Bigger, more open cities?

I've wondered for a while now if we'll ever get bigger cities or cities with more open spaces. More lifelike cities, so to speak.

The current ones we have aren't really that big, and not just that, but they don't really look that much like a habitable place. I mean, I've always wondered ever since I first saw them in the 1.0 beta: where would people live in this place? Limsa doesn't seem to have any homes or places that look like they could hose a town's population, Ul'dah is basically a bunch of walls, and Gridania is a bunch of corridors, stores, stalls and that sort of stuff. The only buildings there are guilds. Ishgard also doesn't look to be a pretty open space either; it's just a huge castle.

So just a while ago, this popped into my recommended videos in youtube for some reason, and it reminded me of all this. Yeah, I know, I know, it's XI, but please, don't stone me. Skip around to see some of the town since they just stop around to talk for a long while and then move on to the next place.

Now that town in that video does look like a habitable town. It looks big, nice and open, and then it reminded me how most cities in XI actually did look like that as well. Well, actually this new one looks better, and Jeuno and Al Zahbi were also a bunch of walls, but... you get what I mean, right?

SO, all this got me wondering again. Will we ever get bigger, more open and lifelike towns/cities in XIV? Like, ones that don't really get you thinking "where the hell does all this people live anyway?"? That is one thing I'd love to see later on.

What do you guys think?

Yes, FFXIV totally needed a bigger Gridania.

Even Gridania just feels like a big plaza instead of a city though.

To OP,

I think one of the issues/complaints in 1.0 was that the cities were too big. However, I am positive more life will be apparent in 2.0 cities. I also don't think the cities were changes dramatically. I can't tell you what I know ): and Idk what you know. But if you refer to some of the videos, you'll see the size is still there, they just have zones now like XI.

To add to what I said, since I can't edit the post on my phone...
We didn't see them finished in 1.0 but there was a place up north on the map of Gridania that had a zone with a bunch of buildings much like the zone for the market ward. If you ran up there it said, "you cannot proceed any further." I'm going to assume this is where mog houses would have been. It's set up exactly like MH's in XI. Where people were confined in one area for housing.

I think the housing in xiv will be so much more fun, as it seems the area is a different place from the cities themselves.

Uldah looked huge from the outside but was so small on the inside. ...Yeah, change that. Ul'dah didn't look like one of the capitol city-states of an entire people... it looked like a medium-sized town. People wouldn't complain if there were things to do in each part of such a huge city, as well as decent, realistic and scenery-filled transportation from area to area.

Limsa Liminsa was okay. The sheer confusion I went through at getting around that gods-forsaken place (as well as the billion times I lagged the map open) more than made up for the size of the city at launch. Then again, this was around launch, I was a newbie, and navigating the mouse to click on a damned button was a mini-game in itself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Klefth

I've wondered for a while now if we'll ever get bigger cities or cities with more open spaces. More lifelike cities, so to speak.

The current ones we have aren't really that big, and not just that, but they don't really look that much like a habitable place. I mean, I've always wondered ever since I first saw them in the 1.0 beta: where would people live in this place? Limsa doesn't seem to have any homes or places that look like they could hose a town's population, Ul'dah is basically a bunch of walls, and Gridania is a bunch of corridors, stores, stalls and that sort of stuff. The only buildings there are guilds. Ishgard also doesn't look to be a pretty open space either; it's just a huge castle.

So just a while ago, this popped into my recommended videos in youtube for some reason, and it reminded me of all this. Yeah, I know, I know, it's XI, but please, don't stone me. Skip around to see some of the town since they just stop around to talk for a long while and then move on to the next place.

Now that town in that video does look like a habitable town. It looks big, nice and open, and then it reminded me how most cities in XI actually did look like that as well. Well, actually this new one looks better, and Jeuno and Al Zahbi were also a bunch of walls, but... you get what I mean, right?

SO, all this got me wondering again. Will we ever get bigger, more open and lifelike towns/cities in XIV? Like, ones that don't really get you thinking "where the hell does all this people live anyway?"? That is one thing I'd love to see later on.

What do you guys think?

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I don't get what you mean. Windhurst was similar to 1.0 Gridania. Bastok can definately feel barren if not enough players were in it. And SanD... "here's your delivery sir!", and a more closed in Ul'Dah. Keep in mind after a while people eventually see the scenery as more an impediment than "open and bigger.". The bastok raising bridge being a big example. The rats nest of port SanD being another.

The cities themselves aren't wildly changing according to the devs, however, the surrounding areas have much more signs of civilization- they've shown us several screenshots of buildings and such in different areas.

The cities in FFXIV are indeed a bit too closed in, they all feel like corridors for the most part while the cities in FFXI were my favorite things, all the nooks and crannies you can find, the back alleys in Bastok, The Dungeon in SanD'oria's Castle, the school of magic in Windurst, so many things to see in the cities, I wish the city-states in FFXIV were more fleshed out, they look nice but as i've said before, it feels more like running through a corridor than it does running through a city...

When they introduce housing we will know where everyone lives :p

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Originally Posted by yoshikwalla

Uldah looked huge from the outside but was so small on the inside. ...Yeah, change that. Ul'dah didn't look like one of the capitol city-states of an entire people... it looked like a medium-sized town. People wouldn't complain if there were things to do in each part of such a huge city, as well as decent, realistic and scenery-filled transportation from area to area.

Limsa Liminsa was okay. The sheer confusion I went through at getting around that gods-forsaken place (as well as the billion times I lagged the map open) more than made up for the size of the city at launch. Then again, this was around launch, I was a newbie, and navigating the mouse to click on a damned button was a mini-game in itself.

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I agree with everything.

One thing I really dont like about Ul'dah is the fact that theres only 1 lvl with a part A and B. Its a city that is towered up in layers right? I would love to go really high up to reach the eternal flames hq and be able to look down either from a balcony or window and see the lower lvls, and if its possible the other players running around :)