Next expansion needs to be Open World

[Exmo]

Wanting an open world is the worst idea in a topic full of bad ideas.

[AshleyDragon]

Full OW really wouldn't do much for this game. I mean the ''overworld'' is already pointless. No PvP, copy pasted "mob parks" with 100% scripted drops, complete absence of any secrets or hidden stuff...

All the meaningful (rofl) stuff in this game happens in duties you teleport into via mouse click.

I agree.

Which is why the game is boring, predictable and urgently needs a change.

[WillIrishclover]

God please no, we dont need an open world, the open zones work fine, we just need more reason to go out into the zones outside of maps and 1 tribe (not including crafters/gatherers ofc)

[Raim]

Don't change how zones work. But DO revamp fates across the board to be more lucrative, better for leveling, and more interesting mechanically at all levels.

[Crafoutis]

Oh yes, 'dying' like it's been supposedly meant to have been for the past 13 years, repeatedly. Seems whenever there's something that players do not like in the game it's supposedly the game's death knell. *rolls eyes*

And it's never going to be open world again, the closest you're going to see is the large zones begun with HW. They tried open world in 1.0 and well, we all know how that turned out. Big open expanses of nothing.

Everquest 1 has more activity on its forums and subreddits than FFXIV does now.

[AshleyDragon]

Everquest 1 has more activity on its forums and subreddits than FFXIV does now.

Ouch that hurts, but well deserved imo, a game that is not ashamed of being an MMORPG is what we need.

[DPZ2]

Everquest 1 has more activity on its forums and subreddits than FFXIV does now.

So, I went and asked Copilot to compare the number of reddit posts in the last 6 months for everquest 1 and final fantasy 14 (which is something you can do).

Everquest 1 had an estimated 500-800 posts on the primary subreddit, final fantasy 14 had an estimated 15,000-20,000 posts. It's true that the activity trend is stable to low, with about 20k members for Everquest 1, while the activity is high but declining with about 900,000 members for final fantasy 14, but sure, your observation might be more correct.

The official forum for both games indicates 25,000-35,000 posts for FFXIV versus 3,000-5,000 for Everquest over the last 6 months, but sure, your observation might be more correct.

A brief glance at the Everquest forums indicates 30 August as the earliest current post on page 1. I'll leave it as an exercise to determine when the earliest current post shows up under "New Posts" on page 1 for this forum, but sure, your observation might be more correct.

Or not.

[desig99]

I can understand why some might want an open world; but I would rather have a sectioned off map that's more interesting to explore. An open world that's completely barren or empty just takes some of the issues some of the current maps in 14 have and just enlarges the scale of the issue. It may actually make those problems worse because if there are huge swathes of an open world map that are just field or dirt with no real interesting landmarks, events, or locations I feel like it would just feel hollow. Two things I would love to see are more involved fates and more incentives to actually go out into the open world. An option to sync levels down to the lowest of the party would be nice too. I have a friend who's looking to try the game for the first time and while I'm looking forward to going through the game with them on an alt, I wish that I could sync my main down to their level without being a max level player that just deletes whatever they're fighting. I know you can do this for fates so I don't think it would be too difficult to say match your level to the highest level non special mob in the zone or something.

I do agree with some of your points about jobs and job quests. I like some of the new role quests but I feel like the lack of a story line tied to each job diminishes the importance of that job to the games world. I would prefer for there to be a focus on making each job as enjoyable to play as possible and adding more in depth quests and lore for the already existing jobs than adding a new shiny thing to the lineup. In terms of gameplay, = I used to enjoy playing pre ew summoner, and while I understand the pet jank was a problem the gameplay and rotation of the job prior to the rework was much more fun for me personally. I'm sure the points been made a million times by now, I think that retroactively making summoners rotation easier was not the move. I don't mind some jobs being simpler to play, but I wish that there was also room for more experimental or complex job design too. I don't know if skill trees are the way to do that (I'm no game designer just someone with opinions on the internet), but I agree that the current formula should change.

[hynaku]

Open world would be great and not have to do the MSQ to just unlock the new crafting and gathering.

[Myotis]

Does anyone remember the scale and the way Guild Wars 1 did worked? That would be just perfect for the XIV - imagine adventure going on like that they used the "zones" as-well.
I would love to explore such areas with other players and they felt great.
Bosses, extra challange for those who wanted it with Hard Mode and some fancy loot it was just great and felt as the world was huge.