Teleportation in Shadow Bringer - Obvious SPOILER

I had a little question popping in my mind last night :

If we are going to visit another Shard of reallity by using the Cristal Tower as a door....does that mean we won't be able to come back in our Shard (meaning the actual Eorzea we are living in) unless we realise certain action in the First ? ^^"
What about our houses, retainers, and actual dungeons/raids/Primals ? ^^"

Stupid question I know but I was like "wtf ?" xD

Likely going to be a point where gameplay requirements will just be allowed to break the story/lore immersion. I doubt if they do short term lock it, it will be locked for more than a few hours into the First.

Obviously we can teleport at will at any time, though this is just a gameplay mechanic. The WoL likely has to go to a great deal of trouble to do this themselves.

It will be necessary from a gameplay standpoint that they don't lock us out of old areas, so the story will have to allow for it.

It should be easy enough to say that the aetherytes can be 'traced' across different layers of dimensions, and that teleporting to one also transfers you to whichever physical world it is located in.

I would like to see a different spell animation when crossing shards. Lorewise I'd expect it to work like this:
Use the echo to cast yourself in the lifestream of the correct shard, then draw yourself to the correct aetheryte.

Of course, when we go to the First the first time, we won't have an aetheryte that we attuned to there, so we need something else.

Things like retainers and trading would be harder to explain, but I expect that we will open a path to the First for others to take at some point in the story.

Perhaps we'll have a special item that we can use to cross to the other side at will ?

But I doubt they will lock us out of the old areas :)

Banri Oda himself said in the Q&A part of the Japan FanFest Live Letter that we shouldn't take gameplay mechanics too serious from a lore standpoint (example was the Duty Finder).

So, I guess we can teleport just fine, but story will act as if we didn't.

I'm calling the crystal tower is one giant aetheryte which allows teleportation cross worlds. So our current teleportation ability will just go through the CT when we want to jump world.

Seems like some people already forgot how it was done after our character got 'captured' by the Amal'ja...

a.k.a. 'you're free to teleport whenever you want out of your prison; also you can queue for Ifrit now!'

We'll just have access to new zones. That's it really. I'm sure they'll have aetherytes for easy navigation.

I doubt we're going to be 'stranded' on the first. I mean even in 2.55 when you were a 'fugitive' there were npcs that acknowledged you were wanted if you talk to them in Ul'dah and they would have a reason for not reporting/arresting you.

I'm guessing that whatever means we use to travel, we're not stuck there. The MSQ may or may not send us back and forth, but I don't think they'll say you're stuck there. Certainly by the end of 5.0's msq at the very latest I think they would let the WOL go back.

I mean do we even know if all the new zones are going to be on the first or not? I think the ones they showed off in Japan fanfest were but I"m not sure about the Greatwood.

Lore wise it could just be that the crystal tower is able to connect the aetheryte networks on both shards.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

Certainly by the end of 5.0's msq at the very latest I think they would let the WOL go back.

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They can't possibly keep us locked in the First for the entire game. I would expect more like the first few quests at the latest.

Players need to be able to return to previous areas for job quests and side content, and may even be automatically transported back to Source locations if they queued for an uncompleted dungeon via the Duty Finder. Unless they can block you from using that for a while, even our initial trip to the First is going to have to be coded with the possibility that a player will get pulled into a dungeon and then dropped somewhere back on the Source.

Once we've established an aetheryte warp point on the First, I think it's quite possible we'll just be teleporting as normal - at a game level, the new zones might not be anything different to having created another zone set on the Source.

And at a lore level... perhaps the easiest analogy is the aetheryte networks around large cities. Suppose we could only access one half of a city zone to begin with - we can attune to the aetherytes there, and move around that area using them. There are actually more aetherytes on the same network, but they're in the area we can't get to so we aren't able to warp there yet.

And then we're finally given access to the other area. As soon as we've attuned to one aetheryte there, we're free to warp back to any in the other zone, and can get back to the new area just as easily.

As others have said, it's pretty much inconceivable that we will become unable to return to the Source at will - even for just a short space of time. The only question is how much time they'll bother to spend explaining how it's possible. Personally, I consider it very likely, once we get to the First, there will be a cutscene that explains that the Crystal Tower has been established as a conduit to allow easy transport between the Source and the First - all before we're able to take even one step onto the First Shard while under our own control.

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Originally Posted by Neophyte

Seems like some people already forgot how it was done after our character got 'captured' by the Amal'ja...

a.k.a. 'you're free to teleport whenever you want out of your prison; also you can queue for Ifrit now!'

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Amal'Ja Priest: YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO OUR TRAP! OUR GREAT LORD IFRIT WILL SUP UPON YOUR SOULS!!!
WoL: Mind if step out for a bit? My retainers just got back in, and I want to send them out again.
Amal'Ja Priest: VERY WELL, IT CANNOT BE HELPED. BUT DO NOT DAWDLE, FOR OUR LORD'S WRATH IS VAST, AND HE IS NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH!!!
WoL: Fine, fine. I may run a dungeon, as well; we're getting close to the daily reset.
Amal'Ja Priest: WE BELIEVE IN THE HONOR SYSTEM. DO NOT SPOIL IT FOR FUTURE PRISONERS! THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS!!!

And again, later with Ravana!

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Originally Posted by Iscah

They can't possibly keep us locked in the First for the entire game. I would expect more like the first few quests at the latest.

Players need to be able to return to previous areas for job quests and side content, and may even be automatically transported back to Source locations if they queued for an uncompleted dungeon via the Duty Finder. Unless they can block you from using that for a while, even our initial trip to the First is going to have to be coded with the possibility that a player will get pulled into a dungeon and then dropped somewhere back on the Source.

Once we've established an aetheryte warp point on the First, I think it's quite possible we'll just be teleporting as normal - at a game level, the new zones might not be anything different to having created another zone set on the Source.

And at a lore level... perhaps the easiest analogy is the aetheryte networks around large cities. Suppose we could only access one half of a city zone to begin with - we can attune to the aetherytes there, and move around that area using them. There are actually more aetherytes on the same network, but they're in the area we can't get to so we aren't able to warp there yet.

And then we're finally given access to the other area. As soon as we've attuned to one aetheryte there, we're free to warp back to any in the other zone, and can get back to the new area just as easily.

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Yeah, I don't expect we'll be stranded there gameplay wise AT ALL. Story wise, MAYBE but I doubt it, and even if they do strand us there in the story (while still letting us go back for gameplay) I wouldn't expect it to last long.

I thought Yoshi P answered this at Fanfest in an interview, then looked and he did. He said we can go across shards with the Echo, something even Elidibus hinted to in 2.1 when he hinted that the Echo gave the almost the same power as Ascians have. Yoshi also said it will be explained in the msq.

I personally think it has to do with learning more about the echo and using it similar to how the Ascians uses their powers to go across shards.

Yeah they wont lock out ppl from accessing the Source. From a lore stand point it makes sense if we cant return to the Source yet. However from a gameplay stand point it doesnt. Imagine how many ppl would actually complain etc that they paid for said content and got locked out.

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Originally Posted by Rosa_Frandlia

I thought Yoshi P answered this at Fanfest in an interview, then looked and he did. He said we can go across shards with the Echo, something even Elidibus hinted to in 2.1 when he hinted that the Echo gave the almost the same power as Ascians have. Yoshi also said it will be explained in the msq.

I personally think it has to do with learning more about the echo and using it similar to how the Ascians uses their powers to go across shards.

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I'm a little disappointed, I was hoping we'd open an actual gate with the crystal tower between worlds or something to make things easier for RP. (Not everyone RPs having the echo or even being an adventurer.)

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I'm a little disappointed, I was hoping we'd open an actual gate with the crystal tower between worlds or something to make things easier for RP. (Not everyone RPs having the echo or even being an adventurer.)

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Out of curiosity, how do they explain the msq then in their RP? Not being an adventurer, how do they explain being level 70 in combat classes? To me that makes no sense unless they are still level 1.

My guess is that we simply just control a clone of our character on the first via the echo while our actual body sleeps on the source or something like that. If allagan cloning tech originated from the crystal tower I can see where this is going fairly quickly...

(as for retainers etc there's copout etc for all that).

You did not know?
All your progress until now will be lost.
We all restart from scratch on the First and it is all Eureka-style now so you can forget your rotation.

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Originally Posted by Raiya

My guess is that we simply just control a clone of our character on the first via the echo while our actual body sleeps on the source or something like that. If allagan cloning tech originated from the crystal tower I can see where this is going fairly quickly...

(as for retainers etc there's copout etc for all that).

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Yoshi P. strongly implied that the WoL is going to physically travel there by using some convenient plot device (Likely that beacon the enigmatic figure told us to locate) to amplify their Echo so they can pass through walls between the Source and the First (Which is basically what the Ascians do).

It's more likely that the Scions that have had to resort to such measures to function at the First due to their lack of Echo forcing their physical bodies to be left behind in order to travel there.

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Originally Posted by Rosa_Frandlia

Out of curiosity, how do they explain the msq then in their RP? Not being an adventurer, how do they explain being level 70 in combat classes? To me that makes no sense unless they are still level 1.

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Adventurer > odd jobs > level up

But then again, the whole "leveling up" is gameplay versus lore.

In the histories I currently have for my alts, everyone has some sort of combat experience. One's current incarnation is a Garlean Conscript Defector (like the guy from the Wine quests in La Noscea, just not crazy), and has been an ally of the Alliance since the Grand Companies were reformed. His record includes parts of the expeditions to Eureka.

The very nature of the game means you need to separate the situation your character is in, versus what you can do in game.

A single player game can usually get away with sending you somewhere and then literally trapping you there for story purposes.

An MMO....usually can't, but the storyline/main quest is only part of the game. TBH I find it's really not too much of an issue, as like other have said, we already have stuff like dungeons or quests we repeat and ignore them as being outside the story.

It'll be a similar situation in the xpac, where storyline wise we may be on the first and too busy to even think of returning to the source...but realistically the player can return and do a while bunch of non story stuff like crafting or pvp before they resume the MSQ.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

As others have said, it's pretty much inconceivable that we will become unable to return to the Source at will - even for just a short space of time. The only question is how much time they'll bother to spend explaining how it's possible. Personally, I consider it very likely, once we get to the First, there will be a cutscene that explains that the Crystal Tower has been established as a conduit to allow easy transport between the Source and the First - all before we're able to take even one step onto the First Shard while under our own control.

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I expect there to be at least some sort of handwave, even if it turns out to be just barely on this side of possible, much less plausible. As in, I would be very disappointed if there was no attempt whatsoever to explain it, and just left it as a complete separation of gameplay and story.

Even the ability for us to teleport back to Eorzea before the Sirensong Sea dungeon, when we were supposed to be on the one single ship that could bring us to Othard on short notice, was explained as us just being a teleporting troll and the Kraken's Arms crew going "how the seven hells did you even" and "we have to put you on a fast boat back".

So even if we were allegedly stuck on the First due to plot reasons, I can imagine teleporting back to Limsa or something and some scholar NPC going "technically this should not be possible, but you are the Warrior of Light, and there might be some aetherial shenanigans, so if you use this very rare and experimental device you can get back to the First where you are supposed to be."

I mean "Throw Wide The Gates" is one of the few ingame things we know about what we're doing this xpac.

If we are indeed "throwing wide the gates" between the Source and the First then i don't think teleportation would be that big of an issue. Doesn't sound like we're making an one-way trip in any fashion.

But yeah Gameplay and Story Segregation is your biggest friend in these times. MMOs are kinda limited in what they can lock you out of so stuff that shouldn't be possible is.

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Originally Posted by Neophyte

Seems like some people already forgot how it was done after our character got 'captured' by the Amal'ja...

a.k.a. 'you're free to teleport whenever you want out of your prison; also you can queue for Ifrit now!'

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There is an NPC in that cave, when you speak to him he says he has found a way to sneak in and out, and that someone should go and get help.

It's sometimes a bit out of the way, it's sometimes stretching plausibility, but they do go out of their way to make sure gameplay & lore are as compatible as possible.

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They definitely have some plot device planned for easy back and forth travel, Yoshi-P in one of the interviews was all like "hmm, what about retainers on the first? ;) "

I once got off the ship during that first voyage to Kugane and the NPC in Limsa was like "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?! OH NO WE WILL SHIP YOU BACK ASAP ON OUR FASTEST SHUTTLE!!"

Pretty funny but also another example of how we're never actually trapped in any areas.

Itll probably be like how Umbra is in FF15 where you can go back in time (in this case back to our world" via teleport. Just a game mechanic

My biggest concern in that regard is the class quests. Will they be in our world with the people we know or will they be on the First?

I think there will be a lore explanation. Probably linking aetherytes via the crystal tower. There's usually some sort of reason for things like this.

In the inter-dimensional rift during the Omega quests you actually can't teleport normally and have to leave through normal means. It's possible they'll ignore it and make it a game mechanic but I'd wager there will be some sort of quick explanation for it.

I'm hoping that we go there ourselves at first but then open a gate between the crystal towers allowing other characters in. This would give more freedom for job/class quests to use the new zones and still have some familiar npcs around, as well as make it easier for RPers who don't RP having the Echo to make the trip.

Will CT turn out to be one huge aetheryte?

SE will probably just go the FFXI way and just handwave it away (where by the last expansion the player was not only going back and forwards in time they were also travelling to multiple parallel universes) and things like linkshells still worked regardless where you were and the ability to teleport to and fro to home point crystals in the present and the past/other worlds were not even explained, you just could....

Having said that, there is more of a will in the FFXIV team to keep things consistant and lore-connected (FFXI was constantly contradicting it's own lore beyond the first expansion) so I would not be surprised if Mr Oda and Mr Koji-Fox come up with some clever means of explaining how we can still freely teleport between the First and the Source after the first time travelling without having to lose our ability to teleport normally.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

SE will probably just go the FFXI way and just handwave it away (where by the last expansion the player was not only going back and forwards in time they were also travelling to multiple parallel universes) and things like linkshells still worked regardless where you were and the ability to teleport to and fro to home point crystals in the present and the past/other worlds were not even explained, you just could....

Having said that, there is more of a will in the FFXIV team to keep things consistant and lore-connected (FFXI was constantly contradicting it's own lore beyond the first expansion) so I would not be surprised if Mr Oda and Mr Koji-Fox come up with some clever means of explaining how we can still freely teleport between the First and the Source after the first time travelling without having to lose our ability to teleport normally.

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I think it will be as easy as establishing some sort of connection between the crystal tower in Eorzea and the one on the First. Possibly to link their aetheryte networks and even potentially open a way for non echo having npcs to travel if they want a way for that to happen.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I think it will be as easy as establishing some sort of connection between the crystal tower in Eorzea and the one on the First. Possibly to link their aetheryte networks and even potentially open a way for non echo having npcs to travel if they want a way for that to happen.

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There's always Greg! He can just open a portal for them.

Forget teleportation, the biggest break would be if we have a market board in the First that is connected to the other market boards. Then again, our 71-80 retainers will be bringing stuff to us from the First so maybe they’re running our goods around too. They don’t get paid enough.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Forget teleportation, the biggest break would be if we have a market board in the First that is connected to the other market boards. Then again, our 71-80 retainers will be bringing stuff to us from the First so maybe they’re running our goods around too. They don’t get paid enough.

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Imagine if they hiked up the tax rates for goods posted on the First being bought from the Source.

My theory:

There is some allagan tech or something that connects both crystal towers through the World of Darkness, and we will be traveling back and forth via that. We can come back to Source Eorzea whenever we want by taking the crystal tower back. Probably will also be revealed that some of the allagan tech in our world is actually from the other worlds, kind of like a Bioshock/Bioshock Infinite thing.

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Originally Posted by Melichoir

My theory:

There is some allagan tech or something that connects both crystal towers through the World of Darkness, and we will be traveling back and forth via that. We can come back to Source Eorzea whenever we want by taking the crystal tower back. Probably will also be revealed that some of the allagan tech in our world is actually from the other worlds, kind of like a Bioshock/Bioshock Infinite thing.

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The Cloud of Darkness might have an issue with that. At the least, she might put up a toll gate or something to pay for travel maintenance.

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Originally Posted by Melichoir

My theory: There is some allagan tech or something that connects both crystal towers through the World of Darkness, and we will be traveling back and forth via that.

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I replayed the Crystal Tower raids not long ago, and I got the impression that it was more more of a "permanently sealed off" thing, unless they can open a completely new path through it. The specific voidgate we used to enter the World of Darkness has been destroyed.

As we flee towards the portal back to Eorzea...

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G'RAHA TIA
There! The glint of light!
It...it grows faint! Then the bridge between realms grows fragile by the covenant's annulment!
If that light dies, we are stranded here! Hurry!

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