One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

When I was playing Closed Beta. I noticed this problem too.

My own personal hope was that when the game came to release. This level 1 to 50 in one zone would be addressed.

Something like the starter zones was say Rank 1 - 20, 25 at a push, but at rank 20 you had the option to go to Isengard. Then Rank 40 ish to the third Map.

How much you guys wanna bet the most we'll get in response to this is "we'll look into it"? This topic has come up countless times before and its always been ignored. The images Yoshida posted up a little while back talking about adding quest hubs made it look like they are adding a few aesthetic pieces here and there and calling it a day - it even looks like they are designing around what we already have in the Shroud today. I'm not hopeful but this is the single worst thing about this game I agree with almost everything that has been said in this topic.

Continued attention will lead to change. ^^

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Originally Posted by Mack

How much you guys wanna bet the most we'll get in response to this is "we'll look into it"? This topic has come up countless times before and its always been ignored. The images Yoshida posted up a little while back talking about adding quest hubs made it look like they are adding a few aesthetic pieces here and there and calling it a day - it even looks like they are designing around what we already have in the Shroud today. I'm not hopeful but this is the single worst thing about this game I agree with almost everything that has been said in this topic.

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The image of the quest hub was a bit alarming as I was hoping they were in more remote locations. They may be, and that image may be in some remote area of black shroud. But I think they would've made a bigger impact had they shown a quest hub in Mor Dhona.

I think this topic has some great discussion points, and it would be a damn shame if SE doesn't at least read through this. Even though I'm sure they are aware of these issues, perhaps they don't understand the severity of these deficiencies.

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Originally Posted by Zhyrios

Farcry 2 had a a huge seamless 50km squared map, with much higher graphic quality and diversity than any of FFXIV's zones. So what's their excuse?

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I'm going to go with, "memory issues due to high resolution textures.", or something along those lines. Too lazy to find the direct quote.

And i'd be the first to call bullshit. It's nearly impossible to have memory issues on modern PCs. And the 360 only has 512MB RAM and Farcry 2 looked amazing.

Then again... Farcry 2 also ran on a heavily modified CryEngine, so it had world streaming, which, as we all know, Crystal Tools does not. Source of the problem? Hell no. I'm sitting in Uldah at the moment, FFXIV is eating about 700MB. They can pump this A LOT more.

Walking through the "zone tunnels" in FF14 takes longer than a zone screen in FF11...

I'm pretty sure SE could cut out those tunnels and add shorter zone screens than what was in FF11.

Then make the smaller zones more interesting.

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Originally Posted by Enthy

Walking through the "zone tunnels" in FF14 takes longer than a zone screen in FF11...

I'm pretty sure SE could cut out those tunnels and add shorter zone screens than what was in FF11.

Then make the smaller zones more interesting.

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Yea no kidding.

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Originally Posted by Mack

How much you guys wanna bet the most we'll get in response to this is "we'll look into it"? This topic has come up countless times before and its always been ignored. The images Yoshida posted up a little while back talking about adding quest hubs made it look like they are adding a few aesthetic pieces here and there and calling it a day - it even looks like they are designing around what we already have in the Shroud today. I'm not hopeful but this is the single worst thing about this game I agree with almost everything that has been said in this topic.

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Yeah Mack I have a feeling they'll probably just pass along the ideas in this discussion and we'll get a "We have no current plans at this time to rework any of the zones past frontier hubs" which would be a very big mistake on SE's part. At minimum they need to address the progression from area to area and make it more significant. Above all else I think this has to be a top priority for them.

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Originally Posted by Richard

Yeah Mack I have a feeling they'll probably just pass along the ideas in this discussion and we'll get a "We have no current plans at this time to rework any of the zones past frontier hubs" which would be a very big mistake on SE's part. At minimum they need to address the progression from area to area and make it more significant. Above all else I think this has to be a top priority for them.

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Once they roll-out this battle overhaul it HAS to be #1 priority. Anything else would be just . . . dumb

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Originally Posted by Enthy

Walking through the "zone tunnels" in FF14 takes longer than a zone screen in FF11...

I'm pretty sure SE could cut out those tunnels and add shorter zone screens than what was in FF11.

Then make the smaller zones more interesting.

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I must agree you make a wonderful point.

I do not understand the purpose for such long, drawn out choke-points between areas. Is it to divide our world? To present the illusion of boundaries throughout Thanalan and the Shroud? In the end, we are still in the Shroud. Whether it takes 5(+?) minutes to run to Emerald Moss or not, we are still in the Shroud. We take out our map, and we can see it. We look through our mini-map, and we see it.

I do not believe the tunnels add to the illusion of a seamless world (as we are still confined by zoning), but actually detracts from it.

But, we must also consider this as well: If there was something worth seeing on the other side of that tunnel, the trip along the way would not bother us.

If the tunnel stood between new areas, a new level range, a new experience, defined goals, progression...

If when we crossed into the new areas, and we hit 'M', and our map has changed to something new... Then I do not mind tunnels. Or seams.

Traveling there should mean something. When a lower ranking player sees a higher rank preparing to travel, they don't sit and wonder where we are going. They know where we're going. We're already there.

Thanks again every one. :)

Totally agree with the OP. It's saddening. At the very least chocobos and airships should help some, but.. it's just not the same as with XI.. Where you were pushed to new areas to explore and level in. I loved the milestones. XIV doesn't seem to have any, and it's far less enjoyable for me than XI was. I'm trying hard to stick with this game. It has the potential to become great.
The game world is nice, and the races and clans are interesting. But for me that's all the game has right now.
I have a hard time finding motivation to log on, as there really isn't anything for me to accomplish.
I like leveling/ranking and skilling up but there's nothing to do with those ranks right now so they feel very empty.
If SE can fix this game and put in a feeling of accomplishment and milestones I'd be willing to start all my characters over again to actually have a fun start and get some satisfaction from this game.

This thread has been first on Hot Topics ever since Sio posted it the night before. Good job guys keep up the discussion and lets hope for a dev post.

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Originally Posted by Richard

This thread has been first on Hot Topics ever since Sio posted it the night before. Good job guys keep up the discussion and lets hope for a dev post.

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Thank you, I very much hope all of our thoughts, ideas and opinions reach them. Even silently.

In the end, it simply comes down to: Where is the incentive for expansion beyond our world, when we never have to leave home? When 3 zones in the game alone completely cover all possible progression for our characters?

Why would they bother to create new areas, when we clearly do not need them? Wouldn't it be a mess to add new high level zones, on top of the starting zones which are already serving as high level zones?

Would the zones have purpose? Definition?

Is it enough to want for adventure and a long, experience-driven journey to inspire change?

I anticipate all other changes they are currently working on. However, I believe as others have said, that the world itself needs so much more than bandaids. Hubs are a great start, but this wound is not a flesh wound. It's far deeper than that.

I don't know how safe it is to keep building on top of this foundation. Eventually, if too much weight is added, would it be too much work to go back?

So many questions! What are your thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Siobu

I don't know how safe it is to keep building on top of this foundation. Eventually, if too much weight is added, would it be too much work to go back?

So many questions! What are your thoughts?

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Spot on and i think this is what the hopes and desires of this discussion is about. Fix it sooner than later because the latter will be 100% harder. We need Adventures in Eorzea not Bandaids in Eorzea :P

Zio, are you able to add the dev tag to this thread? Or is there a similar thread in the past that covers the same content that already received attention?

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Originally Posted by EdenArchangel

Zio, are you able to add the dev tag to this thread? Or is there a similar thread in the past that covers the same content that already received attention?

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Hello! I honestly am not sure if I can make any changes now. I am new to posting here. The only options I see are to close or delete. If anyone knows a way, I would be happy to oblige, though!

As far as another thread, I'm not sure. I think there was one regarding mainly 'Copy-Paste' a while back, but I wanted to discuss something a little different so I made my own. (Edit: If you mean a dev comment, then I'm not sure!)

Fleshing out the world would improve this game so much. They have the basis for some great lore and story, and God knows they gave themselves enough room to put this stuff in. It's disheartening for a lore nerd like me to read these flavorful stories and texts from NPCs only to find out that they're lying. A great war a few years ago between the five City States? Why are there no areas with long-forgotten warship debris, broken carts and withered suits of armor forgotten in the sand? What? Villagers being terrorized by demons hiding themselves as dodos?! There isn't a village, and the Imps aren't even doing anything menacing, they're just species confused and wandering on the side of a cliff. Little things like this really dent the immersion of the game right now. I don't know how hard it is to place a few trees in a row, wrap it with a fence, toss a few huts next to it, place a few NPC's and voila! Instant orchard? Place some giant bones jutting from the earth around Camp Drybone? Awesome zone+1! Use the the whole marshland thing going on in western thanalan to cover the whole zone? WHOAH we have some diversity ladies and gentlemen! These are, of course, some very small and silly suggestions, but hey, they would have made the zones a hell of a lot more interesting! Toss in some small settlements and towns(believe thats coming), woah, people actually live outside of Uldah! Add some interesting battle ruin and debris to stay true to NPC text? Yay, it kind of makes sense now! Here's for hoping!

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Originally Posted by Daedae

Fleshing out the world would improve this game so much. They have the basis for some great lore and story, and God knows they gave themselves enough room to put this stuff in. It's disheartening for a lore nerd like me to read these flavorful stories and texts from NPCs only to find out that they're lying. A great war a few years ago between the five City States? Why are there no areas with long-forgotten warship debris, broken carts and withered suits of armor forgotten in the sand? What? Villagers being terrorized by demons hiding themselves as dodos?! There isn't a village, and the Imps aren't even doing anything menacing, they're just species confused and wandering on the side of a cliff. Little things like this really dent the immersion of the game right now.

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I'm a lore nerd, too. I definitely feel your pain on this one. :(

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Originally Posted by Rowyne

I'm a lore nerd, too. I definitely feel your pain on this one. :(

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Bonding through pain, /hug

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Originally Posted by Daedae

Bonding through pain, /hug

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/hugs :)

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Originally Posted by EdenArchangel

Zio, are you able to add the dev tag to this thread? Or is there a similar thread in the past that covers the same content that already received attention?

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Originally Posted by Siobu

Hello! I honestly am not sure if I can make any changes now. I am new to posting here. The only options I see are to close or delete. If anyone knows a way, I would be happy to oblige, though!

As far as another thread, I'm not sure. I think there was one regarding mainly 'Copy-Paste' a while back, but I wanted to discuss something a little different so I made my own. (Edit: If you mean a dev comment, then I'm not sure!)

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You can add Dev tags to the very bottom of the page. Adding them to the title actually doesnt do anything to 'tag' the topic. I'm just not sure which dev tag is most appropriate.

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Originally Posted by Richard

Spot on and i think this is what the hopes and desires of this discussion is about. Fix it sooner than later because the latter will be 100% harder. We need Adventures in Eorzea not Bandaids in Eorzea :P

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I think they can make the current areas work with a little bit of love, and then make future zones more unique and less sprawling. Couple that with proper mob rank progression and quest content for each area and I think we'll be all set!

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Originally Posted by Sigmakan

I think they can make the current areas work with a little bit of love, and then make future zones more unique and less sprawling. Couple that with proper mob rank progression and quest content for each area and I think we'll be all set!

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I've been everywhere, and I'll be honest -- the rank 70+ areas are pathetic, haha.

Virtually identical areas continued...
The Isles of Umbra has a total of... 4 mob types and covers half the area of bearded rock?
Zan'rak is the same as broken water, just more narrow cliffs and drakes.
Absolutely nothing worth a 'goal' of making it there.

But, obviously the higher areas were the most rushed. I think we need to nip it in the bud, and not have current players or new players be forced to 'suffer' through what the new team can fix before caps rise. ^^


Oh, and here's a thought -- I don't recall concerns about the current zones being in any of the previous player polls. We must prioritize getting everyone's attention, and thus this post!

I agree with OP. I too hope for more diversity. Please SE invest in this, i know atleast 1 person who stopped playing a long time ago due to this issue, he just couldnt cope with levelling up his char in the same zone from 1 to 50.

While I find this thread is made of gold and almost everything said is 100% right for me, there's one little thing I have to say (dont know if it's already been said, still have to finish to read everything!)

Regarding the 1-50-in-one-zone problem: while I totally dont like the fact you can grind 1-50 in the same zone, I have also to say I find stupid that enemy level have to be strictly related to the zone. I mean, it's stupid if in one area you can only find, for example, 1-15 and in other areas just 15-25 like almost all FFXI zones.

But, actually, FFXIV managed to give this concept a very bad shape. So, what could be a solution?
Simple. Remember of FFXII, the first outside zone... with simple low level enemies but 1 deadly t-rex? (It even made me said: even if it doesnt drop a shit, when I'll be high level I'm gonna kill it!). Even in FFVIII outside Balamb Garden, if I remember well there was a T-Rex somewhere in a lil forest; it was very high for low levels characters. So, basically: variety is good, but only in a "good" way. Give the areas enemies of 1-50, other areas 20-45. Why not? But focus on 1 level range per zone (max 10, like 15-25), BUT adding some not-grindable (translation: only a few and/or long respawn time and/or very far between each other) higher/lower mobs.

Another solution (that can be added to first one in a second moment) would be... still focus on 1 level range (like 35-45) and make all enemies of that area 35-45. BUT! But enemies can grow their level if left unclaimed, but respawn with their proper level. And since we know, usually, in a place (think Qufim, Valkurm, etc) not every spot is that good to grind... voilà! We have enemy rank variations.


Regarding how FFXIV areas are now: they're nice to see. To see. Dot. Not to explore, to travel, to PLAY. They're too big, too "open" (I like open-feeling wide areas, but not when every area is). Think about Jugner Forest, that's a good example of a very nice to travel area. Then, instead, think to... the areas outside Jeuno (Sauro, Batallia and... and... oh, right, Rolanberry!). Those 3 are the ones that remind me of areas in FFXIV, but: they're 1000 times smaller, are mainly transition areas (to go, for example, in Jeuno itself or Garlaige)

PS: I'm not English so please dont be mean if I didnt write something correctly :V

I have never seen a topic in these forums where everybody agrees so much!

I have never seen a topic in these forums that I agree with so much!

Please fix this SE!!

Thank you Sigmakan, I see what you mean. :)

I searched through the tag section but unfortunately am not sure if any are appropriate as others have said. Even if we tag it to be related to frontier hubs, which might be the only applicable tag, the hubs themselves are a bandaid and not addressing the core issue at hand.

The current camps spread out across one zone, to level us from one to fifty, does not give us any sense of accomplishment, adventure, or achievement.

If we think of it like a situation in a cartoon: One cartoon character hands another a painting. Upon complaining that the painting needs a lot of work, more life, a composition... the painter takes out a crayon and scratches some trees on the canvas.

In a way, that is a crude example of how the frontier hubs might come across to some. We want to travel beyond these areas, but there's no reason to do so. I don't believe adding more hubs/camps to the existing areas will solve the issue. It's completely missing the issue.

I'm never one to turn down content, but it may be denying us expansion and the possibilities beyond our current areas. In a way, it's locking us even firmer into what we have.

Thank you all for your continued feedback. I hope my posts continue to trigger your own thoughts and ideas. :)

My problem is that all the zones look the same inside of the same region. Thanalan is a group of different zones but they all look so similar that most people don't notice. SE, add some diversity! Get rid of the crazy high lvl monsters for now if you need to make room. IDC!

The devs would have to be blind to miss this one, dev tag or not

I can understand how making each zone unique would take a lot of time and effort, the level of detail they put into things like the cities is incredible, and I'm sure it would take a lot of time to do this several more times over.

I'm almost certain that they are going to do something about this issue, if they could just let us know that they are, an enormous amount of people would be happy. I hope this is the big priority after the battle and job system.

EDIT: 99 likes on the first post! don't forget to like it!

I feel like posting some more in this topic so it can act like a stikied topic.

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Originally Posted by Alzelia

The devs would have to be blind to miss this one, dev tag or not

I can understand how making each zone unique would take a lot of time and effort, the level of detail they put into things like the cities is incredible, and I'm sure it would take a lot of time to do this several more times over.

I'm almost certain that they are going to do something about this issue, if they could just let us know that they are, an enormous amount of people would be happy. I hope this is the big priority after the battle and job system.

EDIT: 99 likes on the first post! don't forget to like it!

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With the Letter From The Producer XI + Battle video we should be getting this week, maybe they will touch on some info about how they plan to flesh out each zone more radically. /hope

I'm rather impressed that this thread has stayed on topic and didn't devolve into some kind of pointless debates. There is so much potential with this idea. They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.
However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan. While these areas would help bring in some new excitement and diversity, we would also need to have a reason to go there outside of a quick class quest. ATM everyone stays in Ul'dah because of the central location and the better leves. They will have to redistribute the mob types, ranks, and party leves to force character/player progression and skill, as well as give us an incentive to leave Ul'duh.

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However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan.

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Yea but those are the equivalent of Norg, Aht Urghan, Whitegate (I dunno what else I didn't stick around much longer after Aht Urghan) areas in FFXI which came much later. The current regions we have are pretty much equivalent to vanilla FFXI and if you count each section of the regions separately you will get almost the same number of zones from XI except that they decided to make them seamless and all look the same, at the expense of loading? someone said it best when they said the run between each area (i.e., central to eastern Thanalan) takes longer than a loading screen.

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someone said it best when they said the run between each area (i.e., central to eastern Thanalan) takes longer than a loading screen.

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I would trade completely unique zones, full of vibrancy and life WITH a 10 second loading screen, over a "seamless" copypasta world any day of the week and having to travel even longer than 10 seconds between them. As long as SE knows the rest of the community feels the same way and strongly about it, maybe they will put more action into doing it.

I am for numerous loading screens in favor of more variety in the landscapes with a sense of direction. More zones also create more music for the zones which I'm also in favor for.

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Originally Posted by Sigmakan

The image of the quest hub was a bit alarming as I was hoping they were in more remote locations. They may be, and that image may be in some remote area of black shroud. But I think they would've made a bigger impact had they shown a quest hub in Mor Dhona.

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The quest hub in the Shroud is on that long path between Bent Branch and Tranquil where there's an opening with some text on the map. Thanalan's is just west of Horizon and I think La Noscea's is near Bloodshore. This is all pointing to mid rank content but who knows?

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Originally Posted by Mack

Yea but those are the equivalent of Norg, Aht Urghan, Whitegate (I dunno what else I didn't stick around much longer after Aht Urghan) areas in FFXI which came much later.

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Don't get me wrong, I know they are not coming soon, but it is small glimmer of hope to know that it should be coming in that form at least.
And yes there needs to be more detail/diversity and less copypasta in each zone/region w/e. Why is it called Drybone? Where are the bones? Where is the water in Broken Water? Where is all the moss in Emerald Moss? They don't have to be obvious and cheesy things like that, but it gets the point across.

Also, it seems like they tried too hard keep it from being a bit like XI when everyone over 20 was in Jueno. They tried to make each zone self-sufficient for each starting city in XIV, almost as if they wanted us to stay in our home regions for the most part. Instead it made things pretty stale.

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Originally Posted by Xenor

The quest hub in the Shroud is on that long path between Bent Branch and Tranquil where there's an opening with some text on the map. Thanalan's is just west of Horizon and I think La Noscea's is near Bloodshore. This is all pointing to mid rank content but who knows?

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/sulk




/10char

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Originally Posted by Ogun_Riastradh

They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.

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Excellent comparison!

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I'm rather impressed that this thread has stayed on topic and didn't devolve into some kind of pointless debates. There is so much potential with this idea. They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.
However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan. While these areas would help bring in some new excitement and diversity, we would also need to have a reason to go there outside of a quick class quest. ATM everyone stays in Ul'dah because of the central location and the better leves. They will have to redistribute the mob types, ranks, and party leves to force character/player progression and skill, as well as give us an incentive to leave Ul'duh.

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I would like to have seen a debate actually. I can't fathom anyone being able to logically say anything of value in a negative light about the OP. So it mighta been kinda interesting for someone to try. Oh well too true even for the seemingly unstoppable force in humanity that is pride and always wanting to be right or disagree. lol