The bridge leading into Limsa.

[Shipp]

None of the cities in FFXIV are the size of Windurst...

Windurst had several districts and each one was huge.

Windhurst had 3 districts, and none were "huge" except the port. Navigating LL and Ul'dah still take quite a while that's not really necessary. LL is constant ramps and docks over water. Ul'dah is constant hallways unless you're in the main circle. Grid is constant hallways. I'm not saying the cities are bad, I'm saying that the travel time is largely due directly to their layout. I cannot get from point A to B quickly if it's in another area of the city, because I have to usually take an elevator somewhere along the way or run through a lot of detours just to get there.

Yes, it's realistic, but it's also insanely boring and time-consuming when you're doing quests that mainly consist of walking to the other end of the zone, then walking back, then going to to another person, then walking back again, then turning in the quest and have to walk across the zone again on the next quest. It's as if many of the quests are designed specifically to make you walk to the furthest point in that city as possible and then have to return.

Call it laziness or whatever, but I never felt as though I was limited to corridors in XI EXCEPT in Windhurst.

I think a major problem is that you have to go to a certain part of the zone to buy a certain item because there isn't usually more than one vendor in the same city with the same things. If I need some vendor material, I am forced to go to this one location in the city instead of there being another vendor who also sells it in another area that is closer to me. Stuff like that will hopefully be changed in 2.0, because sometimes, realism should not trump gameplay. I hardly even call navigating corridors just to find a vendor gameplay, because I'm not usually playing, I'm running while thinking, "Why is this chick the only person in the entire city with a carrot?"

[Tsukino]

Windhurst had 3 districts, and none were "huge" except the port.

Waters, Walls, Woods, Port. Four districts.

It also had Heavens Tower, though that was smaller and had no map.

[Yogard]

Windhurst had 3 districts, and none were "huge" except the port.

Waters, Walls, Woods, Port. Four districts.

It also had Heavens Tower, though that was smaller and had no map.

Windurst is not gone or anything. ^^;
Nor is Heavens Tower. Not sure what you have heard but... (Pssst, it's not truuue.) Even during the war in the past, though things do seem rough if you go look at it, we did prevail!


And yeah, Waters also takes two maps and whether or not any of them are huge, it is a pretty big area when compared to the other cities, where I think there are more NPCs and other stuff put into a smaller area, more tight, while in Windurst they are a bit more scarce.

I remember years back as I first visited it for the first time, as Bastoker. It did feel bigger for sure, but I wasn't ever really bothered by it. What comes to XIV, I have not felt the need to be able to warp around a city, especially not Ul'dah, which I think is quite small actually. Gridania doesn't seem big to me either, but Limsa Lominsa can be a bit annoying to navigate at times. It would certainly be better if it had more access points to certain parts of it, which sometimes require one to make quite a loop. In that it is a bit similar to Windurst I guess, that it does have things kind of scarce.


Anyhoo, just wanted to say that Windurst and friends has not gone anywhere. =þ
Perhaps to you they are, but to that I say: Blubb!
Carry on.