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If SE were to make an FFXI-2, what would you want to see in it?
Assume that FFXI-2 is still set in Vana'diel, still the same five races, and still unfortunately being made by SE. Try to keep it to the three things you want to see most to keep the rest of us from going insane, but you can add more if you must.
1- Zoneless, but still with zones. Zoneless should go without saying in any reasonably modern MMO, but still give it zone lines and such. I'll explain-- Normally, when you zone from say, Ronfaure to La'Theine, you just see a loading screen, and then ==Area: La'Thiene==, etc, with zoneless there would be no loading screen, but there would be cutscenes the first time you zone into an area (somewhat like Kingdom Hearts, or even Super Smash Bros. Melee) showing the name in a stylized logo, and showing various parts of the area. This would make missions even cooler, in some ways. When you zone from one area to another, instead of being displayed in the text log, you would just have the area's logo appear over your character for a few seconds, kinda like how the RANK X logos work.
2- Interactive emotes. Have improved emotes, with either a blacklist or whitelist for who can use them. Say, add a /hug emote that would have two characters actually hug, but only if the receiving character has the character using the command on an emote whitelist (or even a whitelist on an emote by emote basis)-- this could also be done with a black list, with something like "<Character> wants to <emote> you. Whitelist or blacklist?" the first time they do it, so that they can't use it to harass other players. Make it for at least the following commands: /hug, /kiss (Given the amount of /huh-ing tarus we might as well), /glomp, /slap, /handshake, and more. Make different results for blacklisted characters and whitelisted characters, so that blacklisted emotes don't just disappear, like such:
blist: Chara tried to shake <t>'s hand, but <t> ignored her!
wlist: Chara and <t> shake hands.
It's this tiny sort of thing that can make a game much more realistic
3- Single world, story, and interactivity. This would be the hardest to implement, and would require a significant expanding of Vana'diel, although the lack of zones would make that easier. Anyone who has played EVE online knows what I'm talking about (and if you don't, I highly recommend you download it and take the free 14 day trial, don't even need to give up your CC info), it takes a gigantic world to do it, but having a single world and an interactive storyline is amazing like you would not believe. This would also give SE an excuse to build cities that are actually the size of cities and not small stripmalls, could you imagine a Jeuno with the bridges five times as wide, ten times longer (remember, no zoning now, so you can use the entire bridge), and actually being able to go inside the big round bit with all the houses? And having your own house in there that people can visit?
This would make Vana'diel a much bigger place, which would be a great reason to make chocobos truly as fast as they should be, instead of "oh btw thieves can outrun you lol".
A traditional storyline would suffer from having it done like EVE, which would why the main story would be something like a war, which would also give chances for great PVP and Conquest improvements, where your nation actually would control that land, and you'd be unwelcome outside your land-- or alternatively, something like EVE, where corps (LS) can take over land, but it doesn't really stop anyone else from passing through, just from doing certain actions on that land. This would be in addition to a housing system, so that those of us who are more calm would just have houses in Windurst or Bastok or Jeuno, whereas people that are more adventurous with their LS could build and control outposts in Xarcabard or Altepa, and while they'd have to fight off local beastmen (and other LS), they could use it for their homes, as well as selling services like food, Inns (what moghouses SHOULD be), homes for others, etc.
Sidequests would be more logical, instead of you (and all your friends) being sent on a single mission (where you already read a guide from a dozen other people that did it) for someone, your quest givers would have more logical reasons-- like instead of testing an 'improved tuning fork', you'd go there with an actual purpose off the advice of someone more experienced in your job to do what everyone is actually doing (getting the summon), somewhat in the same way Maat's quests actually make sense.
Basically, the point of this is to truly create a world with no boundaries, where everyone can meet, and everyone feels like an adventurer, even if they aren't saving the world by themselves anymore. Could you imagine a war between people and beastmen, where thousands of people gather in Saruta to fight beastmen off of Windurst, beseiged on a massive scale (but with a game engine that was designed to handle it beautifully?) -- or saving up hundreds of thousands of Gil, and buying your own Ferry and sailing the seas? Or even buying a private airship? Although it would again harm the main storyline, I'd much rather play an MMO set in Vana'diel than a rather nonsensical online-FF game, and Honestly having FFXI-2 just called "Vana'diel" would be great if you ask me. For the bit of saving-the-world plot I'd miss, the realism would more than make up for it.
Assume that FFXI-2 is still set in Vana'diel, still the same five races, and still unfortunately being made by SE. Try to keep it to the three things you want to see most to keep the rest of us from going insane, but you can add more if you must.
1- Zoneless, but still with zones. Zoneless should go without saying in any reasonably modern MMO, but still give it zone lines and such. I'll explain-- Normally, when you zone from say, Ronfaure to La'Theine, you just see a loading screen, and then ==Area: La'Thiene==, etc, with zoneless there would be no loading screen, but there would be cutscenes the first time you zone into an area (somewhat like Kingdom Hearts, or even Super Smash Bros. Melee) showing the name in a stylized logo, and showing various parts of the area. This would make missions even cooler, in some ways. When you zone from one area to another, instead of being displayed in the text log, you would just have the area's logo appear over your character for a few seconds, kinda like how the RANK X logos work.
2- Interactive emotes. Have improved emotes, with either a blacklist or whitelist for who can use them. Say, add a /hug emote that would have two characters actually hug, but only if the receiving character has the character using the command on an emote whitelist (or even a whitelist on an emote by emote basis)-- this could also be done with a black list, with something like "<Character> wants to <emote> you. Whitelist or blacklist?" the first time they do it, so that they can't use it to harass other players. Make it for at least the following commands: /hug, /kiss (Given the amount of /huh-ing tarus we might as well), /glomp, /slap, /handshake, and more. Make different results for blacklisted characters and whitelisted characters, so that blacklisted emotes don't just disappear, like such:
blist: Chara tried to shake <t>'s hand, but <t> ignored her!
wlist: Chara and <t> shake hands.
It's this tiny sort of thing that can make a game much more realistic
3- Single world, story, and interactivity. This would be the hardest to implement, and would require a significant expanding of Vana'diel, although the lack of zones would make that easier. Anyone who has played EVE online knows what I'm talking about (and if you don't, I highly recommend you download it and take the free 14 day trial, don't even need to give up your CC info), it takes a gigantic world to do it, but having a single world and an interactive storyline is amazing like you would not believe. This would also give SE an excuse to build cities that are actually the size of cities and not small stripmalls, could you imagine a Jeuno with the bridges five times as wide, ten times longer (remember, no zoning now, so you can use the entire bridge), and actually being able to go inside the big round bit with all the houses? And having your own house in there that people can visit?
This would make Vana'diel a much bigger place, which would be a great reason to make chocobos truly as fast as they should be, instead of "oh btw thieves can outrun you lol".
A traditional storyline would suffer from having it done like EVE, which would why the main story would be something like a war, which would also give chances for great PVP and Conquest improvements, where your nation actually would control that land, and you'd be unwelcome outside your land-- or alternatively, something like EVE, where corps (LS) can take over land, but it doesn't really stop anyone else from passing through, just from doing certain actions on that land. This would be in addition to a housing system, so that those of us who are more calm would just have houses in Windurst or Bastok or Jeuno, whereas people that are more adventurous with their LS could build and control outposts in Xarcabard or Altepa, and while they'd have to fight off local beastmen (and other LS), they could use it for their homes, as well as selling services like food, Inns (what moghouses SHOULD be), homes for others, etc.
Sidequests would be more logical, instead of you (and all your friends) being sent on a single mission (where you already read a guide from a dozen other people that did it) for someone, your quest givers would have more logical reasons-- like instead of testing an 'improved tuning fork', you'd go there with an actual purpose off the advice of someone more experienced in your job to do what everyone is actually doing (getting the summon), somewhat in the same way Maat's quests actually make sense.
Basically, the point of this is to truly create a world with no boundaries, where everyone can meet, and everyone feels like an adventurer, even if they aren't saving the world by themselves anymore. Could you imagine a war between people and beastmen, where thousands of people gather in Saruta to fight beastmen off of Windurst, beseiged on a massive scale (but with a game engine that was designed to handle it beautifully?) -- or saving up hundreds of thousands of Gil, and buying your own Ferry and sailing the seas? Or even buying a private airship? Although it would again harm the main storyline, I'd much rather play an MMO set in Vana'diel than a rather nonsensical online-FF game, and Honestly having FFXI-2 just called "Vana'diel" would be great if you ask me. For the bit of saving-the-world plot I'd miss, the realism would more than make up for it.
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