Chocobos? Airships? Great! Anima? {No, thanks.}

[saudrapsmann]

Please look to FFXI:

With the introduction of cavernous maw teleportation people never take airships anymore unless its to Kazham if they don't have the outpost.

If the option is there even the people with more time aren't going to use them. No one took airships to Dalaran instead of the portals from Orgrimmar as another example, until they were taken out and now airships are the best way to get to Northrend.

Please, please, please severely limit this anima system! I get that some people have little time to play but it hardly takes very long to run on foot across Eorzea, not to mention with airships and chocobos.

[Shyd]

SRSLY!!! NO THANKS!!! If anything more anima would help out~ Don't limit it.


Think about this....

Every 36 hours you start in Ul'dah persay and get 1-2 locals, they need to go to Bluefog, and Broken Water.
So you start you 2 locals and then RUN to Bluefog to turn them in. Then you run over to Broken Water.

Then head over to Grid, pick up more locals. They go to Camp Nine Ives, Tranquil, and Camp Crimson Bark. You run and turn those in and then head over to Limsa pick up 2 more locals (still can get 1 more local) and turn those in at Skull Valley and Bloodshore. Then you want to do your battle leves with friends in Ul'dah. So back to Ul'dah.

There is no way you could accomplish all that running, and playing the game (picking up leves, going to camps, doing leves, crafting the 4-7 local synths per leve, in the maybe 5 hours casual player has per leve reset. Or 10hours per hardcore player.

I'm just taking a stab at times but to me, the world is big. Too big to run all over in the time frame i have.

[saudrapsmann]

Blame the quality and tediosity of the questing the game has. By your standards WoW must be a hardcore game too requiring lots of time and hard work, and FFXIV is your escape from that.

Even with that silly notion, even you have to see how this doesn't exactly just create options for people. If the anima system is there it WILL be used by everyone. No one's going to go "Oh I have lots of time today I'll take a chocobo instead of taking this free warp I always have available at any location."

[Gennosuke]

Completely agree with OP.

I never liked this specific teleportation system in FFXIV.
It just doesn't make sense how everyone can teleport at anytime from anywhere even as a newbie. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a mage class cast it at the very least? Where is the teleportation scroll? Where's the story behind it? I just see a click of a button from the menu and *pop* char dissappears. Not very logical.

The other issue is the fact that it really kills the aspect of adventure and exploration in the game. We have this beautiful world to explore but no one can be bothered running due to long distances and the tele system being handy. Hardcore players will probably be somewhat forced to run due to the extensive use of anima, whereas casuals will just not bother running at all with all their spare anima.

This is Not to say i fancy spending my whole playtime running around the place, but with the new mount systems coming in place.. Be it Chocobos, Airships, more ferries, this is the right time to abolish this current Teleportation/Anima system and rework Tele system in a way that makes sense and is limited so it's not abused. Let people ride their chocos and their airships and enjoy exploring the world of Eorzea while still making the transportation systems convenient enough to replace the tele system on a regular basis.

FFXI style just worked out much better. Not asking for a cavernous maw system, but even that makes much more sense than our current system, atleast you can see how and why you're able to teleport AND as far as i recall you have to go a specific spot in the map to be able to tele from. So it doesn't come that easy which is good. This will preserve the sense of accomplishment and reward of being able to use a nifty handy tele system. It should never come that easy.

Thinking about the point of Mage being able to cast it, i think that actually kinda achieves the same result and actually even worse, esp with our armoury system which i dont fancy so much, people can easily tele anytime anywhere again and thatll be even worse than Anima coz MP is instantly replenished, not to mention SP ranking is getting easier and everyone will be able to get spell in no time. So perhaps Mages might not be the way to go with our current system. Maybe scrolls or tele points with restrictions.

[MattyWS]

alternatives.

First I'd like to point out that airships will likely be to all the main cities. Secondly, they're probably add chocobos in all 3 cities (atleast) maybe even at every crystal.

thirdly, you still have the ferry which they need to make a little more fun :P

Third, all this is useless due to Anima. Now hold on! I know anima goes down faster than it goes up. Ya know what I think, when you do leves to get class points (pugilist points 1203 for example). It is a form of currency which you need to work for. Oh no! You dont have time to do leves to get your points to get your class abilities! You aren't going to get given the points for free, so why should you get Anima for free?

I suggest Anima points become a currency which you work for. Not only that! I also suggest you start off with a maximum of 30 anima (or something low like that) and you have to do quests to get it raised by 20 per quest. Think FFXI gobbie bag.

So this way, you start off the game, 30 anima max to start, you quest to raise your maximum anima amount from 30 to 50, then to 70, then to 90, then maybe a tough quest to get to 100.

Not only that, but your anima wont go up automatically like it does now, instead, you get the points from doing levequests!

This will make all means of transport viable. When you dont have any anima, take another means of transport. Dont like it? Dont feel awesome enough because you cant teleport everywhere like a god? Go quest for more. You will get exp at the same time, why not?

[Gennosuke]

This will make all means of transport viable. When you dont have any anima, take another means of transport. Dont like it? Dont feel awesome enough because you cant teleport everywhere like a god? Go quest for more. You will get exp at the same time, why not?

It's nice to see you offering alternatives in the right direction, however, I'd still like to firmly bring to attention in this thread that the problem is not that we teleport, it's how we teleport. I definitely think we need some sort of teleportation system in place, otherwise it would neither be convenient to completely abolish it nor would it be a fantasy world.
I just don't see the anima system making sense at all. The idea of being able to teleport through a click of button in the main menu is mind boggling to me, it doesn't make any sense, it's so uncreative nor unique, this is absolutely not befitting of a high caliber RPG company like SE. At the very least, create some creative Tele stations/points in the game to be able to tele from, atleast then you go through some sort of device or the crystals or maybe have some NPC mages offer to cast some tele magic on you..? and please Make it involved in the story somehow so it makes more sense and adds to the experience, maybe put in a quest to be able to use tele system for accomplishment? and severely limit it!

[MattyWS]

Oh trust me if it were up to me I'd have taken out the whole anima system, but then so many people would complain because they've been spoilt with it.

[Gennosuke]

Oh trust me if it were up to me I'd have taken out the whole anima system, but then so many people would complain because they've been spoilt with it.

Likewise yeah sad truth, although i think people will be more accepting to the idea now with the new transportation systems coming in-game, previously it would definitely not have been feasible seeing as no other system existed.

I hope they will address this issue with upcoming patches.

[Holland]

Guildleves are solo oriented, so anima must stay in the game for casual players and people that want to play FFXIV casually during the week when they also have work and studies to attend to.

If this is done correctly (And I believe it will) Players that have more time and/or hardcore players will be forced to take airship and chocobos to save time. Why? because the aetherytes are only to activate leves and are centered in aetheryte camps made only for leve content/behest...

All the other content that will be introduced (namely content revolving around parties), unless the Dev Team creates a new aetheryte point there, the only way to reach it will be traveling/warping to the city closest to it and then taking a chocobo in case the aetheryte camps are too far from it.

When the Bazaars and hamlets present in the zones are given content (Read the latest interview by Gamerescape.com team with Naoki Yoshida for more details) the fastest way to get there will be renting a chocobo too. So please, dont hurt the casuals and people that dont have time to play during the week but still want to for your own gain and interest.

Also, the thought we will still be gathering around Aetheryte camps after a few more patches centered around party play, please get it out of you head. It looks like it will not be the case anymore, unless you want to play solo/casually

[Deceptistar]

Blame the quality and tediosity of the questing the game has. By your standards WoW must be a hardcore game too requiring lots of time and hard work, and FFXIV is your escape from that.

Even with that silly notion, even you have to see how this doesn't exactly just create options for people. If the anima system is there it WILL be used by everyone. No one's going to go "Oh I have lots of time today I'll take a chocobo instead of taking this free warp I always have available at any location."

cant say about the OP but Shyd made a good point.
Most of us arent comparing it with WoW, that game isnt even in the picture. Most are comparing it to the old FFXI in its golden days. Yeah everything was a challenge, but even then, teleports and travel were limited to what you had in YOUR control (mp/coins/crystal acquisition)