Re-vamping the World of Eorzea

[RemVye]

Hello Dev team and forum-goers

Disclaimer: This is a long post filled with opinions, links to outside sources and websites, and personal observations from someone who has been playing FFXIV for more than a month after quitting on CE release.

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First and foremost, thanks to the FFXIV team for working hard to improve the game. I'm enjoying myself since my return to Eorzea and look forward to the implementation of future patch releases. Hopefully everything will turn around and we will have a great game for years to come.

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I know there are quite a number of things on the chalkboard that need to be fixed, adjusted or flat out reworked. Honestly, I would love for them to just say "we tried with the MW but they clearly aren't working... here is your AH". But I digress the topic I wish to discuss is (as the title states) the re-vamping of Eorzea!

I haven't seen too many posts on this subject, and I'm not simply talking about the copy and pasted terrain that we see covering the World. I'm talking about the physical size of Eorzea and the number of actual zones that we have access to. Edit: Also, I'm aware the dev team is working on SOME of these things, but to what extent I do not know.

**Flash back** I remember logging into FFXI for the first time (as well as other games like WoW) where I was exploring the World and the maps that I had access to. FFXI's Vana'diel felt massive! That first run from Sandoria to the dunes was huge, and each zone had a distinct setting, environment, and feel to it. NOTE: I know the Dev team has addressed the desire to adjust zone 'feel'. The point I'm trying to get across here is, I think back and remember how expansive the world was - it was open huge and you really had a feel like "this is a World that I'm living in". [Please take a moment to view the number of zones from Vana'diel via http://www.ffxi-atlas.com/] ***Flash back ends***

Looking at Eorzea I can say that it is indeed large, however we really only have 5 zones; Coerthas, the Black Shround, Thanalan, La Noscea, and Mor Dhona. And a few "dungeon" type area's Cassiopeia Hollow, Mistbeard Cove, Mun-Tuy Cellars, Tam Tara Deepcroft, Nanawa mines, and Copperbell mines. I don't find the dungeons too exciting and if I go there alone or with a party I'll be the only one in them (from my experience)! Comparably the 5 major zones we do have a larger than most zones in FFXI, but that's where the cut/paste terrain plays mind games. The World feels small to me, it doesn't take that long to run places in FFXIV where as FFXI - La Theine seemed like it was endless, and traveling from Sandy to Jueno you had to go through four zones (not including the cities). Each zone felt huge and gave you a sense of immersion.

Something else that 'grinds my gears' is that every zone to me feels like a maze. There is very little openness to the World, I remember riding my Chocobo through La Theine turning on auto-run adjusting my path and going to the bathroom or making a sandwich. You can't really do that in Eorzea because of the number of twists and turns, rocks, etc blocking your path. Zones where it would appear to be open, it isn't because there are hills and terrain (rocks, slopes, trees, logs, etc.) blocking your way and it feels like there is almost a predetermined path you have to take to get anywhere.

Something else to think about is the amount of space that is 'unused' in Eorzea, if you would please view these maps and notice the amount of space that is not allocated. Also please take note of how maze like the zones look.
(Source: http://www.ffxivmaps.com/) - looks like they did their homework on the measurements of zones.

La Noscea Map: http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/region-la_noscea-large.png

• Probably the best example of unused space but also one of the more open zones

Thanalan Map: http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/region-thanalan-large.png

• Another example of large space not being used

The Black Shroud: http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/region-...roud-large.png

• Best example of maze-like and copy/pate terrain

The World of Eorzea: http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/region-eorzea-large.png

• There are most certainly areas they have not tapped into yet, however the current zones feel very lack luster and small to me.

My desire is to see:
1.) More variation in zones

• I've read they want to correct this, so it's somewhere on the chalkboard

2.) Less maze-like zones or limiting terrain in some zones

• I'm not positive if this is in there goals or not, but I would like to see this adjusted

3.) More zones connecting areas (Thanalan > Blackshroud, maybe 2 more zones in between)

• If they revamp things this would be nice to see, I saw a post where someone mentioned it should not go from desert to vast jungle instantly; a very good point.

4.) More of the World put to use

• Understanding that FFXI didn't start with every zone and expansions were added that put new areas in the game, but judging from the maps in this post a lot of real estate is simply not used.

5.) Connecting zones via underground tunnels / dungeons / zones

• I love how they did this in FFXI it was very neat

So that about raps this post up; I spent a while writing and I don't want it to be too long. One final thought... today I was thinking about Jobs when they will be released. Their is going to be a quest to get the Job from what Yoshi has said. I'm envisioning the quest being something like: go to Uldah, go to Grid, go to Lima, go to Grid and it being very bland. The FFXI job quests stick out in my head as something that was fun, exploratory and exciting; traveling to remote places in the game and not simple run back and forth quests like what we have today.


Thank you for your time and please click 'LIKE' if you agree and would like to see the World of Eorzea re-vamped.