Adding Life to the Cities!

[Onidemon]

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, I tried to find it in the search to see if it's been commented on before but I didn't find anything so I decided I'd make a topic about it.

I was just thinking that if SE added more NPCs within the cities it would bring more life to the cities and make them seem more robust. What reminded me of this was I saw this picture that was posted up on the na.finalfantasyxiv.com website a while back:

http://pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/200906/03...9_23351252.jpg

That picture really makes it seem like the Adventurers Guilds from FFTA that were bustling with adventurers looking for missions. I walk into the AG in Ul'Dah and there's a few NPCs in there but they don't look like they're enjoying each other's company, in fact, they don't even seem aware of each other's existence. The lack of a larger amount of NPCs walking around is one of the reasons the cities are somewhat boring to me. I know it's supposed to be "players" that fill the streets, but I feel like a lack of life in the cities is one of the reasons that some players left the game in the first place. Not everyone in the city is going to be one of us adventurers.

For example's sake, please take a look at the screenshot below.

Gridania - http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/w...ridania001.jpg

This is the ramp to the more important areas (Adventurer's Guild) in the city, but you don't see any NPC's traveling down it or strolling along.

I can't think of a single NPC in the game that walks on it's own path around the city. In fact, I've never seen an NPC walk on their own at all.

I think with the addition of The Grand Companies, and the looming disaster at our feet, it could give reason for hordes of citizens to start flocking to the cities to be under the protection of the Grand Companies from the Garlean Empire.

Just an idea. I'm aware we have to wait until the Battle Systems have been improved first, but I figured it should be a part of the overall awareness of what needs doing. People beg for realism yet we're walking around inside of cities with approximately 40 total NPC citizens.

Please don't be rude, if you don't like the idea, then at least give a constructive and fair reason as to why not.

I completely agree with you. I understand SE thought the game would be crawling with players and that would fill the streets and the aventurer's guild but everything feels rather lifeless right now. Not only should they add more NPC but they should be able to move around the city. Some NPC could travel the city and sell goods etc... This shouldn't apply to cities only but to the world map too. There should be more monsters, NPC patrolling near the cities, traveling merchants, Hmanoid monsters(thiefs, thugs) that attack you etc.... Eorzea is by far the most lifeless virtual world i've seen and this needs to be addressed asap.

Too bad this thread will be ignored by the community reps and even if we do manage to get a comment from the dev team it will be "we appreciate your ideas and we will look into it... eventually...".

[Kailok]

I'm hoping to get a reply from the community reps, and even if they say "we'll look into it", at least that means the Devs know about the problem and hopefully in the future they'll realize it's something they should do.

[Zenaku]

I played for 6 years as well o,o I mean sure they kinda hated each other but they were never at WAR with each other. Yeah they had Ballista to best each other and keep the zone in their control..which is kinda like gang territories lol but even if they did hate each other, that's fine because it gave reason for competition between the nations, and that's something this game needs as well.

That what am saying we need a type of competition right now we mean noting to our city even our race vs FFXI where your race and city mean something to you. But ya they did hate each other i did a lot of side quest bastok pay money to sandy to def there walls and so on and they alway fight for the middle land of there zone and that was fun. Right now we homeless people who mean noting to our city becuase we just end up going to Ul'dah or ul'dah goes to other city that just lame ; ;i want to do storyline within my city ; .;.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

they could have some NPCs roaming around certain area and have them do some emotes or dialog when they get within a certain range of some other NPC, wouldn't add content but would add life for sure. Also, some shops should close during certain times, the Vendors could go away from their stall, go take a drink at the adventurer's guild and come back in the morning to their stalls.. Just simple stuff like that would add a nice feel.

[Kailok]

and have them do some emotes or dialog

Love the WoT reference name! Also, the idea of them emoting reminds me of the old San d'Orian circus with the throwing knives and torches! I WISH this game had that!

[Endemerrin]

throwing knives and torches! I WISH this game had that!

It does - to an extent, at least.
http://i.imgur.com/DPhqD.jpg

[Sykora727]

This is one of the things I addressed in my thread here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ies-Need-Color

I certainly agree with making the cities lively in several ways.

[Trigger]

I completly agree with needing more life in cities. Adding roaming npcs is a very good idea, and with shops and closing times they could easily get around having to close shops by simply having another npc take over the store at night. So there would a npc for night shift and day shift. As for the conquest thing, I have little faith that something like that would work right now in the game just because of how bad the areas are spaced. For instanced your never really a zone away from another town ( like how LL connects right to thalan), there is no area between the starting zones for most cities. So it be hard to take an area where the city is in for another city(although in FFXI I was apart of an LS that took a week of killing in ronfaure to take it for bastok for some lols and disrespecting). I guess we could do it on a camp by camp bais though.

[zaviermhigo]

Around the San D'Orian embassy in Windurst (OMG EMBASSIES should be added if we "like each other so much") there was a roaming mithra that just walked around. It seemed weird if you sat there for a while and watched her, but if you were zooming in and out it was nice to be like "ahhh that crazy mithra", made it feel like there were other people in the city than you, and the other people in the city didn't just stand all day long. The closest thing we have to this is the Guilds where npcs do guild tasks.

[OMEGA_HACK]

Yeah we need more NPC life in the towns, and I don't care if you reuse ones that are out in the camps, just give them a different name over their heads and make them walk around and "do stuff" D:>