Missing zone types... Maybe?

TL;DR -- Why are there no Tunnel, Cave or Crypt like zones in the game yet? (Not dungeons!)

First of all I really like the zones in Stormblood. The difference in how the landscape looks and changes in the Fringes as well as Azim Steppes is really nice -- that not the whole zone looks the same, that is. So I am not picking on existing content; just to be clear. :3

So, the FF games have always been there at some point in my life. Especially so with FFXI and how it blew my mind with such vast and different areas to explore, which I have many fond memories of. There are however some zones I'd like to highlight a little extra in this post. -- Now the examples might not mean much for those that have not played FFXI but I'll elaborate further down.
Gustav Tunnel which connected Altepa Desert (it was Altepa, wasn't it? hehe) and Valkurm Dunes. All the nasty skellies down there just asking to be hit with some blunt weapons. :D

There was the parties in Korroloka tunnel and the quest I did there to unlock the Sam job.
Then there's the many hours spent in the Eldieme Necropolis, farming some item; which I can't remember any more.
And let's not forget the Gusgen Mines and the evil dice giving everyone but you the magicked skull. hehe

Open areas are nice with the pretty vistas and they are easy to find things in. Then, once you've unlocked the aetherial currents, they're easy to get around in for fast travel.
However, they are not the same as the closed, sometimes cramped, spaces of a tunnel or some long forgotten tomb; which probably had better been left unopened.
The atmosphere is different and the pacing becomes different as well. There is the risk of getting lost and not being able to find your way around the many rights, lefts, ups and downs.

Personally, I would really like an area with lots of tunnels, deep uncharted levels and perhaps even monsters tough enough to fit in a dungeon of their own. However it is not a dungeon because it's a normal zone like Yanxia, Western Thanalan or the Sea of Clouds.

Up until now the only zone types have been the open world ones -- so it does feel like there is room for the closed type of zones too, right?
Anyone else that's misses some temples, tunnels, mines, tombs or ancient crypts to explore? Want to (not) get lost trying to find our way down there?
Did you turn left, right, right and then up? If you did, then why are you facing a dead end right now instead of the great hall you were looking for? Time to backtrack and... Ok, that was a trap door and now you better have that Sprint button off the cooldown because those undead look hungry! :3

So, what do you guys think?
Am I alone on this one? :)

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Originally Posted by MinosAmorino

So, what do you guys think?
Am I alone on this one? :)

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Given the way zones are being designed these days and are meant to be open and easy to navigate, I'd say yes you are alone. Also, you can edit your original post to bypass the character limit.

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

Given the way zones are being designed these days and are meant to be open and easy to navigate, I'd say yes you are alone. Also, you can edit your original post to bypass the character limit.

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OP is not alone, I agree and like OPs sentiment in trying to navigat my way through some corridors for once. Can't even get them in dungeons why at least in ththe easy peasy over world

Zones are no longer being designed as "Thematic" as they are trying to impliment as many differing types of things in 1 zone, within the limitation of graphic assets they can have.

For example, you'll see caves in almost every zone.
The "Tree tops" of shroud zones only cover 50% of the zone or less.
The swamps are only 10% of one zone, and the sprawling open desert of south thanalan is only 5% or less of the zone, with the rest being in the distant view, u cant actually traverse.
etc.
No zone is purely one thing, except Sea of Clouds which does have a variety of things, but it doesnt "feel" like it.
(The rocky bits to the north which just feel liek textures are missing, the underside of the floating isle tops which dont utilize this concept very well, the "watery" bit which is just weird, not really something that feels like a different location. Then lastly the tree house of ishgard, and the beastmen camps.)

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

Given the way zones are being designed these days and are meant to be open and easy to navigate, I'd say yes you are alone. Also, you can edit your original post to bypass the character limit.

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Well that some disagree is obvious but I think it's still to early to say I am alone with this. hehe
Thanks for the editing tip though, I'll try and remember that! :)

Oh, you are not alone. There are some zones with some caves or little dungeons here and there, but definitely it's not the same as exploring a maze, ruins, caves as big as an open world area. I would welcome this kind of idea a lot.

Even though it's a tiny area, I rather like the Comet Tail in The Fringes. It's pretty :)

The way Yoshi explained zones when he was doing interviews and Q&A's during 1.0 while creating 2.0 was that the way people play games is much different. People would rather skip the climb to reach the "substance" at the top if climbing a mountain. That was one way he described it anyway. So having all these little nooks and crannies with things doesn't really "fit" in with there current formula. Hence why everything is so easy to get to or why nothing is in the open world and and thrown into instances.

Coerthas Central Highlands has a pretty lengthy network of caves in the northeast, Wester Highlands had a few pockets, Middle La Noscea has a mine that exits out to Lower LN, technically parts of Southern Thanalan count as such, the pass from Vesper Bay leading to Cape Westwind is a cave, Dravanian Forelands has Mourn and a few other smaller areas within the mountain. . .

The caves and caverns are around, just rarely a relevant point of interest. Travel off the beaten path from time to time and go see what you can find :)

I'd like vast underground zones; but maybe that's because I just want more Duskwight lore. >.>

I'm a little disappointed there was little to no mention of Duskwights in PotD; part of their old underground city-state, Gelmorra.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

I'm a little disappointed there was little to no mention of Duskwights in PotD; part of their old underground city-state, Gelmorra.

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The old Gelmorra ruins sight was so creepy and eery, its a shame potd didnt really hold up to that.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

I'm a little disappointed there was little to no mention of Duskwights in PotD; part of their old underground city-state, Gelmorra.

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While I respect PotD for what it is, I also feel it was a massive waste of potential.
Gelmorra should have been much, much more than a randomized dungeon-crawl after how long its been teased. I expected distinct, interesting architecture, various landmarks, etc. And instead it was used to shoehorn in... that...
Plus, it was a massive waste of

Edda.

After Tam-Tara HM, the whole prospect of her crazed spirit haunting places (as seen in the final cutscene and in the city-states) left a lot of potential for future creepy fun. Instead, she was shoved in here as an unwilling puppet of an antagonist from another game series, 'cured', and the story was closed. While I loved her new theme-song and her new look was good (though a bit of a downgrade), nothing about her here was really creepy, and that potential was squandered. Hell, had they handled it right and just dropped the Nybeth concept, leaving her as the main antagonist, it still could have worked pretty well, but they just had to get that Tactics Ogre tie-in since they went with PotD. :-\
I still say if they wanted to bring her back as more than just a spirit, she would have made a great Necromancy trainer for conjurers. :-(

No mention of O'Ghoromo in this thread makes me sad...

Everyone loves sewer zones. We need a sewer expansion.

But in all seriousness, as pretty as a lot of the zones are, i wish they had same scope and size as zones in FFXI. FFXI zones truly felt like an actual landscape.

That's one of the few things that bother me about FFXIV zones. They lack those indoor areas in the open world like elaborate caves or temples, but I assume this is because most of them are made as dungeons which are all instanced and then there's the fact that they refuse making seamless open world dungeons after 1.0.

Speaking of 1.0, it actually had a lot of those, although repetitive like the zones in general.

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Originally Posted by HappyHaunt

I'd like vast underground zones; but maybe that's because I just want more Duskwight lore. >.>

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Need to dedicate an entire zone for this underground zone. Agree

One area in the Fringes called Schism has some interesting architecture that would lend itself well to a zone-like maze.
It has also become one of, my many, favourite afk spots; furthest in at the base of the statue looking outwards to the entrence. I have 2 spooks as company so I can't say I feel very lonely in there. ;)

That open zones have become the norm is undeniably true but I still think there's room for a few zones with a bit of extra exploration.
Places like caves, mazes and crypts lends itself well to all the undead and subterranean monsters we have in the FF lore.

Tunnel/Crypt, isn't there's one in the Loch?

Everyone hates Outer la Noscea mines. Tunnels? Everyone HATES Totorak dungeon. So devs don't want more of the hate. Caves just aren't very attractive environments. You can have some of crypts in north of The Lochs. Every time you'll visit them, there will be no one else, so why would they develop more zones like this which are liked by noone?

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Originally Posted by Neri

Tunnel/Crypt, isn't there's one in the Loch?

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Yeah but it's so tiny. :(

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Originally Posted by SuperZay

Every time you'll visit them, there will be no one else, so why would they develop more zones like this which are liked by noone?

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There will be no one else because there's like 3-4 minutes of exploration in there, at the most, and then you're done.
Liked by no one? Jumping ahead of yourself, aren't you?
As for Outer la Noscea, they're a dead end and to small to even count.
Totorak is also a dungeon, not a zone. So you can't compare with that; even though I agree that dungeon is a bore.

I also would see a zone with a cave system as a main theme. Let us go underground.
But I think some people will complain because there will be no flying in the caves. Except if the cave ceiling is high enough.
Or the devs can do it like with the Rubin Sea, above-ground and underground at the same time (with entrances to the cave in random spots).


1.0 Cassiopeia Hollow (open world dungeon near Bloodshore)
http://i.imgur.com/Z8jgZWf.jpg

i would like this incorporated into zones in "bigger" ways kinda like they have that one winding area in eastern thanalan. Wouldn't mind things like that but involving caves. Or like how WotLK had underground areas on the zones for the Narub. kinda like maybe a zone like southern thanalan having a network of caves under the sandy area with multiple points of entry and exits etc. Would like to see ti would lend to the "world building" so i agree it would be nice.

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Originally Posted by Neri

Tunnel/Crypt, isn't there's one in the Loch?

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yeah loch crypt is a good "example" but imagine like that but bigger and with floors going "underground" and maybe even expanding far enough away from the main crypt entrance area that you end up coming outta it at the lake etc. Wont lie, it isn't a "big" thing but it would be enough "little" things to really feel out the world. (hell i wouldn't even mind some serving to allow you to zone into parts of another area you couldn't access from there.)

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Originally Posted by SuperZay

Every time you'll visit them, there will be no one else, so why would they develop more zones like this which are liked by noone?

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The devs only have to put in a FATE NM, that drop a mount and minion.

I would happily take a cave zone. That would be so cool.

...I mean could be done for flavor too, i mean ruby sea is namely there "underwater" for fishers so caves could serve similarly for miners/btns...and have creatures in it you have to stealth from or just swap and clear (easier now with the gp refill change) It wouldn't hurt that is for sure, if it could be done in a manageable way, why not :P (ohh and sightseeing log stuff could be done there too :P)

Wouldn't mind a zone you enter from underwater and then travel to this undercity with water flooding in. Where your character takes on the "drenched" look as you explore. Maybe looking up you see the glossy sky overhead or something. Similar to the new dungeon they are releasing. I would like to see that as a giant zone.

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Originally Posted by Mirakumi

Wouldn't mind a zone you enter from underwater and then travel to this undercity with water flooding in. Where your character takes on the "drenched" look as you explore. Maybe looking up you see the glossy sky overhead or something. Similar to the new dungeon they are releasing. I would like to see that as a giant zone.

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There is one spot in The Lochs at 24.1, 21.3, -2.6 where you have these "snowflakes" in the water right next to a tunnel entrence. The tunnel itself actually goes in for a little bit so I was quite happy to have found it until I hit a dead end next to some doors. :/