One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[EdenArchangel]

Their attempt at "seamless transitions" was half-baked at best anyway because there are many, many times when we get "fade to black load screens" anyway. They are mostly due to Story Quests and instance loading but seeing as how our "immersion" is broken when we are halted in our tracks and a menu pops up asking if we want to continue, what is the point of "seamless zones"?

I also would gladly sacrifice "Seamless & Boring" for "Loadscreens & Variety".

Good points.
The only thing I liked about open world was seeing the cities in the distance or the ocean, and even that be done with a pretty wallpaper.

It's just not a sacrifice, it's a complete necessity to change.

Oh, and like for you. ^^

[Seif]

Actually, Xarcabard did come with the original game (the vanilla pre-Rise of the Zilart version first released in Japan). It was the home of the Shadow Lord, the end boss of the game when the level cap was 50.

In fact, here are all of FFXI's original pre-Zilart areas (Source):

Cities/Towns (6):

* Bastok
* Jeuno
* Mhaura
* San d'Oria
* Selbina
* Windurst

Zones (21):

* Batallia Downs
* Beaucedine Glacier
* Behemoth's Dominion
* Buburimu Peninsula
* East Ronfaure
* East Sarutabaruta
* Jugner Forest
* Konschtat Highlands
* La Theine Plateau
* Meriphataud Mountains
* North Gustaberg
* Pashhow Marshlands
* Qufim Island
* Rolanberry
* Sauromugue Champaign
* South Gustaberg
* Tahrongi Canyon
* Valkurm Dunes
* West Ronfaure
* West Sarutabaruta
* Xarcabard

Dungeons (28):

* Altar Room
* Beadeaux
* Castle Oztroja
* Castle Zvahl Baileys
* Castle Zvahl Keep
* Crawlers' Nest
* Davoi
* The Eldieme Necropolis
* Inner Horutoto Ruins
* Fei'Yin
* Fort Ghelsba
* Garlaige Citadel
* Ghelsba Outpost
* Giddeus
* Gusgen Mines
* Horlais Peak
* King Ranperre's Tomb
* Lower Delkfutt's Tower
* Middle Delkfutt's Tower
* Monastic Cavern
* Ordelle's Caves
* Outer Horutoto Ruins
* Palborough Mines
* Qulun Dome
* Ranguemont Pass
* Upper Delkfutt's Tower
* Yughott Grotto
* Zeruhn Mines

What do we have in FFXIV?

Cities/Towns (3):

* Limsa Lominsa
* Ul'dah
* Gridania

(I guess you could technically also count the hamlets, but they're pretty much empty atm)

Zones (5):

* La Noscea
* Thanalan
* The Black Shroud
* Coerthas
* Mor Dhona

Dungeons (6):

* Copperbell Mines
* Nanawa Mines
* The MunTuy Cellars
* The TamTara Deepcroft
* Mistbeard Cove
* Cassiopeia Hollow

Pre-Zilart was still miles better than what we've got in FFXIV. It's a pretty sad comparison, honestly.

No competition at all between these 2.

What's worse it's hard to find area's in XI that are as boring as the biggest maps in XIV.

[Wynn]

We really do move on to different places as we progress in level, via the leve/camp system. The real problem is that it is all too similar. A 40 camp isn't much different than a 20 camp. There are a few differences here and there but, when it is all said and done, Broken water and Horizon don't stand apart from one another. I think that is why we don't have a sense of progression.

They say the reason the world is so uniform because of the size of the textures. I'm not a game maker. I can't argue with that because I don't know anything about it to question the validity of that statement. I have no real reason to not believe that is the truth of it. But the superior question we should be bringing to the table is if SE knew that they had to create these boring, repetitive landscapes due to how highly detailed and large their textures were, why then did they opt to go with these giant zones at all? They should have just gone back to smaller, but more numerous, zones in order to capitalize on the power and beauty of their game engine by creating a strikingly gorgeous, diverse, living world. Why settle for mediocre and bland?

To be fair, I think they are aware of how homogenized everything is, along with the general discontent felt by the player base, and are taking steps to make the different areas stand out a bit more.

In the following producer letter we see designs for more unique camps designed to be quest hubs and that is a start:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/9220

If they can just somehow make each camp "zone" stand out from the rest then that will provide that sense of new and exciting places. At least somewhat.

I do hope that in the future we will see more varied terrains. Snowy mountains. Maybe a jungle. But there sure is a lot of unused camps in the current regions now. I fear we may be destined to more of the same if things don't change.

[Zhyrios]

Farcry 2 had a a huge seamless 50km squared map, with much higher graphic quality and diversity than any of FFXIV's zones. So what's their excuse?

[Siobu]

Thanks so much for all of your continued ideas and opinions!

I'd like to touch upon some things. I apologize for using FF11 so much as a dramatic example. Also, I don't mean to put FF14 down as a whole. but I believe that the world is something that FF14 didn't do right at all. I'm sorry, especially if its a world some of you have grown to love. I don't mean to put any one down. I just felt that using examples would be more clear for readers to understand my points.

As for zones and lines, I already see the game as being divided into zones. When I run from the Shroud to Thanalan, I am leaving a zone as indicated by the loading screen. It's all there already, the system. Because of this loading screen, one unifying name for the entire area ("The Black Shroud"), one theme/design, I do see the areas as one zone. One zone, with monsters from 1 to 50 to monsters we can never touch.

Say Gustaberg (Or Durotar, or...) had a North, South, West, East, Northwest, Southwest. All connected to each other seamlessly, and all seamlessly connected to Bastok's open doors, while looking very similar.. Each partition combined contains foes from one to fifty. We do not need the Highlands. We do not need the Barrens.

But when we leave Gustaberg to visit Ronfaure, we receive a loading screen. Was the rest of our world sacrificed for the sake of multiple instances of Gustaberg? I do not know, but I do know that we don't need Valkurm Dunes.

Just as well, we don't 'need' anything outside of FF14's world as we play today. And this worries me. What does the future hold for us all?

These large zones/areas we have currently, I feel, are only massive in order to make up for the lack of progression otherwise. There needed to be a way to take us to 50, and so the camps were added to the map. While I absolutely understand what some of you are saying in regards to each camp serving its own purpose, I hope you might be able to understand how I see that they are still connected to each other on one map, ONE zone.

In Azeroth, a seamless world, when you enter a new land to explore and to level, you have a new map. New range of foes. A countdown. You cannot stay in Durotar forever. It forces you to leave. The Barrens forces you to leave.

In Vana'diel, if we imagine it was a seamless world all along, you are forced to leave Ronfaure. You cannot level from 1 to 50 in Ronfaure. It is built exactly as Azeroth and other worlds in this regard.

You LEAVE things behind you as you move forward. You leave the level range. We never have to leave behind Thanalan.

In Eorzea, when you reach your next stepping stone, and you open the map, you are still there. You are still in the Black Shroud. You are still in La Noscea. Thanalan. Whether you are in Camp Tranquil or Bentbranch. Horizon or Drybone. Skull Valley or Bloodshore. The map, the scenery, the mob diversity tells us that we have not left. And we'd never have to leave.

Something is wrong.

It should be made clear to us when we reach the milestone. We should be forced to go to new places. We should be given a NEW map. The area itself should not serve to keep us there for too long. We should have to leave. We are adventurers, after all.

I would wish for a solution where we can all get what we want. I do not mind if the areas are large. I love to travel!

But, will we ever receive a new 'areas'? I'm not sure, because right now, we do not need them. La Noscea can take us to the end.

We don't need a world. But I want one.

(Edit: By a 'new map', I meant to refer to pressing 'M' and a paper map appears.)

[Sigmakan]

A key piece in all of this is that we need the game to force us to leave the starting areas. Thats just not happening right now. A lot of things need to be reworked in order to accomplish this.

I believe this is why SE is introducing Quest Hubs. I'm assuming these hubs will be located in the more remote areas of Eorzea. Hopefully this quest hubs will then give us motivation to play/level in the surrounding areas.

One can hope.

[Rowyne]

Again, the issue here is progression and exploration. You should never feel like you spent 1-50 in the same zone. I guarantee that many of the people who are sick of doing the same old leves don't realize that it ties into this issue. They're not only doing the same old leves, but how many camps do you teleport to that look exactly the same? This contributes to the feeling of the mindless same old grind, and no feeling of progressing forward and exploring new places.

In an earlier post, I said this could be addressed in one of two ways:
*A complete redesign of the world map
*Breaking up the world map into subzones based on aetheryte locations with new monster families

Personally, I'd rather see option one. But being realistic, option two would probably be easier and would most likely the be the route the dev team would take. Especially since the zones are actually already broken up into subzones, believe it or not. We just don't see a difference because of all the copy/paste and bad design. They could have made each subzone very different (to use The Black Shroud for an example, sparse forest with 1-10 lvl monsters, dense forest with 10-20 lvl monsters, deep ominous forest with 20-30 lvl monsters), and help give us that feeling of exploration within a vast world. It still wouldn't be the vastly different zones that most MMOs use in their maps, but it would at least give us the sense that we're progressing outward into the world into more dangerous territory, and that we're exploring new places.

[Siobu]

I love all of your ideas, Rowyne. Any and all of those options I would support wholeheartedly.

[Rowyne]

In regards to separating each area of the zone into different level ranges. Isnt that how it is already?

Central Than 1-10
Easter Than 10-20
Western Than 20-30
Western Than(nophica) 30-40
Southern Than 40-50
Eastern Than(halatali) 40-50

They have the right idea, but having different level ranges like this isnt enough to make players feel like they are making any progress. Issue is that you see the same type of monsters over and over, as well as the same textures over and over. If each 'zone' of the large maps had more unique flavor to them as well as unique mobs it would definitely help.

Exactly, and I think this is probably the way the dev team would handle it. The sub-zones need to be much more unique, both visually, and with different monster families, so that they feel like mini-zones.

Imagine if the Quon continent or Kalimdor (for our WoW players) all had the same landscape. That's basically what they've done here. Our three starting places feel more like giant zones that all look the same, instead of regions with zones inside them. This seriously needs to change.

[Sigmakan]

Exactly, and I think this is probably the way the dev team would handle it. The sub-zones need to be much more unique, both visually, and with different monster families, so that they feel like mini-zones.

Western Than could be more desert like (like Dunes). Eastern Than could start to show some vegetation as it transforms into Black Shroud.

Funny thing is that Northern Than has the most 'flavor' yet there is nothing to do there. I like how Northern Than feels like you are going up a mountain a bit, eventually entering Mor Dhona. It could use a bit more texture flavor though.