Quote Originally Posted by Kailok View Post
Because most likely once Chocobo and Airships are implemented they will be adjusting the anima system to follow suit. Most likely, anyway. So instead of spending your precious anima just to do a couple leves, even though you might need it later for a party group in Gridania, you can just grab a chocobo instead.

I think that this is right on the money. The devs probably plan to rely on the anima system much less in the future. At first the various transportation systems may seem to overlap each other. By the time the area redesign hits, however, the transportation system will probably make much more sense. Yoshida has said that the areas will undergo changes in geography, and he has also confirmed that FFXIV will no longer revolve around guildleves. These two points are very important when considering the future of the transportation system.

Since most content in XIV was originally meant to take take the form of guildleves, most of the time you would be traveling from town to an aetheryte (and possibly on to an aetherial node). From there you would do whatever it was you had come to do. In such a situation, it would always be faster to teleport to the aetheryte and get started. Moving away from a levequest-centered system most likely means moving away from aetherytes. If your quest starts and ends at a quest hub while taking you to some far-flung corner of the map, teleportation becomes less convenient.

Still, people who argue that teleportation and walking will still save time are probably correct. Teleportation becomes LESS convenient, but it still may be the fastest way to travel. That's where the area redesign comes in. The geograpy of the maps will be changing, potentially drastically. Yoshida has referred to the redesign in Japanese as a 大改修 (daikaishuu), which roughly translates to "huge revision". (He added 大 (big, great) to the word 改修 (revision, improvement) to emphasize the large scale/scope of the planned changes.) Given the decreased focus on levequests, it's reasonable to assume that our future areas may not be littlered with aetherytes and aetherial nodes at every corner. If this is the case, anima teleportation will no longer be the principal means of travel.

If you're like me, this is great news. But before you jump for joy, you should be aware that Yoshida has indicated that the area redesign will take a very long time. To be precise, he referred to the area redesign as a 年単位の作業 (nentan'i no sagyou). Though I can't locate it for the life of me, at the time Reinheart was nice enough to provide an English translation of the post in which Yoshida said this. It was translated as something like "long-term operation", which is a correct translation. (Reinheart is better at Japanese than I am, and always provides good translations for the English-speaking community soon after Japanese posts hit. Thank you Reinheart!!) However it's worth noting that, though it became "long-term" in the English translation, the term 年単位 (nentan'i) doesn't really have a good English equivalent. The word itself is composed of 年 (year) and 単位 (unit). Essentially, referring to the area redesign as a 年単位の作業 indicates that it will probably take at least a year. The term is fairly vague, and could indicate multiple years, but that seems unlikely in this case. The dev team only has so long before XIV becomes "outdated". Furthermore, using the term 年単位 and then having the job take two or three years would result in a very disappointed Japanese user base, so a different term would most likely have been used.

So don't expect the area redesign to come anytime soon. We may have a nice transportation system before then, but I doubt that it will be EXACTLY as the new devs want it until the new areas are in place.

Sorry for the very long post. I'll quote the post where Yoshida used the terms 大改修 and 年単位の作業 at the bottom of this message for those who are interested in checking it out. It's fairly long, so I'll hide it. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that the interpretation of what 年単位 "really" means came from my wife, who is Japanese. When inquiring into the inferred meaning of a word or phrase I've found it's always best to ask a native.

Quote Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida View Post
FFXIVプロデューサ/ディレクタの吉田です。
少しパッチ1.18の作業も落ち着いてきたので、ポストさせて頂きますね。

この3国の過疎問題は、吉田も非常に大きな問題と認識しています。
皆さんが挙げて頂いているように、都市そのものの利便性、周辺コンテンツの有用性が
そうさせているものと思います。

これを調整するためには
「ウルダハの利便性を下げるのではなく、他の2国の利便性を上げる」
「それぞれの国の特色（=コンテンツ,ギルドの調整）を出して調整する」
の2つの要素が必要になります。

ただし、3国独自のコンテンツ実装は、やはりバトルが絡むものが多くなり、
かつ、MAPそのものの改修とも切り離せません。
場当たり的にウルダハの利便性を下げることだけは絶対にしたくありませんので、
（結果的に全部利便性が悪くなる、皆さんに不利益しかない）
かなり時間をかけさせて頂くことになります。

全マップの改修でもREPを通じて回答させて頂いていますが、
3国の都市を含め、全MAPの「根本的なテコ入れ」は既に計画して、
仕様の作成も終わっています。年単位の作業になりますが、
必ず実施しますので、そのタイミングに合わせて3国バランスも
根本調整を行います。

その際、3国はランク50に至るまでは、ランクに従って拠点とする都市を変え、
ランク35-40辺りで、それぞれの国の特徴に従い、プレイするコンテンツにより、
拠点をチョイスするという方針で導線を設計してます。

かなり長期プランにはなりますが、特に重要と認識していますので、
FFXIV立て直しの最も規模の大きな改修ポイントとお考えください。

最後に3国の飛空挺移動（実MAP上を飛行するシステムではないです）はMAP大改修前になんとかします！
パッチ1.19に間に合うよう、頑張りますので、今しばらくお待ちください！