Any talk about them doing away with Aether Currents for flight

[Mavrias]

you got it, chief! flying will be unlocked at the end of the expansion when you have maxed reputation with all of the beast tribes and completed the entire sight seeing log for that expansion.

[ZedxKayn]

If the zones were actually interesting, I could've been in favor of aethercurrents. Alas there is really not much to see or explore, and in general exploration of boring zones feels better when you can get around faster.

[Lanadra]

Agreed with this. Exploration is my favorite part of RPGs. It's a nice experience to work out the land routes through the ffxiv maps before flying is unlocked and you start skipping over everything. Maybe I'm in the minority because there's always been a lot of vocal people who hate currents.

I would like some kind of shapeshifting realm where the map is randomized each time you enter so you have permanent exploration content. Some elements similar to deep dungeon but it's mostly outdoors and you can discover dens/caves hiding useful items. That sort of thing is what I like.

That's not going to work the way you imagine it will. Star Trek Online tried that years ago before deciding that procedural generated.. ergo, random planets/maps were not the way to go. The general player feedback was 'it sucks, it feels cheap and inconsistent and really doesn't do much to invoke a sense of exploration'. Ever since then they've stuck with curated, handcrafted maps really no different from what FFXIV or GW2 or.. any MMO really offers.

[Bright-Flower]

Maybe it's because the only alternative I've seen is WoW's annoying habit of not allowing flight in new expansion zones until you're 1/2 to 2/3 through an expansion but I find the aehter currents a pretty good compromise, having you complete the zone's story, do a few side quests, and a bit of exploration and then you're good to go.

The Lochs I'll admit specifically can be annoying because getting to a few of those isn't as simple as following the compass and you have to go a long way around, but for the most part I think the system works well.

[Stepjam]

Not likely. And if they did remove aether currents, they'd probably add some sort of alternative unlock method. It's just another thing for you to spend time doing to keep paying your sub.

[Bright-Flower]

Not likely. And if they did remove aether currents, they'd probably add some sort of alternative unlock method. It's just another thing for you to spend time doing to keep paying your sub.

Eeeeehhhhhh Aether Currents are pretty quick and a once per expansion thing, not some kind of long grind that would keep someone playing for long. You can generally easily pick them up as you're progressing through the msq and rarely need to go much out of your way for them, with a couple exceptions in the Lochs etc.

[Zfz]

I feel the problem with aether currents is that people who love exploration will explore with or without locking flying behind the currents; people who don't enjoy exploration simply feel like they're being forced to waste time.

Being a theme park MMO where players are expected to pick and choose the parts of the content they like, I would agree that aether currents isn't something important enough to force on to all players (e.g. MSQ is something important enough, PVP isn't, crafting isn't, housing isn't, and nor is exploration).

I would say a good compromise is to keep aether currents and use them for something else, and unlock flying at the end of the MSQ for the zone. Aether currents can be used to unlock maybe extra toys (like consumable toys one can buy using the FATE currency?) or even extra aether shards that only work for in-zone teleporting.

[linayar]

I would say a good compromise is to keep aether currents and use them for something else, and unlock flying at the end of the MSQ for the zone. Aether currents can be used to unlock maybe extra toys (like consumable toys one can buy using the FATE currency?) or even extra aether shards that only work for in-zone teleporting.

That's unnecessary as ARR flying is not mutually exclusive to aether currents.

They can make it so that you can choose to collect aether currents if you want to fly sooner in a zone and unlock flying per zone or you wait until completing the .0 MSQ to unlock flying in all zones at one time.

[Keramory]

I'm a bit against getting rid of all elements of grinding in an mmo (yet no one complains about the stupid Tomes every single expansion ever). Yeah its a tiny bit of a chore but it makes you explore and get some quests done. In terms of an RPG there's nothing unreasonable or even time consuming about it... and it has a purpose with a large reward.

Obviously a personal preference, but I don't know why people are so driven to speed through everything just to end up sitting in a city all day. Enjoy these beautifully crafted zones while you're "forced" to. You'll almost have zero reason to go to any of them again quick enough.

[Bright-Flower]

ARR not having aether currents I think is down to two things.

1. There are a loooot more zones in ARR than any of the expansions. Expansions so far have all had six zones to unlock currents in. I'm not going to go count the ARR zones but it's a lot more than that.

2. ARR flying was added retroactively, where as every other expansion had them at launch. So instead of in a new expansion being able to work on aether currents as you level through them, most players would have to go back to these old zones they're already done with to get it. It would have been a much bigger hassle than unlocking them in new expansions.


The game does have some grinds there to slow you down. Beast tribe quests, you can only get so much reputation in a day, and only accept so many quests in a day too. Capped tomestones mean you have to work for several weeks/months to finish a full set of gear and you can't power through it in a couple weekends. Same with one drop from alliance raids and having to rerun them several times if you aren't lucky with drops. Weekly limits on custom deliveries.

Whether one likes grinds or limits on grinds to stretch them out more like weekly caps, I really don't see aether currents as falling into that category.