What do you think about the current copy/paste maps?

[Akumu]

I believe they overdid the copy/paste but they explained why they copy/pasted which had something to do with the amount of data it took up since the graphics are so high or something like that. Zones should probably get some new additions but i don't want them to worry much about that for about a year or so. If the game had more content and things to do most would also ignore it. Now the new zones and dungeons they should not continue this mistake.

[Demacia]

You didn't notice because there wasn't a troll with an agenda spamming youtube with videos and more trolls spamming every forum perpetuating it. FFXI features a TON of asset recycling, just as much as every videogame out there.



Ah, blissful ignorance.

You do know that by January 2004. Final Fantasy XI aleady had almost two years of development post-launch, including a full boxed expansion?

Just letting you know here.

I'm well aware, and you can drop the high and mighty act. The difference is: Does it make it okay for them to *** this up nearly a decade later?

[Abriael]

I'm well aware, and you can drop the high and mighty act. The difference is: Does it make it okay for them to *** this up nearly a decade later?

Considering that asset recycling is still a widely used technique to save memory nowadays, and that content doesn't create itself, yes. It may not pleasant to hear, but it's perfectly ok. Everyone does it.

If you want to create a 50 gigabytes client that will inflate to 100 with expansions, requiring minimum 12 gigabytes of ram, with humongous load times coming as a consequence, tanking 10 years to develop and costing five times as much (and of course running on consoles is a no-no), then maybe you could get near to creating a MMORPG that doesn't feature heavy and widespread asset recycling and has a big, wide and varied world right at launch.

Good luck finding a developer and a publisher for that

If it make you feel better, though, you'd have a customer. I'd gladly play it.

[Neptune]

The starter zones in FFXI didn't seem so copy/pasted. They just got lazy and complacent. I'm for a redesign.

[Niyariko]

Well lots of posts on the JP side are complaining about the forest for sure lol, but other than that good posts I saw in there are like how the camps are also copy/paste. They would like to see changes to camps like say for Morduna area since it's supposed to be area with a lot harder mobs they wanted the camp to look like a mini fortress where they are actually guarding the camp from the large Paiste (that how you spell it in EN version?)...

Is interesting that you brought up the copy/paste of camps, SE DO know that different community and cultural backgrounds, different regions of the world, designs building differently; It shows in Gridanian's architectures where situated in the woods, uses mainly lumber, and the roof of these buildings are design to shed a great amount of rain water and iconic giant windows to bring in lights from the tightly knitted forest trees. Ul'dah uses a lot of bricks, a natural material from it's surrounding, made from carved rocks, reinforced with buttresses to withstand open sand storms. LL's architectures are mainly from wood and metals for passage connections, this made sense by gathering from the abundance of different minerals and lumbers in its surroundings, not to mention wood with metal is a good combination for building bridges that can expand and contract in linking all those small islands in La Noscea. Caves with reinforced man-made structures carved from existing landscape and the landmark lighthouse by the shore wraps up the idea of the pirate neighborhood.

Yet, all the camps by the Aetheryte looks the same regardless of their location. SE knows how to create an immersing experience through mapping environment as one can see from the town design, but it seems they didn't go all the way. It will be impossible for SE to remake all the maps, just hope none of them are copy/paste when they introduce new areas. If a larger zone mean they will be copy/paste thru out the world, then I rather have smaller zone with loading boarders in between.

[Bethor]

Yep I have to agree with the other people. A lot of places, especially in Gridania, looks the same. You take a right turn, oh! dejavu, and then you take a left turn, oh! dejavu.

Some areas are still a little bit empty though, even if there's mobs running around, It somehow doesn't feel right at some point. I'd have a problem with to resize the maps and give them some diversity.

But that's a lesser problem SE has at the moment, sadly They got such a big chunk to swallow and fix everything it's terryfiying!

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I played ffxi, I seen youtube of ffxiv. I didn't notice the copy and pasted grapphics. I sat and watched severa "walk through" vids a jp player made. The zones I've seen look pretty diverse to me. They also did say ffxiv at launch = same size as ffxi @ launch. It feels smaller cuz of less zones.

The zones were different in ffxi due to them being in different regions which had different climets.

I've played ffxi from ps2 launch day till feb 28th 2011. ffxi had alot of "copy and pasted" to it. I think those complaining about copy and pasted stuff are just so bored and ran out of stuff to complain about. When they lifyten the NDA no one talk about the copy and pasted stuff, least that I've seen. You would think that is the first thing ppl noticed. I noticed it in DCUO in one hour if playing, and said something about it.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Yep I have to agree with the other people. A lot of places, especially in Gridania, looks the same. You take a right turn, oh! dejavu, and then you take a left turn, oh! dejavu.

Some areas are still a little bit empty though, even if there's mobs running around, It somehow doesn't feel right at some point. I'd have a problem with to resize the maps and give them some diversity.

But that's a lesser problem SE has at the moment, sadly They got such a big chunk to swallow and fix everything it's terryfiying!

I saw a vid doing a walk through around gridania. I just don;t see what you mean. It has hall ways, but I expect that in a mossy town deep in a forrest. I saw a stage for possible bards to perform at. All the vairous guilds. I like it actually its pretty. Makes me think of windy if they moved it inside the boyahda tree. which my your lots standers copy and pastesed.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

The starter zones in FFXI didn't seem so copy/pasted. They just got lazy and complacent. I'm for a redesign.

They are if you look hard enough. They use the same tree over 50 times in ronfaure. Same grass mesh. Only difference is one got a pond, one gots a river. Which is similar to windy. which has a river is a similar pattern. Which again is like north gustemburg. Oh and both. All three cities had similar looking ports with fisherman npcs. Oh and every airship and ferry was the same.

Yet no one complain about how lol copy and pasyed the aitships were. Or how lol copy and pasted the character customisation or how lol copy and pasted all the weapon skills were set ups were.

[Alleyia]

Of course every MMO uses Copy&Paste, otherwise it would be too much work to design an area. But it's really overused in FFXIV. It would already help if every camp wouldn't look the same, or every cave. The worst is Gridania, it doesn't give me the feeling of a forest.. more of a maze. (I didn't like that in FFXI either.. ooh Kazham Jungles I hated you!)

I'd love to see the world to be more alive and having more places to explore, I loved to do that in every mmo I've played so far. I also don't like the fact that you can level from 1-50 in the same area. You can't even looking forward to the next rank up because you know you'll grind the same leves in the same area you've been since rank 1 since it gives you the best sp.