One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Siobu]

Thank you, all!

Reinforcing my thoughts as the thread grows further from my posts: The addition of these 'dungeons' and 'hubs' are not going to provide us a journey, an adventure. We all have our own personal feelings on their aesthetics, their functionality, as well.

But I feel, that continuously adding more and more bandaids to our current zones will not solve the deeper issue. The deeper issue that, a dungeon cannot repair a bloated zone. Or 3. A zone the size of a region, but stands alone as a zone, from one to fifty. One map. More leves, or more quests, stacked on top of these zones still will not solve this.

What are the dungeons for? What are the quest hubs for? I believe there's multiple reasons for their development.

I understand we are desperate for something, for anything, but at the end of the day, is this truly sending the right message to adventurers of Eorzea? What is the message?

Could it be, "We understand you need something to do while we put the world through rebirth, here are some dungeons and quests."

Or, "We understand you crave for more adventure, so here are some more camps in the Black Shroud to travel."

Or even, "This IS the world and will always be the world. To reinforce that to you, we will add more camps and dungeons. I hope you all will get comfortable in this Eorzea."

I believe the issue is that we do not understand their state of mind. Do we see the same world? Do we see it the same way?

[EdenArchangel]

I really wish we could hear what the team is thinking on the dungeons.
Every single unopened area is a copy-paste of the current below ground areas (aside from Coerthas with open stone colored eggs and glowing sulfur pools).

It sounds like we're being given content to have 'something to do' while they work on future content, which at this point will likely be 'something to do', while waiting on future content..... you get the cycle.

It's obviously too late now, but who wants dungeons in the current zones that need to be fixed first? lol
Confusion. :s

[Daedae]

Well, SE obv sees it differently than we do. They are trying to keep us interested while they slowly work in changes, and thats the purpose of this mid-content, dungeons, and upcoming hubs. None of it is going to be truly groundbreaking, its all about keeping enough people so when the major changes occur, it wont be for naught.

Asking for a COMPLETE world revamp and expecting it in the foreseeable future is unrealistic. The changes we are asking for concerning the world right now will not happen(if they happen at all) for a good while. What we can do until then, is keep throwing out ideas so SE can implement things based on player interest. We won't ever have that sense of adventure in XIV as 'seasoned' players, at least not until an expansion where our issues are addressed, and we forget about the lower zones like a bad dream, it's really for the new players SE hopes to capture.

I thinks it great that they are filling up empty space with actual things to do, but as a long term solution its a big no-no for me. Having 20 dungeons in one zone isnt going erase the fact that the zone is bland, generic, and dull. Reshaping the landscape, adding landmarks, interesting geographical features, an array of geographic diversity and biomes in tandem with roaming NM's, dungeons, hamelts and hubs, subtle dangers is the key to making a truly awesome world.

And it's not as if creating one type of ecosystem totally eliminates creating a similar type. Both areas in Thanalan and Black Shroud can have marshes, but just like marshes in real life and in different games, they can vary drastically! Think of the everglades and then think of a louisiana cypress swamp. Both boggy, swampy ecosystems, but the look and feel is incredibly different, not to mention the creative leeway the designers have with this being a fantasy game. Hell, in Azeroth look at a traditional swamp such as Swamp of Sorrows, and then Blizzard comes out with Zangarmarsh. Like woah! Both are similar ecosystems, but the differences are apparent, and enough to merit different feels. The same can be done with deserts(dunes to steppes, to mesas) and mountainous areas(volcanic, arctic, forested). Just a little imagination and a lot of money, and they can really do wonders on this world.

FFXII comes to mind when I think of realism paired with an amazing array of detailed and varied zones. The Giza plains stretching into flatlands, leading to a jungle, which splits to a mountain, etc!

[Mack]

"This IS the world and will always be the world. To reinforce that to you, we will add more camps and dungeons. I hope you all will get comfortable in this Eorzea."

If this is the case I would have to say good bye to FFXIV and just cross my fingers that a future FF MMO is on SE's mind.

[Firon]

If this is the case I would have to say good bye to FFXIV and just cross my fingers that a future FF MMO is on SE's mind.

LOL...........

[Rane]

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

Just for added measure, it's worth mentioning that I'm not saying that FFXIV should simply copy XI. Every Final Fantasy game in the main series takes you on a journey around the world. As far as MMO's are concerned, I've only played FFXI and WoW, but both games had that same element of adventure. You explore the world, leaving the safety of home and setting off for fantastic and dangerous areas. That's an essential part of what makes an MMORPG great, and something that XIV is sorely lacking.

[EdenArchangel]

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

I agree. With my personal favorite mobs including tonberries and cactuars, the Cactus Basin east of Ul'dah was one of my first sprinting around as miner exploring locations. And boy, there were cactuars, like many areas, but nothing worth calling it an entire "Cactus Basin."

I'm all for exciting names and places, but I don't believe a single place reflects its name currently.
Iron Lake... I'm not sure which lake is the "Iron Lake," lol
The Black shroud is a tacky lime green everywhere, and not darker than anywhere else in the middle of the night.
Broken Water... what? How is this broken in a non-human anatomical way?
Treespeak... what? No treants here =/
Dragonhead... Bahamut is in Mor Dhona "sleeping"
Bearded Rock is spoken of in npc dialogue (some captain went down valiantly and turned to stone on his death? something)... but where is the Bearded Rock? lol
People can't immerse themselves in the lore... because the world doesn't reflect the lore, and people rush through the starter zones to get to Broken Water, and so much of the world gets neglected. D:

Not 100% where I'm going with this, I just preferred XI's naming style;
Ronfaure instead of Green Woods, Sauromogue Champaign instead of Tan Rock Valley, Crawler's Nest instead of Large Bug Cave... then again, if they used these bad names listed here, at least they would make sense. lol


TL;DR-----Wish for Final Fantasy areas with Final Fantasy names D:

[Miliant]

The world is terribly bland, excessively large, incredibly repetitive. The landscape should change more and more often. Also what EdenArchangel said is absolutely true, most of the names were just thrown out there and do not reflect the little lore there is in the game. They could've just called La Noscea "Greenlands" and then "camp 1", "camp 2", "camp 3". It would have made no difference whatsoever. They all look the same; they all *are* the same.

And in my humble opinion, the world is so terribly devoid of life and atmosphere that throwing a little hub here and there that looks exactly like the other 20 hubs they're gonna add isn't going to change the fact that the world is dead and it does not feel like a FF game. If the dev team really isn't up to the task of redisgning the whole world so that both its size and appearance make it feel like a FF game, then they should just switch everything off and go home.

[Siobu]

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away.

Thank you, Rane. You echoed my feelings, as well as others, perfectly.

I hope that our diligence over the last two days might bring this thread to their attention. And this isn't even the first thread of its kind to touch upon this issue.

I believe, after all this time, we should know where our future here will take us.

We should know whether we're going on an adventure, or staying home.

This is how I feel. And now I know that I am not alone.

[EdenArchangel]

@ Miliant Thank you ^^

Feel free to browse my personal forum posts that are in this thread, lot of different ideas, starting from the first page actually, heh o.o;;
as I keep finding more to add