Zone transitions

[Berethos]

Yep that is what I was talking about. i really hate the artificial making maps bigger.

They did things right in ffxi, why screw up such an easy concept in ffxiv?

Technology is the short answer.

The game's engine and the hardware range they wanted it to run on at ARR launch meant there was an upper limit to what they could realistically do to have zones filled with stuff (ffxi has a different game engine...one that has noticeably less detail in it).

Removing transition areas and having the maps be of a certain size is a reflection of and trade off of those limitations.

[Ama_Hamada]

Technology is the short answer.

The game's engine and the hardware range they wanted it to run on at ARR launch meant there was an upper limit to what they could realistically do to have zones filled with stuff (ffxi has a different game engine...one that has noticeably less detail in it).

Removing transition areas and having the maps be of a certain size is a reflection of and trade off of those limitations.

fuller world like ffxi > ffxiv

I am tried of things being sacrificed in the name of shinny graphics.

graphics should be the first sacrificed, not bending everything to graphics.

This is where Yoshi fails and doesn't think outside the box. He only has to look at FFXI to see how things can be fun without the need of mobs, flashy effects etc.

Climbing Parradamo Tor
https://youtu.be/ITQorG_B-6o

yep, that was epic, lol

[Berethos]

fuller world like ffxi > ffxiv

Larger maps and more transition areas represented don't make for a fuller world.

One that is filled with all sorts of interesting creatures and NPCs and other areas that add to world building and detail do make for a fuller world and you don't need more map to have that.

FFXI has a lot of empty space in it...areas just filled with mobs and not much detail. That is what you lost in the name of modern graphics. I welcome the trade if it means the space we do have has more detail to it.

Of course, you should also recognize the fact that the reasons the areas were so sparse in many cases was due to sacrificing having them be of a certain graphics quality based on the limitations of the day.

In other words, even your precious ffxi sacrificed for the sake of graphics.

[Ama_Hamada]

Larger maps and more transition areas represented don't make for a fuller world.

One that is filled with all sorts of interesting creatures and NPCs and other areas that add to world building and detail do make for a fuller world and you don't need more map to have that.

and that is something ffxiv does not have.

[Berethos]

and that is something ffxiv does not have.

You're kidding only yourself if you think ffxiv isn't filled with detail and world building elements.

[Ama_Hamada]

You're kidding only yourself if you think ffxiv isn't filled with detail and world building elements.

again FFXI > shinny fxiv graphics

fill the world for once.

FFXIV is too small, and ffxi 1.0 was too much copy/ paste, lol

[Naunet]

One that is filled with all sorts of interesting creatures and NPCs and other areas that add to world building and detail do make for a fuller world and you don't need more map to have that.

I'm fine with instanced zones when the game actually utilizes them to richly populate the space, create interesting terrain, and make structures accessible. Guild Wars 2, for example, has massive instanced zones and you can pretty much go anywhere in those zones you please. Unfortunately, even in Heavensward zones, invisible walls reign supreme in FFXIV. This is especially painful with flying. Why am I not allowed to land on top of a massive hill or statue or mountain? Why does a cliff that drops into an otherwise accessible region have an invisible wall that forces me down a narrow path? Why can I not cross this shallow river? Invisible walls and noninteractable surfaces really hurt the experience with Eorzea's zones.

When i look at the world of Ffxiv i am disapointed. When lvling we visit every single location. There are no secrets. There are nothing that indicates its a world as opposed to a themepark ride. There should be empty expanses. There should be empty places, random caves reachable useless mountain tops. Yes gameplay wise it might be weird from a dev standpoint to make these, but if they make the world feel like a world i think its worth it.

I agree. There are STILL places I keep uncovering in WildStar, even after playing that game for 2+ years - little nooks and crannies I hadn't thought to wander into that Carbine decided to hide some secret object or landform or just a really nice view. That kind of experience is impossible in this game.

[Shurrikhan]

I'm fine with instanced zones when the game actually utilizes them to richly populate the space, create interesting terrain, and make structures accessible. Guild Wars 2, for example, has massive instanced zones and you can pretty much go anywhere in those zones you please. Unfortunately, even in Heavensward zones, invisible walls reign supreme in FFXIV. This is especially painful with flying. Why am I not allowed to land on top of a massive hill or statue or mountain? Why does a cliff that drops into an otherwise accessible region have an invisible wall that forces me down a narrow path? Why can I not cross this shallow river? Invisible walls and noninteractable surfaces really hurt the experience with Eorzea's zones...

This. Allowing for layers within the open world does exponentially more harm than good, if done right.

But as for the zones themselves, it's not just their size completely fails to deliver on the premise of each zone, making them feel like a pre-settled world where the doodads have little apparent reason for existing (one keep within a quarter mile of another, bazaars with no visitors, "vast deserts" no larger than the yet unbuilt little hilly section of my crowded Southern Californian housing track, cities of hundreds that barely fit tens and whose walls are facades, spire cities of which only two out of some ten levels can be explored, naval cities without a single pathable boat and few even at the docks, etc.), its the lack of utility, the lack of native systems already in place and running regardless of you. And the damn invisible walls (which, oddly enough, have gotten worse in some areas since ARR; I used to be able to port to Central Coerthas and jump off the west wall onto the cliffs and bounce my way up to the ogre FATE that spawns up there, but they have since blocked that path off, apparently as an "exploit").

[Astyrah]

damn invisible walls

i really really hate these things more than the loading screens and the "disconnected world" feeling.

[Berethos]

again FFXI > shinny fxiv graphics

fill the world for once.

FFXIV is too small, and ffxi 1.0 was too much copy/ paste, lol

Not just talking about the graphics of each zone, but I don't think I'm going to get that point across to you...

So keep believing your bigger but emptier zones are somehow so much better.