Living in an Inhospitable World

[Maea]

1. Just a few days ago, the dev team said they are looking into it to bring monsters back which follow you around.

@op: they adding a fame type system don't know when.
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tl;dr ffxi fame quest line is boring/ monotonous/repetitive grinding

I didn't see where devs mentioned reconsidering monster AI; if so that would be interesting. I also hadn't heard that they were actually implementing fame, so that's cool. I know some people found it annoying in FFXI, especially in the case of Tenshodo fame, but in most cases I found that I accrued fame fairly naturally and ended up with max fame in the three starter cities and Jeuno without even trying. As long as they didn't make an important quest depend on fame in some obscure hamlet like they did in FFXI, I would think it shouldn't be a hindrance.

2. We are getting player housing, so no point complaining about that.

I know player housing is coming, and I'm sure Yoshi-P's idea for player-owned estates is going to be well worth the wait, but I just wanted to include it because I feel like it's a significant contributor to my feeling of being a stranger. As of yet, these NPCs I'm interacting with aren't my neighbors or countrymen in any way, which is something I miss.

3. Grand company always makes me feel at home, I see no problem with players having the option to choose.
Think about real life: the place most people call "home" is not where they were born. It's just where they decided to move to because they like it better there, because they have a better wage there, etc.

As you may have guessed from my "furball" comment, my character in FFXI was a Mithra from Windurst. Even when I quit the game for a while and then came back with a new character, I remained a Mithra from Windurst because I had developed such affinity for both. I loved fighting for my country in Ballista, Conquest, and even Campaign in the past, and in beta I really hoped I would fall in love with Gridania much in the same way. However, when I was treated like an outsider the second I started interacting with Gridanians, it made it difficult to think of the town as home. I decided to switch to Ul'dah in hopes that the big city would be more forgiving than the tight-knit forest town (and because the region's layout was driving me a little crazy), but nowadays I feel little connection to my character's "hometown" aside from thinking it's the best laid-out and most majestic-looking. I ended up joining Gridania's Grand Company instead. I agree that the freedom to choose between the three Grand Companies was a good decision (kind of like how you can pick your nation in Campaign), but I do wish there were a system like Conquest in place that would encourage a little loyalty to one's starter nation. Given how much the three nations bicker, it's almost surprising they're not fighting over land already...

I, for one, don't mind the general hostility of the NPCs. Eorzea isn't a friendly, kind world; it's natural that the natives that live there are somewhat harsh as well. Besides, we clearly aren't from whatever city we start in (the opening cutscene shows us arriving there from elsewhere maybe we're Garlean) and we're adventurers to boot. Adventurers are regarded as wanderers, and seemingly they don't consider what we do a real occupation (which, to be fair, is sort of true, we're always running off and doing god knows what, compared to the NPCs who dedicate their lives to whatever occupation they hold). And beyond that, we are oddballs, what with the Echo and the Path of the Twelve and such.

I absolutely agree that it makes sense for NPCs to be less friendly than they were in FFXI, given that Eorzea is basically under threat of invasion and spies could be anywhere. Plus, we are kind of homeless, Echo-seeing weirdos right now, so the differences between us and the common man might make people wary. Looking back at the lore, it seems like the Adventurer's Guild is basically an attempt at rehabbing wayward mercenaries, so in that way it sort of makes sense that NPCs would expect the worst from us. However, you'd think that since we adventurers were the ones fighting on behalf of our countries before official armies were organized, they'd at least give us the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I just don't like people assuming I'm dumb/weak/selfish before proven otherwise

4. I like the NPC dialouges. Especially the ones you are complaining about the most - the class quests.
At first I was just this strange weakling with MAYBE! some potential.
But from quest to quest their tone changed, and they said stuff like "only you can help him!" and so on.
So no, I wouldn't want it to change.
It makes the world so much more engaging to me, because I don't want to be treated as a hero for doing nothing but beating up some thieves or rats.

I also agree that we shouldn't be treated like heroes just for slaying a few rats, but I'd rather not start off as an antihero, I guess. As I start to get into higher levels (PGL 38 now, not sure why it hasn't updated) I am encountering more quest NPCs who have faith in me, seek me out, or otherwise think I'm worth talking to, so this makes me feel a little better about my standing in the world. I've also encountered a few sequential side-quests (i.e. after I complete one quest for the NPC he asks me for help again later), which gives me a stronger connection to the NPCs I'm interacting with. I'll always remember the Star Onion Brigade quest line from FFXI, so I'm glad to see the devs start incorporating more things somewhat like it.

One thing I thought was cool about XI were the homelands. They should have this for XIV, please PLEASE PLEASE. While not really a homeland automatically we could have encampments in certain regions where they talk about our homelands. For those who played XI think Kazham and mithras.
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I really like this idea; I remember the first time I went to Kazham I was just so excited to see where my race was from. I also liked the fact that different races tended to have homes in different starter cities (i.e. Tarus and Mithras in Windurst, etc.), and to some extent they've implemented this in FFXIV, but it's a lot less significant. This is probably because they wanted to make the races more equal this time and not tie them down to certain cities, though, which totally makes sense. I do feel that attempting to make everyone equal has sort of ended up making everyone the same, which ends up with things being a little more bland (though certainly less frustrating for the purposes of stat allocation and such).

I'm not sure if the translators were told to take on a demeaning tone towards players with the NPC dialog, but as far as I've seen the Japanese dialog doesn't have any of the indifference or belittling that is present in English.
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It's interesting to hear that the tone of the dialogue differs between the Japanese and English versions. Sometimes I do wonder if the people doing translation and localization have taken some liberty with the original text and added in their own creative vision to what was initially there, but that's a discussion for another thread...

Anyway, thanks for all the replies and discussion I really didn't intend this to be a thread full of complaints, just discussion of an issue I hadn't seen mentioned before. It seems like I may be in the minority by feeling this way though, so perhaps i just need to toughen up and/or level up to feel like a real hero

[Atoli]

I didn't see where devs mentioned reconsidering monster AI; if so that would be interesting.

There was a request thread about stuff like..more alive NPCs, lively monsters, etc. with over 250 replies in the English speaking forum, but no answer from a community rep, so I decided to ask the same question in the German forums, because the com rep there usually answers very fast, and she said the dev team told her they will try to implement it with 2.0

However, when I was treated like an outsider the second I started interacting with Gridanians, it made it difficult to think of the town as home. I decided to switch to Ul'dah in hopes that the big city would be more forgiving than the tight-knit forest town, but nowadays I feel little connection to my character's "hometown"

I didn't like how I was treated either when I started in Gridania with my first character.
But I had to change servers because of a friend, so my current character is from Limsa Lominsa, and I feel very at home there. I also chose Limsa as my Grand Company, because I feel so very at home here.
Maybe that's why I feel different about your compaints, because it's different in Limsa..?

Plus, we are kind of homeless, Echo-seeing weirdos right now, so the differences between us and the common man might make people wary.

^This!

It's interesting to hear that the tone of the dialogue differs between the Japanese and English versions.
Sometimes I do wonder if the people doing translation and localization have taken some liberty with the original text and added in their own creative vision to what was initially there

For sure this did happen.
In the German forum, there was even a complaint about this because someone felt offended by the way an Elezen retainer was talking (not with much dignity..he was calling her names and tried to make her smell his armpits..).
And because of that we compared the things retainers say in different languages (because many people are bilingual), and we noticed there were no such rude Elezen in Japan NOR in America

How about more elderly, show some older npcs with scars, war torn, drinking at the adventurer's guild and tell stories and pass out cool quests.

There are old NPCs, for example, there's a really old grandma in Limsa Lominsa who wants you to search for her son who has been gone for ages. It's a very sweet story..because it totally fits the image I have of old people who stay back xD

[Soukyuu]

There was a request thread about stuff like..more alive NPCs, lively monsters, etc. with over 250 replies in the English speaking forum, but no answer from a community rep, so I decided to ask the same question in the German forums, because the com rep there usually answers very fast, and she said the dev team told her they will try to implement it with 2.0

2.0 eh... what does that remind me of... ah nevermind -.-

I didn't like how I was treated either when I started in Gridania with my first character.
But I had to change servers because of a friend, so my current character is from Limsa Lominsa, and I feel very at home there. I also chose Limsa as my Grand Company, because I feel so very at home here.
Maybe that's why I feel different about your compaints, because it's different in Limsa..?

I'd say Gridania is really the worst one when it comes to how you are treated, but I still stayed there and the Serpents are a nice bunch. I think the largest part why they treat you like that is because most outsiders just don't care about the nature at all, which isn't understandable for someone who has grown up in harmony with it (or fear of the elementals). So they are rather distrustful/prejudiced at first. After you prove yourself to them, they will accept you.

I played Limsa in alpha and beta and I didn't really like it, mostly cause of the whole pirate theme/the way they act. Ul'dah is full of corruption on the other hand so it wasn't my cup of tea either, though those 2 lala miners partially made up for it. I was pretty disappointed when I was told to go to Ul'dah after the Gridanian part finished.

Another thing I felt kinda :/ about that there was no explanation for, but I'd like to see changed in 2.0 is...."where are the kids"

Gridania! :O