One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Exni]

I totally disagree w/ OP. I loved XI, played it for 5 yrs and did all endgame that came with it until I left for the XIV beta. There is ALOT I'd love to see from XI here in XIV, but the linear flow of level progression from XI is not one of them. Perhaps the OP only leveled one job in XI, or perhaps you just adore doing the same things and going the same places over and over and over again, but we all don't feel that way. Veteran players of XI had to repeat that same path of zones to level too many times to count. I was only semi-hardcore ( 5 75's, and all subjobs ), but imagine how many times we go from Saruta > Dunes > Qufim > Kaz > Crawlers > Altepa/Kuftal > Mt. Z > Nyzul. Over and over and over, same places, same camps, same thing. It only got better when they added those zones where you could grind with an alliance for hours, but even then you had to already be pretty high lvl.

At least XIV allows you to level up everywhere. Can go from 1-50 all in Black Shroud if you wanted. Next time you could go level in Thanalan, or mix it up. You at least have the option to level differently than you did the last time, without losing any efficiency. As the OP said, in the starting and low level zones for XI, you'd occasionally see higher level ppl blur by you on a choco.. and that's cause they are just passing thru otw to their actual destination. For XIV, both min and max lvl players need to utilize the same zones, which to me makes for a more dynamic environment to be apart of (since theres no PVP).

[Kailok]

Ok so I replied to a member complaining about the level designs basically I said they are bland.

Let's face it Square Enix you "failed" to create a Final Fantasy esque world that is alive and vibrant
with ROLE PlAYING qualities....other MMO's that I've played(I won't mention any because I just know
you guys will find faults with any games I put on here) have succeeded where you have failed.

Part of the emersion of Role Playing games is the environments. The environment is suppose to whisk you
away to a Fantasy land that is unique and never the same. In Final Fantasy you can run for ever and be
in the same looking area it is very BORING.

Even after a year and countless threads about this issue Square Enix has failed to address this serious issue.
It has kept me from logging on, yes just the bland environments has kept me from logging on. The gameplay
also keeps me from playing and PAYING for this game (when it comes to that).

It is years after games like Final Fantasy 7,8,9,10,11,12 you would think that Square Enix would get this right
after SO much experience of cranking out great RPG's, but somewhere along the way Square Enix has lost it's
way and some of it's magic.

Square you have become too comfortable with your Video Game business model and FFXIV has cost you many
fans. By now you should be talking about a new expansion that replaces some of the terrain and adds new "towns"
not cities because you already have some of those. We need Towns with NPC's that talk to you and interact with you
with taverns, stables, Inns, etc etc etc.....

Look Square....check out these AAA titles coming out....

Guild Wars 2 =will destroy you
SWTOR=will compete with you
Tera=will compete with you
Secret World=will compete with you

Just be glad that GUild Wars 2 is F2P because if it was
Monthly pay if would Completely Annihilate you.

How long do you plan to have this F2P version of FFXIV out Square?? I for one am sick and
tired of being your Beta tester. I will not pay a monthly fee for this game until you have added
unique land structure, more towns, more dungeons (are there any?), and engaging areas.

And that's just the battle environments, I don't even want to get into characters and gameplay
because that's also severely broken.

/rant off

Did you...even try to find the dev posts in here? I believe they're posted on the OP now as well.

They're obviously "addressing" the issue, it just takes time to completely rebuild an entire world, especially after they had to fix the mess that Tanaka left behind.

Mostly everyone knows about Guild Wars 2. Hell, I've been keeping tabs on that game for 3 years now, and I'll be one of the first to admit I'm incredibly excited to play it. However, I'm STILL going to keep playing FFXIV, because it's a DIFFERENT experience from your common-place fantasy-esque MMOs. Honestly, I like how FFXIV feels, and each new patch is a step in the right direction. Granted, it'll never be what it SHOULD have been (sales wise), simply because SE failed to take a lesson from FFXI, but it will have it's undying fans that will stick around even with other games.

I'm not trying to be an SE "White Knight" or anything, but I just don't see the point in making this rant when it's already been done a million times and they already said they're going to change it for the better. And after the goodness of 1.18 and the golden patch that 1.19 seems to be, I'll say I trust Yoshi-P to deliver the best XIV experience for me.

[Kailok]

I totally disagree w/ OP. I loved XI, played it for 5 yrs and did all endgame that came with it until I left for the XIV beta. There is ALOT I'd love to see from XI here in XIV, but the linear flow of level progression from XI is not one of them. Perhaps the OP only leveled one job in XI, or perhaps you just adore doing the same things and going the same places over and over and over again, but we all don't feel that way. Veteran players of XI had to repeat that same path of zones to level too many times to count. I was only semi-hardcore ( 5 75's, and all subjobs ), but imagine how many times we go from Saruta > Dunes > Qufim > Kaz > Crawlers > Altepa/Kuftal > Mt. Z > Nyzul. Over and over and over, same places, same camps, same thing. It only got better when they added those zones where you could grind with an alliance for hours, but even then you had to already be pretty high lvl.

At least XIV allows you to level up everywhere. Can go from 1-50 all in Black Shroud if you wanted. Next time you could go level in Thanalan, or mix it up. You at least have the option to level differently than you did the last time, without losing any efficiency. As the OP said, in the starting and low level zones for XI, you'd occasionally see higher level ppl blur by you on a choco.. and that's cause they are just passing thru otw to their actual destination. For XIV, both min and max lvl players need to utilize the same zones, which to me makes for a more dynamic environment to be apart of (since theres no PVP).

You complain that in XI you had a linear experience because you had to do the same zones over and over..yet with the limited variety of zones in this game, how is that any different? How is 1-50 in Black Shroud any more fun than going from Valkurm to Qufim to Kazham and onward? At least on your way to 75 the first time you're experiencing new places instead of being in the same landscape for 50 levels.

[Stockapotapoulos]

Just wanted clarification before I make an opinion. Does the OP want different zones like in XI, where you zone in and out of different areas? Or does the OP want a greater variety of areas, but still maintain one continuous "zone"-free world?

[Preypacer]

I totally disagree w/ OP. I loved XI, played it for 5 yrs and did all endgame that came with it until I left for the XIV beta. There is ALOT I'd love to see from XI here in XIV, but the linear flow of level progression from XI is not one of them. Perhaps the OP only leveled one job in XI, or perhaps you just adore doing the same things and going the same places over and over and over again, but we all don't feel that way. Veteran players of XI had to repeat that same path of zones to level too many times to count. I was only semi-hardcore ( 5 75's, and all subjobs ), but imagine how many times we go from Saruta > Dunes > Qufim > Kaz > Crawlers > Altepa/Kuftal > Mt. Z > Nyzul. Over and over and over, same places, same camps, same thing. It only got better when they added those zones where you could grind with an alliance for hours, but even then you had to already be pretty high lvl.

At least XIV allows you to level up everywhere. Can go from 1-50 all in Black Shroud if you wanted. Next time you could go level in Thanalan, or mix it up. You at least have the option to level differently than you did the last time, without losing any efficiency. As the OP said, in the starting and low level zones for XI, you'd occasionally see higher level ppl blur by you on a choco.. and that's cause they are just passing thru otw to their actual destination. For XIV, both min and max lvl players need to utilize the same zones, which to me makes for a more dynamic environment to be apart of (since theres no PVP).

So wait...

You complain of the repetition of going through the same zones for each job in FFXI.

Actually I need to make an aside about that bit in particular. You didn't *have* to level in the same zones on every single job. There were always multiple alternative spots to level in at any given level range... People chose to stick to the same areas due to convenience and familiarity with the locations, the mobs, etc. You/They were never forced to. You could have taken the initiative to find other areas to xp in at any given level range. There's even a site dedicated to different camping spots in XI (Campsitarus or something like that). So, if you're looking for someone to blame for your highly repetitious xp experience in XI, look to the community for "enforcing" those areas like dogma, and then look to yourself for going along with it.

That said, going back to the repetitious thing...

So, you complain about the "repetition of going through the same several areas over and over again and getting sick of them" in XI. Yet you are happy with XIV having a total of 5 zones in which you can level up, where each zone is the same exact landscape with very little variety, at all; where you can level up to cap - and beyond, once they raise it - without ever having to leave the zone you started in.

I hope you can see how incredibly counter-intuitive your logic is.

FFXIV right now gives you *less* variety and *fewer* options of places to level than XI... Not more.

They're revamping the areas because it is a problem. It has been acknowledged as a problem almost unanimously, by players and SE alike.

[Preypacer]

You complain that in XI you had a linear experience because you had to do the same zones over and over..yet with the limited variety of zones in this game, how is that any different? How is 1-50 in Black Shroud any more fun than going from Valkurm to Qufim to Kazham and onward? At least on your way to 75 the first time you're experiencing new places instead of being in the same landscape for 50 levels.

It's no different. In fact, given their complaints about FFXI, they should find FFXIV to be even *worse*, not better.

I don't think they thought their argument through very well before posting.

[Reinheart]

/facepalm

Read a few pages and it explains more what the OP wants and check the rep response hidden somewhere in the thread... wish they really have Rep post search feature within a thread...

wait OP did put rep responses links in the OP post forgot about that

[Kailok]

Just wanted clarification before I make an opinion. Does the OP want different zones like in XI, where you zone in and out of different areas? Or does the OP want a greater variety of areas, but still maintain one continuous "zone"-free world?

OP wants the feeling of progression to come back. He wants a greater variety of zones, but he also wants them to be less copy+paste, and have specific level ranges for specific areas. He wants zones for low level players to go around killing their marmots, and then see a big high level passing through and experience the wonder of "OH MAN, I WANT ALL OF THOSE THINGS." But when level 1's and level 45's are all in the same zone leveling together, the wonder is kind of killed.

Essentially wants:

1-10 Ronfaure, 10-20 Valkurm, 20-25 Qufim, 25-27 Yuhtunga, 28-30 Yhoatr Jungle, etc etc.

Instead of:

1-10 Rank 10 leves at Camp Whatever, then 10-20 doing 3 10 rank leves and 5 20 rank leves at Camp Whichever and Wherever, and then all the way up doing the same crap up to 50.

[Stockapotapoulos]

OP wants the feeling of progression to come back. He wants a greater variety of zones, but he also wants them to be less copy+paste, and have specific level ranges for specific areas. He wants zones for low level players to go around killing their marmots, and then see a big high level passing through and experience the wonder of "OH MAN, I WANT ALL OF THOSE THINGS." But when level 1's and level 45's are all in the same zone leveling together, the wonder is kind of killed.

Essentially wants:

1-10 Ronfaure, 10-20 Valkurm, 20-25 Qufim, 25-27 Yuhtunga, 28-30 Yhoatr Jungle, etc etc.

Instead of:

1-10 Rank 10 leves at Camp Whatever, then 10-20 doing 3 10 rank leves and 5 20 rank leves at Camp Whichever, and then all the way up doing the same crap up to 50.

I see. I actually thought he meant he wanted to zone in and out of different places. One of my gripes about XI was that it didn't feel like one world to me, but instead, a bunch of different little land pieces pieced together. Because of this, I found it difficult to be immersed into Vana'Diel.

That being said, I agree with OP. However, this would mean I probably would never have seen the R70 Goblin Mugger until months (or years) later, which would have made me sad, but in the long run, I, too, enjoy seeing progression as I move from zone to zone.

[Kailok]

I see. I actually thought he meant he wanted to zone in and out of different places. One of my gripes about XI was that it didn't feel like one world to me, but instead, a bunch of different little land pieces pieced together. Because of this, I found it difficult to be immersed into Vana'Diel.

That being said, I agree with OP. However, this would mean I probably would never have seen the R70 Goblin Mugger until months (or years) later, which would have made me sad, but in the long run, I, too, enjoy seeing progression as I move from zone to zone.

I think the only reason people want actually zone lines is because it would put less stress on the SE servers which would allow for more variety of zones in the end. When it's such a big, open world, it tends to put stress on the server which I think is why they initially went with such a copy+paste design.