Bring the world to life...

Charred trees, frozen lakes, traveling merchants, remnants of a past war...PLEASE add something to make this lifeless world become more interesting. Every little cave in Uldah and Limsa are exactly the same...I don't want to hear excuses on why everything looks the same, I want something to be done about it.

I'm not going in to details about Gridania...but you should understand, walking through the exact same patch of land over and over again completely ruins immersion and makes you feel detached from the world. It makes it feel small and insignificant.

Add more colors, add some more diverse wild life, that would make me more interested in the game.

Like stalkers? :o

but it would be fun, maybe they will implement stuffs like this later on :D

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Originally Posted by Lucifer

Charred trees, frozen lakes, traveling merchants, remnants of a past war....

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I don't have to read the rest and I am in total agreement with you. There is potential here, SE just has to tap into it. The only problem is that there are too many suggestions and too few hours in the day to add them all in. What SE needs is a really big and strong cup of coffee, or employees that don't need sleep :)

I don't think Lifeless is the right word exactly, I think "remarkably peaceful" is a better way of putting it. Mor Dhona's spooky atmosphere aside, the entire world appears no more interesting or abnormal than an average day walking in the park. Hell, even Mor Dhona itself isn't so spooky or interesting when Umbral Weather isn't up.

I completely agree. Like one said before, I didn't have to read it all to get what the OP was saying. This land seems very uninhabited, except for the few places in the middle of nowhere. We need traveling merchants, a random cabin or six in Coerthas, a hermit living in a tree in Black Shroud, a person wandering that is in need of the help of an adventurer, NPC's roaming the streets of the the three City-States interacting with one another, stores closing for the night, birds flying overhead, residential district, and all the other things that can give this game life.

Everything seems too newish, theres not really any ruins of much anything other than things like Tam Tera Deepcroft.

Hello there, I think the FFXIV world lacks "atmosphere". I mean if you look at ronfaure, zi'tah or even la theine/konschtat every zone had its own ambiance and atmosphere. Like you guys said, everything in FFXIV is more or less the same. But there definitely is potential !

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Originally Posted by Stivow

Hello there, I think the FFXIV world lacks "atmosphere". I mean if you look at ronfaure, zi'tah or even la theine/konschtat every zone had its own ambiance and atmosphere. Like you guys said, everything in FFXIV is more or less the same. But there definitely is potential !

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The good thing is that SE has A LOT of room to progress and change stuff, and that's what i believe they're doing.

A side-effect of excessive copy-pasting.
Since you always know in advance what the landscape
around the next corner will look like, you are never surprised.

They should add more towns. They don't have to make them as big as the three hubb cities, but they should make them seem more alive with merchants and sub guilds.

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Originally Posted by Lebannen

They should add more towns. They don't have to make them as big as the three hubb cities, but they should make them seem more alive with merchants and sub guilds.

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I agree, Selbina was a nice little town too :D so was Mhaurahahahahahaha < lols old FFXI reference.

I have said in many times over. Final Fantasy XIV has blandscapes, not landscapes. Walk for 5 minutes, you see trees/shrubs, rocks and some water, walk 10 minutes the same thing, zone into a new region, same thing with some different shades.

This game needs old remnants of castles, crumbling keeps, farms and hamlets, cemeteries and crypts, ancient battlefields littered with bodies, crashed airships, flotsam and jetsam on the beaches. Give the world some character its bland bland bland.

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Originally Posted by Gath

I agree, Selbina was a nice little town too :D so was Mhaurahahahahahaha < lols old FFXI reference.

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Yep! :D Those would be nice to have~

Completely agree. Exploration is one of my favorite element.
The areas need more particular places/stuff to find (like the white willows area near gridania) to improve the exploration sensation. It could be a secret nice waterfall, particular flowers that grow only in that place, ancient ruins or remains (like tavnazia in FF11), abandoned houses, etc. I think in every corner of Eorzea there should be something to find. Simple or important things. And something not only to "see" but also to interact with and this could be a quest or particular item to find in there (or something to harvest/fish/mine).
For example, those buildings like lighthouses in La Noscea should be explorable inside (also by quest), because in this state they seem like empty 'monuments'.

Also, i remember in FF11 there was also 'little life' around, like jumping crickets in Konshtat. Eorzea need more those elements as well (seagulls in the sky in La Noscea are nice, but they should be also on the ground near the pier, the beaches or on the ships). Also some type of birds (who fly away when you approach them), jumping frogs, etc. And i would like to see some totally random enviromental events when i explore around, like minor meteor swarms in the night (or falling stars), rainbow after rain (but it should be very rare), some type of fauna and flora that appear only in rare occasions and so on. So Eorzea would be in continuos 'change' and never monotonous (in every moment you could be surprised by something happen and the wish to explore would be always present, also in the places you already explored).

The enviroment would be much more live and the game would have more FF-ish atmosphere. I really love this kind of enviromental details. :)

Eorzea is the most boring bland world i have ever seen in a game. It was extremely painful to see a FF world be so empty lifeless and just totally boring.

When you first play RIFT it's in absolute Chaos. I would like to see something similar to the open-world in Eorzea.

I'm hoping that poem they released with the new years greeting from the producer means that they will tear the boring world asunder and out of the ashes create a new, beautiful but deadly world. :)

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Originally Posted by Vesper

I have said in many times over. Final Fantasy XIV has blandscapes, not landscapes. Walk for 5 minutes, you see trees/shrubs, rocks and some water, walk 10 minutes the same thing, zone into a new region, same thing with some different shades.

This game needs old remnants of castles, crumbling keeps, farms and hamlets, cemeteries and crypts, ancient battlefields littered with bodies, crashed airships, flotsam and jetsam on the beaches. Give the world some character its bland bland bland.

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Final Elder Scrolls XIV: Eorzea! I'd play it.

Yoshi-P said that the world would be changing in the future to make it seem more like there is an immanent threat. Some people were even speculating that the poem he had in one of his letters from the producer, meant something along the lines of The Black Shroud/Gridania being burnt down and rebuilt.

Yeah, also beastmen attacking cities randomly would be nice.
So also to have more players around Gridania and Limsa for example (already almost dead city sadly). And about it, cities should have more important places inside to attract players to come back in it (something like the -future- casinò in uldah). Something players need or can enjoy in every city.

The strange thing looking at ffxiv, there are so many things, especially characters, animations done with so much detail and <3.
the light of a fire reflecting on the character etc. looks amazing.

Then... you are in the forest, or in the desert, wherever and the sun is shining. But...
The only thing with a shadow is you and your companions and npcs and mobs.
there is no shadow on the ground, no tree, no rock really has a shadow. (they have some sort or shadow on themselves where the sun isnt atm but the ground is still without).

looking at other (sometimes much older) games you can see that its really is making the world more realistic and gives atmosphere a lot. when im in Uldah and the sun is almost gone, i still have a massive shadow, but the huge walls of uldah dont cover the city in more or less darkness, which they should. you have static light sources that sometimes dont even match a lantern ...

The other thing that kills the atmosphere is the, i might say, most ugly way of putting textures with the look or 1985 in the - not that far - distance. then being replaced by HD textures when you are closer (depth of field doesnt help here either).
I prefer a bit of a "fog" or 3-4 steps to make it look smooth. Thats a way of killing the HD feeling a lot for me.

the water looks like pudding as well btw.

Cosidering that this game is the most hardware hungry game it offers not much in return. And the engine is still not optimized a single bit. Even in areas without 1 single mob my rig sometimes cries for help - which it doesnt in crysis, aoc, rift, or any other game i played so far. The fact they dindt get the ambient occlusion to work properly -
even lotro has a pretty decent looking AO with 5% performance hit max- is a slap in the face. Its SE, not 1 man company. the options in the menue for graphic should as well be in the game, not before... and there have to be many more tweaking options.
Atm the only thing you can do to increase the performance is.. make the game look like ffxi... that isnt even the standard it was 5 years ago.

and well the other things are said in the former posts :D

For the eviroment shadows it needs directx10 i presume and right now FF14 running on directx9 stuff (but surely expandable to 10 like said developer time ago). Hope they'll add directx10 features in the near future. Water effect is ok imo, it needs only more 'splashes' when you walk/run in it.

you can do almost everything on dx9 you can do on dx10 its just not as effective as far as i know- im no programmer but ive seen it in lots of dx9 titles (rift makes a great job on that with dx9).

It may be not that important compared to the content and class / battle issues , which is true, but it still kills the fantasy-realism the game has to offer in many other parts.
and its just sad since they put soooo much efford in the races, looks, animations, physix, really amazing!!!!

I think the reason why im so picking on these details is... considering the way the game looks atm, the few things goin on at one time in this game - if theres no npc or pc it is nothing - ok perhaps wind - the few eye candies you get... it should run on a rig that costs half the prize of what i payed, just to play this game decently...

poor programming feels like a big rip-off to the playerbase. Well in the end they lose the subscribers cause ppl cant run it.
And i think THAT is a major issue they should work on it a lot.
I have many friends willing to play it, with ok rigs, but cant play it at all, not even with worst settings, at least not enjoyable. Some couldnt even get it to work - ok that might have been some too old rigs, but still...

I know ppl hate the "WOW" (never liked it and barely touched it) word but.. take the wow playerbase and increase the hardware recommendation the way ffxiv does... i think i dont have to say more. Nobody wants to play a game in a tiny window without AA and see the desktop picture while playing...

This game lacks options:
detail options, grass density, level of detail for far away objects, level of detail for different things like npc, pc, mobs, view range, npc, mob view range, item view range,
etc... also different textures, not just ugly and beautiful. something in between would be nice as well :D so people can
tweak around (in game) and test out as much as possible.

I want the game to succed asap but the huge hardware recommendation even with good content might be a problem even then.

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Originally Posted by Munba

Yeah, also beastmen attacking cities randomly would be nice.
So also to have more players around Gridania and Limsa for example (already almost dead city sadly). And about it, cities should have more important places inside to attract players to come back in it (something like the -future- casinò in uldah). Something players need or can enjoy in every city.

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good ideas, and I bet you they will add events where monsters attack towns, but i predict that to be a later addition to the game

Completely agree. We're at a time of war yet there are no signs of it at all :eek:

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Originally Posted by Dingleberry

good ideas, and I bet you they will add events where monsters attack towns, but i predict that to be a later addition to the game

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I gotta agree, i've always thought how cool and thrilling of an idea it would be if they have beastmen attack cities where it's usually peaceful. That element of surprise and thrill is what we need in this game, to expect the unexpected.

But going back to topic, i agree strongly with OP, this is one of my biggest issues with this game. The landscape is ultra bland and boring and is copy pasted all over the place, i feel no sense of adventure when exploring and there isn't much to explore for that matter. Every place looks like the other, and most caves look similar too, not only that but they need much more life in them and sense of adventure and danger, have some dragons roaming around killing massive amount of people at random times like Guivre in FFXI, just crazy stuff to keep it fun and lively. Bring back the Orcs !!!

Also Camps are so disappointing, surely they can be livened up alot. Make each one of them look different from the other, not duplicates and do some drastic changes to their design and surroundings, a camp by a warzone, a camp by ocean-side, camp in a dungeon, camp in a jungle, and make each one look absolutely unique, not the same tent-style camps we have at the moment.
My idea of a camp is something for eg. like Rabao area in FFXI. Make it a pleasant experience to go to a camp since we are bound to them most of the time. Use your imagination and creativity. Only takes peek at FFXI to get an idea of how bad FFXIV world is. Lots of changes and additions need to be implemented on the landscape.

I feel if they had only got the landscape/atmosphere right, it would still give reason to play the game for those who lost interest. FFXI had an amazing landscape and sense of adventure in comparison, from ronfaure to valkurm dunes, to qufim islands, yhoator jungle, Zitah, CoP areas, and the list goes on and on. Every area and stage in the game had something unique and thrilling to offer. This is completely non-existant in FFXIV and it's completely ruined the experience. What's the point of grinding to 50 when there is no sense of adventure and landscape is an eye-sore. it beats the point of an MMO focused on fun and adventure.

The world of Eorzea does need to be brought to life, i think this should take top priority before fixing the minor things. This is a make or break deal for many. I'm willing to put up with minor annoyances so long as the big picture is sound and good. Please focus on the big and important aspects first then move on to smaller things. I'm losing more interest every passing day. I really hope SE will focus on World and Battle/Classes first and foremost, then the rest. They're the backbone of the game. without them there is no game.

This is a wonderful suggestion! When I think of what makes Final Fantasy games great, I think of:
1) Great graphics
2) An immersive world
3) An epic engaging plot

Right now FFXIV has #1 in spades, but #2 and #3 are still lacking. The basic zones I think are quite good, but adding little touches like those mentioned above would really help me feel like I'm immersed in the world around me.

Cue "The Witcher"'s level of immersion...NPCs take cover from the rain, curse at the cold, talk about the latest gossips, WALK to their homes to sleep for the night...etc

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NPC's roaming the streets of the the three City-States interacting with one another, stores closing for the nigh

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You can be sure half the game populace will QQ about this when they can't find the quest NPC.

I remember time ago they mentioned also the wet-dress feature when rain (seen also in some videos). Who knows they'll implement in the future. It would be neat.

I would love more life breathed into Eorzea.

I surely agree with the lack of life around eorzea and it needs also more nature sounds (crickets sound in la noscea in the night would be sweet for example)... ff11 was full of details in the fauna and flora department. So i hope eorzea will be. ^^

Im in agrement on these aswell playing FFVI was fun had things to see and do, but in FFXIV i find it boring even doing the 8 leves it feels lifeless, so i log after doing them and right now the way things are i dont want to do much of anything incase they change the alot, so ill my char at a low level till then.


i had find something that reminded what FFXI was about, but not sure if other people feels this way about FFXI and what FFXIV is missing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARghlVjBab0

To all who said FFXIV lacks life, atmosphere, too peaceful etc. you guys are sooooooo right on this. Whoever said to add towns, busier roads, etc. so right on this too.

There really needs to be various zones like beaches, snow fields, ruins, desert, in depth caves, tombs, lakes, inside castles, busy towns of different locale (beach town, forest village) etc. for it to feel like a atmosphere. All we have is a huge zone of trees and turns, huge zone of canyon and dirt, and huge zone of green fields, all desolate and no one around. It just doesnt make sense, I want to see the world, but this world is SOO BORING !! =(

Another thing i noticed is that cities have almost nothing about city-life. The perfect example is Limsa Lominsa. In the cut-scene introduction we see children playing in the plaza, sailors carrying boxes, etc. That is awesome! But when you actually walk in the city, they are gone.. sadly. :( In the same way there are few citizens and there aren't their houses to visit (like in ff11). Cities need this kind of 'visual activities' to be real and live imo. Maybe adding new sidequests they could add new NPCs in this sense.

Yoshi-P, i know there are many other things to address that have greater priority before this but i hope to see something added about it in the future. Because the 'immersion' in the world is very very important in a game like this. Especially if it's called FF. /cheer