Anyone else feel like Tural was kind of wasted?

The landmass itself, not the zones in the game.

Look at this map:

https://i.imgur.com/RKNkckn.png

Hydaelyn, as we know Her.

Now, look at the same map, with lines drawn on it to determine the settings of various expansions (main MSQ, not counting raids, stuff like Bozja, or other funny business):

https://i.imgur.com/NbG63bm.png

I hope you see what I'm trying to get at here.

Ranked by length (in quests) of their main MSQ, it's:

1. ARR (161 quests)
2. Stormblood (122 quests)
3. Endwalker (108 Quests)
4. Shadowbringers (106 quests)
5. Dawntrail (100 quests)
6. Heavensward (94 quests)

And yet, despite having the second-least amount of quests out of all main MSQs, Dawntrail hands-down takes up the most amount of space, geographically.

This is immutable space on Hydaelyn that will never be touched again in the MSQ after the post-MSQ patches, save maybe for 3-quest asides.

Did we really need to eat up all of Tural for this? Couldn't have fit the MSQ into one half or the other? We could have had an entire expansion dedicated to cowboys.

I fear for what they're about to do to Meracydia.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that every expansion other than ARR only added 6 zones. HW, ShB, and EW I can understand, as the geography of the introduced areas is much smaller than that of Eorzea (or in ShB's case, uninhabited/uninhabitable). A case can be made for SB since a ton of Othard is only occupied by nomadic tribes, or was razed by Garlemald. DT has no excuse.

Doesn't really make a lot of difference when the overworld zones exist almost exclusively to be a hub for the MSQ.

i know not many people care about yellow quests. but those also give content to zones. compare those per expansion there are like 70 quests less than in ew.

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Originally Posted by Asari5

i know not many people care about yellow quests. but those also give content to zones. compare those per expansion there are like 70 quests less than in ew.

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I think when we start making excuses we start to lose out on things we've had in older expansions. I'm sure the yellow quests do probably flesh out Tural quite a bit, but all previous MSQs before DT did a tremendous job fleshing out their settings without the need for filler quests to pick up the slack. DT should have done a comparable job to ARR since it is basically the new start to a new arc and it doesn't even compare, to me anyways, when it comes to fleshing out the new setting.

oh no thats not meant as an excuse. its the opposit. there are less and less yellow quests each expansion.

and yes, their existence doesnt mean its ok for the msq to give us only the bare bone

The sad part is that 2 of DT's zones aren't even on the Source, so that much space is covered in just 4. Comparing that to how many regions and zones we got out of Aldenard makes it feel like they're speedrunning the setting.

It felt like this expansion deliberately had the least amount of content. For such a grand new land, we saw very very little.

There is an area to the right of Solution Nine and an area to the very south of the map. There is also Shades' Triangle where we will be going in side content. I feel that the split ocean that was created "by gods fighting" aka Hydaelyn and Zodiark may also be used at some point.

Often whole areas get explored by dungeons as well - for example, The Burn is a whole area you could circle on the map but if you consider that it's a dungeon, then we've already been there. The mountains above the Azim Steppe may seem unexplored but we sorta climb up them in Bardam's Mettle. The truth is that if a dungeon takes us there then we aren't likely to go there in an expansion, because it's already explored from SE's perspective.

I’m not terribly put out about the southern continent of Tural, but having the entire northern continent be consumed by Shaaloani and Heritage Found with no other exploration is such a damnable waste, not only of space but of potential. Hopefully they retcon Tural being the entirety of two continents and have the northern section of Tural just be **part** of the northern continent, with another country or something in the northern half.

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Originally Posted by CVXIV

do those numbers include the post patch content for the other expansions?
I just ask because it seems unfair to compare them otherwise, but I do understand your point

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Didn't count them because DT's post-MSQ patches haven't come out yet. But it will be neat to compare.