Why did they changed this from version 1.0 ?

**Uriahnool** · 01-06-2014 10:39 AM

Alls I know is that if I cross ONE dune in the "great desert" in 2.0, I can already see the edge of the map. Deserts should feel more wide open and desert-like. I admire all the variety in 2.0, but they need to stretch it out some more or something. I don't mind the zones, but I feel there should actually be more of them for everything SE wanted to do. For example, the hunting log. I am supposed to hunt something like a condor or a antelope, or a boar poacher, and the ONLY place in the ENTIRE WORLD MAP is one small camp or one patch of trees in the corner of a zone. Every mob seems to have its own little two foot area it lives. I mean, look at the stropper pit in the black shroud. They're all confined to one little puddle and they don't exist anywhere else.

**Peptaru** · 01-06-2014 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Words

What I'm saying is that maps now are miniscule and rather pathetic by comparison. Having cut so much of the "unnecessary" area out of the game -- area which I, and others, found necessary -- they should have done much, much more with the smaller areas. It still uses copy/paste -- of course it uses less because it's a much smaller area -- and they are barely big enough to contain the quests within. They are not maps, they are cubicles; ARR does not even approach a happy medium for map size. They screwed up bad.

Worst case in 1.xx if you thought the area was useless you could avoid it entirely, but people who are dissatisfied with the zone size now have what recourse? As I said, all the areas are just lobbies to queue from now. (Yes, after you finish the talk > gather drops > talk quests that WoW standardized.)

What I need to do is keep in perspective that this game wasn't made for me; it wasn't made for people who liked 1.xx. ARR was made to gather subscriptions from people who weren't even FFXIV players or fans. Good business idea, terribly rude to the devotees. For now I keep playing, but not for hours on end like I (we) used to, now it is just "... guess i'll log in to cap for the week." Good thing I have so many queueing zones to choose from

**Alhanelem** · 01-06-2014 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by Uriahnool

Alls I know is that if I cross ONE dune in the "great desert" in 2.0, I can already see the edge of the map. Deserts should feel more wide open and desert-like. I admire all the variety in 2.0, but they need to stretch it out some more or something. I don't mind the zones, but I feel there should actually be more of them for everything SE wanted to do. For example, the hunting log. I am supposed to hunt something like a condor or a antelope, or a boar poacher, and the ONLY place in the ENTIRE WORLD MAP is one small camp or one patch of trees in the corner of a zone. Every mob seems to have its own little two foot area it lives. I mean, look at the stropper pit in the black shroud. They're all confined to one little puddle and they don't exist anywhere else.

The sagoli desert really should have been a zone of its own like in XI.

While I don't want giant zones for the sake of being giant, a desert is usually a pretty large expanse of sand, it does feel a little silly to have small closed in space with 2 sand dunes and call it a desert.

This is what I'm talking about when I saysize of an area being appropriate for its content. 1.0 areas were far larger than they needed to be for the sights, sounds and content within, but some areas in ARR could stand to be bigger. They're still far more well constructed, however.

**Mogi** · 01-06-2014 10:55 AM

Wow so much complaints not everyone but for the ppl who are it can be much much worse what if Square Enix just said you no for get ARR and left it like this http://youtu.be/IGEKCR8UCtk i can't stop loling over the ppl who like or think this ever looked good

**Noata** · 01-06-2014 11:04 AM

Initially, I believe you can recover the exact letter on the lodestone if you look, but the 1.0 world used a ton of repeating textures was very large with little in the area of special. it had huge zones which ate up tons of server utilization due to supporting zones that were inactive. the new layout was an attempt to create a fresh unique set of zones. and due to this smaller size, which is mentioned in the letter. that also goes on to describe 1.0s fundamentally flawed design and intentions to use zones to conserve resources. they also went on to mention that design elements of the old game made things like equipping and UI aspects laggy due to programming methods and data calls to the server. it would be very much a mistake to think that past memories of a grandiose 1.0, though graphically better, nearly every aspect has been immensely improved in 2.0. which has only been out since august. Kinda long and not broken I suggest you find the letter its much better.

**storm** · 01-06-2014 11:34 AM

Here is gametrailers review of 1.0 from October 8, 2010.

This explains exactly why it didn't do well.

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/...asy-xiv-review

**Saziel** · 01-06-2014 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Oh great, another "the areas aren't gigantic enough" thread.

For ARR, they opted for smaller, more-well-crafted areas instead of having giant areas that required lots of reuse of textures and terrain chunks to make ("copy-pasta"). There's no point in having a giant area when you don't have enough assets and content to fill it with.

I didn't even play 1.0, but from what I've seen in screenshots and videos, I want those areas. ARR areas are NOT well crafted. They're miserable, boring, lifeless, and bland. There's no sense of adventure. Hop on your chocobo and get to ANYWHERE you want in a zone in 2 minutes or less. That's not an adventure.

Going back to FFXI. Some of my fondest memories of FFXI was just getting lost in Xarcabard for hours. That can never happen in ARR, and I hate it. I want it to be possible to get lost. I want there to be a snowstorm so intense that it's hard to see where I'm going.

**warren-ragnarok** · 01-06-2014 12:34 PM

SE did say they were bringing back zones specifically for the design of the worlds, because with the 1.0 world design, it seemed very redundant, and yes there were load times when going to and from the areas, mor dhona, shroud, thanalan, and limsa. but i do agree, the worlds do seem alot smaller than before.......idk if i agree with the changes in the world (textures and scenery) since i think both of them seemed well designed. i also think they dropped the quantity of mobs too much, at least imo

**Naunet** · 01-06-2014 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

No, I'm not. Any development team has a certain limited amount of resources. As you make an area larger it requires exponentially more resources to create and populate with assets and content (Unless you generate it proceedurally (e.g. randomly), but that wouldn't work for a game like this).

So, you'd rather that "75%" of the area drop you to your death or be able to fall into and not get out? That's why there are walls, both visible and invisible. It is much more difficult to create an area with such great detail and have it be 100% walkable. You're basically limited to rolling hills and bland landscapes (See: WoW) and concentrating details in specific locations.

I don't think you've actually looked at a lot of the maps. Take that image of the North Shroud, for example. It is in no way surrounded by bottomless cliffs and yet the zone is made up of a bunch of absurd canyons funneling you from one quest node to the next. It's awful. There are tons of rocks and rivers and pockets of inaccessibility that have no business being walled off, plain and simple.

**Sylve** · 01-06-2014 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by MikoteAstra

You are too focused on the copy paste thing, for witch we dont tolk about it !

Nobody here is saying that liked the copy paste thing! People are saying that they liked the big zone worlds witch were in version 1.0 including me

Except ... You can't have one without the other.

One other huge problem with MMOs that have large open worlds, is zone expansion. WoW is a huge culprit in this. Every new area they implement into WoW is in its own little server. It is impossible to reach those areas on foot.
Having a super large base world is fine and dandy, until you want to make it bigger.

Now, FFXIV has a huge advantage over the 'large overworld map' design with its smaller subzones. There is nothing stopping the devs from putting a zone smack in the middle between say Central Shroud and North Shroud. All they need to do is change the North Shroud zoneline to the new zone, and a North Shroud exit on the other side of this new zone, on the World Maps, this zone would be directly on the connection path between the existing zones, giving a reason for this zone to connect the way it does.
You also avoid having entire servers go down all at once during large events (Odin im looking at you), because the subzones can go down individually without taking out everything with it.

Classic example of the above is the new Housing Areas. They needed a space to put it, so they made the space, picked a suitable location on the world map and put a zone line in a nearby zone. The subzones themselves are also expandable, shaded areas of the maps can be brought out, much like Crystal Tower did.

And finally, the maps aren't the same because Bahamut destroyed half of Eorzea. Zones accessible previously aren't accessible now because the inhabitants of Eorzea themselves can't reach them. The area beyond the Frozen Waterfall as an example.

EDIT: How could i forget, with the large overworld design, adding new areas is limited entirely on the geometry of the surrounding areas.

Thread: Why did they changed this from version 1.0 ?

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display