We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Magic-Mal]

There's actually a couple of easy "fixes" for this that I've thought of.

Like you know how the Isles of Umbra in Western La Noscea had a hidden minion seller not marked on the map? What if every zone had one or two of those with different minions or other cosmetic items? It'd give you more of an incentive to explore.
Or hell they could even implement small hidden quests that don't show up on the map. The Wandering Minstrell in Kugane has something like this, where even though he has a quest marker above his head it won't show up on there, so the tech is definitely in the game already.

I know most people would probably just look up the locations online anyway, but it'd at least be something for people who care about that kind of thing

Yeah I agree with that. The worlds should have way more secret vendors. It makes you WANT to explore so you can discover such a thing. And it kills the fun for me personally, to always have everything, including Aetherytes, showing on the map before actually exploring there. I know some people will probably look it up, but it's no doubt that many won't at the same time.

Exploration is probably my favorite thing ever, in general. In games and IRL! And one of the things that drive me to explore is discovery. And that's why I just don't like the maps in FFXIV especially with HW and SB. None of the maps have anything to actually discover that has any meaning or purpose. I've spent hours going through every nook and cranny in Azys Lla and I finished with a disappointed feeling. Of everything that's in the place, there's nothing in the place. The game truly is sightseeing, like an amusement tour. You just look at things and that's it. To me that's boring.

I think of MHW(which I took a break from this game for) and how I spent hours in one sitting just going around and exploring each map at a time. I was excited to explore because there were animals to find and catch(Then put in your house!), rare shiny mining points to find, plants to find, camps to find, tribes to find that actually gave your companion weapons and skills. I know that's not an MMO but basically the point is that the maps have stuff in them.

In DC Universe Online, I flew around in every single bit of both cities - which were quite big - and every instance to find all of the investigation and collectible nodes that gave unique glamour items. I went and did every single race that was available to find and complete.

In FFXIV, there is nothing. Nothing at all. I recall Alleo mentioning an idea to have all kinds of small animals roaming around the maps to make them more alive and it made me think.. if we had the Endemic Life system that MHW has where you would take a net and manually catch animals and stuff(some super rare) that would be the kicker for me. We could have all the minions in the game placed in the map as endemic life and we could catch them and keep them as pets. If we had a system like that? I'd never be able to leave the dang maps!