The truth is we need a remastered XI or a follow up

Considering EW finally finished (or nearly finished) importing XI's monster models, there's not much of a technical reason XI can't be remade with better graphics and QoL improvements but there is the financial hurdles and possible waste of investment.

I was looking forward to the canceled XI remake despite it aiming for mobile and was frustrated that it got axed after years of no info. After just about 20 years of playing XI I would love nothing more than a modernized version carrying over most of the QoL they've added through the years and with a tweaked progression system to avoid the "grind for hours per day" gameplay that still exists at the max levels if you want to make any meaningful progression past 99.

XI and XIV scratch different itches (hell even 1.0 had some perks compared to pre-Abyssea XI) and having a joint sub to play both would be great even if I had to endure a price hike. As it is now most of my time spent in XI is working on the legendary fishing rods lol endgame has long since burned me out there (bring back Monstrosity you COWARDS)

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Originally Posted by R041

I just had to world transfer to Bahamut because Asura was way too busy. Every city I went to I was hitting player visibility cap and way too much merc spam. lol

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Well if you ever want company for anything I am also on Bahamut playing a Blue Mage as well. :D

Also, holy crap what a good month to get trusts. Sakura, Moogle, King of Hearts, Shantotto II, Qultada, list goes on and on.

I love FFXI I played from around 2004 to 2010 and then left for XIV. I did go back for a little while but now it is when they have a free login. The game is old now but I much prefer the world it is full of atmosphere and danger. The one thing I can not feel in XIV is atmosphere the world is dead and empty and the mobs are boring. In FFXI the rain the wind the ferry rides everything beats FFXIV hand down. On the other side to this though the game could be too hard for getting things done at times.

I remember doing the cop missions and it took us around 6 months because where a static and some people worked away and we waited but when that mission was done it was such a sense of joy for beating it as it was so difficult. I love exploring in XI but now it is dated as it is old and V1.0 had a lot of very similar things some bad but the ferry rides the world where much better. If they could remake somehow I would play it but I would hate to see it turned into another wow clone that was the charm of XI and wow never appealed to me.

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Originally Posted by Alacran

Completely off topic i guess...

(Hidden for light spoilers)

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You know, im not going to spoiler this bit because it is no longer available in FFXIV but the Shantotto event had me hoping Vana'diel would be involved with FFXIV Alas my disappointment ; ;

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Originally Posted by Luluna

I love FFXI I played from around 2004 to 2010 and then left for XIV. I did go back for a little while but now it is when they have a free login. The game is old now but I much prefer the world it is full of atmosphere and danger. The one thing I can not feel in XIV is atmosphere the world is dead and empty and the mobs are boring. In FFXI the rain the wind the ferry rides everything beats FFXIV hand down. On the other side to this though the game could be too hard for getting things done at times.

I remember doing the cop missions and it took us around 6 months because where a static and some people worked away and we waited but when that mission was done it was such a sense of joy for beating it as it was so difficult. I love exploring in XI but now it is dated as it is old and V1.0 had a lot of very similar things some bad but the ferry rides the world where much better. If they could remake somehow I would play it but I would hate to see it turned into another wow clone that was the charm of XI and wow never appealed to me.

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This 100%! The actual world itself is incredible even now, all the small details and atmosphere still is just so awesome and you’re right it’s something XIV lacks which is a bummer, running through pashow marshlands with it raining, you hear the slog of your shoes as you come up on the bridge, you hear all the wildlife around you while making sure you dodge the quadav that inhabit the marsh. I’ve always ended up finding the little landmarks in XI and just thinking how beautiful they were to me, I still play it now and while it’s been more modernized with QoL it most certainly could use a UI update, there is an addon for XIV hot bar/UI elements you can use via windower but it still does have some of the core aspects that made it special. I’m actually playing with a few people from this thread now on Bahamut!

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Originally Posted by Amenara

Well if you ever want company for anything I am also on Bahamut playing a Blue Mage as well. :D

Also, holy crap what a good month to get trusts. Sakura, Moogle, King of Hearts, Shantotto II, Qultada, list goes on and on.

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Thanks! I always want company and new.. More? More friends haha

I'm just Oidi on Bahamut :o


If I'm not running around with someone, it's at least chatting with ppl on XI Discord or LS. The community has been super friendly. And the event going on has a bunch of free stuff!
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Mandrag...a_Madness_2022

This what I got so far

https://i.imgur.com/FZ5WzVe.png

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Originally Posted by Luluna

The game is old now but I much prefer the world it is full of atmosphere and danger. The one thing I can not feel in XIV is atmosphere the world is dead and empty and the mobs are boring. In FFXI the rain the wind the ferry rides everything beats FFXIV hand down. On the other side to this though the game could be too hard for getting things done at times.

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Originally Posted by Blossoming

This 100%! The actual world itself is incredible even now, all the small details and atmosphere still is just so awesome and you’re right it’s something XIV lacks which is a bummer, running through pashow marshlands with it raining, you hear the slog of your shoes as you come up on the bridge, you hear all the wildlife around you while making sure you dodge the quadav that inhabit the marsh.

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The atmosphere in XI has hit me pretty hard. I'd say the only kinda "Meh" was at first when I started in san d'oria and ran outside, because the town and the field just seemed very generic medieval fantasy MMO for the first hour (were they trying to copy something?), and didn't feel FF. I almost wish I started in a different town, but I'm already in too deep now I think. But also it made the travel to the other towns way more enjoyable because their music and environments are awesome.

It's doing a good job of making everything it presents as pretty impactful, and because there's plenty of reasons to go to and from.. Everywhere. It all stays with me.

I always felt like XIV kinda just pushes me forward at lightspeed, and because of the constant cutscenes and railroading, I don't get a good sense of the environment. They're just braindead NPCs poking at a garden or something. I probably had that feeling way back on ARR release when it was much slower, but not now.

In XI, I've been actually talking to random NPCs and checking in on what's going on with their lil lives, see if the crazy stuff they talk about leads to maybe a chain of quests (they sometimes do). I think a big part of me even wanting to be more engaged with the environment and the people has to do with risk and reward being pretty grounded (To me so far). In XIV, I can talk to an NPC and I know there's a quest because of the markers. Then there's gonna be a reward, and I know it's probably just like 500gil and a sandwich.

Like if you look back at some of the older RPGs, Ultima series is a good example - They don't have much. But what they do have is extremely varied and rewarding just because of how overall itemization, interaction, and risk is designed. XI kinda brings me back to that.

I'm rambling, but.. I'm just soaking it all up and enjoying my time. lol

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Originally Posted by R041

I always felt like XIV kinda just pushes me forward at lightspeed, and because of the constant cutscenes and railroading, I don't get a good sense of the environment. They're just braindead NPCs poking at a garden or something. I probably had that feeling way back on ARR release when it was much slower, but not now.

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That's pretty much the design of XIV. It's always been made as a "baby's first MMO" type thing where they sanitize the experience and establishes all kinds of handrails so you don't fail, get frustrated, and leave the game. It's a very handholdy approach to MMOs, which isn't really a bad thing. It's just not an MMO for players that are looking for a deeply personalized gameplay experience. It's an extremely cookie-cutter experience that's made for people who don't want the burden of choice, and that is completely fine. There's a market for that.

The one thing that kept me coming back is that despite the cookie-cutter experience, despite the skill floor, there was a lot of complexity. It just didn't force the average player through it, who probably don't wanna deal with it. For such a cookie-cutter casual experience, there was a complex PvE experience, that is completely optional, accessible because of how low the skill floor is, and used to maintain its complexity just because it's optional and that felt good.

Well, it felt good until Shadowbringers at least. But it is what it is.

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Originally Posted by Blossoming

I would love an official classic server for XI and I know a lot of people who’ve never played XI who would love to also try it, but it probably won’t happen because of the assets of the ps2 kit it was built off I believe they said are no longer recoverable it something like that. It’s part of why private servers also can’t accurately depict era it’s really all just guesses and testimonials so I really think that’s the only reason we don’t have one.

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/raises hand

I'm one of them.

I tried to play retail (as I said in my earlier post), but it was all "Use Trusts to level and then we'll party with you to do stuff once you're max level". That just sucks to me in a game that's not built for it. FFXIV is built for solo leveling, FFXI is not. FFXI is very much a "the journey IS the destination", but the fact you CAN solo it means everyone is now EXPECTED to solo it, making the destination the destination instead of the journey. Old school MMOs only work because people can take things at a more gradual pace and chat with people and make friends along the way. Taking a knee to regen mana isn't that big a deal if you have people to talk to. It's a much bigger deal if it's just you and a posse of NPCs standing around you staring into the void until you pull another mob.

I think if SE did something like buying the Horizon private server's source code from them (those people did a lot of work, only fair to compensate them), and then made that as a live service, it would be super popular, because then you'd have people like me that are iffy on private servers jumping all over it. The fact it doesn't require PlayOnline and have native controller support is amazing, and using that as a basis, SE could make different era servers and let people play on them in an officially supported capacity.

It wouldn't just appeal to people who played FFXI in its hey-day (I didn't), it would appeal to anyone who wants a more social oriented MMO experience and loves the FF franchise. Which is probably more people than you think, considering FFXI was SE's most profitable game until...either ShB or EW. That's right, even through Stormblood, this (at the time) 12-15 year old MMO was ACTUALLY SE's biggest moneymaker.

Let that sink in.

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Originally Posted by Payotz

That's pretty much the design of XIV. It's always been made as a "baby's first MMO" type thing where they sanitize the experience and establishes all kinds of handrails so you don't fail, get frustrated, and leave the game. It's a very handholdy approach to MMOs, which isn't really a bad thing. It's just not an MMO for players that are looking for a deeply personalized gameplay experience. It's an extremely cookie-cutter experience that's made for people who don't want the burden of choice, and that is completely fine. There's a market for that.

The one thing that kept me coming back is that despite the cookie-cutter experience, despite the skill floor, there was a lot of complexity. It just didn't force the average player through it, who probably don't wanna deal with it. For such a cookie-cutter casual experience, there was a complex PvE experience, that is completely optional, accessible because of how low the skill floor is, and used to maintain its complexity just because it's optional and that felt good.

Well, it felt good until Shadowbringers at least. But it is what it is.

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Yeah, it's frustrating for me because I can all too easily gobble up the XIV content the way it's designed as a VN and then don't really get to experience the environment.

Take Dark Souls as an example (sorry I keep using this), I have never felt like there wasn't enough to do, and I'll praise that series forever because it provides a good casual challenge. I can definitely admit it's not for everyone, so they won't get the same enjoyment as I would. BUT I can also coop basically the whole game and help my pals out, let them experience the environment and story. Well, and it doesn't ask for a subscription. lol

I think if XIV separated out the VN and Housing, made it so you didn't have to sub, but you could sub for perks like a guaranteed house.. This would all be a completely different and more enjoyable experience.

I do also really like XIV boss DDR..

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I tried to play retail (as I said in my earlier post), but it was all "Use Trusts to level and then we'll party with you to do stuff once you're max level". That just sucks to me in a game that's not built for it. FFXIV is built for solo leveling, FFXI is not. FFXI is very much a "the journey IS the destination", but the fact you CAN solo it means everyone is now EXPECTED to solo it, making the destination the destination instead of the journey. Old school MMOs only work because people can take things at a more gradual pace and chat with people and make friends along the way. Taking a knee to regen mana isn't that big a deal if you have people to talk to. It's a much bigger deal if it's just you and a posse of NPCs standing around you staring into the void until you pull another mob.

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I think you had an opportunity there that might've been missed. And obviously I wouldn't promise that you'd find some kinda companionship. But it really just sounds like you were talking to the wrong kinda Linkshell. There are several very friendly newbie focused Linkshells on Bahamut that I'm seeing. That and the XI Discord. Plenty of people grouping up, because you can still summon Trusts in a party if you're lead.

One thought on presentation of vibes, I wonder if having such a long forced story causes issues in the game being able to pace itself. As you get funneled to very specific tasks and have a sense of go go go to get to the next step, wonder if the MSQ ends up hampering the wanderlust potential a little.

For context I generally enjoy all of the msq.. just that in combination of progression systems and story systems it creates a linear canyon and perhaps takes away any ability to breathe in. Like a Junji Ito canyon you kind of kept sucked through, sometimes literally but also psychologically. As FFXIV does have cute landmarks here and there, it's not like it doesn't have some of the things we mention (maybe not enough, or what have you), but because everything points to progressing into the canyon it's maybe difficult to have the ideas even show themselves against the traffic.

Like if SE adds a lot of details to a raid, how many of you actually get to see it even if you might have wanted to? Now I'm not saying there is any issue with raids, but just an example of traffic, or in this case over arching traffic patterns, may cause conflicts. On that point I did like they added quests in the raids afterwards, nice opportunity to soak in all the pretty spaces.

Maybe more in context and to excellent example of people's enjoyment, some are able to have MSQ be the content and then just wait till next patch, but I imagine quite a few feel compelled to rush through because they know it's one long corridor so they can get to the content they need, but have to rush through that because they know that corridor may run out too. Now in comparison to WoW I think FFXIV has much better corridors when playing casually, and lack of constant FOMO, for most things, is helpful aspect. Though to WoWs credit I feel they have better grounding in identity of jobs / enacted gameplay roleplay, and shorter stretches of corridors if you join late. I'd much rather play FFXIV casually than WoW, but if I was 24/7 gamer the missing grounding would have a greater impact on me. Psychologically the long long MSQ corridor, if I joined late, would have an impact on me, I think.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

One thought on presentation of vibes, I wonder if having such a long forced story causes issues in the game being able to pace itself. As you get funneled to very specific tasks and have a sense of go go go to get to the next step, wonder if the MSQ ends up hampering the wanderlust potential a little.

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XIV doesn't have any wanderlust in it. By design. You can't even leave the city until you've completed some quests and most areas are locked behind the MSQ to make sure you don't wander around. The biggest problem with XIV's overworld, and its a huge one, is that its a prop.

In other words the world exists because of the MSQ, the MSQ does not exist because of the world. And this is a critical flaw. In XI the world seems like it was built first and then they developed things to do in it. In XIV the writers do the story and then they create the areas it's going to take place in, making them lifeless and shallow. One of the worst offenders is Ultima Thule.

Again, deferring to other games that have great openworld experiences we can look at Elden Ring, where they asked George RR Martin to design the backstory and world in which the MSQ, related but different to what happened to begin with, took place.

" Miyazaki and his team from FromSoftware were doing groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art, and what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history.”

There's lore in the areas of XIV but its super shallow. Again, it feels like it got added after the MSQ was thought of.

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Originally Posted by Ath192

XIV doesn't have any wanderlust in it. By design. You can't even leave the city until you've completed some quests and most areas are locked behind the MSQ to make sure you don't wander around. The biggest problem with XIV's overworld, and its a huge one, is that its a prop.

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There was sort of an attempt in ARR, but all of that was basically thrown out, and nothing was really expanded on horizontally - in favor of railroading MSQ vertically. As we know. lol

Imagine if you could explore freely in XIV, and you had Story NPC trusts running around with you. Then split up the story into different series of events that don't need to all be linearly connected with each other.

I honestly don't think a classic XI rerelease or such would work right now at least not from my perspective.

The game just wouldn't be what it was without it's cancerous cesspit of a community and I say that as someone who truly loved the game and was likely the second best geared BRD (Damn you Teffie!) outside of Japan on my server at the time.

At the lower levels, the game would curb stomp you for fun and profit, and then one you hit the end game, that was replaced by rival HNM shells curb stomping you instead. It was an amazing experience but it's also one that just wouldn't fly nor sell today. People are too used to that instant gratification now.

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Originally Posted by Sebazy

I honestly don't think a classic XI rerelease or such would work right now at least not from my perspective.

The game just wouldn't be what it was without it's cancerous cesspit of a community and I say that as someone who truly loved the game and was likely the second best geared BRD (Damn you Teffie!) outside of Japan on my server at the time.

At the lower levels, the game would curb stomp you for fun and profit, and then one you hit the end game, that was replaced by rival HNM shells curb stomping you instead. It was an amazing experience but it's also one that just wouldn't fly nor sell today. People are too used to that instant gratification now.

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That's what everyone keeps saying but I don't think that's true. There hasn't been a good progression/exploration slow MMO in recent years that's failed or succeeded based on something close to what XI tried with its content style. And I'm not talking about bug riddled messes with management and direction issues. When that happens its impossible to know what killed the game. For example XIV 1.0. If 1.0 had been a smooth player I don't think content direction and style would've been the problem. But we'll never know because they gutted the whole thing.

If anything we see private servers with thousands of players, the continuation of the game in its retail form albeit with trusts, and even some new people trying it out because they are tired of XIVs disposable content approach.

While I think some changes to the content and cadence would have to be made to diffuse the population throughout the world and address some of the things you've posted above what matters is the focus on progression of the game.

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I think if SE did something like buying the [snipped] private server's source code from them (those people did a lot of work, only fair to compensate them), and then made that as a live service, it would be super popular, because then you'd have people like me that are iffy on private servers jumping all over it.

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Under what circumstances do you envision Square Enix purchasing source code for a private server that utilizes its intellectual property without royalty or legal contract? How does one fairly compensate what is considered illegal under the laws of most countries?

Under-the-radar private servers exist because game companies don't want to bother with them. From what I've seen about the server mentioned above, it's pretty close to the edge of what can be ignored.

Yes, I get it. Dedicated fans of the game want to make it a better experience.

I assume the private server you've mentioned is hugely popular because players don't have to pay a subscription, first-and-foremost. It's certainly fun for a given group of players until the inevitable take-down order shuts down servers. And heaven help the 'fans' who run a private server if the game company finds them monetizing it, because lawyers are very expensive.

SE make two youtube guides! an configuration guide and a installation guide


FINAL FANTASY XI: Configuration Guide

FINAL FANTASY XI: Installation Guide For Returning Players

The Beastmaster

https://i.imgur.com/ff4j2M8.jpg

Nice to see you can get higher resolutions by using the current configurator without having to edit the game configuration file directly these days. That was both a pain to locate the information, and a pain to actually implement the solution.

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Originally Posted by R041

Thanks! I always want company and new.. More? More friends haha

I'm just Oidi on Bahamut :o


If I'm not running around with someone, it's at least chatting with ppl on XI Discord or LS. The community has been super friendly. And the event going on has a bunch of free stuff!
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Mandrag...a_Madness_2022

This what I got so far

https://i.imgur.com/FZ5WzVe.png

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I am usually on Rhelaa or Rhels, though I probably wont be on till the weekend, work :(

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I think if SE did something like buying the Horizon private server's source code from them (those people did a lot of work, only fair to compensate them), and then made that as a live service, it would be super popular, because then you'd have people like me that are iffy on private servers jumping all over it. The fact it doesn't require PlayOnline and have native controller support is amazing, and using that as a basis, SE could make different era servers and let people play on them in an officially supported capacity.

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The FFXI 75 era "Source code" is open source on git hub but as said before is a recreation of the original game as the original game's code doesn't exist anywhere anymore, even SE doesn't have it.

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Originally Posted by DPZ2

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Well, that's what I mean - I don't play private servers because I want to pay the company that makes the IP and does the creative work and I want something that won't be taken down.

WoW literally did this. They did a cease and desist order but then hired the team that had made a Vanilla WoW server and got them to help out with making WoW Classic. The main issue is that the original source code has been deleted/overwritten (MMO companies often don't keep backups of old versions of the game), but these players effectively (or somewhat effectively) recreated that, or at least something that could be used for a foundation to approximate that. Blizzard basically bought them out so they could use their work. They could have just issued a cease and desist, but then they wouldn't be able to actually get the guys to share their source code. By hiring them on, they could talk them into sharing the source code, saving Blizzard tons of time and money and giving them a ready or near-ready product for pennies, especially since the people who did it were more than willing to share since they wanted an official version.

While it is true that many people play private servers because they want to play a game without paying for it, many other people want the specific experience that offers, and WOULD be willing to pay for it but CAN'T since an official version doesn't exist.

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Originally Posted by R041

There was sort of an attempt in ARR, but all of that was basically thrown out, and nothing was really expanded on horizontally - in favor of railroading MSQ vertically. As we know. lol

Imagine if you could explore freely in XIV, and you had Story NPC trusts running around with you. Then split up the story into different series of events that don't need to all be linearly connected with each other.

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You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

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it made sense in ARR since not only was the open world content like FATE grinding and combat leves more valuable but the ARR story in of itself was just one story to go through, so the exp requirement padding made sense to prolong the content. Understandably they shortened the exp requirement the more they dedicated the story aspect of the game by making the msq quest chains frequent and longer as the patches rolled on

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Originally Posted by Ransu

You used to be forced to do side quests else you would fall behind the level requirements for the MSQ. They moved away from that and increased the amount of exp you earn for obvious reasons as the campaign got longer and longer.

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Yeah I know, I was there grinding it out like the rest of 'em. lol

That's not really what I meant though - The MSQ went full steam with the vertical momentum, we kinda expected it to split off at some point. The Exp evolved to match it just to get you through the story, but nothing else expanded horizontally like we expected it to in HW+ either, we even stopped getting Battle Leves altogether. The formula now is basically we get 1 alternate system for exp, otherwise you're just spamming roulettes, and you're always encouraged to keep the vertical train going. They gimped or removed all other exp and reward systems.

They kinda designed themselves into a vertical hole that can never stop.

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Originally Posted by Renathras

Well, that's what I mean - I don't play private servers because I want to pay the company that makes the IP and does the creative work and I want something that won't be taken down.

WoW literally did this. They did a cease and desist order but then hired the team that had made a Vanilla WoW server and got them to help out with making WoW Classic. The main issue is that the original source code has been deleted/overwritten (MMO companies often don't keep backups of old versions of the game), but these players effectively (or somewhat effectively) recreated that, or at least something that could be used for a foundation to approximate that. Blizzard basically bought them out so they could use their work. They could have just issued a cease and desist, but then they wouldn't be able to actually get the guys to share their source code. By hiring them on, they could talk them into sharing the source code, saving Blizzard tons of time and money and giving them a ready or near-ready product for pennies, especially since the people who did it were more than willing to share since they wanted an official version.

While it is true that many people play private servers because they want to play a game without paying for it, many other people want the specific experience that offers, and WOULD be willing to pay for it but CAN'T since an official version doesn't exist.

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I could have sworn the story for WoW classic was a random developer had the original code for WoW hidden away on a hard drive somewhere as Blizzard had no copy of it left anywhere and to make classic would involve essentially remaking the game completely and that is how classic came about. That being said, SE has the same issue with the original FFXI code as it just doesn't exist anywhere and private servers use an open source rebuild of the original FFXI code. Development on it is the big reason you don't see many FFXI servers having complete content from WotG or ToAU as they are still working on it, last I heard.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

it made sense in ARR since not only was the open world content like FATE grinding and combat leves more valuable but the ARR story in of itself was just one story to go through, so the exp requirement padding made sense to prolong the content. Understandably they shortened the exp requirement the more they dedicated the story aspect of the game by making the msq quest chains frequent and longer as the patches rolled on

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I still remember when SE nerfed that fate chain in Northern Thanalan that gave crazy amounts of exp, sad day as it was crazy good exp in those last few levels up to 50.

There's no way to milk FFXI Classic so it'll never happen, regardless of what the devs say (not like any dev would be stupid enough to admit it).

Just look at WoW Classic. Sure they have a 'true' vanilla classic set of servers (if you want to call them that), but the expansion servers are another thing. For one, they didn't want to split TBCC from WotLKC (no, not everyone who liked TBC automatically like WotLK for a whole host of reasons). The second is them adding boosts and more recently the token (because everyone who left retail wow really really wanted those things in classic....).

The only extra monetization 11 really has is character slots and spaces (which wardrobes more than likely breaking the 'spirit' of 11 classic). Previous 11 producer said at most they'd consider a 75 level locked server, but the team has been gutted even further and they've publicly announced its in maintenance mode (again), so that's even more less likely to happen.

I'd say within 10 years they'll announce 11 as a single player game and probably finally shutter 11 online, but at least 11 is safe until that ever happens since its a main FF title.

Crazy as it may be... I'd really rather just see 7.x throw certain conventions from up til now to the wind and start experimenting in a more "Living World" approach to zone design.

More subtle and dynamic side-questing, more meaningful reputations and zone involvement, more community-driven and -centric open world events, and just far less of "Go there, do that; then find the next marker from which to acquire a thing that will again tell you where to go and what to do."