An Eorzea that is more 'alive' and dynamic. - A suggestion for the future of Eorzea

[Alexis_Arteme]

I'd just like to know when they plan on making serious and significant changes to the world. I hear "this spring", so I guess that gives them about one more "big" patch, possibly two, to transform this game completely. So far I'm seeing things being scaled up and down and some numbers being messed with.

[Nakiamiie]

This thread is full of awesomeness.

My 2 cents (crazy stuff):

[...]

Traps & secret doors: Place all kind of traps and secret doors in dungeons where it makes sense for them to be and make abilities available to thief-like classes to disarm / discover them. They would be dynamic and their location would change everytime. Secret doors could open special, dynamic, instanced dungeon parts.

I really like that idea of dynamic traps and secret doors! It would require players to cross-class equip thief-like abilities to detect them or have at least one thief in the party! Amazing idea!!!

... it would be nice to have also riddles to solve in dungeons.

Oh yeah! That way, some secret doors could be opened without thief-like skills, but just common sense or very deep lore about Eorzea.

I didn't play FFXI, so I'm basing my suggestions on my experiences with FFXIV so far. Apologies if some of these items have been discussed to death.

Here are some suggestions I might make to create a more 'alive' and dynamic Eorzea:

Make better use of NPCs:

• Allow wandering NPCs who can provide you with sidequests (even in dungeon areas)
• Have NPCs use emotes when you speak with them (even if just when the inital conversation begins)
• Allow NPCs to wander throughout cities (this has been mentioned and it's a great idea!)
• Allow us to 'overhear' NPC conversations that might reveal secret areas or sidequests we could perform

Encourage us to go to hamlets:

• Allow specialized crafting facilities in hamlets (most have one crafting-related building anyway)
• Allow crafting sidequests to be started and/or completed here

Implement chocobos in a variety of ways:

• Have them wander regions, even if you can't ride them (yet!)
• Show them pulling carts/wagons that may have NPCs (again, for sidequests)
• Have chocobos initiate a quest where we have to protect them from a mob (and allow the chocobo to have an HP bar so they can actually die and there is a potential risk to this type of mini-quest)
• Implement sidequests or leves that may involve us fighting a herd of upset chocobos (that is: chocobos don't always have to be friendly, right?)

Provide us with meaningful travel options:

• I don't really need to say that we should be able to ride chocobos, do I?
• Airships! Make airship travel last 10-15 minutes and give us sidequests to complete while traveling
• Boats: give us sidequests to complete while traveling, or encourage us to take boats via a sidequest that requires us to find an NPC on-board the boat already

Give us reason to visit specific cities:

• Implement city-specific events that encourage players to visit in addition to "world" events that we've had in the past (i.e. Gridania could have a festival, Ul'dah could have a battle competition in the Gladiator Guild, etc.)
• Sidequests in cities only (i.e. allow us to find items on the ground which can then be returned to the NPC)
• Special status enhancements: "blessings" that can be bestowed to a player by visiting their guild prior to battle which would enhance a particular stat or skill

These are small suggestions that I think could be potentially implemented without requiring major overhauls to the foundation of the game, but would still enhance the liveliness of the world!

Thanks for taking our feedback into account! I know the dev team is going to do a great job!

Your post is gold, very good ideas in it.

One thing I think that would make the world more alive is to add villages, or farm steeds or camps or whatever in various areas of the world and then have a few NPC’s that gives out quests.

This gives people a reason to explore the different lands, if you find this little quest hub or the NPC that is walking around “looking for something” or anything like that.

Giving us reasons to explore the huge land will also make it feel like there is a point to it.

Like I would like to know what all the people in Eozia eat.. I never see farms or any sort of anything that should dot the lands and give the feeling that it’s alive.

I agree with the farms, haha. I haven't seen any either, it would be great to add some farms near the hamlets (and have the farmers hide in the hamlets when aggressive monsters come too close, haha).

[Lilith]

Overall:
- Seasons:
Fall: Falling leaves, bare plants etc.
Winter: Snow that covers the ground and bare trees, and trails of steps in the snow. Animals that didn't survive the winter.
Spring: everything that blossoms, mobs defending their cubs.
Summer: Real sunshine afecting shadows and being really bright (like just before you come out of a tunnel transition effect)
Same music but reworked a bit to match the seaons' feel.

- Wandering animals that are curious, but actually become afraid and run away when close to a fight.

- Do something interesting with the random caves.

Gridania:
- Holes in the trees to secret underground tunneling "mole" race.
- Villages / pathways in the trees

[wingiehai]

Really enjoying this post!

What I think the world needs to bring it alive is more towns settlements, good and bad. Like you could run to a town populated by thieves or criminals, or towns that need help! It just feels a little lonely running around the wilderness, it's needs action! Oh and an awsome waterfall!!!!!!

[Eldaena]

Personally, from some of the concept art for Gridania, I thought it would have been more forest like and less maze like, lol. Like I imagined us walking through fairly dense trees with narrow paths as guides for our destinations, but still being able to run through the trees instead of just look at them from afar. In Ul'dah and Limsa you don't really feel confined. It feels more open world and for me, Gridania, my starting city, fails to give me the same feeling as those two starting areas. Even Coerthas, probably my favorite region in the game, has a closer idea to what I though Gridania would be. There are still beautiful nooks and crannies in Gridania but it's not as elaborate as I was hoping it to be. Maybe if they do introduce seasons to the game Gridania could retain some glory in that aspect and not it's tediousness. =)

[Gasper]

To make the world feel more alive, I would implement aggressive monsters attacking nonagressive monsters, like an ecosystem similar to FFXIII's plains, but on a grander scale than just 1-3 occurances. To counteract the lost nonagressive mobs you can make "dens" or "packs" that link when attacked, hunt (larger/stronger or weaker non-agressive mobs), and roam (3-5 agressive mobs, like wolfs do). Look to the natural behavior of come real life animals to creat the behavior. There was talk about this during development of FFXIV, I think it should be brought back. Also, one could add more non-agressive mobs. It would also create the element of "wrong-place at the wrong time" and peril to Eorzea. If you are at the same rank as these mobs level, and you get attacked by the pack you will probably die if you cannot run away. It creates a situation where you need to be aware of your surrondings. Also, the monsters in each region need to be diversified, instead of just having dodo's, sheep, squirrels, and 1-2 area specific monsters in every region. I remember FFXI had different mobs in every starting region.

Also, add nocturnal monsters, ghosts, etc. Nightime in FFXI was dangerous in some places.

[gifthorse]

One thing I think that would make the world more alive is to add villages, or farm steeds or camps or whatever in various areas of the world and then have a few NPC’s that gives out quests.

This gives people a reason to explore the different lands, if you find this little quest hub or the NPC that is walking around “looking for something” or anything like that.

Giving us reasons to explore the huge land will also make it feel like there is a point to it.

Like I would like to know what all the people in Eozia eat.. I never see farms or any sort of anything that should dot the lands and give the feeling that it’s alive.

Or... a band of NPCs will gradually settle in an area, build a village, and then beastmen will come and try to destroy the village, and if you aren't around to stop them, then the village will be destroyed along with its inhabitants.

Or... a group of robbers and bandits will set up little camps and you can either let them flourish or destroy them before they become more powerful.

[zaviermhigo]

I thought seasons were going to really matter in this game, like it would be winter and there would be snow, its fall so the leaves look different. That is not so in this game. They had led me to believe this in an article quite a few months back before the release.

Also this spring means until what june 20th, (my birthday is june 12th and i hate people saying its in summer all the time)

[gifthorse]

To make the world feel more alive, I would implement aggressive monsters attacking nonagressive monsters, like an ecosystem similar to FFXIII's plains, but on a grander scale than just 1-3 occurances. To counteract the lost nonagressive mobs you can make "dens" or "packs" that link when attacked, hunt (larger/stronger or weaker non-agressive mobs), and roam (3-5 agressive mobs, like wolfs do). Look to the natural behavior of come real life animals to creat the behavior. There was talk about this during development of FFXIV, I think it should be brought back. Also, one could add more non-agressive mobs. It would also create the element of "wrong-place at the wrong time" and peril to Eorzea. If you are at the same rank as these mobs level, and you get attacked by the pack you will probably die if you cannot run away. It creates a situation where you need to be aware of your surrondings. Also, the monsters in each region need to be diversified, instead of just having dodo's, sheep, squirrels, and 1-2 area specific monsters in every region. I remember FFXI had different mobs in every starting region.

Also, add nocturnal monsters, ghosts, etc. Nightime in FFXI was dangerous in some places.

They can also use the smaller, scaled mobs, to represent the mob's young.

[KeyserSoze]

Hey guys! We spoke to Producer Yoshida and he likes your ideas about bringing more life to Eorzea and will be looking into them further. Currently the development staff is preoccupied with fixing systems with high priority so these ideas will take a little longer to be implemented but please look forward to it.

What other ideas do you have that would make Eorzea feel more alive? ^_^

My list of ideas to make Eorzea feel more alive (in any given order):

- addition of story driven dialogue from ALL NPCs in all cities, from small one liners to entire tales (text is just fine)

- addition of 1000+ quests for absolutely everything, each one telling a little more of the story and lore

- addition of 100+ roaming Notorious Monsters small and large, scattered all over Eorzea that all drop ra/ex equipment

- addition of more and diverse (climate/terrain) dungeons, with treasure chests, and quests associated with exploring and looting these chests

- addition of several smaller towns, with unique story lines, quests and items associated with it

- small mini-games unique to each city (gambling, tournaments, etc) that players can compete with one another

- traveling quests are always a great way to introduce all of the areas to explore (escort quests come to mind)

- Chocobos, and Chocobo music

- much more interesting ferry rides (sea monsters and pirates, yes please)