An Eorzea that is more 'alive' and dynamic. - A suggestion for the future of Eorzea
Hello!
I very well know it is not currently in the planned projects of Yoshi P. and I am writting this thread in the hope that it will become. Obviously, there is many pressing matters right now that need attention, but the facts remains, a world that is more alive would do very much good. So, hopefully, my suggestion will become reality sooner or later.
Here it is:
The world, as it is right now, feels very 'cold', mechanized. Everything is still except for monsters walking around, not aware of their own environment beside unlucky players that pass too close aggressive monsters.
The goods point of the current world: a changing weather, a moving night sky, wind in the plants.
The thing is, we need more to bring the feeling of warmth and a 'personality' to the world, make it 'alive'.
I was seriously disappointed when the personality of animals was removed (curious and flee behaviour). It is something like that that brings life to the world. So, there should be more 'personality' for the wildlife: predators attacking weak preys (rank 1 animals maybe?), aggressive animals that tries to stalks/ambush players rather than simply charge toward them, passive animals that tries to hide or get the attention of the player, herds of animals acting like herbs (when one flees, the other follows; the males try to protect the females if the players get too close of the females; etc).
Also, we should have a bigger diversity in the size of monster, very small ones and very big ones. Not only oversized monsters. Diversity in the world makes it less monotone and more lively. The same idea applies to NPCs and players.
We should have many more character customization (more colours, more styles, more special features [scars, etc.]), both during and after character creation.
We need a world that has more dynamic objects, make objects appears in the wild. I mean, for miners: chunk of ores, for botanist: flowers and herbs, for quests and leves: more actual objects that we can see. Glowing lights are nice, but not enough in my opinion, something is missing. It can simply be changing the look of a fence during a leve that asks you to bring planks to repair it, or adding tracks on the ground and broken trees when monsters are supposed to be ravaging an area.
More than few leves, for example, don't make sense in the context of the environment. Being asked to repair something non-existent at certain camps (fence and fortifications for example), asked to recover crates washed up in Limsa Lominsa... but they are located on the highest level of the city, etc.
Not only monsters should be more proactive, but NPCs too. Make the NPCs more alive, make them take a walk in the city, make them come towards players and ask them information or try to sell them something or come to you when you hold an item they need, etc. Be creative! :)
Another aspect is derived from a more dynamic, more 'alive' world. It is more mobility for our characters. Being able to reach new places in existing zones (remove invisible walls, make use able to climb on objects to reach new places, being able to jump to reach new locations, etc). This will allow developers to be more creative in the design of quests and leves, allow players to run a bigger diversity of player-run events (hide-and-seek, just to name one), and build new grounds for more interesting features.
Once again, I understand it isn't a priority now, but if it doesn't get on Square-Enix plan of action, it may never be the right time to do it and plan new features according to this new lively world.
I understand that some examples, you may disagree with, but they are examples.
The main point of this thread is to promote an Eorzea that is more 'alive'. If you agree with a world like that, please, lend your voice to the cause! :o
We can debate the details of it once it gets the attention of the development team. :)