Will we see changes to the environmental game world?

[InuraBera]

Not sure about this info but did they use the same team that designed FF XI to make FF XIV? It feels like they made the same mistakes they did in the beggining of FF XI instead of learning from them. Grinadia a series of tunnels is supposed to be a forest? That design sucked for the jungle in FF XI and they actually though it would work well this time?

They make sense of it in terms of story, at least the Gridanian and Botanist quests. This isn't a nice, mystical forest (the music gives serious evidence of this also) but hunting trails that must be rigidly adhered too or basically the elementals will destroy you. Also, if you take a good walk about there is some seriously impressive stuff to see in the Black Shroud, with the river runs being a favourite. Murmur Rills has a great bit, and it is filled with demons! Also, I very much like the Black Shroud and spend almost all my time there. Opinions.

Not going to get into other parts on specific terrain as PS3 pad is killer to type with haha. As to your comment Rimmer, I have no doubt more will happen but at the same time, minus us adventurers, outside the city-states appear to hold only fear and the Empire, except for some scattered Hamlets near certain roads.

[Abraxai]

I think part of the problem is how vast they've made zoned.. They didn't break Thanalan down into seperate zones for example.. So from one cave to another they sort of robbed themselves of being able to vary and adjust the terrain that much.

But more relative to the OP Square did say in an interview due to the graphic quality of this game having each and every part of the world be unique is simply unrealistic on the client size.

[Yuuen]

I look forward to either very personalized areas for instances/dungeons/etc. coming later on, or to the modification of current areas, which I think is much less likely.

But while the current zones are pretty realistic (in the acres and acres of empty land aspect), I find that they bore the hell out of me, and it's a little disappointing. What's also disappointing is that there seems to be a strange disparity between areas and their respective music...they don't feel attached to one another. That's my personal feeling, and while the music is great, it still feels "off" to me, and that was also a bit disappointing.

So there's nothing to make up for it. The main areas are beautiful save for their repetitiveness, but they don't feel as creative as they could be. I don't get as excited over environment design here as I did for the old FFs. Nothing really pops out, for all of FFXIV's graphical prowess. I think the closest it comes is within Ul'Dah, where I almost started (I ultimately chose Gridania because I love forests, but it turned out to be a bit boring, and I kind of dislike the Twelveswood's music...a lot. I think I like Ul'Dah the most). Everywhere else, I keep seeing "potential", and remembering that this may just be what we deal with.

[Platinumstorm]

The Black Forest music feels like it repeats over 30 seconds, it's incredibly grating, and combine that with the constant rain (amazing rain, might I add) effects it just declines the enjoyment factor quite a bit.

The zones in FFXI did not have the kind of visible repetition that FFXIV, so they were more varied and easier to accept, however I always felt those zones could have used some spiciness too, but the design wasn't to the point where it was hurting the game like it was in XIV.

[Wobi]

I don't think all the zones were done poorly, I'd say Coerthas was the best designed of the bunch. It has mountains, sloping terrain, various nooks and crannies and caves. Nothing there really screams copy/paste to me when I am running around logging there. Other than the obviously copy/pasted small pools of water in the lower region that leads to Mor Dhona the entire landscape is fairly well fleshed out and has some gorgeous lakes and rivers IMHO.

Though I wouldn't mind a few tweaks in the other zones, some ruins, watchtowers straw huts or small settlements to serve as visual landmarks and would help break up the monotony. I'm not entirely sure how hard it would be but if it's anything like the Age of Empires map editor I imagine they could just render them up and slap em down on the landscape. I'm aware this creates the logical conundrum of scenery that inexplicably appeared out of thin air but I doubt anyone would complain and we'd be used to it in no time.

[Platinumstorm]

I've only done some quick passing in the Coerthas area, so I can't comment, but I definitely don't recall the zone "sticking out" in any which way save for the one incredibly obvious attraction; other than that it wa a pretty boring zone to pass through.

Oh one other thing I remember from the Black Forest, I was supposed to go to this white tree in the quest, and it just took me to one of the clearings where a white tree magically appeared, but once I got back into the game world, there was no white tree. That was another great immersion killer for the zone, simply because they didn't dedicate the assets that are supposed to exist in the zone to the actual zone itself.

[Betelgeuzah]

That's what I mean by copy/pasting more... Where in other games you'll see trees or rocks used over and over.. Not only has XIV done that of course, but they've also copied entire sections and reused them shamelessly.

The areas are also larger. It comes down to about same amount of work. If areas were made more compact as in other MMO's, there would obviously be a lot less copy/paste as well.

[Rhianu]

Oooookay. The line between "exact same identically copy-pasted terrain over and over again" and "the exact same type of environment in a slightly different layout over and over again" is thin however, not to mention the changes in environments were not so drastic, which made the world feel even blander. It's quite the bad example no matter how you slice it. Not to mention SE has several regions ready to be implemented once enough content has been implemented and the story has progressed far enough, just like how they opened up regions in XI periodically. We are not really talking about the same magnitude of work here.

They haven't copy pasted any more than other developers, they just didn't do a good enough job at hiding it. Other games are usually more flat and bland and the copy paste consists of rocks, trees and other such objects. XIV's world is full, but larger parts of the environment have been copy pasted because of it, and thus are easier to notice.

It doesn't hide the fact that the work was poorly handled, but there isn't any more of it than in any other game out there. Had the areas been made more compact you wouldn't even notice it.

Uh... excuse me, but there is a HUGE difference between reusing assets and blatantly duplicating entire chunks of environment over and over again.

[Betelgeuzah]

Uh... excuse me, but there is a HUGE difference between reusing assets and blatantly duplicating entire chunks of environment over and over again.

In practice, it boils down to same exact problem. Not that Bethesda didn't duplicate entire chunks of environment over and over again- it was most apparent in the dungeons.

Not to mention, that SE uses a lot more assets currently than Bethesda ever did (as well as the other graphical aspects that are superior, like character models and animations). The game world's massive scope takes the focus away from that, though.

[Nyx]

I would have to agree with this.

I would really like them also to make the areas transition into each other more. Its like i come from a desert into a lush green forest and I dont see any hints of grass, or trees in the zone before I reach the forest.

Oh and adding seasons to the game would be awesome.