Alright. Let's talk Airship explorations.

[Phireblast]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...XDRxjDt3YI/pub

ctrl f "exploratory" without quotes on the document

On paper, it looks good so far.

-Content that compliments all three class types(dow,doh(indirectly), dol) in the game
-Encourages FC activities
-Features that make it relevant for a while(giving tomes, providing rewards such as mounts and materials)
-It doesn't ****truly**** gate the population with the difficulty levels.
-Can be done fairly often with how the cooldowns are handled
-It emphasizes exploration rather than clearing, so the amount of work you have to put in to things is completely up to your group.
-Allegedly, the enemies you encounter aren't braindead which require some effort to beat, and you can't get lazy either since that affects your loot drop.


So far, this looks pretty good, but i'll try to be cautiously optomistic.

[Derio]

I like that it includes both battle classes and gathering.

[RiceisNice]

If there's an advantage of going in with an alliance rather than a party, then it'd be ideal to get people/friends outside of FCs to join you on hard mode explorations.

[Dualgunner]

I'm also cautiously optimistic about this. It will be awesome to essentially have open world playtime for once in the game; I'm excited both as a gatherer and a dragoon. I wonder what I can fish, mine, or botanize on the islands

[Mug]

I love the whole concept of it, it looks very good on paper. SE has a tendency to underwhelm when it comes to these things, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I wish the actual airship was incorporated more, though. Imagine how fun it would be to have actual aerial combat on board your airship. Would be all kinds of awesome.

[Dualgunner]

I love the whole concept of it, it looks very good on paper. SE has a tendency to underwhelm when it comes to these things, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I wish the actual airship was incorporated more, though. Imagine how fun it would be to have actual aerial combat on board your airship. Would be all kinds of awesome.

Would be cool if part of the Void Ark Raid was an aerial assault from several FC airships allowing the main group to hop on board or something, with like mammots autopiloting our airships while we're gone.

[Yeldir]

I like how the content is modeled, and large FC oriented content is something this game has badly wanted for. But I am quite disappointed they did not follow through with their plans to make airships player-controlled, with intricate, player-filled roles such as helmsman, engineer, as part of the ship's normal operation.

They appear to be cutscenes to and from the Exploratory islands. It's times like this that the FFXIV team's one real weakness shows itself quite clearly - their inability or unwillingness to make meaningful and dramatic changes to their game's engine. This is kind of a legacy of failure one can easily trace back to 1.0 and the PS3. What a mistake those were. I doubt this franchise will ever be fully out of their shadow.

[Mug]

Would be cool if part of the Void Ark Raid was an aerial assault from several FC airships allowing the main group to hop on board or something, with like mammots autopiloting our airships while we're gone.

Yes! It saddens me that they made this entire expansion centered around flying, yet it's only used for transportation and we're stuck on the ground as usual for everything that involves any kind of fighting (and judging by the trailer, it's the same in the Void Ark). I hope and pray that they add something like what you suggested, though. ^^,

[Maaizr]

...But I am quite disappointed they did not follow through with their plans to make airships player-controlled, with intricate, player-filled roles such as helmsman, engineer, as part of the ship's normal operation.

It's times like this that the FFXIV team's one real weakness shows itself quite clearly - their inability or unwillingness to make meaningful and dramatic changes to their game's engine.

i love where the game is currently at and 3.1 will most likely make me love it even more, but i completely agree with this - take that leap sometime, SE change can be positive and if people don't enjoy the change, you can always just not implement it next patch around.

[Recaldy]

Hope there's enough content to keep me occupied for the 90 minutes without having to swap from war/magic to a DoL class.