Anyone else concerned Stormblood will be splitting its attention too much?

While Heavensward did see a massive improvement in story quality (at least, this seems to be the prevailing opinion), there's also been some dissatisfaction with how some of the trailing plot threads left over from ARR were wrapped up. A lot of people feel that certain things were concluded hastily, and not given the attention they really deserved to be satisfying.

Now, given that Stormblood will be splitting our attention between two totally new areas, I'm concerned that the same thing will happen, with one area or the other getting less attention than it needs to really shine. Even worse, what if the split ends up causing both Ala Mhigo and Kugane to be underdeveloped?

I realize people are impatient to visit both areas, but I'd have preferred it if they'd waited until at least the next expansion to shift focus to Doman areas. Even though I understand why they might not want to do that narratively (two areas requiring liberation from Garlemald one after the other would be awfully repetitive), I feel like it would have been a better choice in the long run.

It's something I'm actually a bit worried about, I'll admit. Some of those worries have been settled a bit with Yoshi's comments in a recent interview about the Stormblood MSQ (what's released immediately upon the expansion launch) being longer than Heavensward's was, which I would figure would be kind of required with having to focus on two different areas. I'm curious to see how they're going to go about focusing on two different regions and addressing them both sufficiently. I guess for now we'll just have to trust that the dev team knows what they're doing and see where it goes.

Well, they also did say that the MSQ will have more quests - Relatively speaking at least. What was Yoshi's comparison again? 100 MSQ 100 sidequest -> 150 MSQ 50 sidequest or something like that.

I could imagine that this is part of the reason.

Personally, I'd wish they would be two separate MSQ branches akin to zone specific questlines, but... I bet we'll just keep backtracking left and right instead >_>

Nope. I'm so incredibly uninterested in either of these locations, that quite frankly, the sooner this expansion is over with the better.

That's just me, though.

No. One of the things I like about FFXIV's story, as opposed to games like WoW, is that it's much less focused. It often advances multiple plots simultaneously and doesn't compulsively force itself to take place entirely in whatever the latest and greatest content is. It makes the story feel more realistic (at least in the ways it should) and less obviously contrived. They probably could have gotten two expansions out of Ala Mhigo and Doma, but since we actually revisit old locations and old stories in this game, I'm not bothered by it.

I would say that it's entirely too early to worry about that yet as we only have the broadest idea of what the plot is going to entail, and no idea how they intend to fold both regions into the storyline. It's one of those things that I feel is silly to get worked up about before we have a clearer picture of what the finished product is going to be.

Then again, I tend to be the kind of person who doesn't usually worry for worrying's sake; someone with a more anxious personality might have trouble sitting around and waiting for things to unfold.

The way it's shaping up, it probably won't be too much to worry about. Aside from the aforementioned reasons, it seems like we may have a lot of forces at work here, and there is likely to be downtime in the campaigns on either side of the sea. While the armies/scouts/etc do their work, we're pushing forward in the other area, probably joining the stories together in the end.

I feel like Ala Mhigo will be an after thought to Othard and Doma. Much of the Empires machinations, aswell as reintegration of Ala Mihgan culture may have to vye for for limited spotlight to push the "fresh new and oh so exotic east". Worse i feel an overwhelming amount will champion it wholeheartedly.

To me it's really obvious that Ala Mhigo will be lacking despite its story going back as far as 1.0. If it were any other city/region, I could believe that they could be evenly split, but being a japanese one, it's just hopeless. I mean, after the Doman hijack in 2.2 and recent interviews where Yoshida only talks about whatevergane, I don't have much reason to expect good things from the Ala Mhigan side in Stormblood.

I hope that I'm wrong though, since knowing that Ala Mhigo would be the next city was the reason that I came back to this game.

Ala Mhigo has been with FFXIV ever since the version 1.0 launch. It's story also was covered frequently both in version 1.0 and ARR, and even more so now in Heavensward. So the devs have a lot of backstory to help get us really involved in liberating Ala Mhigo from the Garleans.
As for Doma, that story is still realitivly fresh when Yoshi-P and the devs introduced Yugiri & Ninja in ARR. Doma was only mentioned slightly via the MSQ and referenced in the Ninja Job quests. But because of the new job demand for the expansion, they figured they would mesh the two together, Samurai and Doma.

Also would you really purchase an expansion with only just Ala Mhigo involved? It seems lack-luster on it's own.

Trust in Yoshi-P, they have done a lot since version 1.0, ARR, and Heavensward, and are still learning as well. Sit back and Enjoy the ride. :)

I wonder if the idea is to have Kugane or whatever it is be kind of like the end "Idyllshire" hub? Maybe like Idyllshire/Sharlayan it won't actually be that big of a part of the story and will just be where we chill out and show off our glams.

I admit, the story of Stormblood interests me a lot less than the story of Heavensward overall, but story is actually one of the few things I think is consistently good, so I'm not too worried that things will seem off-kilter. I think they learned last time about rushing "certain jaw-dropping ARR MSQ plot threads" to completion.

I wonder why people readily assume that Doma will get the spotlight. The fact that they are reluctant to show much of Ala Mhigo by comparison could just as easily mean that there's lots that could easily be spoiled too soon. Frankly, it was of my opinion that the Ala Mhigan resistance was doomed to fail without the aid of the residents of Othard to divert the Empire's attention elsewhere and split their resources and reinforcements across two major rebellion pushes. Even if Doma got the majority of the focus in 4.0, the subsequent expansions could just as easily fringe more heavily upon Ala Mhigo storyline. Even aside from that, after a certain point, the two individual rebellions don't necessarily need to be isolated storylines.

Who's to say the story will even conclude in its entirety by the time 4.0 ends? Maybe we fail to reclaim Ala Mhigo and it's the 4.x series that deals with its liberation. Maybe we can't save it immediately and the aforementioned applies once again. It's far too early to even speculation, though I'll admit, Ala Mhigo has been somewhat overshadowed in the little information we have available.

I skipped the ARR story. It was nothing, but boring text to read. Heavensward thankfully added voice to the main story line that kept my attention. The side quest were all skipped because It was boring to read the forgettable quest and all of them played out the same. They should get ride of side quest all together and do what Guild Wars 2 did. If they plan to keep the side quest at least make them challenging and fun.

Originally I was worried after seeing the 3rd Fanfest Keynote. However I don't think that will be necessarily the case. One of the key points to consider here is why are we going to Doma. My gut feeling is the answer, and what will tie everything together, is Zenos. We have a Legatus who is the son of the current emperor and uses katanas (Yoshi actually refered to his swords as katanas and the fact his gunweapon is unique in the fact that the sheath is the gun component). I have a feeling Zenos will turn out to be a former governor of Doma and he found something there which has given him power that we need to find a way to counter to take him. Hence we go on the road trip to Othard to try and seek out the origins of his power and what his goals are. I am also betting he compounds this by killing his father and framing it on the WoL.

As a result Ala Mhigo will be our starting point and our final destination in our goal to stop the Garleans and free Ala Mhigo before a Garlemald enraged by the death of their emperor comes crushing down on Eorzea.

Its also worth pointing out that development wasn't as far along when they were showing off Ala Mhigo so there was less to show. Yoshi P also said there was structures and terrain there weren't ready to show off since they felt it would be spoilery. As far was we know Rhalgr's Reach is still going to be the new hamlet of SB.

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Originally Posted by LalafellDown

I skipped the ARR story. It was nothing, but boring text to read. Heavensward thankfully added voice to the main story line that kept my attention. The side quest were all skipped because It was boring to read the forgettable quest and all of them played out the same. They should get ride of side quest all together and do what Guild Wars 2 did. If they plan to keep the side quest at least make them challenging and fun.

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No they shouldn't. Just because you cant be bothered reading and want everything streamlined doesn't mean other people don't appreciate the world building and lore development that often happens in side quests in FF14. More over, if you skip everything and read nothing who would you know if it was boring or forgettable? That's like going to a movie with your headphones on the whole time, looking at facebook on you iphone and then saying the movie had a boring story.

To be fair, If Ala Mhigo was the only place that we were getting in this expansion, it would have been a very boring expansion. Ala Mhigo is not that big, and neither is Gyr Abania. How many open world areas or dungeons could we possibly get there? most likely just one of each, the same way we got one of each in Heavensward that was directly connected to Ishgard, Coerthas Western, and Dusk Vigil.

We've already traveled to every other location on Aldenard, so the only way we would have gotten the same number of large, explorable areas as we did in Heavensward is if we went to another Continent. Since Islabard is pretty much completely controlled by the Garlean Empire, it would have been nearly impossible to safely travel, and freely roam in that area. Othard was the only possible choice, and there would have been no point in going to Othard if we didn't go to the most prominent city-states that are flourishing there, especially since Doma played a significant part in the MSQ, giving us such a good character as Yugiri. It just makes sense for us to be going there.

While I can understand the concern for Ala Mhigo to be not as developed as one would like it to be, I think its a bit unfair. Ala Mhigo has been the main focus point in the MSQ since 3.1. Literally everything we have done in the actual game has been about Ala Mhigo since 3.1, and the MSQ is actively leading us there. We already know the main Job for the expansion is Monk, and its entire lore is based in Ala Mhigo. We already know that Yda is going to be a huge, huge role in the expansion, and we know Ala Mhigo is her hometown.

The only reason the concern is even existing is because some people feel that Yoshi-P has been discussing Othard more than Ala Mhigo, but... wouldn't that be the proper thing to do? especially since we practically know nothing of Kugane, or the entire Continent of Othard in general?

I think the worrying just needs to be quelled. I am keeping faith that the Dev team made the right decision by bringing us to Othard, and that Ala Mhigo won't fall short because of it.

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Originally Posted by LalafellDown

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no ty, i like some of the side quests. One of my fav side quests is dealing with the garlean with ptsd who just wanted to see his family. He lives in a shack by wine port. You learn more about the soliders, how they just ship men off to war so they can't rise up against them each time they concur a nation.
I also enjoyed the moogle mail quests, like the high bridge guy and his 2 miqo'te companions.

the greatest story never told is also fun/funny. hildy was funny.


@ op I'm not worried, ff14 kinda had 2 versions of the ARR story based on if you kept your 1.0 character or started over.

i liked the 2.0 story and the 2.x story, i get it isn't everyone cup of tea, but i enjoy it.

ff14 beats WoW when I played, all you got was a text box, then told to go do something. Least ff14 added a lil flair to it.

All the arguments about gyr abania being too small are really odd in my opinion.

The area in which the entire expansion of heavensward took place was quite small really, only encompassing Dravania, Coerthas and the sea of clouds. Even then i dont feel those areas where fleshed out enough. The farreach? The northern coast? The frozen expanse? The rest of coerthas? Dawn vigil?

I dare make the claim those areas wont be put in the game in the near future as open world maps. At best they will get the "become an instanced map" treatment. Yafaem saltmoor and xelphatol got that treatment.

The devs could have easily made a full expansion out of the last third part of aldenard. If not for the xelphatol dungeon that is, which did feel shoehorned in at the last moment. Currently they have quickly tried to make every region a quick instance, most likely just to say "we went there no reason to make a map".

I fear Othard will feel unfinished. We arent getting more zones, nor larger ones. And now the goal is to make one and a thirds worth of continent? When HW barely (and failed imo) to fill but one third?

Ever since i started playing the game has teased the glorious reclamation of Ala Mhigo.

And now that it is on the horizon my dreams are being overshadowed by Othard. The budget is rumoured to be tripled, but i doubt it will be reflected in launch content. We know we will get the same tomes/dungeons/deep dungeon reskins to keep us busy at launch, only promising "new" stuff at 4.2

Edit:

Truth be told, i dont want to reclaim Ala Mhigo in a successful battle. I want to enter the city, retake it temporarily.

And then have the full might of the garlean empire come, bringing all its might down upon me. Crumbling the walls, razing the city to the ground.

I want a reason to fear the empire. Having them remove Mhigo from the map would suffice.

I want to see Yugiri in Kimono.

It's to the point where I almost feel rickrolled.

I expected this epic tale of liberation, the struggle of people fighting for their land and all that.

And midway we were hit with "here have some eastern themed content".
Just the fact that we'll be going back and forth from Doma and Ala Mhigo makes it seem like the situation is not all that important.

Here's hoping that all the Ala Mhigo revolution stuff isn't resolved in the end by quite literally a "Sorry about the arm, here's a potion to make everything better" like the ULDAH conflict in 3.0...

Couple of things they need to do concerning the MSQ, even better if they can go back and fix some of these issues:

1. Too much travel. I've come back since 2.4 about a month ago and have slowly been working through the 3.0-present story. One of the things that bothers me is the travel involved for very small parts in the story. For example, I had to travel from Ishgard to Limsa to meet with the older Miquote lady that came back from hiding. It was a very short dialogue and then went to Mor Dohna. Now my question is, why couldn't the travel be automated as part of the dialogue? It breaks immersion when you break out of dialogue to teleport to the next place (or more so if you decide to run manually). I don't mind the story bouncing around, but having to drop out of dialogue and travel just breaks the flow of the story at those moments. This doesn't apply to those moments where they send you to go fight somewhere for obvious reasons.

2. Too many confirmations. This is in dungeons and side quests too. But why is it when I enter the Waking Sands or Rising Stones do I need to confirm I'm entering. Actually why does it need to be its own zone? Why do I need to confirm picking up keys on the ground or other quest objects? Entering duties makes since though. Lets make it one click instead of two. These need to be cleaned up and would add a ton of polish to the game. These things appear to be left over debugging windows to test event flow. From one developer to another, its unprofessional to leave them in with a flavor text.

3. Put the Multiplayer back in MMORPG. Too many quests have duties that are solo only. When working on MSQ's with friends, you constantly need to drop group do perform these duties. This needs to be relaxed or even allow group members to participate. I'm not even concerned with the 'balance' in these duties with increased players since its a story quest, not a trial or test of ability.

4. Non-RP mode. This one isn't important except for those with multiple characters or playing a new character on a new platform. Basically a setting that strips all cutscenes and dialogues from the quests. Basically you can just play through the content if you wish. You click a quest giver and you immediate get the quest without dialogue. Obviously this will default to off for players to experience the game as they should for their first time. But those playing through another time would like to be able to skip that which they've read already.

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Originally Posted by Enur

Truth be told, i dont want to reclaim Ala Mhigo in a successful battle. I want to enter the city, retake it temporarily.

And then have the full might of the garlean empire come, bringing all its might down upon me. Crumbling the walls, razing the city to the ground.

I want a reason to fear the empire. Having them remove Mhigo from the map would suffice.

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I would absolutely hate that. The same effect can be garnered by showing what happens to a people under oppression and conquered for two decades by power hungry tyrants.

My main concern is that there'll be more tramlining due to zone access gating which sadly afflicted HW and wasn't there in ARR.

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Originally Posted by LalafellDown

I skipped the ARR story. It was nothing, but boring text to read. Heavensward thankfully added voice to the main story line that kept my attention. The side quest were all skipped because It was boring to read the forgettable quest and all of them played out the same. They should get ride of side quest all together and do what Guild Wars 2 did. If they plan to keep the side quest at least make them challenging and fun.

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There was voice acting in ARR though.
And why would you want to get rid of content in the game that adds stuff? I actually found the side quests better than the lame main story.

Not at all, I was actually concerned with how small the expansion looked in terms of land mass, so hearing that we are also going across the sea showcases the amount of effort being put into the expansion. Rather than the story be about reclaiming the last bit of Eorzean land from the Garleans, it's going to be about going on that first offensive into another continent. There is a lot more story to be told this way, had it just been Ala Mhigo, it would of been to small a location to cover an entire expansion.

I'm quite happy with how it looks. \o/ (since we've seen so much of it /s). I'm not gonna be one of those whiners that complains before we even get to play it LOL. But I've had no complaints for either ARR or HW, so I doubt SB will disappoint me this time. :3

Yes when I saw we were going to Doma as well I was very concerned. I was looking forward to liberating the Ala Mhigans and then getting their assistance to go kick things over in Doma. Makes it feel a bit more triumphant that way. Which we might still do, but it's a lot for one expansion.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

Yes when I saw we were going to Doma as well I was very concerned. I was looking forward to liberating the Ala Mhigans and then getting their assistance to go kick things over in Doma. Makes it feel a bit more triumphant that way. Which we might still do, but it's a lot for one expansion.

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My guess is we will need the people of Othgard to helps us in fighting the Garleans. I mean all Eorzea together has only been able to hold off the garleans. So how is beleaguered city state going to able to be the tipping point?

I think people let their expectations get the best of them and then they fret over stuff like this before the expansion even hits.

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Originally Posted by Alacran

I would absolutely hate that. The same effect can be garnered by showing what happens to a people under oppressed and conquered for two decades by power hungry tyrants.

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The thing is that they have trieda couple of times already to show us the supposed might of the empire. First was agrius- oh wait magic space noodle took that one out. Then ultima- oh wait we touched it and broke it. Then the gratio- oh wait it froze.

We have not seen any inclination of the destructive might of the empire and knowing SE, if we see the oppressed people it would not be a depressive moment, but a tool to them oh so happy, focusing more on their time liberated as opposed to the concentration camp like conditions they supposedly had.

Edit:
What im trying to say is, we have yet to see the empire successful. Their one glorious moment was what? Killing a handful of swordsmen by shooting them? If we dont let the empire have just one big victory, they will just appear as failing idiots, which they already do.

I just hope the entire Empire thing drops dead soon and we can move onto some more original content. It's extremely cliché to me and I really, really don't care about it at all. Hopefully Doma will prove to be something more unique.

Othard is taken by the empire and so is Ilsabard, the middle continent.

I dont expect non-empire content until 6.0

It was like that w/ A Realm Reborn and I think it's going to happen at some point when ppl done those areas for a couple of years. Not those who are new to the game, but those who pretty much vets. I don't think ppl be concerned about it. I see it more as the norm when new content released. Eventually they will add content to make people go back to the old content and do quests there. I doubt they'll abandon those places only for people to wonder at some point.

I'm less concerned about them trying to multitask, and more worried about getting nothing but patches 2.2 and 2.3 over and over

Not particularly OP. Mayhap that's because I see the potential for them being part of one combined initiative of Liberation, rather than in two separate instances. What some seem to term 'flip flopping' between locations, I see more the advent of a more complex tactic against the empire. Perhaps peoples cynicism, or critique of past story, makes them assume this wont be a step forward in storytelling strength. That could be a mistake.

The disarray of the Empire, doesn't necessarily denote weakness. They can be disorientated yes, but all too easily - it is the wounded bear that lashes back the hardest and most unpredictably. Perhaps one prong of the liberation movement will fail short term (that's ofcourse common) or perhaps it will serve as bait to trap the empire. I see little reason to underestimate the script writers with nay-saying right now. Prior story is perhaps not perfect but it is gold against other MMO offerings. So keep some perspective there.

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Originally Posted by NolLacnala

I'm less concerned about them trying to multitask, and more worried about getting nothing but patches 2.2 and 2.3 over and over

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2.2 and 2.3 had more content than what we're getting now...