As we steadily collect another set of holiday hats for little reason other than an inexplicable need to collect these things,it's a fair time to look at the next year for Final Fantasy XIV's development. The game launched well, has made some missteps, and the next year is really going to determine how well it can manage over the long term.
I'm not pretending that I have a picture-perfect roadmap for the game over the next year, but I do think there are some pretty obvious things to be addressed. There are gaps to be filled in, systems that could stand to be improved, and more systems that would have a positive effect on retention and play. So let's look at what the next year will hopefully bring other than equine headpieces.
1.Broadening endgame
For a game that's been out for about four months now, it's hard to be too harsh on Final Fantasy XIV's endgame, but it's worth noting that item level 90 is increasingly a deal. You get level 80 rewards from Crystal Tower, Artifact +1 is easier to acquire, and Binding Coil of Bahamut is a thing that exists. Our average item level creeps ever upward, and this could cause problems down the line.
2.Better weapon options
As it stands right now, weapons are limited to one of two acquisition methods. You buy one of the high-quality crafted level 70 weapons, or you fight a bunch of Primals. Your only way to actually work at a specific weapon is to fight your way up through Titan, and Titan is still tuned extremely high for the required item level of the fight. This means that whether or not you're going for a relic run, your options are "get lucky or get used to Darklight weapons."
3.More jobs
This one is obvious. People like having more options for play; let them have those options. Give us more jobs to play around with.
4.More customization
And here's a close cousin to the last point. In fact, I would be happy with no new jobs or classes or whatever for a while if we had a few more options about how our existing classes and jobs play. Right now the only difference between my character and another Scholar in the same gear is character model and whether or not that player chose the handful of cross-class skills that actually matter or not.
5.Personal housing
Free company housing has been a complete was thus far. There are a handful of companies that have houses, most of which have no need of crafters providing furniture because if you can afford the house, you have people who can make that for you. The prices will be lowered after a great deal of waiting for people who apparently made the very wrong choice to continue playing on servers with invested players. The point is that this whole system has been handled badly from day one.
What do u expect? New classes, new areas, new levels, new story stuff. I'm thinking we're not getting Musketeer until the expansion, and while it might seem obvious, I'd love to see Ishgard open the gates and let people in for the first time since launch.