3.4 speculation

[Nalien]

Didn't have a hard time passing them in Mor Dhona.

See, now I'm sad because I'm reminded how much more enjoyable the Castrum was in 1.x... Back when they didn't politely open the doors to let us pass, and were actually challenging enough to potentially kill us...

[Cilia]

See, now I'm sad because I'm reminded how much more enjoyable the Castrum was in 1.x... Back when they didn't politely open the doors to let us pass, and were actually challenging enough to potentially kill us...

Go in undergeared and they'll still kick your ass. (I remember how frustrated I was that, after leveling up ROG/NIN as fast as possible in 2.4, I got murdered in the Castrum because my gear sucked. Good times!)

The "dungeons are too easy" complaint stems from the fact they're designed to be doable at the minimum iLv, when most players grossly exceed that on their first run.

If they add Castrum Oriens as a dungeon and if they set the minimum iLv high (say 235), people are going to gripe about how it's too hard and you'll get people dropping just because it shows up in their EX "roulette." Anyone who knows Halls of Reflection knows exactly what I'm talking about.

[Nalien]

Go in undergeared and they'll still kick your ass.

Eh, I'd say if you have to try and get killed, then there is a pretty big problem... Most of the overworld content has been like that for a while, if you're moderately well geared you have to AFK to die, and even that takes awhile unless you pull multiple enemies... I mean, I get why I, in i210+ do not face any challenges, but I wasn't facing any real challenges at all while leveling... The fact that we can so easily lose aggro doesn't help, nor does flight...

Kinda hoping they revive Levequests at some point... If 3.4 is going to have some Grand Company content to come along with those new ranks (I believe Yoshida said he was waiting to give new ranks actual content, rather than a lifeless seal grind), perhaps they can have some "endgame" Company Levequests, complete with a Vanu Vanu daily style quest sync that matches the Levequest to your item level... I mean, I'd still much rather have Hamlet Defense back in some form and dat Lily Hills teaser is still getting me hot and bothered over that, but Levequests have been woefully underused in this game... Imagine going to Mor Dhona, picking up an Elite Company Levequest, and Castrum Centri is suddenly as challenging as Palace of the Dead...

Honestly though, with that post I mostly just wanted to complain about the doors... It was one thing when a kindly Garlean officer was presumably working the spotlights to give us a heads up when the doors are opening, but now we just get to run straight through? Heck, the beast tribes are worst, an Amalj'aa gatekeeper actively holds doors open for you (and it irks me more than it should that the gates in Sylphlands don't function at all when I clearly remember them being down during beta). Perhaps Company Guildhests would work better, doors can actually function a such in an instance...

[ChazNatlo]

Yeah. The Overworld Castrum is sortof hilarious. I run through it when I start a new character to get to Revenant's toll and pick up the Swimwear.

[Theodric]

It's just one of those things that needs to be handwaved. When you first go into the Castrum itself during the MSQ's you sneak in through a pipe and walk around in a disguise which makes a lot more sense. I imagine the only reason we can literally walk in through the door is for the sake of convenience. We also know that despite being blown up Castrum Meridianum is still held by Garlean remnants operating in the area. Which, if you think about all they've endured it's actually pretty impressive. Then again the place was pretty huge to begin with - and pretty much every in-game location is much, much bigger than what we see for ourselves due to technical limitations.

With that said I do wonder if we'll start 4.0 in somewhere like Thavanair and then go to Ala Mhigo later on during the MSQ's. Or perhaps the Ala Mhigan Resistance does something horrific to bust into Ala Mhigo and when we go there we have to clean up the mess and deal with them as well? Or perhaps there's some merit to the talk of 'floods' in that little hint thing a while back and the region will be more...'watery' causing destruction, altering the landscape and both allowing us passage and letting us indulge in swimming/underwater content.

(Blitzball, please...)

[Laili]

Garlemald still holding the Thanalan castrum is kind of ridiculous to be honest, the XIVth legion should have by all rights starved to death ages ago, since I seem to recall something being made of them pretty much being completely isolated with no means of reclaiming more resources. Unless we're supposed to buy everything since 2.0 has happened in the space of a week or so.

[Theodric]

-snip-

They're efficient and competent enough to turn their luck around, I imagine. It's plausible that they send out operatives - or even constructs - to hunt for food and clean water. For the sake of plot convenience Eorzea hasn't been broken by Garlemald and likely never will be - but I think a lot of people forget that Garlemald controls much of Hydaelyn and that they're actually pretty good at what they do. It's just that most of the time when they've done something in Eorzea they've had their plans foiled. I don't disagree that it's stretching it though. Personally I would have liked to have seen Castrum Meridianum completely destroyed only for it to be revealed that numerous Garlean civilians and non-combatants were killed not only in the explosion but by overzealous members of the Eorzean Alliance. It would muddy the waters of morality for sure...and it's exactly that sort of thing that I hope will be at the forefront of 3.4, 3.5 and 4.0. Then, perhaps, in the future we can reach a point where both Eorzea and Garlemald make peace without either side being eradicated or changed too much.

[VargasVermillion]

Garlemald still holding the Thanalan castrum is kind of ridiculous to be honest, the XIVth legion should have by all rights starved to death ages ago, since I seem to recall something being made of them pretty much being completely isolated with no means of reclaiming more resources. Unless we're supposed to buy everything since 2.0 has happened in the space of a week or so.

They could have rations to last them for a few years for all we know. sieges are quite difficult to pull off and only require a surprisingly small number of men to defend against and can cost a lot of resources to penetrate, assuming garlemalds fortifications are up to scratch which they most definitely would be, eorzea lacks any advanced flying machines to get over the walls and garleans have powerful artillery and likely have skilled marksman defending from a distance as well.

[VargasVermillion]

speaking of the former imperial troops holed up in thanalan, If they have truly been abandoned by the empire what do they hope to gain by shutting themselves inside the castrum? The empire doesn't seem to care and the eorzeans are just gonna remain hostile until they surrender so what are they actually doing? They seem screwed on all accounts since they can't stay there forever...

[PArcher]

speaking of the former imperial troops holed up in thanalan, If they have truly been abandoned by the empire what do they hope to gain by shutting themselves inside the castrum? The empire doesn't seem to care and the eorzeans are just gonna remain hostile until they surrender so what are they actually doing? They seem screwed on all accounts since they can't stay there forever...

Fear most likely. They've likely been brainwashed into thinking the Eorzeans will just kill them should they surrender, even though thats not really the case.