Suggestions about 3.0 expansion and beyond

I know it's a bit early to speak about it but devs are in the middle of programming 3.0 right now i presume and it could be useful to give some suggestions or things possibly to avoid creating the expansion. What about to begin sharing ideas about it?


Areas
- New areas should be bigger (not enourmous and bland like 1.0 though). I know: bigger = less details because ps3. But maybe it's necessary to have a more sense of exploration and 'desolation'. And becasue if you add content on it, it'll not seem so crowd with lot people around. Areas should have much more interactive elements in the enviroment as well.

- I think it would be good to have some areas without already established teleports. You can maybe build a personal transportation (by crafting) to reach it fast, only after you reach that place and sanify the area (with specific mechanics of 'pioneering').

- Unexplored maps should not make visibile hubs, villages, crystals and stuff before explore it.


Sidequests
- In the new areas, quests should not be placed in specific hubs like the 2.0 but put around in every place so it'd be nice to find them just exploring, with some hidden ones too (ESO is a good example for it). So to have a more 'dynamic' progression and not in a schematic manner.

- Quests should be much more complex and some with different paths to complete. Some could be split in other ones or evolve themselves depend on the choises player makes.


Dungeons
- Eorzea really needs some open-world dungeons indeed. Where players go freely to explore in every moment without to be always bound with DF or complete party... finding random spawning treasures, gathering stuff, killing NMs, with traps and riddles to find secrets, and so on.

Idea: specific dungeons could have new mechanics, like the use of the torch, magic light or lantern to see in the very dark places (enemies will not be visibile or targetable if in the dark).

- Istanced dungeons should be much more complex and not a one-way only. More secrets to find and with different paths to be completed. And depend on you complete it, you'll receive more tomes or rewards (there was something about it in 1.0 and it was nice, why it's not in the 2.0?).
Put the possibility to explore the dungeon only after completed it, for a certain period of time without monsters (but you can reset it of course) without timer, to find secret treasures, rare gathering points or lore stuff -collectibles in a specific UI with arts- (writings on wall, books, ancient artifacts, etc.).


Misc
- In 1.0 there were real-time events like Garleand troups randomly appearing around camps or world-events like Dalamud approaching Hydaelyn every 2-3 months (or the newspaper men going around cities to ask questions or to give hints for the future lol.. it was very nice!).
Eorzea really needs random events like these and they should not be announced in the loadstone. To have a more lively/dynamic world.

- Add dreams in the game again like in 1.0 when log out/in in a bed, please. It was a really nice addition! And add more extra features like this.

- Really hope to see swimming/dive abilities and the possibility to builld own/fc boat to explore the ocean in 3.0 or around it.

- More 'dungerous' areas/places (in open-world) in which monsters are really strong and not a joke like now. Also you should avoid them in some cases or make some surviving choises to not die.

- Less tomes farming doing the same istances more and more (boring) -> more variety and difficulty in the new dungeons. And really need more 8 player dungeons.

- More useful/hi-level craftable armours and weapons. Some craftable equip should be almost on par with the dungeon/tomes drop to increase economy and to make crafters more important.

- Add much more 'life' around... only see some few fishes and birds around now (add butterflies, jumping crickets and frogs, etc.). Also more rare/random natural events like shooting stars, auroras and so on.

I agree with all of it :D.

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Originally Posted by Munba

Misc
- In 1.0 there were real-time events like Garleand troups randomly appearing around camps or world-events like Dalamud approaching Hydaelyn every 2-3 months (or the newspaper men going around cities to ask questions or to give hints for the future lol.. it was very nice!).
Eorzea really needs random events like these and they should not be announced in the loadstone. To have a more lively/dynamic world.

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I think they're called..... FATEs ><

(I got your point, just kidding :3)

See i liked the big desolation of 1.0 - especially Coerthas, I'd have built a log cabin in Coerthas and lived out the rest of my days in a mountainous bliss :)

Updates I wanna see have been covered above pretty much. I would like to see something similar to the hunts system of ff12 - but implemented server wide and with a limited number, so if someone in your FC happens upon one of these target distributors that they get that hunt and them alone, special item drops from them, titles or anything that can again broaden individuality.

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Originally Posted by Aeora

See i liked the big desolation of 1.0 - especially Coerthas, I'd have built a log cabin in Coerthas and lived out the rest of my days in a mountainous bliss :)

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Yeah until that Peiste NM attacks your cabin lookin for food!


As for suggestions, I think one of my biggest gripes about this game is lack of true exploration. The game right now has too many invisible walls hindering you from jumping up into that cool place you see up there, or simply hopping down into that stream down there. It's silly! The game seems to have this "you can look but you can't touch" policy.

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Originally Posted by Merle

I think they're called..... FATEs ><

(I got your point, just kidding :3)

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Eheh.
In any case, in those events some NPCs were moved by GMs themselves and it was so cool to interact with a real person behind a NPC.

For 3.0 all I want is the REAL Coerthas back. I miss the sprawling hills and mountainsides. And the zone music. I'd sit at Dragonhead for hours and just chill out there.

http://www.gameranx.com/img/11-Dec/ffxiv03.jpg

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...s_Coerthas.png

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Originally Posted by KyroeFelix

For 3.0 all I want is the REAL Coerthas back. I miss the sprawling hills and mountainsides. And the zone music. I'd sit at Dragonhead for hours and just chill out there.

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The lush green lands of Coerthas is gone forever, frozen by an sudden unforgiving ice storm
(Shiva<< speculation) which might be revealed after they give access to the Holy See of Ishard.

as for the areas being bigger i doubt it. they pretty much programmed the game old school where the whole zone is loaded into memory good old .BSP and they have to keep everything within 256mb thanks to the PS3.
even some older games had a portal type of system that lets the area "stream" which is standard in a lot of 3rd party game engines. its loads the games into chunks and pre caches the next piece of the zone, and you have the unrealED system where it does that and only shows whats in the cameras view being processed.
even 1.0 did a crappy version of that but it just loaded the other parts of the zones when you walked in the narrow tunnels, and if someone was with you they would disappear then you see them pop up again.

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Originally Posted by Munba

world-events like Dalamud approaching Hydaelyn every 2-3 months
- Add dreams in the game again like in 1.0 when log out/in in a bed, please. It was a really nice addition! And add more extra features like this.
- Really hope to see swimming/dive abilities and the possibility to builld own/fc boat to explore the ocean in 3.0 or around it.

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- Approaching Dalamud was one of Best features in 1.0 for me , there was all time feeling that something changes , world changes (well in the end it changed XD) so i totally agree for something similar :D
- Dreams was good to , they has some mystery in them , so +10 to dreams
- Swimming/dive ! when i played AC4 i was wonder if we ever see open sea content , cuz actually Eorzea is surrounded by water (like about every FF) so there is a big "playground" for Ship adventures , pvp pattles & just diving explorations !

-No Aetherytes in new area (everyone has to walk)
-Aggroing mobs above the level cap on the way to the city (so you have to travel in parties).
As a personal request, just some elements from FFXII:
Rare mobs->
Chain a species of mobs to spawn a rare mobs that has rare drops. Zoning resets the chain, not time
Guild (the hunting guild)->
Go on hunts for a particular mob that may have special spawning conditions (like in FFXII, this was usually weather, mob chaining, etc), do not make these appear in FATES, just roam in the wild
Meaningful weather->
Change the efficacy attacks in certain weather and make dangerous mobs (above the lvl cap) spawn in the weather (such as the elementals in thunderstorm, rain, sandstorm, blizzard, etc), also make rare mobs chain from these dangerous mobs
Bazaar->
Trade large quantities of seemingly useless items for a bazaar item, or even trade rare mob items for a good bazaar item (such as the Tournesol)
Map changes upon weather->
In 12, some maps such as giza plains, or the desserts around dalmasca changed the accessibility to certain parts of the map in weather (such a creating and blocking paths).

MORE IMPORTANTLY, NO AETHERYTES, so all of the above is nullified by teleporting...

Are there PVP "dungeons" like WoW? If not, there should be epic PVP game types.

Blade & Soul gameplay.

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Originally Posted by UBERHAXED

-No Aetherytes in new area (everyone has to walk)

-snip-

MORE IMPORTANTLY, NO AETHERYTES, so all of the above is nullified by teleporting...

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Honestly, the problem with "No Aetherytes", is that I imagine only a minority of people would appreciate their removal. I could understand there only being one Aetheryte perhaps, but having no aetherytes at all is a bit too much. Also, by your wording, I assume you also would want mounts and Chocobo Porters removed, so we can't just ride on past any dangerous monsters that otherwise would've stomped us into a greasy smear on the ground if they saw us?

Otherwise, you do have some interesting ideas, though I'm not sure on the Rare Mobs. If anyone can meet the spawn requirements for those things, with how many people there would be running around in zones trying to get them to spawn, eventually people will just be sitting around at their spawn points waiting for someone else to meet the requirements, and then they claim it and kill it. Just like all those horror stories in FFXI with the RMTs using claim bots.

A more intuitive exploration aspect to gathering that isn't just time based unspoiled nodes. I would enjoy a system that made items rare through giving gatherers a "fatigue" to how often they could seek out these nodes. So say there are 20 rare items that can be gained in this manner, but you can only do 5-10 a day. This would restrict the amount of said materials that enter the market, while not being a killer time constraint on people playing said class.

It could be leve token based in the sense that a gatherer can stock up 5 charges a day and save them up to 35 charges aka 1 week. If a botanist/miner were to find a node they wanted to get the most out of they could continue to use their tokens til they run out and it would allow for a more diverse selection of unspoiled nodes as well as the acquisition in which they are discovered.

Though in one way to keep it fair, rather than allow a gatherer to use all 35 charges that they saved up, they could limit the amount used per day to 10 with the potential to raise it to 15 through quest/challenges and maybe even raise the cap of 35 a week to 42 through said quest/challenge.

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Originally Posted by DarkStar

Honestly, the problem with "No Aetherytes", is that I imagine only a minority of people would appreciate their removal. I could understand there only being one Aetheryte perhaps, but having no aetherytes at all is a bit too much. Also, by your wording, I assume you also would want mounts and Chocobo Porters removed, so we can't just ride on past any dangerous monsters that otherwise would've stomped us into a greasy smear on the ground if they saw us?

Otherwise, you do have some interesting ideas, though I'm not sure on the Rare Mobs. If anyone can meet the spawn requirements for those things, with how many people there would be running around in zones trying to get them to spawn, eventually people will just be sitting around at their spawn points waiting for someone else to meet the requirements, and then they claim it and kill it. Just like all those horror stories in FFXI with the RMTs using claim bots.

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Nothing wrong with mounts or porters since you can still be attacked by hostile foes (and knocked off your mounts) in the current game. Seeing as the normal mobs would be above the level cap and rare mobs above those, there isn't really much a bot can do. Moreover needing a party just to access the area will improve the seemingly segregated community (solo segregated at that...). But yeah if a level 1 character uses a mount and tries to go to northern thanalan, they will surely get spotted and die. Try it out.

For some reason, making something as simple as traveling requiring a group probably wouldn't help unsegregate a community.

In fact I think it'll just make things worse.

Suggestions:
Larger Zones so people would stop complaining about not having larger zones.

Some traveling open world bosses, bosses that cannot be simply zerged down in a FATE. Will require large and organized parties to take down.

A few teleports. If we are going into a new continent, we carry a large Aeytheryte to the new harbor we used to get there, but most of the untamed wilderness is just that, untamed wilderness.

Update the FATE mechanics so they require coordination. You still don't need to group for them because lawl thats kind of a time waster and FATEs are supposed to waste time on their own. but make it so that, like the open world bosses, you need to coordinate to fight them.

More vanity items. vanity items that don't require crafters to sacrafice the blood of their first borns to make. I want a long skirt, should not be difficult to fold some cloth >__>

Iffy on open world dungeons, because I honestly don't see them getting used much in a game that has a Dungeon Finder.

More classes/jobs. Dancer, Blue and Red Mages, Dark Knight, things like that.

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Originally Posted by UBERHAXED

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I'll have to try that out later. If nothing else, it'll give me an excuse to finally go ahead and unlock Archer. >w>

Anyway, while what you say about rare monsters being significantly above the level cap would probably be true if they kept to the spirit of the idea, it wouldn't take very long before roving Full Parties of bots would start showing up. RMTs will always find a way, unfortunately.

Now, my suggestion would instead be that, perhaps, when a rare monster spawns, it's automatically claimed by you, spawns in your vicinity, and you get a timer, similar to when you find a Chest from a Treasure Map. If you leave the zone or the timer runs out, the monster de-spawns, but otherwise it stays roughly where it spawned and remains claimed by you, though other people can come in and help you kill it, and thus get a shot at their own instance of the loot.

Also, I don't think I've ever been actually dismounted by being attacked by a monster. All I've ever seen happen is being hit with a Heavy debuff. Is this something that happens very rarely instead of the debuff?

+1 to Open World Bosses. I guess 1.0 sorta had them in the form of Named Monsters?

+1 to Open World Dungeons. They don't have to be huge or super-important, but just there for fun. Hell, they could be the EXISTING dungeons, just open and explorable when you're not in a party and with different mobs/mechanics/drops when not in a party.

Better vanity system. The glamour system is a miserable joke.

+1 to the idea of weather-based changes to mob spawns and magic effects. Even if it doesn't change damage output, the idea of being a BLM casting Thunder during a storm and having it instead draw a bolt of lightning from the sky is awesome.

+1 to the random, real-time events that occur without warning.

+1 to Dreams, it sound like 1.0 had a few really cool features that didn't make it to ARR!

Make more open world zones, less invisible walls so i can hop off cliffs and such. (more exploration). More classes (dancer!). And.... a way to make more people communicate with each other because the simple hellos in the beginning of a DF is kind of sad.

More suggestions:

- More 'dungerous' areas/places (in open-world) in which monsters are really strong and not a joke like now. Also you should avoid them in some cases or make some surviving choises to not die.

- Less tomes farming doing the same istances more and more (boring) -> more variety and difficulty in the new dungeons. And really need more 8 player dungeons.

- More useful/hi-level craftable armours and weapons. Some craftable equip should be almost on par with the dungeon/tomes drop to increase economy and to make crafters more important.

- Add much more 'life' around... only see some few fishes and birds around now (add butterflies, jumping crickets and frogs, etc.). Also more rare/random natural events like shooting stars, auroras and so on.

I would suggest adding in some sort of bonus xp items like the heirloom gear from WoW or the experience egg from FF3. My reasoning behind this is because once you do a quest, it's gone forever. Right now there are 8 classes to level up. Down the line that number may double. Putting some kind of heirloom gear in via the GC would be a good use of the seals that I'm sure a lot of people have been building up.

Another idea would be set bonuses. The GC gear already has this. It would be nice to see it applied to the more high end gear.

Some content for 24 man groups that is not trivial like CT. Or at least 16 man. Maybe do what SWTOR did with having 8 man and 16 man versions of raids. Give us more reasons for being in a FC. Also, it would be nice to have content that isn't bound by strict 4 and 8 man groups. If 5 people wanna do something together or 7 or 10, there should be content for that. And not be forced to exclude people.

Please have set bonuses to gear. Gear is quite boring right now. Having to mish mash best in slot from different sources is silly. I should want to complete gear sets. Actually, it would be great if the idea of best in slot went away. Have a variety of gear come out at the same time.

More variety in the world. I understand and appreciate having north, south, east, west versions of Shroud, Thanalan and La Noscea after the BS zones of 1.0. But the game still is Shroud, Thanalan, La Noscea, Coerthas and Mor Dhona. 5 different lands. In the expac, I wanna be excited to go to each zone. See different things. I don't wanna see north, south, east, west versions of the same general zone.

Figure out what you want to do with crafting/materia. Either make them actually mean something or make them way more accessible. There is no need to pretend that they are their own class and have to grind out levels like real classes if they exist for pure novelty.

I came here with my passionate wishes and 2.0 regrets but the OP covers all of them. Great post!
If the devs used any of those methods the world would feel more alive.

Now the only thing actually "happening" in the world is fates which happen at clockwork frequency and are about as shockingly surprising as the sun rising in the morning.

Isn't the ongoing construction of Revenant's Toll enough of a World Event for now? They can't be dropping the moon on us all the time, there's only one left.

Great post OP

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Originally Posted by FJerome

Isn't the ongoing construction of Revenant's Toll enough of a World Event for now? They can't be dropping the moon on us all the time, there's only one left.

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Yes it's similar but always 'scheduled/known'. Eorzea needs also totally random events around without warning or hints.

Some OP 1.0 points sound interesting to have back in 2.0. Random events especially.