One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[EdenArchangel]

I'm hoping the prophecies of the 7th Umbral Age and the end of the world will usher in a complete sundering of the land and changing of the map.

I like to think that the team is smart, and is already planning this, just not giving any indication of it.

Let the world burn and be magically transformed, and you won't see a single question of "did something happen?" from my character.

[Poipori]

In before loyalists and blinded fan-boys come in to defend SE with crappy excuses like

1. pre-zilart ffxi sucks too, so ffxiv should suck at launch too!

2. xiv zones are awesome! blame yourself for not explore every single corner and search the entire screen for a remotely special thing that appear once every 10000miles.

[Demacia]

In before loyalists and blinded fan-boys come in to defend SE with crappy excuses like

1. pre-zilart ffxi sucks too, so ffxiv should suck at launch too!

2. xiv zones are awesome! blame yourself for not explore every single corner and search the entire screen for a remotely special thing that appear once every 10000miles.

Fucking tell me about it. People will bitch about XIV becoming XI-2 endlessly but once people start talking shit they'll pull the "Oh XI was bad when it first launched 9 years ago too nyaaa".

[Shikaree]

This really does bother me that exploring is at a minimum now. Grid/Ul'dah/Limsa should have stuck with the 1-30 phase and then Coerthas and Mor Dhona from 30-50. I'd say not even to 30 for a starting area, but SE made the zones so blasted large with so little different regions... Give some incentive for branching out more as your level goes up. I already don't like desert themes a lot, gonna make me sick to the stomach to have to look at it from 1-50.

[RedAffinity]

I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but when you step outside of your main city.. the single area map is about half the size of Vanadiel combined. Bit exaggeration there but you get the idea.

I'd have loved to walk outside Ul'Dah into the rocky areas, and venture off more towards the south and gradually see the environment transform into a true sandy desert (Altepa Deserts), or travel north and gradually climb higher into rockier more mountain like scenery, all on 1 map, all on 1 zone. Perhaps i'm not very creative to sound convincing with my details, but the general idea is there.

[Neptune]

Wow, Rowyne the truth hurts. Lol. Truly sad.

Also, there is sand dunes to the south of Ul'Dah that you can see if you go over there. But you can't access them, of course. ><

[Seif]

Not to add to your anxiety, but each of the three "main zones" currently have 1-96-ish rank mobs. xD

I'll admit that I don't like going to a virtually identical area every time I upgrade leve-quest ranks, though. =/

The main issue for me is the lack of the "Final Fantasy" feeling, just dirt and grass and more dirt. (Mor Dhona being the exception)

I believe XI tackled the combination of real world and fantasy areas quite well.
Sanctuary of Zi'tah, Ifrit's Cauldron, Temple of Uggalepih.... anywhere, really.

Summary --- I just want what makes Final Fantasy to show up, lol

Amen. The fields look like a blank sheet of paper to put something interesting on.

I definitely want them to make THESE areas interesting first before even thinking about adding new areas. If they add more fields before fixing this mess then I bet the main areas of XIV will never get a proper overhaul they desperately need.

Honestly I'm looking maps at every 30 seconds just because judging by the visuals I could be in 40 places of the same area.

[MeowyWowie]

I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but when you step outside of your main city.. the single area map is about half the size of Vanadiel combined. Bit exaggeration there but you get the idea.

I'd have loved to walk outside Ul'Dah into the rocky areas, and venture off more towards the south and gradually see the environment transform into a true sandy desert (Altepa Deserts), or travel north and gradually climb higher into rockier more mountain like scenery, all on 1 map, all on 1 zone. Perhaps i'm not very creative to sound convincing with my details, but the general idea is there.

This is true to an extent. But the very, very slight transition of scenery within a zone is barely noticeable at best, and completely pales in comparison to the variety seen in FFXI. Also, don't forget, FFXIV has only a handful of mob species so even if you grind in different areas on your way to 50 you're still killing the same mobs you were at rank 1. Sure, even in FFXI crabs and gobs were common targets, but you still had much more variety than what XIV offers. I don't remember grinding on one species all the way to cap in XI.

Fact is, SE took a huge step back in terms of mob placement, zone design, and basically everything else. It will be a very long time until it's all fixed. If they show that they are willing to fix it I might just stick around. But to be honest, there's plenty of other casual games that bury FFXIV in every aspect except graphics.

I'm not a casual gamer, but at the moment I'll take any casual game over XIV in its current state. The only reason I'm still here is because I have patience and hope for XIV, but even that is beginning to wear itself thin.

[Xenor]

The world doesn't even make sense. I mean Thanalan's desert suddenly transforms into a forest at the Shroud zone line? Where's the transition? I always felt there was a region missing between those and even on the world map it looks like there should be a desert area that turns into a grassy area followed by a river and then grassy before going to forest. Shroud itself makes no sense. If you've ever been north of Nine Ivies you'll see the area is miles above the ground, yet on the world map it's all flat.

I don't think they can fix these areas. They just need to be forgotten about as soon as an expansion comes along and adds new areas. Then again we aren't even using Coerthas and Mor Dhona for content yet or the 20 or so dungeons that are locked away.

[Richard]

You should have put a [dev] tag around this thread so they will actually take a look at it. OP is speaking volumes of truth here. This thread needs to explode with feedback and get looked at in seriousness. SE dropped the ball in their 2-5 years development time with trying to reinvent the wheel. They needed to stick to their XI roots, all of what made XI an amazing game. It might be a long shot but maybe we're being too fearful about our future, they might have 10 more zones planned and might be fleshing them out as we speak - who knows for sure right? Maybe Grid will actually get a mulligan and they'll turn it into something that a 5 year old wouldn't come up with. Doubtful I know.

Give the OP a huge thumbs up for this and make sure this thread gets noticed.