Instances and Parties?

[DragoAskani]

Western Thanalan has instances?
Isn't it only major cities and new zones that have instances?

Vesper Bay is the only example of a teleport location that isn't itself an aetheryte, and only via a special limited item.

No it doesn't have instances. They are using hyperbole to try and exaggerate their point. The only zones that would have instances are endwalker zones + rising stones.

[Bixillarla]

Wasn't this made eventually so that you all teleport to the same instance while in a party? It was a common complaint, so they fixed it.

The only time when this doesn't work is when the party was made after teleporting to the zone, or if the instance is full. And there's nothing to be done about that, exceeding the limit just to keep a group together would defeat the purpose of instancing the zone in the first place.

You can change instances at any Aetheryte in the zone btw. As for telling which instance you're currently on, just type < pos > without spaces.

Nope was not fixed. Me and my partner routinely get seperated when in a party and traveling.

[WindyGamer]

Does Western Thanalan even have instances right now? Aside from the new Endwalker areas, the only other zone that I can think of that has active instances is Mor Dhona/the Rising Stones. I don’t think Western Thanalan would have them, since it’s not considered high-traffic (despite its relevance in the ARR storyline).

A friend and I are playing right now and went from Limsa to Vesper bay on the boat and ended up in different instances. And didn't wanna run to Horizon to get into the same instance. So yes. Surprisingly, WT has instances apparently sometimes. But the point is that whether WT has instances right now or not, it might have and it's a pain to travel all the way to the Aetherite to change instances when the menu item could be right in the Travel menu. Just a QoL suggestion that has almost no cost to implement.

[HyoMinPark]

A friend and I are playing right now and went from Limsa to Vesper bay on the boat and ended up in different instances. And didn't wanna run to Horizon to get into the same instance. So yes. Surprisingly, WT has instances apparently sometimes. But the point is that whether WT has instances right now or not, it might have and it's a pain to travel all the way to the Aetherite to change instances when the menu item could be right in the Travel menu. Just a QoL suggestion that has almost no cost to implement.

Western Thanalan doesn’t have instances. I am in-game right now and standing in Horizon. There’s no instance message in the chat box, nor the ability to change instances at the Aetheryte. Are you certain you don’t have your locations mixed up? The developers usually have to take the game down to turn instances on or off; as far as I’m aware, they’ve never done it while the servers are live. So it wouldn’t have instances one minute, and then none the next…

EDIT: Are you perhaps referring to the Waking Sands instanced area? If so, then you can’t avoid that—it’s always been an instance.

Regardless, instances aren’t a permanent feature. They usually only hang around for a couple months at most before the developers remove them; and they are near exclusive to the newer areas. Not older ones like Western Thanalan. As I said, only Mor Dhona has instances right now for non-Endwalker areas.

I also don’t think you know that this game is built upon code from FFXIV 1.0, which was notoriously bad. I don’t know how much of the spaghetti is related to teleportation and Aetherytes—could be some, could be none. But for a temporary feature that isn’t maintained all the time, I don’t foresee the developers attempting to recode instance travel through the Teleport menu.

Instances can be selected from Aetherytes and from zone dividers when you approach a zone that has them. I’d assume if you used the ferry to Limsa and then back again, you would get the option to select the instance you want to travel to.

[WindyGamer]

OK OK so my bad.... So I guess my idea is just a bad idea. Sorry for all the trouble.

[HyoMinPark]

OK OK so my bad.... So I guess my idea is just a bad idea. Sorry for all the trouble.

It isn’t a trouble. It’s just that instances are never around long enough to warrant overhauling the teleport system. If they were constantly in the game, then I think it would be a bit different. But they are usually only implemented for a month or two at most around expansion releases. Occasionally during mid-expansion periods, but usually just for the former since there’s so much traffic in the new areas.