If there is a limit on the number of zones that can exist in the game.

[radar]

I read there is a hard cap on how many zones the game is allowed to have.

Why not add zone rotation system that can be changed for monthly patches, similar to how Ambuscade monsters are rotated? Then add new zones with this in mind?

For instance there could be a similar system as Abyssea, where you zone into a location from Atomos, but the zones you can travel to are based on either the month or performance of the previous month in some system.

Then we could have things like Tavnazia, Mithra homeland, pirate lands or whatever else.

If there is space for 3 new zones after cleanup, then this could allow the addition of 6 or 9 zones (some could even be season based, so snow areas in winter etc)

Some mmorpgs create dungeons, and then cycle them to keep them fresh and give players new things to do. This could be a similar idea.

[nixRidge]

Hey, I really like this idea! I would love to hear what the developers think of it sometime.


Like a campaign that spans many months, regressing or progressing depending on how players do and how well we cooperate.

[Alhanelem]

"Sorry, you can't do this quest this month because we blocked this area to add a new one."

Yeah I'm sorry in advance for saying this but that's an absolutely horrible solution.

It would be far better to just take the development time to work around or address these limitations, and/or start better utilizing the space in existing zones where there are underused locations.

[radar]

"Sorry, you can't do this quest this month because we blocked this area to add a new one."

Yeah I'm sorry in advance for saying this but that's an absolutely horrible solution.

It would be far better to just take the development time to work around or address these limitations, and/or start better utilizing the space in existing zones where there are underused locations.

There is a cap on how many zones they can add, this is one of the reasons they didn't keep making expansions (they figured out a way to bypass this for adoulin, but they are now capped again)

They have said they are trying to clean up the database, to make a few more slots for new zones.

If you have a small number of slots, then cycling makes better sense than adding nothing / 3 and capping.

[nixRidge]

Yeah that'd be the best solution! Just to be clear I'd much rather they just fix the underlying issue entirely.
I still like the idea of a designated "rotating zone" though Doesn't have to be any quests there or missable things, just purely for the content it would be made for. Almost like a really large-scale Ambuscade open to everyone. Then again, there's already two free-for-all combat zones now, Limbus and shared Dynamis Divergence.

[Alhanelem]

There is a cap on how many zones they can add,

There are ways to overcome every limitation, the issue is the work and cost associated with doing it. Will they do this? Most likely not, because even this influx of players doesn't seem to have convinced SE corporate to allow a major investment in the game. But that doesn't mean it can't be done.

So why is there a limit on the number of zones? It most likely owes to how the data structures that reference them are designed. It's not a technology or computer limitation, its a design limitation- and designs can be changed. Now obviously, changing these data strucures would likely have a ripple effect that would necessitate all kinds of changes elsewhere, i.e. how zones get referenced when you need to move from one to another would have to change, and it could have performance implications. But this game is 25 years old. FFXIV was not afraid to raise its requirements in a far shorter period of time in order to give the developers more freedom to update the game. Why SE remains so conservative about such issues in this game is honestly beyond me. Even for its time the system requirements of the game were not that high, an an absolute potato PC will run this game as perfectly as the game allows itself to.

Regardless, rotating zones in and out of the game is an absurdly bad idea. We don't even need new zones, there is so much unutilized space in existing areas, as well as areas that aren't accessible to players they could probably get away with removing. For instance, instead of confining players in an inaccessible area (Mordion Gaol) they could just be blocked from logging in instead and that would free up a slot.

Edit: Also no idea why the library and the prime weapon place (forgot what its called), why these two absolutely tiny areas are their own zones. they should have been designed into the area they connect to.