One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Tsuwu]

I do think that one aspect crippling the sense of exploration of this gorgeous (although repetitive - kinda like Flintstones background loop repetitive at times) world is the very very readily available, instant teleportation system.
Convenience at the cost of stifled fun and adventure.

I was so adamant about this, I actually attempted setting up a "World Tour" of sorts on my server.
We'd do the unthinkable - walk, not warp - to different zones. Take screen shots and show everyone how gorgeous the world was, and that there WAS things to see. But, 90% of people who had been there for more than 2 months already had seen the entire world, and they'd just be wasting their time taking snaps of the same things, over and over, broken up by the small handful of landmarks they already knew of.

You can, if you so choose, get your LS together with a load of freshly rolled characters (aptly named fun things such as Youcanhas Warpz) and by anima load sharing, get each and every single zone picked up by this rank 1 character, then just alt it to be a public bus to and from hot zones such as BW and LL. And you'd quickly make more money than any other person legitimately grinding, with 1/4 the effort. And you're still an R1 CON in your Weathered gear. Something about that system stinks. And it ruins the vast world.

I say once we have this oft-rumored 'catastrophic coming of the 7th Umbral Age', Anima should regenerate slower than Charlie Sheen's contract with 2 1/2 Men.

[Calevr]

Good stuff added on here tonight!

I feel like sharing my first time with FFXI, it was the first MMO i ever played. I didn't know what to do but i was overwhelmed with how big the world was! I started out as a Hume/Warrior fighting Tiny Mandragoras and Bumblebees straight out the gates of Windurst. I remember my first ass whooping from a Yagudo and meeting the best friend i could have in a game. She really helped me to enjoy the game teaching me things i needed to know and helping me complete quests. I had got to lv10 exploring most of Sarutabaruta, the Horutoto Ruins and Giddeus, with an adventurers attitude. It took me almost a week to get here but it was an amazing start to the game for me. Soon later we decided to leave our beautiful home and adventure into the unknown, Tahrongi Canyon and then Buburimu Peninsula. We didn't know where we were going but it was exciting! We came across new enemies like the Bull Dhalmel and with no trouble we managed to make it to a small port town called Mhaura. After saying goodbye to my friend i got on the ferry and headed out to sea. I had such a blast on my first ferry ride, talking to other adventurers and watching people fish. What an amazing journey! After fifthteen minutes on the ferry I got off in Selbina. There i got my first party and experienced a different whole FFXI.

Each zone had uniqueness that motivated me to keep playing!

[Seif]

Good stuff added on here tonight!

I feel like sharing my first time with FFXI, it was the first MMO i ever played. I didn't know what to do but i was overwhelmed with how big the world was! I started out as a Hume/Warrior fighting Tiny Mandragoras and Bumblebees straight out the gates of Windurst. I remember my first ass whooping from a Yagudo and meeting the best friend i could have in a game. She really helped me to enjoy the game teaching me things i needed to know and helping me complete quests. I had got to lv10 exploring most of Sarutabaruta, the Horutoto Ruins and Giddeus, with an adventurers attitude. It took me almost a week to get here but it was an amazing start to the game for me. Soon later we decided to leave our beautiful home and adventure into the unknown, Tahrongi Canyon and then Buburimu Peninsula. We didn't know where we were going but it was exciting! We came across new enemies like the Bull Dhalmel and with no trouble we managed to make it to a small port town called Mhaura. After saying goodbye to my friend i got on the ferry and headed out to sea. I had such a blast on my first ferry ride, talking to other adventurers and watching people fish. What an amazing journey! After fifthteen minutes on the ferry I got off in Selbina. There i got my first party and experienced a different whole FFXI.

Each zone had uniqueness that motivated me to keep playing!

That's what I'm talking about. Compared to that there is absolutely NO VARIETY WHATSOEVER in XIV.

I'd be completely fine if they scaled down all the areas by 80% is it meant that they'd re-design them to look interesting.

I don't need to see generic hill no3 15 times all over the place anyway.

[Siobu]

Thanks for sharing, Calevr! Exploring and earning new areas has always been my most memorable and satisfying experiences during my time in online games. Especially with friends.

Hopefully with all the upcoming news being translated, our thread will be acknowledged along the way.

[Zanfire]

Just putting it out there, but how long are people willing to wait and keep up with the game, if for some crazy reason they DO decide to fix the world? to what degree would you consider it "fixed"? What if they started charging before it happened? id like to see some peoples responses to these questions.

For me, im not waiting forever to be honest. Il give it at most another 6-8 months (unless i hear how something like a big world reboot is almost done) before i throw in the towel. For me, just adding in some camps and fixing some mob placement IS NOT enough, the world itself as it stands is such a big problem to me, i just dont even want to bother moving around because i know its 90% of the same copy/paste crap. If they start charging anytime soon, which i have a bad feeling it will be by the end of the summer, im going to likely bid this game adieu.

[Mack]

Just putting it out there, but how long are people willing to wait and keep up with the game, if for some crazy reason they DO decide to fix the world? to what degree would you consider it "fixed"? What if they started charging before it happened? id like to see some peoples responses to these questions.

For me, im not waiting forever to be honest. Il give it at most another 6-8 months (unless i hear how something like a big world reboot is almost done) before i throw in the towel. For me, just adding in some camps and fixing some mob placement IS NOT enough, the world itself as it stands is such a big problem to me, i just dont even want to bother moving around because i know its 90% of the same copy/paste crap. If they start charging anytime soon, which i have a bad feeling it will be by the end of the summer, im going to likely bid this game adieu.

I'll wait (as in stop playing) 'til its fixed. Say it take two more years, I'll forget about FFXIV and pretend it never was released to begin with and come in in two years and see what happens. Of course it wont take this long if they wanna have a shot at salvaging this game so I'd say we're looking at, at most, end of fiscal year for them to get things straightened out; this makes it March 2012. Of course this may or may not include a map revamp considering most of the talk in this conversation is our imagination going wild and we hardly know what the devs have planned....funny considering these forums were supposed to bridge that gap, and yet we still wait for a reply.

[Cyruance]

Just putting it out there, but how long are people willing to wait and keep up with the game, if for some crazy reason they DO decide to fix the world? to what degree would you consider it "fixed"? What if they started charging before it happened? id like to see some peoples responses to these questions.

For me, im not waiting forever to be honest. Il give it at most another 6-8 months (unless i hear how something like a big world reboot is almost done) before i throw in the towel. For me, just adding in some camps and fixing some mob placement IS NOT enough, the world itself as it stands is such a big problem to me, i just dont even want to bother moving around because i know its 90% of the same copy/paste crap. If they start charging anytime soon, which i have a bad feeling it will be by the end of the summer, im going to likely bid this game adieu.

I don't know if the world as it is now can be fixed. To really achieve this, to give a real sense of adventure and progression would take a level of effort and thoroughness that I have trouble imagining, much less seeing SE actually implement. Not only would you have to dice the world into smaller, more distinct zones with smaller level ranges, but you'd have to(well really should) establish lore to go with the zones/locations, quests should be associated with them, story missions should deal with them, music has to be assigned, etc. In my opinion it would take nothing less than a world reboot to even approach what FFXI had, or most other major MMOs to be honest.

Perhaps its apparent that I'm a bit of a lore fanatic, but it truly seems they have lost any sense of a coherent vision for the world from a story point of view with their seemingly haphazard attempts to fix and adjust. (looking at you Grand Companies <.< ) How can they really create a world with numerous distinct places and a clear progression of danger without a central story vision? >< When you walked into Xarcabard in FFXI as a lowbie, you knew you were in the ultimate dangerous place - the scenery, the music, the mobs - and it all existed within a specific vision created by the lore... it was the Shadow Lord's domain, the frozen north from whence the evil that sparked the Crystal War came. Naturally, this was the most dangerous place in the game, suitable for only the highest levels.(This all being pre-expansions of course)

Anyway, personal rant aside..

What I'd envision happening is that scenario of adding more camps and fixing mob placement, trying to define more of a sense of progression in the world as it is - because short of a straight up reboot, any halfway redesign would fail to really capture any sort of adventuring magic for people who have already trekked through the utterly bland, largely 3-zone world. The realistic dream imo(though maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised), would be for them to take this massive thread and player outcry to heart in implementing the rest of the world, to add new zones which are smaller, more distinct, and frankly more thought out in the future.

Until that time, whatever may come, I'm content to watch for battle changes, class/job changes, and other crucial updates to the actual gameplay mechanics - so that whatever new world we're confronted with, we're able to enjoy it more than the last.

[Richard]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...806-14-2011%29

Auto attack and new animations look SICK. /sadpanda for the delayed patch but all worth it if they get all the kinks out ahead of time!

[Chrees]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...806-14-2011%29

Auto attack and new animations look SICK. /sadpanda for the delayed patch but all worth it if they get all the kinks out ahead of time!

Agreed! Chaos Thrust and Rage of Halone looked amazing! I'm stoked for this patch.

[kurokawa]

No mention of any major area design changes in the letter, however the letter was specifically about auto attack so....

He did say that 1.18 will be a heavyweight patch, so there's still hope one day.

Is it me or did anyone else notice the music change between fights in the video? Not sure if I've heard that track before. Area looks to be near Limsa but that isn't the local area music is it?