Feedback/Discussion: Make Open World Content Appealing

[TheFrogMan]

Not sure if other people would share this opinion but I really think that the speed at which we can explore zones even without flying makes it too easy to ignore the world outside of just getting from objective A to B. And I think because of that they are less incentivized to spend time developing small bits of the world because people just don't want to 90% of the time in the games current state.

If the game was built around exploring on the ground more and having a more natural breathing world then it would make sense to put way more time and resources into these ideas but FFXIV hasn't been that way for a very long time, and I think the team acknowledged that when they put flying in ARR zones.

I think the only options at this point is either rework flying / mounts to facilitate meaningful world exploration or to keep going the path they are on where every zone is a static set piece for the story they want to tell.

One thing that should be fixed though is that every zone feels like a total non-issue to navigate / fight through. World mobs in FFXIV are worthless and only exist to add some sense of ecology to the world and have never posed a threat outside of very rare hunt monsters / fates. All fates are as threatening as bubble wrap and the monsters don't even have the strength to pop it. It would definitely help fix the problem with how the MSQ is more of a movie instead of a video game...

[Keumjo]

I FATE farm for rewards tbh, have better rewards and I'll do more FATEs. Maybe throw some of the stuff you keep adding to the store as rewards in the game and people will feel more inspired to participate in content. Also need a channel like in GW2 that alerts you to the huge world boss FATES, I don't fall asleep doing those and would go to them so much more often if I didn't have to join a Discord just to get notifications about them.

[TakoyakiLala]

It would be pretty cool to see "hamlet defense" type FATEs return from 1.0.

[ElysiumDragon]

With Yoshida stating that the game is going to be focusing on multiplayer aspects again, I think we need to take the time to discuss a few suggestions I have to bring life back into the game's open world content. I am going to just break it down into points to make it easier to read.

-Make Fates give Bicolor Gemstones at all level ranges and expansions
-Let players exchange Bicolor Gemstones for the same items as Hunt Currencies, albeit at a lesser rate
-Give players a chaining EXP/Gemstone bonus for doing Fates back to back
-Take inspiration from Rift's Instant Adventures and let players queue into groups of 4-8 players doing Fates out in the game world. The system will direct them to each Fate and you get a small stacking bonus for each you actively participate in.
-Add in max level solo AND group combat Levequests that provide a unique currency+Tomes to incentivize max level players to use their Leves
-Every patch there needs to be a Tomestone Mount or glamour roughly equivalent to the grind of a Bicolor Gemstone mount; lets just say it costs 50k uncapped tomestones; This will encourage players to do daily activities even when geared
-Create a small instanced area called something like "Treasure Hunters League" where like minded players can get together to form groups for map parties, rather than relying on party finder

Not sure about all of these, but the first 3 should absolutely be a thing, and I 100% agree with them. Even if older Fates only have a few Bicolors, earning a small bonus while I do my Bozja and Anima relic grinds would be quite nice. You're probably not going to suddenly get a massive upsurge in interest or anything, but random players will likely stop and help newer players with FATES if there's a few Bicolors in it for their effort.

[ElysiumDragon]

Actually, I just had another idea inspired by something someone else said.

In ESO, you could find random chests scattered about in the overworld. They almost never had anything good in them, perhaps a little gold, some outdated materia equivalent, random crafting materials, etc.

But even a small incentive like that had me exploring off the beaten track while doing quests, purely because I could. It's not even about the reward, but the little hit of dopamine that comes from finding a shiny thing.

[Alice_Rivers]

I've been reading a lot more lately and struck upon one where doing a quest set off a world event and thought to myself: Why can't we have such cool things? Why weren't the Final Days a week long event? It's not like they couldn't have put a week long pause in the MSQ while the scions did something and we get fates, city defence, event hunts or a plethora of other things. The Alexandrian invasion in DT the same, why wasn't that an event across the DT maps? Then in 6.1/7.1 they could have reconstruction events for the crafters and gatherers and it would have been really neat.

[Kozh]

My brain isn't braining rn so I can't give amy suggestions. I just want to say, I really missed the feeling of ARR zones. They feel alive, and it's like the zone is created for itself first, rather than created for msq quests if that makes amy sense. We get settlements, explorable building, non quest giver npc who creates immersion. That sort of things.

But anyway, I think ever since they introduce flying mechanic, the area have been getting bigger and bigger but also empty. I think if they make it smaller, have more population, it could also introduce new(ish) interesting type of FATE (i.e defending settlements)