Something needs to be done about the empty open world

[Lanadra]

Majority of players including me don't care about fates, hunts and maps because they do not contribute to character power. They need to look at other mmos at how they do open world stuff and take ideas.

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Hyperia]

Random daily world quests in the open world for tomes would be a nice change but such a system would probably take our last dungeon per patch to implement soooo……

[Ravor]

Is farming material with botanist/miner/fisher for crafting considered an alive open world? I always farm my mats every 2 day at least and i always see at least other people doing it, sometimes even more than 3 or 4 even 5 people, well it looks lively enough for me, and when the new patch that introduce new crafting for gear appear, the amount of people farming can be more than an alliance raid, looks lively enough for me as farmer

Also the amount of people doing treasure map also quite many, my FC also doing it weekly, we all love Gil afterall

The reason why world map is empty in any MMO nowadays is not about the content, its because of duty roullete and dungeon finder or any other easier/faster access to get to somewhere, remove them and you will see everyone have to walk or fly to get to their instance/destination, there, a very lively world map, but who have time for that nowadays

[Vidu]

Random daily world quests in the open world for tomes would be a nice change but such a system would probably take our last dungeon per patch to implement soooo……

Are you thinking about something like the daily hunts and beast tribe quests?

[ItMe]

The conversation about what is in the world zones and what value they have and what we could use more of is good, but I wanna focus on this for a sec:

Majority of players including me don't care about fates, hunts and maps because they do not contribute to character power.

As Jeeqbit touched on page 2,
-- Hunts give tomestones for gear and materia to deck it out.
-- FATEs are a good way to level.
-- Maps and gathering are great ways to make gil (an increase to "soft power"), and the later nets ingredients for food and pots.

Which leads to my question: what other methods of player power progression do you think open world content can help with?
It seems to have its bases covered, and that your issue is more with FF14's progression system itself and less the way the open world fails to feed into it.