I wanna see the concept design for the new Eorzea!

[Jobeto-Rin]

A special SE friend showed this to me....

Redesign

He said keep it on hush hush... i just

[Starlord]

A special SE friend showed this to me....

Redesign

He said keep it on hush hush... i just

Wow, is this for real? this looks like a better map!

[Zanfire]

Wow, is this for real? this looks like a better map!

not thats just taking the original map and doing some adjustments. They are still doing concepts right now. The big issues is that its still too much of the normal map. The size shouldnt even be half as big. The other thing of course is not making it so you spend 1-50 in 1 zone, but progress through them and come back to pass through or do events/quest that use the area.

[Jobeto-Rin]

Wow, is this for real? this looks like a better map!

Nah it's not.

Got bored and did some photoshop work on the gridania map.

[Starlord]

Nah it's not.

Got bored and did some photoshop work on the gridania map.

Lolz Its all your fault! :P hehehehe

[miqokini]

A special SE friend showed this to me....

Redesign

He said keep it on hush hush... i just

God dammit!!!! NO!!!!

This had better not be from SE. If it is, I am going to be extremely upset.

GET RID OF THE GOD DAMN RIGHT ANGLES!!!

Does that look like a map of a natural forest to you? What forests have paths and tunnels that are all perfect right angles and only right angles?

Make them more winding and natural looking, for Christ's sake.

If that image is truly a concept for where the new map designs are headed, then SE does not get it at all... *facepalm*

[Kailok]

God dammit!!!! NO!!!!

This had better not be from SE. If it is, I am going to be extremely upset.

GET RID OF THE GOD DAMN RIGHT ANGLES!!!

Does that look like a map of a natural forest to you? What forests have paths and tunnels that are all perfect right angles and only right angles?

Make them more winding and natural looking, for Christ's sake.

If that image is truly a concept for where the new map designs are headed, then SE does not get it at all... *facepalm*

That's not from SE, just some image reworking of the map. If it was from SE, it would have been more..announced. Also, whoever that "friend" was would have been killed by SE's Samurai Squad or something. >_>

[Gramul]

God dammit!!!! NO!!!!

This had better not be from SE. If it is, I am going to be extremely upset.

GET RID OF THE GOD DAMN RIGHT ANGLES!!!

Does that look like a map of a natural forest to you? What forests have paths and tunnels that are all perfect right angles and only right angles?

Make them more winding and natural looking, for Christ's sake.

If that image is truly a concept for where the new map designs are headed, then SE does not get it at all... *facepalm*

I can't agree with you more. Luckly that's not official.
I really hope they take that overly organized systematic quick construction style of the shrowd and replace it with a more organic design, because what we where presented with, though pretty at parts is simply unaceptable from a modern level design perspective. This isn't a top down retro game and the art direction calls for a more natural and realistic feel.

[Tsukino]

God dammit!!!! NO!!!!

This had better not be from SE. If it is, I am going to be extremely upset.

GET RID OF THE GOD DAMN RIGHT ANGLES!!!

Does that look like a map of a natural forest to you? What forests have paths and tunnels that are all perfect right angles and only right angles?

Make them more winding and natural looking, for Christ's sake.

If that image is truly a concept for where the new map designs are headed, then SE does not get it at all... *facepalm*

It's pretty obviously something someone shopped.

On a different note, I'm convinced all you people whining about how the Black Shroud is SO MUCH WORSE than the other areas haven't even bothered to look at it beyond the map. The reason it looks like "right angles" is only because the map is so large and repetitive, and you're looking at only the areas you can walk in from far away. From nowhere on the ground does it ever look like you're on a straight path that's taking 90-degree turns. You can rarely see very far at all through the trees and the side-to-side winding all the paths do, as well as the upper and lower levels. It's supposed to feel like a forest that's so huge and ancient that you can only walk certain places, and the tunnels and 400-foot trees do a pretty good job of conveying that if you're not staring at the map.

Furthermore, the area has just as many interesting things to see as Thanalan or La Noscea. It also has multiple sub-environments - just like Thanalan has the canyon areas and the marshes near the coast, the Shroud has rivers and the treetop villages of the sylphs.

The problems it has are the same terrible ones both other regions have. It's too big and full of copy-and-pasted filler between the interesting landmarks, which are themselves small in number for the overall size. The plains and repeated caves and forks in La Noscea are just as bad as the ramp structures and the shaded cave-type areas (not sure what these are called, like where Little Ala Mhigo is) in Thanalan, which are just as bad as the stream crossings and identical clearings in the Black Shroud. They're all awful.

[Gramul]

It's pretty obviously something someone shopped.

On a different note, I'm convinced all you people whining about how the Black Shroud is SO MUCH WORSE than the other areas haven't even bothered to look at it beyond the map. The reason it looks like "right angles" is only because the map is so large and repetitive, and you're looking at only the areas you can walk in from far away. From nowhere on the ground does it ever look like you're on a straight path that's taking 90-degree turns. You can rarely see very far at all through the trees and the side-to-side winding all the paths do, as well as the upper and lower levels. It's supposed to feel like a forest that's so huge and ancient that you can only walk certain places, and the tunnels and 400-foot trees do a pretty good job of conveying that if you're not staring at the map.

Furthermore, the area has just as many interesting things to see as Thanalan or La Noscea. It also has multiple sub-environments - just like Thanalan has the canyon areas and the marshes near the coast, the Shroud has rivers and the treetop villages of the sylphs.

The problems it has are the same terrible ones both other regions have. It's too big and full of copy-and-pasted filler between the interesting landmarks, which are themselves small in number for the overall size. The plains and repeated caves and forks in La Noscea are just as bad as the ramp structures and the shaded cave-type areas (not sure what these are called, like where Little Ala Mhigo is) in Thanalan, which are just as bad as the stream crossings and identical clearings in the Black Shroud. They're all awful.

Really my only problem is that the tile-esque grid like design pulls me out of the whole experience. The actual flora and architecture found in The Black Shroud is great, but is so layout is so mechanical and repetitive it creates a pretty disjointed contrast.

Most of the problem I think stems from the fact that the Shroud uses thin halls instead of the more open spaces of the other areas and the repetition and inorganic layout become much more obvious.

It makes it very clear that the Crystal tools engine was made to create large areas relatively quickly by use of big chunks of environment. Repetition was a problem in 13 and it's a problem in 14, but in 14 it looks like they just went for would be the easiest tilesets. The strict grid structure simply doesn't fit with the feel of the game.
Hell, I feel even a hexagon layout would help to make it a little less synthetic feeling, but we'll see how they handle it.