Unique Zones

[BHGlobbd]

Another zone feature I would like to see more of, is the inability to teleport to a zone directly (credit to Marxam). Even casuals would not be able to complain about said feature being too complex or making them go out of their way to enter the zone, because guess what? Heavensward has a zone EXACTLY like this, The Dravanian Hinterlands. The only way to enter the Hinterlands, is to either enter from Dravanian Forelands or exit via Idyllshire, no way to directly port in. As I said above about flying making the zones smaller, so too has teleporting. I am not a proficient gatherer, so yes I might not understand the woes of missing an unspoiled node, but skipping intricately designed zones by porting/flying is a waste and a slap in the face of the design team, might as well base FFXIV on PSO2 with a hub world. Oh what a pity it would be to actually experience the game you are playing.

[Alahra]

I'd love to see more things like this, in general.

The open world in FFXIV is, in the tradition of WoW, largely a visual playground not unlike a theme park attraction. I know this is a theme park MMO, but...there's really something missing in the world itself that keeps it from feeling like an actual world. Immersion is a big component of MMOs to me, and I wish we'd get more things like special doors, difficult to traverse terrain, secret paths, and dangerous strongholds—all together, things like this have the effect of making zones feel like unique places that exist not for the sake of the player but rather because they have a unique and storied history that has made them the way they are.

I miss things like the "weight" doors in FFXI's Altepa Desert (well, in the catacombs beneath them, the zone name of which I can't remember at the moment), the Three Mage Door in the Horutoto Ruins, and the Tonberry lantern door in the Temple of Ugallipeh (spelling x.x). Zones with multiple entrances and exits, like the Crawler's Nest and Garlaige Citadel, which you could use to get to special places in the zones above them, are great, too.

Even in newer zones, like from Seekers of Adoulin, there are paths you need special Key Items to access, obstacles to clear out to get to certain sections, and the like. They're a "pain," but things like that just serve to make the zones feel more alive, and I wish we'd get more of that in FFXIV. (I can think of a few zones that do have some things like this, such as Eastern Thanalan, what with the twisting, confusing paths in the Burning Wall, but such places are pretty rare).

Honestly, I could go on and on about the zone design in FFXI, as it was really expansive and top notch. The world had soul there in a way that it just doesn't in most modern MMOs. Unfortunately, the modern trend toward player convenience has had the side effect of sucking the life out of the worlds themselves. I'd blow up all of the aetheryte crystals, dismantle the Duty Finder, and remove flight from the game entirely if I could—but I also know that would considerably shrink the game's population, so the best that I can hope for is little things here and there.

[Klamor]

If they could honestly just take the map from FFXII and figure out a way to make it fit up and mesh with the world of FFXIV, I think ton of players would be immensely impressed, and excited about logging in and exploring the world.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

If they could honestly just take the map from FFXII and figure out a way to make it fit up and mesh with the world of FFXIV, I think ton of players would be immensely impressed, and excited about logging in and exploring the world.

You mean exploring more empty spaces with monsters sprinkled about and waiting for FATEs?

[Jim_Berry]

Too hard for 'casual' players. (Which seems to mean bads in the eyes of Yoshi)

As a Hardcore-turned-casual player, most content isn't hard; it's just that my timing don't allow me to be able to do some things in a timely manner (Savage, for example). I like how the game keeps the casuals with casual content and hardcores with hardcore content.

I'd hate to be that person who had a hard day at work for 16 hours then got on the game and had to deal with more hard stuff. I'd rather relax with a simple dungeon run and be relaxed.

[Klamor]

You mean exploring more empty spaces with monsters sprinkled about and waiting for FATEs?

If that's how you look at it, then yes. Everything will feel "empty" when you're running around with the highest item level. The zones in FFXII just seemed more cohesive, and allowed for a much deeper sense of exploration. Like the subterranean caves that connected 4 or 5 different zones together, but was filled with significantly higher level enemies than what you would normally encounter at the level you were when you could first access a small portion of the caves. There was a bit more of a threat of danger when you ran through new zones, or same-level zones. The worst thing we get here in FFXIV is Heavy... and that's just an RNG-based middle-finger to the player, and not anything that's actually challenging or intricate in its design.

If we want to exclude having new things because people will get bored of it, too, eventually, then why do we give a shit about any patch for that matter? Oh, I guess it might interfere with some people who just want to log in, zombie through some beast tribes, and then log out content with their lives...

[Lanthalas]

This suggestion could be seen as the addition of an elit map, an optional area with challenge, daily quest for specif rewards. However like this it sounds like what we have for the diadem ("elit mobs", optional area ...). But we can make it very different.

I could be an instanced area, like a new kind of dungeon for 8 people, where you have a timer and need to go the further you can in the “maze. The further you go the further the monster are difficult and the loot interesting, it could fun. And because of the fog not flying allow. It could be introduced as a new area discovered with the exploration and because of the fog and some disturbances they cannot fly to investigate it so they ask us to do it for them to check if they are resources they could use.

In order to “save” you progression (like in a normal dungeon), to avoid to start from beginning when you wipe inside your session, they could be some “safe” spot (caves etc.) where you can settle a camp (involving some simple quick gathering/crafting maybe?) to get a shortcut. At first it will not be possible to explore it totally and with the increasing ilvl you will be able to go further. They still can block some path (falling rocks etc.) which could be removed with a patch to open new area.

For the fight they could put some kind of boss at some step which give you some nice rewards and you will want to do as many as possible. Some trash mobs will between them (like a normal dungeon), and you will need to take care of them while taking attention to your surrounding (hiding addition mob in the fog, large poison fog -> poison dot while in it, trap …). The farther you go the more you will have those climatic effect (like a system of handicap/debuff like in ff7 arena)

In addition since it could be a kind a maze different ways to go through (replayability), it could be possible to see it in two ways: 1) going the farther by doing as less as possible easy boss to reach a better difficulty (quality) , 2) going back and doing the other different path to do several boss of similar difficulty (quantity).

To add to create a different experience each time you enter it, they could add some random event (fate?) which you can choose to ignore, if you do them they may lead to open a new patch or special area with bonus boss/treasure/gathering spot (do not know if we should include gathering or not in it).