wanted to do this because i realized how unwieldy and complicated FFXIV's zone connections are as of the current xpac, and how basically nobody ever uses them more than once. here a link between nodes indicates that you can go from one to the other either by walking through a point on the map or interacting with a character / object. airship links are not included, since they would make the map much worse. i include a node on this graph if it appears in the list of "zones" on the wiki, UNLESS it is a small, dead-end zone where no combat happens (like inn rooms, the waking sands, throne rooms in capital cities) OR if it is a zone that you can only access during certain quests. it is not a perfect classification. but there's so many fucking zones.

phenomena:

• longest path is 17 zones i think (from mare lamentorum to gangos)
• limsa to western thanalan is a single link that connects two halves of the graph. if not for that then it would be impossible to get from one side to the other
• it's frustratingly almost possible to display this as a planar graph with no self-intersections, but there's exactly two ferry links that make this impossible - gridania to lavender beds, and western la noscea to lower la noscea.

i think it is fun to try to figure out which areas of the graph correspond to which areas in-game just from the topology. labeled graph under the readmore (includes mild spoilers for dawntrail in the form of zone names)

• other than the airship cluster in the middle there are only 4 necessary graph intersections, and i think this is as low as you can get it. this forces zones like thavnair and northern thanalan to be in weird places. the thanalan -> mor dhona pathway is gently spooning gyr abania.
• the allowable airship routes in this game are bizarre. did you know that gold saucer links to the three main cities AND ishgard, but nowhere else? Kugane's airship can only take you to... radz-at-han? Radz-at-han can take you anywhere except for the gold saucer?
• the most recent expansion, Dawntrail, has the most tree-like zone map of any expansion. There is only one cycle in the graph at all, and no new airship links - just a single link to Old Sharlayan. truly yoshi P is out of ideas.

Warrior of Light: "You said another person's name in bed."

Emet Selch: "I mean... not technically."

W.O.L: "Not helping."

Emet: "I could awaken the memories."

W.O.L: "..."

Emet: "You'd look great in a black robe?"

Whenever I do one of those sightseeing logs that involves standing on some sort of very narrow perch.... I GOTTA do the Manderville. Idk why seeing my character dance off into the air amuses me so much but it never gets old

character bait art night... blorbo night...