Open World elements in FF14

[Jeeqbit]

Yes it is. You fly to specific spawn points to check whether they are there. That's literally flying to specific destinations.

The same could be said of the aether currents which you praised. Just like you didn't look at a map of where the aether currents are, you can not look at a map of spawn points.

You literally look up a map and use your minimap to look at the nodes. And if you don't know where it is, you use Triangulate and just fly in that direction.

I've not found any of these things necessary because the nodes show up in plain sight as I move around the rocks and hills.

Furthermore, I hope you realize that "exploration" implies that those details in the world have stories and lore attached to them. Otherwise it's not called exploration, it's pure padding.

So your definition of exploration is that there must be story and lore attached to it beyond that implied from just looking at ruins and ancient rubble. Well none of the content I listed does that or not in the way that you want it.

- Hunt marks: Locations are very much publicly available and in hunt trains you're literally provided coordinates of where to go. Hell, when EW started people were shouting mark locations to help out others and make finding them easier.

- Treasure Maps: Same thing as above, locations are easily found and you really don't have to put a ton of brain power into it.

- Gathering: The gathering log exists and shows you exactly where to go depending on what you're looking for. There's no exploring needed.

The same could be said of the sightseeing log and aether currents. Looking up the locations is spoiling yourself and no matter what "exploration" content gets added, you will always be able to spoil yourself by looking up the coordinates on the internet.