how big did ff11 area grow before and after all the expansion?

[Catwho]

I for one do NOT miss the level 70 mobs hanging around the edges of the zones, or the very high level things blocking your path when you were trying to unlock aetherytes. Died so many times trying to unlock that camp in the southern part of Mor Dhona....

Danger is all good and well, but not when you're a lone explorer and there isn't any reasonable way to avert it.

[Bluevann]

You also have to consider FFXI had slower movement speed, hardest-to-get chocobos, less teleports (till last year. Now you can teleport basically everywhere in there, I'm still playing it), quest objectives at far distances from each other, and no quest indicators on the map, also no Sprint. All that added up to a bigger world feeling.

[Felis]

All this talk of "zones"....I miss having to zone mobs! You know, that pack that was about to eat your face either due to pulling too many or grabbing aggro by accident? The mobs in XIV give up way too easily

1.0 had something similar to it:
In Black Shroud, while I tried to gather all the Aetherites for the achievement, i left once the main road in South Shroud. The way seem to be clear, but the moment I walked over a unvisible zoneline suddenly lv 80 enemies got loaded before and behind me and one-shooted me ^^

[Niqote]

There are only 3 zones with 2 teleports in them. all of them intermediate area's for leveling. out of the 3 only one zone shouldn't have 2 (south shroud) and one that should have two but doesn't (coeraths central Highlands)

I know I said zone, But I meant country/city state territory. It's 2am, I derped.

[Conradus]

Ff14 world is kinda small now, but HW will.bring 5-7 ish new zones? Maybe 2 or 3 years from now well have enough zones so itll feel like actual world

Original FFXI was, unless I'm mistaken, Sarutabaruta (Windurst), Gustaberg (Bastok), Ronfaure (San d'Oria), Derfland (Bastok-Jeuno), Norvallen (San d'Oria-Jeuno), Aragoneu (Windurst-Jeuno), Zulkheim (Valkum Dunes/Selbina), Kolshushu (Buburimu Peninsula/Mhaura). I believe even non-expansion areas like Vauldeaunia (Xarcabard) came later.

[Bluevann]

Have a nostalgic laugh.

http://z4.invisionfree.com/HCII/ar/t2095.htm

[Teslo]

Original FFXI was, unless I'm mistaken, Sarutabaruta (Windurst), Gustaberg (Bastok), Ronfaure (San d'Oria), Derfland (Bastok-Jeuno), Norvallen (San d'Oria-Jeuno), Aragoneu (Windurst-Jeuno), Zulkheim (Valkum Dunes/Selbina), Kolshushu (Buburimu Peninsula/Mhaura). I believe even non-expansion areas like Vauldeaunia (Xarcabard) came later.

Beaucedine and Xarcabard/Castle Zvhal were non-expansion zones. The Shadow Lord was original non-expansion end boss, which is why it was level capped at 50. Much like XIV, the original level cap in XI was also 50. :P

I like big zones (and I cannot lie...) because it makes a world actually feel like a world. I think if the regions were non-instanced it would go a long way towards making the game feel bigger, even though it really wouldn't be. Also a few less aetherytes would help with that. I'm not saying it should go back to FFXI standards where it could literally take you 30 minutes to get from one place to another, but a trek from a city to a remote outpost should take longer than the 5 seconds it takes to warp there.

[Recaldy]

FFXIV needs an Attohwa Mountain climb.

[Lemuria]

You also have to consider FFXI had slower movement speed, hardest-to-get chocobos, less teleports (till last year. Now you can teleport basically everywhere in there, I'm still playing it), quest objectives at far distances from each other, and no quest indicators on the map, also no Sprint. All that added up to a bigger world feeling.

Yeah, but it also had danger. Overworld mobs are genuinely quite scary in FFXI, whilst ARR has zones inhabited by the weakest trash imaginable. Only Fate bosses pose the slightest threat, and those are heavily signposted. That one aspect alone made exploring the map more challenging and rewarding. ARR should take a leaf out of FFXI's book. There's a reason it was so popular for so long.

Oddly though, the devs missed a trick when designing the maps. We have characters who can jump and yet there's not a single time it's ever made good use of. Crucially, maps are designed with the grounded pedestrian in mind, when they could have been far more interesting and elaborate. Guild Wars 2 makes good use of the jump with its own jumping puzzles and other hidden easter eggs in the maps.

Something for them to consider for future maps I guess.

[Nalien]

Eorzea is actually quite large, it just seems smaller due to a number of things. Ease of travel being a big one, but your camera is another; for endgame content it's encouraged to zoom out so you can see mechanics easier, but that has the adverse effect of making the world seem smaller. Biggest killer is probably the lack of anything to do in the open world though. The world seems small because you Duty Finder virtually everything. It's bad enough that travel is as easy and speedy as it is, but you don't even need to travel to really play 90% of the games content.

By far the biggest problem with Eorzea is that it is a glorified waiting room. I don't think Hunts came anywhere close to resolving that issue, Beast Tribe Dailies did a better job in my opinion (such a shame you're limited to doing 6 a day and only Ixali if you have any sense) but they're far from challenging and provide no real sense of danger (just waiting for FATEs half the time...). I'd love for Heavensward to introduce some seriously challenging and rewarding Levequests rather than more FATEs. Odd that I'm not a fan of FATEs, given they're pretty similar to Campaign from XI. I suppose the key difference is Campaign had fewer battles but much grander ones, where as FATEs are tightly packed "Zerg this mob/mobs". If we could have more FATEs where half the battle is just getting to the boss (the Chimera in N.Than is probably the closest we get to this) and the other half is still dealing with adds, I'd be a lot happier with FATEs...

Overall I think I prefer XIVs zones to XIs though, I felt XI wasted a lot of potential with its zones, given vast swathes were just unused. XIVs zones feel lived in, XI had this disconnect between cities and zones which only really made sense in Tavnazia. Moment you set outside the walls it was wilderness, it felt very odd to me. The way settlements and camps are spread out around Eorzea feels far more natural to me. To me the issue isn't the zones or their size, but the content in them; That's where XIV is lacking as far as I'm concerned.