No flying in 5.0: Would it be better?

[KisaiTenshi]

Eureka is really the most beautiful area they've added since the 2.0 areas. While I love the 3.0 and 4.0 areas I can't help but like the 2.0/Eureka areas more, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
Would anyone be ok if 5.0 drops flying and we can have dense forests and amazing locations like Eureka?

Ehhh, yes and no.

Flying, Mounts and Teleporting kinda shrink the world and, flying in particular reveals how tiny some maps actually are (eg if we could fly through the 2.0 areas, it would probably take 10 secs at most.) If we realistically wanted people to explore, no mounts would be available at any time, and teleports would only "return" you to a place, not teleport (hence people would stay in places longer, and whatever "current content" area exists would be populated beyond just the two week window when the content is new.) But I don't begrudge having the teleport system, mounts or flying mounts because other games have them, and to simply not have them now would be a slap in the face. Mounts can all run or fly past dangerous enemies so it makes the overworld non-threatening.

However...

Why not simply make it so that some maps can not summon a mount, nor teleport out of the area until -all- content for that map has been unlocked and explored? When I was playing on my alternate character the other day, I noticed that I had not been to North Shroud yet, and ... you get the entire map unlocked when you enter it. So much for exploring that map again. I distinctly remember during 1.x beta and 2.x beta trying to reach every place on the map. Make teleporting out require attuning to all the Aetheryte crystals on the map (or take a chocobo porter/airship back to the previous map.) Have mounts be unsummoned if the area has not been attuned yet, have flying mounts not fly without finding all the Aether Currents. If a map does not have the Aether Currents, or something interferes with them, drop the mount to the ground. Add monsters that are faster than the land mounts that only chase players on mounts and chase them into the air as well.

Anyway I doubt SE would make any changes to mounts, so let's not dwell on this too much.

[Fhaerron]

No thanks.

Easy solution though, just don't use your fly mount yourself? Problem solved?

No need to take it away from the rest of us.

[Shurrikhan]

People seem fixed on the idea of 100% flying or 100% not flying. I think what would be best would be to have maybe 1 or 2 big maps for flying/swimming (or omit swimming altogether), and have the rest of the maps be smaller and better designed, this allows the dev team to really focus on the map designs without feeling the need to fill 6 or 7 large zones.

I do agree that the ARR maps are far more memorable, and Eureka was refreshing

This was why I felt that mount-as-cosmetics were a poor design precedent to set. If one was more limited in what mounts you have available at a given time, then actual differences between mounts could allow for such things as... not being able to ride a giant Zu into a narrow canyon, not being able to take your eft (or w/e the Sagahin mounts were called) over land at the same speed as a horse or whatnot, and in doing so, give map experiences unique to each's perspective in their optimized experience. You could create very different maps because one mount, even if permitted, isn't better in all ways than the others, and -- more than that -- those choices can be limited to what best fleshes out the intended experience for the zone.

[MuseTraveller]

Personally, while enjoying flying a great deal, I too agree the expanded maps seem barren, yet some locations just look so beautiful from above! I'd prefer slightly smaller and more detailed maps and maybe flight unlocked for all areas after you are done with the MSQ? Like a reward for the good work!

[Imakun]

Another thing that makes the world smaller is the lack of some open-world dungeons connecting one area to another and remote zones far from cities and Aetherytes.

Let's say you want to go from zone A to zone B and there's just this tunnel connecting them. You enter what looks like a cave and you find yourself in another zone altogether which is basically a natural dungeon in which mounts don't work and of course you can't fly in, forcing you to either sneak around of face enemies to get to the other side. This becomes trivial the higher your level, but it still adds some life to zones. Add in content to these areas, heck even EXP friendly FATEs, treasure maps and so on.

Problem is this goes against the "quick and easy" approach the devs are going for, so not gonna happen. Flying is good with me as long as it's a reward for "completing" a zone when you first get to it, so you can fly around when you come back to it in the subsequent story patches and other content. And of course we can and should have maps that are both interesting, on the bigger side AND with flying.

[Kazgrel]

Already dealt with this sort of nonsense for years in WoW. I recommend that game if you want flight stripped away. This game handles it much more sensibly. I’m fine with being grounded for leveling through the zones.

[Dustytome]

What if there were zones where there's flying for a chunk of time after an event is cleared? Like taking down the shields at various areas in the zone and then there's a decent warning before they reactivate and if you don't heed it, prepare to plummet.

[AppleJinx]

You aren't forced to fly in 3.0 and 4.0 zones. It doesn't matter how great a map is it will eventually get boring and flying just makes traversing a lot better especially when I am trying to get to a hunt mark.

[Mhaeric]

One way they could do it would be to allow flying, but limit the vertical scope of it so you're still moving through the terrain in a manner that's similar to being on foot just with the faster rate of flying and being able to avoid obstacles like hills. This would still let you traverse the area faster and easier, but not completely divorce you from the experience of it like flying at 100 metres up does. I believe WoW works like this. At least it did in the starting areas with the automated flight paths they had back when I played for about 3 days of the trial.

[Fhaerron]

One way they could do it would be to allow flying, but limit the vertical scope of it so you're still moving through the terrain in a manner that's similar to being on foot just with the faster rate of flying and being able to avoid obstacles like hills. This would still let you traverse the area faster and easier, but not completely divorce you from the experience of it like flying at 100 metres up does. I believe WoW works like this. At least it did in the starting areas with the automated flight paths they had back when I played for about 3 days of the trial.

The automated flight paths is from point A to B. Which you just need to pay a fee to an NPC.
When you unlock flying you can fly wherever and how you want, at a much greater speed then in XIV (in WoW you have up to +330% fly speed)