One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

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Originally Posted by Richard

This world needs to be dangerous. It needs to have that heart pounding rush of you watching your sneak/invis wear off right as you are running through an area of mobs that aggro to magic! HOLY CRAP WAT DO WAT DO. Ahh relief you are a smart guy and you brought some powders and oils nyaha.

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Exactly. As much as I like the "open world" feel in some ways, its pretty lame that you can walk very far without finding an aggressive mob. And if you do, you can usually avoid pretty easily. Its essentially like crossing the street to avoid a shady guy walking towards you. Even if you aggro, you are usually pretty safe due to the leashing. Again, no motivation to learn mob aggression types/ranges or detection methods.

Or you have the other extreme end of the spectrum like in Nanawa, with the leve mobs placed right on top of like 2 mites and 4 djiggas. At early ranks this makes completing the leve near impossible, or at the least very inconvenient/annoying at higher ranks/party size. Or DoL leve targets that are placed right on top of NM or high level mob spawn points. Some higher rank parties have trouble with these mobs as it is, and a Miner or Botanist is supposed to survive 5 or 6 gathering attempts there?

Where is the middle ground? On the way to Qufim you had to be patient and pick your path. Or even <Call For Help> to work as a team to clear the path. In the Citadel or the Jungle, again you had to pick your path carefully and be patient. You had to learn the pockets of safety and use the environment to your advantage. You needed to be quick getting Sneak/Invis up, or if you ran out of oils, you were hosed.

Right now there is no learning curve for this. Eight months into the game, and there are still people running into a room full of leve/Behest mobs and pulling them all on a regular basis. In some cases, this causes a full wipe. But at the very least, this usually screws the SP pretty royal. Of course, this ties into other issues like targeting, claiming, battle, and class uniqueness. But this still clearly needs to be addressed.

Lol. The zones are so sprawling that you teleport between camps anyway. And what do you see when you teleport? LOADING SCREEN ALL UP IN YO FACE ANYWAY! Nice.

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Originally Posted by Tonka

Lol. The zones are so sprawling that you teleport between camps anyway. And what do you see when you teleport? LOADING SCREEN ALL UP IN YO FACE ANYWAY! Nice.

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Also another huge mistake by SE from the beginning. They planned for the anima system to be main stage in regards to exploration and travel in Eorzea, when at best it ruins the immersion and need for a mount system. Not to mention that its incredibly imbalanced. I know people who have 3-4 anima mules on a separate account just because they are always running out doing locals/leves.

If they would have kept the anima system like outpost warps in XI it would have been more successful.

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Originally Posted by Richard

Also another huge mistake by SE from the beginning. They planned for the anima system to be main stage in regards to exploration and travel in Eorzea, when at best it ruins the immersion and need for a mount system. Not to mention that its incredibly imbalanced. I know people who have 3-4 anima mules on a separate account just because they are always running out doing locals/leves.

If they would have kept the anima system like outpost warps in XI it would have been more successful.

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Completely agree. Really I just don't get how anyone thought it would be a good idea.

I'm sure they'll nerf teleporting when we have chocobos and airships.

Maybe the mobs in the starting areas go up to 96 because they originally intended the rank cap in this game to go way beyond 100? Who knows?

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Originally Posted by Xenor

Maybe the mobs in the starting areas go up to 96 because they originally intended the rank cap in this game to go way beyond 100? Who knows?

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If that was their plan all along that's EVEN WORSE. It's already bad enough that you can go from 1-50 in Thanalan but 1-96 when they release the level cap? There would be absolutely no reason to make new zones. That would probably be the worst design decision in the history of all MMOs. Now, I for one don't think that is the reason for R80-90 mobs in starting zones, but it still needs to be addressed and optimized.

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Originally Posted by Richard

If that was their plan all along that's EVEN WORSE. It's already bad enough that you can go from 1-50 in Thanalan but 1-96 when they release the level cap? There would be absolutely no reason to make new zones. That would probably be the worst design decision in the history of all MMOs. Now, I for one don't think that is the reason for R80-90 mobs in starting zones, but it still needs to be addressed and optimized.

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I think they are making it a viable option. There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves. Really lame if you ask me.

Bump. Not losing this one :p

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Originally Posted by Mack

There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves.

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Exactly, exactly. Every one here understands my concerns. I'm humbled! And though every one has their own ideas for a solution, in the end, we all want the thing.

We all deserve a one to fifty experience that includes an adventure, a feeling of progression, milestones, and challenge. Juggling between opposite corners of our lands unfortunately cannot replace the experience and feel of a true world.

A lower ranking player should aspire to join the ranks of higher players. As we stand, the moment they leave our city walls, they've already seen 1/5 of the game. And not just 1/5 of the game, but almost the entirety of the zone. They've seen where they will be for days, and days, and weeks, within the first minutes of their character's life.

They wonder where they will travel beyond Black Brush, at first.

Some do bring up the point that you may travel between our current zones to level, but the issue still stands. Not only does one single zone, with a single map, a single theme, finish the work of an -entire region-... But we're given multiples of these bloated masses.

Where is our room for expansion? We already have MORE than enough 1-50 zones to take us to the end. If the zones sprout more camps, or new hubs, bandaids... What does that mean for our world? Are the anchors dropping?

Our concern is not of leves, it's not of quests, it's not of transitioning... It's that we have no where to go, and worry that, perhaps, they believe we don't need to go anywhere else.

I want us to be heard as much as all of you.

What we want, what our characters deserve... It's not something abstract, or strange. It's simply a true adventure. A journey. Memories unique to each milestone stepped over in our characters' lives.

When the time comes for some (though, it has for many) to level another class... To start again. These milestones and feelings of progression are just as important, if not more, to that of a new player.

When all of your far-reaching adventures eventually brings us back home, to our respective city-states, and we can actually say to ourself:

"It feels good to be home."

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Originally Posted by Mack

I think they are making it a viable option. There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves. Really lame if you ask me.

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Scorpion Keep? And of course we're going to have needs and such for 90 rank mobs, but in the next couple of years? Doubtful, especially when these 90+ mobs drop the same items as their r50 counterparts for the most part :< They're kinda pointless, I'm sure they could have held off on developing things so FAR down the line and focused on the NOW.

I really do not like the whole camp/aethyr system. It's incredibly linear and having each camp look EXACTLY the same, with the EXACT same features, with a big floaty crystal that gives you things to do it kind of creepy. They should fuse the camps with the questhubs/towns/settlements and each new encampment should reflect the style, architecture and ecosystem of the zone in which they are found. Like, limestone huts and bricks in Limsa, wooden cabins and cottages in Black shroud, pueblos or sandstone near Uldah. Having towns work as quest hubs is a common thing in all RPGS I know, but thats because it works. Not only does it flesh out the world in terms of civilization, but it can also be used to introduce the character to unique NPC's and establish some routes of level progression via the routes and connections of towns and cities, while also acting as the hub of specific questlines, and the place of leve activation.

It would make sense, since in XIV lore Aetheryte are kinda revered by the people, and are incredibly important to Eorzeans since they are a common mode of transportation and communication. Makes sense that people would settle around such an important landmark, no? Having actual NPC's handing out some leves would add a more personal touch since you as a player can see the poor farmer who's orchard is being ravaged by evil dodo's, and that connection would actually fuel the player to get things done, at least me because I care about pixels! : ; By having all leves picked up at a central NPC, with just text to provide a reason as to what the hell we are actually doing kills immersion for me. A sick child needs a special herb to recover from a mysterious illness, show me the grieving mother. Things like that in a greater number and spread out 'round the world would help the zones gain an identity. The players would remember the particular quests and lines they opened up, "remember that sick girl, yeah after you help her it opens a quest in blah blah blah." <-----side story progressions, not just one liners of 'Kill dodo, gimme skin, you don't get to see what I actually do with it." Just some ideas!

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Originally Posted by Mack

I think they are making it a viable option. There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves. Really lame if you ask me.

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Either that or they're not sure what to do with the area yet so they just stick a bunch of stupidly high level mobs there to keep people away rather than closing it off completely.

Either way its a waste though. If its intended to be used at those levels then there's no need for it while the level is capped at 50, I can't see it increasing to 90 any time soon.

I would have rather seen camps like those used either for leves of the same level as other camps we have, giving people another alternative camp to level at or spread the range out a bit more so rather than changing camp every 10 levels, have something more like 10, 20, (25?), 30, 35, 40, 45, 50.

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Originally Posted by Daedae

I really do not like the whole camp/aethyr system. It's incredibly linear and having each camp look EXACTLY the same, with the EXACT same features, with a big floaty crystal that gives you things to do it kind of creepy. They should fuse the camps with the questhubs/towns/settlements and each new encampment should reflect the style, architecture and ecosystem of the zone in which they are found.

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Yeah, rather than picking up leves in the town, then travelling out to the camp to activate them, I'd rather have an NPC at the issue leves. Not just for the story aspects you mention but for smoother gameplay too. Players could gather at the camp they want to do leves, forming parties with other players gathered there, accept the leves available to all players (though I'd rather have all leves available rather than a random selection). Having a guild dedicated to adventurers is nice, but if players tried the same thing there, with players of all levels gathering in 1 spot it would be chaos. The lack of a search feature for players (at the moment) rules out that option and a lot of people don't like random shouts to find people.

You could apply the same to local leves too, if you want to do Goldsmithing leves (for example) you go to the goldsmithing guild to see what has been requested of them.

I'm not sure what you'd do with the adventurer guild if these changes were made though.

Great OP, I completely agree with everything you said. The devs need to really think hard on this.

Realistically speaking though, I can't see them changing the current zones considering how long it takes them to fix or implement anything at the moment. Instead I guess I'll just hope they'll learn from this BIG mistake when they work on expansions.

I don't think just changing future zones will be enough, many new players will still get turned off by the current zones and stop playing before they get as far as any extra content.

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Originally Posted by Neptune

I was playing Aion this week (free play this week) and as I wandered around the Eltnen zone I was struck by how imaginative and creative it is compared to Thanalan (which I've been seeing a lot of lately, damn all you Ul'Dah barnacles). There were different shapes everywhere, varied terrain, deserts, greenlands, forests, streams, etc. all in this one zone. I struggled to get a handle on how it compared to Thanalan in size. I might be wrong but it seemed like one corner of the map was equal to one section of Thanalan, like Horizon for instance. In other words I'm saying one zone in Aion seemed like it was = to one zone in FFXIV. Playing that game this week just made me feel so sad for the environments in FFXIV. It's really laughable how bland and copy-pasted everything is when you stop to take a look at another MMO for a second.

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Yes, Aion really is a beautiful game. It's a little glimmery because of the celestial theme, but I personally love it. I had originally believed Eorzea would be just as beautiful, just more realistic.

But realism doesn't mean sacrificing variety.

The regions of Eorzea are often termed 'frontiers'. America was once a great frontier. And the land is a great mixture of plains, fields, mountains, deserts, canyons, rivers, lakes, shores, snow, rain, tornadoes...

The frontiers of Eorzea have no variety within the three major starting regions.

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Originally Posted by Kafeen

I don't think just changing future zones will be enough, many new players will still get turned off by the current zones and stop playing before they get as far as any extra content.

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Very true, although they could release zones for low level people too. For example Kazham came after the original zones but it quickly became the best place to exp from 25 to 32. They just need to give players the motivation to move to those new areas after a while.

I agree with you though, it would be much better to change the current zones, but I just can't see it happening. And it makes me very sad considering starter zones are always special to players, even years later.

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Originally Posted by Kafeen

I don't think just changing future zones will be enough, many new players will still get turned off by the current zones and stop playing before they get as far as any extra content.

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This is pretty much the main problem in a nut shell. Like I said in a previous post, if SE can reskin and retexture Tam-Tara Deepcroft and Cassiopeia Hollow and turn them into instanced dungeons, then they should be able to spend a solid month or two reskinning/retexturizing and optimizing Thanalan, The Black Shroud and La Noscea for a progressive exploration path.

Let's say you were going to go buy your first house. You pull up in the driveway and the house is beautiful. But you take a look at the front yard and its nothing but a drab landscape of dull tones and colors, no definition or style to it at all and the path up to the house takes you completely out of the way to get to the front door.

Would you honestly buy the house unless the previous owner/realtor fixed it?

The instanced dungeons are just reskins? >.>

Please say it aint so.

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Originally Posted by Sigmakan

The instanced dungeons are just reskins? >.>

Please say it aint so.

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you can google the leaked phots/vids, they kinda are :(

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Originally Posted by Sigmakan

The instanced dungeons are just reskins? >.>

Please say it aint so.

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yeah. pretty much. the coerthas one is unique, but The Black Shroud, Thanalan and La Noscea ones are just more copypasta with a twist.

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Originally Posted by Richard

yeah. pretty much. the coerthas one is unique, but The Black Shroud, Thanalan and La Noscea ones are just more copypasta with a twist.

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twist= cracked eggs? OH THE MYSTERY! Barrels?!? THE HUMANITY! Resized coral trees? I CAN FEEL THE ADVENTURE IN MY LOINS!

I just hope the content placed therein will be a challenge, and whether some story aspects will be placed inside.

Thank you, all!

Reinforcing my thoughts as the thread grows further from my posts: The addition of these 'dungeons' and 'hubs' are not going to provide us a journey, an adventure. We all have our own personal feelings on their aesthetics, their functionality, as well.

But I feel, that continuously adding more and more bandaids to our current zones will not solve the deeper issue. The deeper issue that, a dungeon cannot repair a bloated zone. Or 3. A zone the size of a region, but stands alone as a zone, from one to fifty. One map. More leves, or more quests, stacked on top of these zones still will not solve this.

What are the dungeons for? What are the quest hubs for? I believe there's multiple reasons for their development.

I understand we are desperate for something, for anything, but at the end of the day, is this truly sending the right message to adventurers of Eorzea? What is the message?

Could it be, "We understand you need something to do while we put the world through rebirth, here are some dungeons and quests."

Or, "We understand you crave for more adventure, so here are some more camps in the Black Shroud to travel."

Or even, "This IS the world and will always be the world. To reinforce that to you, we will add more camps and dungeons. I hope you all will get comfortable in this Eorzea."

I believe the issue is that we do not understand their state of mind. Do we see the same world? Do we see it the same way?

I really wish we could hear what the team is thinking on the dungeons.
Every single unopened area is a copy-paste of the current below ground areas (aside from Coerthas with open stone colored eggs and glowing sulfur pools).

It sounds like we're being given content to have 'something to do' while they work on future content, which at this point will likely be 'something to do', while waiting on future content..... you get the cycle.

It's obviously too late now, but who wants dungeons in the current zones that need to be fixed first? lol
Confusion. :s

Well, SE obv sees it differently than we do. They are trying to keep us interested while they slowly work in changes, and thats the purpose of this mid-content, dungeons, and upcoming hubs. None of it is going to be truly groundbreaking, its all about keeping enough people so when the major changes occur, it wont be for naught.

Asking for a COMPLETE world revamp and expecting it in the foreseeable future is unrealistic. The changes we are asking for concerning the world right now will not happen(if they happen at all) for a good while. What we can do until then, is keep throwing out ideas so SE can implement things based on player interest. We won't ever have that sense of adventure in XIV as 'seasoned' players, at least not until an expansion where our issues are addressed, and we forget about the lower zones like a bad dream, it's really for the new players SE hopes to capture.

I thinks it great that they are filling up empty space with actual things to do, but as a long term solution its a big no-no for me. Having 20 dungeons in one zone isnt going erase the fact that the zone is bland, generic, and dull. Reshaping the landscape, adding landmarks, interesting geographical features, an array of geographic diversity and biomes in tandem with roaming NM's, dungeons, hamelts and hubs, subtle dangers is the key to making a truly awesome world.

And it's not as if creating one type of ecosystem totally eliminates creating a similar type. Both areas in Thanalan and Black Shroud can have marshes, but just like marshes in real life and in different games, they can vary drastically! Think of the everglades and then think of a louisiana cypress swamp. Both boggy, swampy ecosystems, but the look and feel is incredibly different, not to mention the creative leeway the designers have with this being a fantasy game. Hell, in Azeroth look at a traditional swamp such as Swamp of Sorrows, and then Blizzard comes out with Zangarmarsh. Like woah! Both are similar ecosystems, but the differences are apparent, and enough to merit different feels. The same can be done with deserts(dunes to steppes, to mesas) and mountainous areas(volcanic, arctic, forested). Just a little imagination and a lot of money, and they can really do wonders on this world.

FFXII comes to mind when I think of realism paired with an amazing array of detailed and varied zones. The Giza plains stretching into flatlands, leading to a jungle, which splits to a mountain, etc!

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"This IS the world and will always be the world. To reinforce that to you, we will add more camps and dungeons. I hope you all will get comfortable in this Eorzea."

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If this is the case I would have to say good bye to FFXIV and just cross my fingers that a future FF MMO is on SE's mind.

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Originally Posted by Mack

If this is the case I would have to say good bye to FFXIV and just cross my fingers that a future FF MMO is on SE's mind.

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LOL...........

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

Just for added measure, it's worth mentioning that I'm not saying that FFXIV should simply copy XI. Every Final Fantasy game in the main series takes you on a journey around the world. As far as MMO's are concerned, I've only played FFXI and WoW, but both games had that same element of adventure. You explore the world, leaving the safety of home and setting off for fantastic and dangerous areas. That's an essential part of what makes an MMORPG great, and something that XIV is sorely lacking.

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Originally Posted by Rane

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

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I agree. With my personal favorite mobs including tonberries and cactuars, the Cactus Basin east of Ul'dah was one of my first sprinting around as miner exploring locations. And boy, there were cactuars, like many areas, but nothing worth calling it an entire "Cactus Basin."

I'm all for exciting names and places, but I don't believe a single place reflects its name currently.
Iron Lake... I'm not sure which lake is the "Iron Lake," lol
The Black shroud is a tacky lime green everywhere, and not darker than anywhere else in the middle of the night.
Broken Water... what? How is this broken in a non-human anatomical way?
Treespeak... what? No treants here =/
Dragonhead... Bahamut is in Mor Dhona "sleeping"
Bearded Rock is spoken of in npc dialogue (some captain went down valiantly and turned to stone on his death? something)... but where is the Bearded Rock? lol
People can't immerse themselves in the lore... because the world doesn't reflect the lore, and people rush through the starter zones to get to Broken Water, and so much of the world gets neglected. D:

Not 100% where I'm going with this, I just preferred XI's naming style;
Ronfaure instead of Green Woods, Sauromogue Champaign instead of Tan Rock Valley, Crawler's Nest instead of Large Bug Cave... then again, if they used these bad names listed here, at least they would make sense. lol


TL;DR-----Wish for Final Fantasy areas with Final Fantasy names D:

The world is terribly bland, excessively large, incredibly repetitive. The landscape should change more and more often. Also what EdenArchangel said is absolutely true, most of the names were just thrown out there and do not reflect the little lore there is in the game. They could've just called La Noscea "Greenlands" and then "camp 1", "camp 2", "camp 3". It would have made no difference whatsoever. They all look the same; they all *are* the same.

And in my humble opinion, the world is so terribly devoid of life and atmosphere that throwing a little hub here and there that looks exactly like the other 20 hubs they're gonna add isn't going to change the fact that the world is dead and it does not feel like a FF game. If the dev team really isn't up to the task of redisgning the whole world so that both its size and appearance make it feel like a FF game, then they should just switch everything off and go home.

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Originally Posted by Rane

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away.

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Thank you, Rane. You echoed my feelings, as well as others, perfectly.

I hope that our diligence over the last two days might bring this thread to their attention. And this isn't even the first thread of its kind to touch upon this issue.

I believe, after all this time, we should know where our future here will take us.

We should know whether we're going on an adventure, or staying home.

This is how I feel. And now I know that I am not alone. :)

@ Miliant Thank you ^^

Feel free to browse my personal forum posts that are in this thread, lot of different ideas, starting from the first page actually, heh o.o;;
as I keep finding more to add :)

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Originally Posted by Daedae

Asking for a COMPLETE world revamp and expecting it in the foreseeable future is unrealistic. The changes we are asking for concerning the world right now will not happen(if they happen at all) for a good while. What we can do until then, is keep throwing out ideas so SE can implement things based on player interest. We won't ever have that sense of adventure in XIV as 'seasoned' players, at least not until an expansion where our issues are addressed, and we forget about the lower zones like a bad dream, it's really for the new players SE hopes to capture.

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I truly hope you're right about that expansion pack.

My fear, and unfortunately what I've seen so far, is SE is slowly (painfully so) turning this game into the Frankenstein's Monster of MMO's. But beneath all the new dungeons, hubs, quests, jobs, materia, and auto-attacks will be the same lackluster core. All they're doing is stitching more onto it hoping the veneer will cover it up.

It's like the climax of the Invader Zim episode "Bad Bad Rubber Piggy", where every piggy Zim threw into the time machine made Mecha-Dib more and more dangerous, yet Zim continued to toss piggy after piggy into the time machine, hoping one of them would reverse the effects.

The wood is rotten. Slathering gallons of varnish on it won't change that.

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Originally Posted by Daedae

FFXII comes to mind when I think of realism paired with an amazing array of detailed and varied zones. The Giza plains stretching into flatlands, leading to a jungle, which splits to a mountain, etc!

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Absolutely. When you talk about zone design leading to being immersed in a feeling of adventure, FFXII nailed it. It's a shame that as far forward as X, XI, and XII took the series in terms of virtual geography, XIII and XIV have been steps backward in my opinion.

Where does Square Enix see us a year from now? Or two?

Are we still in Thanalan? Are we battling rank 70 foes?

Or, are we in a completely revised, living, breathtaking world? A world of areas divided by milestones? With clear goals and progression?

Where will you take us, Square Enix?

We're ready to follow you to new lands.

But we don't want to leave behind the Black Shroud, La Noscea, or Thanalan the way they are. These areas... They deserve better than that.

For as long as this thread maintains the attention and interest of the community, I will keep posting.

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Originally Posted by Siobu

Where does Square Enix see us a year from now? Or two?

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Playing a different game.

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Are we still in Thanalan? Are we battling rank 70 foes?

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No, we are playing a different game.

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Or, are we in a completely revised, living, breathtaking world? A world of areas divided by milestones? With clear goals and progression?

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No, we are playing a different game.

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Where will you take us, Square Enix?

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A different game.

your comments make me laugh :D i like them

I thought of something else---

I dream of an Eorzea where miners actually mine in mines and caves, botanists can also maintain their own garden, and fishers can work a small fishery (perhaps pulling up two really rare fish -> put in fishery -> baby fish farm :3).

Thus providing an escape from the shared and defined rank zones for gatherers, the same problem we've been discussing regarding ranking and adventure, but applied to gatherers as well~

I'll admit I don't like the guided specific ranks for specific areas that was forced on gatherers, much like the battle classes, especially if I want to rank all 3 of the current classes. ....in the same identical areas.... again.

However, this could probably be remedied with unique, diverse zones, but options are always nice. ^^

Diversity for the win!

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Originally Posted by EdenArchangel

rare fish -> put in fishery -> baby fish farm :3.

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Unrealistic because those dirty cats (Miqo'te) will ransack your establishment, and devour all your :3, which will leave you T.T exactly..

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Originally Posted by Joeking

Unrealistic because those dirty cats (Miqo'te) will ransack your establishment, and devour all your :3, which will leave you T.T exactly..

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I believe that's why you have to take a restricted boat to the "The Barrel" hidden away in Limsa Lominsa (rank30 Fisher quest) --- only my friends would lay paws on my Octopi ; ;

As I see it, this thread hits the nail on the head with just about all of my major concerns for this game. The immersion, sense of exploration, danger, progress and adventure you get from areas that are well thought out and designed, as well as aesthetically pleasing is sort of missing from the game.

I hate to make the XIV/XI comparison whenever I voice my opinion/concern but I just have to say that the level of planning and design that went into the areas in XI was, to me, unparalleled in any mmo I've tried out/played. This didn't just mean that XI's zones were simply "really cool" and "unique" but it meant that they tied in with the game's history and storyline flawlessly. What I mean are things like how in Selbina, there's a charcater closely related to the main events of the first expansion, yet the tie in is so subtle that many people miss the connection, or don't find out until months (or years, even) later. Or how about certain aspects of the areas themselves reflect what is actually happening. For example, Garlaige Citadel was case in point in terms of lore, where it was 20 years before the game's setting as well as the present. Or any of the beastmen strongholds that signify the very essence of the game's (first and foremost) storyline. I won't even go into the plethora of multi-tiered quests that take you from one area to the next, use unique characteristics (geography if you will, I remember hearing more about this earlier in the thread) of those areas to enhance the strategic game-play of said quests, and tell their own story at the same time, as trying to describe this without ever playing the game wouldn't do them justice.

Now with all that said, I don't want to see zones to be carbon copies of what we had in XI, I'd just rather see SE use them as their primary source of inspiration before trying to make the new areas more alike to what is considered "normal" in the mmo scene.

And while it all sounds good on paper, as a person with experience in 3D digital software I can personally guarantee any major changes (like revamping current zones, or making entire new ones) to the current areas (if at all) will be a long time coming.

TL;DR: Zones need to be aesthetically pleasing as well as unique, exciting, immersive in lore and story/quests. Yet doing this in the current state of the game could take a very long time.

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TL;DR: Zones need to be aesthetically pleasing as well as unique, exciting, immersive in lore and story/quests. Yet doing this in the current state of the game could take a very long time.

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Long time or otherwise imo it needs to be done and progression in this game needs to be revised. I personally don't care for them to tie it into a story for us, like the Umbral Era that's coming, I would be just as happy patching the game up one day and having a completely new world to play in. In fact I would even scrap my character and start at square one if this happened. IMO this is the single most lacking aspect of this game and if they change everything else about the game and make it better and turn a blind eye to this subject, they would have done absolutely nothing in my books.

I LOVE to bring up XI when talking about XIV because SE should have learned from XI and improved on it, and XI is a great example of how the world should be designed. When it comes to XIV its like we're talking to a completely new developer, we shouldn't be telling them we want this they should have known on their own. I think the fact that no matter how long you played XI for and there was always something new out there for you to see was amazing for me and I'm sure plenty others. FFXIV currently has 5 major zones (so ignoring dungeons or mines) and the entire map seems like it can carry about 8 or 9 in total, compare this to XI's 30 some and it falls a little short I'd say.

If this doesn't change, and I'm so glad this topic came up and got this much attention, so if this doesn't change I wont be playing the game any more. I hate that it would have to come down to this but I play a FF MMO because I want to get lost in its world, but I'm already sick of all 3 starting areas in XIV and I've barely set foot in its world.

Thanks so much, Mack, for sharing all your thoughts. I'm glad to have you and the others behind this thread.