Just some Immersion and Character Customization suggestions

[Norna]

World Suggestions

Okay, so many have said that the world feels too small, that the Aetherytes and settlements are too close to one another, making Eorzea feel more like a themepark than a continent. I have a few suggestions to make the world feel larger.

“Between Areas”

It is sort of realistic that settlements clump together, especially with the Aetheryte lore making people want to live near Aetherytes (if nothing else than from the revenue pulled in by adventuring clientele), but it is equally unrealistic that so many settlements decided to squeeze themselves so close together and so close to major cities, rather than becoming the city proper (unless there are rules about who’re allowed to buy property in the city, in that case, every settlement outside the cities should be slums). But I sort of got an idea on how to make the world bigger while at the same time not scrapping the current areas: Between Areas!

Okay, take the Blue Badger Gate in New Gridania: What if, instead of taking you directly to the Central Shroud, it takes you to a settlement-and-Aetheryte-less Blue Badger Meadows? There are FATEs and mobs around, and a dungeon or two, gathering spots and so on. These areas would also have special daily Treasure Hunt quests in which you have to search for a randomly placed chest which contains tokens that you can exchange for vanity items/chocobo barding at an NPC in the Adventurers’ Guilds.

Because of there not being an Aetheryte around, FATE groups would be divided between Gridania and Bentbranch Meadows.

If every area got this (between themselves, and between them and the cities), Eorzea would feel so much more like a continent.

Teleport Adjustments

Okay, Teleport is convenient and a gil sink, but it shrinks the world. I have a few suggestions as how to tweak it to grow the world by discouraging willynilly teleporting:

Limited Teleport: Basically, you can only teleport to the Aetherytes in the same area or one area over with each teleport.

MP Slightly Limited Teleport: Teleport anywhere within the same region (Black Shroud, Thanalan and so on), but it drains all MP like Sprint drains TP.

Aetheryte Shard Teleport: You don’t use gil to teleport, but shards of aetheryte that you purchase from an NPC or get through questing/dungeons. You’re only allowed to buy a limited amount a day, and depending on the distance, the number of shards needed are increased or decreased. Cannot teleport outside region bounds.

MP/CP/GP/TP Aetheryte Shard + Spell Teleport/Protection: As above, except MP/CP/GP/TP are both drained and are recovered at half rate, and if you level up a Disciple of Magic to 50 you learn a spell that can teleport yourself, or send someone you cast the spell on (mage taxi service, anyone?), to the chosen Aetheryte. Disciples of War learn a spell that protects theirs, and their group’s Points during teleport and gives a 10 min boost to Point recovery directly after teleport (so if they start fighting/gathering directly off the bat, their recovery is 150%).

Alternatively, just bring back the Mana system.

Character Customization Suggestions

First, fix the perma-lipliner on some of the face textures when using a Lip Color. Thanks.

We should be able to use more than one face-paint (especially when make up goes under face paint), I would suggest a limit of 5 (If someone wants to build a complex eyeshadow, say blue base with green closest to nose and violet on the corner/lid, that’s 3, and then there’s the blush making 4, and finally any warpaint/symbol/whatever free slot).

Anyway, for the Miqo’te, I would like a thick tail (like a cartoon fox, maybe?) and some hairstyles that are at least as long as the Roegadyn’s longest hairstyles that are loose and not in a ponytail.

It would be nice to have some waist-length hair, and since the physics don’t work on loose hair, those could be pony/pigtails and braids for all the races.

Animation customization would also be nice. Basically, the emotes plus idle/riding/jump/combat idle can be set to different styles (so you could have a Roegadyn lady sit like a male Miqo’te, and then ride the unicorn side-saddle like an Elezen lady and idle stand like a male Midlander and sit like a Lalafell), by buying animation packages (Miqo’te ♀/Roegadyn ♂/Lalafell ♀ and so on) for GC seals.

The “equip” window could be accessed through a button in the Emote window, and it would list the emotes+other anims with drop down menus beneath them (and when done, there’s three buttons on the bottom: Save, Quit without Save, Return to Default). Eventually, you could release packages such as Proper/Energetic/Shy/Reticent and so on. It would do wonders at making the world look more diverse.

Anyway, what does everyone think?

[Norna]

I had another idea! (That or I just really need sleep.)

Crafting and Dye Customization Overhaul

First, allow us to dye everything (most protests I’ve seen against this are illogical: Iconography is preserved through the official art and the default colors. That they would be garish and clashing, and that limiting the system is somehow preventing this is contradicted by the clown-like Roe who teaches us dyeing in the first place).

Add colors such as pale violet/purple and indigo (just to get that out of the way).

Okay, is anyone else confused why we can only dye certain parts of armor? Or why Goldsmiths waste time learning cloth dyeing recipes? Or how annoying it is when the leather and metals clashes with the perfect color? How about this:

Culinarian, Alchemist and Weaver makes dyes.
Goldsmith, Blacksmith and Armorer makes [copper/bronze/silver/gold/whatever metal/color] plating.
Leatherworker and Carpenter makes [insert colors] stains.

Dyes affects cloth/cloth based lacing. Plating affects metals. Stains affects wood, leather and furs.

Take the Gryphon Skin Jerking; it has one type of fur, three types of cloth (I count the rope as separate), three types of leather and two types of metal, so it would have these slots:
4 Stain Slots (Leathers and fur)
3 Dye Slots (Shirt, rope and minibag-thingy)
2 Plating Slots (All the clasps/studs plus belly detail [which I think might be metal, I’m not sure])

By contrast, the Woolen Smock would have 4 Dye Slots only while Wood Wailer’s Jacket would be all Stains and Plating.

Yeah, a system as extensive as this would probably not happen before 2.5-3.0, though if they ever want to make it, it might be easier while the items in game are a manageable number. Would be nice to have, though.

[Kendall_Lawliet]

Agreed with everything, except the teleport suggestions. The world will still be as small/non-small with a limited, teleport. It will just be more annoying to get around.

[CUTS3R]

Anyway, for the Miqo’te, I would like [...] some hairstyles that are at least as long as the Roegadyn’s longest hairstyles that are loose and not in a ponytail.

This a million times.
But im pretty sure this is coming with the barber shop since we will be able to use hairstyles from others races ( let alone possible new long ones ).

[Zarath]

They've already stated numerous times that longer hair styles are not possible due to memory restraints...

Layers of make-up would also be memory intensive... so not possible.

The custom animations would be a ton of work for very little reward, I doubt they'll do anything like that.

[Norna]

(Snip)

Actually, it was a physics issue (which would be mitigated by pulling up the hair and thus restraining the movement). Layers of make up should be possible unless things are very badly coded and optimized (since multiples of the same mask/textures should only be read as one [since they're local files], and propagated through the loaded area, with color/transparency being the same. So if 3 charas each have a different eye shadow, they would share memory load with a chara that has all three). Lots of stuff (like getting in and out of bed in inns, designing, modelling and coding minions) are a ton of work and only with little reward.

[Norna]

Bumping this for visibility/more feedback? Maybe others have some suggestions on these issues?