Message to Developers about Map redesigns...

[NefarioCall]

It will be helpful when some 'official screenshots' are made available.
but for now it would be cool if someone could grab a still from the live letter from the producer and enlarge the screens yoshi held up to the camera.

Really take a look at them.
They are gorgeous and living proof how the same graphical tile set can be used to make something ugly or beautiful.

[Nuru]

OP mentioned how hard it was for new players to find their way in the Black Shroud. Well... who has!?

Map Redesigns need to happen. Smaller maps, each one unique in its own way, and you will be able to find your way much easier. Just because you got used to everything the way it is now doesn't mean everyone else is going to be. Hell, i was used to having a Jade Crook +2 and having awesome stats, now its a joke. I am dealing with these changes but they hit me hard. Map Resdesigns are going to throw us all off for a while but it is the future of FFXIV and i am sure we will have renewed that sense of exploration and will have great times figuring out the changes

[Rane]

The current zones just don't offer any sense of place. As I run through the Black Shroud, I find myself trying to pretend that I haven't just run across the same river for the tenth time, and that my character is actually traversing a forest. When I look across a lake toward the far shore, I try to tell myself that my character COULD swim over there and run through the trees if he really wanted to. But I just can't convince myself.

There's something wrong when you have to do that in a modern MMO.

I think it's actually more than just copy/paste, though that's a big problem. Coerthas is marginally better than most zones in my opinion, but even so, when I look across the field there, I don't see a field. I see an unnatural jumble of rocks. Even for what's supposed to be rocky terrain, it just doesn't look right. Given all of the great Final Fantasy worlds Square has produced over the years, how did these areas end up like this?

I get the feeling that these areas really weren't designed from the ground up as actual places. Rather, when I look at the Coerthas main map, I get the feeling that these "areas" are a collection of square-shaped map tiles that have been laid side by side. Some of the tiles were rotated, and some were edited a little, and then they were dropped down alongside each other. Plop enough of them down, do a little more editing, and voila!: a field map.

I'd like to note that this is pure speculation and nothing more. And if the map redesigns are as extensive as it looks like they're going to be, all of this will be a distant memory by the time of the PS3 launch. I hope that's the case, and I really, really appreciate that Yoshida and the dev team are willing to put in the enormous amount of effort that a redesign requires.

I think the current team already knows this, but the new areas need to start with an artistic vision of an actual location. From there, every step of the creation process needs to be directed at making that vision a reality. The goal isn't to make a "map"; it's to breathe life into a world.

[Raikki]

I was hoping to encourage SE to abandon that process, however seeing as to how I am the only person who likes the maps and terrain as they currently are, I don't think SE will be very willing to accommodate my request. It's fine though, I expect great things from SE and what they are going to be doing with Final Fantasy XIV. I truly believe that XIV will be EPIC when they are done improving, fixing the game, and adding more content.

Thumbs up and respect++ for a thread creator actually acknowledging that their position is in the minority and being nice about it. I hope that once we see more of the new designs you'll like what you see and embrace the change. They have a world of potential to give us a much much nicer game environment than we have now and I'm confident they'll do a great job with it.

[Munba]

The area redesign is a must have indeed but the important thing about them is that they need to be LIVE. Not only new beautiful sceneries to admire and to create diversity around Eorzea but also they must be full of life (crickets, frogs, fireflies, birds, jumping fishes, etc.) and normal 'natural events' (falling stars, luminous flowers/plants, flying dandelion, etc.). Hope in this greatly.

edit: so as they should have things to do inside (secret places, dungeons, interactive stuff, etc.).

[indira]

my question is when are they going to do it, ps3 launch?
it might be streaming

[Buddhsie]

Who honestly cares that zones have various reused features in them? I haven't noticed until they've just been pointed out within this thread, and I'm still fine with it. You could have your gigantic zones with all fresh terrain, the catch is it comes with 50gb game files and doesn't affect the content at all.

[Enma]

... Lol? What?! The World Map actually is one of the worst aspect of the game, in my opinion. It should be the fantasy background of the gameplay. Now what we have? HUGE paste/copy maps... Maps revamps will be awsome.

Please SE don't pay attention to this thread.

[Jinko]

Although the terrtain doesn't bother me as much as some I do think it needs to happen not only to diversify the playing field but to make the zones smaller aswell.

It's no good adding more structures to the existing maps as they will never fit it all into the PS3's memory.

Each zone should be about the same size as the ones in FF11/WoW except there should be minimal or no loading between them, they should really redesign the game engine to allow for streaming.

The sketches of the newly designed maps Yoshi showed in the live letter have me quite excited, the next letter will be very interesting as he plans to talk a lot more about it.

[Akira_Tenshi]

I can't believe anyone would seriously defend the awful zones in this game. How can you defend lazy copy/paste bland environments that anyone could build them self with the right tools. Zero effort was put into the world of this game and it needs changing asap or people will eventually tire of it.