The lack of open world end game content makes me sad.

[Rocco]

The problem with open world content, is when you have 200 people trying to do it, its no longer "party" content, its zerg content. See hunts.

They can phase it, the tech is there.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

They can phase it, the tech is there.

So... Dungeons? Cuz that's basically what we have already. Cuz if you mean zone isntances, its gonna be just like ixion, people will go to whatever instance has the open world stuff respawned, it'll get zerged, repeat next instance.

[ErryK]

The biggest issue with open world content is it's a one-and-done situation most of the time. Which means by the end, it'll be dead for a majority. Look at Prey Online, I have friends who are dying to get their hands on the Ultima Horns, but they can't manage to get people to do it with them.

To be honest, what we really need is the open world dungeons from 1.0 back again, or a similar system. I understand the importance of instances, as it helps to segregate people to a minimum, but 1.0 tech used to load each thing in chunks, wouldn't it be possible to return to using that system in order to implement open world dungeons?

FFXIV has some of that, it's just they tied it to fates. Orchestrion rolls, barding, housing items, minions, cards and more. It's great that it's there, but I think fates have worn out their welcome at this point. It would be nice if they took a page from FFXV's dungeons and did some neat things like open up secret areas depending on the date/night cycle with mazes and such.

Speaking of day/night cycles, XIV also has moon phases, so it'd be interesting to see them implement them as a mechanic. People would probably complain a la 2.0 Sightseeing Log.

[Sylvina]

The problem with open world content for endgame is making it challenging without resorting to mechanics and design strategies no one will enjoy is very difficult. I'm happy with instanced challenges for endgame and what we have now for open world.

[ServerCollaps]

they could do it as in WoW and give all hunts (including a and s ranks) instant respawns and actual interesting loot to drop (minions, mounts, whatever), but let everyone just get loot once per day.

Maps will be filled 24/7 with people doing their daylie s ranks and stuff, everyone can get a piece of the cake and it wont be zerg content

it would be actually challenging, since smaller groups of people could try to tackle s ranks and get to see mechanics again ...

it would also help people to get the tiger mount in a more reasonable amount of time

[BigRed5392]

they could do it as in WoW and give all hunts (including a and s ranks) instant respawns and actual interesting loot to drop (minions, mounts, whatever), but let everyone just get loot once per day.

Maps will be filled 24/7 with people doing their daylie s ranks and stuff, everyone can get a piece of the cake and it wont be zerg content

it would be actually challenging, since smaller groups of people could try to tackle s ranks and get to see mechanics again ...

it would also help people to get the tiger mount in a more reasonable amount of time

wow wasn't always instant respawn.

[Acilith]

Ixion dcing everybody all the time is enough open world content for me. Odin used to be the same way too. Foxy Lady is already pretty thinned out, I can actually see the mechanics she does now.

[ServerCollaps]

wow wasn't always instant respawn.

now it is and it works very well afaik

[Mycow8me]

The problem with adding any kind of "end game" content to this game is vertical progression. It won't last long and continuing it means that much more work every patch. Devs have said adding more endgame gear sets per patch cycle in itself is a large work load (whether or not we agree on that is a different story) and adding content for getting that gear is another thing they have to work on. Hell they are using reskins of gear that become dyeable for things. They shoot themselves in the foot with this vertical progression and gear system but its not going to change and this is the system we've had since 2.0... Gear diversity on stats is another issue, even if they added some horizontal patches or more gearsets, stats are not diverse enough or interesting enough to play around with to warrant getting other gear unless you just want glam at any given time in a cycle.

Edit: I suppose there could be other rewards for openworld content like they have done with ixion, odin, etc... In the end though, this stuff is all fluff content and not on the level of openworld content that we are all expecting, especially the old FFXI players. I think those days are over.

[Yuinna]

Look at Prey Online, I have friends who are dying to get their hands on the Ultima Horns, but they can't manage to get people to do it with them.

Story of my life...