So, let's speculate about future Story developments (SPOILERS!!!)

What major change are you expecting exactly? Any change is going to be "important" to the Main Scenario and simply fixed in side quests with dialog tweaks. Just because the Culinarian quest has a simple fix for a major plot hole doesn't mean it's suddenly unimportant. If Ul'dah sees significant changes and the Main Scenario never touches on it again (how many quests have we had dedicated to the turmoil there currently?) then that is due to terrible writing, not because a side quest stifled the story... Why would you even expect to see the significant repercussions in a side quest anyway? The Culinarian quest, for example, is about Culinarian, not the reformation of Ul'dah. It is about cooking a meal to impress an important diplomat. That is its focus, after 2.5 and whatever happens in Ul'dah that focus should not change. If it makes mention of the changes (similar to 2.2 and the Ninja quests), then that is great for continuity and storytelling in general. If it doesn't it's an ugly plot hole. It in no way stifles the story though...

I'm not trying to pick a fight, I promise, but I also think you don't really understand the point I'm trying to make.

I don't have any particular expectations right now, but I do want something to happen that makes me think "there's no way that really just happened." Going by your logic, the Nanamo assassination subplot really only has two possible outcomes that will satisfy the "status-quo" required for other quests. First is nobody (important) is harmed, yay good guys win. Second is Nanamo is unharmed but Raubahn dies, since he isn't yet flagged as "essential" by any other sub-quests. We have a subplot about Nanamo being in danger, but we already assume that she can't actually be in any danger, so there's no real tension.

I don't want the whole of continuity shattered forever, but I do want to see something, anything, that shatters preconceived notions of where they can take the ongoing story. Something we actually can't see coming.

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Originally Posted by Fenral

but I also don't want the "major change" to Ul'dah to ultimately result in nothing more than a few tweaked lines of dialogue before and after, because then it's like nothing has really changed at all.

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You're in luck, then. The devs want to redesign Ul'Dah so a major change may actually BE a major change. Ul'Dah might be the next Revenant's Toll.
Remember during ARR's "lookie lookie" phase of development, they showed off Limsa and Gridania a lot, but didn't show a whole lot of Ul'Dah.

As far as the thing with the Sultana goes, I hardly think the cooking quest is so completely integral to the game that it couldn't be changed. *IF* the want for her to die in the Story, I don't think it's some massive deal to change those couple of quests. It's more important that the overall Story remains interesting, and honestly, I feel like it's either her or Raubahn, and I feel like her death would have a much large impact. Not saying that *will* come to pass, but that I think it's very much on the table.

Good story-telling requires the characters we love come to harm sometimes. Otherwise, there's no suspense.

I'm guessing that the armed refugges and co will probably try to pull a coup in Ul'Dah at least. It's also very possible (hopefully not) that Ilberd is also working for the monetrists. after digging around it seems like Yuyuhase was a brass blade guard in 1.0, so he's also probaby corrupt.

Many key people are going to Ul'Dah: F'llamin and her 2 echo user body guards, Alphnaud and Ilberd, more. When you think about it the Crystal Braves are EVERYWHERE within the city states....its kinda off putting now that I think about it. Perfect for spies to trade info between city states and beyond.

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Originally Posted by Fenral

We have a subplot about Nanamo being in danger, but we already assume that she can't actually be in any danger, so there's no real tension.

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This is only an issue for us because we're over analyzing the story in a speculation thread. People who haven't touched Culinarian (or this topic) will not have made the connection that she appears in that questline and thus can still see her in danger. People who have done the Culinarian questline could have plum forgotten her involvement in it and be in the same boat. If you're going to speculate towards the story, you're going to remove some of the tension in the story.

Honestly, the fact that this is a MMO does more "harm" to the potential story than the Culinarian quest; We know for an outright fact that Ul'dah is basically going to return to the status-quo after these events. The Immortal Flames will still be there. Omega wont raze the city to the ground. The fact that the city is home to both a housing ward and Grand Company make it pretty much safe from any major change. Any changes will be relevant in cutscenes and perhaps a few choice pieces of dialog, but other than that, this is an MMO and Ul'dah is a starter city.

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Originally Posted by Terin

Good story-telling requires the characters we love come to harm sometimes. Otherwise, there's no suspense.

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Plenty of novels build suspense without characters coming to any physical harm. There are still plenty of people who could die anyway, though I have no idea why anyone has to (other than perhaps Teledji) for Ul'dah to undergo any changes. There should be enough suspense and dramatic tension in part 2 when the Dragons start attacking Ishgard and we're powerless to do anything proper until Heavensward is out...

Really doubt they'd even play another death so soon after the last one... They can still build suspense though, honestly just killing someone off is a fairly lazy way to build tension in the story; Look how well it worked in part 1...

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Honestly, the fact that this is a MMO does more "harm" to the potential story than the Culinarian quest;[etc]

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I'm sorry if you thought I was targeting the Culinarian quest specifically, but I wasn't, and you seem to have just stated the point I was trying to explain the entire time. That's the only reason I brought up Malgus, honestly. Not to say "this was better" but that "this is possible." It was a bold rule to break, and they broke it. Old Republic already had an implicit "low level quests are always chronologically before higher level quests" style of storytelling, which is ultimately why it worked.

This game's pattern, as I see it, seems to be "pre-50 quests are before the Praetorium." The only truly blatant offender so far is the Summoner questline, and not because of the pic I showed before, but because it doesn't have extra dialogue to account for player knowledge of the Ascians. It's not a "plot hole," but it does turn Y'mihtra into Captain Obvious.

To clear things up for people reading this and my prior posts: I'm not being a jerk, I'm playing the devil's advocate.

Like I said, I don't WANT for ANYBODY to die. Yet, that's done SUCH a great job building tension in Ul'dah, I actually think it would be disappointing for everything to "go back to normal". I mean, sure, I know some people aren't crazy with the Lalafel dude as a main villain, but when viewed as a "side-villain", he's been phenomenal. A little bit cartoonishly-evil, I suppose, but I feel like his manipulating the Ala Mighan refugees has been really well done. Very much akin to "Dark Knight Rises", giving it a more politically-relevant edge.

Again, though, I just don't want everything to suddenly be hunky-dory. As high as they've raised the bar, I'd like there to be some real repercussions.