Something needs to be done about the empty open world

[StormyFae]

BLU is very doable. There are resources available and people (at least on Crystal) are very helpful with the BLU focused party finder parties.


If I need to grind tomestones organized ShB hunts are amazing. It's also great for farming augment material for the level 80 tomestone gear (Crystarium). I'll take an afternoon of that over grinding roulettes and all three Nier raids. I do like them, just not enough to do all three every week.

I cap tomestones in 2 days with jist doimg the daily roulett so that seems meha 2 me,

As for other what else is there opeworld outside those 3 , i mean i luv beast tribes but it once again limited..

Almost all open world you lited to how much u can do, but u can q non stoped

[Jojoya]

I cap tomestones in 2 days with jist doimg the daily roulett so that seems meha 2 me,

As for other what else is there opeworld outside those 3 , i mean i luv beast tribes but it once again limited..

Almost all open world you lited to how much u can do, but u can q non stoped

I can cap tomestones on one character in 90 minutes on reset days just doing hunt trains (useful since I have 5 characters at level cap).

Everyone is ignoring the main use of the open world - leveling through MSQ. Even if you're finished leveling, other players aren't and there are new players joining the game all the time along with veteran players making new characters to level. The zones have to prioritize the experience for those players so any additional content needs to function around the needs of those who are going through MSQ.

Don't forget that SE had to change their plans for the Dwarf beast tribe quests because they had hit the memory limit for Kholusia with so much of the YoRHA content also being housed there. The beast tribe quests had to be moved to Lakeland despite it making no sense since the dwarves don't live there. There is a technical limit on just how much content can be placed in a zone.

[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.

[StormyFae]

I can cap tomestones on one character in 90 minutes on reset days just doing hunt trains (useful since I have 5 characters at level cap).

Everyone is ignoring the main use of the open world - leveling through MSQ. Even if you're finished leveling, other players aren't and there are new players joining the game all the time along with veteran players making new characters to level. The zones have to prioritize the experience for those players so any additional content needs to function around the needs of those who are going through MSQ.

Don't forget that SE had to change their plans for the Dwarf beast tribe quests because they had hit the memory limit for Kholusia with so much of the YoRHA content also being housed there. The beast tribe quests had to be moved to Lakeland despite it making no sense since the dwarves don't live there. There is a technical limit on just how much content can be placed in a zone.

I mean a majority of msq has you using instance content, and if u just pop a daily each day ur on its uped rather quick for lvling, that said i can get that but there needs to be a bigger real point were it actually feels like an adventure in open world, the way it feels atleast in my opinion is that the world is worthless to the point ur better off sitting in limsa watching netflix during qs and most things u enter u can be watching /typing on discord and still do easily

Like what is in open world is 12 daily beast tribes (doesnt take but 40min tops) your weekly hunt rlly an hour tops, and your weekly crafting custom delivery again u clear in 1 hour tops.. In full day the open world stuff is completely cleared..

Then the point is pop do a daily then sit around and q.. Sorry but that just feels kinda bad

[flipwizardmagoo]

As someone who has played quite a bit of ESO... I kind of agree. The open world in that game is crammed with tombs, interesting hidden objects quests, random loot spots and the skill crystals that reward you for finding some hard to get to nooks and crannies, and probably more I’m forgetting. FFXIV’s open world is beautiful, yes, but in comparison it just feels...empty. In ESO I can spend hours just running across any region, seeing what there is to discover. In FFXIV, I never do that because there’s never anything to discover.

[Jojoya]

I mean a majority of msq has you using instance content

Your MSQ is very different from my MSQ. I spend more time in the open world than in instanced content, and probably more time in cutscenes than in open world and instanced content combined.

i can get that but there needs to be a bigger real point were it actually feels like an adventure in open world,

It sounds more like a zone design issue than a lack of content issue. The zones aren't really designed for exploration, just as a place to deliver content.

I could agree with that to some extent. Without reason to explore, there's little sense of adventure to be found by randomly wandering around like other games offer.

[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.

[Absurdity]

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.

Pretty much this. ARR zones are tiny compared to the later expansion zones (most likely because there was no flying in ARR) but they are chock-full of "stuff" that makes those zones not only more interesting but also feel more "lived-in". You got several small settlements thoughout the zone that can't just be teleported to, lots of hidden caves, houses you can enter, npcs with small bits of dialogue and just overall "pretty" locations.

Sure the zones aren't massive but they had a lot more attention to detail put into them than any of the huge HW, SB or ShB zones.

[Melorie]

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.

Yes, yes, yes! I enjoy the aesthetic of most ShB-HW zones (especially lahee... as for stormblood, meh), and in some of them I can understand being a bit more empty (like HW snowy zones), but ARR zones are SO much more detailed and diverse. I genuinely enjoyed doing my Zeta because walking through ARR maps, even though it still lacks the exploration aspect, feels so immersive!

ShB zones were better in that regard when compared to Stormblood, but still, they don't really give the same thing.

[johnnylogen1337]

FATEs, Hunts, Maps
No matter what other content they add to it, you'll just ignore that too.

fates simply dont have enough draw to them to do them, the exp is awful, the rewards arent interesting.
hunts are currently being done in hunt-trains which isnt what i would consider good usage of the open world.
maps, sure. but those get stale really quickly too. almost all content being added to the game ignores the beautiful zones we get each expansion.

maybe im just missing the good old days, but eureka felt like what an overworld map should be. dangerous enough that makes teaming up and interaction with other players necessary, you know, MMO stuff?

As someone who has played quite a bit of ESO... I kind of agree. The open world in that game is crammed with tombs, interesting hidden objects quests, random loot spots and the skill crystals that reward you for finding some hard to get to nooks and crannies, and probably more I’m forgetting. FFXIV’s open world is beautiful, yes, but in comparison it just feels...empty. In ESO I can spend hours just running across any region, seeing what there is to discover. In FFXIV, I never do that because there’s never anything to discover.

i completely agree, they nailed the elder scrolls feel really well in that game. its too bad we dont have it in ffxiv (yet).