Another type of addition that I think would make the environment more interesting:
Another new MMO, Rift, has random events in which a portal opens up at some place on the map, and monsters pour out. Players then group up and kill off the monsters.
I was thinking that this kind of concept could be incorporated into FF14, but altered in a way to fit the world and add excitement.
My inspiration for this also comes from FF11, specifically, Fort Ghelsba. I would love partying with my friends and having an adventure - penetrating the stronghold's defenses and working our way in and defeating the mobs within. It was always the same everytime, however, and there wasn't really any real impact on the world. Kill all the orcs one day, they'd be back in a few minutes anyway, no big deal.
So here's the plan:
Once every few days, a beast tribe hamlet is spawned at some remote area of the map in each region (kobold hamlet for la noscea, amaljaa hamlet for thanalan, ixal hamlet in the black shroud, along with goblin, qiqirn, reaver, and bandit hamlets as well)
Each beast tribe hamlet isn't just some temporary 5 minute event, but rather a decently sized town full of enemies to fight. A "mini Fort Ghelsba", so to speak.
Players go in, fight a bunch of mobs, rescue NPCs, search for loot, seek out boss monsters, destroy structures, etc.
Players who had a hand in the beast-tribe hamlet destruction are further rewarded with faction points, fame points, achievement points, whatever.
Hamlet spawn locations are random, or picked by the devs, and put in remote areas, without telling anyone, so that players have to actively explore the world if they want to find any new beast tribe towns. (Hey now, this would be pretty fun to do if we had chocobos, huh? ( http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Want-Your-Fix )
Rank caps are put in place so that Rank 50 players can't just ransack a Rank 30 beast town in 10 minutes. Temporary level-matching system in place so that high rank players can still participate in lower ranked assaults.
What do you think?