Are these gates expected open in 4.0?

I have not entered Heavensward yet so I may be stepping into spoiler territory. But, I cannot help but wonder. For anyone that is informed or speculative, has there been any hints to these gates possibly being accessible in 4.0?

These are the ones I've screencapped:

The Black Boar Gate in Old Gridania
http://puu.sh/mnQ26/af923eb909.jpg


A gate leading to a residential district for distinguished Gridanians
http://puu.sh/mnm6e/a3c25f1a1f.jpg


Another closed gate located southwest of Hawthorn Hut
http://puu.sh/mnQ9O/85e3a99e57.jpg
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There are many other blocked gates through out Eorzea such as one outside of Ul'dah and Griffin Crossing I think it's called in Coerthas Central Highlands. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Are there any more and is it likely that we will have access to these closed off areas in 4.0?

Would be nice, but I somehow doubt it, especially if 4.0 will focus on Ala Mhigo.

3.0 pretty much ignored Ul'dah and the rest of the 2.0 areas, so I won't hold my breath. Instead, they they could end up becoming entrances to trial/dungeons like how The Vault is in Ishgard.

Still, it would be nice to see how Gridanian nobles live

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Originally Posted by myahele

Would be nice, but I somehow doubt it, especially if 4.0 will focus on Ala Mhigo.

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It's not entirely impossible. Isn't there a West Shroud that leads to Xephatol (and Gyr Arbina)?

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3.0 pretty much ignored Ul'dah and the rest of the 3.0 areas, so I won't hold my breath. Instead, they they could end up becoming entrances to trial/dungeons lie how The Vault is in Ishgard.

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And the Aery, and Pharos Sirius HM is at Limsa (that reminds me, can anyone access the dungeon from the Isle of Umbra?)

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Still, it would be nice to see how Gridanian nobles live

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Yeah it would be interesting, but if we are to see anything like that. I can bet that it would be a dungeon in the same vein as the Vault.

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

It's not entirely impossible. Isn't there a West Shroud that leads to Xephatol (and Gyr Arbina)?

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That'd be a little convoluted since Gyr Abania and Xelphatol are to the EAST of the Shroud. The West Shroud, at least in 1.0, led us to Mor Dhona.

Black Boar leads towards Ala Mihgo. So it is a good assumption it will open when we go there

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Originally Posted by Tanama

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It would be nice if you first gather some knowledge by yourself. Reading forums or buying the 3.0, you will well notice that what you wrote on your thread has and will have nothing to do with 4.0. People has to have enought knowledge after writing beacuse that way would know if what they are saing is worth it or not. Getting back to the thread. No this gate will have no relation at all with 4.0. Those gates lead to grindania if you see on the screenshoot. But if we are speaking of Catrum Oriens, thats another story.

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Originally Posted by Tanama

Another closed gate located southwest of Hawthorn Hut
http://puu.sh/mnQ9O/85e3a99e57.jpg

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I'm hoping this leads to a new Hamlet style area, for Hamlet Defense to make a comeback. The similar gate in Central Thanalan (near the zone to Southern Thanalan) could have the same use, and I'm sure Limsa can have something similar.

There are actually a lot of dead ends, with either gates or rubble blocking the path, off the top of my head;

• East Shroud; 34X21Y, presumably takes us off towards Ala Mhigo
• East Shroud; 32X13Y, more Sylphlands?
• Outer La Noscea; 14X19Y, this one is interesting, if you go back and look at early concept map art for La Noscea, this exact spot is marked by "Zone to new Volcano area", so O'Ghomoro.
• Southern Thanalan; 32X20Y, there are two here, one leading underground and one leading towards that tower. Theory; entrance to Paglth'an.
• Coerthas Central Highlands; 33X15Y, a gate guarded by Ixali, likely leading to Coerthas Eastern Highlands, and on to Xelphatol.
• There's also a few in Dravania, and a few landings kicking around that could be used for something, but that's far more speculative. Caves too...

I'm actually not so such 4.0 will be as focused on Ala Mhigo as others... The only thing really indicating we'd go there are; The games official promotional page, which featured Ala Mhigo and Ishgard since launch, and the fate of Yda and Papalymo, but I don't see any evidence that they've traveled from Ul'dah all the way to Ala Mhigo. I find it more likely that they're in an as yet unseen part of Thanalan, or perhaps Paglth'an, helping Ala Mhigo refugees fight off Garleans there. They weren't teleported, refugees in Ul'dah smuggled them somewhere, and I can't imagine it was back to Ala Mhigo, not when I look at that wall in East Shroud.

Then there is the story... We've already been told 4.0 will not be dependent on previous story content like 3.0 was. To me, that instantly rules out "We're going to Ala Mhigo because Y&P are there!", because it sounds like 4.0 is going to be something anyone can enjoy out of the box, regardless of MSQ progress. Having an expansion that gives us Paglth'an, Xelphatol, O'Ghomoro, all of which are the homelands for the original three Beast Tribes, as well as new Hamlets to defend them from, seems more likely to me. That is something that isn't dependent on the MSQ (and should have been in the game since 2.0!).

That said, a full on Ala Mhigo expansion would be nice, if done right. I'm just not sure how the story could be incorporated... Having a liberated Ala Mhigo, and part of Garlemald-proper, could make for some awesome potential for Campaign style battles... Hamlet Defense falls more on the Besieged side of things and would be great as well, but Campaign was always so much more interesting.

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Originally Posted by Tanama

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Well, they might be made accessible if they decide to address the problems of racism with the Duskwights and Keepers of the Moon and xenophobia, and the elementals. It would be interesting to find out that there are Padjali Keepers, and something like that there a no Elezen Padjal because of Ampadour and that the split between the Elezens was because of something involving Ampadour. That and players haven't even begun to explore the vastness of the Black Shroud's land and the Gelmoran ruins below it.

Also, I totally expect that there are going to be many racist, classist, and xenophobic nobles just simmering with their contempt at the now open Gridania and Kan E. Senna.

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Originally Posted by Tanama

There are many other blocked gates through out Eorzea such as one outside of Ul'dah and Griffin Crossing I think it's called in Coerthas Central Highlands. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Are there any more and is it likely that we will have access to these closed off areas in 4.0?

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If memory serves, the one outside Ul'dah just went to a location that looked out over the Sagoli Desert, a vista viewing spot if you will.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Then there is the story... We've already been told 4.0 will not be dependent on previous story content like 3.0 was. To me, that instantly rules out "We're going to Ala Mhigo because Y&P are there!", because it sounds like 4.0 is going to be something anyone can enjoy out of the box, regardless of MSQ progress.

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I thought they only said that new players could skip 3.X? That they could watch a "what you have missed" and move in to 4.0? I'm fairly certain you still have to play through 3.0, or at least 2.55

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

I think they mentioned doing something like a "Previously, on Final Fantasy XIV", but I've no idea if that's confirmed or not. Wouldn't be the first concept to be mentioned and completely forgotten about forever... Seems fairly silly to me anyway, unless they intend to repeat 2.0 and just dust 2.0/3.0 under the rug to give us an entirely new starting point.

If they do that, then they're mad, though... I don't get this teams desire to constantly keep churning out content they intend to effectively delete... When did MMOs stop being about virtual worlds, and start being about lobbies for the latest content fix?

They really should just copy XI though, the way Chains of Promathia was worked was ideal; The starting events of that expansion should have carried on from the previous, but most started Chains long before Zilart, just because of the way it was set up. They accepted that people would want to do the new expansion, regardless of previous progress, and they let people break sequence. They didn't directly mention the previous plot a great deal (if at all?) so it stood on its own, but there was a nice little quest at the very end to connect the two. To be really simple, lets say 3.0 ends with us wiping out the Ascians and Nidhogg. 4.0 then starts with us moving onto a new threat, Ascians and Nidhogg are a thing of the past, and the new area and new threat are all that really matters. That can stand on its own, but then we might get a quest at the very end that requires 3.0 and 4.0 completed, that goes "Surprise! I, Lahabrea, was behind it all along! I was freed after you defeated Nidhogg or some bullshit! Now I will take revenge for Elidibus or whatever!".

That effectively gives us a stand-alone expansion, which follows on from previous events without making them a requirement. We can go to Ala Mhigo and Garlemald, but when we're there they don't have to center everything around how we encountered them in Azys Lla, like all of 3.0 centered around how we'd run from Ul'dah and needed to find the Scions. 3.0 can end with "Now we should focus our attention of Garlemald!", and 4.0 can start with "Lets liberate Ala Mhigo!", but 4.0 doesn't have to go "Lets liberate Ala Mhigo because we saved Ishgard". We don't have to carry the Scions over into it, for example. Their journey can end in Ishgard, with them showing up again in the 3.0+4.0 finale quest. The whole thing can just be its own separate adventure, for the most part.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

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I believe they actually said that it will be but they wont make people play through everything to play it. They said they would have to make some kind of catch up summary for new players to give background for where the story is at.

Honestly I'm not sure why people wouldn't just play through the story anyway since it is probably one of the fastest ways to get exp and gear while levelling.

The downside of all this though is we will probably see bots again in 4.0 areas.

Personally I like the progression of characters along our journey with us. I would be kind of bummed if we ended up leaving all the characters we have been developing with behind in 4.0. That continuation really appeals to me.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

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It will be interesting to see how they implement this. You would need to be able to start a character at close to current max level or have new leveling areas too. Although maybe they just mean you wouldn't have to complete the story but would still have to level in 2.0/3.0 areas.

Expanding Eorzea further by filling in the gaps would be pretty neat. It'd also allow Limsa and Gridania to get more focus and lore - because there's the volcanic region in Vylbrand and then there's the hidden ruins in the Shroud.

I would love the next expansion to include new areas, but also expand the old areas, show a timeskip, new quests/events and so on in all the old areas...

I hope they open up more on the older areas and more on Eorzea, like West Shroud, the southern half of Mor Dhona, Coerthas Lowlands and Eastern Highlands (seriously, what happened to these areas?), some of the islands surrounding Eorzea, more of Abalathia's Spine, and finally Xelphatol and Gyr Abania.
Maybe someday we could travel outside Eorzea like the Sharlayan motherland and Thavnair being some of the most possible locations.

Maybe connect the region fractions as one zone like it was in 1.0?

I'm under the impression that all of these zones will eventually open up in later expansions. We just don't know what the devs have in store. However, they do listen to us on the forums. With the new Letter announced a few days ago, we could ask Fern if these missing zones will eventually be made.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

I'm under the impression that all of these zones will eventually open up in later expansions. We just don't know what the devs have in store. However, they do listen to us on the forums. With the new Letter announced a few days ago, we could ask Fern if these missing zones will eventually be made.

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I can asnswer taht on an old leetter, they devs said that this is being "discussed"