Ffxiv's Zones Looks Extremely Bad and Outdated

[Vyrerus]

Edit: it ate my post





I don't know, I have heavy attachments to HW and WoW both. I'll spend hours afk in the Nightsong forest while I am working in another window. Can't say I could ever do the same with Dravanian Hinterlands..



My friend actually coined a term for the kind of world design FFXIV has back when we were bouncing around free Korean mmos: Mob farm. The 'world' is just a suggestion of window dressing for its real purpose. Which is grinding mobs.

And which one have you had nostalgia for, longer?

In each FFXIV iteration, I've had a zone where I like to AFK for the scenery and the music. 2.0 it's Upper La Noscea. 3.0 It's Churning Mists for music. 4.0 It's Ruby Sea. 5.0 It's Kholusia during the day, Macrenses Angle at Night.

I'm far more nostalgic for zones from FFXI, which had better atmospheric music and scenery, at least in the zones that really were better.

Like, I concede that FFXIV's overworld is pretty weak non-immersive, but any world that's not your first usually will be, add to that the music development for it being hit and miss in the overworld. It's like, even if there was stuff to do there, it's not as enchanting.

[LisSquid]

And which one have you had nostalgia for, longer?

If we're being real real, I'm more nostalgic for Ultima Online. Neither 14 nor WoW hold first love status for me, and we're always "the other woman" in my eyes. Even then, there were few areas in UO that I would sit around in. Hell, there are zones in ESO I'll just afk in for hours over a 14 zone. I'll watch the npcs, the ambient wildlife mobs do their thing. Observe the day and night cycle as the world twirls around. FFXIV reminds me too much of the Korean MMOs I played in high school with fields of mobs to grind on, nothing more. Besides ARR zones, of course.

[Vyrerus]

If we're being real real, I'm more nostalgic for Ultima Online. Neither 14 nor WoW hold first love status for me, and we're always "the other woman" in my eyes. Even then, there were few areas in UO that I would sit around in. Hell, there are zones in ESO I'll just afk in for hours over a 14 zone. I'll watch the npcs, the ambient wildlife mobs do their thing. Observe the day and night cycle as the world twirls around. FFXIV reminds me too much of the Korean MMOs I played in high school with fields of mobs to grind on, nothing more. Besides ARR zones, of course.

So the aforementioned WoW Zone then. Then also, few still equates to some.

I'd find the mob farm analogue accurate if we spent time grinding in the overworld over every other thing. I suppose Fates can be grinded for hours, but that was never my jam. Though the little stories in each Fate do make the zones feel more lively.

Though you're making me think of Lufaise Meadows from FFXI. There was a lake, lagoon, Lieremieu Lagoon or something like that. I think that was the name, anyway, it's been a long time. Either way, a few times in a game day a little dragon would dart down over the lake, and touch the water like it was a kingfisher, and then zoom away. FFXIV really could benefit from stuff like that, but I don't think the overworld will ever be the dev focus. It took until Heavensward to get constantly looping zone music... before that long stretches of silence in ARR zones, sigh.