Quote Originally Posted by ShadowyZero View Post
-Third. this relates to the world zones and maps i think its high time the get creative a world does not feel "adventurous" or even "open" if all doors are just locked
There are too many flaws that need resolving to get this to work well. Keep in mind that this already happened in HW, and worked in every single expansion beyond that. Its an easy way to force effectively more zones into the 6 you get. And provide areas with decently leveled enemies alongside it.
2nd: it doesnt matter if a zone has lvl 91 enemies on 1 side, and 100 on the other. If there is an aetheryte at the 100 spot. People will just dodge mobs in order to get to that aetheryte. Fields op show how easily this is managed. It barely adds exploration feelings. The only reason the older areas felt like they did was because the lvls were more impactful stat wise, and because you lacked experience and gear to get further. These days with tomestone gear of lvl 90 you can already get to lvl 96 easily, which means all the mobs below that are easy.

What i do hope they wont be doing is to force people into a 2 zone split in the beginning. I rather see them quickly visiting 1 area, then the next one. They can both still be half blocked off, but instead of just teleporting, it now at least demanded players to cross it themselve.

Oh, and areas like living memory and ultima thule should be skipped entirely, or given its own 7th area. Such forced splitting of areas just isnt fun since you know it ends up unlocking a small piece every single time. It was ok in azys lla being the first time. But any later time just failed massively. If you want such area, at least place it in a section similar to tempest where most of the zone is still a normal exploration zone. These always feel like a wasted zone to me with anoying gatekeeping. Either its the element of surprise when the zone gets released (ahm araeng, kholusia, peaks, laby all did a good job here), or the zone itself should be an entire surpise.
I dont want the predictable: here is a corner, here is the next one, im lvl 99, so soon those other 2 will be opened up. Why do i need to follow the msq if i can already see the zone at a distance anyway? Its boring, let me explore, and do guesses on how the msq is going to use the zone. It feels too restrictive and pushes too much on: follow the msq to unlock everything quickly. It should feel more natural, and not feel like 'im missing out on something' because you can see fates spawn on the map.

the 7th area implementation could even be in field op style, which then potentialy could mean several zones are yet to be unlocked, and there not being any map visible of the area until you reached it. That gives a good element of surprise then.