Open World FFXIV

[Raikai]

It's going to be a mix. It's not new info since they said at fanfest before Dawntrail that it would be "open battle content" or a "new take on deep dungeons". This was further explained with these pictures:

Interesting about if it's the case about the 1st picture. I just assumed it was somewhere in Il Mheg's map just to point where the entrance is, or at least to illustrate that the DD takes place there. I didn't think the "open battle content" was meant to be about the Deep Dungeon.

I hope is not just a cosmetic thing - like I said before, not just the old DD quadrants+corridors but with open area instead of inside a cave.

[Jeeqbit]

Interesting about if it's the case about the 1st picture. I just assumed it was somewhere in Il Mheg's map just to point where the entrance is, or at least to illustrate that the DD takes place there. I didn't think the "open battle content" was meant to be about the Deep Dungeon.

I hope is not just a cosmetic thing - like I said before, not just the old DD quadrants+corridors but with open area instead of inside a cave.

My guess is that those open rooms with no walls in HoH will be outside areas. Just my impression. Apparently I missed this picture:



I assume it'll be different every time due to pixies playing tricks.

[MicahZerrshia]

One thing I really miss about 1.x's open world, other than it not just being a backdrop for the msq and nothing more, were the caves and elevations. There were actually hills and valleys you ran through that could give a better or worse view of what was ahead. There were caves that you could go into that were like small, open-world dungeons, with chests to unlock by getting keys from enemies and NMs that would spawn you could farm. There were maps stacked on top of maps, so you could see the area below, but were unsure of how to get down there since it wasn't blatently obvious. The map up top would be lvl 15, the one below lvl 40. Various mines were open as well, that allowed you to run on the tracks or on work bridges. It really added to the feeling of the world.

After they rebooted the game the maps became incredibly flat. Sure there may be a little elevation here and there, but nothing like 1.x which was much more realistic topagraphy wise. La Noscea is especially egregious with this. Running through La Noscea was like running on a roller coaster track, now its mostly just flat and if there is a big elevation jump or drop they put in stairs so instead of running through a valley or down a hillside, you take some stairs or just jump off the cliff.

And caves are all but gone. You used to run in and know you were going down into the ground. There were twists and turns, dead ends and little frogs hidden around that would sit and look at you like a shoebill, but cute. Now if you do come across one, they barely register as even being a cave and are no different than the rest of the map. Most of them don't even have actual ceilings since there are so many breaks in them.

[CCheshire]

I'm a bit confused like FFXIV is an open world where we can do questing outside in areas, fly, hunts, and wander around fighting FATES. The opposite would be like a few town hubs and nothing else, with everything in instances.

[Jeeqbit]

I'm a bit confused like FFXIV is an open world where we can do questing outside in areas, fly, hunts, and wander around fighting FATES. The opposite would be like a few town hubs and nothing else, with everything in instances.

A lot of MMORPGs would typically have all the zones connected to eachother like 1.0, so instead of a loading screen, it just progressively loads the map as you move through it, making it feel like a proper world. It depends how they are designed, but it's more immersive when it's done that way.

I do believe that hunts are great open world content and it's just that few people truly understand how the hunt system works. However, a lot of past MMORPGs have had more meaningful content take place in the open world, such as PvP, maps, exploration and mob farming. The difference in FFXIV is that things like maps quickly insert you into an instance shortly thereafter, PvP takes place in instances only, exploration of any sort would be in an instance, and there is little importance to fighting most enemies in the open world as an endgame activity once you've farmed bicolor gemstones/ranks, quests and beast tribes. We have level 1-3 hunt bills and rank B hunts but they aren't even worth the effort, even just for fun.

But technically it is true that there are open world activities: hunts (of varying rarity), maps, beast tribes, fates (of varying rarity), gathering nodes (of varying rarity) - it's just that with the exception of A and S ranks, it's not the sort of stuff that most people regard as fun and exciting.

I do understand why they put everything into instances though. Open World content was always problematic in MMORPGs because they struggled to scale it to the number of players there. Hunts are an example of this even. You can get too few, or too many players, and even if the content can scale it can be too laggy.

[Avoidy]

Black Desert Online did this really well, but it still failed because of corporate greed and incompetent shitdevs. Naturally, the lesson learned from its failure wasn't "don't be a shitdev." Instead, the MMO genre learned that "gAmErS doNt wAnT oPeN wOrLds ackshually" so we'll probably never get anything like that ever again.
XIV is basically a lobby waiting game. You wait in your house or one of the main city states until your content pops in the queue. Then you go to another instance to do it. The game makes money like this and there's no reason to revamp it and take risks to change it. Sure, the overworld is dead, but who cares? The people spending the most money never leave their goonshack anyway.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Tera Online is making a come back in a small way, and playing through that game again

Wait, Tera Online is back? Are you talking about the mobile version or the unofficial versions?

[Jeeqbit]

XIV is basically a lobby waiting game. You wait in your house or one of the main city states until your content pops in the queue. Then you go to another instance to do it. The game makes money like this and there's no reason to revamp it and take risks to change it. Sure, the overworld is dead, but who cares? The people spending the most money never leave their goonshack anyway.

To be fair, this is intentional due to listening to feedback from 1.0., where people were deeply unhappy at having to travel on foot for hours to get places. The game was remade primarily so it could have a cross-world duty finder, which would pool people from multiple servers together. Teleporting everywhere all the time was done to address the travel complaints. Everything was made ultra quick and convenient because 1.0 tried the opposite and it was a failure.

[All_Nonsense]

Something something technical debt, something something consoles and sony, something something too hard and effort and devs need rest.

Watch the excuses roll in beneath me

But we all know the real reason. The devs just don't want to put in the effort to make a better game when they can just roll out the same thing over and over again and cash in their cheque


This game is need of some new shiny features and things to look forward to with every expansion launch, but they keep giving us the same stuff in new shiny packages.

But you don't understand, the engine! That pesky engine won't let them do anything :C They try really hard but wouldn't ya know it, that mean old engine tells them no

[Mawlzy]

Wait, Tera Online is back? Are you talking about the mobile version or the unofficial versions?

There's a Tera Classic server that has experienced a massive influx of players the last few weeks.

Can't imagine where they're all coming from.