Make cities lively again

Everyone tends to hang at idyllshire or limsa. Gridania, ul'dah tend to be empty. A first step would be to place a market board near teleport. Next maybe have some tome npcs. Any other suggestions welcome.

Back in 1.X EVERYONE did EVERYTHING in Ul'dah. GC, hanging out, etc. Because the main story pretty much ended there...

I think it varies with servers. Sure Ul'Dah isn't packed, but Gridania isn't empty at all, at least on Gilga. That also applies to Mor Dhona (even though it's not like... a city. Same for Idyllshire), not as lively as before but still a lot of people hanging out there. And poor Ishgard completly forgotten on the thread.

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Originally Posted by Orbiaus

Everyone tends to hang at idyllshire or limsa. Gridania, ul'dah tend to be empty. A first step would be to place a market board near teleport. Next maybe have some tome npcs. Any other suggestions welcome.

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Having a teleport point near the market boards would be a huge step forward. Right now they are so inconveniently located.

And if they could somehow combine it all into a single zone that would be amazing. Running around Ul'dah is like re-zoning for every other place you want to go.

I recently found myself in Ul'dah and it was pretty empty except for the occasional new player with sprout mark, or AFK character. Likely not setting a good impression on people considering a subscription. It felt so dead.

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Originally Posted by MaethusXion

Back in 1.X EVERYONE did EVERYTHING in Ul'dah. GC, hanging out, etc. Because the main story pretty much ended there...

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Back then the markets were not connected either, so if you weren't in Ul'dah then it was more difficult to purchase what you wanted. ^^;

I know I stick to Limsa for a number of reasons and it's doubtful any change SE makes would move me from there:

1) I started in Limsa. It's "home" to me.
2) It's appealing to me due to its aesthetics and open air location.
3) The Aetheryte arrival point is close to a market board and retainer bell.
4) The Aethernet in Limsa is well placed for more efficient travel around Limsa compared to other cities.
5) There's a boat to Waking Sands from Limsa which was a big reason to make Limsa home while leveling since Waking Sands has no Aetheryte.

The other city's aren't bad looking but some of their layouts leave a bit to be desired. Idyllshire has no MB so that's a non-starter for me. And even if it did... it's just a hub. A small base of operations rather than a "hometown" to me. It's where I go to trade in tomes or scrips not where I want to hang out.

The housing areas had some impact on the cities being somewhat empty as well. Before housing everyone hung out in the main cities it was a lot of fun :)

Having everything easily reachable is always going to win against actually having to travel somewhere to get something. If housing districts didn't have MBs and bells the cities would be a lot more busy. I will get flamed for this but I wish they didnt have these things and people had to go to cities to buy and sell. The retainer bell isnt as bad but why would a housing area have a market board?

I always hang out at my personal house or at my FC house, both have very conveniently placed market boards and retainer bells.

On Balmung at least all the cities are very lively during 'peak time'... not everyone just hangs in Revenant's Toll or Idyllshire, for good reason.

I've even started seeing a lot more 'sprouts' around in the three cities too lately. But that might just be because of Balmung's huge population. ;)

Even on Goblin, there's a lot more people roaming Uldah and Gridania than there was a few months ago. Many of them are sprouts, but it feels more lively with them anyways.

Depends on what you mean by lively anyway. Limsa and Idyllshire are definitely the most populated, they're also mainly populated by zombies AFK'ing for hours at a time. No one talks or interacts, so why does it matter.