Hubs in XIV are underutilized

[sindriiisgaming]

play any other MMo and a HUB town is a bustling center of player population and events. But not XIV. despite having some of the most beautiful HUBS in any MMO i've ever played, Hubs are wasted here... one (well two) and done per expansion. I want to see Only 1 main Hub going forward. that all level 1 can access, but have no story in. FFXIV isn't even open world because of this. The Current formula just doesn't work and is a complete artistic waste. also.. 1 new housing zone per expansion release WITh said hub, thankyou

[Jeeqbit]

Not true...

The main hubs that level 1 players can be are Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa and Gridania. And these are filled with players. On most worlds, Limsa is especially populated, but so is Gridania and on worlds like Balmung, Ul'dah is as well.

They all have Seasonal Events regularly, as well as getting things like job quests added to them, moogle tome exchange items, etc.

The latest two city states for a given expansion are also usually quite populated. Currently these are Solution Nine and Tuliyollal. They have new quests added to them regular in patches and their merchants get new things to be exchanged for, such as the hunt reward exchange in Tuliyollal or the tomestone exchange in Solution Nine.

The only way we'd "cut it down to 1" is to destroy Eorzea and its lore so that there is only 1. For players that have beat the MSQ, it's important that they have a change of scenery every few years at max. It would get boring if Mor Dhona was still the main tomestone hub after 11 years.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Could use GW2's system that pulls people from different servers to automatically fill up the different hubs and lounges so that they are always populated.

[Evergrey]

I like ESO's hubs.
However, there's no real "main" hubs since the game uses a scaling system so all zones are "the same level" so people just hang out in the towns/hubs they like.
Makes the game world feel alive seeing people where ever you go instead of having old hubs lie dormant and dead once a new expansion hits the shelves.

[Xrono_Amber]

despite having some of the most beautiful HUBS in any MMO i've ever played, Hubs are wasted here...

Starting cities are quite popular. And because of two reasons: new players can access them freely (this includes alts as well) and only through them you can travel between servers/data-centers. Limsa Lominsa is the most popular one because of market board being super close to the main aetherite.

But I do agree with you on the point of other hubs being wasted. If they would allow at least travel to servers through all other cities, it would have made them at least somehow more lively. But since you can't put new players there, because it wouldn't make any sense, we're unlikely to fix it. Maybe there is a way, but I just can't think of it.

But, honestly, larger issue is all of the zones being devoid of purpose after MSQ is done with them. Gemstone-farming in Shadowbringers, Endwalker and Dawntrail brings some semblance of life to them, but even it is quite limiting. Hunt-trains only work in most latest zones. And it's a shame, really. After you're done with MSQ, you don't have much reasons to leave the city-hubs for any prolonged period of time.

[Xrono_Amber]

also.. 1 new housing zone per expansion release WITh said hub, thankyou

Honestly, they really should start to work on proper instanced housing with ability to change outside's surroundings on the whim (so not only Mist, Goblet and so on, but zones as well and, hell, maybe even dungeons to be extra-fancy).

Might be wrong on this, but I assume originally idea in having housing districts was to also have some sense of community around them. To sort of feel people's presence around you and even interact with them. But because house itself provides little practical use (in FC-estates you can build submarines, at least), you extremely rarely there. And even then you are, chances of seeing people are very slim. And if you have some venue near your plot, it's not like people will linger outside of it, essentially going in it and out of it.

So I genuinely see no point in housing districts as they operate now.

[UNDEAD10000]

play any other MMo and a HUB town is a bustling center of player population and events. But not XIV. despite having some of the most beautiful HUBS in any MMO i've ever played, Hubs are wasted here... one (well two) and done per expansion. I want to see Only 1 main Hub going forward. that all level 1 can access, but have no story in. FFXIV isn't even open world because of this. The Current formula just doesn't work and is a complete artistic waste. also.. 1 new housing zone per expansion release WITh said hub, thankyou

Having only one main hub area is bad idea because it would mean removing all 3 main hub areas (Limsa Lominsa, Gridania and Ul'dah), 5 expansion main hub areas (Ishgard, Kugane, The Crystarium, Old Sharlayan and Tuliyollal), 6 endgame hub areas (Revenant's Toll, Idyllshire, Rhalgr's Reach, Eulmore, Radz-at-Han and Solution Nine) and lots of other changes to make this having only one main hub area to work.

Other thing that makes having only one main hub area a bad idea is that it would require a queue system to enter the main hub area to prevent things like extremely long loading times, massive FPS drop and massive ping increase when game already struggles with having lots of players in single main hub area at prime times that it cause me long loading times (note: i have FFXIV installed on SSD) and massive FPS drop (note: with graphic settings i use i get around 50 fps in medium populated main hub area on my +13 years old PC).

And having only one main hub area would make chat complete chaos and in worse case could being filled with constant RMT spam.

Sure, i don't mind if they added a special main hub area where everyone can enter but only having single main hub area is still big no for me.

Lastly i really don't care if current hub areas being populated or not because most of time i'm inside of my house and i only enter hub areas when i need to do something in hub areas.

[IvoryHawk]

The issue is that you're pushed from the first hub to the second then go back to limsa anyway because the MB is close, there's no reason to go to S9 unless the raid series is on

[Kohashi]

Yoshi-P already explained why they are not really investing in other hubs, simply because they did try and people still defaulted AFK-in in Limsa.

[Kaurhz]

Everything in XIV is underutilized LOL.