Feature Request: First Time Visit = No Map.

[Griss]

I think one of my favorite map quests from xi was The necropolis [s] you had to explore a bit to find map fragments then bring them back to a npc and he would put them together for you.

I do support being able to earn maps for zones and dungeons going forward. at the same time i understand people just wanting to buy the map and being done with it. What if they make a ongoing event/quest out of it? Say when they add in a new dungeon or zone. spread around and hidden in said area are ???'s or "Survey points". Lets also say at the start of this quest or event you get a "Magical doodad" from a npc to take readings at said locations. Once you have taken readings from all of the points inside your presented with a shiny new map of the area your in. Once enough magical doodads are turned back in to the quest/event npc the map is put up for sale in special cartography vendors for that server conveniently located in each nation.

this would accomplish a few things. Including but not limited too. Incentivize people to get in and explore every nook and cranny of these new places. Allow those that do not want to go exploring to obtain the map for said area. Promote the co-operation of players. And finaly do something square has never been able to do. Recreate the feeling of the Legendary 2003 Twinkling Treant and the 2004 summer fests "Test of Courage" from xi. And do it every time a new place to explore has been added or opened to us. Properly done the addition of a new zone could be like Main lining a overdose of win cut with awesome and epic.

[Anty]

Fetch questing for maps is low-grade content. Inevitably the most convoluted maps are going to have the most painful Zelda fetches attached to them imaginable. I'd rather actually create the map in realtime via magic by exploring the dungeon a few dozen meters at a time. That way you don't get the map by being a dog. You get it by actually mapping the area.

Also, if you make players jump through hoops to get maps for areas, they'll just make a program to rip the maps out of the data, mark them and enhance them, then put them where the map would have been. These days, people are all about using any excuse to cheat they can. "they didn't give me a map" is well within their mindset of justified.

I don't think it adds enough adventure to justify the painful, inevitable fetch questing or spawn the demand for a third party application.

So far we have some REALLY boring quest that have abolutely no purpose but getting a piece of crappy gear or similar.
So i think the maps would be an improvement. It would be a start. Since atm no quest really does make sense or is needed at all.

[Nikita]

Hardcore? Maybe. Smart idea? Maybe not so much.

Looking back to FFXI, it had this "feature" along with another great "feature", quests that confused the hell out of you. What happened because of these "features"? Sites like FFXI-Atlas.com and FFXI.allakhazam.com. I personally believe that the developers gave you the maps off the bat and gave you more clues in your quest log, along with marking the map for you because when they add "features" like the one requested, players will just open their web browser and look up the map or look the quest up.

People say they are "hardcore" for not using these resources, I think that sometimes they just try too hard. When Diabolos Prime came out, really, the only "hardcores" were the ones that went in first. Everyone wants to say they are "hardcore" but few know what it actually means. After the first few hours of the fight being live, everyone was already linking to the picture that showed the order in which the tiles fell.

I don't think this is entirely a bad idea. My dream of an expansion for FFXIV would be one in which players infiltrated the Garlean Empire. A long an interesting quest to obtain the map for that would be cool, because not many people from Eorzea have ever been there. As far as the new dungeons go, they already said that the leaders of the companies would be going in and reporting back on their experiences for us and we would get a post on the lodestone or some such. It would make sense if there were maps for the dungeons if that is the case.

That's just my opinion, obviously other people have their own.

[Cairdeas]

Looking back to FFXI, it had this "feature".

FFXI had no map system even similar to how I describe it in the first post.

[ObeiKinstar]

I am against anything thats just handed to me. I understand that there are soooooo many of you who disagree. But everytime we get something just handed to us that we dont have to work for the game suffers.

With soo many ppl complaining there isnt anything to do, I wonder why... Could it be because everyone just want everything right now without having to work for it. Anima is one of the biggest things hurting this game right now, I understand why its there, but here is the problem, get leve-> warp to outpost-> follow markers on mini-map to exact location->kill mobs->warp back to outpost->repeat->warp home. Theres absolutely no interaction with the environment or the surroundings.

There is little to DRAW you IN to the game. The majority of ff games are open world (i think all the core numbers except 10 and 13? not positive, but even those had a few open areas) You talk to npc, who usually needs you to do something in some other place for them. You would talk to the npc, he tells you something is wrong in the town of whatever then your off. I don't ever remember having my hand held in FF until recently. I dont ever remember walking up to a npc and seeing (!) above there head. I certainly dont remember ever starting the game with warp spell or teleportaion of some kind. In all the original FF titles you had to work to get things. I'm tired of being handed stuff, make me work for it.

I know not everyone agrees with me, but remember this is just MY opinion.

Totally agree with OP, completely agree with gifthorse post #2

[Nikita]

I'm not talking about competely removing the map. I'm talking about making it so you have to explore the map.

Yeah I know, you want a map system like WoW. I am saying I think it's a bit silly and even in WoW there were more elaborate map sites that players could go to. Even map addons like Atlas. Even with this system players will still be going to sites to figure out where to go in what order, what turn is a dead end etc. My point stands.

[Frisque]

I know not everyone agrees with me, but remember this is just MY opinion.

+1

I agree with ya

[Nikita]

Again, I don't think this is a horrible idea. I like some extra challenge where it makes sense. This feature seems like a lot of work for something that will have no use once a player completely finishes a dungeon. Personally I would like to see things like Nyzul where the layout is randomized, and there is no map at all. Otherwise, there will always be the FFXI-Atlas site out there that shows you the way. It may be challenging the first go, sure, but I'm sure most players will just look it up.

[Jynx]

Again, I don't think this is a horrible idea. I like some extra challenge where it makes sense. This feature seems like a lot of work for something that will have no use once a player completely finishes a dungeon. Personally I would like to see things like Nyzul where the layout is randomized, and there is no map at all. Otherwise, there will always be the FFXI-Atlas site out there that shows you the way. It may be challenging the first go, sure, but I'm sure most players will just look it up.

Even if it was randomized there is only going to be a set number of layouts that one could discern fairly quickly and then pop that map up in there web-browser. Making it as a dungeon feature will do little than put people not willing to have all 18 maps on hand at a disadvantage to those who do.

[Mack]

For dungeon maps, sure. For overworld maps, no thanks just because they're not that interesting to explore and fill in the map yourself.