Something needs to be done about the empty open world

[Kyuuen]

Atleast WoW utilizes their latest expansion zones properly with world quests and world bosses that drop artifact power, gear, weapons, etc.

Yeah, nah. I'd prefer if the Devs of XIV skipped over the trash concept of FotE (Flavor of the Expansion) systems that grant moronic levels of character power only to be dropped at the end of said expansion that said system was introduced in. Hard pass. That concept is biting WoW devs pretty hard right now if the content creators of WoW are anything to go by.

Dynamic objectves, big events and world bosses (not hunts) that reward people with gear and tomestones.

What you have described; whether you like it or not, are fates and hunts which lead to tomestones that are then used for gear. At best you would most likely get rare star spawns like those found in Bozja or Zadnor, which at the end of the day are just a hunt mob with higher stats.

[Imora]

This is a common thing with MMOs that have zones that are level based.
Once the majority of players are done with the zone there's like 0 reason to return again and that leaves dead zones.

One reason I enjoy MMOs like ESO that have everything ingame scale with ones level.
All zones stay relevant regardless of levels and I always see people (more or less ofc) everywhere.
And there's no 1 major hub. People hang out where they like.
And that makes the game world feel so much more alive than MMOs like WoW or FFXIV where it ends up with a lot of dead zones.

Interestingly enough, that's why I quit playing ESO. I hated the scaling.

[Vidu]

Why is this an issue?

95% of things that you need to do in the open world, you can solo - the exception would be S rank hunts aswell as the special FATEs.

I understand that some people like games that have a focus on huge open world content - but FFXIV isnt one of those games. Hasnt been since 2.0 at least - I cant speak for 1.0 since I've never played it, but I guess we can all agree on 1.0 and anything past ARR being two different games.
So yeah, if you're looking for an open world MMO, FFXIV isnt that and never wanted to be that. Its not broken, its by design.

[hobostew]

Why is this an issue?

95% of things that you need to do in the open world, you can solo - the exception would be S rank hunts aswell as the special FATEs.

I understand that some people like games that have a focus on huge open world content - but FFXIV isnt one of those games. Hasnt been since 2.0 at least - I cant speak for 1.0 since I've never played it, but I guess we can all agree on 1.0 and anything past ARR being two different games.
So yeah, if you're looking for an open world MMO, FFXIV isnt that and never wanted to be that. Its not broken, its by design.

IMO if the game isn't going to take advantage of the open world then those resources put to creating them should be moved to creating instanced content. As it currently is all the effort that goes into these zones are largely a waste after you finish the story.

[Vidu]

IMO if the game isn't going to take advantage of the open world then those resources put to creating them should be moved to creating instanced content. As it currently is all the effort that goes into these zones are largely a waste after you finish the story.

I'd disagree - there is still content in these zones (FATEs, hunts, maps, gathering, sight seeing logs, beast tribes...), its just not the amount of content that people who favour open world style content over instanced content. Besides that content, the zones also add to the general atmosphere and seeing how the story is a big part of this game, its worth building the zones for the story alone. After all, we're here to save the world, right? Need a world for that first...

[Dyvid]

Atleast WoW utilizes their latest expansion zones properly with world quests and world bosses that drop artifact power, gear, weapons, etc.

Almost like FFXIV uses FATES for relic drops.....

This issue has been seriously plagueing the game since heavensward and Square has always turned a blind eye. Huge zones that are empty and nothing to do in them. Its high time they fix this issue.

Okay, like what? What do you want to see added to open world that would make people happy?

[Kragon]

Okay, like what? What do you want to see added to open world that would make people happy?

Dynamic objectves, big events and world bosses (not hunts) that reward people with gear and tomestones.

[LaylaTsarra]

Dynamic objectves, big events and world bosses (not hunts) that reward people with gear and tomestones.

I cap all my characters with A train hunts there are tons of tomestones available in addition to nuts for upgrades and more. Can cap a toon in an hour and a half. And I'd like a link to show you represent the majority.

[km0s]

I agree with you that certain parts of the world seem empty. But any one who plays mmorpgs knows this is sort of a thing. Its kind of an issue and kind of not an issue at the same time. It's just the way it is. As time goes on the game grows, every one wants to do the new bits and the old bits turn into a ghost town.

You can actually apply this same principle in real life. That's why there is a new car model every year. People want the new hotness and that's what drives sales.

It would be nice to see a fuller continents. There are many spots in existing old world map that could fit a new zone to fill in gaps in the map. Or convert some empty spots of existing zones to higher level areas to attract more players.

But we all know what's likely to happen is a new "hidden" continent/floating island/dimension will pop up long before any existing zone is retouched. Again, people want the new stuff and new stuff drives sales.

[ReynTime]

I'm tired of making suggestions that will be ignored anyway so I won't.

What I'll say though is that ARR has honestly better designed maps, regardless of size.

They don't have necessarily more content to be played. But they do have a LOT of lore you find/get by exploring. There is just a lot of careful detail all over the place.

Not so much the maps since Heavensward. But it works because the average player sees the huge disney castle in Il Mheg or the one interesting portion of the Tempest that covers like 1/5 of the map and thinks "WOW PRETTY 10/10 world design".


And for all its faults, 1.23 had more open world content.
Leves are now broken (can only share battlecraft, joining a duty means you fail and waste allowances, Heavensward's leves are badly implemented, no leves beyond lv58, allowance still regens too slowly, etc)
Hamlet defences are gone, the FATEs that replace them are far more inconsquential, static, and lack everything that made the defences interesting.
Newer relics isolate part of their steps into a "large scale instance".
Open world dungeons were mentioned a few times as being things one of the level designers was interested in bringing back but were likely cancelled.
Hunts are trivialized by trains and there is no party-reserved alternative of NMs despite the fact there should have been.
Partying is greatly discouraged during questing/MSQ in this game, and aside from hardcore train-for-weeks-to-clear there is a severe lack of content that encourages playing in a fixed party, let alone open world content for such.
Being allowed to fly everywhere completely destroyed the sense or point of discovery that you had from finding hidden points of interest/lore like those ruins "protected" by high level monsters before ARR.
Monsters are not dangerous at all unless you're severily underleveled, but because every monster from lv51 onwards is aggro they also turn into annoying mosquitoes if you try to just explore the map at your leisure as they're haphazardly scattered with no rhyme or reason.