Planning to convert all dungeons into instanced raids.

[Jinko]

Missing the point, eh? What does "mindlessly grinding mobs" have to do with anything?

An opinion is an opinion ..

[Kiote]

Wow, a lot of you are commenting as if I said there should be No instances at all.. That's not what I said. I said there needs to be more than just instances in this game. They need to make sure they don't make ALL of the the dungeons into instances. There was a lot of push back the last time they said this. It's not just my opinion. We need to have places in this game where players can be out in the field and meet people at random. There is no need for every portion of this game to be a planned out event that you only do with friends and linkshell members..

[Kiote]

Except, you know, they'll be completely rebuilding the world at the same time as this happens.... so... exploration will be revived from that as well.

And your worries of it taking a long time to find people to do said instances are unfounded too, as they are implementing a cross-server dungeon finder and a more robust search mechanism.

Having a world with no open dungeons pretty much destroys any sense of exploration. Yes you can wander around the world, but that is not the same as dungeon crawling. The "Rebuilding the world" you refer to is about what you see while you are traveling, not where you spend time wading through danger searching for new and exciting treasures. If you don't have to get off your Chocobo it's not really the same thing.

As far as there "robust search mechanism" I assume your talking about there "cross-world" event finder which is going to be pairing you up with a bunch of people you will not be able to play with outside of these instances. How are we supposed to build a community on mechanics designed to find single serving experiences?

We need places in this game where you can meet people in the field that you can continue to play with in the future. We need both Instances and Open world Dungeons.

[Travesty]

There's an item on the timeline that says "Non-instanced dungeons"

Wonder why that's there if they're planning to convert everything?

[Jigg]

I'm personally for instances for dungeons because the one thing I hated in FFXI was competing with other shells for sky items. Lots of annoying sabotage to deal with...instances = less (outside) drama.

[Kiote]

There's an item on the timeline that says "Non-instanced dungeons"

Wonder why that's there if they're planning to convert everything?

Actually, it says "Non-instanced areas" then immediately to the right of that it says.

"Planning to convert all dungeons into instanced raids."

[Demacia]

I'm personally for instances for dungeons because the one thing I hated in FFXI was competing with other shells for sky items. Lots of annoying sabotage to deal with...instances = less (outside) drama.

Did you also hate fighting your way through Castle Zvahl or Promyvion with a party trying to reach the BCNM area, while also being able to complete quests, farm monsters, and hunt NMs inside said dungeons? FFXI would've been lame if those open dungeons had been like Nyzul Isle (instanced raid), but what made it good is that it had both options.

[Kiote]

Did you also hate fighting your way through Castle Zvahl or Promyvion with a party trying to reach the BCNM area, while also being able to complete quests, farm monsters, and hunt NMs inside said dungeons? FFXI would've been lame if those open dungeons had been like Nyzul Isle (instanced raid), but what made it good is that it had both options.

I couldn't agree more. There are ways around the kind of LS v LS competition that happened in XI and making everything a Private Instance is not the solution.

[Kiote]

I think perhaps the worst part about this is that they could simply add Instanced areas to open world dungeons, like BCNM, that would allow players to have private encounters without removing the possibility of meeting and teaming up with other people exploring the same area.

I thought they were supposed to be fostering a community, not gutting it.

Look at games like LOTRO. All of the content is instanced. How did that turn out? No one talks to each other, no one meets new people, barely anyone partys and the only way to ever get out of the void of loneliness is to get blind invited into a "Kinship".

Do we really want a game that has no social interaction because all anyone every does is log in and hit the auto instance button?

[Travesty]

Actually, it says "Non-instanced areas" then immediately to the right of that it says.

"Planning to convert all dungeons into instanced raids."

You're not looking at what I'm looking at. It's on the actual timeline, in the last document.