Repopulating Gridania and Limsa Lominsa (how can we spread out?)

[miqokini]

I wish this could be fixed. I think there are two reasons for it. One being that Ul'dah is basically FFXIV's Jeuno, and the other being that, well, the population on most servers is pretty damn low.

The second reason always has me fearing for XIV's future. I honestly believe this will become a great game, and it's already quickly heading in the right direction. Square just needs a way to get the word out that the game is actually worth playing now. That, however, is going to be very hard. As they say, first impressions last a lifetime, and this game granted horrible first impressions.

I doubt most reviewers will even want to give it a second chance. Square will have to bribe them.

And the issue is far worse in XIV. At least there were still people in each city in XI. I'm lucky to see over 5 people in all of Limsa and Grid.

[Zanfire]

what will help is the re-design of the world. The thing that FFXI did well was spread the 3 citys appart enough from not only each other, but from the areas like camps and jeuno that it was pretty even so no city dominated. Right now uldah is not only right in the center, but the city is not over sized. The one thing FFXIV can learn from FFXI is that ...well bigger is not always better.

[IStolzI]

MMOs are going to have a central hub, period. It's easier to shout for group events, teleport to quests as a group, sell/buy items when it's all consolidated. The only reason it's Ul'dah is because a non-starter city with newer content hasn't been introduced yet.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

CptnGumble is correct. Ul'dah is the most ergonomically designed city, nearly equadistant between the other two cities.

Limsa has one adventuring class who can get marks from it. Has a two-three story town structure with facilities spaced out and the city exit quite a run. Plus it's far from Gridania.

Gridania requires the most running to get to from Ul'dah (since Ul'dah to Limsa, once you get to the boat, you boat into the city rather than running to the border to run throough more zone. Maps have limited paths one could take. Facilities also spaced out.

[Velhart]

The sad truth it, this is something that happens in every MMO. People want to be grouped together for one simple reason, "convenience". I guarantee when Ishgard comes out, all three original city states will be deserted. Even in WoW, each expansion had made a transition to a central area of convenience (Stormwind > Shatt. > Dalaran > Stormwind (again)), FFXI was also like this (San D'Oria(I think) > Jeuno > Aht Urghan > Jeuno(again)).

It is really hard to get people to spread out in MMO's. The reason Limsa and Gridania had a lot of people earlier in the game was people didn't really know where would be the central place to gather, plus no body felt like partying, so it didn't really matter anyways.

These are the only things I can imagine would "help", but inevitably not work that way in the end.

-Bring in universal AH, where all three cities share the same market place.

-Put in a seperate server wise General chat window (Don't know FFXIV's technical limitations.).

-Make the search feature into a system like FFXI's since you can invite anywhere.

-Make transportation between cities more convenient, airship may fix that.

-Make Grand Company dailies frequent to the point you rather just stay in your city.

While these could possibly work, there is one factor that still holds it back, Anima. People don't want to spend their anima if they don't have to, so staying in a set area will possibly prevent you from being the one having to port.

So overall, this is a staple in MMO's, it is a damn shame, I do hate seeing LL and Gridania empty, they are gorgeous areas, but that is just how it is. Darnassas and Exodar in WoW were beautiful areas also. I would count on Ishgard being the new central area for people. Might be cool enough you never want to leave it.

[Chione]

Part of what contributed to Ul'dah becoming the hub is that following the main story sends you there.

This is one of the biggest things that bother me about the main missions. I'm a LL homebody by choice. I spend most of my time there and in La Noscea unless duty calls Chione elsewhere. Being shipped off at r20 for the main storyline, and then having everyone in that mission line treat you as an Uldah'n kinda miffs me.

I kinda like how Uldah is portrayed as the hub of merchant activity and the playerbase has come to reflect that. It doesn't bother me too too much that LL and Grid wards are empty. I still see folks walking around and going about their business. It's refreshing not to be in Uldah's crowds.

But the lack of attachment to our starting cities is one of my big pet peeves with this game. Here's hoping the cities will get missions of their own at some point (not talking about grand companies either, cause that has nothing to do with where you start.) But until then, it'd be nice if someone told the plot npcs that the flag on my character's profile is red, not black. :|

Maybe if folks felt like their choice in starting city actually mattered, they'd care to linger there more instead of being shuffled off to Uldah at 20 and realizing there's really no reason to leave it.

[Zanfire]

@ Vel: actually sandy was never like that, i played pretty early in the games life and for quite a while the 3 main citys had solid populations. Of course Jueno was the higher level gathering point...and your right, every game will always have one, which im fine with, but they need reasons to make you go back to your home areas and get use out of it for the lower end levels.

[Xenor]

They could start by giving you more reason to visit the various guilds... oh wait nevermind.

[Verecund]

They should add a monetary bonus for selling in given locations (locations are chosen at random across time) and should somehow accommodate new content (zones). City wards also need to be downplayed somehow.

The Retainer system currently fails because it is a 'sandbox' concept that has suffered a 'themepark' implementation...

[Velhart]

@ Vel: actually sandy was never like that, i played pretty early in the games life and for quite a while the 3 main citys had solid populations. Of course Jueno was the higher level gathering point...and your right, every game will always have one, which im fine with, but they need reasons to make you go back to your home areas and get use out of it for the lower end levels.

I was thinking mostly of the JP version before it came out in NA. Jeuno was already a hot spot when FFXI first came out here. I only remember someone saying San D'Oria was a heavily populated area before Jeuno. At least that is how it was on Gilgamesh.