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

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Originally Posted by Munba

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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Its sounds almost like a cut-scene your describing and not a game, sounds nice though, but I would like optimization to occur first or our comps are gonna die.

Well yes, optimization is needed first but i don't think those elements are so 'heavy' to manage from cpu/gpu.

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Originally Posted by Delmontyb

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.

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Yes! Definitely! The Twelves know I really need that, haha.
And, it would help save the poor Discipline of the Hand/Land when we aggro a monster.
Obviously, leves monsters would be excluded, possibly other monsters like NMs too (the guards run away in presence of a NM? haha!).

If the DEV's don't look at any other thread... if nothing else gets translated... I think they should take an entire day, as a staff, and read all the posts in here... all 21 pages so far.... This is possibly the only thread this long that I would read in it's entirety and take to heart

No new ideas? are Dev's even interested at this thread? and if so, what has cached their eyes of the ideas presented here

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Originally Posted by Joeking

Its sounds almost like a cut-scene your describing and not a game, sounds nice though, but I would like optimization to occur first or our comps are gonna die.

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Not too heavy, even XI had most of that stuff.

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Originally Posted by Eustass_Kidd

No new ideas? are Dev's even interested at this thread? and if so, what has cached their eyes of the ideas presented here

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They are interested, thats why its got a crown attached. Or at least it signifies that one of our reps carried the info over.

Since there is a lot of traffic on this thread, thought id post mine here as well.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Into-Eorzea%21

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Yes, This has been in the "Other" section of "Gameplay", but "General Discussion" has more views that "Other" and I want these ideas to get through to the devs.

These ideas are to increase the likability of the cities and towns as well as the surrounding areas.

Some Added Ideas by:
DoomCky's
Smokie23

[SIZE="5"]Aesthetics of the city;[/SIZE]
-----Summary of Aesthetics-----
- Cities don't have a lot of character :/
- As DoomCky said, need more NPC to Environment interaction.
- This would include Behest Battle Wardens walking from town or a different small city/camp to their designated camp to begin behest.
- I've seen talks of actual seasons; on a 2-4 week RL time scale, this could be freakin awesome.
- More random animations (stretching, yawning, sneeze, coughing, pace around, react to weather conditions)
- If a player hands in a quest and gets a rank up or level up have the NPC cheer or clap
- At camps, NPC should stand around under the tents and night time they should walk over to fire-pit and actually lite the fire instead of the it just magically lighting itself when it becomes dark.
- Do the 'standing at fireplace' animation. Day comes and they should put out fire(or it burns out) and they walk back under the tent/tree shade.
- Random clothing changes. Seeing the exact same looking NPC for months, years on end gets really played out, really soon.


Ul'Dah - Now yes, Ul'Dah is in the 'desert', but this is a game
and there are tree's outside the city, even if they are small in size.
With more crates, sand, erosion, a few well placed tree's it would bring it alive.
Have a group of kids/people NPC's crouched in an alley playing dice (Could have a mini game like a simple dice game like /random and have to get doubles or equal to a number where you could win gil/armor r1-r15ish), an NPC stacking/carrying crates and bringing them to a person or place. Mice running around the market area and un-populated areas.

Limsa Lominsa - just because the city is located on giant pillars of stone doesn't
mean that a garden or a good few trees and plants cant be placed around to
make it seem like it's an actually city instead of a brand new city. Like the little area
by the seagull statue should be decorated with a lot of plants and such. More benches wouldn't hurt either. There could be whales or dolphins nearby that would be visible in the city. Some dolphins may swim within the city. Also could add birds that fly down and walk around and fly away. Could also have them perching on ropes and such. Have a NPC sitting on a bench feeding them. Could even possibly sit down with the ole NPC man/woman and try and befriend the birds to get items they carry with them (low rank random items, r1-r15ish, sometimes junk) Would be perfect. Have NPC's carrying barrels and crates down to the docks to load them on boats. Have NPC's working on boats, ships coming into harbor other than ferry boat. Little boats for residents to travel about with the doors and mini docks beneath the city with a character paddling along.

Gridania - to me it doesn't feel like a forest or a city, it's weird. It's in a limbo lol. I feel like there should be more trees. Especially gardens. A few animals as well. squirrels running up trees, birds landing in trees and on rooftops. NPCs could be watering the gardens or plants, kid NPCs feeding some cute little animals and/or trying to climb a tree. Could have a mini-game on water flowers and depending how pretty/good they are get different random assortment of items (plant, armor, etc r1-15ish).

Smaller Towns
- They have even less character than the main cities...if that's even possible.
- The NPCs in the towns would be doing what the name suggests.

Wineport should have people, quite literally, making wine. Perhaps a shop that has fruit/wine/drinks that you can only get from there that affect stats and such. Two mini games could be made from this - the squishing of the grapes; see how fast and how much grape juice you can get out by stomping on them in a barrel without wasting all the grapes. So it's a balance of speed/force. Second mini game would be something involving barrels (ideas anyone?)

The Golden Bazaar should have a small bazaar that sells things such as gold,silver,copper, armor and minerals that you can mine in the Thanalan area. Could have a mini game where you have to weigh certain minerals against others and see if you can get the right exchange rate/price of it on the scale. Also could volunteer to help a salesman sell stuff and you have to sell it for more than its worth by selecting choice phrases/words and depending on customers personality to see how much you can raise the price or if you fail all together by making them mad (NPCs of course). If you were succesful, you would get the difference of starting and sold price ex: start 5,000 gil - sold for 7,300 gil = 2,300 gil for you.

Areas/Zones
Thanalan could be done Essentially the same as with the talks of the black shroud being redesigned via Garleaneans burning it down. In this case, the Ifrit prime could just let all hell break loose and destroy/alter the area, again this would tie in with the story alongside a redesign of the area. Not a scorched look all over or anything, but new mountain(s) from a volcano(s) that arose and subsided just as quick or only certain area's having a scorched look but terrain be moved around all over. Just something story-side that would tie in with the redesign.

The Black Shroud; Their is an idea floating around dealing with the Garleaneans (hell if i know how to spell it) burning down the black shroud - this could be a HUGE step forward for FFXIV. Why? Because if it was burnt down, the story would tie in with the talks of SE redesigning the whole area. Eventually or somehow magically(although not cheesily) the forest would renew itself. I'm not a fan of WoW, but SE should take a lesson from Blizzard and attempt to mimic it to their needs for the black shroud.

Mor Dhona. So supposedly there was this epic battle above this zone and yet there is only one airship, the one with 'Bahumut' wrapped around it. Seeing as in the opening movie there are dragons and airships crashing and such to the ground -- where are they? That's an easy way to add some land diversification right there. Add a few somewhat intact ships laying around, then have pieces of ships scattered across the zone. Also, since some of the dragons were being killed, there could be varrying sizes of dragon bones laying around the zone as well. Possibly have the rare few dragons vaguely visibly flying over the zone if it was to fit with the story progression.

[SIZE="5"]Ambiance[/SIZE];
- lack of city noise. They are all guilty.
- lacking environment noise as well(trees, boats, animals noises, etc)
- the Adventure Guilds need to have sounds of a bar inside them. Drinks slamming down,
some gently too, light chatter.
- Weather ambient needs to be added. When it rains it should sound like rain. Just using ambient sounds you can give a effect of a really bad thunderstorm or just a light rain. Different weather intensities, sometimes its raining hard with lightning or raining lightly, really fast windstorms to soft windstorms. That's just with sounds maybe very little animation for lightning. Can even tie in greater element bonus during harsher weather.

Ul'Dah - For sounds, Ul'Dah could use a light crowd roar of talking on the outer streets and gets quieter if not silent the further inside the city you go. Have the rare sandstorm so bad it gets in the city and this can be accompanied by a change in music and strong wings. Eventually, when you get higher up in Ul'Dah have sounds of birds and the harsh winds of the desert. Outside the desert could be rattle snake sounds, wolves howling, etc.

Limsa Lominsa - This is an easy one, of course again light crowd roar of people talking throughout most the city, but also seagulls squawking in abundance (but not to the point of annoyance), people blowing their horns as they come into harbor to alert the docks. Whales blow hole noise in the distance would be cool as well along with the animation for it. Creaking boat noises if you are near the docks and such.

Gridania - When near the outside of the Adventures Guild, the roar of the water and creaking of the wheel turning should be decently audible seeing as it's giant. Animal calls echoing from the forest into the city, woodpecker sounds, tree's swaying/creaking in the wind. Crowd roar would be quieter and in pockets of the city compared to the others. And when the Garleans invade could introduce the sound of falling tree's and a faint burning sound.


I'll leave it at that. Because this is ridiculously long.
I hope you guys do read it though and give your thoughts
and what you feel could add to this!
I hope they consider to implement things like this later on.

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In the trailers for FFXIV, we saw NPC children running through the street and workers carrying crates. Where did all this go?

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Originally Posted by Vesperia

In the trailers for FFXIV, we saw NPC children running through the street and workers carrying crates. Where did all this go?

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I guess they left the game a week after launch too =/

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Originally Posted by Lobo

I guess they left the game a week after launch too =/

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Wow, FFXIV has pretty good NPC A.I.

Ok, after going through all 21 pages I can confirm that nobody said this about chat animations and it's been bugging me since FFXI.

How about when you're talking to your linkshell, (since you'd look funny just talking to air) having the pearl in your hand (could be as simple as a ball of light too bright to make out clearly) and talking to it.

Also, as for chatting animations, I could see them being slightly different for the race of the character. For instance, I could see a Lalafell or Miqo'te nodding while they speak more than an Elezen would.

Great job with all the suggestions, I really think they would make the world much more lively. :)

I dont know if youre the first to suggest that idea in this thread, and I know youre not the first on the forums, but i am definitely for chat animations.

Video: Eorzea ― The Making of a Realm #4

Some of the concept art featured in this video really showed promise, but this subdued fantasy the Map Designer [Tomoki Chiba] decided to go with really doesn't appeal to me at all - it comes off as bland and incredibly uninspired.

My two cents:

The Black Shroud: There's a heavy emphasis on the forest being alive, yet so little of this life is ever shown off. Inclusion of the elementals into the background would be a nice touch. Friendly elementals. :rolleyes:

Also, where's the natural lighting? Currently, zero light comes through the canopy of the trees. At night time, (non-attackable) fireflies could appear in droves dotted through the trees, etc.

Examples: 1, 2.

La Noscea: There's a heavy emphasis on pirates, yet the only ships we ever see are of the docked variety. Would it be asking for too much to be able to view ships circling the perimeter of the island? Why are the lighthouses nothing more than useless monuments? At night time, their lights should be visible.

Thanalan: The gladiator's pit is completely empty - would it be possible to add some battling NPCs along with a cheering crowd? Caravans are mentioned by various NPCs and in guildleves, could we maybe see a few of them in the field? To Ul'dah's credit, though, they have a Casino in the works, so it seems like they have the hedonistic feel they're going for down pretty well.

Square Enix, don't let the world only come alive in the cutscenes. :(

That concept art in the Making Of video is hilarious in relation to its in-game counterpart. They barely resemble eachother, and the game suffers greatly for it.

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Originally Posted by Xikari

[...]
How about when you're talking to your linkshell, (since you'd look funny just talking to air) having the pearl in your hand (could be as simple as a ball of light too bright to make out clearly) and talking to it.

Also, as for chatting animations, I could see them being slightly different for the race of the character. For instance, I could see a Lalafell or Miqo'te nodding while they speak more than an Elezen would.
[...]

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[SIZE=7]+
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Originally Posted by Len

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My two cents:

The Black Shroud: There's a heavy emphasis on the forest being alive, yet so little of this life is ever shown off. Inclusion of the elementals into the background would be a nice touch. Friendly elementals. :rolleyes:

Also, where's the natural lighting? Currently, zero light comes through the canopy of the trees. At night time, (non-attackable) fireflies could appear in droves dotted through the trees, etc.

Examples: 1, 2.

La Noscea: There's a heavy emphasis on pirates, yet the only ships we ever see are of the docked variety. Would it be asking for too much to be able to view ships circling the perimeter of the island? Why are the lighthouses nothing more than useless monuments? At night time, their lights should be visible.

Thanalan: The gladiator's pit is completely empty - would it be possible to add some battling NPCs along with a cheering crowd? Caravans are mentioned by various NPCs and in guildleves, could we maybe see a few of them in the field? To Ul'dah's credit, though, they have a Casino in the works, so it seems like they have the hedonistic feel they're going for down pretty well.

Square Enix, don't let the world only come alive in the cutscenes. :(

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Definitely details I support and I'd love to see! These small details are what makes the world more alive, breathing with life (I know I keep saying that, but it's true! :o).

One thing I thought was really cool from FFXII they should impliment(I don't know if this has been said before) was...

When venturing out into the battle areas, sometimes you would see friendly monsters like Bangaas(?) that would help you fight other monsters and heal you, or if you decided to attack them they would attack you instead. That brought a lot of life to the battle system for me.

Also things like the hidden monster crystals that looked like save crystals until you touched them and found out they were monsters.

Thats why i'm hoping mimics show up via treasure chests. We cant have Aetherytes attacking people, so treasure chest mimics are the next best thing.

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Originally Posted by Teknoman

Thats why i'm hoping mimics show up via treasure chests. We cant have Aetherytes attacking people, so treasure chest mimics are the next best thing.

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I miss that creature!

While there are lots of fantastic ideas in this thread, there are a few I think should have the highest priority.

1. Idle animations
My character looks like a zombie. This is noticably worse on Hyur who all seem to have a case of the 1000-yard-stare. Miqo'te don't have as much of a problem with this, for some reason.

2. NPC interaction
In addition to a short VO when we speak with them, the random NPC spouting something off as you run by would be fantastic. Just make it a client-side VO so that we don't get tired of them happening all the time due to large numbers of players being about.

3. Improved AI
Bring the creature follow back, and better yet, have intelligent creatures wave at and say something (if non-hostile), or give a battle-cry as they charge you.

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Originally Posted by Munba

I miss that creature!

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it was cool 1

Making of a Realm 4

game dosn't look even close to how amazing that artwork is :( I wish SE would give us some info on what they think of doing with their landscapes.

To sum up this thread....

Make stuff in the game move....
that is at the core of about 75% of the suggestions here...
More NPC's that move (and possibly even talk to each other in say)... Chocobo drawn carts in the field that move..... Boats that move
You've got airships going all over the place... I don't see why everything else can't be seen moving....
Dynamic means moving
Alive is pretty self explanatory....
This thread is a really good one too... its gone on this long without being negative or getting derailed... I think thats cool... I just hope the Devs have been following it closely from post 1.... Because as soon as the battle changes and content are in... this should be priority #1 (Obviously content is an ongoing development, but you get the idea)

I agree. Making the world a more lively and exciting place should be a top priority after the battle changes.
Make us a beautiful Eorzea we want to call home and would take on the whole empire to keep it ours :P

As of right now i don't care if Garlean burns it down or not!

I would like to see the gambling hall in Ul'Dah open and the gladiater arena have fights going on as well where u can enter the tournament and recieve a prize and such for winning. Show the race for admiral where people can see from the city or pay a cetain ammount of gil to spectate on Hob's ship. Open up the taverns , Make it a social place for adventures and NPC's to chat, drink some ale, or go on a leve / quest. Every so often have a NPC ask for help with a leve / quest. Be able to interact with everything like sitting in a chair in the ADV guild and go over a start for a particular faction leve. Show ships coming and going in Limsa and having cargo unloaded and maybe be recuited to take shipments to a certain place . On the ferry from LL to thanalan random pirate attacks , monster attacks , and perhaps an occasional Leviathan appearance ? Where are Kobold ? the only time I seen them is on Behest. Player Housing , Public Companies ?

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Originally Posted by Coombah

I would like to see the gambling hall in ul dah open and the gladiater arena have fights going on as well where u can enter the tournament and recieve a prize and such for winning. Show the race for admiral where people can see for the city or pay a cetain ammount of gil to spectate. Open up the taverns , make it a social place for adventures and npc to chat drink some ale or go on a leve/ quest. every so often have a npc ask for help with a leve/ quest. Show ships comming and going in Limsa and having cargo unloaded and maybe be recuited to take shipments to a certain place . On the ferry for ll to thanalan random pirate attacks.

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HAHAHA... I was just saying, the gladiator's Arena in Ul'dah is hilarious... Look down at the battle area and you'll see the same 2 NPC's face off constantly, but never move an inch...

Seriously... how long do you have to size your opponent up.... It's the ultimate Psych out I guess
Or maybe its a staring contest... If that is the case then both NPC's are incredible at it

I looked a monster hunter recently (late, i know) and tbh, THIS was what I expected FFXIV to be. Smart monster AI, proper collision detection and a living world

I think this thread pairs well with this increasing popular thread right here. Help make it even more popular so we can get a dev comment! :) Help crown us LINKY

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Originally Posted by Zahak

I think this thread pairs well with this increasing popular thread right here. Help make it even more popular so we can get a dev comment! :) Help crown us LINKY

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Yeah. I agree. These things kind of go hand in hand. Probably why both have similar results: lots of likes and little to no argument or disagreement.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

I looked a monster hunter recently (late, i know) and tbh, THIS was what I expected FFXIV to be. Smart monster AI, proper collision detection and a living world

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Yea, I LOVE the Monster Hunter series, but to keep things in perspective, it is a completely different game....
The 2 things I'd take from it...

1. How monsters look when a part has been broken. Limbs don't always fall off, sometimes its subtle, like the face looking cracked a little

2. The weapon (And really armor too) designs... A lot more fantasy, and a lot less reality... I think this game could use a touch of unrealistic awe inspiring impossibility

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but I wouldn't mind seeing zone wide changes akin to the Giza Plain from FFXII. For example, when it rains in a zone, it has a noticeable effect to the area. From the spawning of certain monsters to flooding that would force you to take an alternative route.

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Originally Posted by normalforce

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but I wouldn't mind seeing zone wide changes akin to the Giza Plain from FFXII. For example, when it rains in a zone, it has a noticeable effect to the area. From the spawning of certain monsters to flooding that would force you to take an alternative route.

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That would be amazing for FFXIV to have this idea! especially the spawning of specific monsters because of weather.

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Originally Posted by Tiny

That would be amazing for FFXIV to have this idea! especially the spawning of specific monsters because of weather.

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Dare to dream

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Yea, I LOVE the Monster Hunter series, but to keep things in perspective, it is a completely different game....
The 2 things I'd take from it...

1. How monsters look when a part has been broken. Limbs don't always fall off, sometimes its subtle, like the face looking cracked a little

2. The weapon (And really armor too) designs... A lot more fantasy, and a lot less reality... I think this game could use a touch of unrealistic awe inspiring impossibility

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I'd rather have the monster AI and the living world tbh.
But yeah, monhun is a different kind of game.

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Originally Posted by normalforce

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but I wouldn't mind seeing zone wide changes akin to the Giza Plain from FFXII. For example, when it rains in a zone, it has a noticeable effect to the area. From the spawning of certain monsters to flooding that would force you to take an alternative route.

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Yes this is a great idea. That aspect of zones was one of the things I liked about XII. It could affect NM spawns and mobs could also become aggressive under certain conditions and non aggressive under others. Weather and the environment should change seasonally as well. There should be winter and fall in some zones. The black shroud would be really nice in fall if it was done right.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

I'd rather have the monster AI and the living world tbh.
But yeah, monhun is a different kind of game.

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Yea, I do love the AI, but what about the monsters behavior could be used in this game?
I have noticed MOBs that can cause pacification (Pacification makes it so you can't use weaponskills) or wipe your TP use it when you are using Raging Strike, Ferocity and Hawk Eye... Could be coincidence, but if it's not, then more of that is pretty cool....
SE can't win though.... If they came out and said "Attack Buffs cause certain MOBs to do TP wiping moves" then tons of people would be screaming for them to remove that feature... So they'd remove it, and then tons of people would be screaming that they made the game too easy

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Yea, I do love the AI, but what about the monsters behavior could be used in this game?

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Everything. I'd like to see mobs running around you trying to avoid being hit or fleeing from you when they feel you are too strong for them. Ofcourse, that would also require the battle system to take hit angles into account. They are fiddling with the system atm anyway, so they might as well improve it.
I can imagine many people being upset about such changes though (omg, the mobs just pwn me, the game is too hard QQ)

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Everything. I'd like to see mobs running around you trying to avoid being hit or fleeing from you when they feel you are too strong for them. Ofcourse, that would also require the battle system to take hit angles into account. They are fiddling with the system atm anyway, so they might as well improve it.
I can imagine many people being upset about such changes though (omg, the mobs just pwn me, the game is too hard QQ)

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I like how MOBs will fight each other in MH.... that is always an interesting dynamic

So many good ideas here +1

With all this speak about area redesign, i think it's time to put other ideas here :p

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Originally Posted by normalforce

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but I wouldn't mind seeing zone wide changes akin to the Giza Plain from FFXII. For example, when it rains in a zone, it has a noticeable effect to the area. From the spawning of certain monsters to flooding that would force you to take an alternative route.

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One would think that SE learns from past games.

With all the rain we had lately even Ul'dah should have been flooded ages ago. Now, just for a minute...imagine that with rain the maze in The Black Shroud changed randomly!