We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Ameela]

Well, to be fair, we do have a whole desert area where there's not much in it either near Forgotten Springs, that does make sense that there's more monsters than actual intelligent life. I do agree with everything you've posted afterwards, but we do have a desert zone and it is pretty bland yet somehow we don't have nearly as many complaints about it as we with the Ruby Sea.

Because the Sagolii Desert only takes up half of Southern Thanalan and a portion of the overall Thanalan area. Plus it's mostly used as a landmark to distinguish it from the other areas in the region: Central Thanalan has the station, Western Thanalan has slight vegetation and borders the ocean, Eastern Thanalan has the canyon and Burning Wall and Southern Thanalan has the desert.
The Ruby Sea has the volcanic area and then... water... lots and lots of water for the whole zone. And even if you argue the desert was still boring at least it had enemies to fight and a fairly unique look and feel to it with the heat waves and stuff like that.

It's also probably not helped by the fact that we already had a water centric zone before Ruby Sea, it's called La Noscea.

[Sigma-Astra]

Because the Sagolii Desert only takes up half of Southern Thanalan and a portion of the overall Thanalan area. Plus it's mostly used as a landmark to distinguish it from the other areas in the region: Central Thanalan has the station, Western Thanalan has slight vegetation and borders the ocean, Eastern Thanalan has the canyon and Burning Wall and Southern Thanalan has the desert.
The Ruby Sea has the volcanic area and then... water... lots and lots of water for the whole zone. And even if you argue the desert was still boring at least it had enemies to fight and a fairly unique look and feel to it with the heat waves and stuff like that.

It's also probably not helped by the fact that we already had a water centric zone before Ruby Sea, it's called La Noscea.

The Ruby Sea itself is suppose to be a landmark though considering it's where the Red Kojin are, the Confederacy, and the fishing village that Yotsuyu terrorizes, plus the volcanic area as you said which leads into the little auspice creatures. Actually, Hell's Lid plays a significant tie towards the Japanese folklore and superstition of "Oni Island".

I can also argue that the Ruby Sea does have enemies in it.....they're just above the water instead of under the water like they originally should have been, so comparing Sagoli to the Ruby Sea on that notion alone is kind of silly. Both areas have enemies, just not enough to give the areas a sense of danger or life towards them honestly. As for the weather notions of Sagoli, there's thunderstorms in the Ruby Sea which is normal for sea-worthy areas. There's really nothing unique about either one since by default, a desert is a desert and an ocean is an ocean. They have weather patterns expected of such climates respectively, if they didn't...well, I'd say SE would be slightly cheapening the feel of the areas compared to everywhere else.

I feel like hyping up Sagoli on a pedestal because people hate the Ruby Sea more is just not a good argument. Both areas are representing what they're suppose to: a desert should be full of rolling dunes of sand just like a sea should be full of water, however, the devs are creatively bankrupt on how to make areas that are suppose to be vast and seemingly endless still retain a sense of danger and liveliness.

As I said beforehand, the Ruby Sea could have been more unique if the underwater aspect was more focused on than what was above because that's what should have been done the first time. We should be spending more time underwater in an area that is capable of it, not above like La Noscea.

Sure, La Noscea is very sea-themed, but I wouldn't really call it a water centric zone since you can still practically get towards everything that you need on foot where the Ruby Sea basically demands flying or you're swimming the whole way there. There's very little means to get from point A to point B in the Ruby Sea by ground alone. You can't get to Hell's Lid with a ground mount from the Ruby Tinthe port for example. La Noscea is water themed in spirit and appearance sake, but really...you're spending majority of your time on dry land.

[WhyAmIHere]

I didn't neglect anything... The point I was alluding to was that there's a trend where many, many maps are empty and abandoned or in ruins making it easy for SE to make a large map because there's nothing to be made.

The other point was that the maps have nothing to do in them. Nothing to find. I'm not neglecting any lore. I'm actually using the lore to support my point that lore is like an excuse for everything being empty. I wouldn't have a problem with maps in ruins if there were things to find and do there.

Imagine you're a map designer for a game. You could easily make a ton of empty/ruined maps and just say So-So abandoned it/had a war here and call it lore... But ruins and destruction does NOT mean there can't be neat things to find in all the ruins.

for an indirect analogy: the best thing about the lore of the dark souls series is the mystery of it all, that not everything is told to you, you have to look for it in the environment.
for a direct analogy: when everything has some special meaning, nothing has meaning. The emptiness of a place can be a function to further accentuate the few bits of life that remain.

[TaiyoShikasu]

That's kind of the point of the sightseeing log. Go out, find them, get some decent EXP if not max level, and a bit of information on the area. Even achievements tied to it for those that care about those.

[Magic-Mal]

That's kind of the point of the sightseeing log. Go out, find them, get some decent EXP if not max level, and a bit of information on the area. Even achievements tied to it for those that care about those.

I always do the sightseeing logs. The problem with those is that there are no where near enough entries for how big the maps are. It's like 8 or 9 per map. For something as simple as sightseeing log I have no idea why it was kept so limited and it seems like they never get updated past a certain point. We haven't gotten any more HW or ARR logs. They might as well be forgotten.

[Alleo]

I went back, but I'm still left with the question why would they do that when a good chunk of the playerbase is only going to do that once. And I'm basing this off of fates and hunts. I dunno, I might just be not seeing it, but the emopty maps I think is the least of their problems. I rather them fix and make dungeons more fun and repeatable honestly. I could give a crap less about the -openworld- Give me more fun dungeons, make bosses more like rath in design. - what I mean by THAT is make them hurt, make them random or something. Give us as players a reason to get good.- FIX HOUSING!!!! That's what I wish SE would do for a small list. But I'll end my comment with I just don't see it, but hey I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I just don't know even with the ideas I read how it'll be worth it.

Why not both? Give us maps full of stuff to do for all those that want this and also give us more dungeons, better raid bosses and more. Its not like they would need to only do one of them. I mean they somehow put all the work into perform which is also something probably only a small part of the community really deeply uses. Yet they have done so.

Also if we argue about only doing it once: Why should they even care about a good story? Players only do it once right?

Well, to be fair, we do have a whole desert area where there's not much in it either near Forgotten Springs, that does make sense that there's more monsters than actual intelligent life. I do agree with everything you've posted afterwards, but we do have a desert zone and it is pretty bland yet somehow we don't have nearly as many complaints about it as we with the Ruby Sea.

There is still a bit to see unlike a real desert. Heck how about a whole map that is like the burn? With nothing but white sand. I think realism can take a bit of a backseat if you design something for a fantasy game. (And lets not forget that we also have reefs in our ocean, that is full with life too)

[Magic-Mal]

Why not both? Give us maps full of stuff to do for all those that want this and also give us more dungeons, better raid bosses and more. Its not like they would need to only do one of them. I mean they somehow put all the work into perform which is also something probably only a small part of the community really deeply uses. Yet they have done so.

Also if we argue about only doing it once: Why should they even care about a good story? Players only do it once right?

And I think the key to "one-time" content is that the experience itself needs to actually last. Make the content simple but engaging. The issue with the devs is that they try WAY too hard to make some complex new mini-game with a bunch of mechanics then doesn't even make it fun or give it any kind of reward incentive. And after they release it they basically abandon the game to make a new one instead of expanding it.

If they made a simple open-world activity like catching pets or races they could make a ton of them every patch.

Catching minions? They already have the models, they just need to put them in the world and copy/paste the programming for each one(theoretically).

Same for races.

[Sigma-Astra]

Heck how about a whole map that is like the burn? With nothing but white sand.

I'm down for that, turn it into a minigame/survival maze and see who can last the longest with some kind of reward at the end. That might be fun.

[Alleo]

And I think the key to "one-time" content is that the experience itself needs to actually last. Make the content simple but engaging. The issue with the devs is that they try WAY too hard to make some complex new mini-game with a bunch of mechanics then doesn't even make it fun or give it any kind of reward incentive. And after they release it they basically abandon the game to make a new one instead of expanding it.

Sadly that seems the way they go. ^^; Inventing the wheel new into something way too complicated. For example dyeing your chocobo or even LoV (People just wanted something like Pokemon). Honestly right now I feel that they would do something like catching minions on maps and make it into something complicated with three layers of RNG.

[Magic-Mal]

Sadly that seems the way they go. ^^; Inventing the wheel new into something way too complicated. For example dyeing your chocobo or even LoV (People just wanted something like Pokemon). Honestly right now I feel that they would do something like catching minions on maps and make it into something complicated with three layers of RNG.

I can see it now...

New Feature Added: Animal Catching!
> Minion animals will now be able to be found and captured within the open world with the use of the new Capure Net tool!
> A total of 10 minion animals can appear on the maps of Stormblood.
*Players must have completed the quest "Stormblood"
*Players must be a Level 70 Disciple of Land job
*Minions caught will be unsellable and untradable
*Minions caught once cannot be caught again
*The Catpure Net cannot be used while mounted
*The Capture Net cannot be used while diving or swimming

> Players will be able to keep minions they catch and house them in their own estates!
*Estates can house a max of 2 pets
*Apartments cannot house pets
*Pets can only be placed by the owner of the private estate or Free Company Estate

> More animals will be added over time.