Amazing game all around but HORRIBLE map system

[Dagger_32]

The fact that you you have to go World map>Region>Location can be confusing. Say you are fairly new to the game, you are in Old Grandia, you pick a quest that says you need to go to the steps of Ul'dah. You've never been there. You click the map, it shows Thanalan with a quest marker, ok, that doesn't help much. You go to look at the region. There's the quest marker with no real path telling you how to get there. You click again for the exact location, more grayed out area.

So now you know where you need to go...you just do not know how to get there. This is where the exploring comes into play. You explore, head in the general direction you think you should be going, get lost, look at the map, see your in the South Shroud. You don't even know there is an airship you could take... You continue exploring, find level 30 monsters, and get insta-death.

That will be nice if you ever need to go to the South Shroud... but still, where the heck is Ul'dah!?

The map is of NO help in cases like this and it happens all the time when you are new. Just look at this board. So it's fantastic that you are super awesome "know everything cause I do everything" players but everyone has their own play style. There is no right or wrong.

[Niwashi]

Say you are fairly new to the game, you are in Old Grandia, you pick a quest that says you need to go to the steps of Ul'dah. You've never been there. You click the map, it shows Thanalan with a quest marker, ok, that doesn't help much.

Sure it does. It tells you where you need to go, with directional markers of how to get there. Even if you've never set foot in any of the Thanalan regions, or even the South Shroud, the maps will already tell you that the Central Shroud connects to the South Shroud, the South Shroud connects to Eastern Thanalan, Eastern Thanalan connects to Central Thanalan, which in turn connects to Ul'dah. All you have to do is look at where the maps connect and trace through the routes. You'll see which regions you need to pass through and which direction to take through each of them. Just how much easier do you think any map could possibly make it?

True, you won't know what the landscape looks like until you get there, and there are a few cases (like Upper La Noscea, for instance) where not all region boundaries are connected to each other overland (though there's a ferry to get you across).

And you won't know what mobs are there, though it rarely matters if you stick to the roads, which are generally pretty clear of aggressive mobs. Sure there are level 30 mobs between Gridania and Thanalan, but it's easy to travel past them even at level 1. Just avoid the aggroing mobs and don't engage them if they're significantly higher level than you are. It's not until around level 45 that mobs start to get aggressive enough that they get hard to pass without fighting, and at that point it's intended that you're not supposed to pass those areas until you're ready.

[Dagger_32]

*snip*

I don't think the OP is stating that the map is not a map. (I know that is not what I am saying) I think it is more along the lines of the mechanics behind navigating the map are a mess.