What interest is there in swimming, climbing, and seamless zones?

[Kitfox]

Can someone explain what they mean when they cry for "exploration content"? Let's get something straight, exploration is EXTREMELY short lived as content, you can only discover something ONCE. The only even remotely viable way to make "exploration content" is to have a randomized self-generating system, it needs to be new every time, cause the moment you've walked through an area, that "exploration" bit is already gone, done and spent. It's just not feasible to expect a lot of explorable content that isn't randomly computer generated.

Climbing, swimming, whatever, are just ways to move, without linking those mechanics to some actual content they're pointless. I really don't understand the desire to climb a mountain or swim in a lake that have zero content attached to them, even if you'd consider it exploration, refer to point above (you can only do it once).

[dinnertime]

snip

Just because they've already explored the areas and have discovered everything that's there to be seen doesn't mean they won't come back again reminiscing.
It's like real life. People take vacations or go for adventures every now and then, and people would likely visit again if they enjoyed the views and had a good time there.

Anyway, it's very possible for SE to create good and relevant content that would make use of these zones. They've done it before with FFXI and quite a bit in FFXIV 1.0, I don't see how they can't here.

[AstralKaos]

Swimming - Sure, I wouldn't mind that, even if it was just swimming across the surface to places and so on.

Climbing - Don't really care for it, but some verticality might be fun in zones where flying isn't a thing... wait, unless you mean just jumping around and up small ledges and such, and not actual grabbing on and climbing up a cliff or bunch of vines, in which case I'd say yes please.

Seamless zones - I really, really don't care about this, like, at all... and I'm probably the only one but I don't even care too much about the new zones (both aesthetically and in design/layout and size) either because they just feel lacking in little personal touches/pieces that ARR zones have, I find them largely uninteresting in comparison. To put it short, I would prefer zones sized between ARR and HW ones which have the same level of detail and bits and pieces that the ARR zones have, preferably with no flying either.

[Skivvy]

Can someone explain what they mean when they cry for "exploration content"? Let's get something straight, exploration is EXTREMELY short lived as content, you can only discover something ONCE. The only even remotely viable way to make "exploration content" is to have a randomized self-generating system, it needs to be new every time, cause the moment you've walked through an area, that "exploration" bit is already gone, done and spent. It's just not feasible to expect a lot of explorable content that isn't randomly computer generated.

Climbing, swimming, whatever, are just ways to move, without linking those mechanics to some actual content they're pointless. I really don't understand the desire to climb a mountain or swim in a lake that have zero content attached to them, even if you'd consider it exploration, refer to point above (you can only do it once).

To take this to the extreme, what is the point of most of our zones then? Why not just have one giant lobby for the game and call it a day? Quests generally take you out into an area only a handful of times, then it is ignored. FATEs are utilized by so few, what's the point!?

There is something about having an open world that lets you do what you like. I've always really enjoyed exploration in other games. Do I feel like exploring this massive ocean to see if I can find new islands? Or maybe some sunken ships? Maybe I can try this jumping puzzle that's in some random obscure location for my daily prize! Or perhaps I just want to climb to the very top of the mountain that I can see from a zone away.

There are plenty of other games that have made awesome environments to explore while still having plenty of other content. It doesn't need to be one or the other. XIV does not do it for me as it's all choppy, and the zones are pretty small. Throw in invisible walls everywhere and it makes for an unpleasant experience (as far as exploratory options).

[eternalstar01]

Seamless zones - when playing on an older computer, load screens are the most painful thing. So yes, bring on the seamlessness.

Climbing - going to combo this in with something I loved from GW2... jumping puzzles! They were such a popular feature that Wow copycatted it too, but no where near the difficulty or degree of GW2. Usually, there's a treasure at the end of a puzzle.

Swimming - everytime I visit costa del sol, I sigh that I can't swim.


Lastly... not sure if this was mentioned yet but something I'd wish they'd remove. I hate the invisible walls that prevent me from falling to my death. SO MUCH INVISIBLE WALL HATE.

[HakuroDK]

Seamless zones would be a bit overmuch, I think, but climbing and swimming? Count me in on that!

[Nandalowell]

They can add or remove whatever they want if I can have my seamless Ul'dah back.

[Delmontyb]

One of my favorite things in MMOs is exploration. One of my least favorite things is invisible walls and movement limitations.

When PS3 gets dropped, can we do seamless zones again?

Yoshi mentioned something about swimming being a possibility. Can this actually happen?

Climbing is a long shot, but it's very enjoyable once you've experienced it.

Opinions?

My hope is that with 4.0 we'll see the original zones made larger (new areas added to the zones, and flying brought into those zones), swimming sounds good too.

I've never tried climbing, so I can't say. But as long as we don't get large open zones of nothing, then I'm game for whatever ... Also looking forward to seeing more of Eorzea

[Iromi]

Swimming and seamless zones YES PLEASE!!!! Larger and actual DANGEROUS MONSTERS WOULD BE RAD TOO lol

[Magis]

Swimming and seamless zones YES PLEASE!!!! Larger and actual DANGEROUS MONSTERS WOULD BE RAD TOO lol

Don't get your hopes up. People were asking for this in 2.0 and Yoshi was telling everyone that ARR was the training wheels period, and Heavensward would step up the game. Said that the open world would be harder as well (recall a situation with bears during a demo touting how difficult it would be).

Nope, turned into "Let's do ARR again".