how big did ff11 area grow before and after all the expansion?

I'm not sure if this is a fair comparison.
FF14 has easy mounts that you can call from anywhere and easy teleport access open to all players. Ferries/ships are also instant if you skip cutscenes.
There is also the new aethernet system that can zip you around town really quick.

In FF11 transportation is extremely limited, where chocobos must come from select towns, teleport is limited by class (or will cost you an arm and a leg to get someone else to teleport for you), and you actually have to play and ride out the full duration of ferry rides. No aethernet system either. In FF11 you can actually get lost running around town.

I'm sure FF14 feels small because you can get around places really fast. Another issue is that we're stuck playing on just one continent called Eorzea. The world (may be referred to as Hydaelyn?) actually contains many other places that the storyline talks about that we never see. Some examples are Garlemald (home of Garlean Empire), Doma (spoilers...?), Radz-at-Han (the place where Jalzahn comes from), and Ala Mhigo (more spoilers). So I think the "world" is actually large enough, we're just not able to see and access those other places.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

XI was was huge to begin with but the it expansion added quite lot more zones also. You can check this link for detailed information. Although XIV will probably never feel like a real world cause everything is in dungeons and not the actual map.

FFXI original and expansion areas

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Size is relative, the XI world certainly felt huge, mostly because for a huge portion of its lifetime, players did not have access to a personal mount, so most of the travel was by foot.

I do miss those 20min walks from the mog house to the AH in Windurst, the another 20mins back to the moghouse.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

Yeah, but it also had danger. Overworld mobs are genuinely quite scary in FFXI, whilst ARR has zones inhabited by the weakest trash imaginable. Only Fate bosses pose the slightest threat, and those are heavily signposted. That one aspect alone made exploring the map more challenging and rewarding. ARR should take a leaf out of FFXI's book.

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Unless they added a bunch of True Sight mobs after I quit, Sneak and Invisible completely trivialized most of the dangers found in the overworld. Sure they might have posed more of a threat if you charged headlong into them or accidentally caught aggro, but common sense, patience, and a pocket full of consumables did a lot to neuter the majority of the threatening creatures you came across. 1.0 would be a better comparison because it did have areas full of mobs that would rip you to shreds even at the level cap, but you had to rely on your luck and wits to avoid them.

Danger in XI was trivialized, in general, the moment you discovered Reraise items lol. People often complain that places like Beast Tribe camps let you just run through, but I remember a lot of XI being like that, even zones like Sky. Pop Reraise, Sneak and Invisible and you just run through without a care in the world...

14 only feel "small" because teleport are dirt cheap, and seeing as how easy gil is to get, you'll always be able to teleport any where.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Danger in XI was trivialized, in general, the moment you discovered Reraise items lol. People often complain that places like Beast Tribe camps let you just run through, but I remember a lot of XI being like that, even zones like Sky. Pop Reraise, Sneak and Invisible and you just run through without a care in the world...

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Yeah, until Invis or Sneak would wear off in the wrong place, you'd get killed, reraised, and aggro'd again before you could do anything. Then it was time to ask in LS for a raise.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

Yeah, until Invis or Sneak would wear off in the wrong place, you'd get killed, reraised, and aggro'd again before you could do anything. Then it was time to ask in LS for a raise.

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Between the chat log warnings that stuff was about to wear off, and the ability to die in a "safe" place, I never really had that issue. Once you'd traveled to a place a few times you know the way and getting there was no different than the old Amdapor Keep strategy sac pulling to the bosses.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

You mustn't have played a lot <_< there were areas where "safe places" were almost unexistant.

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There were always "safe" places, I say "safe" because they weren't always safe. Paying attention to a mobs movement helps a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I liked having to "prepare" to travel places, but it took much of the danger out. If anything my recollection of the situation might be tainted by playing to much, as in to the point where I had +12% Movement Speed and everything was a joke.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Between the chat log warnings that stuff was about to wear off, and the ability to die in a "safe" place, I never really had that issue.

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You mustn't have played a lot <_< there were areas where "safe places" were almost unexistant.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

Have a nostalgic laugh.

http://z4.invisionfree.com/HCII/ar/t2095.htm

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This is a great read, thank you for the lulz

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Originally Posted by ErzaScarlet77

so itll feel like actual world

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Eorzea is one continent. There is literally a whole world yet to explore.