Overworld Design Rant And Feedback

[Jeeqbit]

almost every dungeon in ARR has entrance or visual representation attached to them (Huakke Manor, Sunken Temple,
pharos Sirios. etc..). even i as someone who doesn't care about story get intrigued by little details like these

I prefer these details as well. They do exist in the expansions though (click links for the pictures of them in the open world):

• Heavensward had Dusk Vigil, Sohm Al, The Aery, Gubal Library, ARF, Neverreap, Fractal Continuum, Saint Mocianne's Arboretum, Xelphatol, Baelsar's Wall.
• Stormblood had Shisui of the Violet Tides, Bardam's Mettle sorta vaguely is the mountains that you see, Doma Castle, Ala Mhigo, Kugane Castle (sorta), Temple of the Fist, Skalla, Hell's Lid, Swallow's Compass, The Burn (you can see it from Azim Steppe tbh).
• In Shadowbringers, Holminster has a gate leading to it, Dohn Mheg is underwater, the Qitana Ravel has a gate, Malikah's Well, Mt. Gulg, Amaurot, The Twinning, Pagl'than.
• In Endwalker, Tower of Zot is visible, Tower of Babil is visible, Ktisis is visible, Aitiascope is visible.
• In Dawntrail, Worqor Zormor is visible, the Skydeep Cenote can partially be entered, Origenics is visible.

The ones I didn't mention are pretty vague or involve a flight or ferry to it. But it seems they have kept dungeons mostly visible in the open world still. Some of the places they leave there at expansion release do leave you wondering what they are about until the MSQ addresses it - such as the location of the upcoming 7.2 dungeon which will have invited lots of speculation before it was announced.

this might be controversial but MSQ shouldn't give much exp points, because it prevents players from engaging with the world they're playing in.

I get that and I actually agree. The one time I played the trial of FF11, which was about 15 years ago now, I enjoyed just literally killing enemies to level. For the same reason, I enjoyed leveling in Eureka by merely killing enemies. But most people are not like us. Most people said they hated this in Eureka. They get way more complaints if they make it like that. The amount of hate for Eureka was unreal - these forums used to be squarely against it in Stormblood and I was one of the only ones speaking positively of it here. The tide has since shifted in the opposite direction because of how they casualized it, but if they released it as it used to be we'd probably see the backlash again.

ARR shows us variety in Fates and how fun they can be when you do it with random players. escorts, big bosses, timed challenges and defending fates were fun to do

True, there was more creativity like defending places in ARR. Although they were still easy and I've still solo'd some of its big boss FATEs, such as the one in East Shroud. I think sprouts do them out of ignorance more than anything and slowly learn they are pointless.

no one does fates except for gems and unlock vendor items. i think it should be more than that like give little more xp to make it a extra option for leveling instead of doing msq for your main class and spamming roulettes and the same dungeons over and over again.

You are mistaken here:

• FATEs were the main way of leveling alt jobs in ARR and early HW, until POTD released.
• FATEs give experience gain and many people level jobs while farming gemstones.
• They were a main method of leveling the new jobs in recent expansions, with lots of parties farming FATEs on expansion release to do MSQ with the new jobs (including Pictomancer and Viper). It ended up being better than Zadnor tbh.
• Forlorn maidens and bonus FATEs were added starting in Stormblood areas, to increase EXP gain.
• ARR FATEs are involved in ARR relics, HW FATEs are involved in HW and ShB relics, SB FATEs are involved in ShB relics, ShB/EW/DT FATEs have gemstone rewards and EW and DT have long term grind rewards.
• The MSQ+Sidequests were not designed to give you enough experience on their own. They intentionally required you to need to do something else - such as FATEs, to make up the remaining experience. I ran into this in every expansion before Endwalker, even on alt characters. I had to farm FATEs a bit or do roulettes to progress the final quests. It changed in Endwalker where the MSQ is intended to be enough on its own (without even sidequests). But with the sheer amount of MSQ it starts to become reasonable to just let them focus on MSQ by that point.

as much as i like Idyllshire, Eulmore and Solution nine, nothing tops Mor Dhona as a hub area especially back when it was populated. because it is part of the final zone and designed in a way that disciples of war/magic/hand/land gather together in a cozy feel, it feels like home. it's so lively that you see players coming in and out, an adventure center.

I have fond memories of Idyllshire being extremely populated in my world, so I disagree and think Idyllshire achieved that same feel (it has become populated again over time by sprouts+people doing Unreal). Rhalgr's Reach was also populated in Stormblood, but it started to get quiet then because the playerbase had become fractured as their interests diverged plus the split between the increasing number of areas the game had. With the removal of mounts in these areas, since we can't showcase mounts anymore the point is reduced so much less people stay there. It's usually populated on a reset day or after a major patch but then it's easy to see it go empty.

accessable buildings

That's an issue with modern game design generally tbh, where things are developed only if they will be used. Some of the greatest games in history were so because they designed the world first so that some of it wasn't used and could just be speculated on.

Gearing doesn't mean anything until you're max level which is an issue in itself.

I disagree that it should matter before DT anyway. The problem is they act like it matters when it doesn't. If they just accepted gear progression wasn't a thing in prior expansions, they could sync old dungeons to minimum item level. The reason they don't is to preserve "gear progression" despite that veterans tell their sprout friends to grab max tomestone gear anyway.

mini games like mount racing, hunting (not hunts, but an actual chase for a prey something similar to Behemoth Fate but of course less challenging and solo), triple triad etc..

The racing would be nice. I think they currently would do things like that via a sidequest but the issue is that makes them one-time only.

Triple Triad is actually a thing already. You can battle NPCs in most areas and you can also battle other players.

PvP Arenas

Many games do it but for whatever reason, SE always makes these instanced. A benefit of instances is that it limits participation so it's not too low nor too high, and can draw players from other worlds. The instanced areas they regularly add are based on areas in the open world though, like how Onsal Hakair is in the Azim Steppe.

"A Frosty reception" is the coolest and most fun Instanced Duty to date and i was so excited for quests like this until a friend informed me it got backlash for being Difficult and Frustrating.

Almost every interesting instanced duty they make gets this backlash, such as In From the Cold or stealth chasing NPCs on foot. Their solution was to nerf the "Very Easy" version of them, so if people fail it they can make it extremely easy. Unfortunately, it likely makes them not want to make other duties like that, and knowing SE they will avoid anything that casual players can't handle. But my wish is that they will make these duties anyway, ignore the complaints, and make a super easy version for them if they want to do it on easy mode.