Airship

[Con_Carne]

Another suggestion from me, something that would be just for fun without any other use: the possibility to get an airship to travel the world. This airship would be a complete different thing from the FC airship system.

This personal airship's function would serve as an alternative for Aetherytes (that's why I said it would be just for fun). On land, we would use the "Airship" action similar to how we use "Return" or "Teleport" to travel to another place of the world.

However, while "Return" or "Teleport" takes us to the desired destination at instant, "Airship" won't. When using "Airship" we will appear in a detailed but miniaturized version of the world, similar to the classic Final Fantasy overworld maps. There, we can control our airship manually to go to the desired location, just like the airships in the classic overworld maps.

As I said, It would be just for fun since its use would be actually the same as the "Return" and "Aetheryte" actions, but non-instant. Obviously, I know this would be complicated since the center of the world map is not worked (Ilsabard), maybe it would be also hidden by clouds and would be updated through patches when new zones are revealed (though depending of the progression of the player, those will be unaccesible).

Also, this FFXIV world map could be the scenario for an special high-difficult FATE similar to the Mhachi instance thing from Diadem. A rift would open at some occasions and people would enter into an special instanced FATE.

So my idea would be similar to this (ignore the enemies and shots thing from the video).

https://youtu.be/E3Y8un26RYI?t=160

[Vexander]

So a personal airship that takes you to a map you can fly around that contains the zones, and you load into whatever zone you select to land on?

That'd be a fairly nice alternative and a pleasant nod to past Final Fantasy games. Sounds like fun to me. Maybe make it something of an alternative to housing while we're at it.

Small, Medium, and Large Airships with different sized/number of cabins, and you can basically freely roam your airship when it's parked in the sky.

[Sho86]

This is actually a brilliant idea for a classic theme of FF to be instilled on XIV. The 'overworld' idea wouldn't be hard to do, even with inaccessible current zones (the clouded idea actually nods back to FFMQ anyways when you haven't unlocked that bit yet.) Landing could just be zoning you right where you would zone in with return or teleport so the same code from then on could be used, with the added bit of your airship phased in, hovering over the aetheryte of that zone.

Unfortuntely, since this is:

A) Fun
B) Actually uses basic FF story progression ideals
C) Requires more work than copy/paste/re-color

It won't get considered... Seriously though this would've been a cool addition, also with the bit of it being alternative to instanced housing.

[Nabril]

I love this idea! I would pay for this feature

[Paladinleeds]

Yeah, I'd absolutely love this. But they're gonna go on about "Server limitations" again... well fix your servers SE...

[Cilia]

As much as I love overworld maps, they're probably too expensive to produce in modern games. The last JRPG I remember with a traditional overworld map was Tales of Vesperia, and Final Fantasy hasn't had one since IX.

Then there's the question of how they'd restrict access to areas not yet developed... yeah, I'd like an overworld map and airship, but it's just not practical these days, in this type of game.

[Hasrat]

As much as I love overworld maps, they're probably too expensive to produce in modern games. The last JRPG I remember with a traditional overworld map was Tales of Vesperia, and Final Fantasy hasn't had one since IX.

Then there's the question of how they'd restrict access to areas not yet developed... yeah, I'd like an overworld map and airship, but it's just not practical these days, in this type of game.

Personally, not quite sure it's a cost issue, but more to do with how the games/worlds are developed now. As games continue to get more "open world" and connected, there's simply less need for an overworld map feature. Previously necessary to connect independent zones, now, what need is there for map when you're already traveling the world itself?

[Shougun]

As much as I love overworld maps, they're probably too expensive to produce in modern games. The last JRPG I remember with a traditional overworld map was Tales of Vesperia, and Final Fantasy hasn't had one since IX.

Just wanted to add FFXI has one, which it also happens to be an MMORPG. Although you don't get to manually pilot across it, afaik. Also the zone system is quite similar here to there, just a lot less emphasis on travel in this game.

Given a proper speed of airships in FFXIV and lack of cost like to teleport, with some other features like Kalise thread or I's, I could see many people use them (air/ships and visit use the world map, as well as exist within maps themselves). Beyond the ship/airship content that would use it there are some other things you could do with the content if you spent time making it - like throwing it into cutscenes and boss fights (imagine fighting on the moon as you plummet into the world map like diving into a google earth-esq moment).

[Cilia]

Personally, not quite sure it's a cost issue, but more to do with how the games/worlds are developed now. As games continue to get more "open world" and connected, there's simply less need for an overworld map feature. Previously necessary to connect independent zones, now, what need is there for map when you're already traveling the world itself?

On this note, I'd like to point out that it's the other way around - games aren't as "open world" as they once were with the removal of the overworld map. They've actually become quite a bit more linear, to the point that newer Final Fantasy titles (with the exception of this one, and maybe XV which I've not and have no intention of playing) feel more like "cutscene coasters" in comparison to the older titles. (Follow the arrow, cutscene(s), follow the arrow, cutscene(s), etc., with fights sprinkled in between.)

MMOs give you more freedom, sure, but the story-heavy nature of this game means you have to follow a similar paradigm - even if you're given more freedom to do other things in the meantime, the story is still absolutely linear. JRPGs are in general, but the removal of overworld maps just emphasized that point. Whether the reason they were removed was due to cost I couldn't say, but being cynical and focused on the bottom line, that's what I'm inclined to believe.

Just wanted to add FFXI has one, which it also happens to be an MMORPG. Although you don't get to manually pilot across it, afaik. Also the zone system is quite similar here to there, just a lot less emphasis on travel in this game.

MMOs in general give you a bit more freedom in how you explore, but there's still a limit to how far you can go, as unlike a non-MMO the whole world isn't charted and developed. IX, for instance, lets you roam across the whole world as soon as you get access to the Blue Narciss - sure you can't land everywhere, but the whole map is there to chart (at least). That's simply not the case here - there's a lot of regions that exist in the world (the New World, Ilsabard, Meracydia) that could be visited with an airship, but haven't been developed.

... and sure, you could do a X-esque "airship" mode that takes you to a given Save Point (Aetheryte), but what would be the practical difference between that and just teleporting?

Again, I'd like controllable airships with an old-school overworld, but this kind of game simply can't have one until the very end of its life cycle after everywhere's been developed... and even if it makes it to that point, might not be worth the cost.

[Shougun]

MMOs in general give you a bit more freedom in how you explore, but there's still a limit to how far you can go, as unlike a non-MMO the whole world isn't charted and developed. IX, for instance, lets you roam across the whole world as soon as you get access to the Blue Narciss - sure you can't land everywhere, but the whole map is there to chart (at least). That's simply not the case here - there's a lot of regions that exist in the world (the New World, Ilsabard, Meracydia) that could be visited with an airship, but haven't been developed.

... and sure, you could do a X-esque "airship" mode that takes you to a given Save Point (Aetheryte), but what would be the practical difference between that and just teleporting?

Again, I'd like controllable airships with an old-school overworld, but this kind of game simply can't have one until the very end of its life cycle after everywhere's been developed... and even if it makes it to that point, might not be worth the cost.

I understand your concern but its not something I think that isn't solvable, like making certain areas need aether currents or pushing back Garlean warships first. The whole world map doesn't need to be opened like that, and not all places need to be landabledue to x,y,z reasons. By creating reasons you can't land, fly over, or access you effectively create the invisible walls you need. This is done all the time in games already, just a nature of all games solo or multiplayer really (cleverly blocking things).


So I get the concern but I dont worry about it because I believe SE can come up with the lore and systems necessary to make it not an issue logically and mechanically.