Open world changes?

[EnigmaticDodo]

Overworld is pretty dead imo, here are some garbage ideas.

* More densely packed mobs
- As it stands, mobs are very sparse w/ numbers on the open world. Could certainly benefit from larger packs.

* Adjust EXP
- Make it so grinding overworld mobs could be a viable method of leveling. Doesn't have to go overboard to invalidate everything else, but would be nice.

* Allow overworld to spawn NM type enemies, similar to Eureka-esque stuff, for killing mobs.
- incorporate the Duel FATE mechanic for angering certain mob factions. Allow the rewards to be chunks of gil, tomes, misc mats, or Maps with higher success rates.

* Make FATES have chain bonuses, such as temporary Duty Action like abilities, ability to call in G-Warrior for a FATE or 2, etc.
- Allow FATE variants for if your chain is high. ex; Normal Fate could be X group killing Y group, but now this time Y group has a big bad for backup and new mechs introduced to the FATE w/ increased rewards.
- Make FATES actually scale reasonably for players present. Some FATE boss enemies have ridiculously high health for unknown reasons. Could do w/ a readjust!

I don't know. I really would just like the open world to matter outside of what very little there is. Sorry if these are just the basest of the base suggestion wise, but it's a starting point of a conversation I think is somewhat important. I really don't appreciate how some aspects of this game feel half baked and undercooked, so lets throw ideas out, talk about it, and maybe devs will do something eventually.

[Roda]

The FATE system was a decent idea to implement but they never really committed to it enough to have it do more than be a source of easy exp.
They should be interacting with the maps way more than they do. Give us branching FATE chains depending on the FATE outcome. FATE chain success should be tied to levels of hostility in entire areas. Maybe opening up merchants with rare goods and collectibles. Maybe provide access to repeatable quests (maybe that reward bicolor gems) if an area is held long enough? Hell, make it so gathering nodes have bonuses while the area afinity is high. Something to inspire people to do them when they don't need the EXP anymore.

New types of FATEs would be appreciated too, preferably ones that aren't so combat focused. Events while traveling don't have to always be life and death.
Help a farmer literally whack some moles with a special hammer.
Help a noble outside a party arrive in the appropriate fashion by listening in on the party-goers.
(go -hide- and select certain points near clusters of npcs talking, dialoge box pops up with the conversation with keywords, go back to the npc and select the appropriate keywords. collect enough intel as a group and the noble enters the party with confidence and style)
Leap-of-faith/cliffhanger style jump-a-thons/collect-a-thons (instead of kill mob or pick up thing to get item) & deliver to npc.
Traveling carnival patrols the zone and sets up minigames on hotspots. Minigames drop tickets and you can trade them in while the troupe is parked. Once they complete a circuit the prize pool changes.

(And FATE NPCs should not disappear unless their character literally walks into an area in which the PC cannot go or see into. I can't believe I hate to say this about an RPG, because NPCs literally disappearing the instant they're no longer relevant takes me RIGHT out of the experience. Raktika did a good job with this on the huntresses chain, I want to see that continuity with every single FATE)

They also need to stop with the client-side NPCs. I get that it reduces server lode, but the Viis running across the road e-v-e-r-y t-i-m-e I enter the crystarium, or the dude who walks up to the nutsboard every time i walk into the area... they're getting old. If you're gonna do clientside events, make them small, and have a pool of what can happen and randomize it, because oh my god I feel like I'm trapped on one of those amusement park rides with the singing anamatronics. Zero immersion.

I'd also like to see more storytelling (environmental and mechanical) off the main path of a zone. I want rewards for exploring. Like the zones are somehow so linear in this game (il mheg is really bad about this in its design). Secret nooks with hidden quests. Multiple routes to get to areas. (shortcuts!) Areas that require puzzle solving or basic jumping to navigate. Just, things that inspire whims and reward you for following them. I play MMOs to recapture that sense of wonder and aventure I had as a kid exploring the woods. SE. Lemme chase an unassuming frog that no one would notice and get rewarded with a friend when I manage to catch it :3

They need to do some more reconnaissance on other mmos on the market on how they do their open worlds because i'm just so bored of XIV's lifeless backdrops for quests. (GW2 and WoW (again) specifically)

[van_arn]

They need to break their fear of putting anything remotely challenging in the open world. As things stand, you explore a capped zone and have mindless farms or party-required fates. There's very little to no in between.

This gets even worse as ilvl is boosted during an expansion. I'd rather see some areas that are dangerous to travel alone at launch of an expansion that gradually become challenging -- but not easy -- over time to solo.

This is on top of wanting more reasons to travel in the open world. Blue Mage could have been this, but powerleveling ruined that angle.

[GrumbleBeard]

Enemies in general should do more status effects. There are plenty in the game to choose from and they're so rarely used. It would also make the corresponding potions that cure them a little more relevent.

[Lucke]

The FATE system was a decent idea to implement but they never really committed to it enough to have it do more than be a source of easy exp.
They should be interacting with the maps way more than they do. Give us branching FATE chains depending on the FATE outcome. FATE chain success should be tied to levels of hostility in entire areas. Maybe opening up merchants with rare goods and collectibles. Maybe provide access to repeatable quests (maybe that reward bicolor gems) if an area is held long enough? Hell, make it so gathering nodes have bonuses while the area afinity is high. Something to inspire people to do them when they don't need the EXP anymore.

They actually did this. In Eastern Thanalan, there's a series of FATEs dealing with that big bridge. Failing the FATE started one chain, and winning started another chain. If you failed, the 2nd part has you rescuing NPCs I believe. There's also the one in the Shroud where you have to take over the bandit camp then defend it. If you fail, you have to take to over again. Both times had merchants that sold different items depending on if you won or lost. The bandit camp for example had a merchant that was only available if you held the camp. They sold a minion and some other goodies, for as long as players had the camp.

[Enkidoh]

There's also the pirate encampment (Poor Maid's Mill) in Upper La Noscea which comes under attack by kobolds (and eventually, a giant couerl), and winning the FATE chain unlocks a qiqirn merchant temporarily that also sells a minion, which is like the aformentioned bandit camp in the Black Shroud and the attack on the bridge in Thanalan. All are FATE chains that are a continuing series of FATEs with branching results based on whether a FATE is failed or completed.

* Adjust EXP
- Make it so grinding overworld mobs could be a viable method of leveling. Doesn't have to go overboard to invalidate everything else, but would be nice.

This is not going to happen I'm sorry to say as Yoshi specifically designed the game deliberately to avoid this. He doesn't want players farming trash mobs out on the overworld over and over again in FFXI-style EXP parties. Instead, he wanted to move players over to what he termed "content based EXP", that is, EXP gained through completing content or events such as quests, FATEs and dungeons (he stated this way back during the Beta test when players actually requested that very idea of EXP parties).

Basically, the days of 'Dooms parties' like FFXI are gone and are never coming back here (the closest you can get to that is forming EXP parties to run Palace of the Dead or Eureka, but again that's special content and not available for the regular overworld).

[Roda]

They actually did this. In Eastern Thanalan, there's a series of FATEs dealing with that big bridge. Failing the FATE started one chain, and winning started another chain. If you failed, the 2nd part has you rescuing NPCs I believe. There's also the one in the Shroud where you have to take over the bandit camp then defend it. If you fail, you have to take to over again. Both times had merchants that sold different items depending on if you won or lost. The bandit camp for example had a merchant that was only available if you held the camp. They sold a minion and some other goodies, for as long as players had the camp.

Yes I loved those fates at the time. Sad they never expanded the concepts though.

[Shougun]

Wrote a lot here and there but in a bit vague-r.. slightly.. (lol) shorter form:

• Archeology and chocobo hot and cold - I think using chocobo for both, but one would be more find it once and done, nice checklist with some nice lore implications and rewards (like recreate some famous armor or statue), and then one that is more repeatable (like chocobo hot and cold of FFIX).
• FATEs and monsters to sometimes award chests which can have bonus exp, tomes, unique buffs / items. Unique buffs could be like infinite sprint for the next 5 minutes (not really infinite.. then but lol you get the point). Growth buff that makes you 20% bigger and deal 20% more damage, etc.
• Revamp of the leve system, I'm thinking madlib sort of system that has a sort of 'big multi-zone' like quest vibe but is very worth the time investment (and therefore maybe limited like previous leve system was, leave crafting leve alone or separate them).
• Hunts, add / upgrade the hunting log to encourage using it like a log for.. hunts . Introduce soul fading to NMs such that they leave a mark on the land temporarily when they've died. You can find these marks and based on how faded they are fight them for their rewards (more faded the weaker they are, less rewards, can optionally choose a weaker fade). Increase reward for finding live NMs (like an extra roll from the item table), but also make them not scale as much (except the S ranks, leave them to be the sort of world boss like vibe). When fighting the faded variant may be a bit like Bozja but with phasing (so it feels like a BCNM sort of, like in FFXI). Add unique items with unique effects that are for non-end game fun (may do something powerful, for the period it exists in, but are designed not to eat up the balance concerns of end game- perhaps using special scaling like our collectors earrings to facilitate that with like "open world only affix" or "non-savage / ultimate" affix), special appearances and helpful leveling effects. B ranks to scale to the player (content for those leveling and level caps). Ingredients to be used in crafts, think a bit monster hunter inspired. Now players are encouraged to race each other but you're not ruined if you failed the race (and if you were solo player you could 'probably' solo most of them if you dropped the fade level).
• Consider both mixing and enhancing the FATE system from ShB into other expansions (and itself). To allow players a sense of growth for the whole zone. Completing FATEs, certain side quests, beast tribe quests, etc - all have implications for your zone (while most may be visual, some could be features like shortcuts, npc merchants, new nodes, etc). Besides the normal progression of beast tribes and this new concept of the zone's level affecting the zone, also consider purchasing with your beast tribe tokens zone changes- like you might buy an upgrade that adds a fast travel point and some paved road / tank patrol for the dwarves, etc, etc). I had a thought in that thread dedicated to the idea that you might also seen high rank zones with beast tribe powers to help you level old relics if one wanted, like the slyph may create a fountain that you could bathe your weapon in once a day for some light and then they'd sell sunlit flowers that would give you bonus light per dungeon run (bought with beast tribe currency of course).

• Generally consider adding challenge log (such that they rewards can be substantial without turning into a mega massive holy "ffxi" / everquest era farm), rewards, perhaps like the leve (I call mega leve sometimes), that allow some players to make some substantial progression in the open world if they chose to (some of this in some ways is already true but the systems for them are sometimes a bit circumstantial and or potentially annoying, like why I suggested hunts has an encouraged 'live' mode and yet not a ruined soul faded mode, as sometimes say Balmung comes in as a giant death ball and kills another server's hunts and then that server is mad). Like perhaps a sort of 'relic' open world armor made from NMs and other content of the open world, that you can upgrade over time adding onto it, feeling a bit wild and with the vibe of that expansion / zones. Maybe not the fastest thing to rank up but 'an option' if you wanted to, and comes with benefits like what relic has been in the past, pretty casual friendly.. just time intensive and not always 'the best' (but certainly not the worst, consistently a solid choice of gear and unique looking).

This one is kind of a very wide group that's not just open world but:

Think role play and immersive thoughts. What? Lots of things FFXIV does well but this one I feel, in comparison to other MMOs especially, FFXIV does not. Too busy following formula and consistent rules. So like.. monsters that don't aggro you because they're not there just to be road blocks for gamepaly, they exist to fill the world as well. Not all monsters needing to even be enemies (critters for example). To the open world this means adding secrets and hidden little gems. Maybe on the full moon a cave opens up and there is a special item in there. On the month of your star sign your shrine may give you a blessing. Items may do special effects that describe how they exist / obtained (not just +5 strength). Items may do things for fun, because they're fun - like you might come across 'lighter than a feather chocobo tail feather' item that's not a consumable (man FFXIV is addicted to consumables lol, give me some trinkets dangit) which will grant you slow fall shortly. You're a rogue (ninja), locked chest or doors. You're a dragoon, locked door = jump over the wall. Etc. On the concept of the open world, having camps, and the ability to set up camps, would be awesome - giving some FFXV road trip vibes if possible (but consider classic FF games with the "tent" item as well). In these camps you could use local resources to make buffs for that zone, can pair these meals with an actual cooking item to increase the buff duration while in that zone (to make it so cooking job isn't taken over, these buffs wouldn't replace that- but do extra things), some zones may come with special recipes too like if you craft a certain potion during levin weather (Ixion's) you might make a Bolt Draft which grants you 5 charges of enhanced sprint (faster, while the sprint duration is active sprint is replaced with a unique dash that does lightning damage).

A bit of a larger aside to the whole role play thing is role play merit board (sphere grid). Where each job has exp they earn from a variety of tasks (many large benefits from open world, perhaps challenge log of open world has big exp rewards). These things could be stuff like dragoon gaining fall damage resistance and then upgrading it to no damage (they're lord of jump.. come on.. why does Ninja have this but not dragoon? Well part of it is because FFXIV is a bit too rigid sometimes, imo, where I do think they could take a few tips from other MMOs without going so far as to loose their own sense). These things would be done to avoid any issues with savage / ultimate whether they have to not work in that content or just don't really matter (say maybe fall damage doesn't matter). Besides examples like jump, or maybe mages with special teleports, you'd also get special effect changers like Dark Knight could gain their HW shadow smoke effect for darkside rather than the red goku kaioken looking effect. May also consider special upgrades/side choices for nodes like dragoon 50% damage reduction might be a talent you could spend A LOT of points on for all your jobs, but the 100% damage null would only ever be for Dragoon. Special jump mode for Dragoon that allows them to leap, perhaps even in combat (of the open world), giving them a bit of that hulk jump super dragoon feeling (may use flying unlock as part of it for better pathing scripting, such that if you land on something unpathable you might 'land on your spear' and continue on from there and optionally mount your flying mount). Maybe if you wanted the special teleport on all jobs, you could because you feel too lazy that day to switch jobs but you'd have to unlock that side grade.

[kaynide]

As said above, Guildwars 2 is pretty great as far as general over world feeling...but I firmly think it’s already too late for FF, unless they spent an entire expansions worth of effort to do a massive TLC update.

Ways to make the over world more relevant (but I feel is too late):

• Revamp physics engine to allow better world interaction (legit jumping puzzles)
• Revamp flying, or make mounts more interesting (again see GW2 where you can climb up walls etc and flying is more akin to gliding)
• Better server latency, to allow for actual racing or interaction with environment. As is if I am running slightly in front of my wife, on her PC it’s the exact opposite. Impossible to have a “photo finish”. Better latency = moving platform interaction, etc.
• Give multiple ways to interact with open world content. Eg. From GW2: Bandits set a farm on fire. You can a) extinguish flames, b) fight the bandits directly and/or c) try to rescue people/animals.
• Make the world dangerous, with open world places to explore with a “your probably gonna die in there” expectation. This is in direct conflict to what YoshiP wants for the game.

[Lynesse]

+1. I've seen a lot of BLUs doing FATEs lately, and it's made the world feel very alive. I hope that when/if more Limited jobs get released, the world stays populated like it has been.

I love seeing people doing things out in the world, and I love helping them.

If we had really powerful world bosses that needed policing because they were interfering with something else, that would be cool.

I tanked Cancer today as BLU, and I realized something: It doesn't need obtuse mechanics to be challenging because it has that timer. It's a DPS race. It's still very fun to work with a ragtag group of randoms to bring this huge sack of HP down within the allotted time.

It's an easy fight, even with low DPS, but I remember a time when it wasn't. The building blocks are there for challenging and fun world content. They just need to do more with it.