Repopulating Gridania and Limsa Lominsa (how can we spread out?)

I wouldnt worry too much about it after we get chocobos & airships.
And hopefully, the release of the PS3 version will bring around a few more players.

But ya, Gridania & Limsa could use some spicing up.

Maybe additional leves, more leves per day maybe, espcially for gatherers.
City ranks, much like in FFXI gaining region points from wich you can trade in for gear / items etc.
(Forgot what it was called)
City / Region based BCNM fight's.

On Besaid the population has moved around (I miss the nice quite forest where i knew most of the people i would run past)

But I would agree a lot of factors are holding people in UL, The best fix for this is a better party/recruiting system imo.
So we can find people no matter where they are and with airships/cholocobs travel will be much better after 1.19.

But having a market hub will always happen, and it suite the lore for that to be in UL.
So i personally would like that to stay the same.

get a linked AH, wait for grid area to get overhauled should do it.

Back in September-November, Uldah was packed (much more so than it is today), but Limsa and Gridania were *also* packed with people bazaaring, crafting, @leve counter, etc. so in my opinion the main thing that has changed is the overall decrease in population of most servers.

And when there's less people overall, being in any city other than the central one is less "useful", ie I can't find anything in the markets, I may miss a recruitment "shout" for something I want to do, since there are not many groups being formed in the first place AND the party recruitment system is awfully designed and rarely used, and so on.

As for solutions, I would go for all of the below:
- Market wards merge - really what's the point of having 2 cities' MW that are almost completely empty.
- Server merge - to increase density of population and allow people to naturally spread out without feeling "alone"
- Shout across all cities (aka trade chat)
- Completely redesign party recruitment UI and usability. Introduce LFP flag, etc. so I don't feel like I have to be glued to Uldah to have any chance of finding a group.

I hate to use it as a reference (because yes I know this is not FFXI), but I actually found myself using Jeuno and Whitegate less and less as a main "home". I based myself in Sandy (my starting home nation) because I could easily access my Outpost warps, pay a small fee to get to Whitegate if I needed to or even catch an airship if I had time to spare in order to get to Jeuno. I was RDM and WHM mainly so of course I also had tele's to get around.

With the server search function for players seeking etc, it didn't matter where you were really trying to put a party together- just set a place to meet up before heading off.
And yes, I would really like to see linked market wards so that Ul'dah is not necessarily seen as the main hub for buying and selling.

I think personally if there was a designated "Home Nation" mission/quest strand similar to FFXI where you could change your allegiance and complete all three, this may encourage the completist players to try all three cities and spend time there.
We only have Anima to get around right now, but I know for a lot of people this doesn't last. Once airships and chocobos are introduced (soon!) this will help to improve the situation.
But, I would also like to see some sort of "Conquest" events for your Nation put in- i.e. node/outpost warping for a fee once you have been there or done a supply mission (similar to FFXI), points you could build up for fighting with your Nation's seal on to buy items or buffs, and maybe even a Garrison event (but better) to try and inspire some feeling of loyalty to the town you choose as your Home.

As with FFXI this still will not entirely solve the problem of trying to repopulate "disliked" places, but with more dungeons/events spread out with their entrance near each different city it might help a little to redistribute players across the map.

I know that in wow there is Manny diff options of mass travel from your airship zeps to sea faring vessels to your own personal flyer that has set paths that take you from outpost to city or outpost to outpost with something like this implemented in XIV i think the other citys would be a little more populated but as with many things in life we just have to wait and see.....

Like many other said

Linking the Market Wards would be a huge help in letting people live in the city they wish to.

The second thing that will help that is a proper "looking for group" tool and/or a common chat channel when you are in a city. That way you can be in the city you want or feel more connected to but still do not miss on the grouping advantage you'd have in Ul'Dah.

If this has already been suggested, I'm sorry, I didn't bother reading the entire thread.

Market Wards: SE should make each Ward 2-4x the size and probably just re-design the look and appearance, maybe a "ring" shape. With the size increase they should allow 2-4x the number of retainers in each Ward. They should then link all the Market Wards together. If you enter from Limsa, you enter the same market ward as Ul'Dah or Gridania, but you can only exit from where you entered from.

After 8 years SE finally unified the auction house system in FFXI. For 8 years the starter cities had next to dead markets, often only selling starter gear and consumables at prices often more expensive than the main cities linked AH. They then linked the starter cities with the main cities AH and now it's much more convenient.

XI also had another system like this for the Chocobo Racing zone. You could enter from almost any city in the game via a system of portals, but could only be ported back to the original area in which you first entered from. They could use a mechanic like that to explain the story aspect of having them linked.

I understand that many will hate this idea and wish for diverse economies but I believe this proposed solution would work best over all in the long run and for convenience in the future when even the starter cities become just old abandoned hubs.

Well, this is just a small idea that I think would help get people to at least want to take leves from the other cities:

- Currently most of the rewards for completing leves are garbage. Getting a single silver nugget or wing glue from leves is just really junk.
- Change the rewards to HQ materials. (Like a +3 silver nuggets from Uldah) I would honestly go out of my way and spend time in Gridania for hq wood working materials if you could only find it in Gridania.

I know this wouldn't help THAT much, but I guess it could help a little, and little things add up eventually.

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Originally Posted by Bluebun

Well, this is just a small idea that I think would help get people to at least want to take leves from the other cities:

- Currently most of the rewards for completing leves are garbage. Getting a single silver nugget or wing glue from leves is just really junk.
- Change the rewards to HQ materials. (Like a +3 silver nuggets from Uldah) I would honestly go out of my way and spend time in Gridania for hq wood working materials if you could only find it in Gridania.

I know this wouldn't help THAT much, but I guess it could help a little, and little things add up eventually.

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It would help a little bit like the guild marks reward BUT what would you do after you complete the leve? Go back to Ul'Dah because that is where everyone is, where the trade is, where you have more chance of finding a group for instances or grind parties. We need stuff like linked wards and common chat channel to act like a permanent solution. No need to go back to Ul'Dah if you prefer LL or Gridania if you know you can find the same gears and not miss on groups wherever you are.

I wish this could be fixed. I think there are two reasons for it. One being that Ul'dah is basically FFXIV's Jeuno, and the other being that, well, the population on most servers is pretty damn low.

The second reason always has me fearing for XIV's future. I honestly believe this will become a great game, and it's already quickly heading in the right direction. Square just needs a way to get the word out that the game is actually worth playing now. That, however, is going to be very hard. As they say, first impressions last a lifetime, and this game granted horrible first impressions.

I doubt most reviewers will even want to give it a second chance. Square will have to bribe them.

And the issue is far worse in XIV. At least there were still people in each city in XI. I'm lucky to see over 5 people in all of Limsa and Grid. :(

what will help is the re-design of the world. The thing that FFXI did well was spread the 3 citys appart enough from not only each other, but from the areas like camps and jeuno that it was pretty even so no city dominated. Right now uldah is not only right in the center, but the city is not over sized. The one thing FFXIV can learn from FFXI is that ...well bigger is not always better.

MMOs are going to have a central hub, period. It's easier to shout for group events, teleport to quests as a group, sell/buy items when it's all consolidated. The only reason it's Ul'dah is because a non-starter city with newer content hasn't been introduced yet.

CptnGumble is correct. Ul'dah is the most ergonomically designed city, nearly equadistant between the other two cities.

Limsa has one adventuring class who can get marks from it. Has a two-three story town structure with facilities spaced out and the city exit quite a run. Plus it's far from Gridania.

Gridania requires the most running to get to from Ul'dah (since Ul'dah to Limsa, once you get to the boat, you boat into the city rather than running to the border to run throough more zone. Maps have limited paths one could take. Facilities also spaced out.

The sad truth it, this is something that happens in every MMO. People want to be grouped together for one simple reason, "convenience". I guarantee when Ishgard comes out, all three original city states will be deserted. Even in WoW, each expansion had made a transition to a central area of convenience (Stormwind > Shatt. > Dalaran > Stormwind (again)), FFXI was also like this (San D'Oria(I think) > Jeuno > Aht Urghan > Jeuno(again)).

It is really hard to get people to spread out in MMO's. The reason Limsa and Gridania had a lot of people earlier in the game was people didn't really know where would be the central place to gather, plus no body felt like partying, so it didn't really matter anyways.

These are the only things I can imagine would "help", but inevitably not work that way in the end.

-Bring in universal AH, where all three cities share the same market place.

-Put in a seperate server wise General chat window (Don't know FFXIV's technical limitations.).

-Make the search feature into a system like FFXI's since you can invite anywhere.

-Make transportation between cities more convenient, airship may fix that.

-Make Grand Company dailies frequent to the point you rather just stay in your city.

While these could possibly work, there is one factor that still holds it back, Anima. People don't want to spend their anima if they don't have to, so staying in a set area will possibly prevent you from being the one having to port.

So overall, this is a staple in MMO's, it is a damn shame, I do hate seeing LL and Gridania empty, they are gorgeous areas, but that is just how it is. Darnassas and Exodar in WoW were beautiful areas also. I would count on Ishgard being the new central area for people. Might be cool enough you never want to leave it.

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Originally Posted by Hawklaser

Part of what contributed to Ul'dah becoming the hub is that following the main story sends you there.

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This is one of the biggest things that bother me about the main missions. I'm a LL homebody by choice. I spend most of my time there and in La Noscea unless duty calls Chione elsewhere. Being shipped off at r20 for the main storyline, and then having everyone in that mission line treat you as an Uldah'n kinda miffs me.

I kinda like how Uldah is portrayed as the hub of merchant activity and the playerbase has come to reflect that. It doesn't bother me too too much that LL and Grid wards are empty. I still see folks walking around and going about their business. It's refreshing not to be in Uldah's crowds.

But the lack of attachment to our starting cities is one of my big pet peeves with this game. Here's hoping the cities will get missions of their own at some point (not talking about grand companies either, cause that has nothing to do with where you start.) But until then, it'd be nice if someone told the plot npcs that the flag on my character's profile is red, not black. :|

Maybe if folks felt like their choice in starting city actually mattered, they'd care to linger there more instead of being shuffled off to Uldah at 20 and realizing there's really no reason to leave it.

@ Vel: actually sandy was never like that, i played pretty early in the games life and for quite a while the 3 main citys had solid populations. Of course Jueno was the higher level gathering point...and your right, every game will always have one, which im fine with, but they need reasons to make you go back to your home areas and get use out of it for the lower end levels.

They could start by giving you more reason to visit the various guilds... oh wait nevermind.

They should add a monetary bonus for selling in given locations (locations are chosen at random across time) and should somehow accommodate new content (zones). City wards also need to be downplayed somehow.

The Retainer system currently fails because it is a 'sandbox' concept that has suffered a 'themepark' implementation...

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Originally Posted by Zanfire

@ Vel: actually sandy was never like that, i played pretty early in the games life and for quite a while the 3 main citys had solid populations. Of course Jueno was the higher level gathering point...and your right, every game will always have one, which im fine with, but they need reasons to make you go back to your home areas and get use out of it for the lower end levels.

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I was thinking mostly of the JP version before it came out in NA. Jeuno was already a hot spot when FFXI first came out here. I only remember someone saying San D'Oria was a heavily populated area before Jeuno. At least that is how it was on Gilgamesh.