I miss the "dangerous" zone/area we had in 1.0

[Sho86]

No, no... I was making a joke: "That would be like expecting to walk into the empire's main HQ in XIV and expecting a warm welcome."

You can walk into their HQs and do as you said above.

Ah, sorry, can never tell who is serious on the forums heh. Plus I never really considered them much of a threat anymore with how the story played out. I was meaning to example like Garelmald, the heart of the empire.

[TouchandFeel]

I think this is a neat idea and I would like some of these ideas to be implemented, however they would need to be done so with care because it could easily become frustrating if made too difficult or trivialized by the passage of time causing people to out gear them.

I would love to see some alteration to what mobs spawn based on different things such as day/night or weather. There would be a base population that would always be there but there would be some time/weather specific mobs mixed in too. Perhaps some of these could be rare mobs that are linked to hunts or some other thing that would make players want to go to certain places at certain times or under certain condition to kill certain open world mobs. This would also make the weather forecaster NPC's really useful.
This idea could even be extended to fates so that certain fates would spawn only under specific conditions.
If nothing else I feel this would add more variety to the open world and make it feel more like a living world.

I also like the idea of some mobs being able to "ambush" you. They would exist in the open world like other mobs but not be immediately visible to the player with only some small signs that they were there. For example there could be an Antlion type of mob that would spawn in desert areas and you could only tell it was there by a subtle fx of the sand being disturbed. If you're paying attention you can avoid them, but get too close and they burst out of the ground and agro you.

[ColorOfSakura]

These posers kill me with this crazy talk. Having played XI, I can honestly say I DON'T miss places like Castle Zvahl [S] where no one could move 5 steps without something attacking them regardless of stealth abilities. Those true-sight mechanics can stay away from this game.

People look at FFXI with nostalgia goggles, sadly. They don't remember how infuriating those areas were and instead choose to paint them with "OMG THIS WAS SO AWESOME", when really it was just a bunch of players shouting at each other because someone pulled aggro and caused everyone to die and lose EXP.

[Tupsi]

People look at FFXI with nostalgia goggles, sadly.

Everytime someone says this it's basically saying:

"People didn't actually like the game they played, because chances are I didn't like it, so therefore no one liked it."

They don't remember how infuriating those areas were and instead choose to paint them with "OMG THIS WAS SO AWESOME",

Believe it or not, people realize how scary Skydiving is which is why some choose not to do it whereas some choose to because of the rush and excitment. A sense of danger and getting through something that leaves you tense is actually pretty adrenaline pumping for some people, believe it or not. Everything is infuriating when you get to it.

[Magis]

People look at FFXI with nostalgia goggles, sadly. They don't remember how infuriating those areas were and instead choose to paint them with "OMG THIS WAS SO AWESOME", when really it was just a bunch of players shouting at each other because someone pulled aggro and caused everyone to die and lose EXP.

It's almost like people had different experiences than you did, or found different things "fun". #wow, #woah.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Welp, this would give me a reason to just stay inside towns since there's nothing for me to do outside other than instanced dungeons.

[Gilthas]

It's almost like people had different experiences than you did, or found different things "fun". #wow, #woah.

I'm sorry, but I played FFXI for years and I never saw people going "It's so awesome that everything in here can agro and kill me". I did however see plenty of "Who the **** caught agro?"

Too many people here have a fantasy vision of how FFXI was that doesn't measure up with reality. Just look at how people try to avoid as much mobs as possible in FFXIV's dungeons. That's how people acted in the dangerous areas of FFXI.

[Enthy]

It would be nice to have at least one zone that isn't domesticated with an aetherite crystal/small town/peaceful farmers. Where's the wilderness in this game? And please don't say everything challenging should be kept in instanced dungeons/leves. I have searched all the zones for a mob over lvl 50 to solo and test myself with and sadly there is nothing free roaming other than A and S rank hunts.

[snowybell]

I remember that even in GW2 at first, you can run over the maps and you MAY get killed by these risen zombie mobs, can't remember their names.

There is nothing fun at all in that. There's literally nothing to gain from having such mobs placed around for no reason.

But it does sound good if it's a very specific area with a danger zone attached to it, with some sort of grindy reward that comes along with it.
Otherwise having mobs randomly scattered across the map that could kill you is just detrimental.

[Fendred]

People look at FFXI with nostalgia goggles, sadly. They don't remember how infuriating those areas were and instead choose to paint them with "OMG THIS WAS SO AWESOME", when really it was just a bunch of players shouting at each other because someone pulled aggro and caused everyone to die and lose EXP.

Actually, I came back and played it a bit last year with a new character. It is very different after Abyssea, but the zones remain as they were and I have to say I found the zones containing actual danger to be a breath of fresh air from the norm.

People aren't annoyed by dangerous zones: They are annoyed by poorly done dangerous zones. The danger has to be apparent and not just a puffed up dodo that looks like every other dodo. The danger has to be justifiable within the mechanics of the world (i.e. when in an area full of corrupted crystals, "shiz gets real"). Having legions of giant killer snakes patrolling a zone for newbies will always ruffle some feathers (unless the idea is for the newbies to avoid said snakes, which can be a fun thing if done right). Or making a dodo capable of killing a fully armed adventurer (like back in 1.0).