Alzelia's List of Suggestions to Bring Players to Gridania and Limsa Limosa

[SIZE="6"]
__________________________
Alzelia's List of Suggestions to Bring Players to Gridania and Limsa Limosa
__________________________[/SIZE]

Note to Devs: New ideas are in this color!!!



[SIZE="5"]Introduction[/SIZE]

I believe that major problem with this game is that it is set up so the vast majority of the players just stick around Uldah and Thanalan. These players spend the majority of their time running the same leves, synthing, or running behest. On my server, Horizon often has almost twice the amount of people attempting to get into Behest than can fit in. Compared to Uldah, Gridania and Limsa appear to be lifeless. Good luck buying anything in Gridania or Limsa's market wards.

This is a major cause of people becoming bored of the game. They do the same thing over and over again in the same region. No wonder people complain about the lack of stuff to do! There are other areas of the game, but people have very little incentive to visit them. Currently the only reasons to leave Thanalan are to hunt NMs, to gather, to do the same boring quests with a different setting, or to visit a guild. Yeah, there are other reasons but they are not that common. Only gathering has you stay in a region for an extended period of time. I wonder how many new players quit because they started in Gridania, and thought the game was dead.

I quite recently posted the thread 2 birds with 1 stone: more storage space + more life to Grid and LL in the Markets and Retainers forum an Idea that I had to spread people around between the cities.

However, I soon started thinking in a much broader scope. How could we bring more people out from Uldah into other areas? I realized that the majority of the changes would have to be positive reinforcement to the idea of encouraging people to go to these other cities. People tend to react badly to negative reinforcements. But the biggest reason that people would want to go to these cities is to participate in something FUN! We shouldn't give people reasons to go to the other cities, we should make it so that people want to travel to Gridania and Limsa Limosa

[SIZE="5"]Suggestions[/SIZE]

1 - Retainer Adjustments
I am still a bit uneasy about this idea. Look at the thread I linked to above for more details. Basically you could only have one retainer in a city, but you are rewarded by having three retainers, one for each city.

2 - Tax Adjustments
This Idea is pretty simple, if the tax system were adjusted so that items related to the guilds in a city, either mats or synths, were taxed at half the normal rate, it would encourage more people to set up their retainers at that city.

3 - Fame
If each city had its own fame for the player, it would give the player a reason to do quests in that city. Of course this fame would have to serve a function that would draw the person to a city. I would think that lower NPC prices and higher resell prices would help. Perhaps if a person reaches a high enough fame they can get access to more advanced facilities at guilds than are currently available.

4 - Intercity Rivalry
Some system similar to conquest in FFXI would help spread people between the cities.

5 - City Missions
Another FFXI idea (a lot of these will be from FFXI) basically give each city a mission quest line that is separate from the main story quest in Uldah. Adding cutscenes to these missions would please a lot of people.

6 - Increased Travel Options
If it is easier for people to travel between the cities without having to worry about their anima, more people will travel to these cities. That's why I believe that implementing airships is a great idea! I think it would be a great idea if the aerthecytes in the main cities allowed one to teleport between them for 1 or 2 anima. Chocobos would of course also greatly help transport difficulties.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sephr

I also think they need a ship going from LL to somewhere near Gridania, so all three cities are equally easy to get to from the others, rather than Ul'dah being the central place.

---

7 - Companies
We don't yet know much about companies, but it appears that there is one major company per city. Hopefully incentives to stay in the home city are added to the company system.

8 - Encourage Leves and Behest in Various Cities
I now see three different ways that this can be accomplished. Either adjust Gaurdians Aspect or add a similiar system where a player gets extra sp as an incentive for running leves and behests in different cities.

Another way that this could be implemented (thankyou Viion for the idea!) Is that the leves currently in place for Gridania and Limsa need to be improved. Uldah has the advantage of having levess like Levenshower, which provide excellent SP. If Gridania and Limsa had better leves more people would be willing to travel to these cities.

Another way I can see is that is a system similiar to leve quests was implemented with companies. However, the difference would be each company could only provide 2 quests each. So altogether all three companies would provide 6 quests separate from the 8 leves you can get per reset.

9 - Hamlet Defense
Give each city its own Hamlet Defense on a timer like Behest, but make it so that only one city at a time is running it.

10 - Dungeons
Give each city its own unique dungeon that you need a certain amount of fame to enter with unique rewards.

11 - Community Activities

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munba

- open/create some community activities, like the casinò in Uldah or that sort of music hall in Gridania with some entertainments inside. In Limsa Lominsa i would put some boats that could bring you in some special routes around the coast, to fish special fishes or to visit some islands (with something useful inside of course.. like dungeons or stuff to gather). And put community games (card game, dices, lottery, etc. but different for every city).

---

12 - Player Housing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munba

- every player should have its own house (free) in the nation they started (or a 'room' in the INN) but they could buy an house in the other nations too (high price). And house should have a different style (in graphics) depend on the city. LL could have a balcony with an ocean view, for example.

---

13 - Fix the Black Shroud (and Gridania!)
(Thankyou again Viion for the idea!)
Many players (myself included) really hate the design of the black shroud and Gridania. It appears to me that the biggest problem that everyone has with the area is the copy/past terrain and the maze. I personally would like something like ronfaure from FFXI to be the starting area for Gridania. At least open up the R1-10 portion of the Black Shroud, and do SOMETHING about the copy paste terrain, and I bet more people will be drawn to the area!

14 - Make foot travel between cities more dangerous below R20
While this idea may at first seem counter intuitive to the goal of this thread, I believe that it is not. In FFXI I started in Bastok, and I probably spent 20 hours there and in the surrounding areas before I got to Sandy. This made me feel much more attached to Bastok, I felt like it was my home. If a player sticks around his or her starting area until they are ready to party, it helps them become more attached to their home, and discourage them from moving to Uldah(Not to sure about this idea either)

[SIZE="5"]Issues[/SIZE]

1 - Increased Anima Use / Travel Time
Yes it is true that if players were more encouraged to spend time in other cities, that this would mean that they would have to spend more time on the road, and use more anima. This is why I added Airships to this suggestion. I would expect that the devs would balance the increased travel demands if and when these ideas are implemented. I have added additional ideas to the travel section to account for this.

2 - Low Player Count

[SIZE="5"]Conclusion[/SIZE]

Great ideas, I also think they need a ship going from LL to somewhere near Gridania, so all three cities are equally easy to get to from the others, rather than Ul'dah being the central place. Unless that was an intentional design choice (and if so, why did they even bother putting wards in LL and Gridania)

EDIT: I think the city storylines are pretty much a given, considering they currently all finish at rank 15 (Rank 15? Really Tanaka? Embarassing...) without actually reaching any kind of conclusion on their individual stories.

I agree and like those points. I think this is really necessary and every player should be fond for 'its' (where it start) nation as well.

Some other ideas,

- open/create some community activities, like the casinò in Uldah or that sort of music hall in Gridania with some entertainments inside. In Limsa Lominsa i would put some boats that could bring you in some special routes around the coast, to fish special fishes or to visit some islands (with something useful inside of course.. like dungeons or stuff to gather). And put community games (card game, dices, lottery, etc. but different for every city).

- every player should have its own house (free) in the nation they started (or a 'room' in the INN) but they could buy an house in the other nations too (high price). And house should have a different style (in graphics) depend on the city. LL could have a balcony with an ocean view, for example.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munba

I agree and like those points. I think this is really necessary and every player should be fond for 'its' (where it start) nation as well.

Some other ideas,

- open/create some community activities, like the casinò in Uldah or that sort of music hall in Gridania with some entertainments inside. In Limsa Lominsa i would put some boats that could bring you in some special routes around the coast, to fish special fishes or to visit some islands (with something useful inside of course.. like dungeons or stuff to gather). And put community games (card game, dices, lottery, etc. but different for every city).

- every player should have its own house (free) in the nation they started (or a 'room' in the INN) but they could buy an house in the other nations too (high price). And house should have a different style (in graphics) depend on the city. LL could have a balcony with an ocean view, for example.

---

I'd kill for a room with a view. I continue to hold loyalty to LL and I'd really like to see it populated like it was when the game launched.

Until 6 happens, 1 and 2 will be extremely annoying and tbh I personally wouldnt be bothered. But all I sell is shards so it wouldnt affect me.

3 I would totally agree on, I would defaintly do quests in specific cities IF THERE WAS A REASON TO in order to get fame up. The reason to do quests is not becase of fame but what fame does for you in that city and that will ultimately be the decision, getting better facilities at a guild is not worth it.

4 Wouldnt do anything, everyone would just be part of Uldah and they'd strive in conquest.

5 This would be best, make each city have its own missions (but seperate to main scenerio). You would also need a system to allow people to switch

I dont get 8, it just makes no sense to me, are you saying get extra SP if you go to another city? That would be forcing the player to go elsewere which is not a good direction to go down and you'd also need to provide leves that give as good SP per kill as the ones in Uldah do.

10 would be good. But im fairly sure this is going to happen, the screenshot of the last dungeon was a dungeon in Limsa (You can tell by the mobs + textures) and there will no doubt be one for Uldah because its the most populated and theres no reason to leave good old Gridania out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sephr

Great ideas, I also think they need a ship going from LL to somewhere near Gridania, so all three cities are equally easy to get to from the others, rather than Ul'dah being the central place. Unless that was an intentional design choice (and if so, why did they even bother putting wards in LL and Gridania)

EDIT: I think the city storylines are pretty much a given, considering they currently all finish at rank 15 (Rank 15? Really Tanaka? Embarassing...) without actually reaching any kind of conclusion on their individual stories.

---

Great Idea about traveling from Limsa to Gridania! I'm adding it to the list!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Munba

I agree and like those points. I think this is really necessary and every player should be fond for 'its' (where it start) nation as well.

Some other ideas,

- open/create some community activities, like the casinò in Uldah or that sort of music hall in Gridania with some entertainments inside. In Limsa Lominsa i would put some boats that could bring you in some special routes around the coast, to fish special fishes or to visit some islands (with something useful inside of course.. like dungeons or stuff to gather). And put community games (card game, dices, lottery, etc. but different for every city).

- every player should have its own house (free) in the nation they started (or a 'room' in the INN) but they could buy an house in the other nations too (high price). And house should have a different style (in graphics) depend on the city. LL could have a balcony with an ocean view, for example.

---

More great ideas! I'm adding these to the list too! I was going to put something in the list about housing, but it must have skipped my mind.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LlenCoram

I'd kill for a room with a view. I continue to hold loyalty to LL and I'd really like to see it populated like it was when the game launched.

---

Me too!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by viion

Until 6 happens, 1 and 2 will be extremely annoying and tbh I personally wouldnt be bothered. But all I sell is shards so it wouldnt affect me.

3 I would totally agree on, I would defaintly do quests in specific cities IF THERE WAS A REASON TO in order to get fame up. The reason to do quests is not becase of fame but what fame does for you in that city and that will ultimately be the decision, getting better facilities at a guild is not worth it.

4 Wouldnt do anything, everyone would just be part of Uldah and they'd strive in conquest.

5 This would be best, make each city have its own missions (but seperate to main scenerio). You would also need a system to allow people to switch

I dont get 8, it just makes no sense to me, are you saying get extra SP if you go to another city? That would be forcing the player to go elsewere which is not a good direction to go down and you'd also need to provide leves that give as good SP per kill as the ones in Uldah do.

10 would be good. But im fairly sure this is going to happen, the screenshot of the last dungeon was a dungeon in Limsa (You can tell by the mobs + textures) and there will no doubt be one for Uldah because its the most populated and theres no reason to leave good old Gridania out.

---

I completely agree with your opinions on 1, 2, and 6.

About number 4, I will add in something about bonuses being given to the city that is behind. Also I believe that this will be less of an issue if other parts of my list were implemented.

And about number 8, Yeah, you pretty much got my point, but I do like your idea of different leves, I think I will change this one to something more along those lines.

EDIT: I changed number 8, what do you think of it now?

A lot of issues Gridania has is plainly due to its design, fix them and you have a place just as good as Limsa.

Add in ships you don't need to reserve Anima

Add in dungeons at all locations you will have people going all over to each one.

Make all dungeons Unique but not stupid, what I mean by this is the Factionleve NM's you have to do them in the 3 different cities for a full set, GOOD IDEA! But the drop rates and difficulty for gear that tbh isn't very good, BAD IDEA! So more often than not people will just do Limsa/Uldah's and then Trade around and Gridania is again left. I will only go to Gridania when I have over 800 points in Shield.

I also forgot to add I think 9 is an awesome idea, something similar to Dynamis I would would be more suited. (Avoid relicings for the time being just do it for AF and as such certain pieces drop in certain zones and such).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by viion

A lot of issues Gridania has is plainly due to its design, fix them and you have a place just as good as Limsa.

Add in ships you don't need to reserve Anima

Add in dungeons at all locations you will have people going all over to each one.

Make all dungeons Unique but not stupid, what I mean by this is the Factionleve NM's you have to do them in the 3 different cities for a full set, GOOD IDEA! But the drop rates and difficulty for gear that tbh isn't very good, BAD IDEA! So more often than not people will just do Limsa/Uldah's and then Trade around and Gridania is again left. I will only go to Gridania when I have over 800 points in Shield.

I also forgot to add I think 9 is an awesome idea, something similar to Dynamis I would would be more suited. (Avoid relicings for the time being just do it for AF and as such certain pieces drop in certain zones and such).

---

Thankyou for the compliment on number 9, I will add in something about fixing the Black Shroud!

I think that if even 2 or 3 of these ideas were implemented, it would make FFXIV so much better.

1 - People are lazy they don't want to go to all 3 cities to search for something.

2 - Most people already don't care about taxes, go check the retainers, so many are selling stuff that aren't related to the ward (retainer selling rings MRD axe and ores in spellcasters ward for example).

3 - People will only care about Ulda'h fame anyway so who cares.

4 - Spread people around??? There's so few people playing this game why would we want to spread??? (I'm in a low server pop and it stinks, wonder if SE will start thinking of merging some servers).

5 - Like side quests people will go to Grid do the quest and go back to Ulda'h as soon as its done waiting for the next quest to unlock when they reach the required level.

6 - Might help a bit but not enough.

7 - dunno either... ><

8 - Most people do leve link parties with their own LS and since the majority of people like Ulad'h better or think its more convenient will stay at that city. Players becomes incredibly anti-social when their not with their LS mates so i doubt this would work.

9 - Players already hate changing cities do you think they will start running from hamlets to hamlets??? Besides there's no teleport point or airship ramp next to hamlets so people won't care for em, well not for long. Since hamlets are not a spot for leves there will be very few people doing em, oh and they are very far from major cities too so #9 does not help bringing players to LL or Grid.

10 - This will work at first but like leves people will choose the "best" dungeon and always go to "that" one and if dungeons don't give good SP, people will go back to Ulda'h.

I may sound pessimistic but the main reason players stick with Ulda'h is cause of the R40 leves. The Ulda'h ones are so better than LL and Grid, and since most people play in groups only with their LS, its makes sense to say we are glued to Ulda'h. Everytime i try to ask LS mates, shouting and use the recruit party window for LL leves i always end up soloing or just loging off after waiting 2 hours for absolutely nothing since people in this are god dam anti-social.

IMO the only thing that could bring players for real to LL or Grid is when R50 leves will come out assuming LL 50s for example, would give crazy SP compared to Uldah, a bit like another "broken water camp" but in LL.

We all know "skill points" is the #1 thing that runs this game, nothing else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alzelia

13 - Fix the Black Shroud and Gridania! (Thankyou again Viion for the idea!)

---

I don't think think Gridania needs to be "fixed", it's a very well done city. Black Shroud on the other hand could use some changing.

How about the obvious choice...?

They fix the game, people come back and clusterfuck Ul'Dah then decide to spread out cause of the lag.

Just remove the 3-4 stupid leves that everyone and their mom links/fails in the thanalan area. Problem solved.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Magiksmurf

I may sound pessimistic but the main reason players stick with Ulda'h is cause of the R40 leves. The Ulda'h ones are so better than LL and Grid, and since most people play in groups only with their LS, its makes sense to say we are glued to Ulda'h. Everytime i try to ask LS mates, shouting and use the recruit party window for LL leves i always end up soloing or just loging off after waiting 2 hours for absolutely nothing since people in this are god dam anti-social.

IMO the only thing that could bring players for real to LL or Grid is when R50 leves will come out assuming LL 50s for example, would give crazy SP compared to Uldah, a bit like another "broken water camp" but in LL.

We all know "skill points" is the #1 thing that runs this game, nothing else.

---

Ul'dah.

And despite pretty much dismissing every suggestion, your own suggestion is pretty awful. Grats.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sephr

Ul'dah.

And despite pretty much dismissing every suggestion, your own suggestion is pretty awful. Grats.

---

I don't remember giving any suggestions i'm just pointing out the obvious.
And don't take me wrong i pretty much want everything what OP said but i don't think it will bring players to LL and Grid for good.

I'd just like to add my two cents by saying that I think there are a lot of really good ideas being floated in this thread. I especially like the idea of city missions, intercity travel, city-specific dungeons, city-specific community activities, player housing with views of the city, and a re-worked Black Shroud. All of the suggestions in the OP are good, but these in particular would make me excited to spend time in Eorzea.

Community reps, if you get the chance you might want to forward the ideas in this thread to the development team. I know they want to hear constructive feedback that could improve the game, and there is a lot of it here. :)

Honestly i think the stories are following XI path of story telling . First few missions are kinda different then they all link for a while then they branch off seems like whats gonna happen again

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TonyMontana

Just remove the 3-4 stupid leves that everyone and their mom links/fails in the thanalan area. Problem solved.

---

Then everyone and their mom will just do other leves in Thanalan.... Problem not solved

Obviously it's hard to tell with the info we've got in hand but I have the feeling that companies will be the answer to most of the points that you proposed (intercity rivalry, city missions, associated dungeons and town defense). And the devs have stated that there will be a fame system. Airships, chocobos, we know they are coming.

So yeah I think future adjustments to the game will help spread people around, but I'm not sure that adding restrictions to current players habits is the good idea to provide this spread, like in some ideas that you posted.

Siefs boat idea wouldn't work simply due to LL is on the ocean and Grid is in the middle of a forest. Tbh It doesn't take much to travel from Grid to uldah then to the ferry to LL. Only time. And you rarely run into any agressive mobs. We need people to spread out their retainers due to the Ul'dah crashes. You guys want a hard core game yet are to lazy or whiney about sp/exp. Is there a need or reason to do the "best" sp/hr? Not really. Wait till there is content. And even still it is most of yaalls silly "rules" that "force" ppl to ONLY do leves in ul'dah. Personaly this is a community issue not the games. Most of your probs are in your head. Or ones you make up.

I don't get how anyone can hate the Black Shroud, it's design is the best by far and it is an amazing zone, different strokes for different folks.

Fix Grid... Only zone I can walk into and suddenly my graphics cards go ape shit. I dunno what is wrong with that zone but it's a burden.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by northernsky

Obviously it's hard to tell with the info we've got in hand but I have the feeling that companies will be the answer to most of the points that you proposed (intercity rivalry, city missions, associated dungeons and town defense). And the devs have stated that there will be a fame system. Airships, chocobos, we know they are coming.

So yeah I think future adjustments to the game will help spread people around, but I'm not sure that adding restrictions to current players habits is the good idea to provide this spread, like in some ideas that you posted.

---

Yeah, I agree, we do know that a lot of these ideas are in the works. I do think that I have put in quite a few good original ideas too! I've been trying to edit the list and make it look nice. The more I think about it, the more ideas I have. I'm trying to make them nice and neat so it's easier for the reps to get the ideas to the devs!

But I need more ideas!! What do you guys think would encourage players to explore the environment more? How do we encourage players to spread out into the other cities? What could be added to the cities to make them more unique and interesting?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dargoth_Draconia

I don't get how anyone can hate the Black Shroud, it's design is the best by far and it is an amazing zone, different strokes for different folks.

---

I just don't like how the entire thing seems like a maze. That's why I suggested that only the area around the lowest rank camp be changed to a more open design.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alzelia

Yeah, I agree, we do know that a lot of these ideas are in the works. I do think that I have put in quite a few good original ideas too! I've been trying to edit the list and make it look nice. The more I think about it, the more ideas I have. I'm trying to make them nice and neat so it's easier for the reps to get the ideas to the devs!

But I need more ideas!! What do you guys think would encourage players to explore the environment more? How do we encourage players to spread out into the other cities? What could be added to the cities to make them more unique and interesting?

---

Yeah I think you proposed good original ideas too. Sorry if I sounded negative I actually think that your thread is one of the few constructive ones these days.

If there is to be a separate line of quests tied to the companies, I could see that future jobs (ref. to the incoming job system hinted by YoshiP) will be linked to each city lore and culture. For example, I think that future NPC to be implemented for the grand companies will probably have "jobs" tied to local culture like LL admiral seems to be a Pirate or musketeer, Grid seedseer a WHM or SMN and Uld'ah general a berserker or warrior. With an independent fame system, as you suggested, you would have to spend some time in every city to unlock, and maybe (depending on how they implement it) advance in certain jobs.

Having a distinct initial choice of class or job depending on your starting city could also create an attachment toward your starting city (the guilds don't really do that), and having to achieve certain levels of fame in other cities to unlock further jobs and classes would be incentives to spend time and accomplish stuff elsewhere.

hopefully, the future main scenario quests will give people more incentive to travel to the other cities, (atm, Gridania is the only other city visted during a main story quest, aside from the initial quests before "Fade to White") much like how Chains of Promathia had you travelling all over Vana'diel in FFXI.