Next FF MMO should be open-world.

[tatatatatata]

FF14, WoW, ESO should be more accurately called MORPGs or multiplayer online RPGs. They're no longer massive compared to popular and award-winning modern open-world RPGs like Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed Odyssey (yes, it actually won a few GOTY), Skyrim, and upcoming ones like Starfield. You can fly from edge to edge on a modern FF14 map in just under two minutes today. Compare that to Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which takes 10 minutes on a ship much faster than FF14's mount. Keep in mind this does not mean Odyssey is 5 times bigger than FF14. It's 25 times bigger (you have to square it).

But just having a big world is also not enough. I mean, there's a reason why Ubisoft games which all have super large maps are derided, although I think Odyssey is still the best of the bunch. It's about density as well. And FF14's maps just have nothing going on in them. You can fly half the map in Azys Lla and not encounter anything interesting. Compare this to something like The Witcher 3, whose developers have mentioned that players should encounter something interesting every 40 seconds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3btOwctl9w). But you can easily go 40 seconds on an FF14 map without encountering anything interesting. Worse yet, an entire map could be almost pointless in FF14, like The Lochs or The Peaks, where you never visit it other than for the MSQ.

I really hope the next FF MMO puts my effort into building a better, denser, and bigger world. FF14's worlds are just not it.

[Jeeqbit]

Hunts have sometimes attracted over 100 people. Big FATEs such as Foxy Lady, Ixion, Archaeotania and Chi have actually attracted as much as 600 people and congested instances to the point nobody else can enter.

Just because FFXIV splits areas up into multiple zones doesn't mean they are not large. It's just a design decision to do it that way.

It is also worth considering that some other games don't actually put a lot of effort into that extra space. You can generate bumpy terrain pretty easily and throw some random rocks, trees and other things onto it and say look, our world takes 10 minutes to travel across, but is there anything really interesting across most of it? In FFXIV, the entire area has a purpose and there is barely any of it that is not used for a quest, FATE or other activity at some point and that is also a design decision.

You might think some of it is not used but if you have done all of the sidequests, class/job quests and every other activity there is, you do discover that everything actually had a purpose.

[tatatatatata]

Hunts have sometimes attracted over 100 people. Big FATEs such as Foxy Lady, Ixion, Archaeotania and Chi have actually attracted as much as 600 people and congested instances to the point nobody else can enter.

Just because FFXIV splits areas up into multiple zones doesn't mean they are not large. It's just a design decision to do it that way.

It is also worth considering that some other games don't actually put a lot of effort into that extra space. You can generate bumpy terrain pretty easily and throw some random rocks, trees and other things onto it and say look, our world takes 10 minutes to travel across, but is there anything really interesting across most of it? In FFXIV, the entire area has a purpose and there is barely any of it that is not used for a quest, FATE or other activity at some point and that is also a design decision.

You might think some of it is not used but if you have done all of the sidequests, class/job quests and every other activity there is, you do discover that everything actually had a purpose.

Uhhh... what? Let's take Sea of Clouds. Half the map is not used in any way and is just empty filler that only has FATEs. You don't go into them even in sidequests. The middle and eastern portion are practically unused. I think it's kind of ridiculous to say that the entire area has a purpose. I mean compare that to Elden Ring where the world is both far bigger (even if you add up all of FF14's maps) and far denser.

[Jeeqbit]

Uhhh... what? Let's take Sea of Clouds. Half the map is not used in any way and is just empty filler that only has FATEs. You don't go into them even in sidequests. I think it's kind of ridiculous to say that the entire area has a purpose. I mean compare that to Elden Ring where the world is both far bigger (even if you add up all of FF14's maps) and far denser.

You go through most of it in the MSQ alone and its sidequests. Anything which has a bridge to the rest of the islands is used for that, which is almost all of it. The northern islands unconnected to anything are used for the Void Ark quests. The island to the top right corner is used for a dungeon. The island at the bottom right has sidequests and a sightseeing log entry. The nests that extend from the islands are used in quests. One of the islands takes you to Ishgard and then they all get re-used for job quests, crafter/gatherer quests, the beast tribe and as you mentioned, FATEs. You actually have plenty of reason to go to all of the islands for hunts as well. Let's not forget that all of the trees, bushes, plants, rocks and water areas are intentionally placed to become gatherering nodes that are regularly used by gatherers.

[Ath192]

You go through most of it in the MSQ alone and its sidequests. Anything which has a bridge to the rest of the islands is used for that, which is almost all of it. The northern islands unconnected to anything are used for the Void Ark quests. The island to the top right corner is used for a dungeon. The island at the bottom right has sidequests and a sightseeing log entry. The nests that extend from the islands are used in quests. One of the islands takes you to Ishgard and then they all get re-used for job quests, crafter/gatherer quests, the beast tribe and as you mentioned, FATEs. You actually have plenty of reason to go to all of the islands for hunts as well. Let's not forget that all of the trees, bushes, plants, rocks and water areas are intentionally placed to become gatherering nodes that are regularly used by gatherers.

Be that as it may I agree the overworld isn't one of this games strong points. If anything it's the worst part of it. I don't feel free in this game with everything being locked behind the MSQ or instanced. Never in this game did I feel anything could happen. Only one thing can happen (when the content is brand new). The MSQ. In XI I still remember accidentally getting to places I definitely shouldn't have been at level 10 or whatever, and most times I didn't live but it was exhilarating.

[RitsukoSonoda]

The issue with FFXIV IMO is it's design is very linear like single player story driven games tend to be. Sure there's side quests and small detours here and there. However for all the space given in it's overworld zones there's hardly anything to keep players around longer than the few levels they spend doing the quests in the area. The other issue I feel is the overly excessive removal of RPG elements and mechanics from the game.

Yes I agree the next FF MMO should take a fully open world design as it's base meaning it can be played numerous different ways from exploration, sandboxing, following the story, questing for gear/skills, etc. Return the mechanical depth to the game to at least match FFXI where things like damage types, elements, etc matter and jobs aren't pigeonholed into having only 1 way to be played. Lay out all the options and let players choose what they want to go with based on how they want to play the job so we have numerous different paths via horizontal progression and ways to tailor the job for the specific content we want to do. Take some pages from other open world games to create repeatable content that will give players reasons to revisit areas regularly. I'd say even follow Xenoblade's example of having wide level ranges of enemies present in the same areas.

I'd even say go back to the Basic/Advanced Job classifications we had previously where it wasn't a matter of Advanced jobs being better or more powerful but simply having a higher skill curve for playing it as the Basic jobs available immediately generally focused on 1 thing while the advanced jobs combined aspects of 2 or more basic jobs.

[tatatatatata]

You go through most of it in the MSQ alone and its sidequests. Anything which has a bridge to the rest of the islands is used for that, which is almost all of it. The northern islands unconnected to anything are used for the Void Ark quests. The island to the top right corner is used for a dungeon. The island at the bottom right has sidequests and a sightseeing log entry. The nests that extend from the islands are used in quests. One of the islands takes you to Ishgard and then they all get re-used for job quests, crafter/gatherer quests, the beast tribe and as you mentioned, FATEs. You actually have plenty of reason to go to all of the islands for hunts as well. Let's not forget that all of the trees, bushes, plants, rocks and water areas are intentionally placed to become gatherering nodes that are regularly used by gatherers.

Now you're truly grasping at straws here.



The aether currents are basically cover the region that you get led to through the MSQ and the sidequests (+ the southeastern part of Voor Sian Siran for the rescue quest). Even back in HW they were limited to a tiny portion of the map. Outside of I believe TWO TOTAL sidequests and Bismarck EX unlock, you do not go to the interior parts of Ok Vundu Mok and Ok Vundu Vana other than for fates and hunts, which really is unengaging to say the least. There are no gathering points there either. None of the job quests bring you into the interior of Sea of Clouds. That's quite literally half the map.

[Jahf]

One of the best aspects of playing FF11 to me was the vast Open World, entering those beautiful areas while exploring Vanadiel, was a large highlight.

[Vatom]

We will see

[Quintessa]

The game is open world, what you want is for everything content related to not be tied to some instance.