Fates and Open-world liveliness

When FF XIV:ARR was released, there was mostly 2 efficient ways to level up once you've already done all the MSQ, SQ: Fates, and Duties

Both were efficient at it although doing Fates was the most convenient as it was very flexible as you did not need to queue, you could drop in and out anytime regardless of your role.
Also Fates had the advantage of grouping random people from their own server, potentially creating longtime friendships, unlike in Duties where you can often be teamed up with player you will never see again.

Alongst the patches, Fates have becoming kind of useless unless specifically needed for Relic grinding or for some event.
Now most players will just use the Duty Finder or run into PotD to level up.

And that means that most of the player activities are done inside instanced areas. And consequently it means the open-world is kind of deserted. There is no more various leveling outposts buzzing with people doing Fates.

Now I know many people dislike Fates, probably because they've done them too many times for various grinds, and sometimes because they find doing them a mindless job, but at least I wish Fates were still as efficient as the Duty Finder or PotD so there could be some more life back into the open-world.

There is various open-world activities such as Tribe Quests or Daily Hunts, but these are kind of limited, player just do them quickly and move out. They cannot be played continuously.

So SE please give a boost to Fates usefulness or implement some new stuff that can keep players active all day long in the open-world, because I'm kind of sad when I roam the beautiful land of Eorzea and I see about nothing but mostly NPC.

Anyone else missing a lively open-world?

I like grinding fates for the challenge log its nice xp bonus plus I get to complete my Chocobo buddy challenge log entry at the same time. I always find it fun to see a packed population in Quarrymill for POTD, presently its one of the only times I get to hear that packed crowd conversation ambient. The duty finder is a feature that is a global standard in mmo's and it has a nice place but it also takes away Eorzea. In 1.0 you'd have to psychically travel to dungeons in order to enter them. Also the amount of zones that are separating each region in ARR really doesn't help immersion and so teleporting is a given. If Eorzea was a more seamless world like it was in 1.0 I'd definitely use my mount to travel through. I'm a big Elders fan and fast travel for me always takes away the immersion but seeing as how heavily zoned Eorzea is it doesn't really bother me anymore. Would be nice tho to mount up and ride through that long passage way up to the Zephyr gate in Limsa. Right now that passageway is not accessible and its too bad because its nice scenery.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97.../1.0ffxiv1.png

Having fates back would be a nice change of pace imo, ESPECIALLY with the return of the Chocobo. (Happy Heavensturn btw). In recent times, I've also missed the GC Seal income from fates that I used to get. Expert Delivery isn't always enough for me, so the Seals and EXP farming a new class (& Chocobo) alike would be welcome. Quite frankly though, I'd take the solo leveling method in a heartbeat.

I agree, that open-world in FF14 almost dead (I was leveling a character some days ago, I know). I think, that SE must do something to make people do something in the open world

Ya, I returned a month ago. Decided I wanted to level my low level classes! First thought was Fates! Yet when I got to one. No one was doing them. Not a soul for miles. On fates that entire groups would level on years ago.

My option is that Place and I can barely solo with my SMN!

Edit: So ya I do miss the open world. I miss running fates like crazy.

You know what would be the best way to get folks to do more fates but without tying it to some arbitrary grind? Tomes. Tack on being level capped rewards you with tomes now. It can be as low as 20/10 (uncapped/capped) and you damn well will see more people doing them. Tying fates to bad seasonal events (youkai) or relic are short lived and annoying. But being able to grind out lore via fates would have helped out with the monotony of ARF.

The best way to bring FATE's back would be to find a better thing to do at endgame for things like relic/anima/events etc. After mindlessly grinding them for those activities, me personally I can't stomach the thought of doing a single FATE for exp, I'll gladly use the alternatives.

I came into the game too late to see the days that FATEs brought many into the open world. Certain FATEs such as Odin, Behemoth, Svara and so forth are almost always ran when they pop, but the more frequent notorious boss FATES that require multiple participants almost always expire. However, you can goad other players into doing them if you can round up 4-5 people to start them up. Players will join in if they see others doing it. This let's you know that there are still players in the open world. Just widely distributed throughout an area.

That said I would love for FATEs or some other kind of content to bring more together in the open world. It's difficult though when the rewards most people seek lie elsewhere. Perhaps that would be start.

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Originally Posted by Xyno

I agree, that open-world in FF14 almost dead (I was leveling a character some days ago, I know). I think, that SE must do something to make people do something in the open world

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They would have to nerf the exp you get from PoTD, and buff the exp you get from fates for that to happen at this point.

I sense the new corssover event will be same as yokai watch... ^^;

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Originally Posted by Rhaja

You know what would be the best way to get folks to do more fates but without tying it to some arbitrary grind? Tomes. Tack on being level capped rewards you with tomes now. It can be as low as 20/10 (uncapped/capped) and you damn well will see more people doing them. Tying fates to bad seasonal events (youkai) or relic are short lived and annoying. But being able to grind out lore via fates would have helped out with the monotony of ARF.

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I worry that tome drops would keep people out of dungeons. However, this would not be an issue with crafter mats. I finally got up to 50 3-star crafting and can't even begin to tell you how often I would be doing FATEs if mats like coke, potash, emery etc. dropped in them. I know some of these are quite profitable for crafters, and I might be tarred and feathered for even mentioning it , but one sure-fire wire way to get more players into open world content is to get crafters to equip their soulstones and do some fighting. It's currently how you get us to run dungeons :P Ohhh, all those precious, lovely mats!

As someone mentioned challenge log, maybe the challenge log rewards for open world could be increased quite a bit? Personally dislike FATE farming, and love PotD for speed/change, but tbh I've done FATEs to death. I guess mostly annoyed that a lot of FATEs were zerg rushed, or thanks to scaling after the rush then became unsoloable, or were assured to last their full timer if solo'd (weee 12 minutes on the same re-spawning guys~ lol). Also if it was in the challenge log it would mean it's temporarily highly valuable (low pressure to do non-stop).

Perhaps if they increased the reward from fates (admittedly unbalanced in high FATE density regions)? Although I think giving players like a complete level off one FATE might feel weird, so maybe they get like a FATE High buff: 5% stat boost in FATE, 5% movement speed, 10% exp boost out of FATE, for like say an hour and stacks 5 times, resets duration each stack and at max stacks the reward from FATEs is increased by some %. Doesn't apply to duty finder content. Maybe concerned what happens to spirit bonding though. Distinction from FATE reward and EXP being that I think traveling from one FATE to the next distinctly and only is a little meh, so if FATEs could encourage normal killing as well in-between that could be nice (FATE high makes normal monsters worth it, brings back worth in killing normal monsters too (besides SB)). Could encourage a mix further by like the normal monster kills is what activates the higher FATE reward, so even if there are a bunch of players in the zone they're not all doing FATEs - some are building up their FATE multiplier, others using said multiplier and thus converting it into a normal monster multiplier. That probably seems irrelevant to quiet servers but in balmung stuff just melts when FATE parties happen - which turns into really lame strategies to ensure gold medal and non-stop riding from one to the next, it'd be nice to split people up.

There are some cool NM ish monsters sometimes in Leves, but I think people usually go for FATEs instead because they just happen and you don't need to return / talk / spend things. Perhaps in a FATE high players could occasionally unlock unique encounters, exp NMs that sometimes drop something useful (aether gear for the level). Tbh they could probably tweak the leve system a little so it works more smoothly and it'd probably get more frequent use with open world hunting, find quests occasionally (like in WoW), instead of having to travel back to the NPC just use an adventurer linkshell (npc linkshell), NPCs mail you rewards, visit a leve hunting board for the day's hunts (no return trips needed). "kill 20 wolfs, and rabid leaping lizzy wolf spawns" - drops unique boots that will make your DRG rage quit. So if you ask in your NPC linkshell "hook me up Momodi", she'll trickle objectives and ready to go/logically nearby leve's to you that you can easily accept without going to the hub. At least imo, leves seem to more cobwebbed than FATEs (except maybe for gatherer/crafter).

If nothing has/does change about FATEs besides their reward being better than PotD then I guess I would be a little bit like "booo" lol. Getting on mount straight from one FATE to the next endlessly, merely ensuring gold by generating a fat chocobo worth of aggro against the swarm. . . xD (full server fun). So I do like time temporary suggestions or a complimentary easy to use system that mixes them, just not a fan of like FATEs' for life. Personally. Not asking the content to be killed of course, just would like that my favorite way to exp is not also my least favorite activity.

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Originally Posted by Chocolys

...Anyone else missing a lively open-world?

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No worry, full day hunting is back. ^^;

I'm not sure I'd really equate watching a FATE zerg running from spot to spot with an active open world.

Northern Thanalan never felt 'lively' as much as 'laggy'.

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Originally Posted by AshlikeSnow

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I like roaming on my mount too. If where I need to go is in the same area I will fly or run to it. If it's in a nearby different zone, I will probably also normally move to it unless it's a very long ride. I only use teleport when I have to move far away, or if I'm in hurry.

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Originally Posted by Zhao

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Yes, that what annoying thing with the old chocobo system, you had to withdraw your chocobo before being able to be invited to a Fate party. Now it's indeed more convenient in that aspect.

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Originally Posted by TitaniaZero

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I'm also a returning player and I feel the same :)

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Originally Posted by Rhaja

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Tomes? While I guess it would bring more playing to do Fates, I'm not sure I like the idea of tomes being handled by them. I think it's better for them to be given into Duty Roulette to help with the first timers and unpopular duties.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

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I remember doing these. It was fun time each time 30 min fates or those super rare fates spawned.

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Originally Posted by JediFirefly

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I don't mind the alternatives, what I mind is that now doing Fates is not an alternative because it not efficient anymore compared to the rest. So it would not be an issue for players won't dont like fates.

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Originally Posted by RaijinSupreme

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Nerfing would just make people mad :p. I think just buffing the EXP reward from fates could help. And most certainly the EXP from Heavensward fates because they have been designed to be natively and relatively harder than ARR fates while not increasing relatively the EXP reward.
For example at level 5x, you could easily do 4 or more Fates at Mor Dhona for a lot more total EXP, in the time it takes to do a single HW level 5x for less EXP.

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Originally Posted by Nicobo

I sense the new corssover event will be same as yokai watch... ^^;

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That's not unlikely :p

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Originally Posted by Gemina

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Mats? Why not as long as it's not in abundance? Maybe as possible random drop when successfully completing a Fate with the highest reward.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

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I certainly don't want Fates to be better than PotD or Duty for leveling. As I said in my original post, Fates have the advantge of being flexible to do unlike PotD or a Duty where you have to commit. So I don't expect the reward to be same. I just wish it was not that bad as to make it viable alternative, such as you might get slightly less EXP than other means but still effcient compared to PotD or Duties to be considered.
I just with the leveling players population to be more spread between Duties, PotD and Fates.

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Originally Posted by Nicobo

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Hunting is mostly a lot active when a new patch is out and people want to upgrade their gear. Also it's already max level players doing them, and they just move from one area to another.
It's not really favorizing leveling players to gather EXP all around the open world.

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Originally Posted by Cenerae

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To the exception of the early server days where they were adjusting them and there was server lag, I did not get lag during the "zerg" phases.
Now of course it can be an issue for players with low-end computers but then Fates does not have to replace Duties or PotD, so people with local lag issue can still run them as usual.
Also even if Fates were boosted, it would not be like back in 2.0, because there is more alternatives now, so the players would be spread agmonst various activities.
Also "Zerg" times was mostly during peak hours/day, not the rest of the time. Currently it's completely the contrary, Fates are kind of deserted, I just wish Fates to have some life back all day long, like for Duties or Potd. And not just people doing them temporarily for Relic or event.