Will we see changes to the environmental game world?

[Victor]

I'd just like to point out that, excluding Gridania, one large reason the repititive textures are so apparent is because the maps pretty much advertise it. Every reused cliff is copy and pasted 100 times on each map. If they didn't do this, most of us would be none the wiser.

[Platinumstorm]

I'd just like to point out that, excluding Gridania, one large reason the repititive textures are so apparent is because the maps pretty much advertise it. Every reused cliff is copy and pasted 100 times on each map. If they didn't do this, most of us would be none the wiser.

While this is partially true, a bigger problem is that the assets don't even get rotated or repositioned within the area. I think people definitely realize they're running down the same linear path, and enter one of the few "circle areas", or crossing the same stream with the same rock and the same tree; realizing that they have to go underneath the overpass in order to continue down their path rather than going over the top, etc. The visual pattern just revolves around a few features in each zone, and there's nothing in between to break it up except another very identical layout.

[Lahru_Hukurou]

Black Shroud definitely isn't a place a people weak of heart would want to start at. One good thing can come out of starting in Gridania though. Depending on how long you stayed in Black Shroud, it made you better at avoiding enemies. At the very least it made you appreciate the wide open areas of Thanalan and La Noscea lol.

I'm wondering though, if they are going to change the environment in some ways. Yoshi-san keeps talking about the things that are coming. Makes it sound rather ominous. Makes me wonder if some changes or additions to the environment may be a part of it.

[Asran]

Sorry missed this post when I started my thread...
But yeah, there definitely has to be something done about the zones. I am aware that many games (even non-MMOs) recycle their terrain and maps, but when they do they leave it few and far between. It's just plain over used in certain places and makes the area feel tacky and dull.

[Alleyia]

I fully agree with Nataku, I was just about to write the same!

You can't even looking forward to explore new zones when you level up, because you can stay in the same zone for rank 1 to rank 50.. wooh D:

[Nataku]

I fully agree with Nataku, I was just about to write the same!

You can't even looking forward to explore new zones when you level up, because you can stay in the same zone for rank 1 to rank 50.. wooh D:

Great minds think alike! lol

But yeah, without a change in zone, why bother with Chocobos? We all know people will just auto-run them and go watch TV.

[Rhianu]

I agree that the zones in FFXIV are generally very bland, repetitive, and boring.

I also find it incredibly sad that SE tried to claim this was because the graphics are so intense. Really? The game has monotonous, repetitive environments because of the intense graphics? If that's true, and all graphically intense games have to have repetitive environments, then why is Square-Enix the only company that does this? Just look at companies like BioWare. Oblivion and Fallout 3 also have huge game worlds and intense, highly detailed graphics, yet they still manage to have environments with a great deal of variety and diversity. Never, at any point in either Oblivion or Fallout 3 did I ever feel like I was seeing copy-pasted terrain over and over again.

The fact that FFXIV has intense graphics is not an explanation, it's an excuse.

I see western developers making games with intense graphics AND environments with variety all the time. If SE can't manage to do so as well, then perhaps there is something wrong with their development process or technology.

[Betelgeuzah]

Just look at companies like BioWare. Oblivion and Fallout 3 also have huge game worlds and intense, highly detailed graphics, yet they still manage to have environments with a great deal of variety and diversity.

What? lol. Oblivion had one type of forest, a monotonously similar 'hell world' and the same dungeon was repeated thousand times. Fallout 3 was very similar.

On top of that, the games were really not graphically intensive at all (aside from the fact that the game engine was so poorly coded), and looked pretty damn bad at times. Especially the character models. You couldn't have picked a worse example.

[PM1337]

I think the areas are huge and because of that they lack the variety that the zones in FFXI had. I remembering leaving bastok for the first time traveling to Sandy. There were serious changes in the environment from rocks to rolling hills, to desert (ahh the Dunes, not the Dunes!!!) and finally to the forests of Sandy. I loved going from place to place even if I had no reason to go there. I just wanted to see what SE had in store for me. In FFXIV not so much. All of LL areas look the same. Its big its huge but its the same landscape. I would love more zones that show off SE talent more.

[babycakin]

I agree, I think most of the zones are just the same thing. At least in FFXI you had a well sized zone but you would enter another zone that was completely different, it had so much variation I loved it =D