Creating a Compelling World

[Kazimir]

100% agree with everything you've said. FFXIV was a huge disappointment to me in terms of the scenery. All of the areas are way too big and repetitive. Everywhere I've gone everything just seems so dead. It amazes me how a game that comes out in this day and age isn't even a small fraction as good as FFXI's scenery was when it came out. I honestly watched those scenery videos before XIV was release and became excited to see what XIV had in store. I'm not even sure disappointment is a big enough word to describe how I feel about the landscape and scenery of FFXIV. All of this graphic potential and nothing was done with it.


EDIT: I urge people to reply to this thread. It is very important they know how we feel about the general scenery in this game. Some may feel it's negligible but scenery is a very important part of an MMO. Even more important than some of the things they are changing now because it stimulates and enhances the experience. I don't even think many realize how much it would improve the game for everyone. It is something they can and should add and improve on, and it seems we only get the attention needed when a thread has a lot of replies.

[Teknoman]

100% agree with everything you've said. FFXIV was a huge disappointment to me in terms of the scenery. All of the areas are way too big and repetitive. Everywhere I've gone everything just seems so dead. It amazes me how a game that comes out in this day and age isn't even a small fraction as good as FFXI's scenery was when it came out. I honestly watched those scenery videos before XIV was release and became excited to see what XIV had in store. I'm not even sure disappointment is a big enough word to describe how I feel about the landscape and scenery of FFXIV. All of this graphic potential and nothing was done with it.


EDIT: I urge people to reply to this thread. It is very important they know how we feel about the general scenery in this game. Some may feel it's negligible but scenery is a very important part of an MMO. Even more important than some of the things they are changing now because it stimulates and enhances the experience. I don't even think many realize how much it would improve the game for everyone. It is something they can and should add and improve on, and it seems we only get the attention needed when a thread has a lot of replies.

Totally agree. The current areas are great ideas in general, but they really need lots of small effects to flesh them out. Also some of the buildings in the areas should at least lead to different places, or maybe even mini dungeons. There are alot of wells/sewer grates scattered across La Noscea, that seem like they would be potential entrances to a lower cave area underground. There is also the case of the random caves around La Noscea that are just completely empty aside from one or two enemies.

I'm not sure if alot of these points or buildings in the area are just spots that are crucial to certain story missions, and maybe certain areas dont seem as lively as they should because of lack of beast tribe activity (camp fires, monuments, vehicles, etc) but something really needs to be done. I'm sure some of this will be remedied once they drastically increase the world enemy population, which I guess is going to be in patch within the very near future, but adding different small effects and perhaps even more plant life or stone structures would also help.

Wasnt there something in one of Yoshida's letters, talking about making more separate zone lines in order to work on this? Personally, I think the extremely large zone size could be at fault here.