One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Richard]

The devs would have to be blind to miss this one, dev tag or not

I can understand how making each zone unique would take a lot of time and effort, the level of detail they put into things like the cities is incredible, and I'm sure it would take a lot of time to do this several more times over.

I'm almost certain that they are going to do something about this issue, if they could just let us know that they are, an enormous amount of people would be happy. I hope this is the big priority after the battle and job system.

EDIT: 99 likes on the first post! don't forget to like it!

With the Letter From The Producer XI + Battle video we should be getting this week, maybe they will touch on some info about how they plan to flesh out each zone more radically. /hope

[Ogun_Riastradh]

I'm rather impressed that this thread has stayed on topic and didn't devolve into some kind of pointless debates. There is so much potential with this idea. They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.
However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan. While these areas would help bring in some new excitement and diversity, we would also need to have a reason to go there outside of a quick class quest. ATM everyone stays in Ul'dah because of the central location and the better leves. They will have to redistribute the mob types, ranks, and party leves to force character/player progression and skill, as well as give us an incentive to leave Ul'duh.

[Mack]

However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan.

Yea but those are the equivalent of Norg, Aht Urghan, Whitegate (I dunno what else I didn't stick around much longer after Aht Urghan) areas in FFXI which came much later. The current regions we have are pretty much equivalent to vanilla FFXI and if you count each section of the regions separately you will get almost the same number of zones from XI except that they decided to make them seamless and all look the same, at the expense of loading? someone said it best when they said the run between each area (i.e., central to eastern Thanalan) takes longer than a loading screen.

[Richard]

someone said it best when they said the run between each area (i.e., central to eastern Thanalan) takes longer than a loading screen.

I would trade completely unique zones, full of vibrancy and life WITH a 10 second loading screen, over a "seamless" copypasta world any day of the week and having to travel even longer than 10 seconds between them. As long as SE knows the rest of the community feels the same way and strongly about it, maybe they will put more action into doing it.

[Prevbean]

I am for numerous loading screens in favor of more variety in the landscapes with a sense of direction. More zones also create more music for the zones which I'm also in favor for.

[Xenor]

The image of the quest hub was a bit alarming as I was hoping they were in more remote locations. They may be, and that image may be in some remote area of black shroud. But I think they would've made a bigger impact had they shown a quest hub in Mor Dhona.

The quest hub in the Shroud is on that long path between Bent Branch and Tranquil where there's an opening with some text on the map. Thanalan's is just west of Horizon and I think La Noscea's is near Bloodshore. This is all pointing to mid rank content but who knows?

[Ogun_Riastradh]

Yea but those are the equivalent of Norg, Aht Urghan, Whitegate (I dunno what else I didn't stick around much longer after Aht Urghan) areas in FFXI which came much later.

Don't get me wrong, I know they are not coming soon, but it is small glimmer of hope to know that it should be coming in that form at least.
And yes there needs to be more detail/diversity and less copypasta in each zone/region w/e. Why is it called Drybone? Where are the bones? Where is the water in Broken Water? Where is all the moss in Emerald Moss? They don't have to be obvious and cheesy things like that, but it gets the point across.

Also, it seems like they tried too hard keep it from being a bit like XI when everyone over 20 was in Jueno. They tried to make each zone self-sufficient for each starting city in XIV, almost as if they wanted us to stay in our home regions for the most part. Instead it made things pretty stale.

[Sigmakan]

The quest hub in the Shroud is on that long path between Bent Branch and Tranquil where there's an opening with some text on the map. Thanalan's is just west of Horizon and I think La Noscea's is near Bloodshore. This is all pointing to mid rank content but who knows?

/sulk




/10char

[Rowyne]

They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.

Excellent comparison!

[AtryxEtair]

I'm rather impressed that this thread has stayed on topic and didn't devolve into some kind of pointless debates. There is so much potential with this idea. They could use the Garlean invasion and the resulting wrath of the elementals to remap the Shroud very easily, kinda like the World of Ruin in FFVI.
However, don't forget there are areas of Eorzea that we haven't seen yet, like Ala Mhigo, Xelphatol, Dravania, and Sharlavan. While these areas would help bring in some new excitement and diversity, we would also need to have a reason to go there outside of a quick class quest. ATM everyone stays in Ul'dah because of the central location and the better leves. They will have to redistribute the mob types, ranks, and party leves to force character/player progression and skill, as well as give us an incentive to leave Ul'duh.

I would like to have seen a debate actually. I can't fathom anyone being able to logically say anything of value in a negative light about the OP. So it mighta been kinda interesting for someone to try. Oh well too true even for the seemingly unstoppable force in humanity that is pride and always wanting to be right or disagree. lol