Azys Lla, wasted zone

[LalafellDown]

I agree, all areas are are wasted space compared to other MMO's. There isn't any purpose to the monsters or fates, the side quest are boring and forgettable, not one NPC is voiced when talking to them. 1.0-3.45, what war is there, I see nothing of any kind of war going on in the open world. It makes me think that its all in the NPC's head. The bad guys all sit around in their cities/base just like players do. Guild Wars Heart of Thorns great example of a war going on, constant battles all around the map with events leading up to a full scale boss fight that is done still to this day. Maps have evidence of a physical war going on with camps being invaded, NPC's dying and people shouting.

In FF14 3.0 where was this war between the dragons? I only saw it between the dragon and me. Everything else looked peaceful, everybody just sat around. There were no invasions, nor camps to protect. It was all in our heads, where are the constant barrage of dragons attacking towns, villages, cities, where the players gathered in that location would have to defend?

This game is suffering and wants it to be put out of its misery, the sub numbers show that its on a decline. The fact that content has to be extended just to keep the game alive, shows that the content made is only good for a few hours of play.

if 3.5 was any good it would last us until 4.0, but they have to cut it in half and release the other half of it later in march to keep people coming back. Everyone knows just like every patch before, 3.5 will get boring in a few hours, but they have your sub money for that month so its good enough for them.

[Ceasaria]

In FF14 3.0 where was this war between the dragons? I only saw it between the dragon and me. Everything else looked peaceful, everybody just sat around. There were no invasions, nor camps to protect. It was all in our heads, where are the constant barrage of dragons attacking towns, villages, cities, where the players gathered in that location would have to defend?

Exactly what I think.
I want to add, the real moment when I feel dragons were a threat, it was in 2.55 when we had to fight dragons in Cohertas + the gigantic dragon in Step of Faith : Vishap.
All the remainder and even Nidhogg in 3.XX are a big joke.

[Rufalus]

Everything else looked peaceful, everybody just sat around. There were no invasions, nor camps to protect. It was all in our heads

I think the simplest fix would be revamp of Fates. They are mainly used for leveling, in a game where leveling is fast and endgame is everything so we've quickly outgrown the open-world field zones apart from occasional errands.

Fates aren't inherently bad, it's just a map marker showing you where something is happening -- we just need more interesting, more challenging, more rewarding things to do when we get there.

Include special large-area ones that pop often, maybe have multiple objectives so players spread out to protect different structures and civilians, reward tomestones for people at level cap. It changes the formula so we aren't hitting the weekly currency cap from instances alone.

[Powe]

To the guy up above me, I'm pretty sure the game isn't in decline, also they cut 3.5 in half because they did it in 2.5 it's like that and honestly I like that. The game is getting better and better and I for one can't wait to see where it takes us

[Sylvain]

Ok XD I'm not the only one with this feeling then
Hopefully it is something SE can work on for Stormblood.
I don't think every zone must be central and visited every day... but Azys Lla and the Hinterland do in fact serve 0 purpose...

Some disappointment is Azys Lla isn't part of Aquapolis map, so there's pretty few people to go there like miner for collectable. It doesn't have ephemeral collectable too.

Really? what a shame...

Maybe if SE stops making hubs like Idyllshire and Mor Dhona where all end game collectibles are located, then other areas would be used. Spread out the tomestone trading gear to different locations, scripts or raid gear trading all should be in different locales, so people visit other locations not just park their butts in Idyllshire and shout all day showing off their latest mount or gear while queuing in duty finder. Hubs kill off other maps.

I see where you're coming from with this but I would disagree. Having to fly 15min everytime I want to check for an item, like just the price, would annoy me beyond measure. I also have the feeling this wouldn't fix the problem. There's still nothing to do. You go there to get your piece and leave assap. However, I agree there could be unique traders here. But not maingear tombstone though.
As someone else said, you would just force people to go there and there, you don't incite them. Player should feel compelled to go to different zones, not forced.

This game is suffering and wants it to be put out of its misery, the sub numbers show that its on a decline. The fact that content has to be extended just to keep the game alive, shows that the content made is only good for a few hours of play.

if 3.5 was any good it would last us until 4.0, but they have to cut it in half and release the other half of it later in march to keep people coming back. Everyone knows just like every patch before, 3.5 will get boring in a few hours, but they have your sub money for that month so its good enough for them.

Well that's a bit extreme XD
I don't think splitting the content into two part means the game is in decline. It instead seem to be a smart move. The problem with any fresh content not being savage raid is that it will be very quickly completed.This is unavoidable. Even if they were to release 5 new primals and a new raid every patch, it would still be done within a week by the vast majority of players.
Assuming you say the truth about the subscription decline (basically, that you didn't pull that out of your ass), this is the fate of any given game. And it is fine like this. Every single game will stale as you spend hours. It is ok for player to sub an unsub every now and then.
For instance, I moved to Japan in September, being very busy I couldn't play much so I unsubbed until this month. Last year, with the release of another game I realised I had more fun playing this new game than FF14, but after 3 month of playing the new game, I got bored of it and came back to FF.

I am personally very satisfied with the content we get every patch. They don't just add new raid and dungeon every 3month, they also improve many little things overall. If you take a good look, we steadily have gotten new haircut, new fashion stuff, mount, pet, housing (I hate housing but it doesn't change the fact that they still maintain it), even pvp got new stuff every patch even though very little people play it. The ATH update with the 4 ... ATH spec? All these little things they keep improving. I don't believe the game lack content, but of course it mostly depend of how much time you spend in the game and what you qualify as content. If the only thing that matter to you is raiding and everything else bores you. The game will probly lack content then. I agree.
But if this is the case, then after the release of 3.5, once you're done, you should maybe consider unsusbscribing for sometime and move to anothergame, this way FF would feel fresh when you come back.


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If SE were to add something in this zone, what would you like it to be?

As I said, I would have loved a robot beast tribe. I think it would have been very interesting to have an insight at the mechanism of the flying city by helping the robots. They could have also expanded on the various race on the island, explain why they are here, what purposed they served etc etc.

[MidnightS]

They really should have done more stuff with Tiamat, especially since her brood-brother, Hraesvelgr, is now alone as well.

[Alynn]

They really should have done more stuff with Tiamat, especially since her brood-brother, Hraesvelgr, is now alone as well.

This. Tiamat was the only reason why I ever decided to go back to Azys Lla the second time on whim. Everything else was due to mandatory FATES/What not. That being said, it was so anti-climatic when she was all like "Yeah I'm just gonna stay here and repent". A perk(?) is that its a good place to go to if you ever want to admire how freaking creepy the place is with its experiments, Tiamat, weather, bgm, etc.

On topic though, it is a bit of an "unused" zone, but what can you do about it? Other than FATES/gathering classes collectibles/unlocking primals, I can't see a reason for Azys Lla being used for a greater purpose based on the story we are given to work with now. Unfortunately, it only serves as much purpose as the devs want it to. In terms of lore, it makes sense for the lack of things to do frankly due to its post-apocalyptic, five thousand years of nothing happening since the Allagans left, you know? (i.e.: FATES: cleaning up to ensure things don't rampage around, cause natural selection and evolution, yo. Collectibles: Pretty self explanatory). Just my two cents.

[Khemorex]

its as much as a wasted zone as everything else when ur done with the story.....

[Riardon]

I guess the area served its purpose. A creepy sci-fi twist at the end of the 3.0 story line. When you are used to fantasy medieval areas then boom all of a sudden a full Matrix sci-fi area. It gave me that weird feeling the FF series used to give me and it's good. The area is not wasted as you have the relic, the Primals and the unspoiled node to visit often. The only reason you don't visit much often this area is because no regular gathering nodes and beast tribe quests.

[Hyperia]

It appears that they had intended for the allagan nodes to be a beast tribe of sorts but it got cut during development. You can see many places where there were no quests and space for tribe quests. 3.4 is when they were to be introduced. If not the nodes, possibly the dragons there.