One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Ogun_Riastradh]

This world needs to be dangerous. It needs to have that heart pounding rush of you watching your sneak/invis wear off right as you are running through an area of mobs that aggro to magic! HOLY CRAP WAT DO WAT DO. Ahh relief you are a smart guy and you brought some powders and oils nyaha.

Exactly. As much as I like the "open world" feel in some ways, its pretty lame that you can walk very far without finding an aggressive mob. And if you do, you can usually avoid pretty easily. Its essentially like crossing the street to avoid a shady guy walking towards you. Even if you aggro, you are usually pretty safe due to the leashing. Again, no motivation to learn mob aggression types/ranges or detection methods.

Or you have the other extreme end of the spectrum like in Nanawa, with the leve mobs placed right on top of like 2 mites and 4 djiggas. At early ranks this makes completing the leve near impossible, or at the least very inconvenient/annoying at higher ranks/party size. Or DoL leve targets that are placed right on top of NM or high level mob spawn points. Some higher rank parties have trouble with these mobs as it is, and a Miner or Botanist is supposed to survive 5 or 6 gathering attempts there?

Where is the middle ground? On the way to Qufim you had to be patient and pick your path. Or even <Call For Help> to work as a team to clear the path. In the Citadel or the Jungle, again you had to pick your path carefully and be patient. You had to learn the pockets of safety and use the environment to your advantage. You needed to be quick getting Sneak/Invis up, or if you ran out of oils, you were hosed.

Right now there is no learning curve for this. Eight months into the game, and there are still people running into a room full of leve/Behest mobs and pulling them all on a regular basis. In some cases, this causes a full wipe. But at the very least, this usually screws the SP pretty royal. Of course, this ties into other issues like targeting, claiming, battle, and class uniqueness. But this still clearly needs to be addressed.

[Tonka]

Lol. The zones are so sprawling that you teleport between camps anyway. And what do you see when you teleport? LOADING SCREEN ALL UP IN YO FACE ANYWAY! Nice.

[Richard]

Lol. The zones are so sprawling that you teleport between camps anyway. And what do you see when you teleport? LOADING SCREEN ALL UP IN YO FACE ANYWAY! Nice.

Also another huge mistake by SE from the beginning. They planned for the anima system to be main stage in regards to exploration and travel in Eorzea, when at best it ruins the immersion and need for a mount system. Not to mention that its incredibly imbalanced. I know people who have 3-4 anima mules on a separate account just because they are always running out doing locals/leves.

If they would have kept the anima system like outpost warps in XI it would have been more successful.

[Demacia]

Also another huge mistake by SE from the beginning. They planned for the anima system to be main stage in regards to exploration and travel in Eorzea, when at best it ruins the immersion and need for a mount system. Not to mention that its incredibly imbalanced. I know people who have 3-4 anima mules on a separate account just because they are always running out doing locals/leves.

If they would have kept the anima system like outpost warps in XI it would have been more successful.

Completely agree. Really I just don't get how anyone thought it would be a good idea.

[Xenor]

I'm sure they'll nerf teleporting when we have chocobos and airships.

Maybe the mobs in the starting areas go up to 96 because they originally intended the rank cap in this game to go way beyond 100? Who knows?

[Richard]

Maybe the mobs in the starting areas go up to 96 because they originally intended the rank cap in this game to go way beyond 100? Who knows?

If that was their plan all along that's EVEN WORSE. It's already bad enough that you can go from 1-50 in Thanalan but 1-96 when they release the level cap? There would be absolutely no reason to make new zones. That would probably be the worst design decision in the history of all MMOs. Now, I for one don't think that is the reason for R80-90 mobs in starting zones, but it still needs to be addressed and optimized.

[Mack]

If that was their plan all along that's EVEN WORSE. It's already bad enough that you can go from 1-50 in Thanalan but 1-96 when they release the level cap? There would be absolutely no reason to make new zones. That would probably be the worst design decision in the history of all MMOs. Now, I for one don't think that is the reason for R80-90 mobs in starting zones, but it still needs to be addressed and optimized.

I think they are making it a viable option. There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves. Really lame if you ask me.

[EdenArchangel]

Bump. Not losing this one

[Siobu]

There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves.

Exactly, exactly. Every one here understands my concerns. I'm humbled! And though every one has their own ideas for a solution, in the end, we all want the thing.

We all deserve a one to fifty experience that includes an adventure, a feeling of progression, milestones, and challenge. Juggling between opposite corners of our lands unfortunately cannot replace the experience and feel of a true world.

A lower ranking player should aspire to join the ranks of higher players. As we stand, the moment they leave our city walls, they've already seen 1/5 of the game. And not just 1/5 of the game, but almost the entirety of the zone. They've seen where they will be for days, and days, and weeks, within the first minutes of their character's life.

They wonder where they will travel beyond Black Brush, at first.

Some do bring up the point that you may travel between our current zones to level, but the issue still stands. Not only does one single zone, with a single map, a single theme, finish the work of an -entire region-... But we're given multiples of these bloated masses.

Where is our room for expansion? We already have MORE than enough 1-50 zones to take us to the end. If the zones sprout more camps, or new hubs, bandaids... What does that mean for our world? Are the anchors dropping?

Our concern is not of leves, it's not of quests, it's not of transitioning... It's that we have no where to go, and worry that, perhaps, they believe we don't need to go anywhere else.

I want us to be heard as much as all of you.

What we want, what our characters deserve... It's not something abstract, or strange. It's simply a true adventure. A journey. Memories unique to each milestone stepped over in our characters' lives.

When the time comes for some (though, it has for many) to level another class... To start again. These milestones and feelings of progression are just as important, if not more, to that of a new player.

When all of your far-reaching adventures eventually brings us back home, to our respective city-states, and we can actually say to ourself:

"It feels good to be home."

[Daedae]

I think they are making it a viable option. There is a crystal near Horizon, forget its name, but its surrounded by rank 90+ mobs telling me that it will eventually give us R90+ leves. Really lame if you ask me.

Scorpion Keep? And of course we're going to have needs and such for 90 rank mobs, but in the next couple of years? Doubtful, especially when these 90+ mobs drop the same items as their r50 counterparts for the most part :< They're kinda pointless, I'm sure they could have held off on developing things so FAR down the line and focused on the NOW.

I really do not like the whole camp/aethyr system. It's incredibly linear and having each camp look EXACTLY the same, with the EXACT same features, with a big floaty crystal that gives you things to do it kind of creepy. They should fuse the camps with the questhubs/towns/settlements and each new encampment should reflect the style, architecture and ecosystem of the zone in which they are found. Like, limestone huts and bricks in Limsa, wooden cabins and cottages in Black shroud, pueblos or sandstone near Uldah. Having towns work as quest hubs is a common thing in all RPGS I know, but thats because it works. Not only does it flesh out the world in terms of civilization, but it can also be used to introduce the character to unique NPC's and establish some routes of level progression via the routes and connections of towns and cities, while also acting as the hub of specific questlines, and the place of leve activation.

It would make sense, since in XIV lore Aetheryte are kinda revered by the people, and are incredibly important to Eorzeans since they are a common mode of transportation and communication. Makes sense that people would settle around such an important landmark, no? Having actual NPC's handing out some leves would add a more personal touch since you as a player can see the poor farmer who's orchard is being ravaged by evil dodo's, and that connection would actually fuel the player to get things done, at least me because I care about pixels! : ; By having all leves picked up at a central NPC, with just text to provide a reason as to what the hell we are actually doing kills immersion for me. A sick child needs a special herb to recover from a mysterious illness, show me the grieving mother. Things like that in a greater number and spread out 'round the world would help the zones gain an identity. The players would remember the particular quests and lines they opened up, "remember that sick girl, yeah after you help her it opens a quest in blah blah blah." <-----side story progressions, not just one liners of 'Kill dodo, gimme skin, you don't get to see what I actually do with it." Just some ideas!