Make Public transportation in Eorzea Free

People aren't going to use alternative transportation regardless of the costs or lack thereof, simply because teleportation is the most efficient. - The only reason why people took Limsa and then ferried to Vesper Bay was that in many cases it was more efficient to do this than it was to teleport to Horizon and then go to Vesper Bay on your mount. Especially pre-flying.

For nigh on close to every single person in the game, the amount of Gil saved would not even come close to an incentive. Especially when there aren't enough open-world activities in the first place beyond the MSQ.

I'm all for a more immersive experience, but this just ain't it.

Edit: You would effectively be saving the players peanuts, and anyone who is engaging in the open world enough probably has no reason to care for those peanuts, especially if it means deviating from the usual or more efficient way - and the problem here is that for it to be the most efficient way, you would then need to resort to influencing open-world design far too much for it to actually be a good practice or even a well-created experience for that matter.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Too many aetherytes in the newer zones. That's the issue..

Do we really need 2 aetherytes less than a minute a part in some zones...

They could literally just have 1 per region and then go with the chocobo network to branch out from there

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I disagree with that being the base of the problem.

Yes, they could probably remove a few aetherytes if they added more chocobo network support, but even as it currently is, there could easily be more stops than there are.

Some big ones I can think of:

Lakeland really needs a stop in Sullen, and maybe Radisca's Round and up north at the hot springs.

Il Mheg could have one at the Bookman's Shelves.

Rak'tika in the north near the Astropolis.

Kholusia really needs one in Komra with all the travelling we do to it for the alliance raid.

Thavnair could have one at the Giantsgall Grounds and maybe the Hamsa Hatchery.

Labyrinthos really needed a route between the Archeion and Meryall Agronomics, given that there were a number of sidequests you were expected to do between those locations at a point when the lift was out of service and it was a long slow walk through the caves to get between them. Another stop at the entrance plaza would have been useful as well, and maybe at Kokkol's Forge.

Garlemald could have had a second accessible subway stop in the west of the city, and some kind of unofficial travel system operating through the tunnels. (Maybe even put an aetheryte there instead, if they can't write a good reason why they can afford to run that with their other resource shortages.) Also maybe a route to the ceruleum extraction rig in the southeast.

Zone 5 could have had one at the entrance and in the northeast near the teleport to Pandaemonium. (Though I'm not sure we got chocobo stops there to begin with. Fair enough in that place, though I'm concerned it's a sign they're getting phased out in general.)

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Overall, my thoughts are: bring them back as an expected mode of transport and find reasons to place stops in the various extremities of each zone. I will regularly pay to get transported across the map rather than having to steer myself.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Hey now...

You could fish and craft on it.

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You could, but IIRC the fish were the same as those caught in Limsa Harbor. I remember doing a lot of boat rides while fishing to trigger something like Sea Horror or to see pirates like in the FFXI version but nothing happened except a LS member tagging along and telling me their whole life story. Plus I hoarded anima and often would rather hop on a boat and make dinner than waste anima on a teleport.

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Originally Posted by Vidu

I dont think fishing on a moving boat would be possible? Having it in a static loaction is simply realistic - they could have replaced the cutscenes with the boat actually moving around between fishing spots though...

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FFXI had multiple different moving boat rides you could fish on, with scenery slowly moving in the background and that game is this one's predecessor and is 20 years old at this point.

Like with the airships from that game, I'm sure behind the scenes you have a static boat but you make the scenery around you move.


If you're talking about realistic like in the real world, people fish off moving boats all the time.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

FFXI had multiple different moving boat rides you could fish on, with scenery slowly moving in the background and that game is this one's predecessor and is 20 years old at this point.

Like with the airships from that game, I'm sure behind the scenes you have a static boat but you make the scenery around you move.

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FFXI Did it really well. Because while you would see the scenery. For example the airship from bastok to jeuno would fly over the Highlands and you could see the crags.

At that exact moment a player in the Highlands could look up into the sky and see the airship flying over head.. it was all interconnected and synchronised. One of the reasons vanadiel blows eorzea away honestly...

more "immersion" would be nice and never a bad thing

however, at the end of the day, how many would actually USE it? is it worth diverting Development resources for something a very small percentage would ever use? we already know that many complain about tanks if they dont pull the entire dungeon at the start because of the "extra time" of dealing with things group by group. we also know about the many who never leave Limsa

the problem isnt the system, its that people have to rush everywhere, and that has become a perceived way to play any game. you will never change people, and that is why in the end, I do not think this would be worth the time invested to expand on what is there now.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Too many aetherytes in the newer zones. That's the issue..

Do we really need 2 aetherytes less than a minute a part in some zones...

They could literally just have 1 per region and then go with the chocobo network to branch out from there

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I mean, Sea of Clouds, Ays Lla, and Western Highlands are all obnoxious to get around for that reason. I feel like there's a happy medium. Mostly the only people it affects are Hunters, though, I guess...

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EDIT:

I do agree, though, with the airships being free. They're basically public transportation that make routes, and not a lot of them (the 3 base city-states, + Ishgard, + Gold Saucer, + Kugane, + Radz-at-han), they don't even all connect (e.g. you can't go from Radz to Gold Saucer), and don't even have service to all major capitals; Old Sharl, Ala Mhigo, Doma, and Garlemald don't have them, and obviously Cyrstarium and Eulmore have their own network (if you did the Custom Delivery quests) but aren't connected to the ones on the Source. After the first three, they never even bothered making boarding/take-off/landing/disembarking cutscenes, it's just direct teleports, even if you're taking off or landing from one of the original three city-states.

Though I feel most people would turn them off, if they actually did just make brief cutscenes and actually have them connect to all the capitals, people might use them a smidge more...though emphasis on the smidge.

Regardless, I do think waving the fee for using them wouldn't be bad in any way.

Same for the ferry boats, though arguably it makes MORE RP/lore sense for them to charge a fee since they aren't "public transportation" with set routes and times, you're actually asking a captain to make a special trip for you, personally.

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I do agree, though, with the airships being free. They're basically public transportation that make routes, and not a lot of them (the 3 base city-states, + Ishgard, + Gold Saucer, + Kugane, + Radz-at-han), they don't even all connect (e.g. you can't go from Radz to Gold Saucer), and don't even have service to all major capitals; Old Sharl, Ala Mhigo, Doma, and Garlemald don't have them, and obviously Cyrstarium and Eulmore have their own network (if you did the Custom Delivery quests) but aren't connected to the ones on the Source. After the first three, they never even bothered making boarding/take-off/landing/disembarking cutscenes, it's just direct teleports, even if you're taking off or landing from one of the original three city-states.

Though I feel most people would turn them off, if they actually did just make brief cutscenes and actually have them connect to all the capitals, people might use them a smidge more...though emphasis on the smidge.

Regardless, I do think waving the fee for using them wouldn't be bad in any way.

Same for the ferry boats, though arguably it makes MORE RP/lore sense for them to charge a fee since they aren't "public transportation" with set routes and times, you're actually asking a captain to make a special trip for you, personally.

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Airships aren't public transportation, though. Most of the airship routes we have access to are operated by Highwind Skyways and regulated by the Eorzean Alliance. Only those granted an airship pass can use them (that's stated when we're given our own pass early in the MSQ) and flights are heavily curtailed because of Garlean forces in and around Eorzean.

Ferry boats do operate with set routes, and likely set times depending on passenger frequency. The only ferry in the game that I can think of off the top of my head that would be different is the one that runs between the Silver Bazaar and Crystal Cove (how many players realize that one even exists?).

While fees may not be waived for the common folk, it would be in the best interests of the city states to subsidize them for adventurers hired out of the Adventurer's Guild to take care of dangers in the surrounding territories. ("Sorry those bandits were killing the villagers an extra 2 weeks but I couldn't afford the ferry fee and had to go the long way.") And of course we would have Lord Lolorito to thank for the Limsa/Kugane passage. Leaving that one free would make sense as part of his ongoing acts of contrition.

I still don't think that making them free would encourage use of them more than they are already getting used. But I do think making their use free to new characters who haven't had a chance to accumulate gil yet would be a good thing. It's not a big issue if older characters would likewise benefit.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Considering you're one of the biggest bad faith posters here in the forums, I'm always amused by the irony.

Please tell me where I argued against change in my post. I said I saw no problem with making the other transportation systems free,

What I did say is that making them free is not going to encourage more players to use those systems, which seemed to be the other stated goal in the original post. It wasn't an argument against the idea. It was stating my opinion that it would not have the desired effect.

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Tell you where? OP called you out on completely misinterpreting their feedback. That is completely sufficient for me. You are here just to fight and argue.

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Originally Posted by TheDecay

Tell you where? OP called you out on completely misinterpreting their feedback. That is completely sufficient for me. You are here just to fight and argue.

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Will you defend me as you did if I start a heavily opinionated thread and accuse anyone with arguments of intentional misinterpretation?

No. Every transport should be expensive just like in real life. They make housing as tedious as in real life so why not make public transport expensive?

Remove instant teleports, reduce mount speeds by 95%.

Add a new gatherer class, Oil Driller. They'll be selling gasoline in the marketboard. Destroy Ala Mhigo again by making them the #1 source for oils. People will be flocking to their region to dig oils and turn what's already a desert into an even more desertlike desert.

Add a new limited job, Driver. Skills and damage based on distance travelled in vehicle (with another player, who pays top gil for the experience). Weapon: motorcycle or car with 150-350% walking speed. During battle just run over the enemies and pop a wheelie to look trendy.

Add a new menu, Driver Finder. Find Drivers to take you wherever you want in Eorza or have them deliver housing items to you when you are too busy decorating your house. Also hireable for other purposes. You need someone to go to "venues" so you dont look like a loser? hire a driver, nobody knows its a Driver.