[Dev Feedback] - Megaservers - Open World Content needs this :)

[Fhaerron]

The whole game would need to be reworked.

Everything is instanced, there's loading screens everywhere. The entire game was made with instancing in mind. Then there also comes their 90's server hardware and PS3 spaghetti code.
I never knew why they tried to untangle the spaghetti code instead of just demolish and building from the ground up with ARR.

I'm all for megaservers but in this game I would prefer (re)build from the ground up with modern engine.
True multicore CPU usage (+16 threadings) and use full power of modern GPU's so we can see some hard capped 144 FPS and maybe up to 90 FPS on 4K with 'acceptable' eye candy settings?
Then I would love to see some open world and loads of people on all the maps.

[SendohJin]

I never knew why they tried to untangle the spaghetti code instead of just demolish and building from the ground up with ARR.

because time and $$$.

[Jojoya]

Why do people want to load up what (most of the time) is supposed to be wilderness or at least sparsely settled environments with a metropolis' population?

Open world zones don't need to be more populated. They need to continue to feel like a real world. The less you make them feel like a real world, the less desirable they are to visit. If there's some special FATE or a S rank hunt mark that need a large number of players, shouts to linkshells will usually attract enough players.

Leave the zone crowding to the cities.

[Fhaerron]

Why do people want to load up what (most of the time) is supposed to be wilderness or at least sparsely settled environments with a metropolis' population?

Open world zones don't need to be more populated. They need to continue to feel like a real world. The less you make them feel like a real world, the less desirable they are to visit. If there's some special FATE or a S rank hunt mark that need a large number of players, shouts to linkshells will usually attract enough players.

Leave the zone crowding to the cities.

With the open world we would also wish that the open world has actually interesting things in it and doesn't feel lik an empty void.

As I said the game isn't build for open world, it was build to be instanced, that's why it needs to be reworked ... again.

[Sylvina]

The question that immediately pops into my head with this is - how would this affect The Hunt and World Bosses?

The Hunt is already a disaster on certain servers, and introducing mega servers with no changes to how it works would make it nigh impossible to do with the amount of people that would be introduced.

Edit :

Let me elaborate. My concern is also actual gameplay of certain things, as well as server stress. For example, on Behemoth there is a small group of people that grief hunts for everyone. Now, a player can leave the server if it matters that much to them, but if you introduced mega servers, those same Behemoth griefers would be able to mess with the entirety of Primal's hunt scene. You can argue competitive all you want, but the way the Hunt and it's rewards are set up do not accommodate for an entire data center worth of people, regardless of if the server hamsters can handle 300 people showing up for S ranks and the rest locked out beating at the doors hoping to get in.

Yeah I can't see megaservers happening without instancing the zones themselves. Megaservers definitely have great benefits though, i hate how almost none of my friends play on my server, all my friends from previous games I've played who play FFXIV are scattered across many other servers on aether. With Megaservers, this would NOT be an issue at all.

[Tsumdere]

Yeah I can't see megaservers happening without instancing the zones themselves. Megaservers definitely have great benefits though, i hate how almost none of my friends play on my server, all my friends from previous games I've played who play FFXIV are scattered across many other servers on aether. With Megaservers, this would NOT be an issue at all.

Absolutely. Do not get me wrong, I wish that megaservers could be a thing, I just do not think they cannot right now without some serious reworking of the few open world activities that already exist.

[Theodric]

Balmung is already very crowded. I dread to think what it would be like if the open world could have visitors from other servers.

I also suspect that a lot of the people playing on smaller servers do so because they want to play on a smaller server - and if they don't, then they have the option to transfer to a more populated server to reap the perks that come with such a place.

[Delmontyb]

Absolutely. Do not get me wrong, I wish that megaservers could be a thing, I just do not think they cannot right now without some serious reworking of the few open world activities that already exist.

Oh yeah, there would need to be some system reworking for the current open world content. This isn't a light switch change, but I do hope we get there at some point in the near future.

[Ilyrian]

As others have said better - everything is instanced and this most likely would be a pointless step.
FFXIV is a very pretty hallway - much like FFXIII.