Regarding the Zones in A Realm Reborn

[Ruisu]

In 1.0 we had around 22 open world zones.

Each region had five zones, with the exception of Mor Dhona, which had 2 I believe. But every other zone had a North, East, West, South, and Central. Or some variation of that.

What I want to know, is where are zones like Western Shroud? Or Southern Mor Dhona? Pretty much every zone from Coerthas save for Central Highlands is missing as well. Is this a matter of "everything wasn't in the game yet, it's a beta", or do they really not exist? I'm still kind of hoping that we'll see them at/around launch since we were told that there would be 40-some zones in A Realm Reborn.

The map just feels really small, I think sprint has lent a helping hand to that (Not that I mind). It feels like there should be more. I'm hoping it's partially because we don't have the fully patched game yet, but I'm not sure. What we've seen is pretty great as well, I prefer this over the copy/paste of 1.0. I just hope we get to see every zone come back.

[indira]

i think coerthas & mor dhona are way to small in P4 can only hope thats all that was open.

[HellaciousHutch]

I've heard, like yourself, that there's ~40 to 50 zones at launch from more than a single source, and that ~5 more will be implemented come 2.1. I'm not sure if that information's correct though.

We have to wait and see unfortunately.

[Shioban]

1.0 had the problem of larger areas, with pretty much nothing in them.

To accommodate the PS3's limitations on memory (draw-distance being a big factor here on memory) the game was split into zones, keeping them smaller but fuller helps keep the PS3 afloat.

If we were to have constantly rolling areas like we had in 1.0 (except for borders from Thanalan > Mor dhona and the like, the PS3 simply wouldn't be able to accomodate the memory required to gradually load in one area to another, especially with the new design of the areas in ARR, it simply wouldn't be possible.

I prefer to have smaller areas which feel real, than lots of copy/pasted areas that feel that they are there just to 'Fill the place'. Mor Dhona was gorgeous as was Coerthas.

And from Phase 4 I can tell you Coerthas is no tiny, not by any means, neither is Mor Dhona really.
The fact we move faster now and the areas aren't stretched out to be too large has change the feel of each area.

[Naryl]

large areas just for the sake of being large are useless. I don't know if you explored a bit in the beta, but now all the maps have landmarks, it's DAMN HARD to find a map similar to another. Not all 1.0 were bad, but man the largest ones were a big copy/paste.

[Ruisu]

-Snip-

I'm not really talking about regional size. I'm content with the size of the zones. I don't mind loading screens at all either. What I'm simply saying is that we're missing zones. The transition from Northern Thanalan to Revenants Toll in Mor Dhona makes little sense, we skipped over an entire zone which held Brittlebark and the tomb of Xandes. There is no route from the Shroud to Mor Dhona anymore either because Western Shroud and Southern Mor Dhona are missing, etc. Riversmeet, Glory, and whatever that far north region with those stone monuments is gone as well.

Also, Coerthas as a zone isn't really tiny, it's actually probably the largest zone in game, but as a region, it is small. Mor Dhona is pitifully tiny as is, which is a shame because it was my favorite place in 1.0, and it's still my favorite in ARR.

Don't mind me just being picky and rambling on. My main point is still the fact that we're missing zones from 1.0.

[Sintei]

To accommodate the PS3's limitations on memory (draw-distance being a big factor here on memory) the game was split into zones, keeping them smaller but fuller helps keep the PS3 afloat.

i am really getting tired of people blaming things being different from 1.0 on the ps3... the ps2 ran ffxi just fine and those zones were much larger than anything in ARR. so the PS3 is NOT an issue here. stop trying to say it is please. thank you

[Ruisu]

i am really getting tired of people blaming things being different from 1.0 on the ps3... the ps2 ran ffxi just fine and those zones were much larger than anything in ARR. so the PS3 is NOT an issue here. stop trying to say it is please. thank you

He's not wrong. The PS3 is a seven year old console, FFXI came out when the PS2 was fairly new. The polygon count and the texture resolution has increased quite a bit since then. Let's not ignore that FFXI had it's fair share of copy/paste as well. To say that the PS3 isn't the fault of some graphical constraints of the game is a bit silly. But we knew about all of this when 2.0 was first announced. It was to be expected, and the fact that they made the game run on the PS3 is quite surprising.

Anyways, that's off topic.

[haseo0730]

Unfortunately that is all. Mor Dhona and Coerthas were shrunk to 1 zone per each

[Wolfie]

It's not PS3 limitations, it's cutting out useless fat. There were zones or areas in 1.0 that served absolutely no purpose and were just filled with level 70+ mobs to give an artificial challenge to people looking to get their exploration achievements.

Some of these zones that they couldn't find a purpose for in ARR were cut out and the cataclysm was used to justify it via lore. Maybe they'll make a return in future patches/expansions, but honestly I'd rather see different settings or regions than these.