lol that's not PTW. But hey, nice agenda injection!
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There will be still loading screens
If you mean removing the zone borders, that would mean a redesign of all maps again. There are currently holes between the zones, that we just jump over during the loading screens. Best example to this is the big stair in CT2. For now we just enter the stair and get loaded to the next level without climbing up. Without the loading screen, the stair have to get fixed so we can climb it up for 1 minute before we reach the next level of the tower.
Unfortunately this won't change at least for the old maps. They can make bigger Stormblood maps though. I guess the new maps have been built without the PS3 limitations baked in. I don't expect any major change though. This was just the optimistic scenario. They can however make more "lively" cities with more npcs, more buildings and assets and more detailed maps.
I think all the cities should be like in 1.0 except Ul'dah. The Ul'dah tunnel was just silly. I want Gridania's canopies and Limsa's bridge to come back!!!
Not all 1.0 is bad. The "gates connect seamlessly to the outside world" is actually a good idea and it makes the world feel big. The issue with 1.0 was the design of the world, not the structure of how it is connected to one zone to another. If you are just going to base it on videos you saw in YouTube then you will not get the OP's point. However I do think this will never happen. They will have to restructure the maps and it would take resources and time. If it is already working they won't do anything to it unless maybe a lot of players demand for it.
I don't think they could ever go back to seamless zones. It would be hard to program in now and I'm sure players would be angry at the downtime trying to put them back in. Square made a deal with Sony and they are stuck with it.
i think the major issue with going back to the older style it is not due to console is the fact alot of people didnt like it, it felt empty at points, now they have designed the whole game around the way it is now it could have the domino effect, ok so we fix it back to normal, but this part here was tied into the new style, so they fix that then the part they just fixed is tied into to something else and they have to fix that, it could be a long drawn out process. and runs the risk of people going hey i dont like going back to that way and leaving the game.
Dropping PS3 resulted in the devs being able to ;
-make the new city, Kugane, into one seemless zone full of NPCs
-continue with making the large, HW style maps but make them more lively, detailed, and vertical
-add more detail to dungeons, i.e. many active NPCs in the backgroud of the final MSQ dungeon
-add extra mechanics to dungeons and bosses
-add job specific UI elements