General concerns with the Devs content philosophy

[Cemil]

2. Yes need more Glamour

4.Yeah.The First was Age of Conan Tutorial Island full voiced and it was good.
Next Step was SWToR with full voiced MSQ,Planetquest,Sidequest,Heroics,Dungeonsmissions.
Same with Eso.
I like full voiced MMOs.

[HyoMinPark]

The only one of these points I really agree with is the lack of DNC/GNB weapons - specifically Primal weapons and Ultimate weapons.

But I'm not bummed about the size or emptiness of the zones. Honestly, ShB has some of my favorite zones in the game after some of the Heavensward zones. I like being out and about while gathering and just taking them in, even if others deem them empty. I'm also not bummed about the lack of job quests with the exception of DRK, as it usually has the most compelling quest (in my opinion), and others can be hit or miss. Having full-fledge voice acting is also not a main concern of mine. I don't think everything needs a voice, or that Generic NPC #3816 we interact with once in the MSQ needs a voice. I think ShB had a perfect balance of voiced and non-voice cutscenes.

[Abstral]

As someone who played BFA and had an epiphany that the game direction was soulless, pure grind based, and community the most toxic in the MMO genre, I think I can live with the design differences between FFXIV and WoW. I understand these are things you value, and I’m sorry the current design doesn’t meet those expectations, but when you look at ESO, where quest content is all voiced, the amount of content from patch to patch is much lower compared to FFXIV. The empty zone design, I can see it, but design needs to factor in performance, so as someone who isn’t versed in that, I’m not sure what the fix it. Great wood is a beautiful zone, same without Il Mheg, but Khoulosia is definitely a bit lacking.

TL;DR WoW is not the standard for MMO design anymore, unfortunately.

[Hazama999]

To me, the zones haven't felt good since ARR. The ones we've had since HW have been wide, huge, and beautiful to look at but they do feel empty. I'm sure some of this is at least in part to being able to fly. Were it up to me, I would do away with flying, but I know I'd be thrown into a volcano for so much as suggesting the idea. Flying is a convenience and lord knows you can't get rid of those once they've been introduced unless you're looking for the heat.

[Mirassou]

To me, the zones haven't felt good since ARR. The ones we've had since HW have been wide, huge, and beautiful to look at but they do feel empty. I'm sure some of this is at least in part to being able to fly. Were it up to me, I would do away with flying, but I know I'd be thrown into a volcano for so much as suggesting the idea. Flying is a convenience and lord knows you can't get rid of those once they've been introduced unless you're looking for the heat.

I would certainly not throw you into a volcano! (You're too cute) - but I totally love flying and I have loved the new zones with each expansion - I see so much more creativity here than in other games. I feel like the devs here set the bar high and meet it every time, just my own personal opinion there.

[Hazama999]

I would certainly not throw you into a volcano! (You're too cute) - but I totally love flying and I have loved the new zones with each expansion - I see so much more creativity here than in other games. I feel like the devs here set the bar high and meet it every time, just my own personal opinion there.

And that's fine! I just wish there were a bit of a compromise. Something I failed to mention in my post is that some zones may be intentionally made out to feel empty, which, again, is fine... I just wish that feeling wasn't so frequent (speaking for myself here).
One thing I really liked with this expansion is that they made Eulmore the endgame hub, the place to be. I recall not liking Rhalgr's Reach quite as much cause it was biiiig and people were a bit too spread out.

[Alucard135]

I'd take large empty zones over very small ones just for the sake of populating it. The Crystarium is one of the best cities they've made and ShB zones are as well.

[Derio]

I will take the large zones over the small and compact ones. Especially when it comes to gathering. I love that I dont have to stealth every where to gather. Plus the spacious areas open up room for a wide variety of fates in the areas.

The Crystarium having so much space. Well it is a city after all and if it was small and compact I'm sure everyone would hate it.

It would be like Limsa Lominsa which is small and compact and very annoying at times due to so many people in a small area.

[Arkfrost]

Well sure. SE could make cluttered zones filled with objects and life.
Whether our computers could handle that in a satisfactory manner is a different question.

Well, I'm not saying that they should exaggerate on it, but a bit more, especially in those areas where you have large spaces filled with nothing they could add some more stuff.

I agree though, a bit more foliage as an option would be nice. Mob density is good as it is.

That being said: please keep in mind that the First is a dying world plagued by sin eaters for 100 years. I would not expect a dense population (though I would expect a lot more eaters that we have seen).

Hostile mob density is okay, yes. But they could add small, non-hostile level 1 critters somewhere inbetween, which only have 1HP and their name only pops up, when you deliberately target them.

Also, I know that it's a dying world plagued by sin eaters for 100 years. However, what bothers me is, that I don't see any of these sin eaters at all roaming the area, outside of the MSQ.

It would be like Limsa Lominsa which is small and compact and very annoying at times due to so many people in a small area.

Lol, I have the exactly opposite feeling. The fact that there are not so many people all over the place is what is annoying in my opinion. I'm playin a MMORPG after all and not a co-op single player title.

[Saito_S]

Honestly, the only complaint I agree with is #2. It is disappointing, that there's no lv 60 primal weapons at the very least for GNB and DNC. I hope those and some other glam weapons are added soon, because that seems like a strange omission. Everything else tho...

re: Role Quests - there are seventeen battle classes now. And that's not counting BLU or any DoH/L classes. I get why one could be disappointed to see this change, but it's pretty understandable. It's really not fair to accuse them of laziness in reaction to them saying they don't feel they can keep up with writing THAT many storylines and maintain any semblance of quality.

Besides - and YMMV on this of course - the quality wasn't there with any consistency to begin with, going all the way back to ARR. Sure some class questlines were great, but many were "meh", and some were AWFUL. For every Rogue, Red Mage, or Dark Knight storyline, there was a Lancer, Paladin (especially 50-60, ye gods), or Marauder. Trimming that down so that there are way fewer stories to juggle makes sense if it improves quality - I've only done the caster role line so far, but I enjoyed it, and I've heard from friends who main different roles that the others are good.

re: "empty zones" - I really don't agree with this. I love the zones from HW and ShB, and while I'm more up and down on the StB ones, there are still some that are great, and none of them have ever felt empty or lifeless to me. The zones are just bigger, that's all. There's plenty of "stuff" going on in the world if you look (in HW, StB, and ShB alike), they're just not OVERstuffed with people and objects. And it's not like there aren't plenty of large, open areas in ARR zones with little going on. Said open areas are just smaller, because the zones themselves are smaller, so you notice them less (and notice the goings-on of people, animals, and objects, more).
You can cherry-pick screenshots to make any of the main city hubs look either busy and lively, or empty and deserted, so your "look at these shots that prove how empty the Crystarium is!" photo album really did not impress. Hell, in the comparison between the restaurant areas in Limsa vs. Crystarium, from your position in the latter where you took the screenshot showing mostly empty tables with only one occupied by a couple NPCs, if you were to just turn around and then immediately take another screenshot, you'd capture like 10 NPCs in one shot in various "daily life" positions/poses/actions.

re: voice acting - I've never understood this complaint, honestly. I just am not that fussed when a game goes the route of not having fully voiced everything everywhere. This game has voice acting during the key MSQ scenes, and that's about it, and that's fine with me. I suppose to some degree, this topic is at an impasse by default the moment it's brought up, because you either think more voice acting is crucially important, or you don't, and it's unlikely that either side will suddenly change their mind. But yeah, for my part, I don't have a problem with how they've handled this. Reading in RPGs is as old as... RPGs, so it's not like it's unusual, and given how small the dev team is and how reluctant SE seems to be to fund XIV more than is absolutely necessary to keep the lights on, I have little doubt that the money saved by not having more voice work has been put to use elsewhere, thus meaning that if we DID get more voice work, we'd have to accept a dip in quality in some other area of the game. I'd rather keep things the way they are if such a trade-off were the price for having more cutscenes be voiced.

EDIT: also when it comes to the style of having EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, voiced, like in Skyrim or Mass Effect where no conversation isn't voiced, including just background NPC banter that's just going on as you run through an area... no thanks. I find that kind of thing to be more grating than "immersive" when I'm trying to explore a new zone or chill in one of the cities or etc.