Invisible walls are a bit overboard.

[Estevo]

So, me and a few of my friends constantly get blocked when going around the world by invisible walls, some because it runs to risk of you falling into deep water, (btw after flying expansion swimming would also be nice) and others for seemingly no reason at all, and we all agree it's ridiculous. There are also quite a few landmarks that you can't even explore, like this giant hole in the South Shroud that leads into old ruins, but you only know that because of the npc that is by the hole, not because you can actually go in there, god forbid.

It's so frustrating when you can't go off the unbeaten path a little, and I mean doing so within the zone, although there are a lot of places you can see in the distance that look interesting, but you can't go to, (YET I'm hoping.)

It's probably impossible right now, but when you drop support for the ps3, (I'm 90% sure you will in the coming years, not only that but I read interviews where you said you would) I think it would be amazing to get rid of these invisible walls, at least the ones that seem like bad game design, and not like they're there for a purpose, (which is probably most of them.) It would also be great if down the road you could make the world more seamless, again when you aren't limited by the ps3, because it's the little things that make the game come alive to me most, like the fantastic sound effects, like where your footsteps time with the stepping sound perfectly, along with the ambiance effects like birds chirping, and seagulls flying in the distance, paired with having your clothes get wet when it's raining, and so much more. It's very immersive when you can go places without a loading screen, it just feels better, and I'm sure it would in this game too. Maybe one day you could even give us little cut scenes of us on the boats and airships as we load into the next area, when we're using those vessels to travel I mean, or maybe even something more interesting.

Or at the very least I'd like to see more of the current areas opened up, I mean if you look at the game geographically, we are missing A LOT of the world when we go through the loading screens.

Long P.S: Instead of just having invisible walls they could have actual in-game reasons for why you can't go over there, such as actual objects that you couldn't possibly cross, or when jumping off a cliff to somewhere different you would simply die, or something else that would make sense, or for things like going out into the ocean, it, you would be attacked by some sort of sea creature, etc. and be killed, or simply there are reasons within the game as to why you shouldn't go to said place, such as the current in the ocean would be too strong, which would stop you from going beyond the limits of the game. There are all sorts of interesting game designs that could be implemented.

[Verranicus]

If they ever do drop support for PS3, it doesn't mean PS3 players won't suddenly be able to play. It means they wouldn't be taken into account for further content upgrades or support. FFXI showed this much. I think it's kind of sad how you're so willing to have a whole demographic of players screwed over (I play on PC and PS3, so I'm not particularly biased), just so you can do things that are more suited to a sandbox MMO than the themepark style we have now. Most of the areas they have blocked off by invisible walls are blocked because:

A. They go into pits or deep water. (PS, the "flying expansion" you mention hasn't said anything about there being flying in it other than FC owned airships. If you're hoping for flying mounts you're going to be disappointed.)

B. Are blocked off for lore reasons, likely because content will be added there in the future. The Duskwight ruins you mentioned come to mind.

Unrelated, your character looks like a creep with his little pedostache.

[Eye_Gore]

Even open content sandbox style games have limits on them, not like its never ending. Though with some of those types of games, you can get stuck and have to resort to restarting the game from a previous save. In which this game does not have the option of starting from a previous save, you could be screwed if you get stuck somewhere.

[Verranicus]

I'd rather they keep the zones condensed with neat things to look at everywhere than open everything up and have areas devoid of anything interesting (Like in XI and 1.0).

[Odd]

Every player in this game has the ability to "return" for free. The longest you'd ever be stuck for is 20 min. I agree about the limits though.

[whoopeeragon]

I'd rather they keep the zones condensed with neat things to look at everywhere than open everything up and have areas devoid of anything interesting (Like in XI and 1.0).

1.0 wasn't exactly what I call 'open'. It was very flat, with as much invisible walls as ARR. I would say more, because at least ARR has the option for jumping.

[Verranicus]

1.0 wasn't exactly what I call 'open'. It was very flat, with as much invisible walls as ARR. I would say more, because at least ARR has the option for jumping.

The zones were all 5x bigger than what we have now, but they consisted of the same mountains, grass and hills across 99% of the zones as opposed to the smaller but much better looking versions we have now.

[Urielparadox]

Its very clear the OP doesn't understand how programming a map works or designing a video game works at all, if you don't know how th e process functions then how can you say something is possible?... you can't jump off a cliff because where would you go? you can't go for a swim bc
1) waters aren't maped, In real life if you go to California and try to swim 300mi to go somewhere, go ahead you will probably die in the process.

2)water graphics are a whole different graphic ball park. Even droping ps3 support would loose them not just PS3 users, but pc specs would be raised as well. However most people don't want to waist gigs of memory graphics so they can go swim in an ocean, unrealistically, for no reason. If they actually added in invisible walls so that you could swim to places, like midgosmmr, and not go off exploring nothing.

3) 90% of the "sealed off" areas have a quest or npc, or other forms of lore if you read all your quest. The area you talk about is mentioned, also the ruins of beladona, the floating city, and many more. All the new dungeon entrances have been your so called "invisible walls" so logic means that future content will go here.

[Surian]

Well, there's some fairly strange things though. It honestly feels like a rush-job.

Middle La Noscea for instance has rivers flowing through it, you can use the bridge or go through the rivers to the other side. nothing the matter, and you get a large playfield that way.

North Shroud on the other hand. There's rivers flowing through there too, not even deep ones, but no, you have to use the bridge even though you could have easily crossed through the water. Essentially cutting off large parts of the map turning them into funnels.

I had absolutely zero problems with 1.0's map. So what if they copy'd a lot of things, unless you were up close and you were really looking for it, you never would have noticed.
(And people say that like it's some great sin, there's not a game or MMO around that doesnt re-use pieces of land or models in it)

I much prefer 1.0's maps over the whole roads with a few meters of land on each side that we have now. I certainly never noticed any of the stuff being copy'd, and unless someone specifically pointed it out to you, nor did you.

The only people who complained about that were people who didnt enjoy the game and were looking for something to blame. Where-as the original combat system that people found terrible and demanded to be changed (Twice!) because they kept having to press 1-2-3 is in general terms equal to the one we have now that people absolutely love. So i dont understand people anymore.

[Tupsi]

The Invisible walls are only in spots where people will get needlessly stuck (sorry, there's NOTHING in the ocean for you or that deep crack in the planet so no point in being there) or if they want players to generally follow the level design. Remember, all throughout Beta and early 2.0 days people complained endlessly about that small jump at Camp Bentbranch where people would get stuck if they tried to take a small shortcut...something invisible walls would have completely fixed.

Despite popular belief, it is not due to consoles, because I've played plenty of PC ONLY MMORPGs that has them because not everything is meant for player interaction - some places you 'can't explore' doesn't even have geometry you can stand on, it's there for show most of the time.