What minor changes would you like Square Enix to consider?

[Ayer2015]

I would like them to phase all of existing Eorzea into the current timeline, showing the changes which took place over the past several years. That's a minor change, right?

[Shurrikhan]

I would like them to phase all of existing Eorzea into the current timeline, showing the changes which took place over the past several years. That's a minor change, right?

Pff. Time bubbles are cannon. What more do you want? >.>

I hereby add (1) lid to your can of enlightened worms.

Seriously, though, I have to wonder what would be the most efficient use of their time by which to add cohesion or immersion by revealing the time that's passed so far. RT and Idyllshire are pretty much all we've gotten in that regard, unless you account pre- and post-completion RR.

[Ayer2015]

Pff. Time bubbles are cannon. What more do you want? >.>

I hereby add (1) lid to your can of enlightened worms.

Seriously, though, I have to wonder what would be the most efficient use of their time by which to add cohesion or immersion by revealing the time that's passed so far. RT and Idyllshire are pretty much all we've gotten in that regard, unless you account pre- and post-completion RR.

WoW and ESO both use phasing to show visual changes to specific areas as the narrative progresses. That said, based on server limitations being a crutch for our devs.... I think the game would explode if they tried it.

[Shurrikhan]

WoW and ESO both use phasing to show visual changes to specific areas as the narrative progresses. That said, based on server limitations being a crutch for our devs.... I think the game would explode if they tried it.

Soft-phasing is near the top of my list for things I'd like to see utilized, but it's rarely been with an interest in long-term progression as simply asset generation.

For instance, think of the quests when you had to track down Bismarck / Thordan's airship via various sightings, but that ended up just being a lot of click-and-wait "destinations". I'd love to see Bismarck instead actually be moving across where you are, with formulas involved in order to base those sightings around player position (in case you go afk at some point) while still leading you to the mechanical goal.

Alternatively, though, I wouldn't mind seeing people and their purple puddles phased to just those in that section of quest progress, so that the purple puddles and (to everyone else) seemingly random spawns weren't necessary.

That said, outside these short-term things, I can't imagine a particularly noteworthy or smoothing use for phasing. If we could actaully see Baelsar's Wall, before and after, that'd be one thing, but it's very rare that any of those plot-changed areas or assets are actually visible at all in the open world or so forth until they've met that change.

Pretty much every opportunity to make significant use of phasing (soft or full) outside of removing the gimmicks or "destinations" and purple-zone spawns XIV has actively avoided, almost as if future-proofing against any need for phasing.