Something needs to be done about the empty open world

[Evergrey]

>Empty open world
>Oh.. all that stuff that's in all these maps? Yeah I don't care about that
>EMPTY OPEN WORLD!

That is true.
There's always the option to go out there and do the content that's there.
But I think the "open world" people are asking for is one where one can just go out there without an actual plan to do anything and encounter stuff along the way.
There's always stuff to do in FFXIV but most of them requires one to actually have a plan to do "this" or "that".

Let's take a classic example as Skyrim (I know one can't compare a single player game to an MMO though).
One can just run around the game and encounter stuff without having a plan and that adds a feeling of a more open world where one doesn't need to have a plan.
"What might I encounter today if I walk this path".

Just my 2 cents of what I think "open world" is people are asking for.
Sadly a world like that is hard to implement in an MMO.
Why I encourage people to not get tied down to a single game and want everything from it.
Play different games for different reasons to fill ones needs.
Not one game is perfect.

[Jeeqbit]

But I think the "open world" people are asking for is one where one can just go out there without an actual plan to do anything and encounter stuff along the way.
There's always stuff to do in FFXIV but most of them requires one to actually have a plan to do "this" or "that".

Let's take a classic example as Skyrim (I know one can't compare a single player game to an MMO though).
One can just run around the game and encounter stuff without having a plan and that adds a feeling of a more open world where one doesn't need to have a plan.
"What might I encounter today if I walk this path".

You can run into hunts and fates without particularly intending to. Fates in particular are supposed to be random and varied events with some roleplaying that goes along with it.

The reason fates aren't very effective at that is because there are a limited number of them overall so you get familiar with all of them fast. They also appear on the map so you are aware of them in advance, and once you get flying, the concept of a random enemy appearing in your way and attacking you disappears because you would just fly right over it.

[Evergrey]

You can run into hunts and fates without particularly intending to. Fates in particular are supposed to be random and varied events with some roleplaying that goes along with it.

The reason fates aren't very effective at that is because there are a limited number of them overall so you get familiar with all of them fast. They also appear on the map so you are aware of them in advance, and once you get flying, the concept of a random enemy appearing in your way and attacking you disappears because you would just fly right over it.

But FATEs aren't really "random encounters" in my sense of it. As they are marked on the map like any quests is (when they are up and about ofc).
Sure they spawn randomly but they always have a set spawning location.
Hunts were a lot of fun when they were still new. These days there are huge Hunt trains that sweep the lands and even cross servers.
And they are quite precise, as there are Discord servers dedicated to hunts with timers of spawn windows that if a random player would encounter a Hunt the chances are high that before you could even get enough random people to do the Hunt the Train has already arrived and taken away that feeling of excitement of hunting.

Personally I think Hunts would've been more fun if they were like a minigame.
It starts at the Hunting Board where one can grab an A or S rank (limited times a week) and it requires 4 ppl for an A hunt and 8 for an S rank.
You get the map they spawn in but not much else.
From there you have to find tracks of the hunt and follow it.
Then you'd place a trap for it that will spawn the Hunt.
That way it would also make the Hunts "personal" to the group, like Maps are.
Seen too many complaints about how people "steal" hunts and don't wait for everyone yadda yadda.