Hey SE! When you're rebuilding the environments, make sure they don't have any holes!

When the new environments get built, SE should take the time to ensure there aren't any gaps or holes in the terrain in out of sight places. This is a pretty normal practice for game developers to include such holes, since it saves time in development and memory in the system. And the devs think the gaps and holes are in places players can't get to anyway, so who cares? But for an MMO, I think a continuous, unbroken terrain with no facades or invisible walls is very important.

Why you ask?

I'll tell you why.

[SIZE=6]Personal airships![/SIZE]

Having your own personal airship that you could use to fly around where ever you wanted has always been a major staple of the FF series, yet for some odd reason SE has neglected to include this feature in both of the series' online ventures. Remember the Highwind from FFVII? Or how about the Ragnarok from FFVIII? A big part of what made these airships so memorable was the fact that you could control them! They were yours! This is something that I've always felt was missing from both of the online FF games, and I really think SE should bring it back.

Sure, FFXI had airships you could ride like a bus, but they weren't ever YOUR airships, and that's the problem. I want FFXIV to bring back personal, player-controllable airships like we have in all the offline FF games, and in order for this to be feasible, the terrain must be built without any gaps or holes in it. After all, how would it look if you were flying along, and you suddenly saw a big, gaping hole in the geometry of the game's terrain? That would definitely ruin the sense of immersion and remind you that you were playing a video game, wouldn't it? That's why there can't be any holes.

Of course, due to thousands of people playing together, personal airships in FFXIV will probably have to be pretty small, unlike the huge ships of offline FF games, but that's okay. Perhaps "airship" is the wrong word. Maybe I should say "flying machine" instead, as that removes the sense of scale that the comes with the word "ship."

Some ideas for personal flying machines could be things like these:


http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fant...ng-machine.jpg

http://img.artknowledgenews.com/file...ng_machine.jpg

http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p...ng-machine.jpg

http://www.flyingmachines.org/ritchel03.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zRZ96eqHos...ng+machine.jpg

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thum...ustrations.jpg

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/34512...chine_1883.jpg

http://www.arthurs-clipart.org/trans...%20machine.gif

http://disneycharacterspictures.com/magic-carpet.jpg

http://www.evan.org/jetpack/rocketeerFlying.jpg


Please bring back personal airships, SE! Not only does an MMO need this sort of thing, but it's an FF staple!

while this is an epic idea the amount of server lag it would cause would probably make it impractical.

Closest thing to a personal airship SE MIGHT consider would be a free airship that you ride from city to city and maybe throw in random docking ports to each map. Only obtainable after a long questline or a special story mission.

Off-topic: this thread started out about holes, but seems like it's REALLY about airships. I like the OP's subtle way of transitioning to and suggesting it. ;)

On-topic: personal airships would be awesome. Mini-airships you can control, and large airships that can only dock at certain places. They really gotta think long and hard about how they would implement them. But yeah I vote yes.

No thanks SE.

I think people are expecting too much from this redesign and will be disappointed. All I'm expecting is current textures and models to be used to create better looking terrain with some landmarks added in.

Maybe somewhere down the road in a future expansion this would be cool

I highly doubt if/when personal or linkshell airships make it into the game you are going to move it around the world map like any other FF game. What will likely happen is you will have a map that you can choose locations and it will travel via instanced zone just like the ferries.

Blegh. When it comes to status symbols in game I'd rather see hats or armour for chocobos we raise, rather than a cornucopia of random toys to transport yourself in.

The game needs more than one gil sink, and with the addition of paid transportation (In the form of rentals and airship rides) hopefully the prices of darkmatter will fall.

Anyway on that note I do hope that airships and chocobos have a rank requirement + quest. Fun time sinks are great. Just not....In the style of XI's chocobo pass. :S That was not fun.

SWG style please, different models and let us design the interior!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Azurymber

while this is an epic idea the amount of server lag it would cause would probably make it impractical.

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I don't know why you think that. There are actually already plenty of other MMOs out there already that allow players to fly, and it doesn't seem to cause any lag for them, so I don't see why it would cause lag for FFXIV. Have a little more faith in SE. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Benji

Maybe somewhere down the road in a future expansion this would be cool

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Sure, that could work, but if they don't design the terrain without holes now, they'll need to redo the terrain again if they do decide to add personal airships anytime in the future, and reworking the environments a second time would cost even more money. That's why I think SE should do it now while they're redesigning the environments anyway, so that they don't have to ever worry about it in the future.

Even if they decide not to add personal airships until a future expansion, the terrain should be designed with them in mind now. If SE doesn't do it now, then they'd either have to spend more time and money to rework the environments again, or just not add personal airships at all, and neither of those are desirable options.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oscillate_Wildly

Blegh. When it comes to status symbols in game I'd rather see hats or armour for chocobos we raise, rather than a cornucopia of random toys to transport yourself in.

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Why not have both? I see no reason why we should have to choose one or the other. The more options the better, right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oscillate_Wildly

Anyway on that note I do hope that airships and chocobos have a rank requirement + quest. Fun time sinks are great. Just not....In the style of XI's chocobo pass. :S That was not fun.

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Sure, that sounds fair. Earning your own personal airship could be a huge milestone for players and a goal to work towards. Providing players with a feeling of accomplishment is always a good thing. :)