Anyone Else Feel, That the World is Too Pretty?

For a planet ravaged by a global (continental) calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the Eorzea?

Anyone else think it should be more like The World of Ruin from FFVI? Or, at least have zones that conjure that imagery.

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

I dunno, I can get past this minor gripe, but it seems like a dropped ball. Hopefully we'll get new zones/content that display the effects of the calamity more closely, so we can get a feel for the impact it had.

I agree with you. I've always thought that the world recovered really fast in 5 years. Maybe they should had set the story 20 years after the calamity.

However, in the story it says the calamity devastated Eorzea, and Eorzea is only one continent of the planet (does the planet have a name?). I guess the other continents weren't affected as much.

Well, lore-wise, it makes sense that there are hyper-lush, visually unique places after the Calamity because Dalamud forced a lot of Aether to the surface of Eorzea. And it's causing all sorts of changes, kind of like global warming. Lore-buffs, is that right?

Aether is the planet's life-force. And now, in the aftermath of the Calamity, we are swimming in it, causing big, glowing vegetation, giant crystal growths, strange magical anomalies, and so on. Plus, there are (a few) places where the devastation is used to amazing visual effect. The shattered earth and debris looks really beautiful in certain parts of Thanalan and The Shroud.

I do wonder, though, where is that battlefield shown in the opening movie? Didn't that happen in Mor Dhona? I've traveled around half the zone and haven't seen it. Maybe I just haven't gotten to it yet. But is that in-game? That area should be a big no-man's land with lots of debris and ruins from the Calamity, just like OP is looking for.

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Originally Posted by AzuraWinters

(does the planet have a name?)

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The planet is called Hydaelyn :)

It's a planet of magic and wonder lol, things recover fast with magic!

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Originally Posted by Vaen

Well, lore-wise, it makes sense that there are hyper-lush, visually unique places after the Calamity because Dalamud forced a lot of Aether to the surface of Eorzea. And it's causing all sorts of changes, kind of like global warming. Lore-buffs, is that right?

I do wonder, though, where is that battlefield shown in the opening movie?

The planet is called Hydaelyn :)

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Yeah but nothing in the story hints that aether repaired the damage. Just references to how bad it was. But even if there is an explanation, the problem is that we're told, not shown. It doesn't have a real impact, if the player never sees the suffering, or effects of the calamity and why we need to prevent it from happening again. That's literally an example of saying "a wizard did it." Like, yeah we had an end of the world scenario go down. But before the player shows up, all the wizards quickly turned it back into the planet it was before, so it looks pretty much the same. But you should have seen it then!

Also,
The Battle of Carteneau, fought in the Carteneau Plains in Mor Dhona.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Carteneau

They have spells that can raise the dead (okay, incapacitated); I'm sure they have land repairing ones.

As far as Mor'Dhona goes, if you go to Mor'Dhona, and look at the map, you'll see we can't even access more than half the area. It used to be you could run all the way around the lake where Midgardsormr's remains are still wrapped around the wreckage of the imperial flagship, but now you can only see it past the southern border of the current available area, and only when the 'weather' allows you to see through the area's very extreme visual effects that seem to be caused by the disrupted Aether.

It used to be you could walk from Thanalan straight into Mor'Dhona, and while you still can, i've noticed you have to do so using a bridge built by the Empire. Whatever landscaping that bridge crosses over didn't used to be there. You simply walked through a pass from Thanalan into Mor'Dhona, no giant gaping pit.

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

Yeah but nothing in the story hints that aether repaired the damage. Just references to how bad it was.

Also,
The Battle of Carteneau, fought in the Carteneau Plains in Mor Dhona.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Carteneau

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Oh, well the aether accounts for the environmental repair, the lush plant life and all that, but you're right, it doesn't account for the fast repair of buildings and man-made things. It would be interesting to see more ruined/broken places in the actual cities of Limsa Lominsa and Ul'Dah.

There is that one big lighthouse in Western La Noscea:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...ur-d6ln9y5.jpg

and also in Western La Noscea there are some ruins of small cabin-like houses that are now infested with goblins or kobolds or something. I remember some lowbie quest saying those houses were destroyed in the Calamity.

There is actually a lot of environmental damage and evidence of the Calamity out in the game world.

But I would agree that it would have been cool to see some actual damage in the main cities. It is a little suspicious that they look perfectly pristine and even more decorated than they were before the Calamity, with not a broken structure in sight.

Also, apparently the part of Mor Dhona where the Battle of Cartenau took place isn't accessible in-game at all right now (edit: thanks Seig345 :) ). It'd be cool if they add that in and we can see ground zero where Bahamut landed, and all the destruction.

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

For a planet ravaged by a global calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the world?

Anyone else think it should be more like The World of Ruin from FFVI? Or, at least have zones that conjure that imagery.

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

I dunno, I can get past this minor gripe, but it seems like a dropped ball. Hopefully we'll get new zones/content that display the effects of the calamity more closely, so we can get a feel for the impact it had.

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Actually the devastation caused by Dalamud's fall and the rampage of Bahamut was not as widespread as you would think, it was far more localized, as it didn't actually affect the whole planet of Hydaelyn physically, but just Eorzea (specifically the Aldenard continent and the island of Vlybrand) - this is shown right at the start for a new character where the player is basically regarded as unaware the Calamity had even happened by other npcs because they're evidently just arrived from another country outside Eorzea.

And the effect it had on the general population is still being felt five years later - you just have to look at the refugee camps surrounding Ul'dah to see just how many people were left homeless and destitute (and a cutscene during the main storyline actually references how hard life is in the aftermath of the Calamity).

There's also plenty of areas shown where the land is obviously damaged and warped by the Calamity, especially areas where the aether released during it has erupted out of the land, breaking the very land apart and then cooling into surreal shapes (the Burning Wall area near Highbridge in Eastern Thanalan and pretty much most of Mor Dhona is a case in point).

Not to mention the Black Shroud is totally different to how it was pre-Calamity - the Shroud was so named because the forest canopy was so think it bathed the forest floor in perpetual shadow - that's no longer the case, especially in the North Shroud where most of the trees are still burnt and their foilage brown from the firestorm that raged through it.

There is plenty of examples of the result of the devastation found and mentioned during the game, you just have to actually read what's being said during quests and actually look at the landscape to see it. ;)

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Originally Posted by Vaen

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True. And thanks for the image, I was wondering where that tower was.

Well the damage is known if you played 1.0, for one the destructive force was so devastating to Coerthas that it changed a once green land, to one of a colder/winter climate. The connected points to Gridania and Coerthas show off a very ravaged piece of territory that is pretty much on the border of their homeland. The enemy forces made their camp in the uldah area that was ravaged by the calamity, the connecting areas between ulda/mor dhona are very much lacking life, very dead dark zone.

So the sights of the destructive force are there, for the rest of the areas, they repaired, rebuilt, if I'm not mistaken it has been 5yrs since the calamity and honestly in 5yrs time it's easy to recover.

Think of natural disasters that have occurred irl, and how much time it took them to recover. A lot can be repaired in 5yrs time.

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Originally Posted by Airget

Well the damage is known if you played 1.0, for one the destructive force was so devastating to Coerthas that it changed a once green land, to one of a colder/winter climate. The connected points to Gridania and Coerthas show off a very ravaged piece of territory that is pretty much on the border of their homeland. The enemy forces made their camp in the uldah area that was ravaged by the calamity, the connecting areas between ulda/mor dhona are very much lacking life, very dead dark zone.

So the sights of the destructive force are there, for the rest of the areas, they repaired, rebuilt, if I'm not mistaken it has been 5yrs since the calamity and honestly in 5yrs time it's easy to recover.

Think of natural disasters that have occurred irl, and how much time it took them to recover. A lot can be repaired in 5yrs time.

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Perhaps, but that doesn't really have the same emotional impact.

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

For a planet ravaged by a global calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the world?

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Bahamut's Coil cutscenes. A bunch of aether was forced into the world when Dalamud fell... which was believed to be Bahamut losing his physical form and reverting to aether. But...

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

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Originally Posted by waycool

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

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Just going off the bithdays of characters, there are 6 astral/umbral moons in a year, so 12 months. And months in character creation are normal 30-31 day months. Of course, no clue how much actual time passes in these months.

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Originally Posted by Vaen

Well, lore-wise, it makes sense that there are hyper-lush, visually unique places after the Calamity because Dalamud forced a lot of Aether to the surface of Eorzea. And it's causing all sorts of changes, kind of like global warming. Lore-buffs, is that right?

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According to one of the cutscenes in Bahamut's Coil, Asaille (dunno her name) tells you that the planet underwent a very fast regeneration thanks to an influx of aether after the Battle of Cartenau. It was originally believed to have been caused by Bahamut losing his physical form. However, that might not be the case...

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

Perhaps, but that doesn't really have the same emotional impact.

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Then your complaint is that the game puts you down 5 years after the calamity, and not 5 months. 5 years was plenty of time for the continent to have recovered to the point it has.

In FFVI, god statues were pushed out of alignment, tearing continents apart and ruining the world's balance of life. in FFXIV, one elder dragon attacked. He didn't tear it up, and he didn't come down to destroy the continent, he was imprisoned, and therefore reasonably pissed off, and took it out on anything near by before going wherever he went for that Coil thing; he didn't take a giant elder primal plow and dig up every inch of the continent.

They didn't have to radically change the entire world's layout for 2.0, just explain some of the necessary changes. Gridania's been considerably changed in its layout. Just look at Old Gridania; there's several pathways now filled with rubble. The CNJ and Btn guilds, along with the amphitheater, all used to be accessed by paths that led off from the northwest corner of the city. now the theatre is practically in the center, and the CNJ and Btn guilds have been moved considerably southward.

In fact, the entire Black Shroud area is one giant gaping wound. The fact that you can see the sky at all is a sign of a huge change. It was called The Black Shroud because you were under 100% canopy within the entirity of the wood's borders. When Dalamud was nearing and the imperial airships were buzzing about, you could only hear the noise above, otherwise everything actually looked the same. You could hardly even tell if it was night or day. Gridania was the only place you could see the sky, since there were clearings enough for there to be a gap in the canopy. Limsa and Ul'dah are actual structures, which can be rebuilt or repaired. Trees, not so much, even with the aether, as made evident by the current state of the shroud.

I wish there was more snow

I think the way the world looks is deliberate. Possibly something in the storyline at some point. Things i have seen here and there kinda lead me to suspect something...

first world problems. =P

The world does look remarkably intact for a land recently nuked by Bahamut.

But you have to remember the whole Bahamut thing was just used as a excuse for the first version of the game being re-made. That's probably why it doesn't sync.

This is final fantasy, it is stylistic to be spotless and pretty, with the exception of Pearl Lane for some reason. If you want dirty, play Skyrim. :P

I love the pretty world and hope they make it prettier with the dx11 client. I don't think I could stand playing the game if it had a world as dreary as Fallout New Vegas's. (great game but not the kind of environment you want to spend your time in an MMO with).

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Originally Posted by waycool

It may be only five years, but that's Eorzea time. Do we have any idea on on how long a year on Hydaelyn is?

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Yes. The same length as ours. 12 months with the exact number of days as Earth.

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Originally Posted by Araye

This is final fantasy, it is stylistic to be spotless and pretty, with the exception of Pearl Lane for some reason. If you want dirty, play Skyrim. :P

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Yeah lets just ignore Final Fantasy VI and VII, and the fact that the story is set in a land which was nearly brought to an end through incineration. The whole game doesn't have to be a wasteland, I just feel it could have done a better job looking the part of country recovering from near apocalypse.

No, not really. Pretty is okay. It feels really small and super-accessible though. Small + pretty makes the whole Black Shroud for example feel a bit like Gridania's back yard rather than a big vast forest.

I think it helps to compare places in 1.0 to how they look in 2.0

Camp Tranquil was just a wooded alcove in 1.0 It's still there but the surrounding area is a giant crater now.

Camp Tranquil 1.0
http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...Uwq65sOvNY.jpg
Camp Tranquil 2.0
http://www.finalfantasy.net/wp-conte...012/11/ss9.jpg

Sorry, but this is A Realm Reborn, not Fallout: New Eorzea...

There is plenty of evidence of the Calamity if you actually look for it; The Black Shroud is no longer The Black Shroud, North Shroud being almost completely barren in some places. The Silver Bazaar in Thanalan is in ruins. Whole areas of La Noscea have literally sank, there is a drop right outside Limsa where this is explained, along with Bronze Lake not being what it used to be, the Calamity caused the the lake to drain significantly, Camp Overlook would have used to be water level. Coerthas has turned from a green highland into a snowy wasteland. Mor Dhona has plenty of evidence of destruction as well, like a giant glowing orange ball of doom...

A major complaint of the world in 1.0 was how copy and paste it all way, if they'd literally just made the World of Ruin, they'd have that exact complaint again. Same complaint Fallout 3 suffered from as well; why is everything brown?

As was mentioned earlier, Camp Tranquil now rests atop a swampy crater compared to what it used to be. Furthermore, half of Mor Dhona is completely gone. Camp Brittlebark and the surrounding area has been nuked off the map. The Burning Wall in Thanalan is an aetheric mess compared to its prior incarnation and Coerthas is suffering from a perpetual nuclear winter.

bahamut didn't really ravage the continent

Coerthas, where dalamud fell, got plunged into eternal winter
the nearby areas that lead into coerthas are pretty desolate as well
the areas where the empire are most heavily infiltrated are pretty destroyed for healthy plant and animal life. modern day pollution style
bahamut's rampage was pretty much localized to the armies underneath him when he was freed but he has no worshipers and was weakened so lost his body and all his aether re-integrated into the land
and what may be the big one that is actually hinted at during quests but only explained during coil is huge caverns opened up underground that seem to resonate with aether. The coil itself being one of them, along with bronze lake draining to reveal wanderer's palace, camp tranquil collapsing and becoming a swamp, some other areas seem to be completely gone

didn't play 1.0 as much as i could have but the areas covered in corrupted aetheryte like burning wall and salt strand may be a result of it as well

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

snipped (good lord who designed this forums?!?)

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Interesting. Thank you for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Sotek

Sorry, but this is A Realm Reborn, not Fallout: New Eorzea...

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Really?!? That's a weak strawman. You took it upon yourself to define the words "A realm reborn" as if the title couldn't possibly feature anything else, and the only alternative is to make the whole game "fallout". Besides, I said, that the game doesn't need to be one giant wasteland. Just that some parts would be nice.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

Lore.

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Originally Posted by Nihility

More lore

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Interesting, thank you.

Nope I think it is fairly balanced and I don't find all areas in the game to be pretty either.

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

Besides, I said, that the game doesn't need to be one giant wasteland. Just that some parts would be nice.

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Sections of North Shroud and Western La Noscea. Central Coerthas Highlands. Mor Dhona.

Heck, from pretty much every zone in the game you can see some sign of destruction. The giant orange crystal structures such as the Burning Wall can be seen from several zones, for example. Every section of The Black Shroud features massive felled trees, such as the one Camp Bentbranch is based in. There is plenty of destruction everywhere, short of them slapping lava all over the place I don't know what exactly they're missing... Literally every area actually has a giant piece of Dalamud sticking out of it as well... I mean, what else do they need to do exactly?

I never really played 1.0 other than to run screaming from the beta like a child with his hair on fire. So my view of the world SE have now is without prior knowledge of what it looked like before.
After seeing some of the replies and some pics in the thread i can see how it has changed and it does make sense.
However i would have no idea about the changes if had never come into this thread.

which still kind of points out that while there is evidence of destruction to the people who visited the land once before to a new eye it looks fairly business as usual.

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Originally Posted by AzuraWinters

I agree with you. I've always thought that the world recovered really fast in 5 years. Maybe they should had set the story 20 years after the calamity.

However, in the story it says the calamity devastated Eorzea, and Eorzea is only one continent of the planet (does the planet have a name?). I guess the other continents weren't affected as much.

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With the kind of destruction they've displayed, it would be hundreds of years - possibly longer
But I'm guessing they just explain it away with some Gaia/Aether/Mother Nature crap.

Unfortunately when it comes to media about post apocalyptic times, we see it mis-represented and shown as some epic cliche (often) in some sorta-bad-way-but-not-too-bad-cause-that-would-turn-your-average-tv-viewer-away; see,-things-are-ok-cause-my-bFF-is-still-alive-oh-and-my-dog-too-apparently-they-think-even-after-a-catastrophe-the-world-will-be-like-an-episode-of-Revolution...

Rarely do we see any film or show that properly represents just how awful living in a time of fallout - whether nuclear or otherwise. We hear words like Dystopia thrown around, but never really can appreciate it.
FFXIV is too happy, fun and cute. From the context of the lore, it should be a dark and foreboding place with little to smile about.

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Originally Posted by PapesseLudovique

For a planet ravaged by a global (continental) calamity? It's only been what, five years since Bahamut laid waste to the Eorzea?

The world is amazing, but I get the feeling I'm in a post apocalyptic world, minus the apocalypse. We're not really shown the devastation. We're not shown how it affected people, just told through occasional dialogue, but you wouldn't really know it from the day to day life of these people.

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One of the most beautiful 'nature preserves' in north eastern Europe right now is... Chernobyl. You just wouldn't want to live there if you're from a species with a lifespan long enough for cancer to get you.

Until you kill all the bugs and plants, by say... making the planet into a super heated greenhouse... nature has a pesky way of coming back pretty fast and taking over.

Vaen's explanation about Aether makes a lot of sense. Nature is on steroids... and it won't repair things in a way the sentient folks like - but rather in the way that suits fast growing species: big bugs and plants. I do see a lot of zones that are full of... big bugs and overgrown plants. With the odd crystal poking out of the ground somewhere. And then ruins: where the things with brains and slower lifespans have been pushed out.

Right now we are only in a small area on the north side of the lake in Mor Dhona, in 1.0 we had a bigger area in Mor Dhona and was able to move around the lake.

1.0 map http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...-mor-dhona.jpg

2.0 map http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps/l/mor-dhona.jpg