Why the heavy focus on instance only?

[Sephrick]

too feed the cry babys, and to make you grind gear doing the same crap over and over again, but crafters now make the best gear so its pertty much a waste of time.

SE wants the world to be dead and people sitting in a queue in town.

Like open world content without a group finder is any different? In XI you grind the same content over and over while most of the world is dead because people are sitting in the favored town shouting for groups. And whether or not you get to play is based solely on how many other people are doing what you're trying to do that night.

Want to do Dynamis, too bad all zones but Windurst are occupied. Want to kill Vrtra? To bad he was killed 35 hours ago. You could always farm Diorite in sky with it's awesome 1.5% drop rate. Usually they sane leave that one be.

Yoshida has said there still will be open world content like the strongholds. The instanced content is a blessing because it allows for groups to actually plan and do the content when they intend to instead of standing around hoping they get a chance to play.

XI content ended at getting claim of what you wanted to do, and that was boring. Instanced content allows them to design more unique and challenging experiences.

[Jinko]

Like open world content without a group finder is any different? In XI you grind the same content over and over while most of the world is dead because people are sitting in the favored town shouting for groups. And whether or not you get to play is based solely on how many other people are doing what you're trying to do that night.

Want to do Dynamis, too bad all zones but Windurst are occupied. Want to kill Vrtra? To bad he was killed 35 hours ago. You could always farm Diorite in sky with it's awesome 1.5% drop rate. Usually they sane leave that one be.

Yoshida has said there still will be open world content like the strongholds. The instanced content is a blessing because it allows for groups to actually plan and do the content when they intend to instead of standing around hoping they get a chance to play.

XI content ended at getting claim of what you wanted to do, and that was boring. Instanced content allows them to design more unique and challenging experiences.

So much truth in this post.

[Jynx]

Want to do Dynamis, too bad all zones but Windurst are occupied. Want to kill Vrtra? To bad he was killed 35 hours ago. You could always farm Diorite in sky with it's awesome 1.5% drop rate. Usually they sane leave that one be.

You act like instanced content is free of flaws.

Want to lowman the new dungeon? Too bad you "Require" more members than you have. Shout for members on your server? Please nobody wants to play with people on the same server. Want to try any open-world content with strangers? That's a shame everyone else is qued up for instanced content and wants cross server players they will never see again.

Huzzah~

it's a matter of perspective, XI wasn't about "Claiming" your content people really blow this out of proportion. We had tons of open world content.

Campaign, Fields of Valor, Beastmen forts, Open Dungeons, vast world filled with lore and content.

All of these didn't require you to "Claim content" and arguably were 10x more fun than I ever had in a instance, because I could do it on my terms whenever the hell I wanted. FFXI had it's share of head mashingly hard content but there were tons of people who found that "Fun" and worth it.

Hell I would never be caught dead farming in sky for the most part, you know what I did without Sky gear? Perfectly fine becuase XI had such an amazing ammount of content I wasn't pointed in a single direction and told "This is what you do now!"

Using Dynamis as a example for instanced content is just...stupid it was instanced content itself a relic from old hardware that couldn't have multiple cases of a instance. It would be a good case of instancing content if it wasn't irrelevant in this day and age.

People arguing that instanced content is always more fun than open world need to understand that we wouldn't be fighting for it if we didn't find open world content much more engaging and "Fun" it's a matter of tastes really and I prefer my content not to be a series of loading screens. I prefer my instances to be at the end of dungeons or in special areas I still need to reach.

Assault is a perfect example of what I think instances are good for, content that is specialy designed for certain situations. I like to be able to explore the world as one class and not worry about my progress being blocked by scripted events or monsters that are designed to block my path without a 8 person party of specific jobs/classes.

No, it really isn't.

And yet people don't all agree it's the best way to do things...in other words totally subjective.

*edit*

Like many others I want a good balance of both instanced and openworld content, XI had a nice balance it had plenty of instanced content as well as openworld stuff to do. Perhaps it leaned towards openworld a bit more but it was fairly close to being a medium.

[Jinko]

Want to lowman the new dungeon? Too bad you "Require" more members than you have.

Last I checked they address this in 1.19 where you can enter Toto-rak with 2 and Darkhold with 4 (I'm assuming both the new instances in 1.21 will do the same), there is a small chance anyone could complete the later now with 4 people anyway so what does it matter.

[Wolfie]

And yet people don't all agree it's the best way to do things...in other words totally subjective.

*edit*

Like many others I want a good balance of both instanced and openworld content, XI had a nice balance it had plenty of instanced content as well as openworld stuff to do. Perhaps it leaned towards openworld a bit more but it was fairly close to being a medium.

You mean FFXI purists don't agree on the FFXIV forums that instances aren't currently the best available solution. Because nobody's complaining about instances in other MMOs.

[Xatsh]

You mean FFXI purists don't agree on the FFXIV forums that instances aren't currently the best available solution. Because nobody's complaining about instances in other MMOs.

you need to look around more on other forums, I see many post when it comes to new updates involving people being sick of everything being nothing but more and more dungeons, and more and more instances. Especially on Rift and WoW to a lesser extent Aion.

You WoW purest need to get outside WoW and its clones and realize what the genre truly has to offer, only then will you truly realize how horribly limiting an endgame of all instances really is.

And people need to stop associating Open World with HNMS from XI... that was at most 10% of XI's open world content and was easily the smallest part of XI's endgame. If XI's endgame was only camping NMs the game would of not held almost all its playerbase for 8yrs.

[Wolfie]

you need to look around more on other forums, I see many post when it comes to new updates involving people being sick of everything being nothing but more and more dungeons, and more and more instances. Especially on Rift and WoW to a lesser extent Aion.

Really? Care to point me to some where people specifically say they're sick of instanced content and want seamless/open world content?

Because all of the complaints about dungeons that I've seen on the WOW forums are either "this dungeon is a total rehash", "we shouldn't be killing that boss for lore reasons" and "this dungeon heavily favors one class over another". I have not once seen someone on the WOW forums say "instances suck! They're bad for the game! Stop focusing on instances!"

You WoW purest need to get outside WoW and its clones and realize what the genre truly has to offer, only then will you truly realize how horribly limiting an endgame of all instances really is.

It's hilarious that you call me a WOW purist, when I have not once mentioned WOW in this topic. For your records, I spent 4 years on FFXI, longer than any other MMO, and I still think it's the best one I've played to date.

Fanboy, much?

And people need to stop associating Open World with HNMS from XI... that was at most 10% of XI's open world content and was easily the smallest part of XI's endgame. If XI's endgame was only camping NMs the game would of not held almost all its playerbase for 8yrs.

Just like you need to stop associating instanced content with WOW-style dungeons/loot hallways.

[indira]

Thanalan is an instance.

no its not, instance allows only you/ your party inside with without anyone else to come inside.

Quote Originally Posted by Jynx View Post
If I want to do a instance I require a group of people, I can't just go and explore fohttp://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=443854r the hell of it. I can't prod the enemies on my own to learn more about them, I can't enjoy the sights just for fun. It forces me to group, I'm not short on friends but I do like to take things at my own pace and go where I please.

Invisible walls telling me "You can't enter without 4 people dood" make me angry, for a instanced fight? Sure why not that's fine with me but to get into the area at all? Slap some time limits on that and it makes the game very restricted. At least in XI your "mainly instanced" is so wrong.

Things like Campaign were extremly friendly for people who just wanted something to do, my friends not around and I want to get a few merits? Campaign, FoV, a whole damn world with monsters I can find to solo, dungeons to explore.

XIV is lacking a real overworld even now most of the areas are neglected because all of the content is pinpoint focused in the world with a massive map with no meaning to it other than being large. I could hardly walk 5 minutes in XI without finding something to do with a quest, a NM (Even if it had nothing worth looting), people playing, sights to see, items to gather, maps to get, craig crystal to collect, camps to document, dungeons to explore.

While XI did have a large ammount of instanced content they only did this after they had a very well fleshed out world to stage the instances in.

Almost all the instanced content required you to travel in the current world, XIV you hardly have to step foot outside of town or past the nearest aetherite camp to do something. I remember my excursions to Ulegrand range ENM being a brutal trip with amazing rewards.

I remember my trip to the Darkhold, Totorak, Ifirit, and any strongholds as being a merry jog from the nearest aetherite camp...and hell even if I walked it is hardly a dangerous or spectacular journey.

Attowah Chasm...them damn Antlions and poison bushes, what I'm trying to say is while there was alot of instanced content it was fleshed inside of the open world where as XIV seems to avoid the world at all times possible. Sure XI had teleports and such but even then they themselves usually entailed some sort of price incured in the open world content.

this is a mmo ADVENTURE. reason people still PAY for FFXI & Everquest 1. newer instance mmo's failed and went Free to play.

[Jynx]

no its not, instance allows only you/ your party inside with without anyone else to come inside.

Technically it's not incorrect, but the methodology behind it's stupid. They aren't proving anything for/against the type of instances we are talking about.