One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Chrees]

Wait what does that mean? They won't be flying over the map. XI airships flew over a fake map right? This mean XIV's airships will be flying over the real world?

That can't be possible though. The way the world is set up, it's divided into zones, not one fluid continent. Now I'm wondering how the airships will work, too... :/

[normalforce]

Yea a redesign would solve a lot of those problems. Monster placement, boring repetitive environments, gameplay pacing, and the long travel times. It just has become more of a standard to have zones for monsters, and while trying something different isn't bad its just that this creates many problems within the game. I know it would require tons of work, but it will be more of a challenge to convince me that 1-50 zones are better.

This made me think of a herd of docile creatures roaming across the zone. Every once and a while, a few high level predators rush in and attack, taking down a few of their number before the herd runs off. Might be fun to watch, just make sure you're nowhere near when they're finished, or you might be next.

That can't be possible though. The way the world is set up, it's divided into zones, not one fluid continent. Now I'm wondering how the airships will work, too... :/

Yea, I'd tend to believe that. Mainly because any transition from Ul'dah to Gridania or Limsa — right now, at least — requires a black loading screen, I assume to flush out the current textures and load in the new ones.

[giftforce]

That can't be possible though. The way the world is set up, it's divided into zones, not one fluid continent. Now I'm wondering how the airships will work, too... :/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRY6V...ailpage#t=169s

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRY6V...ailpage#t=169s

I like the detail and architecture they put into the rooftops. I hope with the map revision we're able to legitimately visit those parts of Ul'Dah.

[Chrees]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRY6V...ailpage#t=169s

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Maybe I should have said "regions" instead of "zones."

Zahak was asking if FFXIV's airships would fly over the actual map in real-time, not over pre-made maps like in FFXI. The guy in the video went through the wall into Thanalan. What I'm asking is, if they do go over the real-time maps like Zahak was suggesting, how would that work with the loading screens between zones that we currently have, such as from Thanalan to The Black Shroud? The wording in the translation was extremely vague.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Maybe I should have said "regions" instead of "zones."

Zahak was asking if FFXIV's airships would fly over the actual map in real-time, not over pre-made maps like in FFXI. The guy in the video went through the wall into Thanalan. What I'm asking is, if they do go over the real-time maps like Zahak was suggesting, how would that work with the loading screens between zones that we currently have, such as from Thanalan to The Black Shroud? The wording in the translation was extremely vague.

They'd have to get rid of the loading screens part.

Also if they do incorporate jumping with a real-world airship... will they incorporate gibs?

[Kowen]

Wait what does that mean? They won't be flying over the map. XI airships flew over a fake map right? This mean XIV's airships will be flying over the real world?

If that's the case, they're going to have to do a LOT of remodeling to the maps...

All of the area in between the mountains and cliffs surrounding each zone is just empty space with no land, and on an airship you'd be able to see straight down into it.

[OMEGA_HACK]

They want you to be able to see a beautiful real time vista from the airships

They want your computers to explode so they can have time to fix the game in peace in quiet D:

Jokes aside this is pretty good news!

[Godryc]

Flying over the real world is a great thing if that is what he's saying. Leaves room for so many possibilities. Perhaps on occasion flying monsters will attack. Could even have beast tribe training flying monsters to carry them up and drop them on board for an attack/robbery.... or something.

[AreeyaJaidee]

Sadly this comes down to such a trivial thing as perception.

The game DOES have adventuring and variance throughout landscape.

The design implementation used by the crew of XIV is seen as ideal for many current day MMO designers. They believe that the One World design with minimal loading zones (blackscreen loads) improves the depth of immersion for the majority of today's current playerbase.

Also, there are more than 4 zones; and YES they will expand.

Let me ask you this, Have you ever taken time to really REALLY look at the game's overworld maps?

If you did you would see that there infact exists MANY other zones AND cities, and coincidentally they are liken to FFXI's environment: There's a Ice place like Xarcabard, there's a tropical jungle with a Volcano like Khazam, there's a beach/peninsula type place like Mhaura. That's only to name a few.

My point is: This is a common thing amongst players in the game. FEW of them know the Lore and hidden secrets of Eorzea because they haven't taken the time to even READ the ingame tomes OR even external maps the game shipped with!

So naturally, you say to yourselves: Well it's not there on a plate with big blinking lights pointing it out for me so therefore it doesn't exist.

Square Enix expects more from you all as fans of the Final Fantasy series. They should NEVER have to water down gameplay and immersion in order to give players a Easy Ride. That's just not how it's done at all.

In closing: There is A LOT more to this game than most people know. All it requires is EXPLORING the Guilds and landscape to figure this out.

(This game IS NOT FFXI. FFXI was built for OLD hardware and software and a crippled Network for MMo play. THAT is why it was designed how it was. Balancing. FFXIV is more modern and thus follows a more up to date trend of what companies have seen players like more. Open World seemless zones.)

Good Luck adventuring in Eorzea