One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Joeking]

Where does Square Enix see us a year from now? Or two?

Playing a different game.

Are we still in Thanalan? Are we battling rank 70 foes?

No, we are playing a different game.

Or, are we in a completely revised, living, breathtaking world? A world of areas divided by milestones? With clear goals and progression?

No, we are playing a different game.

Where will you take us, Square Enix?

A different game.

[Anty]

your comments make me laugh i like them

[LazKai]

As I see it, this thread hits the nail on the head with just about all of my major concerns for this game. The immersion, sense of exploration, danger, progress and adventure you get from areas that are well thought out and designed, as well as aesthetically pleasing is sort of missing from the game.

I hate to make the XIV/XI comparison whenever I voice my opinion/concern but I just have to say that the level of planning and design that went into the areas in XI was, to me, unparalleled in any mmo I've tried out/played. This didn't just mean that XI's zones were simply "really cool" and "unique" but it meant that they tied in with the game's history and storyline flawlessly. What I mean are things like how in Selbina, there's a charcater closely related to the main events of the first expansion, yet the tie in is so subtle that many people miss the connection, or don't find out until months (or years, even) later. Or how about certain aspects of the areas themselves reflect what is actually happening. For example, Garlaige Citadel was case in point in terms of lore, where it was 20 years before the game's setting as well as the present. Or any of the beastmen strongholds that signify the very essence of the game's (first and foremost) storyline. I won't even go into the plethora of multi-tiered quests that take you from one area to the next, use unique characteristics (geography if you will, I remember hearing more about this earlier in the thread) of those areas to enhance the strategic game-play of said quests, and tell their own story at the same time, as trying to describe this without ever playing the game wouldn't do them justice.

Now with all that said, I don't want to see zones to be carbon copies of what we had in XI, I'd just rather see SE use them as their primary source of inspiration before trying to make the new areas more alike to what is considered "normal" in the mmo scene.

And while it all sounds good on paper, as a person with experience in 3D digital software I can personally guarantee any major changes (like revamping current zones, or making entire new ones) to the current areas (if at all) will be a long time coming.

TL;DR: Zones need to be aesthetically pleasing as well as unique, exciting, immersive in lore and story/quests. Yet doing this in the current state of the game could take a very long time.

[Mack]

TL;DR: Zones need to be aesthetically pleasing as well as unique, exciting, immersive in lore and story/quests. Yet doing this in the current state of the game could take a very long time.

Long time or otherwise imo it needs to be done and progression in this game needs to be revised. I personally don't care for them to tie it into a story for us, like the Umbral Era that's coming, I would be just as happy patching the game up one day and having a completely new world to play in. In fact I would even scrap my character and start at square one if this happened. IMO this is the single most lacking aspect of this game and if they change everything else about the game and make it better and turn a blind eye to this subject, they would have done absolutely nothing in my books.

I LOVE to bring up XI when talking about XIV because SE should have learned from XI and improved on it, and XI is a great example of how the world should be designed. When it comes to XIV its like we're talking to a completely new developer, we shouldn't be telling them we want this they should have known on their own. I think the fact that no matter how long you played XI for and there was always something new out there for you to see was amazing for me and I'm sure plenty others. FFXIV currently has 5 major zones (so ignoring dungeons or mines) and the entire map seems like it can carry about 8 or 9 in total, compare this to XI's 30 some and it falls a little short I'd say.

If this doesn't change, and I'm so glad this topic came up and got this much attention, so if this doesn't change I wont be playing the game any more. I hate that it would have to come down to this but I play a FF MMO because I want to get lost in its world, but I'm already sick of all 3 starting areas in XIV and I've barely set foot in its world.

[Rane]

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

Just for added measure, it's worth mentioning that I'm not saying that FFXIV should simply copy XI. Every Final Fantasy game in the main series takes you on a journey around the world. As far as MMO's are concerned, I've only played FFXI and WoW, but both games had that same element of adventure. You explore the world, leaving the safety of home and setting off for fantastic and dangerous areas. That's an essential part of what makes an MMORPG great, and something that XIV is sorely lacking.

[EdenArchangel]

I'd like to add to what I said earlier in the thread by mentioning that, like the OP and most everyone else, I really don't like having mobs from R1 all the way up to the upper 90s in the starting zones. I decided to try exploring the area just to the east of Ul'dah last week. Naturally, it looked the same as most anywhere else in Thanalan. But I noticed that, though the mobs were all very low level right next to the city, as I went a little farther east I was suddenly greeted with R70 enemies. I ran by them to the top of a hill (near one of the aetherial nodes) and found R77 Cactuars.

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away. And when I got to the aetherial node I found that it linked back to Camp Black Brush. What a disappointment!

I should qualify what I said about high-level mobs being far off into the world by noting that I am not against having cities in the middle of high level areas, such as Al Zahbi in Aht Urhgan. Getting to Al Zahbi was an accomplishment in itself, and I felt like I had ventured off to the other side of the world. But FFXIV starts and ends in the same place, and it doesn't really move anywhere. This is not a Final Fantasy.

I agree. With my personal favorite mobs including tonberries and cactuars, the Cactus Basin east of Ul'dah was one of my first sprinting around as miner exploring locations. And boy, there were cactuars, like many areas, but nothing worth calling it an entire "Cactus Basin."

I'm all for exciting names and places, but I don't believe a single place reflects its name currently.
Iron Lake... I'm not sure which lake is the "Iron Lake," lol
The Black shroud is a tacky lime green everywhere, and not darker than anywhere else in the middle of the night.
Broken Water... what? How is this broken in a non-human anatomical way?
Treespeak... what? No treants here =/
Dragonhead... Bahamut is in Mor Dhona "sleeping"
Bearded Rock is spoken of in npc dialogue (some captain went down valiantly and turned to stone on his death? something)... but where is the Bearded Rock? lol
People can't immerse themselves in the lore... because the world doesn't reflect the lore, and people rush through the starter zones to get to Broken Water, and so much of the world gets neglected. D:

Not 100% where I'm going with this, I just preferred XI's naming style;
Ronfaure instead of Green Woods, Sauromogue Champaign instead of Tan Rock Valley, Crawler's Nest instead of Large Bug Cave... then again, if they used these bad names listed here, at least they would make sense. lol


TL;DR-----Wish for Final Fantasy areas with Final Fantasy names D:

[Miliant]

The world is terribly bland, excessively large, incredibly repetitive. The landscape should change more and more often. Also what EdenArchangel said is absolutely true, most of the names were just thrown out there and do not reflect the little lore there is in the game. They could've just called La Noscea "Greenlands" and then "camp 1", "camp 2", "camp 3". It would have made no difference whatsoever. They all look the same; they all *are* the same.

And in my humble opinion, the world is so terribly devoid of life and atmosphere that throwing a little hub here and there that looks exactly like the other 20 hubs they're gonna add isn't going to change the fact that the world is dead and it does not feel like a FF game. If the dev team really isn't up to the task of redisgning the whole world so that both its size and appearance make it feel like a FF game, then they should just switch everything off and go home.

[Siobu]

Seeing mobs like that should be something special. It should be an exciting moment when you venture far enough out into the world to catch a glimpse of high-level enemies. You should feel isolated and far from home. That's what creates the sense of adventure. But there was Ul'dah, about a two minute walk away.

Thank you, Rane. You echoed my feelings, as well as others, perfectly.

I hope that our diligence over the last two days might bring this thread to their attention. And this isn't even the first thread of its kind to touch upon this issue.

I believe, after all this time, we should know where our future here will take us.

We should know whether we're going on an adventure, or staying home.

This is how I feel. And now I know that I am not alone.

[EdenArchangel]

@ Miliant Thank you ^^

Feel free to browse my personal forum posts that are in this thread, lot of different ideas, starting from the first page actually, heh o.o;;
as I keep finding more to add

[EdenArchangel]

I thought of something else---

I dream of an Eorzea where miners actually mine in mines and caves, botanists can also maintain their own garden, and fishers can work a small fishery (perhaps pulling up two really rare fish -> put in fishery -> baby fish farm :3).

Thus providing an escape from the shared and defined rank zones for gatherers, the same problem we've been discussing regarding ranking and adventure, but applied to gatherers as well~

I'll admit I don't like the guided specific ranks for specific areas that was forced on gatherers, much like the battle classes, especially if I want to rank all 3 of the current classes. ....in the same identical areas.... again.

However, this could probably be remedied with unique, diverse zones, but options are always nice. ^^

Diversity for the win!