Remake of GridaniaFollow

Pherhaps its just me. But I think Gridania deserves map improvements - that means :

More open areas, less corridors.

I dont know but at server where I play - Trabia is almost without players.
I reconsidered this is caused by the map design, or at least I think. I recommend to SE to edit this mapset
with more open areas to more places around the map.

Keep the corridors, but change half of them to open places. I think the reason why gridania is pretty much dead compared with other two map is this narrow design. It might be just my feelings.

I know this is quite "hard to ask task" feedback. But I think that Gridania map is horrible. More open gridania - more fun to players. Or at least I would enjoy the map more.

edit : I mean black shroud forest of course.

Edited, Jan 28th 2011 1:27pm by Breberka

I agree. Is it possible? I dunno.

I never want to go to the Black Shroud.

It's kinda funny how the Black Shroud was the first to show on the FFXIV main website.

Can you say...Rushed?

Producer: "Copy Paste this, this and this. And insert two corridors here."

Map Editor: "You're a friggin' genious."

Producer: "I know, but I'll be out of a job in four months."

Open this forest up, add some crystals coming out of the ground, birds flying from tree to tree, and every so often an old prehistoric pterodactyl swooping down. Oh, and I don't remember ever seeing any insects either. Even a poly'ed up butterfly would do something for this area...

So much work to be done...

Would be nice, but honestly there are more pressing matters that SE has lined up.

My highest hope, is that they take the feedback they got about the maps we have now, and instead of spending tons of time scrapping and rebuilding them, they should take care when making the next set of maps, probably in the first expansion pack or whenever, and not make the same mistakes twice. People have made it clear that they don't want the entire zone to look the same, and I hope SE has heard them.

And just to mention this, copy/pasting terrain is not a bad thing, but it has to be done carefully, in a way where it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb... But hell, Morrowind had 1/3 of the continent as one giant copy/paste, they just rotated it and retextured parts. But nobody noticed because they did it in a way where it didn't stick out.

In 1 hour, you can cross the same creek, go up the same ramp, and walk down the same tunnel several times, but in different places in the grid area... People notice. The other zones have their share of copy paste terrain too, like the cave entrances in limsa, and several large obvious spots in uldah. Copy pasting rocks and paths is one thing, but never ever copy paste big obvious landmark features unless you have a very good reason... Or at least move a few small rocks and bushes around if you do.

But like I said, whatever, leave it as it is... Just please, when you make the next areas SE... Please think more carefully about the design. We tread those paths a hundred times over, and a day or two of extra development time on an entire area can really make a huge difference for months and months to come. The graphics, art style, and general environment of the game is really amazing, and blows most of the games I've seen out of the water... But it's a shame when a few small design flaws mar the whole picture. It's totally worth putting in the few extra hours to make different parts of the areas more distinct.

Yeah, Ronfaure in FFXI was a much better example of how a forest SHOULD be designed.

It's open like a real forest. I don't know why SE thinks a video game forest should be a bunch of corridors.

Edited, Jan 31st 2011 12:41pm by Rhianu

I like the way Gridania feels different because of the structure but the copy paste methods are just unacceptable.

I really don't care if they ran into memory issues. Find a better workaround whatever.

Also I would like to see a real forest in XIV someday. You know the kind where you have a choice of going around trees from the right or the left side?

XI forests (and there are more than Ronafure) feel like a forest you need to use map more to see where you're going.
XIV forest is more like the jungle in XI and we all LOVED that area now didn't we?! /end sarcasm

How about a shocking plot twist where because of XIV's focus on crafting the woodworkers have cut down all the trees in Gridania and now you can navigate freely among the smaller undergrowth.

Have to agree the seen the same things over and over again really doesn't help the lore of the game. But I think they can manage small changes to the map layout bit by bit with each patch releases also. Doing it small bit's at a time eventually adds up and before you know it they be already setup to maybe do something big when they solve the other issues...

Besides the "canyon" type areas, all of the areas in ffxi were amazing now that I am thinking about it.

I agree with OP though. I picked gridania as my starting town because I love forests but I found it very annoying to traverse. Also it is pretty blah to look at after a while

I definately agree, open zones are much better. I think the difference with trench zones, and the reason they are so annoying, (other than the fact that its hard to get from A>C without going to B first) is that you pose a greater threat wioth encountering aggro monsters. In open maps, you can avoid them easier. I think trench/corridors are decent/alright for endgame/high level maps, but ya definately for lower I think they should be open.

An area like the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah from FFXI redone with FFXIV graphic engine could have looked really nice. Opportunity lost .... oh well. Hopefully with the new development team in place, we'll see better zones in the future.

As far as Gridania goes, if they can't redo the zone they should at least put in a few teleporter NPCs like the Tarus in Windhurst that you can use to port across the city. I think that would at least help.

Edited, Sep 8th 2011 9:30pm by zpanda

gridania the town is actually kind of a pain to navigate...but thats not a big deal. the Forest Grid needs to go.

on a mildly related note, sarutabaruta is one of my all time favorite places anywhere.

Edited, Sep 19th 2011 12:27am by Llester