KentaRawr!
07-29-2009, 03:58 PM
Final Fantasy XI eventually allowed the player to breed their own chocobos, but they were more of a daily chore than a convenience. So, do you think there should be a personal travel buddy of the non-living variety, such as an airship?
Following the tradition of older games, the only limits involved with an airship would be mountains blocking your path, and not being able to land in water. This might give the player a bit too much freedom and convenience in travel, and make the player feel less obliged to simply walk across and discover more intricate details of the game's environment. The same would go for Black Chocobos and Dragons and Mullets. But looking at certain traveling bits of FFXI while doing missions, it seems like the main methods of travel would have one skipping most of the environment anyway, what with teleportation, NPC-controlled airships, and NPC-controlled boats.
But then there's the question on how it's represented on the map when you leave it. Would it be like the Invincible? Would it never land, just loom over you threateningly? And what if other players have it? A sky full of airships in a popular area would be a bit daunting (to your CPU)!
And what if Chocobos came back, but not needing to eat? Black chocobos can fly, so they could serve the same purpose of an airship. If they were to follow the tradition of only allowing black chocobos to land in forests, that would give limits on the player's travel by air, while also giving the player a sense of freedom while they look down on the ants of the world! Also, black chocobos were able to fly over mountains, but let's just say they can't in this case.
But then there's another question. How do you call these feathered friends? Should they stay exactly where they were, or should they disappear only to be called again by an easily broken (and ridiculously expensive) whistle? Or maybe you should just have to catch them in a forest whenever you want one. But that would kinda make them not-personal, wouldn't it?
Anyway, what do you think?
Following the tradition of older games, the only limits involved with an airship would be mountains blocking your path, and not being able to land in water. This might give the player a bit too much freedom and convenience in travel, and make the player feel less obliged to simply walk across and discover more intricate details of the game's environment. The same would go for Black Chocobos and Dragons and Mullets. But looking at certain traveling bits of FFXI while doing missions, it seems like the main methods of travel would have one skipping most of the environment anyway, what with teleportation, NPC-controlled airships, and NPC-controlled boats.
But then there's the question on how it's represented on the map when you leave it. Would it be like the Invincible? Would it never land, just loom over you threateningly? And what if other players have it? A sky full of airships in a popular area would be a bit daunting (to your CPU)!
And what if Chocobos came back, but not needing to eat? Black chocobos can fly, so they could serve the same purpose of an airship. If they were to follow the tradition of only allowing black chocobos to land in forests, that would give limits on the player's travel by air, while also giving the player a sense of freedom while they look down on the ants of the world! Also, black chocobos were able to fly over mountains, but let's just say they can't in this case.
But then there's another question. How do you call these feathered friends? Should they stay exactly where they were, or should they disappear only to be called again by an easily broken (and ridiculously expensive) whistle? Or maybe you should just have to catch them in a forest whenever you want one. But that would kinda make them not-personal, wouldn't it?
Anyway, what do you think?