Expansion cities feel too empty, especially Dawntrail ones

Tuliyollal & Solution 9 (and some older expansion cities) have very large maps that take a while to run through without mounts, even with the new jog update. One of my first impressions of running Tuliyollal was "why is it so empty here?" Even with the rush of launch day, it felt empty even then, and now with less people needing to go to some of these zones often, it is even emptier.

Please consider adding something else to add more feeling of population to these zones. Maybe something that could be toggled off, or even auto-toggled based on number of players in a zone that adds non-targetable NPCs or something?

Without something like this, it gives a "dead world" vibe a lot of the time, since all vendor\quest\etc NPCs are static.

The existing non-targetable NPCs are great and add a lot of personality to the game, and more of them should be added everywhere!

They should just have a lot of nameless and un-targetable wandering NPC's that at least give the visual representation of it being a bustling city like WoW does because I agree even when there's a lot of players, the spaces are so large that it feels sterile and empty in places where it doesn't make sense to be if it's a city.

They are able to have NPCs wander around because they even did that in Ishgard and Kugane.

I agree, Solution 9 feels like a ghost town with how massive yet seemingly unpopulated it is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tatiana

They should just have a lot of nameless and un-targetable wandering NPC's that at least give the visual representation of it being a bustling city like WoW does because I agree even when there's a lot of players, the spaces are so large that it feels sterile and empty in places where it doesn't make sense to be if it's a city.

---

Baldur's Gate 3 not only does this, but has an option to limit it for lower end PCs. It does wonders to make the city feel as huge as they've been building up throughout the game. Comparatively, XIV's scale always feels so small because it's just a lot of empty space and corridors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

They are able to have NPCs wander around because they even did that in Ishgard and Kugane.

---

The NPCs dont have schedule, an NPC walking 2 feet to pick up and drop down a chest is not wandering around.

Although expansion cities would be more alive if you could actually server hop in them but nah

honestly if they did apts in cities versus their own zones, kind of like how BDO did it, it may make other cities feel a bit more lively.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MsMisato

honestly if they did apts in cities versus their own zones, kind of like how BDO did it, it may make other cities feel a bit more lively.

---

I wish they would do this. Those empty doors in the cities can just be apartments. No idea why they can't get creative.

If they did added the ability to world visit. I can imagine the population in old sharlayan maybe also increasing as that is the second city with the closest market board around the aetheryte.

I wish there were just... more things of note in the cities- repeatable things to interact with.

I am also pissed with Dawntrail inn that was Cleary made for more then one person in mind yet you can't invite people in

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nero-Voidstails

I am also pissed with Dawntrail inn that was Cleary made for more then one person in mind yet you can't invite people in

---

Technically we have invited Wuk Lamat :^)

Jokes aside, I think the main problem is that S9 (and tuliyollal to some extent) is simply too big. Yes, expansion cities tend to feel empty especially after everyone move on to the next expansion, but S9 is just sad. Truly a ghost town.

As long as Limsa exists, no city will be populated for long.

Not being able to mount in such big cities is dumb. The aetheryte network should be cut and they should add mounts in Solution 9 and Tuliyollal

I've been saying since launch that we should be able to mount in Solution 9. There just so much dead empty space with the wide roads and streets. The government building is the worst offender, the first walk to it feels like a punishment and repeat visits are almost as bad with where the aetheryte is placed. The palace in Tuiliyollal is almost as bad too.

Plus we got the 7.5m bike and will get a Tesla next week, why on God's green earth can't we show those off in the city that LITERALLY HAS THEIR MODELS in it. We've had mountable hubs before, Mor Dhona, Idyllshire and the Reach, those were nowhere near as big as S9 and not half as empty. There's really no excuse here.

Solution 9 is basically a bunch of gigantic empty warehouses with a very pretty backdrop, I dont know why we cant mount in there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ForteNightshade

Baldur's Gate 3 not only does this, but has an option to limit it for lower end PCs. It does wonders to make the city feel as huge as they've been building up throughout the game. Comparatively, XIV's scale always feels so small because it's just a lot of empty space and corridors.

---

yeah I forgot about that, I think that's something RPG's generally do and I've been saying for a while now that SE should borrow some ideas from single player games when it comes to visual presentation. FFXIV has beautiful cities but this is definitely an area where they could massively improve their atmosphere.

Because there isn't enough content in DT outside of the MSQ for 7.2. It's nice to see Solution 9 lively again but that will quickly go away in a couple of week.s

I mean to me it feels like it was clearly designed to be that big to force you to waste game time running from point A to point B, which is honestly terrible design.

All cities that aren't Limsa need a MUCH bigger incentive to go there. Guilds/job NPCs need to serve a purpose and provide a bonus throughout every level. Expansion cities ought to provide some kind of bonus when queuing for duties from them, maybe put on a weekly rotation.

Idk man, something. It doesn't feel very hard to kick up ideas.

Even just cycling a small crafting exp/stats bonus for the trade hubs would make them more lively. Maybe something like a small spiritbond/durability/food duration buff to raid hubs if you instance from them for combat jobs. There's definitely a lot the could do but just don't which is sad when they pour so many resources into making the hubs.