Quote Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah View Post
Fortunately for them they can do few creative things to make the current areas more lively with some effort.

For example the increased beastmen activity in these areas could help in making them more diverse. They can also add giant NM's to roam around and work as "landmarks" as themselves. Later on they can do the same with Garleans and their machinery.

I think it'll take quite a bit of effort to get these areas filled with interesting details, but there's no need for tons of costly assets (although they'd definitely help too).

At this point I think they should focus on a few large unique landmark assets in every open "zone" that you could see in the distance. Then just fill the rest of the place with beastmen, garleans and NM's.

I think these are good suggestions. Huge areas would be OK if there is variation from place to place within the area. Preferably western Thanalan would look very different from central and eastern Thanalan, but if they don't have the resources to make that happen, adding local landmarks within each section of an area would serve to differentiate things somewhat.

I agree with the OP that there really should be a transition between Thanalan and the Shroud. Actually, the world would feel a lot more real if there were transitions between all areas. The abrupt changes really hurt the immersion. It may be too much to ask to make the whole world seamless. However, it's possible to add smoother transitions even while maintaining loading screens between areas. For instance, if they gradually started increasing the amount of greenery and trees in northeastern Thanalan as you got toward the the zone to the Shroud it would make the transition seem much more natural. It would also be nice if the trees started thinning out and mountains came into view in the northwestern Shroud near the Coerthas zone.