Fix the Caves. They are Bland. Add in new Mobs.

[Rentahamster]

One of the things I had fun with in beta was exploring the many caves hidden on the overworld around Eorzea. That was until I found out that they all just the same old cave and something like 80% are full of moles and hedgehogs. Ho hum.

The ones full of skeletons and zombies are kinda fun. There are a few that house a whole smorgasbord of nightmare mobs like redwing keds and smolenkos, but those mobs are way to high level to deal with.

I'd recommend changes that try to bring back that sense of exploration - to give adventurers some kind of reason to go exploring and seek out those caves.

Some caves right now have quarry points, which requires miners (who don't have a high rank battle class) to enlist the help of friends who do have a high rank battle class to accompany them and kill the mobs while the miners quarry for loot. I like that sort of emergent cooperation between classes and want to see that sort of behavior encouraged.

Here is a list of a few things I would like changed about your run-of-the-mill overworld cave to make them a little more interesting:

1. More varied mobs - a few caves have some different and interesting mobs like skeletons, elementals, and zombies, but the majority of them have moles, moles, and more moles. Change it up a bit. Spice it up. Put in some more exotic forms of life. Vary it up, too. It doesn't have to spawn the exact same mob all the time, give the fauna a bit of variety. Cooler mobs, beastmen hangout areas, whatever. I remember in beta when I was so excited to finally find some humanoid mobs in the cave northwest of Cedarwood. I was disappointed when I discovered that that was the exception, not the norm. Even better, perhaps spawn a random NM or boss pack in a cave every once in a while to give a surprise to any passing group of adventurers - http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Dynamic-Erozea

2. Random chest spawn of random quality in random caves every once in a while - It would be a nice surprise to find a chest in a cave every now and then. It would be even cooler if some of them turned out to be Mimics ( http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Mimic_%28Enemy%29 ) once in a while. If they turn out to be high rank Mimics, they have to drop good loot to reward the adventurer for the effort. Mimics dropping moko grass after a hard-fought battle would be immensely anti-climactic.

3. More gathering points that yield rare items in high rank caves - As I mentioned earlier, if the rewards are great enough, this would encourage gatherers to team up with battle classes, or for battle classes to rank up gathering classes or vice versa - all desirable behaviors.

4. Rare gathering points that yield rare and valuable items that can only be used for a short period of time before they degrade into lesser items - This would encourage gatherers to team up with crafters so that they can synth those items before they degrade into a lesser item. For example, a miner gets some "Mako-infused Mythril Ore" from a node at which point he has 30 minutes to use it in a craft before it degrades into a regular "Mythril Ore". He then hands it off to his crafting buddy, or changes class to his own crafting class to use the "Mako-infused Mythril Ore" in a synth that makes a Unique broadsword or something. Of course, I guess the miner could just choose to immediately warp back to town and try to sell it in the next 30 minutes, but whatever floats his boat.

5. Retexturing and remodeling so that they don't all look exactly the same.

[Irana]

agreed we need more mobs.

I understand back in ffxi when the game was also on ps2 and more mobs werent possible because of tech issues with the ps2...

There's NO EXCUSE to not have more mobs now.

[Eruantien]

I agree, walking into a cave and go oo look at that pond, and o is that a mole i see *gasp*

[Munba]

Totally agree, need more differences in the caves to improve the sense of exploration.

I'd like to see/find some humanoids (bandits maybe) or beast tribes with campfire and chest (to open) in some caves. Or some particular enviroments inside, like a waterfall you can interact with (to take some special water for cooking) or particular vegetation and flowers (to harvest) or some elements that make the caves unique respect the others.

[BlaiseLallaise]

Yes, in general, the less bland redundancy the better. Even more so where exploration is encouraged.

[Meridian]

I think #5 is most important...

You enter a cave.

There is a small slope infront of you.

You hear water to your right.

Four moles are sitting at the bottom of the slope. One of them glances up. You hold his gaze. His eyes seem to be projecting a burning message... "Save me from this hell!"

You blink and he returns to his meaningless existence; you to yours. Did you imagine it?

You leave cave, never to return.

[Lusavari]

Yeah... I have to agree. Some of them are nice and are slightly deeper than others too but... every single last one is essentially the same cave. Some should have forks and go down pretty deep. And actually have stuff in the path down. A lot of them would be prime places to hide NMs or throw in some quest ??? or SOMETHING.

[Rentahamster]

I'd like to see/find some humanoids (bandits maybe) or beast tribes with campfire and chest (to open) in some caves. Or some particular enviroments inside, like a waterfall you can interact with (to take some special water for cooking) or particular vegetation and flowers (to harvest) or some elements that make the caves unique respect the others.

Yes, there are many different ways that caves could be made unique and special. It would help to make the world seem larger than it actually is. Even though it physically takes up a lot of space now, since so much of the world is the same, it feels much smaller.