An Eorzea that is more 'alive' and dynamic. - A suggestion for the future of Eorzea

I'd like to see NPCs move around from place to place and have a schedule, and have conversations with other NPCs as well. A good example of what i'm talking about is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Having a system like that (but not having them only talk about mudcrabs and goblins to each other) and such would be a great addition to the game imo and would defenitely make the world seem more alive than it does now. It's kinda boring seeing the NPCs stand in one place all the time to be truthful.

One thing that I really feel could add to the dynamics and life of the game is scaling up the cities by their economy.
Basically everyone who plays is adding to the economy amount of money in their starting city. So say Gridina's players have the most gold (yeah right), the city gets more NPCs walking around (can't talk to them they just add to the liveliness of the city) more shops open up with better stuff to buy, and festival decorations become more extravagant.

Basically it's like campaign from FFXI but based on the economy (which makes sense for this game as it is so crafting heavy). It would add a lot to the liveliness of the game and help it feel more dynamic.

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Originally Posted by Darte

One thing I always found odd while traversing through the many streams of the black shroud was, why isn't my character being reflected in the water? Ok I understood for FFXI there were limitations because of the technology but I feel XIV should at least have little things like that.

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This may be nitpicking background nazi of me, but for real what killed immersion in the black shroud was those rivers, they had the same entrance to go across them, they were copy pasta'd (this i didn't mind as much, you don't have to make 7 different rivers just make the ledge to cross them in different places). Also these rivers do not go anywhere that I can physically see.

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Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

My list of ideas to make Eorzea feel more alive (in any given order):

- addition of story driven dialogue from ALL NPCs in all cities, from small one liners to entire tales (text is just fine)

- addition of 1000+ quests for absolutely everything, each one telling a little more of the story and lore

- addition of 100+ roaming Notorious Monsters small and large, scattered all over Eorzea that all drop ra/ex equipment

- addition of more and diverse (climate/terrain) dungeons, with treasure chests, and quests associated with exploring and looting these chests

- addition of several smaller towns, with unique story lines, quests and items associated with it

- small mini-games unique to each city (gambling, tournaments, etc) that players can compete with one another

- traveling quests are always a great way to introduce all of the areas to explore (escort quests come to mind)

- Chocobos, and Chocobo music ;)

- much more interesting ferry rides (sea monsters and pirates, yes please)

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^ This, plus phantom train. (instanced dungeon with boss at the end. transports you from ul'dah to ishgarde)

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Originally Posted by Anathiel

^ This, plus phantom train. (instanced dungeon with boss at the end. transports you from ul'dah to ishgarde)

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I like this phantom train idea, it doesn't have to be a train like people nitpick on, it could be a phantom ship, phantom airship, phantom train ran on the blood of lallafells (jk jk), they can change this content idea to match the lore, we just want a transportation device type dungeon. Hell i'd take MMM right now :[

First off I think they need to improve mob AI and movement. Mobs feel lifeless like they are just these statues waiting for you to smash them. Combine this with the cumbersome UI/Battle system it makes for a very unnatural experience.

I think the game can be more fun if time was taken to make the current Guildleves and Behests more interesting. If you improved mob AI and mob parties were more threatening players may actually have to come up with strategies to beat them instead of just zerging.

Way too much copy and pasted terrain, we need more variety. We need farms and NPCs out working in the fields. We also need Beastmen and raiders wandering around setting up camps. Lots of roaming NMs that disrupt the peace with unexpected encounters.

We also need CoP caliber missions that are heavily story driven and are challenging and require more strategy.

I think the way character models and NPCs move and behave can be improved as well. Players and NPCs feel lifeless also. The models are very pretty but they are very stiff and movement is clunky. Actions and abilities are very redundant. Watching mages use the exact same "dart" and spell casting animations over and over again is very painful

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Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

My list of ideas to make Eorzea feel more alive (in any given order):

- addition of story driven dialogue from ALL NPCs in all cities, from small one liners to entire tales (text is just fine)

- addition of 1000+ quests for absolutely everything, each one telling a little more of the story and lore

- addition of 100+ roaming Notorious Monsters small and large, scattered all over Eorzea that all drop ra/ex equipment

- addition of more and diverse (climate/terrain) dungeons, with treasure chests, and quests associated with exploring and looting these chests

- addition of several smaller towns, with unique story lines, quests and items associated with it

- small mini-games unique to each city (gambling, tournaments, etc) that players can compete with one another

- traveling quests are always a great way to introduce all of the areas to explore (escort quests come to mind)

- Chocobos, and Chocobo music ;)

- much more interesting ferry rides (sea monsters and pirates, yes please)

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... how revolutionary... /sarcasm

I was in Coerthas today (still am) and while there an Infero Drake attacked me.

It shot what looked like sticks at me.

WTF?

Shouldn't it have roared a jet of fire at me or something?

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Originally Posted by gifthorse

I was in Coerthas today (still am) and while there an Infero Drake attacked me.

It shot what looked like sticks at me.

WTF?

Shouldn't it have roared a jet of fire at me or something?

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Hey man don't downplay the danger of sticks, sticks are deadly objects of death and destruction so don't be fooled by their seemingly unthreatening wooden exterior!

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Originally Posted by Nahaara

Hey man don't downplay the danger of sticks, sticks are deadly objects of death and destruction so don't be fooled by their seemingly unthreatening wooden exterior!

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I wasn't underestimating their danger, just pondering their relevance.

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Originally Posted by gifthorse

I wasn't underestimating their danger, just pondering their relevance.

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How about a compromise then? Flaming sticks!

If we're talking about immersion I'd like it if they focused on Guildleves, to be honest. They're content you do daily, and they feel really random and lame the way they are, as far as immersion, "life" or story goes.

I made a thread about this in the Guildleve forums after reading this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ugh-Guildleves

Feel free to tear the ideas down.

Posting the link here because it's probably better than writing another wall of text which is going to say the same things, but basically by creating the right NPC/building/object context for Guildleves (which is already mentioned by the game, it just doesn't exist), you take care of two problems:
-Guildleves feeling seemingly random
-The world having no interesting landmarks and a lot of repetitive areas

It's not something I want them to do as soon as possible (there are more important matters at hand), but it's something I'd like for them to do someday.

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Originally Posted by Nahaara

How about a compromise then? Flaming sticks!

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now we are getting somewhere...

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Originally Posted by gifthorse

... how revolutionary... /sarcasm

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You really don't get it, do you? We don't need revolutionary at this point. We need tried and proven formulas to at least form the backbone of this game, and give players a reason to play in the meantime.

I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel. I'm just pointing out to the dev team, my personal opinion on obvious fixes I would like to see implemented first. How does the expression go? "If ain't broke, don't fix it." These methods obviously helped XI be a successful game, and I believe it can do the same for XIV.

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Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

You really don't get it, do you? We don't need revolutionary at this point. We need tried and proven formulas to at least form the backbone of this game, and give players a reason to play in the meantime.

I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel. I'm just pointing out to the dev team, my personal opinion on obvious fixes I would like to see implemented first. How does the expression go? "If ain't broke, don't fix it." These methods obviously helped XI be a successful game, and I believe it can do the same for XIV.

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While we appreciate your platitudes, everything you mentioned was more or less features the development team are already intending to implement, and most of which won't help make the world feel more alive nor dynamic, but perhaps only the reverse. Static quests, for example, although contributing to the lore of the world, are somewhat dead and static compared to quests which can change in response to changes in the world.

And if such additions are as obvious as you claim them to be, then I'm sure the development team won't overlook them. I think the suggestions in this thread should be aimed toward things the development team might forget to implement or decide not to implment. In the case of dynamic quests, it is just so much easier for them to make static quests, but perhaps not so interesting for the players.

oblivion uses raident AI and it can be deadly in the wrong hands. Like in oblivion npc can steal amd kill each other. I ran into everyone in the market area in the large city killing each other. XD was uh.. interesting.

But ya that does make a game more lively so is chat animations similar to the npcs for side quests, 1 side quest had an npc appear to talk not in a cs. At least time lip movememt not some moving doll that just stand and stares w/o moving anything.....

Sadly, they did overlook these things. Initially in development, then in alpha, and finally in beta. The fact that we still don't have some of these features really makes me wonder what kind of a game plan the original development team had. I think they tried entirely too hard to be different, and didn't focus and incorporate what made XI (which this is modeled after, and target audience), successful.

You can say, for arguments sake, the game's release was rushed, after all. It just seems the prioritizing of the basic elements/core of the game were not ordered correctly. Alas, I am not a game developer, so what do I know? I just call it like I see it.

More than anything I want to have moments in this game that I will remember for a very, very long time. That is what stands out most to me about FFXI. It had flavor. These "memorable moments" were usually heavily influenced by the immersion of the game world. Be it a hard core instanced battle, trekking up a mountain with an alliance till kill a Wyrm, or your first steps in Sky and Sea, FFXI was chalk FULL of memorable moments.

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Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

Sadly, they did overlook these things. Initially in development, then in alpha, and finally in beta. The fact that we still don't have some of these features really makes me wonder what kind of a game plan the original development team had. I think they tried entirely too hard to be different, and didn't focus and incorporate what made XI (which this is modeled after, and target audience), successful.

You can say, for arguments sake, the game's release was rushed, after all. It just seems the prioritizing of the basic elements/core of the game were not ordered correctly. Alas, I am not a game developer, so what do I know? I just call it like I see it.

More than anything I want to have moments in this game that I will remember for a very, very long time. That is what stands out most to me about FFXI. It had flavor. These "memorable moments" were usually heavily influenced by the immersion of the game world. Be it a hard core instanced battle, trekking up a mountain with an alliance till kill a Wyrm, or your first steps in Sky and Sea, FFXI was chalk FULL of memorable moments.

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Well basically you just asked for hundreds of quests, quest hubs, chocobos, more zones, and improvements to existing systems. And it's kind of expected that SE will implement such things in time. The small hamlets already exist on the fringes of the current zones, with guilds and NPCs just waiting to have something to do. So I am sure SE intends to utilise them.

I must give you credit for your minigame suggestion, and I hope we get something of the sort. But I'm just saying, the things you suggested were already expected to come to FFXIV, and dare I say they were rather uninspiring suggestions at that.

I think memorable moments can be created by a myriad of things not typically exclusive to hundred of quests and suchlike things.

Here is something i posted time ago about beast tribes and enemies and maybe this could belongs here (sorry for wot):

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Premise: communication with these tribes could be possibile through special sidequest (with several chains) to learn their languages. A different sidequest for every tribe language.

* Friends and Haters
Initially some tribes could be hostile but you could make some of them (not all of course) friendly to you. To make them friendly:
- sidequests to help them,
- offer them some type of gift/item (through Parley or a different version of it),
- kill the tribe they hate.

Some could be neutral or friendly initially but you could bring them to hate you, if:
- kill (many times) some particular animal/mob they venerate (btw that mob shouldn't be a very important resource for the player and maybe every time you kill one, a text-information about your action should be displayed -example: "you killed a monster sacred to >name tribe<"),
- help other tribes they hate.

Some of them could become your friends in battles. You could 'summon/call' them for a limited amount of time. Or make one of them in a 'temporary' companion in a particular area only (near where he lives for example). But, of course, if you call a beastman while there is another in battle and this is from another tribe it hates, they could fight eachother.


* Deal with them
I noticed there are a sort of beastmen currencies in game already, so you could:
- make deals with some of them (friendly or neutral ones): for example to buy some items by specific NPC-beastmen. Some could be travellers/merchants around the world. Some could have their huts/caves as home, in specific zones (seen a sort of it in the Gridania forest -Silph tribe hut?-).
- make barters with some type of goods with them (they could ask you some particular items/goods around the area of another tribes they can't reach).


* Home sweet home
They should have their homes. Villages or camps around the world. Or maybe a little main 'city' ('big village' is more appropriate). What you could find inside (you can access it if you are a friend of course):
- facilities to help in a particular crafting,
- unique spots to fish/harvest/mine particular stuff,
- some of them could teach you some 'general/enviromental' abilities/traits,
- unique shops.
- mini-games (always appreciated).


* Misc
- Some of the tribes could prefer to go around only during the night time (but you always could find few of them around on daylight time). Their home is underground.
- all tribes should hunt other animals/monsters for their survival (but some could be vegetarian only).
- the most ferocious tribes (those is impossible to become friends) could attack cities and villages (with the help of particular NMs too) randomly, but not often. And the possibility to conquest their main village too (if any) with a massive players attack.

And regard a possibile Hamlet Defence, mentioned in a past devs. post in Lodestone, i'd like to see some kind of "conquest" alike method with territorial defence against evil beast tribes, more expanded and deep than the FF11 one. For example tribes could roaming with patrols in some areas if they conquest the region or part of it. And if players leave them without attacking for awhile, they could build some fortications as well (more you leave them stay there, more they become stronger). In that case they'll build their Hamlets you'll have to conquest to regain the territory.

What could happen during the period of conquest,

If the territory is in Players hands:
- players will have available some sort of transpostations (airships, caravans, etc.) and experience/sp bonus in that specific area.
- players can make Hamlet. Possibility to increase the fortifications and the strenght of it, by giving specific items to a specific Hamlet NPC in place (with little rewards too).

If the territory is in Beastmen hands:
- players benefits mentioned above are cancelled (players could re-conquest also every single transportation point).
- beast tribe makes patrols in the area and Hamlets (more time passes, more the hamlet will become difficult to conquest).
- specific NMs appear in the area (but not 'useful' NMs for players if not players could be pushed to leave conquest the area by Beastmen only to kill those NMs eheh).


Instead, about enemies distribution, i think one thing to do is that every monster should be in its right habitat as well. Some mobs aren't now. For example i saw a Toxic Toad in a clean pond in Coerthas.. that is a bit strange. Hope when these adjustments will be made, a check about these details will be made too.

And it would be nice adding some big and rare monsters that appear sometimes and randomly in a, every time different, place around the world (or it could roam through different zones and maybe it also could have a hidden hideout to rest, you can find with some hints). Like a flying dragon that approaches near a lake or a giant aquatic creature we can see emerges on the ocean horizon.
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Originally Posted by gifthorse

Well basically you just asked for hundreds of quests, quest hubs, chocobos, more zones, and improvements to existing systems. And it's kind of expected that SE will implement such things in time. The small hamlets already exist on the fringes of the current zones, with guilds and NPCs just waiting to have something to do. So I am sure SE intends to utilise them.

I must give you credit for your minigame suggestion, and I hope we get something of the sort. But I'm just saying, the things you suggested were already expected to come to FFXIV, and dare I say they were rather uninspiring suggestions at that.

I think memorable moments can be created by a myriad of things not typically exclusive to hundred of quests and suchlike things.

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That very simple list I posted was not meant to be imaginative, it was meant to be me prioritizing the basic elements I would like to see implemented FIRST. These are the things that I believe will make the game world more alive, without changing too much of anything else.

I'm sure I could sit here for hours and think of new, creative ways to accomplish this, but at this point I just want the fundamentals of what I think this game should be. SE have the outlines drawn already, they just need to color them in.

As far as memorable moments go, my list wasn't a direct fix to this at all. This is ideally what kind of experience and immersion I want in the end. After the polish, if you will. I want to be forced through stress-inducing scenarios that will leave me in awe and fill me with a sense of accomplishment once I complete them. Some pretty cut scenes and epic music would always be welcome.

Think FFXIV needs its own sorta Campgian battle, and Area of Control.

Like with Campgian you had waves of enemys running to destroy outposts that you needed to protect.
Area of Control is pretty much who has killed the most enemys in the area, with FFXI if your from bastok and you slay a monster in a area that region your nation would get credit. Players from that nation would get boosts beinging in that area or on top of having the most areas under control. SP/EXP boost anyone? FFXIV has its own areas that are very large and could count as a region by themselfs.

Empire, Ulha, Lims, Grindnna, beastmen... fighting over regions.

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Originally Posted by solracht

If we're talking about immersion I'd like it if they focused on Guildleves, to be honest. They're content you do daily, and they feel really random and lame the way they are, as far as immersion, "life" or story goes.

I made a thread about this in the Guildleve forums after reading this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ugh-Guildleves

Feel free to tear the ideas down.

Posting the link here because it's probably better than writing another wall of text which is going to say the same things, but basically by creating the right NPC/building/object context for Guildleves (which is already mentioned by the game, it just doesn't exist), you take care of two problems:
-Guildleves feeling seemingly random
-The world having no interesting landmarks and a lot of repetitive areas

It's not something I want them to do as soon as possible (there are more important matters at hand), but it's something I'd like for them to do someday.

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I totally agree with that, some leves really feel 'random' because the situation/consequences/objects/etc from the leve's description are nowhere to be found in the world. Feels like two different world on top of each other: one completely static for adventurers to walk in, one very dynamic described in the leves where things are happening BUT are not reflected in the world we play, the first world.

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Originally Posted by Munba

Here is something i posted time ago about beast tribes and enemies and maybe this could belongs here (sorry for wot):

___________________________
Premise: communication with these tribes could be possibile through special sidequest (with several chains) to learn their languages. A different sidequest for every tribe language.

[...]

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I really like your idea! :o

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Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

This may be nitpicking background nazi of me, but for real what killed immersion in the black shroud was those rivers, they had the same entrance to go across them, they were copy pasta'd (this i didn't mind as much, you don't have to make 7 different rivers just make the ledge to cross them in different places). Also these rivers do not go anywhere that I can physically see.

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reflected in the water would Kill most players FPS, The game is running on DX9 i think onces they update to DX10 or DX11 we would have this but for now it's not needed. Most high end Video card still cost 160-250+$ i like for them to add this later with the idea that i can turn it on/off within FFXIV config.

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Originally Posted by Venat

Think FFXIV needs its own sorta Campgian battle, and Area of Control.

Like with Campgian you had waves of enemys running to destroy outposts that you needed to protect.
Area of Control is pretty much who has killed the most enemys in the area, with FFXI if your from bastok and you slay a monster in a area that region your nation would get credit. Players from that nation would get boosts beinging in that area or on top of having the most areas under control. SP/EXP boost anyone? FFXIV has its own areas that are very large and could count as a region by themselfs.

Empire, Ulha, Lims, Grindnna, beastmen... fighting over regions.

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territorial control and warfare would be good, but perhaps implemented more naturally and organically than the way in which FFXI implemented it.

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Originally Posted by gifthorse

territorial control and warfare would be good, but perhaps implemented more naturally and organically than the way in which FFXI implemented it.

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I second this idea, a more 'natural' and fluid transition in territorial control would be great (as well as REAL BIG changes when the enemy controls it, i.e. devastation, etc.)

Hey everyone!
I have been reading many of the replies to the thread and I am surprised almost everyone focused on battle and danger to make the games world more alive. I have been studying sociology and human behaviour my whole life (thats my job actually) and I say that because I think if what you really want is the feeling of a real world where things happen, devs should focus on feelings, not in random battles or attacks. I cant disagree more in the idea of implementing FFXI's campaing battle. A piece of terrain where music changes suddenly and random monsters come to get control of a flag won't make the world look more alive... it might be fun, I dont disagree with that, but won't make us love Eaorzeans more.
Fists of all the game lacks of personal background. When you first choose a city the main storyquest starts and it focus on you and shows no background of inhabitants or city story. My second thought is the world is pretty much empty as there is a lack of small citys and towns (sure there is the "Bazaars in Thanalan, and some other small points, but not like NPCs there got a living or do anything special), so basically the world is not alive because there is not live there at all. So why do we want more monsters and more ordes attacking towns when we dont care about citizens at all? Sure the devs made a huge, huge world, which we sense as a copy-pasted terrain, not as territory we want to fight for. Comparing to previous game (which is something I dont really like to do, but at this point might be necessary) FFXI, we had smaller areas, but many of them, which different characteristics and landscapes. Each of them had its part of story and you need to know them in order to advance in game. Sure we have "Camps" , but in my oppinion camps don't have an old lady washing clothes which has lost her son in a battle or a wise elder which hates lalafels and wants to make soup with them. Again comparing to previous SEs MMORPG, around Windy we had Sarutabaruta and there we had Horutoto. That gave us a background of the area, and the story of the place, quests and main scenario helped filling our brain with the idea the world was ritch and alive, and that it was alive before we even started playing around it. Eaorzea is not like that. It's empty, but not empty with things or battles, is empty of culture and history, it feels like a bunch of beautiful graphics all togheter. In my opinion it feels like a big and well decorated gift box, and when you carefully unwrap it and open it.. it's almost empty. So my point: Why do we want more monsters attacking, and acting around camps like random when we don't care what they do or their intentions? In FFXIV we kill animals just to kill them. Honestly has anyone found the point (not personal gains but for the good of Eaorzea) on Behests? Hey! Gather togheter, lets kill some random animals that are around here to keep adventurers busy!
Sure we need more battle content and the feeling that something terrible is about to happen to make our hearts anxious, but we need to care about the world first, because you can add as many actors you want to an act, but if the story lacks of feelings and interest it's going to be boring anyway. How are we going to feel the World alive without feelings, and how are we going to have feelings for a World if its empty of those? Let's add content, but not empty one please.

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Originally Posted by Procas

Hey everyone!
I have been reading many of the replies to the thread and I am surprised almost everyone focused on battle and danger to make the games world more alive. I have been studying sociology and human behaviour my whole life (thats my job actually) and I say that because I think if what you really want is the feeling of a real world where things happen, devs should focus on feelings, not in random battles or attacks. I cant disagree more in the idea of implementing FFXI's campaing battle. A piece of terrain where music changes suddenly and random monsters come to get control of a flag won't make the world look more alive... it might be fun, I dont disagree with that, but won't make us love Eaorzeans more.
Fists of all the game lacks of personal background. When you first choose a city the main storyquest starts and it focus on you and shows no background of inhabitants or city story. My second thought is the world is pretty much empty as there is a lack of small citys and towns (sure there is the "Bazaars in Thanalan, and some other small points, but not like NPCs there got a living or do anything special), so basically the world is not alive because there is not live there at all. So why do we want more monsters and more hordes attacking towns when we dont care about citizens at all? Sure the devs made a huge, huge world, which we sense as a copy-pasted terrain, not as territory we want to fight for. Comparing to previous game (which is something I dont really like to do, but at this point might be necessary) FFXI, we had smaller areas, but many of them, which different characteristics and landscapes. Each of them had its part of story and you need to know them in order to advance in game. Sure we have "Camps" , but in my oppinion camps don't have an old lady washing clothes which has lost her son in a battle or a wise elder which hates lalafels and wants to make soup with them. Again comparing to previous SEs MMORPG, around Windy we had Sarutabaruta and there we had Horutoto. That gave us a background of the area, and the story of the place, quests and main scenario helped filling our brain with the idea the world was ritch and alive, and that it was alive before we even started playing around it. Eaorzea is not like that. It's empty, but not empty with things or battles, is empty of culture and history, it feels like a bunch of beautiful graphics all togheter. In my opinion it feels like a big and well decorated gift box, and when you carefully unwrap it and open it.. it's almost empty. So my point: Why do we want more monsters attacking, and acting around camps like random when we don't care what they do or their intentions? In FFXIV we kill animals just to kill them. Honestly has anyone found the point (not personal gains but for the good of Eaorzea) on Behests? Hey! Gather togheter, lets kill some random animals that are around here to keep adventurers busy!
Sure we need more battle content and the feeling that something terrible is about to happen to make our hearts anxious, but we need to care about the world first, because you can add as many actors you want to an act, but if the story lacks of feelings and interest it's going to be boring anyway. How are we going to feel the World alive without feelings, and how are we going to have feelings for a World if its empty of those? Let's add content, but not empty one please.

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I agree with your opinion on this, it is true that I don't feel anything about the citizens of Eorzea and mostly for the reasons you said. I am not an expert on this, but making the players realize their land and its people are important may just be what we need to enhance our Eorzean adventure. Why would we want to protect we don't care about? Why would we want to protect the land that needs no protecting, because in the end, nothing will change if we don't.

Same goes for behest; ever since my first behest I always wondered my the battlemaster talks about protecting Eorzea from danger when we just go out in the field and fight disorganized regular animals. These animals fill the whole place and then we wake up one morning and go kill them to "protect the land from danger"? Shouldn't it be a bunch of bandits, priates, assassins, whatever that we get to fight (and they could have some tamed animals too) in behest? And when nobody participates in behest, these bandits/assassins/whatever come at the camp and the guards have to fight to protect it. Of course, that would need to be different from each camp, lower rank camps should still just be aggressive animals to make the roads safer (and the battlemaster should say it: make the roads safer since there are too many wolves for example). That would be epic to see, that would make sense with the description of many leves (including local leve) we do, that would make sense as a threat.

(Please note, the examples given are just examples. Focus on the idea behind them, that's what important.)

But still, it would mean nothing to have such great behest without the key element...
I'll finish with the key quote of Procas:
So why do we want more monsters and more hordes attacking towns when we dont care about citizens (and the land) at all?

I'm agree with you Procas and Nakiamiie and i think something is moving in this way with the new sidequests. Lore also means you know who you are defending, in case of war. And they have to add more citizens making stuff and living around as well. But also having a dynamic and evolving world is important to make it alive and real.

Btw, i'm agree on Behest. An activity without a real meaning. They could bring the Behest to a new level, with the Companies. Maybe to contribuite to defeat the Garlean or beastmen patrols instead of poor animals, if a war incoming.

Some suggestions about music and sound effects,

- some 'far' parts of an area/region (maybe some corners of the map) should have no music and only sound effects, like to say that place is so far from the city and so desolated that also the music doesn't reach it.

- villages should have a music theme, maybe one per region (ex. Aleport and Winport = same music) ...or also one for all.

- La Noscea region needs some extra sound effects during the night (during the day there are seagull sounds, so it's ok), because now we can hear only the wind sometimes and the place seems not to have night life. Because the region is blowy and there aren't so many trees (so i don't think there could be owls around), some 'single' cricket sounds here and there could be good to add. Btw also during the night we could hear some sparse seagulls near the coast.

- Adventures Guilds should have some 'tavern sounds', like glasses sound, voices 'buzz' and stuff.

- and, like said in a previous post, volume music should be more 'subtle' in the night. So maybe the system could lower the music volume automatically during the night time (8pm-6am) so to emphasize the sound effects and the quiet in that period.

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Originally Posted by Munba

Some suggestions about music and sound effects,

- some 'far' parts of an area/region (maybe some corners of the map) should have no music and only sound effects, like to say that place is so far from the city and so desolated that also the music doesn't reach it.

- villages should have a music theme, maybe one per region (ex. Aleport and Winport = same music) ...or also one for all.

- La Noscea region needs some extra sound effects during the night (during the day there are seagull sounds, so it's ok), because now we can hear only the wind sometimes and the place seems not to have night life. Because the region is blowy and there aren't so many trees (so i don't think there could be owls around), some 'single' cricket sounds here and there could be good to add. Btw also during the night we could hear some sparse seagulls near the coast.

- Adventures Guilds should have some 'tavern sounds', like glasses sound, voices 'buzz' and stuff.

- and, like said in a previous post, volume music should be more 'subtle' in the night. So maybe the system could lower the music volume automatically during the night time (8pm-6am) so to emphasize the sound effects and the quiet in that period.

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The also need to trash the Ul'dah theme when you reach places like the Thaumaturge Guild and the Alchemy Guild. Those areas are way to solemn too have such a happy theme song.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Munba

Some suggestions about music and sound effects,

- some 'far' parts of an area/region (maybe some corners of the map) should have no music and only sound effects, like to say that place is so far from the city and so desolated that also the music doesn't reach it.

- villages should have a music theme, maybe one per region (ex. Aleport and Winport = same music) ...or also one for all.

- La Noscea region needs some extra sound effects during the night (during the day there are seagull sounds, so it's ok), because now we can hear only the wind sometimes and the place seems not to have night life. Because the region is blowy and there aren't so many trees (so i don't think there could be owls around), some 'single' cricket sounds here and there could be good to add. Btw also during the night we could hear some sparse seagulls near the coast.

- Adventures Guilds should have some 'tavern sounds', like glasses sound, voices 'buzz' and stuff.

- and, like said in a previous post, volume music should be more 'subtle' in the night. So maybe the system could lower the music volume automatically during the night time (8pm-6am) so to emphasize the sound effects and the quiet in that period.

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The pub theme from tsugunai. Its perfect

I'd add also the other topic OP from Cairdeas here, to put all in one topic and not forget nice ideas:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...eem-more-alive.

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Environmental Effects that make the game world seem more alive.

One of the things I've been seeing a few people complain about in a few different threads is how "Boring" the game world seems in some areas. So i just wanted to take the time to see if we could come up with Ideas of small simple to implement Elements that would make the game world seem more real.


1. Non-Combat Wildlife / urban animals:
What I mean is wildlife that doesn't follow the same rules as normal Monsters in the game. This is things like small snakes, lizards, birds, insects, rodents, etc that are normally too small to notice as a threat to players, not targetable, and are simply there to have things appear to move about in lifelike manners. With the recent changes to how Monsters are sized this makes more sense. The reason we are culling large numbers of Marmots is because they have gotten so big that they are most likely destroying crops etcs. While a few mice hanging out in the Culinary Guild might be pets of the guild members who feed them cheese. You could even have instances where one of them might cut a piece of cheese off and walk over, feed a small group of mice then have the mice roam around carrying the cheese about. Every now and then stopping to eat the cheese.

Dogs running around cities with kids chasing them. Cats hanging out on roof tops, stalking the mice hanging out in the Culinary Guild.

Birds flying through cities, hamlets, and world areas. Birds that come and fitter about your head when you get to close to their nest in a tree in Gridania.

Owls hanging out in trees at night and disappearing during the day.

Snakes randomly slithering across pathways in the forest.

Chocobos roaming the wild off in edges of the world players can see but can not reach normally

Fish, whales, dolphins, and other marine life swimming about near the ferry, jumping out and splashing every now and then. Coming close to shore and doing the same.


2. Plantlife that "interacts" with the player and the game world.

The best example I can use to describe this is the scene from Avatar where JAKE SULLY goes about touching plants and they glow, snap open or closed, etc.

But also we need plants that seem to move on their own, spitting seeds and pollen into the air that floats about.

3. Non-Weather Based Weather Effects...

This is hard to really describe. But these are normally considered weather phenomena. The main one is Heat Waves and Mirages in the desert areas. Dust in the sky from wind blowing sand everywhere. Dust Storms etc.

Tornado. I'd love to see Tornadoes.

Comments added by other users:

fireflies at night and pigeons in some city plazas ground that fly away when you approach them.

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You should see the cities in Guild Wars 2, NPCS walking around living their lives having conversations with each other. It all just seems so alive. It makes FF XIV look really bad.

I would love to see NPCs help you in a fight if you run back to camp and are chanced by a monster, then guards at camp should react to the mob and take it down. Of course you would get an sp/xp cut, or none at all, but it would at least give me the feeling that the guards are there and will do their job if needed.

Agree with Munba and Cairdeas on both points.

I like this idea very much. It does seem too stable in its current state. In other MMORPGs, there are friendly mobs that wonder fields and open towns.

Now, not to rip off of any other MMORPG, it would be cool to have something like the Bunnies from FFXII, just run away from you at incredible speeds if you get too close. Trying to take a picture of them would be a pain. lol

Some wildlife like that could do wonders.

Some ideas, people might have already posted them, but I am too lazy to see 20 pages of responses, on that BTW, why not make a compilation of all the ideas in one single post, so people can see them all together and comment or suggest new ones. This will also show SE what people think will help making Eorzea a better world.

*** Note. For the Trolls... Some of the ideas might be from other games, i dont claim the ideas been mine.

In genereal for all Cities / Towns
* Town Criers - Adding "Town Criers" with different kind of news, like weathers in different near by areas, time arrivals of future transportation methods "Ferry/Airships arrival/departure times", reminder of the arrival of new leves(reset timers), special leves or Notorious Monsters appearance(the big type of NMs) etc. Lots of things you can do here, the main point of this is having the character moving thru the city, giving the announcements and notifying people of information that might concern them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_crier

* Have crafting NPCs on the guilds go to restock to the merchants from time to time. They can be crafting indefinitely can they?

* Have messenger boys coming and going to the different city guilds and into the adventurers guild. Making the idea that they are coming and going with commendations and items from the quest people complete. It would also be cool to have them tip you on what leves they remember been available.

* Traffic should be reflected by the in game time of day. Heavy traffic on the streets during the day, as in the shopping areas, while night should bring less people on the street but more in the pubs or cities gathering places.

* Make wondering merchants, which would have exclusive items, not obtainable on any other NPCs.

* Have the guilds held different contests for rare/ex items, guild memberships(free crafting bonus for determined amount of time), guild marks, recipes, etc.

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I will posts more ideas for the creatures and outsides in a later post.

I'd also like to see more evidence of an actual government. Soldiers, aristocracy etc. There really doesn't appear to be much political organization. There are only a few guards here and there. I'd like to see more evidence like those galleons in Limsa that idly sit by. Be great to see military doing firing drills during ferry rides, or soldiers walking around, greater shops that you can unlock to buy really fancy or special armor/clothes etc.

Also, I'd like to see some sort of underground collective mercenary guild where you can get the Final Fantasy clothes and armor. Why should my armor look the same as the guards' in Ul'dah? I'm a mercenary, of course I'll have comfortable and cool customized gear! And if my armor did resemble military gear it's only because I'm an ex-soldier who still hung onto the armor, but it's not a different color or something.

Nice ideas there guys and gals.


Some other ideas about Flora elements to put possibly:

- leaves falling from the trees (and if near a lake, remaining on the surface of the water for awhile).

- some kind of mushrooms around that grow up or appear only after rain (and remain for a period of time.. and maybe in that time could be possible to harvest there to obtain special mushrooms item for cooking).

- particular plants or flowers glowing during the night only.

- some seaweeds on the water surface on the shore (not in every beach though).

- some dandelions around that when you walk in them, they fly away.

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Originally Posted by Munba

- leaves falling from the trees
- some kind of mushrooms around that grow up or appear only after rain
- particular plants or flowers glowing during the night only.
- some dandelions around that when you walk in them, they fly away.

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That could be ... really well. CZ rains not only for decorations and i wonna see more... like at the night you can find specific things; after night rain you see glowing mushrooms; campfire and enemy tribes around it ...