Zone transitions

[Seig345]

The removal of these transitional areas is a little more apparent if compared to the game's original 1.0 version.

For example; if you were in Gridania and wanted to "zone" outside, due to the focus on having as few straight-up zone transition screens as possible, you actually ran the entire way outside, and there was a long canopied path leading to where you end up in what is now Central Shroud.

Or if Limsa's more your thing; if you head east from the Aetheryte Plaza towards the Zephyr gate and look beyond the dotted zone line, you'll see a long bridge followed by some stairs leading up to where you appear when you zone out into La Noscea; this was manually traversed in 1.0, although in this case you can actually see the entirety of the path and out into La Noscea from within Limsa (one of the reasons I like Limsa so much :3)

However, out in the wild, most if not all of those original transitional areas are gone, giving the dev team the ability to simply have you traverse some distance during the zone screen in order to have you pop out wherever they saw fit and give them some freedom with their zone design without having to worry about minute detail regarding how the zones connect.

As Berethos already mentioned; the icy snowy weather in Coerthas is unnatural and is caused due to the massive disruption of Aether caused by the Bahamut calamity. If you approach the zone line from North Shroud, though, the terrain starts to get rocky and you can see mountains in the distance, both of which were how Coerthas originally appeared prior to the calamity (mostly mountainous, grassy highlands, not as much snow, if any).

[Arutan]

I went to look at it after reading the topic, and here's the way the loading allow us to skip



where you can clearly see the moutain chain you have to go across. I think the path would be 2-3 heavensward map long if not more.

[RubyCirha]

Well the transition between corethus and the shroud is semingly abrupt cas after the calamity the aither in coerthus is out of balence resulting in it being in a state of perpetual cold before 2.0 coerthus was actualy lush forist and grasslands much like drivania

[bass9020]

Sadly they gutted some zones when switching to 2.0. It was most likely because they were trying to get the game out as quickly as possible. If you look at an old concept map of Coerthas one area had less snow and more green foliage but I guess they scrapped that idea. But as others have said if you look at the area beyond the transition at least you can get a feel for it being a more natural look. In 1.0 we didn't have loading screens but when switching between regions, Black Shroud to Coerthas there was no natural transition you just loaded into a new area with a new look.

[MicahZerrshia]

I'm glad they cut out the boring parts. Have you ever driven through North Dakota or Montana? omg I wish I could just zone through those states and completely skip them too!

[Lexia]

While not everyone likes it, I would like for them to have some open zones for transitions to make the world feel more real. I mean not like a person that doesn't like it would be affected by it since can just teleport everywhere anyways.

[CatStarPrime]

We just miss some vistas. Like the bridge into Ishgard, which you only see when you're doing/finished with Steps of Faith; and the long causeway from the shore to the Zephyr Gate, in Limsa Lominsa. It would be nice, I think, to actually be able to *walk* that Limsa Lominsa causeway, and see the Mizzenmast, et cetera, from "outside but not too outside".

[HaelseMikiro]

These zone transitions actually happen inside dungeons also. There are several transition zones in Pharos Sirius, but if you aggro some of the corrupted Sprites, you can actually lead them ALL the way to Sirens boss room. As soon as you transition into Sirens room, you can look behind you at the zone line, and you will eventually see the sprites coming up the stairs, then they'll pass through the dotted zone line, and begin attacking you. For whatever reason, some of the zone lines in dungeons seem to do nothing more than save you 20 seconds of foot travel.

[Arutan]

There are several transition zones in Pharos Sirius, but if you aggro some of the corrupted Sprites, you can actually lead them ALL the way to Sirens boss room. As soon as you transition into Sirens room, you can look behind you at the zone line, and you will eventually see the sprites coming up the stairs, then they'll pass through the dotted zone line, and begin attacking you.

Wat, I have to try this lol

[Ama_Hamada]

I do not like cutting out the zones. To me that is admitting the copy/paste of 1.0 was fail and made the zones smaller so they did not have to do that. Plus without the transmissions, it screws up my photographic memory in trying to learn the maps. What I mean is, each zone is too independent of each other to know how zone A connects to zone C, D, etc.. I can only see how zone A connects to zone B. It still confuses me and I semi get lost in the outer limsa areas because of this issue.

In other words, if you want to do it right, look at FFXI or WoW. FFXIV feels such a setback when it comes to feeling what the world looks like, compared to those games.