Sooo about that moon...

There have been rumors abound today that Eorzea's moon has darkened in the center (a bit darker than usual) since the last update

You know how rumors are and some say you can really only see it in Mor Dhona.

Of course, I am at work right now and cannot confirm this; anyone else experienced this?

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Originally Posted by Annah

There have been rumors abound today that Eorzea's moon has darkened in the center (a bit darker than usual) since the last update

You know how rumors are and some say you can really only see it in Mor Dhona.

Of course, I am at work right now and cannot confirm this; anyone else experienced this?

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Pretty sure there are screenshots on this already but they might be pulling another Dalamud with us if thats the case. Given the first WoD storyline did show off part of the moon I wouldnt be surprised if the Moon’s new changing appearances is giving us a heads up of the next oncoming calamity like Dalamud did.

I know Zodiark may have a big part of the upcoming stories and expansion, and well, he is the moon.

The thing that caught my attention is folks are saying there is darkness around the center of the moon and Zodiard is the moon and darkness.

In any case, this is probably my most anticipated patch since the release of 2.0

Could just be the weather effect in mor dhona. It does weird stuff there.

It's not just that they saw it near the horizon? I noticed a long time ago that it has a strange effect of going very dim as it sets.

If it starts growing a giant snarling face, I'm out.

I have not heard anything about this. Personally I think that if it's only noticeable in one zone, it's probably just a weather effect or something related to the graphics of the game and not to the story.


Edit; No noticeable changes watching it from outside my fc's house in Goblet. Looks and behaves like the same old moon that's always been in-game. Maybe people are just looking at it during that one weather condition that's unique to Mor Dhona - gloom or whatever it's called.

I didn't see anything noticeable when I looked out in costa del sol.

Doubt it'd be any kind of world ending calamity since Yoshi recently revealed we're only about 60% of the way through the ascian storyline.

If it isn't just an odd weather phenomenon, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a nod to FFIV with some kind of raid that takes us to the moon to fight some of the most iconic enemies from that game... possibly the four lords and golbez?

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

If it starts growing a giant snarling face, I'm out.

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When you're still going to counseling because the moon in Majora's Mask still traumatizes you up until today :p

https://i.redd.it/44m9dbi5c4821.png

Only screenshot I can find is this one from Reddit.
Anybody have any screenshots of their own? May just be a visual bug.

Interesting to note that in the latest lorebook it's revealed that Hydaleyn turned Zodiark into the moon.

That does look odd, but not yet enough to conclude it's deliberate based on a single screenshot.

I haven't had a chance to spot the moon ingame for myself yet. Has been cloudy weather when I've remembered at night.


(Also it just seems odd to pull the " changing moon" trick twice. :/

Doesn't look that odd to me, it's just the effect of shining through a cloudy sky (take note of the sky around it, it's clearly overcast). Now, if it was glowing like that in a completely cloudless sky... then, then we would have reason to think "Okay, what is it with this world and it's moons???" ;) But as it is, there is nothing strange about it (based on that screenshot anyway).

Also, I don't buy Zodiark being the actual moon, but more just encased within it (after all, even the accuracy of the lorebook is questionable, given it's actually written from an in-universe perspective). I'm probably going to be proven horribly wrong though. :p

I'm pretty sure I've seen the moon do that before in certain locations. It's just the way lighting reacts under specific weather. I still don't trust it though; that moon is clearly up to something.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

If this isn't a Lunar Cry and it's just a glitch, I hope they still use the idea later. It would be sad if the Silvertear Lake/Moon/Lunar Cry connection is just a red herring. Besides, anime/video games have a trope of re-using a similar theme of reoccuring catastrophes. Like in Gundam, there was the project Star Dust to drop a colony on the Earth, then years later it was reattempted again. In FF9 you rid the world of Mist by destroying the Iifa Tree, yet when Memoria appears all the mist comes back. It's likely the concept of a Dalamud 2 is pretty reasonable, but I like the Lunar Cry idea more

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But they did use it. The calamity = the lunar cry.

The last calamity used a combination of FF4:TAY and FF7 and FF9 tropes. FF4:TAY had the True Moon being a lunar base for a high tech civilization and FF7 had meteor dropping on the planet to destroy it. Meanwhile Bahamut being a raging berserker dragon that requires another summon to stop it is from FF9 where Bahamut doesn't converse or attempt to communicate, only destroys.

Just went to Mor Dhona and it's the same. I will say that it would be cool if Shadowbringers (SR?) has FFIV references like going to the moon on the Lunar Whale and fighting the four fiends from that game as well as other boss like Magus Sisters.

I don't think it's anything, but I sure hope for there to be some really cool content related to the moon in the future. Maybe a Zeromus trial, maybe a Crystal Palace dungeon and Lunar Cry in the MSQ (not the moon falling, but thousand and thousands of monsters falling from the moon to wipe out civilizations).

I had same feeling when fishing the moon just seem more pronounced in brightness if their pictures before the last patch to see a side by side comparison be nice. Although it could be mostly we know the lore of the moon and it just seems like it and is wishful thinking on our part not a bad thing though would be nice if Dev did do something and been silent on it. /Shrugs

I doubt they would ever do anything of any major substance to the physical appearance of the older maps in the game. If you are standing in mor dhona you could still be in the ARR storyline or you could be in the HW storyline or completely caught up to date with the SB storyline. They aren't going to implement new story content that somehow physically changes the look of something on an old content map because it would make no sense lore wise depending on what part of the story a player is in. Its one reason I feel like nothing will ever happen to any of the city states because they wouldn't change the look of the maps with new story content when there are players who have not reached that point yet. Unless they are going to cause a calamity and redo everything over again....which I wouldn't mind lol

Well if things like the Doman Enclave are any indication, it wouldn't be impossible for them to simply make it so that only those who have progressed far enough in the MSQ could see such changes, especially if it's only limited to one zone. That said, I have not been to Mor Dhona in a while so I can't verify any changes until I swing back that way.

I feel like people maybe just aren't really familiar with how the (in-game) moon looks normally, or how its brightness changes over the course of the night. It's a lot brighter when it's right overhead - and you're unlikely to see it unless you turn the camera upwards to look at the sky.

It dims a lot as it moves downwards, then fades almost completely - by the time it sets it's almost completely invisible. This is nothing new - I noticed it a long time ago and found it disappointing - it doesn't look anything like the real moon which remains bright.

Also I found an old screenshot of the full moon over Limsa from October 2017 - and it still has a darker patch in the centre.


Maybe it's darker over Mor Dhona than elsewhere - I haven't actually checked it from there. Only from other places. But do compare it to other locations and observe it over time.

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Originally Posted by Hysell

I doubt they would ever do anything of any major substance to the physical appearance of the older maps in the game. If you are standing in mor dhona you could still be in the ARR storyline or you could be in the HW storyline or completely caught up to date with the SB storyline. They aren't going to implement new story content that somehow physically changes the look of something on an old content map because it would make no sense lore wise depending on what part of the story a player is in. Its one reason I feel like nothing will ever happen to any of the city states because they wouldn't change the look of the maps with new story content when there are players who have not reached that point yet. Unless they are going to cause a calamity and redo everything over again....which I wouldn't mind lol

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Easy. They only make the changes to people who have completed 4.4 story and are waiting for 4.5. Same as how Idyllshire, Rhalgr's Reach, Mor Dhona, and Doman Enclave, and Beast Tribe strongholds change as your progress.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

The last calamity used a combination of FF4:TAY and FF7 and FF9 tropes. FF4:TAY had the True Moon being a lunar base for a high tech civilization and FF7 had meteor dropping on the planet to destroy it. Meanwhile Bahamut being a raging berserker dragon that requires another summon to stop it is from FF9 where Bahamut doesn't converse or attempt to communicate, only destroys.

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And Dalamud having a direct connection to the Crystal Tower echos the moons connection to the Crystal Pillar inside Lunatic Pandora, and it all coming crashing down over SilverTEAR is again an allusion to the convergence of Lunatic Pandora over Tears Point.
So in addition to all that, FF8 is in there too.

IDK if they will reference the Crystal Tower again. Crystal Tower wasn't mentioned in 1.0 I believe, I think it was only retconned into existence in 2.0. Moreover they can't reference it in the story because they have to assume not every player has ran the Syrcus Tower raid series, since its optional. Actually I could be wrong, because Krile mentions that the Island of Val (now Eureka) was named Eureka after an arms storage facility located beneath the Crystal Tower, but idk if that is mentioned if you've yet to complete that series.

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Originally Posted by Hysell

I doubt they would ever do anything of any major substance to the physical appearance of the older maps in the game. If you are standing in mor dhona you could still be in the ARR storyline or you could be in the HW storyline or completely caught up to date with the SB storyline. They aren't going to implement new story content that somehow physically changes the look of something on an old content map because it would make no sense lore wise depending on what part of the story a player is in. Its one reason I feel like nothing will ever happen to any of the city states because they wouldn't change the look of the maps with new story content when there are players who have not reached that point yet. Unless they are going to cause a calamity and redo everything over again....which I wouldn't mind lol

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That's true for big changes in the maps, but not for small changes and especially changes to the look of something that is out of the player's reach. I mean, we have the Beast Tribe quests, that change the appearance of certain areas based on how the player has progressed. How much of Alexander appears in Dravania depends on how much you have progressed in the raid, and is different from other players. And then there's the case of Prima Vista in Kugane for the Ivalice raids, which would be the equivalent of changing the moon, because it's just something that you see in the distance and can't interact with.

I second the idea that the moon in XIV just has its graphical weird moments - I remember the first time I saw the "new" moon, which was just a big black regular moon in the sky. I thought something was up, but then I just found out that's the way it is.

They could be doing something - they've certainly done things before. But my money's on this just being that people aren't used to looking at the moon, and because it's ambiguous, they're seeing things they want to see to support some (admittedly) cool theories.

If we get anything it will probably be in 4.5 like last expansion with Papylemo's moon.

Mor Dhona it's hard to get a good picture of the moon... Damn clouds and Gloom. Specially Gloom.

A few other plot relevant places that come to mind don't really show anything special about the moon...

The places I checked were Rhalgar's Reach, Royal Menagerie, Doman Enclave and Yanxia.

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

When you're still going to counseling because the moon in Majora's Mask still traumatizes you up until today :p

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You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...44/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...19/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...55/unknown.png

It's nothing.

The only thing I've noticed is the typical phasing of the moon which can result in parts of it growing darker and differences in brightness. Nothing out of the ordinary from what I can tell.

Oh.. you people ain’t talk about Magnai.
Don’t mind me then.

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Originally Posted by Corue

(images)

It's nothing.

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Interesting - your screenshots don't have the slightly darker centre to the full moon that I can see (including in the older screenshot I mentioned). I wonder if there's something in how different computers or graphics settings handle it? I'm playing on PS4.

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Originally Posted by InkstainedGwyn

I second the idea that the moon in XIV just has its graphical weird moments - I remember the first time I saw the "new" moon, which was just a big black regular moon in the sky. I thought something was up, but then I just found out that's the way it is.

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My first thought was that you can see the same thing with the real moon to some extent - if it's only partly lit, you can still see the rest of the sphere dimly - though I've since seen it in-game and it's still a lot brighter than it should be.

Though it also occurred to me that what makes the "new moon" really odd is that while they have implemented moon phases, they've completely ignored the changing position of the moon relative to the sun in the sky. Whether full or new, the moon still rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. In reality, only a full moon will do that, as it is opposite the sun and fully lit by it. At any other phase, the moon will be elsewhere in the sky, and might be up during the day, or set halfway through the night.

A new moon is dark because it is visually close to the sun, which is why we're seeing the unlit side - and why we would never see a dark moon high in the sky like that.

Well, it looks pretty. : )