Can we have an area with no transportation in the future?

[Mikita]

That won't happen because the players need to walk to those locations anyway before they can teleport to them. So you absolutely have to visit given locations at least once.

Even so, the inevitable availability of full maps online will mean that people see the full picture and know exactly where they need to go, thus taking away much of the exploration and sense of discovery.

Sadly I don't think there is much that can be done to force people to experience adventure (while keeping it enjoyable) when they just want the short and easiest route to the end.

It's a bit like the great players who figure out how to beat bosses or primals and then post their strategies online. After that initial accomplishment by the elite, many others are expected to study the fight beforehand and apply the strategy rather than try to figure it out for themselves.

[Skies]

Actually, I largely agree with your post. I also like to explore. The only achievement in 1.0 I really cared about was reaching the last few Aetherytes and completing the Wanderer's Shadow with my best friend.

There were quite a few points of interest and little hidden gems in 1.0 that I think most people missed.

Having the option of exploration and discovery for those who enjoy it is very nice. But it seems that a lot of people are not really looking for that, and any game design to force it will lead to lots of complaining and dissatisfaction.

Rapid transport in no way removes that aspect. Everyone treats the whole anima system as if it as "Go to X,Y coordinate, please" and it does just that.
No, the people who keep harping on and on and on endlessly and uselessly about this are just scared, scared that they can't reproduce their first experiences again (as they should be, their first experience won't ever happen again, sad for all us, really).
There's a very large difference between going through the needlessly complicate maze maze of the Black Shroud to explore the far end of the Fallgourd Lake (such a painful experience that is not worth doing but you so-called 'explorers' would likely enjoy that just to see what's there) and taking the slow and needless trip from Limsa Lominsa to Emerald Moss.

You guys treat as if the most awful transport system in the world requiring you to spend two hours to go through a third of a zone that has nothing at all you even want to see is required to explore. In the name of the twelve people are blind.

A system that allows rapid, painless and easy travel does not in no way hinders those that want to see everything and discover new places, no. All it does is save you the headache of cross through the same. goddamn. place. five hundred time back and forth, back and forth, back and forth when the need arises. That sort of thing eats your patience, makes you forget the scenery, you just want to get through it, even the best scenery is only awesome until you're used to it.

(ps: nothing in particularly directed at the person I quoted, I don't know you, but your quote was a good starting point for my argument)

[Atoli]

I don't think it's a problem to have teleport AND exploration, even in the same area.
The question is always: Which is more rewarding? Does the player gain anything from NOT teleporting everywhere?
If the answer is yes, there will always be people who use their own feet to get around.

First off, I think it's important to basically force everyone to walk somewhere the first time they want to go somewhere.
Like..when you start in Gridania, going to Ishgard for the very first time should be by foot/chocobo, NOT by having some teleport you to Camp Dragonhead.

Second, reward players for exploration!
It doesn't have to be some badass item. A special landmark, a great view over the land below, berries with useful buffs, titles, hidden quests, etc. are all a great way to get the player interested. If he finds something once, he'll believe there is more somewhere else, and he WILL search for it.

Having instant teleportation doesn't hurt at all concerning this, because players can't teleport to special little villages, hidden landmarks, etc.
If they want to explore the world, they WILL have to do it themselves.
But the usefulness of teleporting to get to waiting friends fast, skip a 17 min ride from Ishgard to Ul'dah, etc. is kept.

So yeah, basically just saying we can have both

[Zumi]

OP have you played FFXI recently, SE got with the times and put in ports for everything. There are ports to all abyssea zones, within abyssea there are more ports all over the map. Then they put in ports to all voidwatch NMs which are all over the world, talk to a npc he ports you there near the rift where the NM will be spawned. Heck there is even a NPC that ports you from Upper Jeuno, to Sauromugue Champaign right in front of npc for Meeble Burrows.

I guess they found out people want instant ports to areas without doing a lot of running. Its part of the instant gratification people want in games today, not spend a lot of time running from area to area to get where you are going.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

same old story with XIV anyway.. lol...

[Noblewar]

The main reason there are ports every where is not because of a long run. In XI I never had trouble running through the areas to get where I wanted. What I did have trouble with was finding someone willing to port me there. The problem there was that some times, it "would have been" faster to just run from point "Current" to point "Destination".

[Warlock]

[Cynthis]

What worried me a little from the Alpha was that the map in each area seemed much smaller. I agree that running the long corridors to areas like Tranquil and EM can be seen as annoying and a waste of time after a while but once you got to for example Tranquil, the area around the crystal was quite large which I really liked. Of course it would have been even nicer if there had been more things to see.

In ARR I have the feeling, at least for Gridania, that they are removing the distances between points of interest and the area around each crystal seems small, i.e. there is very little to explore and that is a concern for me. I am still a little sad that I only realized the joy of exploring in the last few weeks of 1.0.

[valetarkus]

I love exploring new areas and seeing new things. But if i have to run back and forth and take me 10-20 minutes just to get from point a to point b of which i have already accessed a hundred times just to talk to some guy who tells me i have to run back to point A...thats 40 minutes of just running and walking in a place I've already explored. There was a lot of this in 1.0 and XI and I hated it. Please let me run faster, give my chocobo a sprint, give me the teleport spell or something. I know there are the teleport crystals and whatnot but you run out of anima and you can't do a hamlet....there goes your day just walking around, even on chocobo it takes a while.

[Lirion]

Rapid transport in no way removes that aspect. Everyone treats the whole anima system as if it as "Go to X,Y coordinate, please" and it does just that.
No, the people who keep harping on and on and on endlessly and uselessly about this are just scared, scared that they can't reproduce their first experiences again (as they should be, their first experience won't ever happen again, sad for all us, really).
There's a very large difference between going through the needlessly complicate maze maze of the Black Shroud to explore the far end of the Fallgourd Lake (such a painful experience that is not worth doing but you so-called 'explorers' would likely enjoy that just to see what's there) and taking the slow and needless trip from Limsa Lominsa to Emerald Moss.

You guys treat as if the most awful transport system in the world requiring you to spend two hours to go through a third of a zone that has nothing at all you even want to see is required to explore. In the name of the twelve people are blind.

A system that allows rapid, painless and easy travel does not in no way hinders those that want to see everything and discover new places, no. All it does is save you the headache of cross through the same. goddamn. place. five hundred time back and forth, back and forth, back and forth when the need arises. That sort of thing eats your patience, makes you forget the scenery, you just want to get through it, even the best scenery is only awesome until you're used to it.

(ps: nothing in particularly directed at the person I quoted, I don't know you, but your quote was a good starting point for my argument)

Couldn't agree with this more.

I don't think Yoshi have ever said that you can teleport to anywhere on the map anytime. Now that anima is gone you can teleport to the crystals whenever you want but you still have to run from that point. Imagine if you had to run to Garuda from the Black Shrouds everytime you wanted to fight her. I think the exploring part would be the last thing people think about after the first run.