QoL: Aetherites in needed locations.

[ElHeggunte]

What is the point of having less aetherites? I truly don't understand the reasoning behind it, all it does is warp players to one designation.

I dunno, something about "immersion" and thinking it's fun to spend more time traveling to an event than doing the actual event. You know, the same kinds of flimsy arguments that people against flying and teleports always use, always forgetting that there's nothing stopping them from going on foot the long way should they so choose and the rest of us can still enjoy a little convenience.

Anyway, back on topic:

North Shroud (Plaza)
- Hyrstmill (Gregot the Smith)

Coerthas Central Highlands
- Whitebrim Front (Plaza)

These are the only two that really need an Aetheryte (and even the former is borderline). All the other locations are close enough to a shard or crystal that it isn't really necessary.

[Paladinleeds]

I dunno, something about "immersion" and thinking it's fun to spend more time traveling to an event than doing the actual event. You know, the same kinds of flimsy arguments that people against flying and teleports always use, always forgetting that there's nothing stopping them from going on foot the long way should they so choose and the rest of us can still enjoy a little convenience.

Point 1: I agree, it's more fun to be doing the actual event. My argument wasn't about that, my argument was about how it makes the world feel tiny if you can just teleport everywhere. I'm also not against flying because at least in my eyes, this doesn't make the world feel smaller. Since you fly a bit faster than you do using a mount on the ground. But you don't just set off from point A and immediately arrive at point B halfway across the world using just a simple ~3 second cast.
Point 2: I usually do take the long way around anyway.

[Zojha]

We teleport to whatever town we need to go to, handle our business, then teleport to the next down and take care of stuff there.

And with flying, we just skip over the entire world, swoop down at the point where we need to handle our business, then take off and skip over the world again. That's no different from just teleporting straight to where we need to handle our business and teleporting away.

And that wouldn't be so bad, if the world wasn't made to accommodate this. The huge areas of HW are a royal pain to traverse on foot because they're designed to just be skipped over.

[Paladinleeds]

And with flying, we just skip over the entire world, swoop down at the point where we need to handle our business, then take off and skip over the world again. That's no different from just teleporting straight to where we need to handle our business and teleporting away.

And that wouldn't be so bad, if the world wasn't made to accommodate this. The huge areas of HW are a royal pain to traverse on foot because they're designed to just be skipped over.

However, the difference I feel between flying and teleporting, is that with flying/flying chocobo porter, you still have to fly to the area, so the sense of the scale of the world isn't lost so much. I'd advocate for a lower ceiling so you can still see everything as you're flying about (even if you are able to skip it) doing your business, but I wouldn't advocate against removing flying. Like I said, in my eyes it at least mostly keeps the sense of the scale of the world, whereas teleporting in my eyes completely loses it. In my eyes there should only be aetherytes in the major cities. (as well as a couple of the smaller ones)

- Ul'dah
- Limsa
- Gridania
- Mor Dhona (needed for plot reasons)
- Ishgard
- Idyllshire (again I'd argue plot here, Rowena must have her aetheryte. If you look at the Mor Dhona area where Rowena lives, there's an aethernet shard behind her that you can't attune to)

Each of the areas (except for maybe Mor Dhona given its size) should keep its aethernet shard network for us. In the major cities I'd say the aethernet shard network works for lore reasons.

[Knahli]

I agree that teleporting everywhere doesn't sound perfectly ideal to me even if sometimes I wish for the convenience myself. I feel that it would encourage a global mindset that convenience > all and then our daily tasks in the game would suddenly became a lot more stiff and robotic than they may already be. Sometimes I don't know that I want to visit a certain map but still find myself enjoying the scenery along the way when I have no other choice. So I think it serves as a reminder to occasionally sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Jetstream_Fox]

I dunno, something about "immersion" and thinking it's fun to spend more time traveling to an event than doing the actual event. You know, the same kinds of flimsy arguments that people against flying and teleports always use, always forgetting that there's nothing stopping them from going on foot the long way should they so choose and the rest of us can still enjoy a little convenience.

Immersion is dead in this game, plain and simple, the open world isn't frightening, there isn't hidden treasures (maps aside) or locations to find, there is no adventuring to do outside of the first time you enter the area. This is all coming from a guy who's been wearing the Veteran Explorer title since it was patched in. Even still, people teleporting here and there doesn't impact your actual gameplay, the current issues with 3.0 areas is A they made them massive and B they are completely barren of anything actually interesting outside of Tiamat.

[Airget]

I dunno, I think it would be a neat reward for completing EX Primals fights to get aerethyte teleports to those locations. Reward for beating them, saves you traveling time.

[TaleraRistain]

I can agree on Hyrstmill and Whitebrim. Hyrstmill I can cut through the Ixali area so that makes it fairly painless but Whitebrim is a pain in the butt when trying to do crafting leves. As others have said, the existence of a convenience feature like teleporting doesn't stop anyone else from taking the long way if they choose.

[Xenosan]

.. I agree with the viewpoint that flying/chocoboing everywhere makes the world seem bigger.

Doesn't do the same for me. Flight in HW, to me, isn't flight. It's just movement along the Y axis, which is too akin to God-Mode controls, thus breaks immersion. Doesn't make the world bigger to me, makes it smaller. I can see clearly where the 3D assets end and the spherical matte painting (environment mapping) begins. In the ARR zones I think they did a great job, especially Bronze Lake in La Noscea, in making zones relatable despite loading screens and limited to surface travel.

Was disappointed there will be more flight in 4.0, although was expecting it. Since there's more to come, I think they should consider improving flight with a 'Sprint' function for mounts in flight that could have some semblance of the physics in flight simulation. It's more involved and challenging control would be the con of the faster-flight pro. Environments would be move engaging because we'd actually feel like we're interacting with them instead of just floating willy-nilly on a x,y,z however we please, with no restriction.

Maybe it's because I use 3D software, but for XIV flight to be as rudimentary as it is, it's too similar to moving the persp camera in a Maya viewport, I don't get a lot out of it ;/

edit

And this is without even mentioning draw distance and clipping issues. There maybe be 50 people flying around in a zone searching for a hunt, but I'll never see one because draw is choppy. I'm not a fan Aetheryet teleporting to everying and would appreciate more globe-trodding, but with the way flight is right now it's not a better alternative. I'd rather they just stick to convenient teleports.