Adding Life to the Cities!

[Leeloo]

Right! There should be something us adventurers are trying to save. From what I've seen noone really has any feel or connection for their starter city like players did in FFXI. I don't mean to keep comparing the game to FFXI, it's just the game I played longest and I'm able to take more comparisons of general player activity from that.

Windurstians and San d'Orians were always having a blood feud on my server because they were always battling for top place in world-beastmen-dominance.

Bastok was just there <,< lol'

In fact, I think the Conquest Points system was another thing that gave you reason to have pride in your city. It made you want to get first place so you could get more points. And if the beastmen took it, you HAD to take it back >:O

And that brought other small things that added life to the game like the regional vendors that showed up depending on who controlled that region. Supply quests for OP warps.

Also having the OP warps to Ronfaure, Gustaberg, Saruta were awesome and a big slap in the face to that nation when your nation took it = D

[Kailok]

And that brought other small things that added life to the game like the regional vendors that showed up depending on who controlled that region. Supply quests for OP warps.

Also having the OP warps to Ronfaure, Gustaberg, Saruta were awesome and a big slap in the face to that nation when your nation took it = D

Yep! And the reason it was a slap in the face was because 1) you had your national pride and 2) they jacked some stuff from you that you couldn't use until you gained the lead again. I also remember if you had that region overtaken you could set your HP at an OP for way cheaper.

[Kailok]

I think if they had made Gridania a more interesting city people might happen across it more. >.>; When they originally released concept art for Gridania it seemed like a city that bloomed at night with lights of lights. It also seemed bigger.

I think that's another problem I have with the current cities. They are in total about the size of one zone from the FFXI cities. Gridania is about the same size as Windurst Walls (I think that was the name). They are supposed to be grand cities but there isn't really much to them. The biggest city is obviously Limsa, but I've always liked Ul'Dah a bit because of the idea behind the city. It was kind of like the Jeuno of FFXIV in the fact that it was where everyone went to trade and make a life for themselves.

[Anima]

If I could like this a Hundred time and SE would put it in, I'd do it.

[Shyd]

I like this idea. Would give a more FF feel.

I think just about every FF game has had an "active" town. The npcs just randomly walking around, getting in your way or whatever.

So would make it more of a FF game to have life in the cities other then PC's. There are tons of shops in the cities that npcs could wander to and back, maybe stop in the guilds?

But i think this would be a nice thing to have this be worthy of the number~

[Zenaku]

when you go in a CS from ship to ship there loads of NPC or any CS for that matter the city is full of left once you enter the game. It's like where the hell did everyone go? they need to had more life to the game with more npcs walking and talking like how FFXI did.

[Kennedy]

I agree so much with all the above, there should be NPC's and larger re-vamped cities. I remember in San d'Oria when you could enter almost every door and explore the castle, the knights room (or whatever it was), go upstairs to people's houses and even go down to the jail where you can fight bats and things such as that. In all the cities in FFXIV there are barely any doors that can open and all bland. It would seriously inject a lot of life if the cities were larger more NPC's and random quests/stories

[KaedrianLiang]

I feel your concerns op, traveling all the way Gridania to not cross a single player on the Tranquil paths and even LL many a times i find myself alone on the boat. When arriving at said city-states i hardly see anyone outside of crafters in the usual crafting attires.

When we had more players, everything was alive. From afk bazaars to traveling players. Hopefully when the game has finished its development players will come back to make everything bustling and alive again.

[Kailok]

I feel your concerns op, traveling all the way Gridania to not cross a single player on the Tranquil paths and even LL many a times i find myself alone on the boat. When arriving at said city-states i hardly see anyone outside of crafters in the usual crafting attires.

When we had more players, everything was alive. From afk bazaars to traveling players. Hopefully when the game has finished its development players will come back to make everything bustling and alive again.

Again, I think we don't see as many players around because of the lack of immersion, which having more NPCs in the game could help with. They should add them in cities, along routes between cities. They should have emissaries and their body guards from other Grand Companies along the roads. THAT would be cool to see.

[Onidemon]

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, I tried to find it in the search to see if it's been commented on before but I didn't find anything so I decided I'd make a topic about it.

I was just thinking that if SE added more NPCs within the cities it would bring more life to the cities and make them seem more robust. What reminded me of this was I saw this picture that was posted up on the na.finalfantasyxiv.com website a while back:

http://pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/200906/03...9_23351252.jpg

That picture really makes it seem like the Adventurers Guilds from FFTA that were bustling with adventurers looking for missions. I walk into the AG in Ul'Dah and there's a few NPCs in there but they don't look like they're enjoying each other's company, in fact, they don't even seem aware of each other's existence. The lack of a larger amount of NPCs walking around is one of the reasons the cities are somewhat boring to me. I know it's supposed to be "players" that fill the streets, but I feel like a lack of life in the cities is one of the reasons that some players left the game in the first place. Not everyone in the city is going to be one of us adventurers.

For example's sake, please take a look at the screenshot below.

Gridania - http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/w...ridania001.jpg

This is the ramp to the more important areas (Adventurer's Guild) in the city, but you don't see any NPC's traveling down it or strolling along.

I can't think of a single NPC in the game that walks on it's own path around the city. In fact, I've never seen an NPC walk on their own at all.

I think with the addition of The Grand Companies, and the looming disaster at our feet, it could give reason for hordes of citizens to start flocking to the cities to be under the protection of the Grand Companies from the Garlean Empire.

Just an idea. I'm aware we have to wait until the Battle Systems have been improved first, but I figured it should be a part of the overall awareness of what needs doing. People beg for realism yet we're walking around inside of cities with approximately 40 total NPC citizens.

Please don't be rude, if you don't like the idea, then at least give a constructive and fair reason as to why not.

I completely agree with you. I understand SE thought the game would be crawling with players and that would fill the streets and the aventurer's guild but everything feels rather lifeless right now. Not only should they add more NPC but they should be able to move around the city. Some NPC could travel the city and sell goods etc... This shouldn't apply to cities only but to the world map too. There should be more monsters, NPC patrolling near the cities, traveling merchants, Hmanoid monsters(thiefs, thugs) that attack you etc.... Eorzea is by far the most lifeless virtual world i've seen and this needs to be addressed asap.

Too bad this thread will be ignored by the community reps and even if we do manage to get a comment from the dev team it will be "we appreciate your ideas and we will look into it... eventually...".