A moving/dynamic zone would be cool (e.g. a ship or train)

[Azurymber]

Anyone who has played FFXI probably remembers the selbina-mhaura ferry, sea horror, and the pirate attack. There was also a similar ride on a barge through the Phanauet Channel with multiple pathways.

There's something fun about a zone where you're just on a vehicle, with random events happening during a trip. And it could be something unique and simple that makes FFXIV feel special and more memorable.

Since servers are more powerful now, it would be awesome to have a myriad of different random events and random paths for a boat to travel. Or to have something completely different like a train ride across the main continent.

Either way, FFXIV could really use some unique non-cookie-cutter content.

[Fredco191]

Ooh! That’d be fun!

[Mwynn]

Since servers are more powerful now.

They can't even add more Racial Features to the Character Creation.
(Not thinking this is a bad idea, but you know.. Server Limitations)

[KisaiTenshi]

Anyone who has played FFXI probably remembers the selbina-mhaura ferry, sea horror, and the pirate attack. There was also a similar ride on a barge through the Phanauet Channel with multiple pathways.

There's something fun about a zone where you're just on a vehicle, with random events happening during a trip. And it could be something unique and simple that makes FFXIV feel special and more memorable.

Since servers are more powerful now, it would be awesome to have a myriad of different random events and random paths for a boat to travel. Or to have something completely different like a train ride across the main continent.

Either way, FFXIV could really use some unique non-cookie-cutter content.

We had that in V1.0, that was the only way to get to or from Limsa Lominsa. I'd like to see it return, but unless you can fish on it, it probably would get no use. There were also airship landing moors in V1.00 that I never saw get used.

[Azurymber]

We had that in V1.0, that was the only way to get to or from Limsa Lominsa. I'd like to see it return, but unless you can fish on it, it probably would get no use. There were also airship landing moors in V1.00 that I never saw get used.

I don't remember either of those actually having a trip or zone associated with it?
There were airships & ships but weren't they just an instant transport?
I only remember there being an instanced ship during the limsa intro.

[Enkidoh]

Airships have always been instantaneous transport in FFXIV, even in 1.0 it just had a scene of your character entering or exiting the dock and the airship taking off or landing. Only the Vesper Bay - Limsa ferry was an actual 'zone' you could sit in, and even that was brought in line with the airships in ARR, being changed to just be a cutscene of departure and arrival and just skips the journey in between.

The main reason it's instant is by having it as an actual zone it requires the ship to be on a set schedule, that, any FFXI player can tell you was horribly annoying having to wait ten real time minutes just for the next ship to arrive, having just missed the previous one by the skin of your teeth.

Here in FFXIV having airships and ferries instant is an acceptable break from reality that eliminates such annoyingly pointless gimmicks that only cause frustration and add to the game time for no benefit.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't remember either of those actually having a trip or zone associated with it?
There were airships & ships but weren't they just an instant transport?
I only remember there being an instanced ship during the limsa intro.

The ferry was instanced, yes, much like those in WoW, but with a long-running "in transit" instance as well. I remember players frequently requesting player-count-based random encounters and unique fishing types be made available over the in transit instance, but can't actually even recall if regular fishing was available therefrom.
The city airships were indeed instant, and nothing was ever done with the gridanian airship landings.

[Usho]

Sadly, I seriously doubt Yoshi-Pees is gonna add trains, boats and actual airships that aren't instanced in the game at this point. Even after homepoints allowed us to teleport to different zones in FFXI, airships and boats were still fun to take and it actually immersed you in the world more and allowed you to explore new areas and take a break while taking in the sights. The overworld was fun to explore, the caves, the deserts, the pirates randomly attacking you at sea and doing some fishing on the boat rides. Exploring the world of FFXI was a beautiful experience. FFXIV doesn't have that. Everything is instanced to hell and the overworld is just so shallow and artifical. It's pretty, but it's shallow. The monsters aren't threatening either and there's no sense of danger.



In early low levels like travelling to the Dunes in FFXI, you had to worry about goblins being on your ass during your trip or Malboros coming at you in Pashhow Marshlands on the first trip to Jeuno. FFXIV doesn't have this. If FFXIV had more exploration and not a "fast food" kind of feel to it, then the game would benefit from it alot. The background is pretty but that's it, which is sad by today's standards. Sadly 5.0+ will have the same artifical feel to areas and exploration cause the guys in charge left their quality kit at home.




/2 cents

[Usho]

From @Enkidoh

Here in FFXIV having airships and ferries instant is an acceptable break from reality that eliminates such annoyingly pointless gimmicks that only cause frustration and add to the game time for no benefit.

Frustration for whom exactly? Not having them instanced like everything else in the artifical feel of FFXIV would actually add more feeling and exploration to the game that it REALLY needs. The airships and the boats added to the surrealism of FFXI's world. Exploration was amazing in FFXI and the journeys felt more meaningful. Travelling in FF14 is like teleport, boom, done. Or Walk for a 1 min, then done. That's it. That's awful imo. Awful and lazy.



Granted, I think teleports were a good idea but to make basically EVERYTHING instanced was not. FFXIV, at least in it's current incarnation, is lazy in design, and lacks creativity with it's exploration aspect, which is actually something the majority of people actually LOVE TO DO! WOW! Shocking isn't it? Yeah, I bet it is. But this game lacks in exploration and the overworld feels like a artifical painting. Pretty to look at, but that's all it is. Mind as well call FFXIV the new "Sims but with a WoW aspect". This game doesn't deserve the Final Fantasy title. Unlike this game, the previous FF games actually INVOLVED explorating the world. What a concept right?




/2 cents

[Crystal_Raven]

Honestly I agree with this.

I used to play a different game that handled travel really well. It had 2 types of travel.

First it was similar to FF14, you can teleport all over the place and most places are instanced, however. You had these daily quests to do that would generate some income, aka ingame money as we have here Gil. You had to travel pretty large distances to get this done.

You could either take the roads, or the scenic route that some players preferred. There were ships sailing rivers and oceans between places, they'd stop at certain locations and you just hop on and wait as you sail to the next place, then there were airships for those long-distance areas where there are no rivers. While on the boat or airship, players had a tendency to randomly start chatting about random things and making friends just like that. Also could look at the environment and world as you go through it.

Something similar would be pretty cool to see in FF14.