#dear se

Sent this just now:

Dear SE and development team,

I’d like to make a plea to you to please look into FFXIV Fishing a little bit more.

Currently we Fishers have tougher time than other Disciples of the Land. Not only that we cannot right out select what fish we wish to catch, like BTN and MIN select slot of the specific node, we do not own any offhand tool and thus our stats suck and, despite all the effort in donning up to boost Gathering rating, the tougher fish can, and will, escape. While BTN and MIN can spend 250 GP (for +50%) and perhaps 50 more GP (for +15% on top of that) to ensure 100% success rate, overgeared Fisher can still get “The fish got away.” message randomly.

While I am alright with these and see these challenges as an entertainment, there is other aspect of Fisher (or the lack thereof) that I am extremely unhappy with. The Folklore information on Fisher’s Fishing Log (or Fish Guide).

There is no way to tell, without going out of our way to farm 99 blue tokens to test it at the vendor, which tomes we have already acquired. Since the blue token cannot be exchanged for something else (as the other Blue scrips purchases are done by directly spending the Blue scrips) if now I have exchanged 99 blue scrips tokens, and find out that I actually have all the 3 tomes already, I am pretty much screwed. Because I would have 99 x 50 = 4,950 scrips that I can no longer spend anywhere in any way.

I know we can also check folklore we got by going to the folklore fishing spot to try to catch those legendary fish, and see if we could catch it or not. But this could take hours, because the target fish won’t always bite, and even if it bites, there is no guarantee that we could land it.

Unlike Botanist folklore page and Miner folklore page, we Fishers have no separated page for the folklore fish. The fish from folklore tome are put together, mixed, with other fish.

Please, I do not want you to pamper us and make fishing easier, but at least for user interface – the Fish Guide – please improve it regarding the Folklore information. Add a separated Folklore page, or make it possible to check, in a glance, which folklore we’ve already acquired and how many fish are in those pages (it can be blacked out like normal uncaught fish, that is fine), and, like BTN and MIN folklore item information in the Gathering Log, tell which map that fish is in.

Or, if that is unmanageable, please at least make us (everyone) able to trade Rowena’s Token (Blue scrips only, for both the gatherer and the crafter, if you’d please) back to Blue Scrips.

Dear SE, please give us new Partition solution,

Currently, we don't have many choices with Partitions. It is very limited. And most of the time, it does not match well or even go along with the Wallpaper (Interior Wall).

Would it be possible if you, for example, invent a new way for making a Partition. I would like to suggest that you add a new recipe "Custom Partition" in the game. If you want it to be challenging, you can make up a story of a side quest, introducing an excellent interior designer NPC who gives out the quest to unlock this special recipe. Recipe could be level 50 or 60 and is universal (available for any craft class, just like the dye pots).

After crafting this partition, adventurer can pair it up with an Interior Wall of their desire, and trade them both to the NPC, and he or she will merge them together to form a specific design of the "Custom Partition." It will become, for example, "Custom Partition: Wavy Interior Wall" which can be differentiate easily by players when they see the item. The item icon can, and should, show the pattern of the interior wall it is made of.

This can be yet another unlockable function, where players are required to finish some tasks to make the NPC available for the trading.

While you are at it, I would also like to suggest you to add more Interior Walls. Currently, there is no perfect wall to match with Oriental Partition. One of the latest additions of Interior Wall, Wavy Interior Wall DID look quite oriental, but the pattern is too cluttered and does not fit that well with Tatami Flooring. Even if I choose some of the currently "Orientalish" Partitions and Interior Wall that have wooden colour and design, the colours still don't go well with Oriental Partition, and makes the combination an ugly mismatch. An Oriental Interior Wall, Oriental Monochrome Interior Wall, Oriental Plain Interior Wall, for example, and perhaps a Bamboo Interior Wall, will be greatly appreciated.  

Best regards, A housing enthusiast.

Sending this through in-game suggestion. Should I also hop onto the official forum and post this? (OK, my reply is now on the official forum, inside a housing suggestion thread http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/134353-Housing-Ideas-and-Feature-Requests?p=3567027&viewfull=1#post3567027 )

Sent this letter to in-game support today:

Dear SE,

I strongly feel that fishers are being bullied badly by your current RNG system.

First off, I must let you know that fishing in FFXIV has always been my pleasure and I found it relaxing, that is until RNG seems to be remarkably working against fisher more than any other DoL classes. I've been stuck on Lucis quest for over 6 months because the spawn window for the token (Gigant Clam) is only 3 hours long, and they tend to escape A LOT. When I say A LOT, I mean on some nights I could hook 5 Clams and ALL of them would escape. That is 5 times in a row, at the rate of 100%. And even if I was lucky enough to reel it in, there is no guarantee that it would be the HQ clam.

Recently, I have upgraded my gear and I am now at 500 gathering, with food. So I went back to reattempt my Lucis quest again. The minimum gathering needed for this clam is 375. And guess what, I hooked 3 clams and lost all due to RNG deciding that my 500 gathering is not good enough to get any of the 3 clams. I would understand that the fish can randomly escape when gathering rating is around the minimum requirement. I would understand if I were at 425 gathering, 50 above minimum, and lost the clam 2 out of 3 times. I DO NOT understand, and nor am I happy, to see that I am sitting at 500 gathering, 125 points over minimum requirement, and yet still lost 3 out of 3 clams.

For other DoL, not only that they can manually select the slot to limit their target item for gathering, they also have consistency effect of Gathering rating towards the success rate. If I am a miner or a botanist, and I am 125 gathering above requirement, I'm likely having 100% success rate. Damn, at 645 gathering, which is only 45 points above requirement for Legendary Node (folklore gathering) , my miner is already getting 80% success rate on the item. I then can use skills to boost success rate by 5%, 10%, or 25%.

What does fisher get for success rate? A completely wild random RNG, and no success rate skill.

Please make success rate for fisher more reliable and more rational. It is beyond comprehension when we keep losing a fish when we put so much effore in gearing up to increase stats. If fisher's gathering rating is going to be so ineffective in dictating our success in hooking a fish, we're far inferior than other DoL. Not to mention that we don't even have the Offhand tool to boost stats anymore.... This is so sad.

With love, A frustrated fisher.

(I sent this through in-game suggestion option.)

Dear SE,

I'd like to suggest that the blacklist system should have an additional function.

Or maybe just add a separated function, that allows YOU to prevent a specific player’s character from appearing on your screen.

Dear SE,

Please add the amount selector to Ixal Oaknots shop and GC shop.

When we buy crafting materials from GC Quartermaster, or from Ixali Oaknots shop, sometimes we have to buy in bulk. Yet, the shop interface only allows single piece of item at a time. Please consider adding the arrow buttons and amount number input like normal NPC vendors. It is terrible when we have to click and confirm purchase 99 times for 99 items.

Sincerely, Crafter in distress.

Going to send this letter of suggestion to SE through in-game support desk. (Sorry for the wall’o’text, I tried to use “Read More” but it just wouldn’t let me.)

Dear SE, I’d like to propose an installation of a new function which could be very useful for FFXIV Duty Finder.Please also add a “Pause Queue” function to the Duty Finder. My idea is that this button will temporarily put the DF on hold for the player. When paused, the player would temporarily step out of the Duty Finder line, while staying at the same spot in the queue, not moving closer, and not getting kicked out of the waiting line. When the player comes back and “Resume” queuing, the player will get back into the waiting line where he or she first stepped out, as the spot had been reserved for the original owner.However, if the player executes this function after there was a prompt to commence Duty, the player will resume queuing in the next after next spot. In the event that some other players in front of the pausing person got into their Duty, freeing up the spots at the front of the line, the players behind the pausing person will pass them and go on ahead, as if the pausing person is frozen in the line until he or she comes back and hit “Resume” button. This ability to “Pause” will be extremely useful for various kinds of situations.

 Example 1: A poor Dragoon who finds it tough to get a Duty Finder in Syrcus Tower to pop for over an hour decides that he should also spend his waiting time doing something productive. He changes to a low level job and went to grind EXP in FATEs. In the middle of a fight, while he is tanking a FATE boss, the Duty Finder goes off and presents a Commence prompt.He cannot change back to his registered job because he is in the middle of a fight.If he runs away from the FATE to try to lose enmity, there is a chance that the boss monster will reset to full HP if it follows him out too far from the spawn spot. Other players in the FATE will be very upset and will call him out on it. Resetting a FATE boss is also rude and is a waste of everyone else’s time and effort.If there is “Pause Queue” function, he could use it and stepped temporarily out of the queue, letting the next person in line go in instead. Meanwhile, he won’t waste all the long minutes he had spent waiting for this Duty. He also wouldn’t need to start queuing from the end of the line again, which could be another hour or even longer. He could finish the FATE, change job to DRG, and resume queue and will probably have to wait for 5 or 10 minutes for next chance.

Example 2: A healer has been waiting for a Labyrinth of the Ancients duty for well over 90 minutes. The Alliance is slowly filling up, missing only 2 tanks, 1 Healer and 1 DPS at the moment. She’s been sitting here for so long, fearing that leaving the desk will make her miss the opportunity to get into the Duty, and that she would need to start queuing again which could result in another waste of 90 minutes. She’s starving. She needs food. She also needs a bathroom visit.The current DF system means that she has only 3 options, withdraw now and go get her needs fulfilled, run for it hoping to be lucky enough to make it back in time before she’s kicked out from not hitting the “Commence” button, or hold out and make gaming a higher priority in life than nature’s calls. If there is a “Pause Queue” function, she will easily decide to pause it and run for the bathroom and get food from the kitchen, resting assured that when she returns, she won’t have to spend yet another agonizing 90 minutes to get into a Duty. If she’s lucky enough, she might even get into the same Alliance that she got a spot in earlier.

Example 3: A tank is having a bad luck day. He’s been sitting in the queue for 20 minutes for Expert Roulette. It seems all the healers are asleep or away from home right now, as there is no sign on the healer despite the party’s being ¾ for so damn long.He went to Gold Saucer to kill time while waiting for the Duty Finder. As if the Twelves were pulling a prank on him, the Duty Finder prompt to commence pops up while he’s in the middle of a Triple Triad duel with an NPC. He threw his cards onto the board quickly without thinking, in order to rush the match to end so he could enter Duty. However, there is a Sudden Death rule, and he happened to score a draw against the NPC, so the NPC wouldn’t let him go and the next match forcefully and automatically starts. In current system, this tank would totally miss the commence countdown and be kicked out from the queue. He would have to start queuing from start again, which could be extremely irritating. He’s been waiting for this party for over 20 minutes, yet he is forced to forfeit his spot just because he is 1 minute late to click the commence button? If there is a “Pause Queue” function, once he found out that the NPC isn’t letting him go anywhere, he could have pause it for a while and rush back to resume queuing. Or, if he is smart and plans ahead, he could pause his queue before starting the Triple Triad match with this NPC, and then resume it after the match ends properly. In my opinion, current system is a little harsh and unfair for those who’ve been sitting in front of their screens for over an hour, sometimes close to two hours, waiting for the party/alliance to slowly assemble, only to then get kicked completely out of the line just because they have some kind of emergency in real life and need to leave their chair for just a minute or two – when the Duty Finder decides to be mean and go CHING when they’re AFK. Of course, it wouldn’t go off for the whole 2 hours while they were sitting tight and staring, but would, unfortunately, pop once the person has left to do some business. With a Pause Queue system, the player could relax a little bit more and pause then resume their queue without much disturbance to other people who happen to be in the same Duty party. If you fear that people would abuse or exploit the function, you can limit the pause usage to, perhaps, 3 times per real life day for each player. As for people queuing on DF as a party, make it so the whole party will have to vote whether to activate the Pause or not. It should show the name of the person who initiates the Pause proposal, to prevent griever from abusing it to the party. Once a Pause is activated, any of the party member can vote resume. Again, the person will have their name shown to every member.Please consider the possibilities of this function. Thank you, Aleczan Knighthill.

I am writing this to SE. Hope they listen and consider it. XD

———————————————–

Dear FFXIV development team,

I’d like to propose an idea about gardening system for housing in FFXIV. Please hear me out. Since my suggestion is very long, I’ll provide a list of paragraph’s content for it, so you can navigate more easily. (1) The current gardening function (2) An idea of how gardening can improve (3) Rough ideas of how we can earn the ability or function (4) User interface example