Will Coerthas ever return to normal?

[Nalien]

Old concept images for Coerthas Central Highlands actually had the snow being a gradual thing... South of the map was meant to be more green, though I guess with the scope of 2.0 maps that wasn't going to make much sense... Something the size of Western Highlands might have worked... Can get a sense of climbing a mountain with a zone that size, a gradual change in climate would work better as a result... Can always do that with Central Lowlands, yes we skip over it, but that could easily just be because that path is fairly boring and sidesteps much of the zone... Take West Shroud, there is obviously something going on there, but it seems entirely reasonable that our path from Central Shroud to North Shroud would go around it, not through it...

With Xelphatol being a dungeon though, I think I'm about ready to give up on the open world content in this game... As much as I love something like Dravanian Forelands, and want every region of Eorzea to be treated like that... They didn't do much with the area... Open world content in this game is just woefully lacking... There's some nice lore to be had with things like the sightseeing log, but even that could be so much more... Forelands has plenty of ruins hidden away, that could all be entrances to something, but how long did we wait for Issom-Har to get more than a mention in a few quests? There are still plenty of areas like that in 2.0 zones (North Shrouds door, for example), and Forelands doors don't even get names/quests hinting at any relevance... FATEs/Hunts/Levequests would need a serious overhaul for me to start caring for open world zones again... Hunts in particular, I'd like a more rigid spawn structure like XIs, I just loath wandering around aimlessly looking for Hunts, but if you stick Lord of the Wyverns in that cave with the door? Then his lore becomes that caves lore...

I would expect that the Ixali gate north of Natalan will be the entrance to Xelphatol, rather than the future zone to Eastern Highlands I've long speculated it to be... Although I'm really hoping we get there by Airship, Cid needs to enter the MSQ again, if only to meet Hilda... I think we may still get the Eastern Highlands in some form though, I have a nagging suspicion that Dawn Vigil might be converted into a housing area one day... One might expect it in the city-proper, given there is even the perfect gate for it near one of the High Houses, but players wanted Ishgard Housing for a snowy themed area... The Pillars ain't particularly snowy... Dawn Vigil would be, though I guess that means still no green-Coerthas...

Sigh... So many areas, never enough developers or content... Oh how I dream of all the unused Castrums being used for something... You can't give me Platoons and not have me think "A TRPG style assault on these would be awesome!", Yoshida... Instead I'm probably getting Grand Company Ventures, aren't I? That (presumably) Coerthas Western Lowlands Castrum will taunt me until the day I die...