Forced linear explorations not funs!

Mao gettings really tired of being told where to go and only go that ways. Mao likes explorings, especially dangerous places. Mao nots like linear "can only go here" style explorings. Now Mao understands that FFXIV is story driven and thus can nots open ups everywhere at once, buts surely Devs can make some places little bits more accessibles without ruining story? For explorers like Mao, current overly restrictive design suckings the funs out of explorings.

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao gettings really tired of being told where to go and only go that ways. Mao likes explorings, especially dangerous places. Mao nots like linear "can only go here" style explorings. Now Mao understands that FFXIV is story driven and thus can nots open ups everywhere at once, buts surely Devs can make some places little bits more accessibles without ruining story? For explorers like Mao, current overly restrictive design suckings the funs out of explorings.

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Bad news for Mao then because this isn't that type of game unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao gettings really tired of being told where to go and only go that ways. Mao likes explorings, especially dangerous places. Mao nots like linear "can only go here" style explorings. Now Mao understands that FFXIV is story driven and thus can nots open ups everywhere at once, buts surely Devs can make some places little bits more accessibles without ruining story? For explorers like Mao, current overly restrictive design suckings the funs out of explorings.

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I’m sorry, are you in capable of speaking normally?
This is so hard to read.

This is how all of FFXIV works. It’s linear for MSQ.

When I was a new player, I remember walking through the South Shroud at a low level, trying to go between the Black Shroud and Thanalan without spending gil on an airship, and trying (mostly failing) to sneak around monsters that were a much higher level than me. It was a formative sprout experience. Having the freedom to choose where I wanted to go and to experience things that may or may not have been "intended" was fun. Being blocked off from every area until the area is required to progress the MSQ is...less fun.

They could stand to make destinations and interesting land features a bit more densely-packed, too. Trying to "explore" anything in expansion zones (especially Endwalker zones) is mostly just auto-running across a featureless plane, in the general direction of your nearest aether current, until you collide with an impassable chasm or rock wall that didn't show up on your map, and you realize that the other half of the zone is still locked by MSQ progress.

I liked ARR-style zone design and exploration.

I agree with you, but there is a lot about FFXIV that would need to change for exploration to be a meaningful part of the gameplay.

The mobs would need to be dangerous because without risk of failure, there is no adventure. This would require retuning numerically, obviously, but also the AI would have to change so it's not just a ball, mobs would have to be placed far more liberally, our jobs would need to be reworked to function off of a 2 minute timer, add punishments to death. Zones would need to be reconstructed to have interesting things in them, meaningful verticality, get rid of or severely limit flying, funnel players into dangerous spots but also spread far to accomodate more players actually using the open world.

You're kind of asking for a rework on the scale of 1.0 to 2.0, and whether or not anyone thinks that would be good for the game, it isn't going to happen. I encourage you to try out Guild Wars 2 during a slow period, though, the exploration is impeccable. Or, if you want to stay within the FF framework, exploration in XI is really fun too.

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Originally Posted by koko-on-da-forumz

I agree with you, but there is a lot about FFXIV that would need to change for exploration to be a meaningful part of the gameplay.

The mobs would need to be dangerous because without risk of failure, there is no adventure. This would require retuning numerically, obviously, but also the AI would have to change so it's not just a ball, mobs would have to be placed far more liberally, our jobs would need to be reworked to function off of a 2 minute timer, add punishments to death. Zones would need to be reconstructed to have interesting things in them, meaningful verticality, get rid of or severely limit flying, funnel players into dangerous spots but also spread far to accomodate more players actually using the open world.

You're kind of asking for a rework on the scale of 1.0 to 2.0, and whether or not anyone thinks that would be good for the game, it isn't going to happen. I encourage you to try out Guild Wars 2 during a slow period, though, the exploration is impeccable. Or, if you want to stay within the FF framework, exploration in XI is really fun too.

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Mao already plays GW2. GW2 has best explorations Mao ever seen. Now, Mao knows that FFXIV can't be exactly like GW2. Mao was hopings though that adding little bits more verticality and tricky ways to access parts of zones and more dangers from critters could be dones without messing ups the storyline.

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao already plays GW2. GW2 has best explorations Mao ever seen. Now, Mao knows that FFXIV can't be exactly like GW2. Mao was hopings though that adding little bits more verticality and tricky ways to access parts of zones and more dangers from critters could be dones without messing ups the storyline.

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That's not an unfair ask even in a linear equation. You can do the breadcrumbs where the game moves me from set piece to set piece but make exploring to get there interesting. Not just running from a to b. Another settlement needs your help

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Mao gettings really tired of being told where to go and only go that ways. Mao likes explorings, especially dangerous places. Mao nots like linear "can only go here" style explorings. Now Mao understands that FFXIV is story driven and thus can nots open ups everywhere at once, buts surely Devs can make some places little bits more accessibles without ruining story? For explorers like Mao, current overly restrictive design suckings the funs out of explorings.

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Blocked, that way of writing isn‘t in the slighest way witty or funny.

I want them to stop locking access across zone lines to MSQ completion. If I can find a way to get there, let me explore. Or at least have some sidequests you can do separately to unlock them if you want to get to a place before the story goes there, in case you'd rather focus on DoL/DoH at the start.