One to Fifty, One Zone - Long OP

[Eekiki]

Asking for a COMPLETE world revamp and expecting it in the foreseeable future is unrealistic. The changes we are asking for concerning the world right now will not happen(if they happen at all) for a good while. What we can do until then, is keep throwing out ideas so SE can implement things based on player interest. We won't ever have that sense of adventure in XIV as 'seasoned' players, at least not until an expansion where our issues are addressed, and we forget about the lower zones like a bad dream, it's really for the new players SE hopes to capture.

I truly hope you're right about that expansion pack.

My fear, and unfortunately what I've seen so far, is SE is slowly (painfully so) turning this game into the Frankenstein's Monster of MMO's. But beneath all the new dungeons, hubs, quests, jobs, materia, and auto-attacks will be the same lackluster core. All they're doing is stitching more onto it hoping the veneer will cover it up.

It's like the climax of the Invader Zim episode "Bad Bad Rubber Piggy", where every piggy Zim threw into the time machine made Mecha-Dib more and more dangerous, yet Zim continued to toss piggy after piggy into the time machine, hoping one of them would reverse the effects.

The wood is rotten. Slathering gallons of varnish on it won't change that.

FFXII comes to mind when I think of realism paired with an amazing array of detailed and varied zones. The Giza plains stretching into flatlands, leading to a jungle, which splits to a mountain, etc!

Absolutely. When you talk about zone design leading to being immersed in a feeling of adventure, FFXII nailed it. It's a shame that as far forward as X, XI, and XII took the series in terms of virtual geography, XIII and XIV have been steps backward in my opinion.

[Siobu]

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

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

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

Where will you take us, Square Enix?

We're ready to follow you to new lands.

But we don't want to leave behind the Black Shroud, La Noscea, or Thanalan the way they are. These areas... They deserve better than that.

For as long as this thread maintains the attention and interest of the community, I will keep posting.

[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

[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!

[Joeking]

rare fish -> put in fishery -> baby fish farm :3.

Unrealistic because those dirty cats (Miqo'te) will ransack your establishment, and devour all your :3, which will leave you T.T exactly..

[EdenArchangel]

Unrealistic because those dirty cats (Miqo'te) will ransack your establishment, and devour all your :3, which will leave you T.T exactly..

I believe that's why you have to take a restricted boat to the "The Barrel" hidden away in Limsa Lominsa (rank30 Fisher quest) --- only my friends would lay paws on my Octopi ; ;

[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.

[Siobu]

Thanks so much, Mack, for sharing all your thoughts. I'm glad to have you and the others behind this thread.