An ideal overworld zone

[Jojoya]

Yeah gathering makes more sense.

The problem is that being on the ground and having an engaging overworld are not the same thing. So being on the ground does nothing if the above topics aren’t addressed as a means to have an engaging experience in the environment.

Moreover I am for player choice most of the time but there is no choice here. There are no zones in the overworld like this for us that provide the same satisfaction the current brain dead zones provide for y’all. So in essence I feel like the argument being made here is more let’s deny you this and it’s one or the other, instead of allowing for player choice and providing those zones for players that do seek danger and adventure. You will see none of my examples imply mandatory things.

Wouldn’t a compromise better suit everyone? Where we can have our off the beaten path dangerous zones and our sense of exploration and adventure without getting hammered about it?

Isn't that what the exploratory zones for Eureka and Bozja essentially were? They still exist. If you go into them, you still get level synced so they remain dangerous barring use of any overpowered Lost Actions you have available.

The problem is how to keep the content in such areas engaging enough to keep players doing it for the long run. The current open world zones have the benefit of new characters going through MSQ, gatherers still needing to collect the materials crafters want, treasure maps still dropping loot that at a minimum can be converted to gil if not use for better purposes, etc.

What's getting players to go back into Eureka and Bozja once their relics are completed?

You know. I wonder if there could be a system like the Fetes in Ishgard for overworld zones. And after the server activities are done we unlock some sort of buff, new excavation or settlement, or see some benefit in the cities in regards to the zones.

The problem with the game though is that it’s not a living world. Zones are stuck in time depending on what MSQ function they served and are dead after that.

I think the only solution I’ve been able to think is that they do to them what they did to the Doman Enclave. That way the zones can continue to live on with the characters instead of being stuck in the past. The quests and NPCs could move and and appear and disappear as well.

But if you didn’t do a quest and the NPC is now gone, like say one a refugee at little Ala Mhigo used to give but now that it’s a Flames outpost because the refugees went back, you could always NG+ into the time frame when they were around and complete the quests. Giving the NG + feature further utility.

It’s kind of ambitious but it would be a way to move the world forward.

You can't have an effective living world in a MMORPG where developers want friends and family to encourage more friends and family to come play.

"What are you doing?" "Oh, I'm talking to a NPC you can't see because I'm father in the story/had my character take a different path than the one you chose".

You end up in a cycle of "what are you seeing because I can't see the same thing" and that's not a good game experience.

It's great for a game where you're basically intended to play solo but not for a game where you're intended to play with others. I know some are alarmed at the solo player elements that have been added to FFXIV but we're still intended to play with others. That's why Duty Support is going to take about twice as long to complete a dungeon than doing it as part of a player group will. That's why the amount of loot from a dungeon will end up less if you're doing it solo.

Strangely, the place where the game fails the most to be multiplayer in the thing that it tends to get the most praise for - the story. They're getting better about it now that we have Azem's crystal but it's still not accounting for our friends that are already at our sides in all those cutscenes. Will they ever get to the point where the non-duty cutscenes can acknowledge our friends by solo different version based on whether we're solo or in a party? We can only hope.