Environmental Effect in ARR

[Shougun]

1. They plan on adding more life - but I'm never against more life in cities so.. yes please :P

2. Would love to see seasons - for PCs I would like to see it done well enough that there are at least animation / processing periods between seasons. PS3 may have to deal with it in stages, or not see it all (depending on how it effects the file size of the game, I realize they are trying to stay under 10gb). By itself it is a really "cute" addition - but with the inclusion of things like monster behaviors* and seasonal events it could really help in that glue that brings engines together into a singular immersive piece.
*Mating seasons (more or less monsters/more or less aggressive monster types), monsters affected by day / night (when it gets dark changes), what weather types are within a zone are less or more likely during seasons (snowing more often during winter).

3. I like instant travel - but slow travel adds a sort of place and belonging that cant be created through fast travel systems. I would like to see the "rides" return. Specially would love to see the train ride like this.

It is a hard toss up though, if you add too much convenience people will seldom use the "slow" features unless you make a reason to like quests or events. If you take away too much convenience then things like not being able to join a party in time because you are half away across the map happen.