Will we see changes to the environmental game world?

[fallacies]

In Thanalan, there are caves with mining spots in them. There are anywhere between 8 to 12 of them, and they all have the exact same layout. The moles inside them have the same spawn points.

[Rhianu]

In practice, it boils down to same exact problem.

No, actually it doesn't.

Not that Bethesda didn't duplicate entire chunks of environment over and over again- it was most apparent in the dungeons.

The only dungeons I ever saw in Oblivion where it looked like things were duplicated or reused were castles, buildings, or ancient ruins. You know, stuff that's supposed to look like it's man-made?

Just watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9nLBfH44c

That kind of thing DOES NOT EXIST in Oblivion, or in Fallout 3, nor in any other game I can think of. Yes, it's common for pretty much all games to reuse assets, but reusing assets is not the same thing as creating perfect replicas of entire chunks of land. Not even close.

The game world's massive scope takes the focus away from that, though.

Honestly, Eorzea doesn't feel any larger to me than Cyrodiil did. In fact, Cyrodiil felt much larger.

[Betelgeuzah]

No, actually it doesn't.

Amazingly well constructed argument you have there... "no u".

The only dungeons I ever saw in Oblivion where it looked like things were duplicated or reused were castles, buildings, or ancient ruins. You know, stuff that supposed to look like it's man-made?

Well dayum, looks like they did a fine job at hiding it for you then. See one oblivion area = you've seen them all. See one part of the generic forest = you've seen them all. It was, if not #1, the #2 complaint in that game, and it boils down to same outcome- oblivion had less assets that were used more efficiently, players bitched. XIV has more assets that are used less efficiently, players bitched. This is not a game SE should 'learn' from.

Honestly, Eorzea doesn't feel any larger to me than Cyrodiil did. In fact, Cyrodiil felt much larger.

Yes, one huge La Noscea with copy pasted trees and reused dungeons. The fact is that it was a huge complaint and that Bethesda didn't do any better job with their game world variety-wise than SE did. They simply failed at something else instead.

[Nephera]

That video is pretty damning~

[kurokawa]

They need to break the zones up even if it means more load screens. No one cares about mini load screens if we have 10-15 different zones instead of 5.

We need to feel a sense of 'adventure'. Travelling the same terrain for 20-30 mins is boring. Using a mini map to traverse this same terrain makes it even more boring. They should know this from the feedback from FF13. The mini map kills adventure - you just end up staring at a dot chasing other dots. If I want that I'll get in my time machine and play my commodore 64.

Maybe when this impending danger turns up they'll use it as an excuse to bash the world up similar to Cataclysm (but better).

[Gath]

No i'm right. Hallway maze with trees =/= glorious Sanctuary of Zi'tah.

The Sanctuary of Zitah was full of mazes, winding turns and dead ends. It had its mainstream middle to get to sky if you were a poor shmuck who didn't know what the meaning of sky tele was.

So it does = TSoZ

[Rhianu]

Yes, one huge La Noscea with copy pasted trees and reused dungeons. The fact is that it was a huge complaint and that Bethesda didn't do any better job with their game world variety-wise than SE did. They simply failed at something else instead.

Since when did people ever complain about the level of details in Bethesda's games? I've never heard anything but praise for their worlds. Trying to insist that SE did just as good a job with the environments in FFXIV as Bethesda regularly does in their games is absurd.

[Nephera]

Since when did people ever complain about the level of details in Bethesda's games? I've never heard anything but praise for their worlds. Trying to insist that SE did just as good a job with the environments in FFXIV as Bethesda regularly does in their games is absurd.

Morrowind was a much better example of a well crafted world and a lot of people were annoyed by the transition to the more homogeneous Cyrodil (which if you look at the concept art was supposed to be more of a cross between rome and some dense tropical jungles)

[Silvyaniss]

I agree wholeheartedly I have been complaining about this on every forum.

Archers and Carpenters need to be in Gridania constantly for Guild Needs and it's hard when you go overthere and decide, hmm
I think I will do some leves and behests here but when you go to the camps your like the only one there, it's very annoying
Gridania has become a boring unihnabited land by it's citizens and SE needs to step up and do something about it.
Basically it's a waste of space. Uldah is jam packed in Gyshal and if that was SE's goal then they succeeded but I don't
think they intended to have every one congregate in one area.

So in that regard they failed....let's start talking about how SE can make Gridania more appealing to the masses, and let's see what makes Uldah so attracting...

#1 Camps are easily accessible once you exit Ulday you go north then you to either North East or North West...// Now Gridania you go North and you hit a barrier, you go West and you hit a barrier, hence the player wants nothing to do with it.

#2 Uldah has some variety in terms of Mines and other area...//Gridania has a huge MAZE that's about it.

#3 You cannot travel from Gridania by boat or Ship hence making you use your anima which players do not want to do.

Put some Airships in Gridania
FIX the landscape so it's not so constrictive
Fix the main city so everything is not so spread out


In my honest opinion SE should just Open up Gridania and not have so many dam barriers instead of these stupid tunnels and pathways just make hills that we can use to traverse from one area to another, use some of the large trees as bridges. They should just not let us enter Gridania for like a month of so and fix it, people everywhere on every forum are noticing how messed up Gridania is, in the end it will just become an uninhabited place if SE doesn't fix it.

[Keith_Dragoon]

I see western developers making games with intense graphics AND environments with variety all the time. If SE can't manage to do so as well, then perhaps there is something wrong with their development process or technology.

Have you played dragon age 2? every dungeon in that game is one of 3 unique types and the ONLY difference is they open one door and lock another and every other mission you go into the same cave headed down the same stairs killing the same mobs only to get 1 or 2 different doors. Its done in all games just more noticeable in high quality MMOs cause once one person mentions it people start seeing it too.

Example: In wow I was rocking my tier 5 shoulders feeling cool until a few months passed. My friend says "Do know your shoulders are sprouting flowers you flaming fruit cake!" I looked closely at my shoulders only to see the most pink and lush flowers popping up all over my character. Then everyone I vent who heard it started to see it too and then I could never NOT see them anymore. Even to this day those shoulders haunt me. :<