4th Starting City-State in 1st Expansion

[Macka]

You do know even with expansions new players will still need to start with 2.1 story. So, what I'm saying is most likely any new classes will probably be quest unlocked and not available at character creation.

If they follow FFXI there will only be 3 starting cities.

[EdwinLi]

You do know even with expansions new will still need to start with 2.1 story. So, what I'm saying is most likely any new classes will probably be quest unlocked and not available at character creation.

SE never said Expansion content will be exclusive to lvl 50+ contents.

They can introduce a new starting city-state to serve as new starting content for new characters.

Currently they have mentioned we will be getting a New Race in 1st expansion but it is still possible to introduce a new starting city-state for new characters.

I'd hoped it would have been Ishgard back in 1.0 but that's clearly not happening (we know it's coming in the expansion but as a high level thing no doubt) and Ala Mhigo is ruins, though they could add it in as an expansion - players starting there as part of the reconstruction effort etc (we'd have to liberate it from the garleans 1st though in the main story I'd imagine)

Ya looking at the current lore of City-states Sharlayan currently is the only one lore wise that can serve as a new starting city-state for new characters.

Ishgard lore wise has locked their gates to Adventurers until 3.0 storyline. The Gate into Ishgard is also in a lvl 35 - 45 area as well.

Ala Mhigo lore wise is currently a Garlean Fortress and most likely won't be liberated until 3.0 story.

[Macka]

SE never said Expansion content will be exclusive to lvl 50+ contents.

They can introduce a new starting city-state to serve as new starting content for new characters.

Currently they have mentioned we will be getting a New Race in 1st expansion but it is still possible to introduce a new starting city-state for new characters.

Did I say anything about it being lvl 50 content? No, SE can add the starting class quest NPC anywhere. But to think they will write a whole new 2.1 story is out there.

[EdwinLi]

Did I say anything about it being lvl 50 content? No, SE can add the starting class quest NPC anywhere. But to think they will write a whole new 2.1 story is out there.

You're looking at 2.1 far too much. Any new Starting area Story will have to be set during 2.0 story for new characters to build their character through 2.0 storyline then move into 2.1 story once they're level 50 like all new characters then 2.2 story, 2.3 , 2.4, 2.X and then move into 3.0 story.

[Macka]

You're looking at 2.1 far too much. Any new Starting area Story will have to be set during 2.0 story for new characters to build their character through 2.0 storyline then move into 2.1 story once they're level 50 like all new characters then 2.2 story, 2.3 , 2.4, 2.X and then move into 3.0 story.

I meant 2.0 storyline a new starting city means a new 2.0 story needs to be written the current 3 stories are different until you fight Ifrit and pick a GC which means new Cutscenes, new opening scene, new voice acting, and New Grand Company. As for the New Race they can just throw them in give them some lore like they did male Mo and Female Row.

[EdwinLi]

I meant 2.0 storyline a new starting city means a new 2.0 story needs to be written the current 3 stories are different until you fight Ifrit and pick a GC which means new Cutscenes, new opening scene, new voice acting, and New Grand Company. As for the New Race they can just throw them in give them some lore like they did male Mo and Female Row.

Only thing different has been the lvl 1- 15 main story since those are events that lead to the New Adventurer getting access to Airship and the other city-states.

from lvl 16+ it is the same thing with only a few dialogues affected by where your starting city-state is but the starting story is still the same in their own way.

You join the Adventurer Guild

You help some people

You meet the Scion Member investigating the area.

Important people take note of your actions.

You help fight off enemies and then fight the Mysterious Mask person and his pet.

You are now famous in the City-State and is invited to a Party.

You get sent on a mission to deliver a message.

You still leave the city-state to deliver a message.

You Still go into the three dungeons.

You still go in a pattern from Limsa, Gridania, and Ul'dah before joining the Scion

You still meet the Scion member from your City-State in Ul'dah

You still join the Scions with Minfilia saying you already know "this" member of the Scions while introducing the rest.

You will always go with Thancred to investigate Camp Drybone and fight Ifrit.

The 3 grand companies get word of your actions and want you to join.

The pattern is the same no matter where you start out. Only difference is what task you help people with during lvl 1 -15 that lead to the fight with the Mysterious Mask person.

Sharalyan is still around. You have to remember that there were two Sharalyans. One is the main City-State which we can see on the world map and the other was an island nation created by Sharalyans and also named Sharalyan. The island nation is the one that was essentially destroyed, the main City-State still lives on.

Aside from that, ARR is the base game that all players must complete. Expansions are just add-ons that has add content for various level ranges but still require the player to play the base game. It's how almost all MMOs work.

Ya it has been the City-State I've been mentioning since the Circle of Knowing is located there and has remained perfectly fine until 2.1 story.

I don't like "Well, XI didn't do it so XIV can't!" arguments. Sure XIV may have the same races and jobs as XI, but it's its own game. I hope XIV has lots of cities to go to. I wanna see the Far (Near?) East continent!

Remember though, if we can start in a new city-state, that area needs guilds, which means new classes. So, I doubt we'll see Ishgard or Ala Mhigo until we get new classes/jobs. People starting there need guilds to join.

Ya that kinds of push me the wrong way as well since FF14 is not FF11 so SE can make content anyway they want. Also Expansions are not only bound to high/Mid level content but contains content for various levels.

Also the Far East is called Far East because it is so far away from Eorzea it is not on the Map. The Far East is located East of the Garlean Empire just across the Sea of Jade outside of the current Eorzea Map. It is where the City-State called Radz-at-Han is located and you should know them as the ones who make the oil you need for your relic called Radz-at-Han Oil.

Based roughly on Final Fantasy XI's expansion release schedule, coupled with comments by the dev team that they're already working on the expansion, it's reasonable to discuss this. Also, given the major-update schedule, It's likely we'll be seeing it in about a year. I expect we'll get 2.2 in March, 2.3 summer, 2.4 in fall, 2.5 in winter, and then the first expansion will drop roughly in spring of 2015. So, realistically, there's only going to be 4-5 more story content updates before the next major release, and the seeds of what that will be are likely being laid out in the current content.

Well currently the Major Update Main story is not only to answer questions left unanswered but to lay the foundation for 1st expansion storyline. 2.1 Main story has already introduced a few figures and events such as what happened to the Circle of Knowing in 2.1.

[Wobble]

SE never said Expansion content will be exclusive to lvl 50+ contents.

They can introduce a new starting city-state to serve as new starting content for new characters.

Currently they have mentioned we will be getting a New Race in 1st expansion but it is still possible to introduce a new starting city-state for new characters.

Well considering FFXI is still going and they never did this I highly doubt they will here. In XI new areas would have new jobs you had to quest to unlock, you could not start as those jobs.

[EdwinLi]

Well considering FFXI is still going and they never did this I highly doubt they will here. In XI new areas would have new jobs you had to quest to unlock, you could not start as those jobs.

I swear does the majority of the community only think of "What FFXI did." as their reason?

This is not FFXI! This is FFXIV which is a different game. We do not know how they will handle FFXIV and they never said they will handle contents like FFXI.

[DarkStar]

I find it amusing that so many people are convinced that FFXIV is/should be FFXI 2.0. While it is true that it appears to have borrowed ideas from previous MMOs, it should be noted that not everyone hates FFXIV just because it borrowed such-and-such idea from so-and-so game.

Taking the game by itself and not comparing it to other MMOs, it strikes me as being a well built, self-contained game. While I do feel a little irritated on occasion that certain events are alluded to but never explained, thus reminding you that you're playing the sequel and resorting to second-hand sources to get reliable information on the original, it's only a mild complaint, and all my other complaints can be attributed to the game being in its infancy. I imagine after an expansion and a few patches, most of my current complaints will be gone.

Anyway, as to the subject at hand, I do rather hope to see a fourth starting City State in the future, particularly since if they keep shoving new classes' guilds into the existing city states, it'll start getting rather crowded with all the Guilds. While I can see upwards of four Class Guilds in each city state (Not including the various crafting/gathering guilds), I don't think it'll ever go much higher than that.

As for where said city state could be located, I think it should be mentioned that I recall seeing somewhere that there's a great deal more to the Coerthas Highlands than the bit we can explore. Plus, each city state has about 4 zones it has control over. As such, it wouldn't be that difficult to believe that if Ishgard were to become the next starting city state, it'd come with three zones where lower-level players can explore and level-up in. For that matter, Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo don't have ANY visitable zones available, so SE can very easily decide whether these will be "Starting City-States" or if they'll be higher-level hubs, like Revenant's Toll.

Of course, I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't go the route of locking off certain Classes until you complete a certain quest/quest chain, and then placing the guild for said Class in a higher-level area. If you're high enough level to finish the quest, you're high enough level to saunter on over to said area. You'll have to switch to a higher-level class, teleport, or use a 'taxi' service to get to a leveling area, but it's still a possible method.

Anyway, those're just my thoughts on the matter.

Edit: That 1000 character limit really is annoying, is it not?