I really hope they start making bigger zones!

[Blissa]

What I really loved about FFXI was how massive some of the zones were. It really immersed you in the game. In FFXIV its zone walk a few feet zone and walk a few feet and zone. Even FFXIV 1.0 had bigger zones then FFXIV 2.0. I just don't get it!

[lololink]

And that's the french forum ^^.

[Kaposhipi]

Hello Blissa,

Thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn official forums.

As explained by lololink, your thread was originally on the french forums so I just moved it to the english ones.

Have a nice day!

[Aegis]

With this engine they can't make zones that size again with this resolution and the same number of unique artifacts.
In version 1 there were a lot of complaints about copy/pasta terrain. Especially the Black Shroud (all of it) and the cave systems in Thanalan. The devs did it that way because copy/pasta terrain uses a lot less system resource. So, they made the zones smaller, lower resolution but more unique.

There are gains and losses to this system:

Gain:
No more miles and miles of twisty, warren-like corridors like the Black Shroud (V1).
More unique landmarks (sea serpent skeleton in Outer La Noscea, bridge over the marsh in Lower Shroud).
No more seeing the same terrain configuration over and over again.

Loss:
No more wide open zones (Sagolii Desert would fit in the tiniest corner of Coerthas) for exploring.
No more grand vistas.
Lots more zone lines/loading screens
No more detailed textures.

My own personal opinion? I preferred the old zones. But I understand why they did what they did and the new zones were certainly impressive the first time you saw them.

[Skyl1n3]

I'm just gonna say it... PS3 limitations.

[Elvin]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-bigger-zones.

[Phe]

zone restrictions only for PS3.
problem solved.

[Kyoskai]

zone restrictions only for PS3.
problem solved.

If by "solved" you mean "not solved" then I completely agree.

[Enkidoh]

As has been said repeatedly in the past, version 1.0 had huge zones but at a cost - SE had to take shortcuts elsewhere in order to make those zones large. Not only were they mostly big empty expanses of nothing, the same textures and environment designs were simply copied and pasted over and over, making the environment look mostly the same no matter where you went in a zone.

Plus even though the zones were seamless, they were actually still independent zones, with the zone line actually hidden by using a long winding tunnel to hide the zone connection. It was laggy, stupid and boring as watching paint dry. SE identified that as one of the main flaws of 1.0 and hence the 'smaller' zones are a result.

Besides, contrary to how it might appear, the actual zones are in fact the same size as they were in 1.0, other than Coerthas losing it's surrounding sections, Mor Dhona losing it's bottom half and the Black Shroud missing the West Shroud - all that's changed is the long winding tunnels I mentioned earlier are gone and are now replaced with a direct zone line - all SE has done is remove the blinders from you so you see the world how it really is and not a synthetic 'seamless' world.

Sure I'd like to see the missing sections of some zones return, but considering SE has shown artwork of places which are not yet in the game, it's obvious new zones will be added in the future, so just have patience.

[Phe]

If by "solved" you mean "not solved" then I completely agree.

by "solved" i mean "solved" for PC players in terms of Black shroud would be one big zone like in 1.X again,
but "not solved" for PS3 due to memory restrictions.