8.0 and World

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

Your entire storyline summary of Meracydia focuses on the dragons, but forgets that it's not a country of dragons. Allow me to summarize it:

Also, forgive me, but I wanna see one of my favorite games do their version of my home country. I wanna see Meracydia in the same way I wanna see Pokemon do an Australian region, and I'm a lot more interested in that than 'let's go to the Fourth to commit cannibalism'.

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i apologize not my intent to make light of your home or desire to see some representation of it within the final fantasy sphere. i did go back an edited my post however to include that there were other living entities in meracydia besides just the dragons but it is know to us that Bahamut and Tiamat were very important to that region an birthed life there an that it was pilgrims seeking asylum who approached the elder wyrm "Dawn Father" Bahamut of the first brood to gain his trust an his protection and is the reason the Allagans were deterred for a time until they revived Omega which lead to the chaos that was all planned by the Ascians from the beginning an did lead to a calamity and rejoining of a shard when the conflict reached its peak.

if there is still a civilization left in Meracydia then its likely not having a good time with the hostile environment an likely under constant threat of the remnants of Allag i.e. war machines and soulless clones. though with Tiamat making her return there maybe that will somehow better things in some way but even if the triad returns it wont matter cause we have cured tempering an even found a repellent towards it.
i think Meracydia would work best as a standalone main quest similar to how the void was rather than whole years long continuous story as myself i saw others point out it would just be another heavensward tale at the end of the day an that would be even worse than the reception of Dawntrail with the new world in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Thighland

I'm sure that other Azem shards will appear in the future and that there is a reason why they were introduced to the story. But there's a lot that can happen with these characters apart from rejoining with us. They aren't objects to be picked up and used, like the crystals of light we collected in ARR.

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There's also a lot that can be done with shards when not actually touching the subject of 'BUT WHAT ABOUT AZEM'. After all, we've hit both the Thirteenth and the Ninth without hearing a peep about it, and I wouldn't say either story was in any way begging for their presence.

And before anyone tries to say that it was Golbez, Zero, or Also Golbez: we actually know who the Thirteenth shard of Azem is most likely to be, and it's also the clearest evidence why we won't be going off and eating Azem shards as a long-term goal.

It's the Reaper's Avatar, as per the EE3. Can't exactly go eating them for power (because for some reason that's desirable to people) without ruining Reaper's whole deal.

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

if there is still a civilization left in Meracydia then its likely not having a good time with the hostile environment an likely under constant threat of the remnants of Allag i.e. war machines and soulless clones. though with Tiamat making her return there maybe that will somehow better things in some way but even if the triad returns it wont matter cause we have cured tempering an even found a repellent towards it.

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I would actually say that any theorizing about Meracydia should completely put aside 'they fought Allag' as a significant detail to their current presence, because people seem to reflexively over-focus on it, probably because it's the biggest thing we know. But Allag was five thousand years ago; acting like Meracydia's still defined by fighting Allag is like assuming that modern-day Egypt must have a primarily pyramid-centric society; reasonably, Allag's not that big a deal for them.

I think that, if Allag must be some kind of bedrock component for a Meracydian story, that we might see something like Home from FFX: that a society off in a vast desert (because it is Fantasy Australia; we're not just desert, but we do have a lot of it) has taken up those weapons, appropriated it, and made it their own.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

There's also a lot that can be done with shards when not actually touching the subject of 'BUT WHAT ABOUT AZEM'. After all, we've hit both the Thirteenth and the Ninth without hearing a peep about it, and I wouldn't say either story was in any way begging for their presence.

And before anyone tries to say that it was Golbez, Zero, or Also Golbez: we actually know who the Thirteenth shard of Azem is most likely to be, and it's also the clearest evidence why we won't be going off and eating Azem shards as a long-term goal.

It's the Reaper's Avatar, as per the EE3. Can't exactly go eating them for power (because for some reason that's desirable to people) without ruining Reaper's whole deal.

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It's true that the story isn't begging for the presence of the Azem shards right now, but it is begging for new stories to emerge after we have completed our business in Alexandria.
That doesn't mean that Azem shards should start popping out of the sky soon, but it would be an easy pool of ideas to pull from, and I think many people are excited to know more about their soul-"brothers and sisters".
With that said, the story of the Ninth isn't over yet (7.3 at the earliest, 7.55 at the latest), and the 13th will probably still be relevant in the future, so who knows what might happen? I too have my own theories about who is an Azem-shard or not, but what is certain is that there is no definitive proof yet, only foreshadowing at best.

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

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Originally Posted by Tahli

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

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I agree that the Black Shroud has been getting way too little attention, and that the devs could easily make an expansion out if it if they really wanted to.
Reconnecting with Eorzea should be on the agenda someday anyway imo.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I don't know. I feel the only shards that should possibly be rejoined are the First and the Thirteenth since it would actually benefit them in terms of how it could balance the light (1st) and the dark (13th).

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6.X has the beginnings of how to resolve that issue without requiring a rejoining.

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Originally Posted by Tahli

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

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I'd enjoy an expansion about going back to look deeper at a part of the world we've already been, and if we're ever doing that, 'the underside of the Shroud' is maybe the very first place we should go. But I think it'd require a fundamentally entirely different approach to how FFXIV currently does expansions; I don't think that quite makes sense in the current form of expansions we have.

Like, to just start with a dumb thought exercise that my Discord server stumbled into at one point: I think that a well-rounded FFXIV expansion should have all five Magic the Gathering land types in their zone lineup. There should be a Plains, Mountain, Island, Swamp and Forest somewhere in there as a primary defining element of a zone, just to ensure that you have a lot of aesthetic diversity. My concern with something like a 'Gelmorra Expansion' is that you're not gonna be able to hit all of those, and the expansion suffers because of it.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

There should be a Plains, Mountain, Island, Swamp and Forest somewhere in there as a primary defining element of a zone, just to ensure that you have a lot of aesthetic diversity. My concern with something like a 'Gelmorra Expansion' is that you're not gonna be able to hit all of those, and the expansion suffers because of it.

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Sounds like the Island Sanctuary resource gathering destinations list (the surprise sixth addition being a cave).

But more importantly I don't think the other poster is asking for an entire expansion as the "Gelmorra expansion" – it wouldn't need to be that any more than Endwalker was the "Thavnair expansion".

(Now that I mention that... endgame hub Gelmorra please and thankyou.)

I think a zone-and-city Gelmorra would be great. Enough to make the devs actually tell us stuff about Duskwight culture for starters.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

I'd enjoy an expansion about going back to look deeper at a part of the world we've already been, and if we're ever doing that, 'the underside of the Shroud' is maybe the very first place we should go. But I think it'd require a fundamentally entirely different approach to how FFXIV currently does expansions; I don't think that quite makes sense in the current form of expansions we have.

Like, to just start with a dumb thought exercise that my Discord server stumbled into at one point: I think that a well-rounded FFXIV expansion should have all five Magic the Gathering land types in their zone lineup. There should be a Plains, Mountain, Island, Swamp and Forest somewhere in there as a primary defining element of a zone, just to ensure that you have a lot of aesthetic diversity. My concern with something like a 'Gelmorra Expansion' is that you're not gonna be able to hit all of those, and the expansion suffers because of it.

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Off-topic (more or less) - but... Discord server? Presumably for Lore discussion? If so, am interested!

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

-Third. this relates to the world zones and maps i think its high time the get creative a world does not feel "adventurous" or even "open" if all doors are just locked

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There are too many flaws that need resolving to get this to work well. Keep in mind that this already happened in HW, and worked in every single expansion beyond that. Its an easy way to force effectively more zones into the 6 you get. And provide areas with decently leveled enemies alongside it.
2nd: it doesnt matter if a zone has lvl 91 enemies on 1 side, and 100 on the other. If there is an aetheryte at the 100 spot. People will just dodge mobs in order to get to that aetheryte. Fields op show how easily this is managed. It barely adds exploration feelings. The only reason the older areas felt like they did was because the lvls were more impactful stat wise, and because you lacked experience and gear to get further. These days with tomestone gear of lvl 90 you can already get to lvl 96 easily, which means all the mobs below that are easy.

What i do hope they wont be doing is to force people into a 2 zone split in the beginning. I rather see them quickly visiting 1 area, then the next one. They can both still be half blocked off, but instead of just teleporting, it now at least demanded players to cross it themselve.

Oh, and areas like living memory and ultima thule should be skipped entirely, or given its own 7th area. Such forced splitting of areas just isnt fun since you know it ends up unlocking a small piece every single time. It was ok in azys lla being the first time. But any later time just failed massively. If you want such area, at least place it in a section similar to tempest where most of the zone is still a normal exploration zone. These always feel like a wasted zone to me with anoying gatekeeping. Either its the element of surprise when the zone gets released (ahm araeng, kholusia, peaks, laby all did a good job here), or the zone itself should be an entire surpise.
I dont want the predictable: here is a corner, here is the next one, im lvl 99, so soon those other 2 will be opened up. Why do i need to follow the msq if i can already see the zone at a distance anyway? Its boring, let me explore, and do guesses on how the msq is going to use the zone. It feels too restrictive and pushes too much on: follow the msq to unlock everything quickly. It should feel more natural, and not feel like 'im missing out on something' because you can see fates spawn on the map.

the 7th area implementation could even be in field op style, which then potentialy could mean several zones are yet to be unlocked, and there not being any map visible of the area until you reached it. That gives a good element of surprise then.