New area speculation for 1st expansion

[Rufalus]

Ishgard is almost certainly going to open in the first expansion, I think the devs even mentioned that before. Beyond that I hope to one day step foot into the magitek empire of garlemald.

[Bluevann]

Pretty sure Yoshi said the first expansion will be about Ishgard, and that the city will be accessible with it.

[Umo]

I forgot the places that the Wandering Minstrel mentioned in 1.20b, but they sounded like awesome zone/region names.

I guess you mean the Gardens of Xarakish and the floating lakes of Voor Sian Siran. The text you're referring to reads as follows:

Wandering Minstrel
I have walked the four corners of Hydaelyn, from the Gardens of Xarakish, to the floating lakes of Voor Sian Siran, but never in my travels have I encountered such a fell prophecy.

I guess we'll eventually see those places as zones of aforementioned areas (Sharlayan, Radz-at-Han, Meracydia, etc.). Who knows?

[ObeiKinstar]

how do you guys think they will handle the garlean fortresses that currently exist in the next expansion? It is weird that they are all still there in the open world with imperials still protecting them even tho one of them has been blown to smithereens...

I dont see how they could change it due to the fact that they are main story missions for new players, they cant really get rid of them, can they?

[gothikka]

how do you guys think they will handle the garlean fortresses that currently exist in the next expansion? It is weird that they are all still there in the open world with imperials still protecting them even tho one of them has been blown to smithereens...

I dont see how they could change it due to the fact that they are main story missions for new players, they cant really get rid of them, can they?

I was kinda thinking those imperial forces could just be "scattered remnants" or something like that.

As for the Garlean fortresses, I really don't think EVERY one of them have been hit. Go to Coerthas Central Highlands, and go to where Monument Tower is when the weather is "clear".
To the west of there, you can see what looks like it might be a castrum there. This castrum looks VERY similar to the one by Cape Westwind. So I'm willing to bet that there are more castrums out there in the areas that have yet to be opened up.

[EdwinLi]

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He is talking about Ala Mhigo which is now the last Garlean Stronghold in Eorzea. The Garleans have turned Ala Mhigo into a Garlean Fortress after they took control of the place.

I'm thinking something like...
First expansion: Ishgard + rest of Coerthas - Help the fight against the Dravanian Horde and the reappearance of the Coerthas Primals.
Second expansion: Sharlayan + Dravania - Help Ishgard end the Dravanian Horde attacks once and for all, freeing them up to helping with the Empire, and restore Sharlayan to its former glory.
Third expansion: Ala Mhigo + Gyr Abania - With Ishgard and Sharlayan in the Eorzean Alliance, we finally will have the firepower to take back Ala Mhigo.
Xelphatol and Paglth'an could be released in some major patches (they don't have large cities, and are more like Mor Dhona, so they should be quicker and easier to make, in theory at least, and would inject some freshness between the expansions) between first and second, and second and third, meaning that we'll have the whole of Eorzea by the third expansion.

I only see this as possible if SE plans to keep FF14 story in Eorzea for about 6 years (2 years is planned per expansion). However, due to the scale of Expansion's Main Storyline we probably will see all three of these areas in 1st expansion and have 2nd expansion move into the Garlean Empire and Far East in the Northern Continent. Eventually 3rd expansion will have us move into a new Continent where we will meet new Primals, Elder Primals, City-States, Allies, and Antagonists.

The Allagans did first encounter Primals on another continent after all which means there is still much more out there than just Eorzea.

[Tupsi]

Considering the 'bare minimum' approach of ARR, probably just Ishgard and whatever zone Frontlines will utilize.

[Naunet]

I'm thinking something like...
First expansion: Ishgard + rest of Coerthas - Help the fight against the Dravanian Horde and the reappearance of the Coerthas Primals.
Second expansion: Sharlayan + Dravania - Help Ishgard end the Dravanian Horde attacks once and for all, freeing them up to helping with the Empire, and restore Sharlayan to its former glory.
Third expansion: Ala Mhigo + Gyr Abania - With Ishgard and Sharlayan in the Eorzean Alliance, we finally will have the firepower to take back Ala Mhigo.

Those would be some seriously tiny "expansions". When I think expansion, I think "entire continent's worth of new stuff".

[Tupsi]

Those would be some seriously tiny "expansions". When I think expansion, I think "entire continent's worth of new stuff".

Yeah, but people would complain because they think they're copying FFXI which introduced new jobs, new lands, tons of new nooks and crannies to explore, some even entire new continents or "filler" of places that are on the map but could never get to. So you're not wrong, but this community has an interesting affinity for complaining if something comes even close to mimicking FFXI or other MMOs aside the 'standard.'

Considering Yoshi basically says the 'next version', e.g 3.0, 4.0 and so on would be the 'expansion', it's more of a glorified update than expansion.

[EdwinLi]

Those would be some seriously tiny "expansions". When I think expansion, I think "entire continent's worth of new stuff".

Yep that quite tiny for something called "Expansion".

1 city state and a new areas is about the size of 2 Major Update for this game

Expansions are more like something bigger worthy of filling about 8 major update in 1 go.