More Playable Map Area Please

Every new update or so we get a new dungeon. It's this other dimension where we get teleported, leave our big birds behind, and generally get locked out of whatever it was we would be doing with friends who aren't a part of our dungeon experience.

Meanwhile, there's all sorts of interesting places in the backgrounds of existing maps where we can't move, jump to, climb to, etc. There are vast distances visible but inaccessible. Huge chunks of the "map" display areas that are simply not part of our maps.

I would like future expansions of the game to have more places for us to explore. like the castle in Coerthus, or take a boat out on the beach, or climb further in the desert wastelands of Sagoli. So far, the only map expansions I can think of are Revenant's Toll and Housing.

But there's all sorts of "locked doors" and signs leading to no where, I would rather have a new town with some low and high level monsters outside than another dungeon to be honest.

I always thought that open map areas and open dungeons would be so much better than what we currently have in this game.

A most recent example of this can be found with Keeper of the Lake. We basically go to the edge of the lake and are teleported inside. Once inside, mobs are everywhere and when you get to the top, you can't even see Mor Dhona anymore. An area that is right outside of Mor Dhona feels like it's in another plane of existence.

It seems silly that in Darkhold or Aurum Vale that you can't just go to the entrances and go down there.

Leaving dungeons aside as well. You do see tons of beautiful things in the distance but they are pictures on a canvas that you can only look at. The Shiva arena exists in that zone alone. You can't actually walk to it and see a beautiful ice kingdom around it.

I wish this game wouldn't have so many instances. SE dev has said that the game can only handle so many instances but they keep making more and more. This MMO needs to be more open world and less instances.

I've said this before as well. Every time they make a new dungeon, such as the lost city of amdapor, I think of how it's such a beautiful waste since we can't even explore the area or visit it outside of the usual speed run. I wish that when these instances are added, that they also would add it to the map as well so we can explore it at any time. They could add new places to mine and gather at these places and even use them for new quests. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to do these sorts of things but as it is now it seems a bit of a waste creating these awesome looking areas that we just speed on through.

Now that's something I can get behind. Open world dungeons like in XI were a bit of a headache, but having our instanced dungeons explorable in open world for different reasons could be pretty neat. I'm for it.

Yup, this game needs open world dungeons and such.

The concept is great... but they would have to redesign the game from scratch... again.... to get rid of fates and hunts.

Imagine the "lag" as the whole server rushes from S rank to S rank. It would make the entire game laggy instead of just the localized "zone". Imagine an S rank pops in central shroud. Every zone that is connected to it would have mobs of people rushing to get their 1st hit on it. Zoning would take even longer than it does for Revenants Toll. and it would grind complete regions into lag.

Is that really the world you want to see? (I'm guessing you never played LOTRO because every time they added something more lag happened, especially zoning. SE is trying to not let it end up like some of its competitors)

They definitely have to do something as far as more explorable real estate goes. Now I'm not saying this needs to be FFXI as that's been beaten to death. However, the world is way too small and that's ashame because it's a such a beautiful world, I WANT to explore all those out of reach areas. Please SE FFXIV is awesome but we need a bigger world!

Haven't they said that Heavensward is going to double the size of the current gameworld?

Please look forward to it. 3.0

I don't really feel like the world is small. I feel that it's a good size, and honestly when I'm trying to get to the location of certain hunts or maps (or to locate your rank B hunt weekly) it seems pretty big. There is the issue that outside of hunts and maps (and gathering to some extent) there's not really anything to do in this world after 50. I'm not sure that opening up the dungeons would solve that at all. Seems like it would mostly create a headache for people having to spend extra time travelling (compared to now) and every roulette would have to go out the window (or break the rules -- at which point why bother?). Adding more and more space generally means less detail or more overhead and processing. We had sprawling spaces in 1.0 and they were even more vacant than what we have now, less useful, and less interesting to look at.

This could easily be accomplished if SQE ever figures out how WoW's "Phasing" worked. Basically instances would become open-world areas that are "Phased" for up to one group of players. Completing that instance would "Phase Lock" those players to a "Completed" phase, where you could run into other people, etc. Could even be some rare mining or botany nodes in the "Completed" phase for people to farm, giving gatherers a reason to complete these instances. If you wanted to repeat the instance, there would be a way to "UnLock" the phase, just like how WoW had the Reset Instances option.

But this is all contingent on the idea of Square figuring out that whole "Phasing Technology" idea.

Using this would enable them to add more and more open world areas to the ones that already exist. I would LOVE to see open world dungeons with mobs, leading down to the instance in question where you just... STEP ON IN. No zoning! I hate zones! >< I don't mind a little more travel time (Zones in 1.0 were huge, which is cool, and no zones, which is awesome, but those zones were largely boring and empty, which sucks... A balance can be struck!) if it means the world feels like... you know... a world, instead of a theme-park.

I'm hoping that in the future they will open up all the dungeons as new open zones. But with more areas open/unlocked than we had during missions. Sastasha and toto-ark have places named on the map that just don't exist in game, locked behind doors and vines. I really have no idea how stone vigil story and hard maps intersect or combine, I would love to see the fortress rebuilt somewhat and/or quests to help rebuild it. Would love to see a minecart ride wind from norther thanalan to deep in coperbell, rebuilt into a semi functioning mine again.

How nice would it be to explore dzemal darkhold and see how the areas fit together, instead of getting teleported around. There are paths covered here too that I'm curios about. Same for Halatli, some parts are pretty copy/paste in hard mode but that place could just be a labrenth of "training" fun

And best of all, if they could unlock these areas they could create new open world areas to make materia. Also they could make more instanced outside areas. Right now it's restricted to guildhests and special story quests.... But why not an outside dungeon? Beast tribe areas could setup different areas for bosses. Why not have a poacher invasion in the shroud? Garleans invade whatever area their in for supplies and we have to stop the impending attack? Lots of possibilities to add flavor and content to the world without having to design all new areas.

What all you guys describe are something that we legacy players once had in 1.0.

Of course there's also those who has OCD-tendencies to point out those "copy-paste terrains", which I personally never had problems with. In fact, I missed the old Eorzea more and more. That, and the fact that I still hate the full-blown snow in Coerthas compared with 1.0 Coerthas which does have snowy patches and still looks amazing!

Just look at this old Coerthas:
http://i.imgur.com/S5r1VMd.jpg

Every time I saw that, I felt a huge longing to go back there.

But I guess this is something we all had to live for now, since SE want to accomodate millions of players while sacrificing those boundless worlds which I assume will tax the performance greatly. ^^;

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

What all you guys describe are something that we legacy players once had in 1.0.

Of course there's also those who has OCD-tendencies to point out those "copy-paste terrains", which I personally never had problems with. In fact,

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Just because you didn't have a problem with the blatent copy paste in 1.0 everyone else who did was OCD? Mmmm kay. Maps in 1.0 where desolate with very few clumps of mobs, very little NPC areas and no reason to explore because it all looked the same due to the blatent copy paste to save on resources.

If you thought 1.0 was a good example of an open world you have never played in a good open world. Star Wars Galaxies for one, massive maps with countless hiddens things to discover, On Dathomir at times you could see NPC battles between Nightsisters and rangers. On other planets, battles between rebels and imperials, THAT was an example of a good open world set up. FFXIV 1.0 is not.

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

That, and the fact that I still hate the full-blown snow in Coerthas compared with 1.0 Coerthas which does have snowy patches and still looks amazing!

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There was no snowy patches in old Coerthas.
Also Coerthas was full with invisible walls, the called cliffs ^^

1.0 was a large open world with a few camps randomly thrown about but nothing else worth exploring. If there was more landmarks to visit and stuff to do it would be an amazing map(s).

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Originally Posted by shintashi

I would like future expansions of the game to have more places for us to explore. like the castle in Coerthus, or take a boat out on the beach, or climb further in the desert wastelands of Sagoli. So far, the only map expansions I can think of are Revenant's Toll and Housing.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Kelhw2j8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4la4gCsS_Iw
I also hope in 3.0 is Eastern Highlands of Coerthas and the still missing West Shroud included.

Also, behind Sagoli Desert would be a new region. The Paglth'an region, homeland of the Amalj'aa. Maybe stuff for another expansion pack. Or there is just the sea behind the desert.

http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...aps-eorzea.jpg

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

http://i.imgur.com/S5r1VMd.jpg

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It looks as if there's absolutely nothing in there. I don't want to watch the same rocks and trees for 10 minutes just to get to the other side.

The last update we had about open dungeons at least, was in the lest e3 i think, Yoshi said they wanted to make open world dungeons, and make the useful, but to not have these crowded and lagging the open map, they were thinking about s system to semi instance them with several servers to direct the players to another open semi instance when one was full, i think, invisible zones would make it, it's not like we can have the world full of invisible zone (cof cof ps3 cof cof), but we could have one for every open world dungeon.

I want to see bigger open world areas as well, but make them useful and fun, with interesting (mechanics and rewards) FATEs, and secrets like forced spawn bosses, nodes, hidden and repeatable quests...

Finally something like this came up.
I don't see the problem in allowing dungeons being able to be open world once youv cleared it once it be nice to be able to see every thing with out having to just run through it.

When they get rid of ps3 support, I'm really expecting to see openworld maps looking more realistic and huge, discovering places with ton of hidden things inside (a lot of mmos did this, it's amazing to explore complex maps).
We do have a jump option but it is mostly useless :( (Jumping puzzles in GW2 was something I totally fell in love with).

Stop the instanced dungeon madness please T.T or at least slow down it a bit, your current openworld need way more loves.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

Just because you didn't have a problem with the blatent copy paste in 1.0 everyone else who did was OCD? Mmmm kay. Maps in 1.0 where desolate with very few clumps of mobs, very little NPC areas and no reason to explore because it all looked the same due to the blatent copy paste to save on resources.

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That is a very good point. The point of it all.

Why do we need huge parts of the land? what purpose will it serve? Nice huge map area, but that's about it. If there is no reason for that piece of land being besides just to look at it it's not worth the time, money and resource to put into.

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Originally Posted by Martin_Arcainess

That is a very good point. The point of it all.

Why do we need huge parts of the land? what purpose will it serve? Nice huge map area, but that's about it. If there is no reason for that piece of land being besides just to look at it it's not worth the time, money and resource to put into.

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I love open worlds, but there has to be reasons to explore. I dont mean loot wise, but finding that easter egg, that hidden secret. Finding that spot and getting the perfect screenshot. It was one of the things Star Wars Galaxies did right! What may seem like little things gives the world character, something which was blatently missing from 1.0. The maps where big, yes, but devoid of anything interesting. With FFXIV, yes the maps are smaller, but how many places ith character is there? How many times you see a door, a hole and wonder whats down there, behind the door?

Yes, it could be better, for example having NPCs going about their daily business which changes as the day progresses into night. Social aggro with mobs, kinda silly when you see 2 enemies chatting, you pull one and the other stands chatting away oblivious XD. Social aggro, if you don't know is when mobs see another being attacked, they run into help, without having to have "seen" the player attacking. So those 2 Garleans chatting, you attack one, as as you attacked him in front of the other the second would jump in to help his friend. Maede pulling some mobs in EQ" challenging.

May seem coldhearted or something, but best path now for FFXIV is to drop PS3 support soon to be able to push things further than they presently can due to the limitations the PS3 is imposing.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

May seem coldhearted or something, but best path now for FFXIV is to drop PS3 support soon to be able to push things further than they presently can due to the limitations the PS3 is imposing.

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I believe he said it at the Vegas Fan Fest that PS3 support WILL end eventually, probably by the next expansion (After Heavensward). I suspect that particular expansion to come with many changes that will change the game almost entirely, much in the way they did it with WoW Cataclysm. Not the same kind of world-shattering changes with re-done terrain and completely new features in existing zones, but this kind of change with more open maps, flying in older content, or even open world dungeons (I still also suspect a Class/Job system change beyond the "Jobs no longer have a class" change coming with Heavensward).

It's pretty clear that players find the zoned areas annoying and somewhat small/restrictive. But on the other hand we also don't want large empty zones full of copy-pasted terrain that you just have to trudge through to get to the next area. That's pretty stupid too. I think we can all agree that larger, non-zoned areas with interesting/unique features scattered throughout (You're bound to have SOME copy-pasting going on, let's be honest. Just not the whole freakin' zone!) would be preferable to what we have now.

The zones in WoW are a good two to three times as big as the zones we have in XIV (Most of them, anyway), but they feel even bigger because there are no invisible borders or instanced zone-points to travel to the next map. Yet Blizzard has managed to populate these zones with enough unique features to keep people from stopping and pointing and saying COPYPASTA! Yeah, you'll see the same tree a thousand times. The same hill will be repeated over and over again. Even some cliff-faces look the same. Certain dungeons often have the same features repeated throughout the world. But sometimes you barely notice because there's so much more STUFF around the copied parts that make it unique and/or interesting.

*Shrug*

If the copy&paste is limited to single objects, it is ok. But in 1.x whole terrain squares were copy&paste. The same flower left to the same stone under the same tree in front of the same cliff and so on.

I'm also very much in favor with Open world dungeons. So much beautiful scenery and areas locked behind having to go with 3 other people who will without a doubt blitz through it. The other thing i miss is actually going in somewhere through an entrance. We tele in there all the time, which is convenient but there is something to be said about crossing the thresh-hold into something dangerous. Entrances are important.

One thing that reeeeally disappointed me was after unlocking Second Coil, you can see the whole new area in North Shroud(I think) that wasn't visible before, the path leading up to the coil. I got so excited when I first saw that, I ran and couldn't wait to walk up there and explore the newly uncovered area. And then I hit the invisible wall. Suuuper disappointed.

I would like to toss in that you have 10 minutes after clearing a dungeon to just wander around and explore it. I've gotten most of my great screenshots from inside dungeons that way. There are so many cool hidden waterfalls in Dzmael Darkhold that people never get to see unless a tank bothers to show them off.... Did you know that there is a bright red underground river circling the arena of the last boss in Cutter's Cry? Ten minutes after a clear is plenty of time to poke around and appreciate the view (and open any treasure chests that got skipped.)