What improvements would you like to see in the environment?

[TheVigilant]

Greetings!

So I'm making this thread to see what ideas you have for the game's environment, any additions, changes and improvements.

I'll start with:

I would like it if I would meet sometimes regular, sometimes rare and legendary NPC that travel throughout the zones/world that:

• Give us story/lore and/or game tips and sometimes secrets when spoken to.
• Would be a vendor for useful items and sometimes rare items or maybe just a repair.
• Give us a buff of maybe stats and exp boost when spoken to. A random example is a passing by Hyur in a destitute outfit crying for help, when given a small amount turns out it was a legendary Paladin who was testing our goodness, it's time to reward me with a buff, as a blessing for being kindhearted.
• Could be a special/rare FATE NPC walking around the zone/world at specific times like either only in the night (A Ghost?) or perhaps other times.
• Plays a special song/music while passing by around the zone/world.
• Causes climate change while passing by, like it rains or snows or it becomes foggy or misty until that character goes away or is maybe killed? Or perhaps grows plants and roses while walking in the area, that die and wither away as that character moves on?
• Walks around the zone/world and camps, sleeps and can be found better through that but cannot be interacted with cause he's sleeping? Great.. we manage to find him except that he's now sleeping and we have to wait for him to wake up, or maybe we can wake him up with an /emote? What if only a few players has that specific emote?
• Would actually notice where it last saw my character at and mentions the location.

They can be not necessarily all over the place but just a few here and there traveling around would be nice.

Second:

I'd like it if NPC in the game would react to my or other players' character when nearby. A few examples:

• A few beasts that run away in fear when my character goes close by, starts aggro when attacked.
• An NPC that does an emote at the closest player character.
• An NPC that suddenly follows a player's character for some reason. Like an animal looking for a treat? A ghost haunting? A child being playful?

Please share your ideas and what you'd like to see added to the environment.

[IzVale]

I'd like the invisible walls removed. If I wanna run over the edge, I wanna run over the edge and fly into my cyberdeath. Also fall-damage. Yes. I'd absolutely would love jumping down somewhere and having that Ohhh shieeeet- moment and the feeling of regret, while flailing like a stone before my certain destruction.

Also, to your idea above - sounds pretty neat actually. Maybe also make some more "hard" to find and gimme a achievement and a title for actually finding that NPC.
Actually, on that matter - I wish they would steal some stuff from WoW. Getting the weirdest achievements there was actually pretty fun to do.

[Neoyoshi]

Just more things overall to interact with and explore in the world, I feel like the team flirts with the idea of inconsequential exploration with little things here and there, but I've yet to see them fully lean into it.

[hobostew]

Even though they already said no I still think it would have been cool to add stuff like CEs to the overworld. Maybe also random treasure chests and stuff like that.

[Fland]

Even though they already said no I still think it would have been cool to add stuff like CEs to the overworld. Maybe also random treasure chests and stuff like that.

Probably because we already have hunts. Although I'd love if they make at least the S-rank ones work like CE, with the special area.

[hobostew]

Probably because we already have hunts. Although I'd love if they make at least the S-rank ones work like CE, with the special area.

I think in the interview with Mr. Happy Yoshi-p said it was because they approach the bosses in the same way they do dungeon bosses and it would ultimately take too much time to make enough for every zone or something like that. But you're not wrong that hunts sorta fill that role I just don't find them mechanically as interesting as the CE bosses.

[Canadane]

A few beasts that run away in fear when my character goes close by, starts aggro when attacked.

I recall 1.0 had something like this. Sight aggro worked differently depending on the mob type.
Timid mobs would run away unless you actually started fighting them. Curious ones would come up to you but only to check you out, maybe sniff you lol. They wouldn't attack unless you did. And aggressive ones would just start beating you up.

I do miss things like that, removed for the sake of simplicity.

[MPK]

Nothing. It seems like a big waste of resources.

[Radacci]

Nothing. It seems like a big waste of resources.

I'm glad you're not a dev lol. It's not wasted resources if it improve the game. You could say anything is wasted resources, like male Viera, gold saucer, triple triad, relic weps.

[Radacci]

More interaction between creatures - it aggrevate me that certain hostiles attack you together, but not each other. Like why do Chocobos and marlboros attack you together?? (don't think it happen anywhere, but you get the point)
Roaming heards of animals.
We got fish tanks, would be cool if you could see those fishes in the water where you find them.
DoL NPCs Roaming around gathering stuff.
Ya, reacting to your character, it would be nice if some animals showed curiosity also, like cats/dogs coming up to you, and you can Pet them or such. Emoting NPCs, and they emote back. Kids running around with minions.
Seasons.

Seasonal content, like Feast, but with normal zones. I was thinking past few days it would have been cool when ARR started, that getting past Garleans fortresses should have been more of a combat oriented version of Ishgard restoration, but instead you help Craft supplies and items for raiding. So higher level content is gated for everyone, until server clear that Gate, so you can progress in story. And in current story, it would have been cool if whole server was more engaged in dealing with what's going on, instead you just pop into a 1man instance, and deal with the whole problem by yourself. Maybe a bit like Eureka/Bozja where you farm Fates, but with everywhere the towers popped up, and Lunar Primals showing up as S ranks.

Roaming Odin used to be a thing, would have been nice with more of that. Like let's say Garuda appear, and start rampaging through Black Shroud, attacking settlements and Gridania, and server need to stop her before she destroy everything - then you get seasonal event to repair the damage.
This would be nice with above content too, with Garleans raiding resistance camps, and players help fight them back.
To go a few steps further into wishful thinking, they could keep changing the Geography of the maps, to keep it interesting.
Just an excuse to do another calamity and remake the game again in Unreal Engine 5, to utilize Nanite and megascans. Well also the current one is really limiting.

Add new zones to old states, like lv 50-90 in Shroud/Thanalan/Limsa.

There's so much stuff they "could" do ^^ with infinite budget, and 0 development time.