Bit of a selfish ask, Do you think 6.0 zones will return to the high fantasy of HW's?

[kaynide]

But then again I also like the Sea of Clouds and Mists, which as someone described as amateurish, so what do I know? /shrug

Nothing wrong with liking them or the overall concept/aesthetic!

I guess I should explain- when I look at a zone like Anamos, it all flows together smoothly, right? Like the terrain was molded and then decorated with objects.

When I see sea of clouds, it looks like a lot of terrain object chunks that clip into each other. Throw on some more chunks for ramps or wooden planks, sprinkle down random spinning pine cones and call it a night.

If you are going to have such a huge zone, it would really help to either a) have huge looming out of bounds terrain (see New god of war, with for example the world serpent) or b) less empty space/empty space with clutter or c) interesting/unique gimmicks.

As an example, I would have had breaks in the clouds below where you can see coarthas and Ishgard, similar to the opening HW cutscene. I also might have utilized a zip line or even the tornado jumps seen in diadem to get around to make moving from island to island interesting.

SB alleviates this in their underwater zones by having animals and lots of interesting locales (shipwrecks, coral reefs, bubble towns).

[Wind-Krysvein]

I get what you're saying but for at least those two, the points where you come across both halves are consecutive, mean you explore the entrie zoen in one go,

Which is precisely why I put the phrase "some of which you access at different points in the storyline" in the sentence.

[Averax]

Am i mistaken? Has this whole expansion not been high fantasy?

[linayar]

What's stopping them from spreading those 10 levels across 12 smaller maps?

The amount of MSQ. Unless you want the MSQ to be unnecessarily long, there would be even less to do in each zone.

Also, some people want to reduce the amount of load screen required to go places.

[DamianFatale]

I really want a zone like Satorl Marsh from Xenoblade. It is so beautiful when the entire zone lights up at night and you can walk beneath glowing trees. We really need a glowing zone.

[Wind-Krysvein]

The amount of MSQ. Unless you want the MSQ to be unnecessarily long, there would be even less to do in each zone

My argument was literally about having double the amount of maps, each about half the size of the current maps we're getting. I'm not saying we should have 12 Dravanian Hinterlands. I'm saying we should have 12 maps each half the size of Dravanian Hinterlands, for the opportunity of giving each map more personality.

There is literally no reason this would increase the amount of MSQ needed in the game, since the amount of new "space" we get would be the same. Maybe even less.

[Lily_Skye]

6.0 will be 100% Garlean Empire

[Gameovers]

High fantasy as OP wants it is overratted. I'm sick to death of the gothic look. I'm glad XIV is mostly fantasy with abit of techno mixed in, it already looks fresh and different to all the other mmos and WRPGS where their worlds are stuck in the dungeon and dragons old days where everything's dirty and boring. Besides shadowbringers was nothing BUT high Fantasy, like LOOK at those zones.

[KayRadley]

Most of the locales are already high fantasy, though. It's just that Stormblood's locales take inspiration from east Asian regions, and Shadowbringers is post-apocalyptic fantasy.

[linayar]

My argument was literally about having double the amount of maps, each about half the size of the current maps we're getting. I'm not saying we should have 12 Dravanian Hinterlands. I'm saying we should have 12 maps each half the size of Dravanian Hinterlands, for the opportunity of giving each map more personality.

There is literally no reason this would increase the amount of MSQ needed in the game, since the amount of new "space" we get would be the same. Maybe even less.

The amount of space might be the same, but the zones are usually explored via the MSQ, so there would be less MSQ per zone on average to get through all of the zones, unless they increase the MSQ.