Why 4.0 should have a zone with danger, no ports, no mounts, and a hidden town

[Azurymber]

As great as FFXIV is, it fails to capture the "wonder" or "exploration factor" that FFXI had. There is an emotional feeling attached to getting through a dangerous labyrinthine cave/dungeon/tunnel only to arrive in a vast/beautiful zone, and eventually stumble upon a hidden outpost or village. FFXI pulled it off multiple times with Rabao, Tavnazian Safehold, and Norg.

FFXIV is not FFXI though. You can reach any area in the game in minutes (or less) via ports and mounts. There is no real danger in the world. And aside from the story (which was great), you never feel like you are on a legit adventure.

So why not create an optional zone in 4.0?
Make it lore-heavy, with optional daily side quests
an optional questline
and a number of beautiful sightseeing opportunities (places to RP)

For example:
15min ship ride to an island
Told that the ship has no room for mounts (justifies lack of mount use in the upcoming zones)
Chance of sea serpent / leviathan attack on the way
Can fish on the ride
Can play Triple Triad on the ride

Once you arrive at the island there's a small outpost with some hidden spots (like a small cave along the beach with a grotto) for RPers

Then you have an entire rainforest zone, with twisting hallway-esque pathways, tunnels, pathways up into the trees, etc. Lot's of super pretty hidden spots for RPers.
But the mobs are actually dangerous, block paths, and have slow/bind moves (so people can't just run through everything). You can solo them but it takes time.

Multiple caves that seemingly lead to nowhere, or have monsters in them, etc (kind of like the old 1.0 zones)

One cave that leads to a hidden beach and pathway through mountainous terrain

And then a village at one part of the pathway, with a lot of lore, lots of rp spots, and lots of hidden stuff

OR another example:
A mysterious train service is set up from an abandoned imperial outpost (using their rail system)
You take a 15 min train ride where ghosts spawn and attack
Chance for a special boss spawning
Can play triple triad with some ghosts
Lots of lore about the mystery of the train

You finally arrive in a wide open rocky valley between mountains, no trees so beautiful view of the sky. Small mountains and hills that can be climbed, or have caves. Huge mobs that take 5 or 6 people to defeat (not necessarily high damage, but tons of hp or defense).
Some beautiful weather effects.
Dangerous ghosts and demons that only appear at night

A beautiful temple carved into the side of a mountain wall, with a makeshift town inside it (e.g. Ala Mhigans who escaped the empire)
And night-time fates where the city is assaulted by demons/ghosts/skeletons

An intricate emotional adult story about death and war, with a death-like open world primal (because we were all looking forward to open world primals)

etc.

TLDR; 4.0 should have an old-school MMO-esque zone, that you can't port to, that you can't use mounts in, that has dangerous mobs, and that is -unique-. Something that violates the cookie-cutter design of the rest of ffxiv. It should feel like an adventure, be designed with RPers in mind, and be purely optional

[Canadane]

Sure, sounds like an adventure.

[FoxyAreku]

And watch it become a ghost town a month after the expansion is out.

I can't support this. If it lacks the convienence everyone is used to, then people simply won't get there unless they absolutely have to.

[FinalWolf]

As much as I would love a sense of danger this will probably never happen in this game.

[AskaRay]

Sounds fun; will they do it? Probs not but I'd go.

[Felis]

I hope the city in 4.0 is exposed on the top of a montain in Gyn Abania, not hidden

[SaitoHikari]

All of this honestly sounds like a Diadem overhaul, just in a different environment. Sounds nice on paper, but it has to be implemented very well. Diadem did sound amazing on paper too.

Or, to put it more bluntly, this is rather unrealistic, both in terms of dev time and community longevity.

[BubblyBoar]

All that work just so that the majority will completely abandon it after the first few weeks. It'll be left to rot and be populated by the few that want it, only for them to tire of it cause no one is there. Then the FFXIV team will put some part of the relic there to "make old content relevant again" and the forums will self implode with disgust.

Personally, I love lore and exploration and I don't need an incentive or rules to have an adventure. I'm not a fan of this idea because it'd just be a complete bother to try and enjoy it. This is coming from someone that loved the exploration of Xenoblade Chronicles X and sneaking past monsters over 50 levels higher than me and could one-shot me with a slight furrow of their brow.

Simply put, if you want to enjoy the game a certain way, then do it. There's no need to force everyone else to do it as well. Trying to force everyone else to things how only you do them is incredibly selfish.

[Azurymber]

All of this honestly sounds like a Diadem overhaul, just in a different environment. Sounds nice on paper, but it has to be implemented very well.

This wouldn't be an instance, it would be open world.

And FFXI pulled it off multiple times, so it shouldn't be difficult to do.

You just have a ship/train (ffxi had ships and airships) ride
Then a big open zone, or one big zone and one/two little zones
And instead of having faceroll mobs, you do something creative, like up their level and give them bind spells (or pullback like frogs have). Or create really high-def/hp mobs that take forever to kill, or have all mobs link 3 or 4 other things.

It would be no different than the current zones/game, other than being a higher difficulty and not having a crystal to port to, or mounts to rush through the zone on.

Basically it would be like the 3.0 zones pre-flying, just without flying ever getting implemented.

The benefits are:
1. an adventure to go on with friends
2. open world content you can do with a team (that is actually challenging)
3. makes shouting for raises interesting (because if you don't get one, it's a long journey back)
4. something unique to break the repetitive cookie cutter mold (especially since this game hasn't really produced uniqueness)
5. an ability to tell a great optional story, that feels more immersive (as opposed to run to x, then to y, then to z). Here your quest would feel dangerous. You may have to team up for parts. Etc.
6. Great for RPers since you can legitimately go on an RP adventure (they would even put in special RP quests).

It would be easy to do, and would at least create some sort of reprise from the endless 2-dungeons, 5-raids, primal, relic rotation

[Dyvid]

FFXI Snip

I just wanted to highlight this one spot. Sure FFXI had this but it also had an inventory full of Sneak Potions and Prism Powders along with hugging the wall to avoid aggro. Sense of danger is great until the novelty wears off. The reality is if people can skip it, they will.

I would suggest you evolve this concept into a new/next Diadem experience.