4.25 and beyond

[Dzian]

That sounds fun,
Did SE fired all XI designers? because they aren't a "modern guy"?

Incoming rant but often think XI was actually more modern than xiv especially in a world sense.

Vana’diel is or was when I played a deep dynamic living world impacted by literally everything. Yet Eorzea is dead and static it never changes no matter what you do.

Nothing you do in xiv has any impact on the game world at all and the whole world feels dead because everything is locked away behind instances completely detached from the game world itself.

In comparison in vana’diel literally everything you did impacted the game world in some way. From large scale things like besieged right the way down to each and every single point of experience a player earnt. Even a player dying and losing exp would impact the game world somehow. If a player died for example then the beastmen would gain influence in that area and possibly take control of it. Like wise every single point of exp players earnt in that area would help there respective nation’s gain influence or take control of it. The balance of power would change from one week to the next as a direct result of player actions.

This then changed the availabilty of various warps and buffs such as signet and also impacted the goods on sale at vendors and prices there of. If a nation lost a particular region then vendors would run out of stock of certain things or other things would become more expensive.
The world also remembered you and your actions lead to you becoming more famous or more trusted which if I recall also had an impact on vendors and things. And changed the way npcs spoke to you. Varying from total stranger to the local hero.

Other examples like besieged you might find various npcs were abducted and had to be rescued by players or they couldn’t rent chocobos, warp or spend imperial credits etc. Or if the candescance was lost the tunic portals wouldnt work and you were stuck waiting for the boat to go to caerdava mira or something. Until players went and got it back.

Literally everything had some impact on the world and it felt so much more alive because of it.
You also saw other players which made the world feel alive again. You might casually be running through the crawlers nest to an exp party and find players doing the escort quest or just passing through to get to simmy. Or you’d be passing through Ro Meave on the way to sky and see a group of players killing the golems for the bastok mission or maybe fighting shikigami weapon for the summoner robe. Or hell even one of the mms to unlock various weapon skills.. all things that bought life to the world. You never knew what youd stumble across.

In Xiv you never see any of it. You could run out of ul’dah get on your mount and ride / fly all the way through every zone between ul’dah and ala’mhigo and not see or pass another player at all. Big part of why eorzea is dead and feels empty.

Another thing is vanadiel had dynamic zones with little gimmicks and things that made them feel more alive and interactive.
You had the eldieme necropolis with its switch puzzles to open and close the gates as you worked your way through.
Toramai canal with its 3 mage gate.
Quicksand caves with its weighted doors 3 taru to open or 1 big galka.
Ifrits couldren where players could use ice clusters to douse the flames and clear paths.
The garleige citadel, sea serpants grotto etc etc all had little puzzles and things.
And then zones like the sacrarium which had a maze that changed every game day (roughly every hour)
Vanadiel is almost 20 years old and yet infinitely more alive and dynamic than eorzea ever will be..

If they could do all that nearly 20 years ago why the hell is Eorzea so bland and lifeless in this “modern” era it’s almost like its gone backwards not moved forwards.. even fates are lifeless.
end of rant

[Theodric]

Aleport is one of my favourite settlements in the game. It's a 'minor' quest hub in the grand scheme of things but you can enter almost every single building within it.

It's a real shame that settlements such as Namai do not boast that same luxury.

[Istaru]

A very good post.

Thank you for that. You summed up my feelings of hopelessness with this game anymore.

Didn’t clear Coil? No effect. Alexander? Savage content? Nope. EX primals? No effect.

I want to feel like doing something, anything that I do as the hero of this game actually matters. This game feels like a chocolate cake without the chocolate or the cake.

The world just feels very cold and empty.