Anima defeats the purpose of a seamless world.

Hello everyone and thank you for reading.

Before I type the point of this thread I would like to note some things.
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I am aware of the One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP thread and fully support it along with 99% of the other players.

I do not know much when it comes to servers and engine programming so please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.

I'm a average gamer that loves the Final Fantasy series, so i'm not a very nit picky person when it comes to MMORPGs.

I'm not complaining, this is something that I think will benefit us and the development team.
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Well if you keep yourself updated with the forums you would know that the development team is or will be working on a revamp of the areas and i'm really excited about this. The thing is, I wish they would just go back to a separate individual zoned area instead of a giant seamless world. One of the my main reasons why I think they should do this is because of the use of anima.

Due to the lack of transportation (which is coming soon) most of us have to use anima to warp to a different area on the map, say black brush to horizon. Well since we are warping around there is still a loading screen even though our destination is on the same map. IMO this defeats the purpose of a giant zone since we still have to face a loading screen, unless a player wants to make a run across maps which most of us don't want to since its a far stretch. I understand that the loading screen isn't that long, but hear me out.

I believe if the development team uses a zone to zone area it would be a bit easier on them and even us. It seems easier to manage zones and in theory they will be able to add more detail's to a single zone along with decorations which is something we all want and the game really needs. Since this might take awhile to do, I don't think they should just delete the current maps, but instead cut them into zones and give it a good redecoration (besides the gridania area just redo that).

Edit: There seems to be some confusion, I do not want to get rid of anima. I think Anima is the best thing ever because It's like a portable outpost warp. Just use small zones instead of one big map.

I really hope everyone else feels the same way about this.

[Dev] If any of you read this, it's not about the redecoration, I'm just suggesting that the development team uses zones in the future updates.

TL;DR: Using anima defeats the purpose of a seamless world because we are still experiencing a loading screen to get to a location on the same map, lets try to encourage the development team to cut the area's and use single zones instead.

I just read your title and not your post so yeah :D. I do agree, but until they have chocobo's I demand anima to stay. if they want to remove anima they have to have chocobos and smaller area's :D

Heya!

I just got that a Seamless World is a world where you don't have to go through loading screens and whatsoever. Yay! =D
Anyway, I like the fact that they've removed the Zones, but as you say and you want to mean is that a Zones system gives more ways to implement content and has more performance zone by zone, and I'm totally ok with this.
I think, though, that the zones are already implemented. Not zones as you mean though, as they are just intended to not overload your computer by loading so many models of characters and what else.
I believe that if they use smartly this type of zone division, they're able to maintain the Seamless World concept having content that we'd like to have.

About the teleportation, yeah that may defeat the concept for some, but understand that the loading screen is for you to not see, for example, your character not fully developed or missing object/terrain. From what I've experienced, by the time you walk there, the computer keeps loading the world. With a teleport you're going into a place not yet loaded by the computer, so they put a loading screen for whenever you teleport.

I guess that the only way to fix this by not using anything like airsheeps or transportations is loading the place before actually teleporting, so:

1. Choose the Teleport
2. Load the place
3. Teleport with a fade effect or whatever.

Going with Hairships, Boats, Walking,... all these keeps the world updated and you don't have to go into loading screens. Animas at this stage do because you have to load the world around where you want to teleport.

Said that, Animas are our only way to go one place another instead of walking, and I'd NOT remove it for now. If in the future it will become useless, and we'll know when, then they could remove it, but for now I'd keep it.

See ya!

umm, no thanks, is funny that the battle between time sink or casual or hardcore or grind or whatever else in the mmo world is a losing battle to easyness but then there are people like you that ask the world to walk everywhere like they don't got anything better to do. ffxiv isn't the first game to be streamless, and it's not a big deal and it doesn't change gameplay at all.

yes i did my fare share of running in ffxi, lots and lots of running and choco'ing and making coffee afk on boats. but it was all very centered. u didn't have to start from sandoria every time u wanted to all way to beaucidean or whatever. they had tele's right dab in middle. on top that choco's at every tele and we had a cool thing called op's where u can just port there. it was lots of running but it didn't feel like a time sink like in this game.

personally i think they need make anima not cost any points but ...they should only make some crystals portable to. like being able to port to bloodshore and bald knoll = the 2 for limsa, then from there u gotta run, or choco. it is centered more that way.

besides have u seen some of the spots where the streamless zones in, like the birds camp where players solo or duo by bw, all the birds are right where it streams and they are invisible for a good while. infact u can run threw all 10birds and not agro cause u'r going threw this so called streamless world lol. i dunno i don't see a big deal bout streamless, it's even worse for pvp games, like in warhammer there streamless zones u get lag as u pass threw it and is stupid if u end up breaking into a battle there.

anima should have come second or third after chocobo & airship.

OH i didnt read your original post until now.

I agree, what's the point right? Everyone just uses anima anyway so they might as well just make zones. That's such a fair point. Especially considering we have loading screens everywhere in the game anyway.

Ironic that their fixation on making big zones probably meant they lost development time for other features of the game (like chocobos and airships), then had to tack on anima to compensate, essentially ruining the large zones they had spent so much time creating.

also they should remove the ability to port other players to crystals for the first time. first time should force them to run to each crystal. having friend or paying 50k to someone is so meh. getting to each zone was lots of fun in ffxi, and again with most things in this game they give us choice run or get someone else to port you. ....who would run? i wouldn't i'll take the port ..thank ok and bye. this is not good. all the little things that add up to your progression in game gets ruined.

Another benefit of chopping the areas into smaller zones is that the Map wouldn't be so big and thus easier to look at. Whenever I use the map I have to scroll around a lot because its huge and its just a waste of time.
They should create smaller maps and then create a World Map.

I agree that making zones would be beneficial to the game. It would make things a bit smoother. My opinion about anima is that it should be taken out, but not before there is an alternate option to get from point A to point B with reasonable timing.

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Yes because running 1h to quest area while you have let's say 1.5h to play is fun.
If you enjoy running for sake of running nobody forces you to use teleports. Really.
Forcing players to do something they do not enjoy is straght way to make your game fail.
Everyone should have choice of what they want to do. I want to use teleports. You want to run. Why you would like to take out teleport for.
I want to take possibilty of running around zones from you!.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iniside

Yes because running 1h to quest area while you have let's say 1.5h to play is fun.
If you enjoy running for sake of running nobody forces you to use teleports. Really.
Forcing players to do something they do not enjoy is straght way to make your game fail.
Everyone should have choice of what they want to do. I want to use teleports. You want to run. Why you would like to take out teleport for.
I want to take possibilty of running around zones from you!.

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Just because we want anima removed doesn't mean that there would not be some way of teleporting. There are items that teleport in FFXI as well as a certain class. The problem with Anima is that it is free and replenishes itself. There is no drawback to teleporting anywhere. When the teleport has a cost, players need to evaluate convenience vs. cost. This evaluation leads to people travelling relatively close distances instead of just popping the ever-replenishing anima.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ClashBlades

Just because we want anima removed doesn't mean that there would not be some way of teleporting. There are items that teleport in FFXI as well as a certain class. The problem with Anima is that it is free and replenishes itself. There is no drawback to teleporting anywhere. When the teleport has a cost, players need to evaluate convenience vs. cost. This evaluation leads to people travelling relatively close distances instead of just popping the ever-replenishing anima.

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Yes. But that still doesn't change a point that if I want to popup for 1h and play then I want to PLAY. Do not look for someone who will teleport me, look for item which will teleport me. In other words I don't want wast my time for anything else. I just want to get in and do something meangfull.

As I said. Forcing players to do something they do not enjoy is very, very bad idea. And that's exactly what are you trying to do now.
And really. If there was a point of wandering around world, people would do it. But for now, world is pretty much empty and boring. What's the point of walking around, if there is only copy-paste landscapes ?

Unfortunately convenience doesn't always go a long with the health of the game. /sigh

Gil is in abundance and easy to get. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
SP is easy to get with Leves. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
NM's pop every 5 minutes. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
Gear dropped by NM's can be bought by anyone. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
Anima is a teleport with no cost. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ClashBlades

Unfortunately convenience doesn't always go a long with the health of the game. /sigh

Gil is in abundance and easy to get. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
SP is easy to get with Leves. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
NM's pop every 5 minutes. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
Gear dropped by NM's can be bought by anyone. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.
Anima is a teleport with no cost. Convenient, but not healthy for the game.

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It's very healthy. It's not and big rocket science to make a game that is hard because it's hard because it;s hard. What I mean by that if you think game is hard because you put various limits, force players to grind, to long time travel, and essentialy to do BORING things, then you are very mistaken.
Game should be hard because it give meangfull challenge. Quest are hard, because they need tactics. You travel around world, because there is meaning in that (rare mobs, live events, public quest whatever, something must going on around).
Easy level ? Of course it good. What's a point of forcing players to stay on level 20 for 3 days ? None. Players want to feel progress. They don't want to look at exp bar and see it doesn;t change by pixel.. Instead leveling should be meangfull and intresting. And after you reach max level you still should have fun.
Gear obtainable by everyone ? Of course. What's the point of limiting that ? Instead, as I said before, encounter should need more tactics and organization. To make obtaining gear meangfull.

You are look at everything from wrong direction. Game basics are good. There is just extreme lack of content to play. And i say EXTREME. Besides mindless grind there is nothing much left to do.
There is no dungeons. Thre is no items to craft. There are not even items to grind.. There is nothing in open world worth traveling. Only thing that this game needs is a lot of more meangfull content.
To provide content on fast peace you need large team of people with right tools to do so. By now I think FFXIV missing both. People and Tools.