Can we please have flight unlocked as part of the main story?

[Talraen]

One thing I would like is for the game to tell me at what point it's possible for me to find all of the aether currents, quest-wise. I believe it's always after the dungeon or trial quest that gives one in a zone, but it was a bit annoying not knowing whether I was going to come back for more quests later (especially in the first zone when I didn't really know what to expect).

[Noxifer]

There's only two sidequests for Aether points that are easy to miss if you're not simply doing all the sidequests, and they're both in Dravania Forelands.

As well as one for Sea of Clouds,

where you have to do a prerequisite sidequest that starts in Ishgard to unlock the Aether current sidequest.

^^;

[Anarnee]

Honestly the whining about the currents is just so... Well its more annoying than having to go out and find them... I am on my third character through the HW story and it has never once been that much trouble. Remember grinding the seals for your chocobo? It was much more troublesome imo. If the do put them only in the msq I hope they add twice as many and drag us all over the map. Pft people whined about wanting bigger maps and now its too much trouble to explore them before just flying over them...

[Geryth]

My only problem with the Aether Current system is this:

"Aether current 200 yalms to the north"
*Head north*
"Aether current 80 yalms to the north"
*Head north, hit cliff*
"Aether current 20 yalms to the north"
*Walks 10,000 miles along cliff edge before I can get up the cliff*

/rage

But other than that I don't mind being taken on a foot stroll throughout the zone first before being able to unlock flight - I think that's a great design decision. I just wish they didn't make some of the currents so frustrating to get to.

[FallenArisen0990]

My only problem with the Aether Current system is this:

"Aether current 200 yalms to the north"
*Head north*
"Aether current 80 yalms to the north"
*Head north, hit cliff*
"Aether current 20 yalms to the north"
*Walks 10,000 miles along cliff edge before I can get up the cliff*

/rage

XI did the same thing kinda for CoP 5-3. You had to scale this big mountain with stuff that would knock you off, forcing you to restart from the beginning. That's not including the dead ends routes and the potential of falling to a ledge that had a dead end.

[Cakekizy]

XI did the same thing kinda for CoP 5-3. You had to scale this big mountain with stuff that would knock you off, forcing you to restart from the beginning. That's not including the dead ends routes and the potential of falling to a ledge that had a dead end.

And there was a time limit. Take too long and you gotta start over.

[Sandpark]

That being said, I like the current system, I'm just sorry there isn't actual significant content locked behind flying, so that once you get flying you can feel rewarded in the sense you can now do stuff you couldn't do before.
In the first 2 areas I found a total of... 1 quest (level 54 at this time) that required flying to solve. And I don't really find "vistas" to be relevant in the sense I can already get any vista I want from the back of my griffin, no limits already.

They said they are adding more content in the live letter related to flying in subsequent patches. So you don't get it right off the back but it is coming.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Okay, so why did they have to make the terrain harder to navigate to get people to do quests? Why didn't they make fewer quests and award more experience per quest, but put more time into each quest so as to make them engaging and interesting?

While I understand you and agree with certain points of this post of yours, you have to understand that many people asked for more exploration in maps and many people enjoy that type of content. Not everyone will like the same type of content. There is a reason behind the aether currents and why you need to get them in order to fly.
Flying from the get go without any reason behind it whatsoever would make it feel lackluster and nonsensical, It also wouldn't force you to explore the map, which is what they wanted you to do (I mean all that work put into the new zones and not exploring them?! Wouldn't that be a waste of craft? lol). It's like attuning to aetherytes. You can't teleport to a zone unless you've attuned to the crystal first and that makes sense. Besides, it's not obligatory to have the flying ability. Very convenient, yes. But you don't need it to progress through the story. So you don't have to do it.

One thing I have to agree on is the overwhelming number of sidequests that are mostly uninteresting and how you needed to do some to unlock the aether current quests. If the quests had better cutscenes maybe it would be more interesting and engaging. I think the game's weakness is this precisely. There is a reason why people like Hildreband quests. Characters are memorable, cutscenes are composed better. It's not just because it's comical. If you compare with the cutscenes in FFXI or FFXIV 1.0, you'll see they are better made and really engulfs you, makes you care for the characters. It's more of a knowledge aspect of cinematography and characters body and face language from what I've recently concluded after analyzing both games' cutscenes.

I think the team for FFXI and 1.0 had more experience in this aspect whereas 2.0 team is new? I mean I don't personally know them of course but you can see these things through the craft. I'm a graphic designer and 2d/3d character artist so I guess I can identify these aspects because we get to study a bit of cinematography and a lot of photography during the career. Anyways this is subject for another thread, don't mean to derail. XD

[RazeLandale]

Only problem with them is putting currents behind quest chains. You shouldn't need to have to look up that chart. It should be clear what you need to do in game.

Other than that, the exploring is fun and I definitely agree with keeping you grounded until you've been through most of the zone on foot.

[ErzaScarlet77]

this seriously sounds like "why do i have to work to get paid?"