Please do not make group quest open world areas.

[Crescent_Dusk]

Do not make the same mistake as ESO or Wildstar, creating open world zones/camps that require more than one players.

With ESO and Wildstar, this resulted in the first wave rushing through the content, and then the areas became ghost towns as the new tiers came out or people got what they wanted.

What this means is for late comers, returning players, or alts, they could not complete these zones at all since the main population had moved on to the latest content, leaving them to spam zone chat for hours in hopes they'd get a group to complete these quests.

It creates player fragmentation, and the place for group content should be dungeons and trials.

People also do not want to traverse a map ala FFXI where it's a pain in the ass because anything aggroing can kill you. Especially if you have to go through some laborious fight for what is essentially a dead mob that took all of your cooldowns and potions and the loot table for said mobs is garbage so you spend a lot of time getting through a map for little returns.

Don't make it a hassle to traverse your world. It's going to be especially aggravating for arriving at FATES in time.

[Jarinolde]

They never said that they were going to make the Heavensward open world areas require groups to level through.

[m3eansean]

Straight from Live Letter:

"We have seen many comments where players felt the A Realm Reborn areas were too peaceful as the monster placement in the areas were a bit too easy; however, the monsters in Heavensward are very strong. If you encounter two or more monsters at same time, you’ll either need to fight doing your best, or be prepared to run.

If you plan on stepping in areas such as the beastmen camps, and other dangerous areas, you’ll probably want to talk with nearby players to get through them."

I'm with OP, I foresee problems here with forced grouping just to get from one place to another. Can you imagine something like atma's for the next grind, or gathering for that matter? I really dislike when traveling from A to B becomes a hassle personally. I avoid the Sylphlands as much as I can due to their heavy spam in this region alone.

[Magis]

I missed the first hour of the live letter, and just read what Yoshi said about the open world. You won't believe how giddy and hyped I am right now. So freaking excited! Thanks Yoshi-P!

You are in dangerous lands past ARR's max levels. These zone should be difficult.

[Leonesaurus]

Straight from Live Letter:

"We have seen many comments where players felt the A Realm Reborn areas were too peaceful as the monster placement in the areas were a bit too easy; however, the monsters in Heavensward are very strong. If you encounter two or more monsters at same time, you’ll either need to fight doing your best, or be prepared to run.

If you plan on stepping in areas such as the beastmen camps, and other dangerous areas, you’ll probably want to talk with nearby players to get through them."

I'm with OP, I foresee problems here with forced grouping just to get from one place to another. Can you imagine something like atma's for the next grind, or gathering for that matter? I really dislike when traveling from A to B becomes a hassle personally. I avoid the Sylphlands as much as I can due to their heavy spam in this region alone.

See, I STRONGLY disagree with the both of you, however I do understand where you're coming from and what you're saying. I do agree that when the currently hyped content becomes like ARR's content before it, outdated and undesired, there should be measures taken to prevent people from being gated behind barriers because no one does it anymore.

I'll be the first to say though that anything requiring a party in the open world isn't going to mentally or physically kill you in real life, and I probably won't be the last. If anything, it creates a more dangerous, believable world, with risks and reward, and memorable experiences because each unique monster has their own ticks and personalities in the world, rather than some theme park monster that chases you for a bit on the side of the road.

Maybe I'm biased, because I'm a former 1.0 player that adored the world back then, with the exception of the zone design of the Black Shroud, but even there the monsters had such charm and uniqueness. Anyone that remembers 1.0 treants knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Also, to boot, I'm one of the most anti-social human beings you can possibly imagine, and even I'm thrilled about this evolution for the game, even though it technically has been done before in its lifespan.

Also, for the record, this is NOTHING like the Sylphlands. Sylphlands aren't dangerous at level 50, they're just INCREDIBLY annoying. There's a difference between avoiding something because it's dangerous and when something's annoying. Being under-leveled doesn't count because you could do that to yourself anywhere, defeating the purpose and point of it all.

[lvlagmarink]

If you plan on stepping in areas such as the beastmen camps, and other dangerous areas, you’ll probably want to talk with nearby players to get through them."

I'll walk alone slowly using rogue's hide ability, thank you... No thank you...

[Felis]

What this means is for late comers, returning players, or alts, they could not complete these zones at all since the main population had moved on to the latest content, leaving them to spam zone chat for hours in hopes they'd get a group to complete these quests.

Party Finders ^^

I doubt that the open world enemies will require a full party or even a light party, but I hope that they are hard enough to bring a single player without Chocobo help to sweat. Around the Alexandrite maps difficulty level.

Ad yes, the "visit all aetherytes" achievement from 1.0 I did solo, regardless of all the lv80 enemies on the way who can have killed a player with a single hit * I look at you, Black Shroud *

[Duelle]

Ad yes, the "visit all aetherytes" achievement from 1.0 I did solo, regardless of all the lv80 enemies on the way who can have killed a player with a single hit * I look at you, Black Shroud *

So did I, and it wasn't a good thing.

Great, now I'm worried. And if the leveling experience turns to shit, I know exactly who to blame it on.

[Maikal]

I think this is great news! Finally, some kind of actual threat in open world areas! I'm glad not every bit of new content is meant strictly for poorly skilled players. Just because casual players exist, shouldn't force developers to exclude the other groups of players.

[Amatsuhira]

This game certainly does lack that sense of danger when traversing the open world. I personally miss that feeling then again i have gotten the platinum on all the souls games, so maybe i'm just a sucker for having to pay attention to my environment. Bring back sound and smell agro for da kiddies.