Next expansion needs to be Open World

[Valence]

Strongly against open world. Since HW they have never been able to even fill up those big new areas and they've remained empty, even in Dawntrail. I do miss all the little details and every nook and cranny ARR areas had. Unless they can prove that they can deliver this kind of polish to the current area size, I really don't see the point of aggrandizing the whole even more for the sake of emptiness.

If the comment was just aimed at removing loading screens and nothing else, then sure I guess. Weird hill to die on though.

[Voidmage]

Job quests were nice but the sheer amount to get through was overwhelming, causing people to just level jobs and ignore the quests. They tried removing crucial abilities as rewards from them but that didn't make the situation better, because most people weren't aware level 80 job quests were a thing due to them not being blue.

With all due respect, screw those people.
The game shouldn't be developed around players who are unable to use basic Internet or in-game markers to find their quests.
You want everything out of this game then do the quests or miss out on the references.
Jobs are in dire need for specialness and identity again and job quests were a good way to do that (though I agree that a good number of them plainly sucked in quality).
Keep the skills out, but at least give the story and in an ideal scenario, the artifact gear and maybe skill glamour through them.
The artifact gear given out as vendor gear is something I absolutely hate and a prime example of how "calculated" the game has become.

Jobs quests were axed because the amount of jobs went up.
Given the quality of the role quests after Shb though, it seems there wasn't an equivalent exchange between less quests and quality.



Regarding the open world.
Given how dead the zones are right now, I would prefer smaller zones with loading screens between them again, like in ARR.
They have shown that they clearly don't know what to do with big zones.
I can do without even more emptiness players simply fly over...

[UkcsAlias]

It breaks immersion.

There are plenty of games where this didnt break immersion at all. As long as it makes sense and the loading doesnt take too long.

What they do is save you the 'long travel time' effort to move between the zones. Something they already wanted to cover by using a dungeon as its transition (which isnt bad for this at all).

Loading screens enable far more area variety, because you dont have to worry about its transition taking place. It wouldnt make any sense to have an ice area, and a warm area close together, and a 30s tunnel to transition between these is still going to feel awkward. It would need a far longer tunnel for this, which then becomes a dull transition as its just a very long uninterested walk. They already did use this method in DT, but that was more about height diffirence rather than climate.

When loading screens compress an activity that otherwise would take more time, the loading screen is justified to be there. Thats not immersion breaking, long dull walks without progression are.

[hydralus]

The most useless sort of feedback. Basically "make game gooder". I love great ideas and constructive feedback but this is just lazy and misinformed.

[Grimforth]

This feels like another "This game needs to be more like wow" post.

[XtremePrime]

Game has many flaws, but I don't think removal of loading between zones really would fix any of them, even though you're right it is objectively more immersive to travel from say Ul'dah to Gridania on foot with no loading.

However I think a much better and feasible solution would just be for them to give us more things to do in those zones, things to find so they aren't just places to cross until we reach the first aetheryte.

Heck, I'd even want them to implement an "abyssal" or "nightmare" version of each zone, where they can just go wild, add a ton of enemies and make them really dangerous (somewhat like Abyssea in FFXI), that way they can just reuse old zones for high level dangerous content.

[0blivion]

open world is, and will always be, an atrociously lazy cashgrab in JRPGs. there's a place for open world and it's not story-driven MMORPGs. it bothers on detachment from reality. let me say it again. open world is lazy, always has been.

look at ffxv. people whined about hallways in ffxiii and SE's response was 20 hours of actual story and another 40 hours of absolutely inane drivel.

[Raikai]

We need our skills when synced, but not at the expense of things dying faster. They're separate issues that need addressing.

I don't understand the reason why even players are against that with something like "An Archer sprout would feel bad looking at what a level cap Bard brings when they're playing together in a dungeon". Leveling in XIV doesn't take too long, eventually the Archer sprout will get all they see.

The thing CS3 need to do is just give EVERYONE a basic AoE action before the level range of the 1st dungeon.

[KillaKilala]

There are plenty of games where this didnt break immersion at all. As long as it makes sense and the loading doesnt take too long.

What they do is save you the 'long travel time' effort to move between the zones. Something they already wanted to cover by using a dungeon as its transition (which isnt bad for this at all).

Loading screens enable far more area variety, because you dont have to worry about its transition taking place. It wouldnt make any sense to have an ice area, and a warm area close together, and a 30s tunnel to transition between these is still going to feel awkward. It would need a far longer tunnel for this, which then becomes a dull transition as its just a very long uninterested walk. They already did use this method in DT, but that was more about height diffirence rather than climate.

When loading screens compress an activity that otherwise would take more time, the loading screen is justified to be there. Thats not immersion breaking, long dull walks without progression are.

What long travel time? You can cross any map in less than a minute. It's not classic WoW where it may take you half an hour to walk from one quest objective to another. I'm not asking for the long dull walks. Because that's what we already have, except they're not so long. It's not just the loading screens. I want the game require me to pay attention. Okay they can do it without removing the loading screens, idc. Though I prefer the open world. Loading screens do not fully break immersion, as well as open world alone can not create it. But when there are less reminders that you are in the game, it becomes more immersive.

[AshleyDragon]

open world is, and will always be, an atrociously lazy cashgrab in JRPGs. there's a place for open world and it's not story-driven MMORPGs. it bothers on detachment from reality. let me say it again. open world is lazy, always has been.

look at ffxv. people whined about hallways in ffxiii and SE's response was 20 hours of actual story and another 40 hours of absolutely inane drivel.

"Story Driven MMORPG" is a term that needs to go, we have used it for years to tolerate mediocre systems and content in the game, just barely enough functional, either repetitive, irrelevant or just plain boring, that's been toxic to the game and now we're seeing the results, devs struggling to retain players because the game just not have enough incentives to do so.

The devs have showed already they don't know what to do with the world that's true, it was way better back in ARR but for some reason they decided to add flying just for the sake of it (and an awful swimming system) i believe to just sell mounts because the world is just there with nobody on it.

Failing to provide a good enough story has proven how bare bones the game as an MMORPG is, many things need to change from now on, and providing an open world is a good start and pretty marketable due to it being a huge change to the game to get back players and showing the commitment to provide an immersive world, like an MMO should be.

Or just wait 4 months to play 2 hours of cutscenes with barely any animation, afk in limsa and keep paying your virtual rent.