Thoughts on how to make the open world maps more interesting

Thoughts on how to make the open world maps more interesting, or
Things to learn from Guild Wars 2: Jumping Puzzles, Exploration and World Bosses

There are probably more than a few players out there feeling that Final Fantasy XIVs content can feel a bit stale or frustrating at times, and that the world maps can feel empty after a short while. Here are a few of my thoughts on what could be added or changed, to address some of these issues:


1.) Breaking through the core game-play loop while providing meaningful rewards.
While there are already many activities that provide alternatives to the core game-play loop, most, if not all of them, are self-contained pieces of content that provide rewards exclusive to them like the Gold Saucer.

A possible addition would be to implement jumping puzzles or other skill challenges into the existing world maps with a daily reset timer (character side) and rewards similar to treasure maps.
These could be hidden access points spread across the world maps that lead to separate flight-restricted areas. Potentially adding a sense of wonder and discovery, additional lore for notable areas and daily activities to the existing world maps.


2.) World Bosses that allow for players to group up and coordinate ahead of time.
There are 2 types of content similar to this in the game already: Hunts and "Boss FATEs", both having a common issue in their unpredictable nature.
Players and developers alike are aware of the issues caused by unpredictable hunt spawns and the subsequent "pre-pull" issues. Boss FATEs cause fewer of these conflicts, but still require players to be present at the right time or rely on second hand information, possibly leading to stress and frustration out of fear of missing it. In addition, the current Boss FATEs all only grant access to small pools of rewards, meaning that less and less players will pursue and share information about these as time progresses.

An alternative or addition to these could be dynamically scaling, large-scale, World-Boss type fights similar to Guild Wars 2, that have reliably predictable time-windows and extensive loot-tables. Fights like these could draw in groups of players ahead of time, allowing them to coordinate and prepare accordingly instead of rushing things, reinforcing a sense of cooperation instead of competition.


TLDR:
- Please consider adding hidden exploration/jumping-puzzle elements (possibly mini-instances) to the open world maps.

- Please consider adding World-Bosses that have a reliable spawn window, so players can experience "epic" large scale PVE fights without fear of missing things.

Also: please keep in mind that i enjoy most types of content in FFXIV, flawed or not, in some way and just thought of a few ways to extend the scope of interesting things to do. So please do not take this post as something along the lines of "waaah I want a different game instead of FFXIV"

For one, I'd love if they made FATE system a bit better for the solo player. Maybe adjusting the number of enemies, or something to make it worth stopping by them, because atm it just doesn't.

Sorry but as someone that's played GW2 and FFXIV, they would have to severely rework the way mid-air movement works in FFXIV to make jumping puzzles viable. The ones that are here are a nightmare to do because you keep all your momentum from your jump while in the air and have no way to control where you're going once you're in the air. I've done some of the hardest ones in GW2, but I struggle to jump on the summoning bell in my apartment because I go right over it constantly.

I do think we could use more Odin-like FATE bosses that scale well and have interesting rewards that will keep people coming back.

There are also some S ranks with 100% predictable spawn times, but I don't think it would kill them to have more.

1) Much as I would probably complain about this, add zone-specific currencies that you accumulate by doing stuff in said zone. Fates, leves, sidequests, killing monsters in long chains for the handful of people who really want that, and hunts. This currency could then be turned in for zone specific cosmetics. For example, ruby sea would let you get the confederacies outfit, a kurenai minion, and some sui-no-sato furniture.

2) Zone "dungeons". Basically a giant fate that spawns multiple boss fights and trash in-between. Something akin to that Uldah event for the last anniversary, but out in the overworld and triggered by doing fates. More cosmetics and orchestrions to be gotten from this.

3) Vendors for said stuff require defending on occasion, with gatherers getting materials for war machines that crafters then craft and people could use to fight off invaders and the like. Make better gear for the npc guards to wear, etc. Good source of scrip and tomes.

4) Eureka bunnies, but they have a chance of showing up after any fate.

So, you are pretty much just asking for GW2 open world added to this? I hate jumping puzzles so that would be a pass for me.

Paintball, something like it.

I would like something like 1.0’s hamlet defense or maybe rare item drops from certain world bosses to make people populate it. Jumping puzzles and hidden exploration are not my thing. BLU is a class centered around open world for the most part so that’s goin for it so I’m fully expecting them to take another look at open world content if they continue to support more limited jobs. Maybe dropping 32 bit OS’s will help with this too? Time will tell.

Well, I've never really played Guild Wars at all, but I'm just not a fan of puzzles at all. I suppose the reason Guild Wars is free because it is series of puzzles? Is that like one of those pay to play games like Farmville on Facebook?

For new players, everything in this game is meaningful even Gold Saucer. I welcome the addition of gambling games like Mahjong (it is a gambling game that should be in Gold Saucer). So, remember everything in the game has to go back to lore that is why there two lore books just describe this game.

Please please please add a second method of doing Hunts that utilises Levequests and a XI (oh no, I said the bad) style xNM progression system. I hate the whole "wander around aimlessly" method of doing Hunts, and the fact that you can't do them on your own time, you instead have to wait for them to be up? There's a reason I never do them. Final nail in the coffin is that the whole "wait for the entire server to arrive" culture has just made them into incredibly boring fights... By all means leave the current system in place for those who some how enjoy it, but I'd like an alternative... Masked Carnival is looking to be an alternative means of getting Allied Seals, but I'd actually like to do open world Hunts, just not with the system we currently have...

Something akin to XIs Zeni NM system would be much better IMO. Pick up a Levequest that has you fight the B Rank of a given zone, complete it and it drops a key item. Take that back to the NPC, trade in the key item, now you get a Levequest for the A Rank, and so on. For 3.0+ where we had multiple B and A Ranks, I imagine you could require key items from both to progress up a rank. So something like B1 + B2 = A1 or A2, A1 + A2 = S.

Even basic low level Levequests have mechanics that are more like an actual hunt than what we get with random world spawn Hunts, you could expand those concepts to have something really enjoyable IMO, something where you feel like you're actually tracking a target and trying to lure it out, rather than just flying from spawn point to spawn point... I also think it was a damn shame that we never really got any "endgame" Levequests, and a system like this would be perfect for such a thing while adding some much needed open world content to the game. Heck, you could even flesh out some of the lore behind the Hunt monsters with Levequests, as well as actually make use of these large zones that just have no content in them... How many sections of these maps just have no purpose? No quests involving them, no FATEs, nothing... Could involve those areas in Hunt Levequests...

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Please please please add a second method of doing Hunts that utilises Levequests and a XI (oh no, I said the bad) style xNM progression system. I hate the whole "wander around aimlessly" method of doing Hunts, and the fact that you can't do them on your own time, you instead have to wait for them to be up? There's a reason I never do them. Final nail in the coffin is that the whole "wait for the entire server to arrive" culture has just made them into incredibly boring fights... By all means leave the current system in place for those who some how enjoy it, but I'd like an alternative... Masked Carnival is looking to be an alternative means of getting Allied Seals, but I'd actually like to do open world Hunts, just not with the system we currently have...

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I totally agree with Hunts being guided by Levequests. At the moment the Levequests aren't really a part of the game and neither are Hunts, but with both being supported with one system of play it is easy to include both in the Lore of the game.

As it is now, both are just alternative ways to gain experience which very few like. I personally enjoy Levequests myself, but recently, very recently I found the best way to level up is the Duty Finder Dungeon and not Duty Roulettes. What I have found for myself, is the best way to do a Dungeon is not the random Dungeon waiting in line for que but instead, join with your Free Company or the Novice Network and party up with people who choose to guide you through the Dungeon. I have also found that before doing a Dungeon I just have to watch the walk-throughs on Youtube, all Dungeons have some walk-through on Youtube.

Some Free Companies are better than others, but the Free Companies I'm a part of are MPire and Judge and these FC's are very supportive of me as a player of the game and not as someone trying to do things like Relics or Extreme Dungeons. Those FC's are good for them, but for me they are not any fun.

I honestly thing Blu Mage with it's primarily solo play is designed for players like you and me.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

Sorry but as someone that's played GW2 and FFXIV, they would have to severely rework the way mid-air movement works in FFXIV to make jumping puzzles viable. The ones that are here are a nightmare to do because you keep all your momentum from your jump while in the air and have no way to control where you're going once you're in the air. I've done some of the hardest ones in GW2, but I struggle to jump on the summoning bell in my apartment because I go right over it constantly.

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Yup, I absolutely agree that GW2 has muuuuch better jump physics. Mostly wanted to bring the GW2 ones up as an example because i really miss the sense of discovery that they provided and think that the current world maps in FFXIV could use a bit more than just vistas in that regard.

Or they just give all the jobs their own open world quests that lead to amazing abilities that can only be used in the open world and in premade group content, like how Blue Mage will be.

GW2 just has better tech to support open world with their megaserver and Join In tech. You can actually join other people's map easily if it is not full where here we're just getting the function now and you have to go to a town to actually use it. Not to mention every time you went to Ixion you would just lag out and dc.

The 3-4 lane map meta events really set that game apart (their solution to the player base zerging everything) from the rest but they've had a long time to perfect it. (The first one I remember was the redone Tequatl, almost 5 years ago) Sad that recently they've started moving away from it though. FFXIV is more about instanced content which is where it's strengths lie which GW2 lacks more of so they're polar opposites in that regard. GW2 has some of the best maps (the HoT ones) I've seen in an MMO though.

From my reply last week in the thread about what people want to see in 5.0 --

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Originally Posted by tinythinker

Reasons for people to visit/play in old zones

Current reasons:

- leveling a new character through MSQ and side quests

- FATES for seals and achievements (weak reason unless you are leveling a job, looking for a specific minion, doing a relic weapon questline, or the Yokai Watch event returns)

- Hunts for seals and achievements (weak reason, you were probably already in the zone and though, "Hey, easy kill ranked mob")

- Nostalgia

- Catching up on old beast tribe quests

Possible new reasons (share yours, too):

- Wondrous Tales, Part 2. Doesn't have to share the name or be a sticker book. It's the concept. Yeah you can say "what about weekly challenge logs? Those are fine, but they added Wondrous Tales anyway. Challenge logs let you earn the rewards wherever you want, which is cool. But the goal is to give something for going to old zones. So, like, "Complete 20 FATES in an ARR zone", "Do 20 repeatable quests in a HW zone", etc. Then give something suitable for higher level jobs participating in this new system. Perhaps a new currency or maybe a small bit of whatever the current #2 tomestones are.

- Repeatable quests in old zones. Yeah, we have leves, but unless you are leveling a job there is little reason to do them. Soooo... add reasons to do them even if you're at cap. Or add new ones for jobs that are at cap. Or add a different repeatable quest giver system for jobs that are at cap. Note this can synergize somewhat with the first idea in this list. Then give something suitable for higher level jobs participating in this modified or new system.

- Level synch the ranked mob hunts. Yeah I love one or two-shotting ARR hunt targets too. But this would make hunts more engaging and encourage hunting parties/link shells to visit old zones. Like FATES, you would still be synched to hit harder than when you are a true low level character, but not enough to solo the ranked mobs.

- Scavenger hunts. Yeah, a weekly(?) scavenger hunt with a series of clues that take you through old zones. Clues and multi-threaded so not everyone just follows everyone else. Not my favorite idea without some additional work, but still, it is an example of giving people a reason to get into old zones. Might be fun to make it into team races as an extension of the Golden Saucer.

- DoH/DoL special quest giver. Appears in a new zone each week. Asks for materials (or items made with materials) only available that week in that zone (or set of zones from a particular expansion).

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