Does else anyone miss "open dungeons"? Old FFXIers?

[Quesse]

Yoshi has specifically stated this is 'theme park' MMO.

You queue for a ride, you wait, you go on the ride, you get off. You do it over again.

There is no room for 'adventure' or 'exploring' in a theme park. Its a mad rush to each ride, repeat, mad rush, repeat. You enjoy it and then you throw up. Then for some reason you do it all over again.

[Jarlax]

The problem is XIV doesn't have much in the way of adventure at the moment. Everything seems to be handed to the player or so linear that it seems that way. Unfortunately it's kinda the way the market has turned since XI days and I doubt we'll see anything quite like it again, shame really because they were so good. Linear gear progression is apparently what everyone wants, probably because it's easy to see what's better and you don't need to think!

SoE is trying with EQ Next, no static mob spawn points, no linear instanced dungeons with instant duty finder travel, hell mobs wont even be in the same place twice. There will be no write ups on where to get stuff from mobs because well, the mobs will move.

You log in and explore around and try to find that feeling of adventure again. Also, never played XI but as a 10 year EQ1 vet I DO miss open contested dungeons and I literally have stories for days about my adventures in such places while playing that game.

[HorrorStory]

That 'exploration' asset is only effective until you get a map of the dungeon. Then all of that goes away.

Really, 'exploration' and 'danger' are dead in this era. The Intermet has all the answers we need to all the things we need to know in these types of games. We can go directly to our destination unimpeded if we know where to look it up online. Max-level, true-detection mob in your way? Just run past it, no danger there. Those elements of dungeoneering are pretty archaic, and easily worked around imo.

[ApolloGenX]

Just run past it, no danger there. Those elements of dungeoneering are pretty archaic, and easily worked around imo.

You mean risk and consequences?

Yes, they are pretty much gone. Unfortunately. I am not one that misses the old grind, for sure. I do like a little spice to keep things interesting. Right now most games have the feeling of a petting zoo, where players are giants and all but raid enemies are baby animals.

You go to the dungeon ride and kill the puppets... the boss might be a bit more of a game, but not really challenging, because again - no consequences, really. Even if you do manage to die...it's just funny. Just get back up and whack a mole!

I kind of feel like developers have become handlers and players are like small kids. They don't want to do anything to hurt our self esteem or frighten us.... it's really kind of creepy. I get more excitement out of passive entertainment like Walking Dead than I do out of most MMO content nowadays.

[Ryios]

Well, in FFXI the mobs were many levels higher than you in some places. E.g. something IT+ to a level 75 might be like level 85 or w/e. That doesn't exist in this game, the highest level mob's are level 50.

Imo, when the first expansion comes out they should expand every zone into new areas (add double the area to each zone) and they should put mobs in them that are 5-10 levels higher than the previous highest level mob in the zone. Which in most cases would be level 60+

And then they should put things in those zones we actually need/want. High level crafting nodes that don't spawn on timers (mobs ignore stealth on miners/botanists). Fates that yield high GIL amounts and otherwise unobtainable items for vanity gear etc. Also add some places to fish for rare fish that exist no where else.

They should also add a more intuitive group finder in the game, party based level sync like ffxi added, and make it so we can exp party again. Then we have a choice between an exp party, fates, and dungeons.

[Dyvid]

I agree. Today, players need to be told what to do, how to do it, how often, and any deviation puts everyone in a hatred frenzy. Sad times when people don't play RPGs for fun any more.

Believe it or not, one of the major complaints when FFXIV v1 came out was lack of tutorial or direction. Don't forget, a lot of the things you see right now are because it's what people chose during the official polls. The reality is times have changed. People no longer want to wander around for hours trying to figure out what to do? Even in FFXI's heyday people ran to the internet for guides and info.

[Swear_Bear]

I actually wouldn't mind if the stage the game is at now is considered the "training wheels" for new and casual players.

That way, content like open dungeons, coffer hunts, and HNMs (Vrtra, Tiamat, etc...) could be added for higher levels when players are more familiarized.

[faris]

Not wanting to sound rude, but it's not going to work. Areas like Caedarva, Arrapago and Castle Z were only dangerous and exciting because if you ran into aggro, you had to run to a "safe" spot and kill whatever was wailing on you, right away. (EDIT: or in the case of thieves, sprint the Hell away and Hide.) In XIV, in the open world you running away from a mob makes it return to it's original place after a little while - so the element of danger is totally gone even if open world dungeons were to happen.

[MageBlack]

One simple fix: Remove the mini map at the top of your screen.

[Jarlax]

If I think back you know the world felt bigger than you. In all honesty, the "grind" really wasn't a grind, its only grindy if its redundant and unenjoyable. Chain killing mobs for hours could get old, but I found it still pretty fun because of that sense of danger. At the same time things like CC or a good pulling class were important because any 1 creature would pwn your face let alone a group of them, that's a wipe. You die, and return to your bind which had to be near a city, then you had to run back in order to loot all your items back. This sounds pretty shitty, but it was that fear of losing and then possibly not being able to easily retrieve your stuff that gave you that sense of anxiety which made the win feel sooooo good. Or a large scale operation to get your stuff back, like calling on a allied guild to help get another guilds corpses out of the Plane of Fear type shit made the feeling of adventure and not knowing what would happen around the next corner possible.