Increase of Assets on maps

[Packetdancer]

Imagine for a second the developers invented NPC routes consistent with the businesses and activities of said cities and ran them.

While this is cool, I will note it often ends up being a ton of work to do by hand. Having a couple of ships sailing by in the distance is no different than the schools of non-interactable fish (and notable random large shark) you encounter underwater in the Ruby Sea; isolated background elements which can happen whenever, and which are very easy for a map designer to add.

Having NPCs going about their lives in long sequences like that is a great deal more work. Especially as it requires coordination across multiple maps; your example would have NPCs scripted across Eastern La Noscea near Wineport, from Eastern La Noscea either to Lower or Middle La Noscea to Limsa Lominsa itself, on the Upper Decks at the Drowning Wench, then back into Middle La Noscea, up to Western La Noscea, and into Aleport.

That's four different zones -- one of them with two separate scripts -- which you now need to make custom scripted NPC paths and dialogue for. Moreover, you almost certainly need to sync it with the Eorzean time clock, both so that they show up at the Drowning Wench at night rather than midday, and so that if you tried to follow them from map-to-map, they didn't vanish between maps.

Technologically, that's easy. Time-budget wise, it's often far harder to justify, especially when the environment designers could be working on some new environment for current content instead.

[Ath192]

While this is cool, I will note it often ends up being a ton of work to do by hand. Having a couple of ships sailing by in the distance is no different than the schools of non-interactable fish (and notable random large shark) you encounter underwater in the Ruby Sea; isolated background elements which can happen whenever, and which are very easy for a map designer to add.

Having NPCs going about their lives in long sequences like that is a great deal more work. Especially as it requires coordination across multiple maps; your example would have NPCs scripted across Eastern La Noscea near Wineport, from Eastern La Noscea either to Lower or Middle La Noscea to Limsa Lominsa itself, on the Upper Decks at the Drowning Wench, then back into Middle La Noscea, up to Western La Noscea, and into Aleport.

That's four different zones -- one of them with two separate scripts -- which you now need to make custom scripted NPC paths and dialogue for. Moreover, you almost certainly need to sync it with the Eorzean time clock, both so that they show up at the Drowning Wench at night rather than midday, and so that if you tried to follow them from map-to-map, they didn't vanish between maps.

Technologically, that's easy. Time-budget wise, it's often far harder to justify, especially when the environment designers could be working on some new environment for current content instead.

Yeah I wouldn't imagine it being too easy. It probably would be a ton of work. They probably could do other things.

BUT, it is cool.

I imagine a world that would be worth revisiting over and over again. Zones cool enough that merely being in them and watching them is content itself. God knows I would love that so much more than another throw away zone that sits there waiting for nothing or noone.