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

[Slicedevice]

Duly noted never talk to you again after this. Even though i misunderstood what your 1st comment meant and got a better idea afterwards to a point where i would've given an apology over getting the wrong idea due to my own misgivings of getting sick and tired that people just blame consoles, the fact you went and played the victim card i now no longer what to hear anything you say as anyone that might have a different opinion or misunderstands your comments on an online discussion (I might've been the 1st but i certainly won't be the last) and you may have to elaborate on your comment to clear up confusion may be seen as a personal attack means i no longer will interact with you regarding anything you say no matter how insightful it may be.

Enjoy your time in the forums plenty of people will ask for elaboration in the future you might want to be prepared for more 'attacks'

Do whatever you feel is right to do. I just got tired of having to explain myself on something i never said and you misrepresenting my point.
Take care.

[Kalise]

I really dislike when people like the OP pretend that the game is ruined based on their perspective of it. I'm having a great time, love the way it is, and yes I love to fly.

Note that the OP doesn't infer that the game is ruined.

Only that they notice the trend seems to be suggesting an unfavourable path for the future.

Like for example, take WoW for instance. In the Cataclysm expansion was the game ruined? No. But it had started down a path that would ultimately lead to the Unsub from Azeroth expansion, due to similar things as those that are being pointed out by the OP (I.e. Less content being added)

On Topic:

I'll try and add my 2 gil on a couple topics that the OP refers to:

Open World

The open world in FFXIV is an issue. One that I've posted about several times. Currently, not only are the zones mostly barren, they're also not particularly rewarding.

There's just nothing to DO in them that actually competes with just spamming dungeons.

FATEs are mostly crap and give crap rewards. Side quests are limited. MSQ just rushes you through the zones at lightspeed or otherwise instances you through it all. All that's left is gathering and Hunts. But even then, why bother a lot of the time? There's never anything particularly interesting to buy with Centurio Seals outside maybe some starter gear at max level while you farm some tomes? Why bother gathering when you can just get Tome gear instead of crafting anything?

They need to add more rewards for actually doing things in zones at the very least. To say nothing of designing them to be more alive, more towns and encampments. More NPC's roaming the place. Make use of the fact that every zone is a unique instance as opposed to one seamless global world like in many other MMO's (That, ironically, often have more life in their zones to boot...). Literally they can use many of the same design concepts that Eureka used for creation of more interesting overworlds.

As far as Beast Tribes go, they very much feel like a WiP still. They're at least better than ARR ones wherein you ended up with 12+ quests available for each faction. But they still need some work. Like, more involvement with them after getting max reputation (Bloodsworn/Allied) instead of just literally forgetting about them forever once you reach that point. More things to spend their currencies on, like, I have a ton of SB tribe currencies and nothing I care to spend them on, at least ARR/HW ones I've been able to purchase Relic items to blow through my stockpiles I get from using them to assist with leveling jobs.

I personally don't mind the level scaling either. As it means that you have more flexibility with doing the quests and won't say, get to a point where they become complete faceroll if you're doing them on your main because you've outleveled the mobs by a ton (Such as with the ARR ones where doing them at level 50 is pretty trivial compared to HW/SB which scaled up to 60/70).

I wonder if they can make use of Phased Zones that WoW uses too? Wherein areas or zones as a whole put people into different instances based on progression of a set of quests? So that they can take the improvements that are made by aiding a tribe and make them more impactful? (Such as the Velodyna Gatekeepers adding all those new rooms that you're unable to enter. Including that front gate remaining closed permanently).

Since it'd be cool to have more impact on a zone through that. Such as seeing how the Moogles have transformed the Churning Mists by repairing more of the structures in your absence. How the gatekeepers continued to re-decorate the bridge into Ananta and Ala Mhigan aesthetics and how their presence might have lead to some more of the settlements being retaken with the ease of transporting goods and troops.

Flying

I don't necessarily think that flying in of itself is a bad thing in the game.

No danger? No adventure? None of that existed before flying either. None of the ARR zones were particularly dangerous to go through, outside random A Rank Hunts that might claw your face off when they're stood right next to where your level 20 quest is taking you...

Add to the fact that as time has gone on, overworld has less relevance thanks to PotD and DF being so much better for grinding exp/gil/seals/tomes so there's even less reason to actually engage in the overworld independently of flying. Which is why you don't see newbies in ARR zones these days either, because even though they can't fly around on their company chocobo, they have no reason to actually enter a zone when they can just stand in Limsa Lominsa/South Shroud and spam dungeons all day.

Who cares about how beautiful a map is? Well, I do. I also appreciate it a lot more when I can actually see the damn thing instead of spending all my time figuring out what paths I need to follow to get around all the bloody mountains and unpathable terrain (Such as Dravanian Hinterlands massive river with only 1 crossing...).

Literally, on foot I spend about 90% of my time looking at the map, not the zone. When I get flying, I get to actually appreciate the landscape. Which is great because SE have actually made some gorgeous zones.

Sea of Clouds, The Fringes, Azim Steppe, Azys Lla, Dravanian Hinterlands and Churning Mists are pretty great looking zones. But are absolutely butt to traverse without flying or properly get to see even.

I can't actually think of an ARR zone that made me just stop and look at the terrain and design, because I'm always too busy trying to figure out where the bloody paths are to let me get around the place (Especially in the Shroud... God I hate traversing the zones there). At best I can think of the La Noscea zones that have cliffs overlooking the ocean which is neat, but more because of the ocean than the actual zone itself...

[AnnaRosa]

Please wait until Final Fantasy XVII Online is released in the not so certain future!...


I think this game is beginning to fade (die) and I do hope it does, all I ask is that the next Final Fantasy MMO has the Miqo'te and Hyur races so I can import my characters from this game and continue in the new one!...

Not likely the Fan Fest events were both full so far there are a few amount of recently joined and returned players on European most populated servers but you are also in the pre expansion temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity.

[Physic]

i think a good dungeon design isnt necessarilly about having tons of enemies, but an overall interesting group of encounters(not just bosses), a few multiple paths, with slight randomization. and perhaps a few special things. I havent played it recently, but before blade and soul had fairly good dungeon design. It was pretty varied, most trash fights had appropriately interesting mechanics. like sometimes you needed to kill specific enemies, some time lazers would spawn in rooms, or you had certain traps. Some times you had to burn an enemy, survive an onslaught, run away, some you can smartly avoid. sometimes randomized thing might make you take a different path or fight a different challenge, and they even had a few hidden events with rare loot here and there.

Also weapons were usually upgraded from various loot, so everyone had reason to do them multiple times.

[Slicedevice]

Open World

The open world
I agree mostly on this.
However, could you elaborate on what Phased zones are? I havent played WoW but from the sound of it, it sounds really complicated as if you were to open the gate on the bridge for someone, it would be kinda weird for others to just see people just walk through the gate. Again, no clue how this works in WoW so feel free to lecture me lol.
Also, I think they need to add more to the lore aspects of the game. Like the BT in ARR. The BT cobalts were all about these outcasts you had to help. You could even see TONS of Kobalt houses in the mountains in Outer la noscea. You felt that there were something to the beast tribes themselves, not just for the quests.
But with BT like moogles, it feels like the moogles are just placed randomly because they just need a place to stay. I know the lore about them but honestly, knowing a beast tribe like Moogles are all living on top of Sohm Al in a cave, where theres no kind of Moogle housings or anything makes it feel so empty again. maybe if SE added like moogle settlements all over Churning mists and added more quests related to them, then it would feel more immersive in that aspect.
To me, this goes for other BTs aswell, not only moogles.

I agree that the zones are beautiful though. its just that they get ruined once you start taking in the environment or trying to reach vistas to look over the map, only to spot something weird (Like the baelsars wall stopping a few miles down). Also they start to feel more vast and empty after a while, which just discourage people to go out and explore. I remember getting to The floating city of nym the first time and i was just stunned at how beautiful the place was. the ARR zones are just filled with stuff thats just gorgeous to look at, and alot of it are out of reach, so you can just look at it and wonder, specualte and even make your own lore about some of the areas. You cant do that anymore when theres nothing to look at in HW or SB, outside of what you see in the zone themselves.

[Slicedevice]

Flying

flying
Now, i like flying in this game to an extent. My only issue with this is how SE hasnt really thought about that once you can fly in this game, they need to hide stuff better for us.
If you walk in Western Highlands and you see the mountains far out in the distance. Its cool and all, untill you can fly almost all the way to the mountain and they, all off a sudden, looks super tiny and badly textured. This game is filled with this kind of stuff and i dont think SE knows exactly how to hide it either. Another example is Sohm Al. You see the mountain clearly in The forelands, and its ugly. Especially compared to the Art on the loadingscreens. You can fly up half the mountain and it looks so tiny aswell, with nothing to it. But once in the Sohm Al Dungeon, its all of a sudden a huge place with tunnels and edges all over the place. Not to talk about how you get to the top, which is the Churning mists, and you're far above the clouds, whereas in Dravanian forelands, the peak of Sohm Al doesnt even touch the clouds (And you cant see any of the floating islands from below). It makes no sense and the flying as of now ruins the exploration experience.
Atleast for me.

[LastLevel]

They are in fact milking this game too much, I agree. This game has been around (including beta) for about a decade now I think? I believe it’s about time to start thinking about a new online mmo for Square Enix. It’s bad enough the character customization is literally one of the worst in any mmo I’ve played. Time for an upgrade.

[Kurando]

I believe it’s about time to start thinking about a new online mmo for Square Enix. It’s bad enough the character customization is literally one of the worst in any mmo I’ve played. Time for an upgrade.

Not gonna happen. I don't have the source at the moment but in an article not too long ago, Yoshi stated SE have no desire to make a new MMO while FXIV is still active and bringing in the money. I mean despite its flaws it's still one of the better MMOs on the market, and with WoW struggling here and there SE can probably sit comfortably for a few years unless subs drastically decrease, though that seems unlikely just yet.

Also they do have a Dragon Quest MMO in Japan, but that's always had a bigger fanbase in the home market (more than FF) that an international release may not be suitable financially but who knows.

[Physic]

They are in fact milking this game too much, I agree. This game has been around (including beta) for about a decade now I think? I believe it’s about time to start thinking about a new online mmo for Square Enix. It’s bad enough the character customization is literally one of the worst in any mmo I’ve played. Time for an upgrade.

this specific version is only 6 years old, the initial release was basicalky a totally different game.

and mmos dont really thrive on being new. it takes 2-3years for mmos to actually have enough content. An mmo that cant last 10 years is not optimal.

it also usually takes 4-5 years of development to make a baby mmo, with limited content.

[Kalise]

However, could you elaborate on what Phased zones are? I havent played WoW but from the sound of it, it sounds really complicated as if you were to open the gate on the bridge for someone, it would be kinda weird for others to just see people just walk through the gate. Again, no clue how this works in WoW so feel free to lecture me lol.

Basically phased zones where places where there was essentially different instances of the same place. Where people could only access the instance that was relevant for them and could only see other players within the same instance.

For example with The Fringes and the Velodyna Gate:

Player A is brand new to the zone and hasn't done any MSQ at all. So in their instance, the gate is closed and there might even be some Imperials patrolling the area because that gate is under their control.

Player B has done the MSQ for the zone but hasn't done any BT quests yet. So in their instance, the gate is open because the Resistance have captured it. But it's still the standard boring Imperial design because they haven't helped with the restructuring yet.

Player C has done the MSQ and finished the BT quests. So in their instance, the gate is open, the golden gryphons adorn the gate, they have all of the additional rooms unlocked and they now have Anantas and Resistance members patrolling around as well as NPC's travelling to and from the place.

Whilst Players A, B and C could all be on the same server and even in the same party, they would not be able to see each other if they go to the same place, as they'd be in different instances until Player A or B progressed to the same point as Player C.

The way that WoW did it, was that this phasing process only happened in specific areas. So that for 90% of a zone, it'd work like any normal zone so Players A, B and C would all see the same thing and could group up and kill stuff and it'd be no problem. With only when entering the phased area that they would be then separated into their different instances. For example, in this case it'd only come into effect when these players went near to the bridge.