Thoughts on Area/Map Size in Future Expansions?

[dayspring83]

One of the most common complaints I see from a lot of players is that the maps are too small, or that there are too many telepoints. Do you think in future expansions that the maps will be much larger or do you think SE will continue to make the maps the same size?

I'll spare everyone the "I miss FFXI" argument, but I would like to see what the common ground looks like - slightly larger maps with slightly less telepoints.

Thoughts?

[Oscillate_Wildly]

I don't really think the size is the issue with most players. I think that if they're going to spend money and resources on new over worlds, that they need to create content that fits them.
Take the PvP area in Limsa. The Wolves den.
Because you can use the Duty Finder to enter PvP, I have never once seen more than 2 or 3 people in the wolves den. To me this is a huge waste of resources. Why create an overworld hub that no one uses? Those npcs could have been placed inside the GC's dens in the main cities.
Using a battle system similar to WoTG in FFXI would be handy, where protecting points of interest would make use of new maps.
All that taken into account, a large open world is useless without relevant points of interest to visit. We already have many unique spaces large and small, but without playable content they're all boring, large or small.

[CatholicFan]

I would love to see bigger maps. I don't even care if they're mildly empty, as that has a rather realistic sense to it (I mean, how many wild animals do you see when you walk a trail at the park?). Ideally, I would say at least twice the size of current maps.

Take the Sagolii Desert in Southern Thanalan, for example. It could easily have been 2-3x the size it currently is with some rolling dunes, and a few scattered oasis about that could serve as a FATE spawn points. It would have given the game a much more epic zone, while still limiting the tax on the servers.

[Rostum]

Don't take this the wrong way, I absolutely love the direction they've taken with the current environments (especially over 1.0's). However, I do feel that some of the zone sizes are very small or not represented very well (e.g. Sagolii Desert does not feel like a desert at all). I think maybe a lot of it is due to it being segregated into zones rather than seamless (and that can't be helped in this situation I guess) and that there's instant teleports to every corner of the world. I think they might have gone a bit overboard with the landmarks, you kind of need a certain barren-ness to environments to break things up a bit (without the copypasta of course). Take a look at this for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaRFncBScRM

I guess what I'm getting at is, whilst it's good to be able to travel to places quickly and not waste a lot of play time in just traveling a lone, there must be a better balance of journeying to somewhere over just instantly being somewhere.

[Tupsi]

Area: Hub City.
Content: Instances galore.

Also yeah, when I seen Sagoli Desert demo'd, I expected a successor to Altepa Desert in terms of utility and size, as in many nooks and crannies to explore or even entrences to underground caverns...

But then I remembered...Yoshi hates overworld.

[Marishi-Ten]

I think eventually they will expand the overworld. We are missing huge areas of Mor Dhona (I believe we have access to the northern area. There is an entire southern area that we can't get to) as well as missing Middle and Lower Coetheras (middle looks to have a zone line though at Griffin's Crossing in Upper might lead to Camp Glory). If you're out by Monument Tower in Coetheras, you can see a large Garlean structure in the mountains (hopefully it'll be overworld).

We are also missing areas of the Shroud (West Shroud for example, which brings me to the question of where does the Black Boar Gate in Old Gridania lead).

The concepts are there and some are even half implemented, so here's to hoping!

[Marxam]

Since they're doing instances I think they should add an "endless" desert map (the desert under gold saucer comes to mind) where you have a fatigue timer and once its up you faint and get sent back to the forgotten springs. In the zone you can find scattered treasure and maybe a hidden monster. Party's are recommended as you don't know what you'll encounter and who knows there maybe an exit to the zone.

[Sandpark]

Since they're doing instances I think they should add an "endless" desert map (the desert under gold saucer comes to mind) where you have a fatigue timer and once its up you faint and get sent back to the forgotten springs. In the zone you can find scattered treasure and maybe a hidden monster. Party's are recommended as you don't know what you'll encounter and who knows there maybe an exit to the zone.

I have been asking for this since 2010. I went into it more detailed, but you summed up my sentiments nicely.

[Dark-Saviour]

If they want any sort of consistent world, unfortunately we're stuck with the scale we have.

So even if they make massive zones, the towns/outposts within have got to be fairly small and close together, as they are now. :-/

That said, given the size of Eorzea compared to everything else on the map, unless there's a massive landmass we haven't seen, they can't really do large zones either.
By giving us access to so much of the continent, yet making it so small, they've completely shot themselves in the foot. :-/