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

[Jynx]

I'd be down for this kind of area.

[Theodric]

just a reminder for all the people against teleportation, teleportation only work in Eorzea.... means when we will leave for the other continent.... no more teleportation.

They'll come up with some justification as to why we can teleport outside of Eorzea, I'm certain. A lot of their design decisions are, unfortunately, based around convenience.

[Azurymber]

I'm really amazed at some of the criticism.

1. I'm not asking for the entire game to turn into this. Just one zone (or series of zones). FFXIV 1.0 had this "exploration factor" in it. And FFXI had this "exploration factor." Adding a single area is not going to kill the game.

2. It's supposed to turn into a ghost town. It's supposed to be a side zone people experience once or twice and then go to for fun, to get away from the repetitive and cyclic grind of the game. However, unlike dungeons, diadem, etc, etc, you don't need to queue up to experience it. So people can do it at any time. And mobs aren't supposed to be unkillable solo. Just challenging.

3. It's meant to make the game feel like a game. Why is there so much opposition to having a legitimate open world in modern games? This is an RPG, not halo. Everything doesn't have to be an instance.

4. It's supposed to be an experience. I don't understand why people have such a hard time grasping this with modern gaming. It's meant to leave a memorable imprint on people, like getting wiped by the kraken on the selbina mhaura ship in ffxi, reaching sky for the first time, reaching tavnazia for the first time, etc.

Essentially: This game is a chain link of instances. 2.0 is just a bunch of small zones that can be traversed in minutes. 3.0's story is amazing, and provides the exploration feeling, but then becomes small once you unlock flying. This idea is suggesting an OPTIONAL side area that always feels big, always feels epic, and creates that exploration feel in a permanent way. Just so people can experience that old feeling from classic MMOs like everquest, ffxi, and even ffxiv 1.0 (which for all it's flaws, had an intricate open world)

Even if you don't go to the zone, knowing it is there enhances the world. You know that part of FFXIV is this dangerous mysterious area that requires a time investment to get to. It makes the world feel bigger than it is. And that feeling alone would enhance the game.

[Iromi]

This game is in dire need of open world group content and something like this. I support it. This is the only game I've played with almost 0 open world battle content. I don't really count beastman dailies...those are zzz. and faceroll mobs everywhere is extremely boring.

[mirta000]

I'm really amazed at some of the criticism.

1. I'm not asking for the entire game to turn into this. Just one zone (or series of zones). FFXIV 1.0 had this "exploration factor" in it. And FFXI had this "exploration factor." Adding a single area is not going to kill the game.

2. It's supposed to turn into a ghost town. It's supposed to be a side zone people experience once or twice and then go to for fun, to get away from the repetitive and cyclic grind of the game. However, unlike dungeons, diadem, etc, etc, you don't need to queue up to experience it. So people can do it at any time. And mobs aren't supposed to be unkillable solo. Just challenging.

3. It's meant to make the game feel like a game. Why is there so much opposition to having a legitimate open world in modern games? This is an RPG, not halo. Everything doesn't have to be an instance.

4. It's supposed to be an experience. I don't understand why people have such a hard time grasping this with modern gaming. It's meant to leave a memorable imprint on people, like getting wiped by the kraken on the selbina mhaura ship in ffxi, reaching sky for the first time, reaching tavnazia for the first time, etc.

Essentially: This game is a chain link of instances. 2.0 is just a bunch of small zones that can be traversed in minutes. 3.0's story is amazing, and provides the exploration feeling, but then becomes small once you unlock flying. This idea is suggesting an OPTIONAL side area that always feels big, always feels epic, and creates that exploration feel in a permanent way. Just so people can experience that old feeling from classic MMOs like everquest, ffxi, and even ffxiv 1.0 (which for all it's flaws, had an intricate open world)

Even if you don't go to the zone, knowing it is there enhances the world. You know that part of FFXIV is this dangerous mysterious area that requires a time investment to get to. It makes the world feel bigger than it is. And that feeling alone would enhance the game.

1. Ghost town zones are bad for the game. Hence nobody designs it. It's not worth the resources if its not going to be used.
2. A side thing has to have rewards and traction towards it. If rewards are too great it's no longer a side thing. If rewards are too minor too little % would do the zone to even justify its existence.
3. Legitimate open world MMOs still make you fast travel trough it. Look at ESO introducing more fast travel methods. Look at WoW and the outrage it gets when you suddenly can't fly. Hence even open world RPGs like Skyrim you can fast travel from town to town and then to any landmark that you unlocked, and there's landmarks everywhere. FFXI was super inconvenient travel wise. Nobody in the 2010s onwards would play a game that makes you put up with it.

[Azurymber]

1. Ghost town zones are bad for the game. Hence nobody designs it. It's not worth the resources if its not going to be used.
2. A side thing has to have rewards and traction towards it. If rewards are too great it's no longer a side thing. If rewards are too minor too little % would do the zone to even justify its existence.
3. Legitimate open world MMOs still make you fast travel trough it. Look at ESO introducing more fast travel methods. Look at WoW and the outrage it gets when you suddenly can't fly. Hence even open world RPGs like Skyrim you can fast travel from town to town and then to any landmark that you unlocked, and there's landmarks everywhere. FFXI was super inconvenient travel wise. Nobody in the 2010s onwards would play a game that makes you put up with it.

Again: not asking for a game that "makes you put up with it"
Asking for one area thats COMPLETELY OPTIONAL

Again: this is about making the game fun. Why are rewards necessary for that? Why can't the reward just be the exploration and the story?

Again: A large area that doesn't have 100 ppl spamming content isn't bad. What you call a ghost town I call every zone in ffxi. FFXIV is supposed to be this massive open world. When every zone has hordes of ppl in it, or when you can cross the entire zone in 1minute on a mount, that feeling disappears.

Lots of people who play this game loved the old "openworld" concept. Why is some extra optional content so bad? Especially since it will clearly be more popular than stuff like diadem (which has so many barriers) or pvp/vermillion where you can't really play due to no one else playing.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Again: not asking for a game that "makes you put up with it"
Asking for one area thats COMPLETELY OPTIONAL

Again: this is about making the game fun. Why are rewards necessary for that? Why can't the reward just be the exploration and the story?

Again: A large area that doesn't have 100 ppl spamming content isn't bad. What you call a ghost town I call every zone in ffxi. FFXIV is supposed to be this massive open world. When every zone has hordes of ppl in it, or when you can cross the entire zone in 1minute on a mount, that feeling disappears.

Lots of people who play this game loved the old "openworld" concept. Why is some extra optional content so bad? Especially since it will clearly be more popular than stuff like diadem (which has so many barriers) or pvp/vermillion where you can't really play due to no one else playing.

Its a matter of why would the devs design an area no one uses? And zones are empty in XI cuz barely anyone plays it lol

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

Its a matter of why would the devs design an area no one uses?

I would use it, and the OP, and thats 2, completely ruining your terrible argument.

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An old-school "memorial" area, that uses old MMORPG conventions for those of us who miss some stuff like real exploration, being killed by aggresive enemies on the field, some unfairly positioned boss that requires you to call in for help, some nice good time travel on airships, regular ships, etc, with chances of events happening like mass invasions, rare monsters, etc. The adventure/danger feeling would be just amazing. And i think, there is no shortage of public for such an area in this game.

[Bracken]

I would love this, Nashmau in XI was the most like this, a pain in the back side to get to, not much there, yet everyone had to venture there sometime, it was meant to be like an outpost and it was fun, hoping sneak inis didn't drop around Flea's which where tiny unnamed until they attacked, I loved that.

Think there was 2 routes to Nashmau, the hard route and the ship. if you missed the boat and needed to get there in a hurry, guess which route you had to take lol.

However, like the Shantoto quest line in XIV and other events likewise, why couldn't there be a style (totally optional) where we are sucked into an XI zone or something similar, maybe by teleportation being modified by shantoto where a telecrystal shard from the likes of DEM HOLLA MEA shattered tele crystals at the crag is infused with an Aetheryte crystal which no longer works (thinking the one in the foundation zone thats laying on its side), we use it and wham we're not in Kansas anymore.

The game can do a series of quests that doesn't need to follow lore XIV, smn's can now have propper summons that they obtain from this Alternate world etc.

I'm using XI as an example here, due to the fact its events have cropped up many a time last one being The Maiden's Rhapsody meaning there must be a rip in the space time universe and on Haedlyn for this to keep happening, so it is keeping within XIV Lore but also setting a new path

[Kaurie]

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.

Aka idea is great but devs aren't great at implementing unique ideas