Nice and Comfy, Safe and Tidy Overworld

[Teuciont]

Yoshi-P has been on record multiple times that the overworld areas in Heavensward will not be safe everywhere you go. That certain places will have "definitely high level monsters that may take multiple people to defeat."

He said that the danger won't be on par with FFXI but that they do want to introduce some of that danger now that players are familiar with the game and they have an established userbase.

The problem here is his current track record of "dangerous" in the open world has been hunts, which I would imagine very very rarely ever impede anyone from doing anything as within a few minutes of spawning they're swarmed by an army of over-geared adventurers, and treasure maps, which are controlled.

[ColorOfSakura]

But he's openly said that they didn't want ARR's world to do that because they hoped that there would be a lot of new players and new to MMO players that would be joining the game and constant danger is likely to turn a lot of those players off. That said, venturing into the wrong areas is more than enough of a death sentence to a low level player.

Like wandering through South Shroud near Hyrstmill and going into the area populated by Level 47+ Dullahans. (from an area that's populated with Level 8 monsters.) I totally did that when leveling up my first character on ARR before pulling my 1.0 character over.

I mean, in the end, this is a business and they're in it to make money. Player satisfaction is key to that, but first you have to try and build your playerbase.

But with Heavensward, they KNOW they have an established playerbase, they'll have people who are readily familiar with the game and its mechanics and they'll be able to freely explore zones and if they come across something dangerous, oh crap!

[Teuciont]

Perhaps you never ventured into Northern Thanalan when you were level 20 then...there is plenty of danger in the overworld unless you're a fully fledged warriro of light of course, but then again, is that a surprise?

I would never have a reason to go into Northern Thanalan at level 20. By the time I have any reason to go to Northern Thanalan, nothing even remotely poses a challenge whatsoever. Even if I were to wander through Northern Thanalan at level 20, there is nothing there that I could not very easily outrun. Nothing will snare, sleep, or stun me. Perfectly safe.

But he's openly said that they didn't want ARR's world to do that because they hoped that there would be a lot of new players and new to MMO players that would be joining the game and constant danger is likely to turn a lot of those players off. That said, venturing into the wrong areas is more than enough of a death sentence to a low level player.

Like wandering through South Shroud near Hyrstmill and going into the area populated by Level 47+ Dullahans. (from an area that's populated with Level 8 monsters.) I totally did that when leveling up my first character on ARR before pulling my 1.0 character over.

I mean, in the end, this is a business and they're in it to make money. Player satisfaction is key to that, but first you have to try and build your playerbase.

But with Heavensward, they KNOW they have an established playerbase, they'll have people who are readily familiar with the game and its mechanics and they'll be able to freely explore zones and if they come across something dangerous, oh crap!

We'll see, but I've been poorly convinced thus far. Regardless of the game having an established playerbase with 2.0, he's still clearly pandering to the majority of the playerbase who are put off by a challenge.

[ColorOfSakura]

We'll see, but I've been poorly convinced thus far. Regardless of the game having an established playerbase with 1.0, he's still clearly pandering to the majority of the playerbase who are put off by a challenge.

The playerbase of 1.0 is far eclipsed by the playerbase of ARR though. 1.0's playerbase would likely not have been enough to sustain ARR and its development schedule for too long (and I say this as someone who was devoted to 1.0 for most of its lifecycle once Yoshi-P took it over.) They're not going to take a chance on rebuilding a game to cater to a very small population of players while alienating the much larger MMO market. That'd be a terrible business decision for them.

Sometimes its best to play it safe first, get the cashflow, then take risks. Taking risks didn't work with 1.0, so they didn't want to make that mistake again. ARR went the "safe" route because they needed a way to fix their mistakes and regain confidence from the overall gaming community. They managed it. Heavensward is where they can start taking risks.

[Teuciont]

The playerbase of 1.0 is far eclipsed by the playerbase of ARR though.

I know, it was a mistype.

[Kosmos992k]

I would never have a reason to go into Northern Thanalan at level 20. By the time I have any reason to go to Northern Thanalan, nothing even remotely poses a challenge whatsoever. Even if I were to wander through Northern Thanalan at level 20, there is nothing there that I could not very easily outrun. Nothing will snare, sleep, or stun me. Perfectly safe.

Well, then you missed out on the fun of running for your life. In the very early days and during the beta test phases, a group of friends and I were split by starting city, and we were trying -in the absence of an airship pass, and the lack of knowledge of any route between the cities - to join up. So we were exploring all the areas that looked like they should get north from Ul'Dah to Gridania. It didn't take long to figure out that Northern Thanalan was not a safe place....Of course we also figured out the ground route through the south shroud and Eastern Thanalan, but even that was a risk for a character on foot, without a chocobo to ride.

I have to admit I hope that the new areas offer that challenge to our lvl 50 selves, and further I hope that at lvl 60, we are not implicit overlords able to go anywhere with impunity.

[ZephyrAM]

The problem here is his current track record of "dangerous" in the open world has been hunts, which I would imagine very very rarely ever impede anyone from doing anything as within a few minutes of spawning they're swarmed by an army of over-geared adventurers, and treasure maps, which are controlled.

Hunts were specifically modified to not affect players that weren't actually going after them (meaning they drastically reduced Hunt targets aggro range), and they're only swarmed to nothingness because of the unbalanced reward scale. They 'are' very dangerous to single adventures if attacked.

I don't see Yoshi-P making the overworld dangerous in the general sense. I see him making areas dangerous to people who choose to go into them. Keyword being 'choose'. If you want to go around or fly over, fine, but if you want to get into somewhere intentionally, you'd best be prepared.

[Shadex]

I certainly hope they ramp up something because currently this game has less danger than Hello Kitty Online while using a god cheat. I realize he wants the new players to be all safe and comfy warm and snuggly as they are saving the world from demons and madmen.... but at some point those new players become more experienced players and they then become ridiculously bored players with the training wheels on rails kiddy bumper cars ride they have worked so hard to develop and leave the game for something more challenging. So if they want to keep the first 25 or so level areas childproof I say yes, excellent idea but buy the time you reach Warrior of Light save the world 50 and are fighting primals the zones should be rife with creatures fully capable of eating your face if you are not careful. Let's ramp things up a bit shall we?