Question regarding 9 new areas

The livestream mentioned 9 new areas. I have a question regarding this.

Currently, we have major areas such as The Black Shroud, Thanalan and La Noscea. We also have zones within these major areas such as Central Shroud, North Shroud, etc.

My question is, will those "9 new areas" be 9 new major areas or 9 new zones?
Will there be like a "Northern Floating Continent" or "West Ishgard"?

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Originally Posted by SecretCrowds

My question is, will those "9 new areas" be 9 new major areas or 9 new zones?
Will there be like a "Northern Floating Continent" or "West Ishgard"?

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Well if we are going off of the information they told us that each new area will be 50-100% bigger than the 2.0 areas. If it is 100% bigger, that's 2 2.0 zones put into 1. If they wanted too, they could have separated the 2 zones into 2 smaller zones ( what we have now in 2.0)

So if we were to get technical, if we use 2.0 logic we are getting ( Including Ishgard/Floating continent *FC*) around 12-18 new areas.

However, since this is 3.0 and they are expanding the areas for the new zones we see it as 7 new areas ( excluding Ishgard and FC)

If you do the math, we are getting roughly the same amount of land to transverse in 3.0 comparing to 2.0. ( maybe a little bit more than 2.0)

Ishgard Foundation, Ishgard Pillars, Coerthas Western Hignlands, Dravanian Forelands, Dravanian Hinterlands, The Churning Mists, The Sea of Clouds...and if I had to guess the Floating Continent might be split into two.

Do we know for a fact that the Floating Continent is going to be an overworld/free-roam area and not the new 24-man raid content? I thought the FC was just teased at the end of the "Exploring the new realms" in a montage flash of stuff (I could be wrong).

But if that is the case and FC is a raid dungeon, then that means they have only shown us 7 of the 9 new areas (as FC would no longer be counted as an area).

So possibly: Ishgard Foundation, Ishgard Pillars, Coerthas Western Hignlands, Dravanian Forelands, Dravanian Hinterlands, The Churning Mists, The Sea of Clouds, Ruins of Sharlayan, and Ruins of Ala'Mhigo

EDITED 10:42
Based on the image shown with the "demon book" in the library and Sharlayan being destroyed there is a good chance we will have to go to that area since Sharlayan was a scholarly place.

If I had to guess, I would say THIS is the floating continent. It doesn't look like a raid to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00X-tzngoA

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Originally Posted by Whocareswhatmynameis

If I had to guess, I would say THIS is the floating continent. It doesn't look like a raid to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00X-tzngoA

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That is the Sea of Clouds Zone: shown also here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2UJyq9NyVY#t=5m41s

Floating Continent during the montage at the end of that video and here are some screen captures.

Concept Art:
http://gamerescape.com/wp-content/up...svegas_019.png

Video Screen Captures:
http://i.imgur.com/vPB1TmO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vbygtnN.jpg

Basically FC has that green/red/yellow hue sky. Which the setup of it makes it appear to be a dungeon/raid more than anything else.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

But if that is the case and FC is a raid dungeon, then that means they have only shown us 7 of the 9 new areas (as FC would no longer be counted as an area).

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I'm not sure if I should go into too much detail, but there are two certain areas from 1.0 that people have begun to speculate may return.

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Originally Posted by Blueyes

I'm not sure if I should go into too much detail, but there are two certain areas from 1.0 that people have begun to speculate may return.

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Which zones would that be? I played 1.0 in its entirety, what zones would you be thinking of? I mean I know there is the fabled West Shroud that is apparently in the game but not there limbo, if that is what you are speaking of, but not quite sure the other zone, oh wait the south side of Mor Dhona?

I could possibly see West Shroud getting implemented but the way that the "northern" part of the Lake in Mor Dhona leads directly into Thanalan makes me wonder how they will justify that.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

Which zones would that be? I played 1.0 in its entirety, what zones would you be thinking of? I mean I know there is the fabled West Shroud that is apparently in the game but not there limbo, if that is what you are speaking of, but not quite sure the other zone, oh wait the south side of Mor Dhona?

I could possibly see West Shroud getting implemented but the way that the "northern" part of the Lake in Mor Dhona leads directly into Thanalan makes me wonder how they will justify that.

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Coerthas Western Hignlands was the area where Snowcloak lead to before it was frozen off by the wall of ice. However that's the only 1.0 area I'm aware of by name. The Sea of clouds is listed on the atlas and fishing maps as being the area around or in back of Ishgard. To my knowledge it was never more than the place you go sky fishing at behind Whitebrim.

It's speculated that the Central Lowlands (the area between Mor Dhona and Coerthas) could be a second 1.0 area but I doubt Alexander is shown in Ewe Lake. That field in the Dravanian Hinterlands clip looks more like the location of that raid. Unless that PVP area in the letter was an old 1.0 location for quests.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ngregion_1.png

I made this back in 1.0 but to serve as a reference. Those are the only areas in which I can think were not in the 2.0 (the south part of Eastern Thanalan was obviously ruined by the calamity (which is now the area with the mirrorknights) instead they gave access to a completely new area (south thanalan proper) with the desert and the Am'ja stronghold.

The other half of Mor Dhona just simply "vanished" it doesn't look to wrecked when you look across the lake but still cannot access. West Shroud just up and disappeared, I assume calamity destroyed most of it because the zone line from C.Shroud to N.Shroud has dead trees and no grass as if something wrecked it to hell and back. Which leaves us with the old "southern" portion of Coerthas that magically disappeared, as the lake doesn't exist anymore, however it in that portion of the map where Darkhold or Aurum Vale was, iirc, so unless Darkhold/Aurum Vale magically moved more north then the southern part of Coerthas is already included but has suffered from massive geographical changes.

All in all it just seems that the only two places they could add that were existing 1.0 places would be West Shround, Southern Eastern Thanalan or the other half of Mor Dhona.

Ishgard Foundation (Ishgard city, new)
Ishgard Pillars (Ishgard city, new)
Coerthas Western Highlands (Coerthas region, from 1.0)
The Sea of Clouds (I think still Coerthas region, new)
Dravanian Forelands (Dravania region, new)
Dravanian Hinterlands (Dravania region, new)
The Churning Mists (no idea in which region, new)


How Coerthas in 3.0 can be:
http://oi57.tinypic.com/zlqana.jpg

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we still don't have either Coerthas Eastern Highlands, and Eastern Lowlands either, the location of Steel Vigil on the 1.0 map is still in the central highlands (Just east of the steps of faith and north of Natalan.

There's 4 more areas from 1.0 not present on the list: West Shroud (which I guess we're never seeing again), Coerthas Eastern Highlands, CE Lowlands and Coerthas Central Lowlands (which should be between Mor Dhona and Central Highlands, but we're just skipping it now). If two parts of Ishgard are counted as 2 different zones on the list, that'd be extremely cheap, but they probably are.

So counting Ishgard as two zones and adding Floating Continent to the list we have just one zone they haven't revealed yet which could be either because Floating Continent is also two zones, or the last one is a big spoiler. Obviously Eastern Coerthas can be neither.

I have my doubts about the future of this game. If they are not capable to fill in even the holes of eorzea after 2 years how can they implement in the future full continents like Meracydia, Othard, Ilsabard, the new world, or even smaler lands like Sharlayan motherland or Island of Thavnair. They are missing Paghlth'an, O'ghomoro, Xelphatol, Gyr Abania in eorzea and also smaler parts like West shroud aka Ancient eorzea stratum or Yafaem Saltmoor. Also in the area of Heavensward should be The Farreach and Agalathia's Spine.

At this link you can see also what was in project before the 2.0 launched:
http://ffxivmaps.com/2.0/

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Originally Posted by Karen_Cerfrumos

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IDK, for some reason I think Yoshi-P is lumping Ishgard into 1 area.

1)Ishgard Foundation (Ishgard city, new)
2) Ishgard Pillars (Ishgard city, new)
3) Coerthas Western Highlands (Coerthas region, from 1.0)
4) The Sea of Clouds (I think still Coerthas region, new)
5) Dravanian Forelands (Dravania region, new)
6) Dravanian Hinterlands (Dravania region, new)
7) The Churning Mists (no idea in which region, new)
8) Floating Continent ( which may or may not have more than 1 zone)

Which leaves 1 area left ( if the FC is 1 big giant area.)

Personally, I feel Yoshi-p is saying Ishgard as a whole= 1 area, FC as a whole= 1 area. Which would make 2 areas left to reveal.

It also depends on what he means by "areas", it could look something like this:

1) Ishgard
2) Dravanian Territory
3) West Coerthas
4) Sea of Clouds
5) Floating Continent
6) Churing Mist

Which could leave open 3 more "areas".

It also depends how they are interpreting "new" areas:

1) West Coerthas isn't new ( to us 1.0 players)

If they are leaving out West C. then we could have 4 more areas than what's listed here.

(But who knows really, I am sure we will get more info on the rest of the places soon enough).

Why is everyone assuming Floating Continent is an open-world area? It has not been said that it was, in fact it appeared to be more implied that it was an instanced based thing, what part of the world has constant "ominous twilight" weather, as the only images we've seen of the Floating Continent (video included) has had it with this kind of special weather not to mention it is built similar to the previous Crystal Tower stuff (looking to have "clear" zones or battlefields where individual battles happen). Unless they decide to go the FFXI Sky route which was a big open world area with an interior and exterior filled with conditional bosses we have to kill to collect items from to use to spawn bigger instanced bosses for certain gear...but I doubt that unless there has been a change in how they want to give us stuff as I could have sworn they said they didn't open world competition like XI had with Notorious Monsters.

Also, if Ishgard is only being considered as one zone that means

1) Ishgard (north of current coerthas zone)
2) Coerthas Western Highlands (West of current coerthas zone)
3) Sea of Clouds (above coerthas/ishgard)
4) Dravanian Forelands (West-west north of Coerthas Western Highlands)
5) Dravanian Hinterlands (North of Dravanian Forelands, also could contain the Farreach and Agalathia's(spelling?) Spine--basically the big mountain)
6) The Churning Mists (area directly north of Ishgard? Or after watching the exploring heavensward video another time, Churning mists looks like it could be the remains of Sharlayan, and they might be pulling an effect similar to Riverne Site A and B where some super weapon has altered the gravitational pull of the area, sending it into the sky in fragments--as the location looks like a bunch of destroyed building bits and there is even a massive ominous storm cloud thing in the distance, which could be where the Floating Continent is in)


That leaves us with three undisclosed zones, because I honestly cannot believe that FC is an open-world zone as much as it wreaks of dungeon/raid design.

So big places completely new and uncharted would be:

Xelphatol (area directly north of Black Shroud)
Gyn Abania (Region in which houses Ala Mhigo, North East of Black Shroud and also has lots of Garlean's residing in...so I doubt we will go here in this expansion)
West Shroud (1.0's West Shroud portion)
Eastern Coerthas Highlands (1.0's upper eastern portion)
Eastern Coerthas Lowlands (1.0's lower eastern portion)
Central Coerthas Lowlands (1.0's southern portion)
Paglth'an (area west of Thanalan and South of Black Shroud, rumored to be an area infested with Am'ja, and looks to be volcanic based on the original world map)
O'Ghomoro Proper (Volcanic areas north of La Noscea and would complete the exploration of this island)
Rothlyt Oyster (The area just Southeast of Gridania comprised of some islands)
Mor Dhona's second half (the portion which connected to West Shroud)

Didn't they say we are getting our 1.0 areas back too? Wonder if that is included in these 9 new areas...

I would guess no, because they aren't 'new' really. :)

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Originally Posted by Iromi

Didn't they say we are getting our 1.0 areas back too? Wonder if that is included in these 9 new areas...

I would guess no, because they aren't 'new' really. :)

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They would be new for ARR

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Originally Posted by Felis

They would be new for ARR

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I agree with this type of thinking, while they are "old" zones for the original game, they are new for a majority of the players. Also I don't think SE would try to be that clever about the number of new zones. Im not saying they are dumb or not clever but I think writing them off on a technicality is over thinking a bit.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

Why is everyone assuming Floating Continent is an open-world area? It has not been said that it was, in fact it appeared to be more implied that it was an instanced based thing

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Yoshida stated 9 new zones including Ishgard and The Floating Continent. Implying it's a public zone rather than an instance.

Many people jumped to conclusions saying it was the new 24-player raid since the previous one was based on FF3, and following that a 24-player FF6 "Floating Continent" 24-player raid would make sense.

For marketing purposes (thats what this is, after all) Ishgard would be "2 zones" with The Pillars and Foundation zones just like Old Gridania, New Gridania, Limsa Lower, Limsa Upper, Steps of Thal, Steps of Nald.

Meaning we have 8 out of 9 new zones. I wouldn't be surprised if Floating Continent is split in 2, like mentioned previously, or if the final zone is spoiler heavy, such as a very Dragon occupied area or something.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

Also, if Ishgard is only being considered as one zone that means

1) Ishgard (north of current coerthas zone)
2) Coerthas Western Highlands (West of current coerthas zone)
3) Sea of Clouds (above coerthas/ishgard)
4) Dravanian Forelands (West-west north of Coerthas Western Highlands)
5) Dravanian Hinterlands (North of Dravanian Forelands, also could contain the Farreach and Agalathia's(spelling?) Spine--basically the big mountain)
6) The Churning Mists (area directly north of Ishgard? Or after watching the exploring heavensward video another time, Churning mists looks like it could be the remains of Sharlayan, and they might be pulling an effect similar to Riverne Site A and B where some super weapon has altered the gravitational pull of the area, sending it into the sky in fragments--as the location looks like a bunch of destroyed building bits and there is even a massive ominous storm cloud thing in the distance, which could be where the Floating Continent is in)

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Abalthia's Spine is the name of the entire mountain range, not just that weird mountain with a floating peak. As for Churning Mists though, going by your theory, could it be the remains of the Isle of Val?

The churning mist is the part of the sea of clouds in dravania, in Japanese it's name is dravanian sea of cloud.

It can't be the isle of Val imo, it has been engulfed in the void, its unlikely it would reappear there. ( unless someone used another dimension )