo, why did you chose an MMO(Massive Multi-Player Online) Game? Sure, there are times you don't want to be bothered with a group, but for times like that, how about picking up a fishing rod, or browsing the AH for some goods, doing some running around in quests? There is certainly no shortage of content in this game, but as far as level progression, it's designed to be done with groups of people.

I played FFXI for 2 years. I picked it up after playing eq for ages, then eq2 for about 3 months. At first, i had a tough time getting started. The controls were weird. Very weird. Eventually a friend pointed out to me that i was trying to play it like eq, and not like a final fantasy. I picked up a usb ps2 controller, and boom, all of a sudden within minutes, the game is really feeling good as far as controls and UI go, movement is easier, it's really starting to look up.

The only reason i left ffxi was a nasty divorce, (please don't laugh)where my wife(who also played) somehow got my login, liquidated my gear, and took my gil while i was away on a work trip for a week, and i couldn't get on. About that time she took all my money, and i couldn't afford to eat, let alone pay for my game.

I work 70+hr a week, and i still found plenty of time to play. MMO's aren't for everyone. If you want a rich social life like some, where you go out, etc, you probably don't have the time to enjoy any MMO, let alone ffxi, which has more content than any other, thus more time involved. If your a shut-in like me, who doesn't enjoy social situations, parties, clubs, etc, you may enjoy these games more. If you meet someone who likes to go out all the time and party and dance and stuff, that will conflict with the game, and we all have our priorities. My wife decided she wanted a life, and wanted me to as well. I don't play that way, so it ended as it did.

The leveling progression is very simple, and ingeniously designed. The first 10 levels are for you to get comfortable with your job, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, with little distractions. For that reason, they're solo levels. 11-20 is dominantly designed to help you figure out how to play your job in a group, where you discover your role, who you support, and what to do in different situations.

21-25 you get to explore a bit, you make your first trip to Jeuno, and after that, a couple levels in a place close to town is generally what your after. Once you finish there you want to start discovering other areas and aspects of the world, such as travel options(airship), and the beautiful lush and tropical land of Kazham. By the time you leave there, you travel to an array of different locations of varying difficulty and location, attempting to master your job in a group environment. Typically this will put you around level 50. Assuming you've been keeping up with missions and other things of that nature you should have your airship pass, and traveling relatively easily throughout the world. At 50, a new leaf turns as you start to attempt your job specific gear and greater spells/abilities. This keeps you busy for another 10 levels or so, and it's time to grind in higher-paced and much more dangerous than before areas. Before you know it, you have excellent gear, and are(hopefully) a master of your job in most every situation, and it's time to experience end-game content. The fun never ends.

In addition to the progression, which is incredible, better than any game I've seen thus far, if by chance you get bored at all, you can EASILY switch to another job at a lower level to experience new/different things, or try a craft, there are many and they're exciting, explore, do fame quests to enhance recognition, etc. As you level, you don't just level, else you will find yourself bored, because there's no enhancements. You didn't do the gobbie bag quests, the mog house expansions, CoP missions, home town missions, etc, which take up almost as much time as leveling does. The game is not about grinding to 75, and anyone who thinks it is is rather narrow-minded. Look around the world, there's hundreds of things to do at any given time.

My divorce is settling out now, and after 8 months off, where I've had the opportunity to beta the new and upcoming MMO's, which all have the new features you all mostly want to see in FFXI, those are the reasons that i'm returning to ffxi. I'll be on carbuncle tonight, and level 10 before i go to sleep, only 4 hours or so, from when I install the game from scratch and roll a new character.

In short, I wouldn't change anything about gameplay, unless it meant re-introducing leaping boots and emporer's hairpin, as the rare/ex versions you can't sell once your done with them, but doing that contributes to the RMT issue which they've made extreme progress in.

Everyone constantly complains "i want to solo" or "soloing is to hard" or "I die when playing alone". When i hear that, i think to myself, if you wanted to solo, why did you chose an MMO(Massive Multi-Player Online) Game? Sure, there are times you don't want to be bothered with a group, but for times like that, how about picking up a fishing rod, or browsing the AH for some goods, doing some running around in quests? There is certainly no shortage of content in this game, but as far as level progression, it's designed to be done with groups of people.

I played FFXI for 2 years. I picked it up after playing eq for ages, then eq2 for about 3 months. At first, i had a tough time getting started. The controls were weird. Very weird. Eventually a friend pointed out to me that i was trying to play it like eq, and not like a final fantasy. I picked up a usb ps2 controller, and boom, all of a sudden within minutes, the game is really feeling good as far as controls and UI go, movement is easier, it's really starting to look up.

The only reason i left ffxi was a nasty divorce, (please don't laugh)where my wife(who also played) somehow got my login, liquidated my gear, and took my gil while i was away on a work trip for a week, and i couldn't get on. About that time she took all my money, and i couldn't afford to eat, let alone pay for my game.

I work 70+hr a week, and i still found plenty of time to play. MMO's aren't for everyone. If you want a rich social life like some, where you go out, etc, you probably don't have the time to enjoy any MMO, let alone ffxi, which has more content than any other, thus more time involved. If your a shut-in like me, who doesn't enjoy social situations, parties, clubs, etc, you may enjoy these games more. If you meet someone who likes to go out all the time and party and dance and stuff, that will conflict with the game, and we all have our priorities. My wife decided she wanted a life, and wanted me to as well. I don't play that way, so it ended as it did.

The leveling progression is very simple, and ingeniously designed. The first 10 levels are for you to get comfortable with your job, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, with little distractions. For that reason, they're solo levels. 11-20 is dominantly designed to help you figure out how to play your job in a group, where you discover your role, who you support, and what to do in different situations.

21-25 you get to explore a bit, you make your first trip to Jeuno, and after that, a couple levels in a place close to town is generally what your after. Once you finish there you want to start discovering other areas and aspects of the world, such as travel options(airship), and the beautiful lush and tropical land of Kazham. By the time you leave there, you travel to an array of different locations of varying difficulty and location, attempting to master your job in a group environment. Typically this will put you around level 50. Assuming you've been keeping up with missions and other things of that nature you should have your airship pass, and traveling relatively easily throughout the world. At 50, a new leaf turns as you start to attempt your job specific gear and greater spells/abilities. This keeps you busy for another 10 levels or so, and it's time to grind in higher-paced and much more dangerous than before areas. Before you know it, you have excellent gear, and are(hopefully) a master of your job in most every situation, and it's time to experience end-game content. The fun never ends.

In addition to the progression, which is incredible, better than any game I've seen thus far, if by chance you get bored at all, you can EASILY switch to another job at a lower level to experience new/different things, or try a craft, there are many and they're exciting, explore, do fame quests to enhance recognition, etc. As you level, you don't just level, else you will find yourself bored, because there's no enhancements. You didn't do the gobbie bag quests, the mog house expansions, CoP missions, home town missions, etc, which take up almost as much time as leveling does. The game is not about grinding to 75, and anyone who thinks it is is rather narrow-minded. Look around the world, there's hundreds of things to do at any given time.

My divorce is settling out now, and after 8 months off, where I've had the opportunity to beta the new and upcoming MMO's, which all have the new features you all mostly want to see in FFXI, those are the reasons that i'm returning to ffxi. I'll be on carbuncle tonight, and level 10 before i go to sleep, only 4 hours or so, from when I install the game from scratch and roll a new character.

Im not saying I want to solo only. From my experience it was either hard to find a group, or hard to find a group that knew what they were doing. In that case, it should be more accesible to someone who wants to solo a bit. Having to rely on a party for most of the time doesnt make too much sense to me.

But you only have to rely on a party to group or gain experience points. Set lfg and get to doing something else, like crafting or quests, something that you can start and stop at will, that's what i do.

I understand the frustration though. It happened to me for a while too, being taru nin and all(no love for the taru's :( ) and same for blm from time to time. Fishing is great, going after lu shang's rod via 10k carp quest can at least make it so you don't feel like your wasting your time.

But you only have to rely on a party to group or gain experience points. Set lfg and get to doing something else, like crafting or quests, something that you can start and stop at will, that's what i do.

I understand the frustration though. It happened to me for a while too, being taru nin and all(no love for the taru's :( ) and same for blm from time to time. Fishing is great, going after lu shang's rod via 10k carp quest can at least make it so you don't feel like your wasting your time.


But leveling is a huge part of the game. Any rpg for that matter. I want to be able to log on level up and feel like I've done something. Im not into fishing. Even in wow Im level 69 and i barely touched fishing at all. Its not why I play a game like FF11.

I can understand where your coming from, especially with fishing, that's sort of a touch and go subject, many don't like it. I didn't hit 10 last night like i planned, mainly due to the fact that i remade my character 3 times. First shot i didn't like the hair, second i named myself wrong, and third i started in the wrong area. It's harder than i remember, taru whm with no SJ and no gil... but I'm getting along, sold some ore and such so i have about 3k to play with to get a bigger beating stick :). I forgot signet for like the first 5 levels too, i felt so retarded when i realized it.

I can understand where your coming from, especially with fishing, that's sort of a touch and go subject, many don't like it. I didn't hit 10 last night like i planned, mainly due to the fact that i remade my character 3 times. First shot i didn't like the hair, second i named myself wrong, and third i started in the wrong area. It's harder than i remember, taru whm with no SJ and no gil... but I'm getting along, sold some ore and such so i have about 3k to play with to get a bigger beating stick :). I forgot signet for like the first 5 levels too, i felt so retarded when i realized it.

With wow now I have no time for ff11 lol. Im lvl 69 and a half. Ive been playing that game way too much.

But you only have to rely on a party to group or gain experience points. Set lfg and get to doing something else, like crafting or quests, something that you can start and stop at will, that's what i do.

I understand the frustration though. It happened to me for a while too, being taru nin and all(no love for the taru's :( ) and same for blm from time to time. Fishing is great, going after lu shang's rod via 10k carp quest can at least make it so you don't feel like your wasting your time.

Or, instead of sitting there like a vegetable waiting for a party invite, or doing some of the more mundane activities in the game while LFP, you can opt to actually, you know, make your own party. As a DRK, there is no way I have the time to actually go on and sit there, waiting for a party. I need to go out and make my own. Again, if you want to just level fast and get to the cap in a few short weeks/months like in WoW, then yeah, FFXI is not for you.

I think the biggest problem with FF11 is the time consumption. You get far enough into the game and you're spending way too much time. When you get closer to end-game you have a lot of people who skip important real life events and start losing touch with reality.