Why is the Post-MSQ Content so Passive in Endwalker?

[HappyHubris]

All this discussion on technical debt is odd, as developers aren't using the tools that we've seen in action. Instanced combat, phasing NPCs in the open world, dynamic cutscenes, and other techniques are clearly in the game, and the game has a gigantic budget to work with.

I finally finished the post-EW MSQ slog and it was really tough. How many times did I return to that spot on Radz to click on a NPC and be ushered into a cutscene? Why couldn't I enter the area in the open world to see my allies standing there and discuss the quest with them instead? Why was so much time put into shot-reverse shit discussion on friendship and trust instead of sending me into the world to collect regeants or fight off incursions or whatever?

Just looking at other MMOs, there are many ways to engage players even with an old engine, if your devs are willing to shift time to active play instead of endless dialog.

If these post-release MSaq chains are so hit and miss, why not make them optional? Guild Wars 2 for example had optional episodic content, where the player could choose to engage with a continuation of last expansion or jump directly into the current expansion. Sure you might be a bit behind on plot, but FFXIV doesn't see much development there either. The Zero storyline was almost completely self-contained, as we met someone knew, watched them move through their obvious-at-first-sight character arc, and then banished them from the cast. No one in the remaining cast was developed or changed. Much of the conflict is immediately resolved right after it is introduced. It just feels like checking the box on something that is technically a plot.

[Supersnow845]

The “talk to x person to get teleported into the location you need to be for this quest/cutscene” is getting really old at this point, eden and werlyt also overused it to a hilarious degree and it just makes the overworld feel completely useless

I really hope they move away from this and starting putting the cutscenes in locations that are actually in the overworld that we can access prior to the cutscene and discuss with people

[Sjol]

All this discussion on technical debt is odd, as developers aren't using the tools that we've seen in action. Instanced combat, phasing NPCs in the open world, dynamic cutscenes, and other techniques are clearly in the game, and the game has a gigantic budget to work with.

Technical Debt doesn't just affect what's possible, it affects what's easy or hard, too. It's possible that they can put together some things, but that they're extremely time-consuming to do and so they don't do them as often.

[Rekh]

people hate to walk forth and back only to click on something... now the game does it for them. the result is even less a game as it was before.

Unfortunate that control keeps being taken away from us in favor of the fornite type crowd who always cry loudest about having to teleport or walk/run anywhere. I believe this is part of the reason xvi ended up being a game of thrones movie with corridors and little to no exploration.

[CuteBucket]

I really hope they move away from this and starting putting the cutscenes in locations that are actually in the overworld that we can access prior to the cutscene and discuss with people

Hell, I want this just as a person who loves using gpose. I hate it when I talk to an NPC and get teleported away to Cutscene Land and them dumped back out in the previous zone with no way to access and explore the area my WoL was JUST in. I'm the kind of person that loves to run around new areas and talk to every NPC collect little lore crumbs about the people and the area.

[Arkdra]

The thing is, a traditional MMO typically weaves more open world combat into it's quests. So you might have to fight your way to an objective in the open world to proceed, giving the player something to do. Whereas FFXIV tends to have a sparse world and prefers to instance combat or spawn a token mob during quests. Some of the fun of other MMOs is fighting your way into a temple to grab the object or scouting a jungle and beating back beasts to find the lost princess or whatever.

Whereas FFXIV loves its "standing around and endlessly talking" cutscenes.

Be the change you want to see in the world and just do some random fates while progressing the patch msq. Like, I am broadly with you in the sense that I think if you just burn MSQ, the game's pacing flies out the window and it sucks. But much to my chagrin, the majority of players treat this game like a visual novel and want to engage with the systems to the absolute minimum they possibly can.

[Sjol]

Be the change you want to see in the world and just do some random fates while progressing the patch msq. Like, I am broadly with you in the sense that I think if you just burn MSQ, the game's pacing flies out the window and it sucks. But much to my chagrin, the majority of players treat this game like a visual novel and want to engage with the systems to the absolute minimum they possibly can.

I think other games handle this by having more reasons to be our and about without telling you exactly where stuff is. Gathering can happen while in a combat job, Rare monsters, chests, events can happen. There are more hiding places for things. Mob density is higher allowing you to fight a bunch of stuff at once.

FFXIV areas are also very open with few large structures for you to explore. Where are the caves? The insides of caves and pyramids? Large buildings and structures? Dense canopies where you can't see the sky?

I think the large areas with low density of creatures and structures makes the world feel less interesting. Between that and nothing to surprise why go to the over world?

[Ancalagon_Blacktalon]

FFXIV areas are also very open with few large structures for you to explore. Where are the caves? The insides of caves and pyramids? Large buildings and structures? Dense canopies where you can't see the sky?

hah I have an idea as to why this isn't here. I've been in the Outer La Noscea mines a lot as of late and the camera in those tunnels is absolute agony......buuuut the caves in The Tempest are manageable so they did seem to learn something. That said, yeah, areas with a density similar to say the hub areas in detail (think of how detailed and vertical the Crystarium is) would be pretty great. It does seem that the more interesting locales are saved for dungeons.

[HappyHubris]

Be the change you want to see in the world and just do some random fates while progressing the patch msq. Like, I am broadly with you in the sense that I think if you just burn MSQ, the game's pacing flies out the window and it sucks. But much to my chagrin, the majority of players treat this game like a visual novel and want to engage with the systems to the absolute minimum they possibly can.

FFXIV doesn't give us an engaging world compared to something like GW2 or Classic WoW. No meaningful secrets to find; no challenging world mobs; low mob density; very straightjacketed FATEs. I do play FATEs during the MSQ just to add combat between endless cutscenes, but that doesn't give us an interactive experience.

[Rekh]

FFXIV doesn't give us an engaging world compared to something like GW2 or Classic WoW. No meaningful secrets to find; no challenging world mobs; low mob density; very straightjacketed FATEs. I do play FATEs during the MSQ just to add combat between endless cutscenes, but that doesn't give us an interactive experience.

Eureka and Bozja is how all open world locations should be desined. this way all they have to do for relics is use the open world and some lore/relic story. Or at least start out with bland story-based open world and then update them with Bozja-like encounters in future patches. It's less work for them than having to create brand new zones like with Eureka