future expansion: The Garlean empire to be enemy territory.

[Kazrah]

Shameless as in Yugiri wasn't introduced in patch 2.2 of your game?

Yup, especially not only how far Doma is compared to pretty much everything else, but there was no real reason for it to be in the main story other than giving Samurai its reason to exist as a playable job. Just because two places may have similar situations doesn't mean they need to be crammed into one story.

As for Thavnair, you said it yourself, Garlemald would have to strike first, and their presence in Hingashi tells me it's not an "if", but a "when", as something found within a neutral zone would be far easier to attain for an invading force than anything worth gaining from opposing nations that have proven to be strong enough to hold their own. Thavnair's greatest alchemy, Sharlayan's vast knowledge resources; both prime targets to both the Garleans and to their opposition as well as something that could be attained from islands elsewhere (swimming now has been and probably will be building up for that) or even the rest of Doma.

In short, to think we'd be going to Garlemald so soon would be to completely ignore everything else on the map.

[SendohJin]

but there was no real reason for it to be in the main story other than giving Samurai its reason to exist as a playable job. Just because two places may have similar situations doesn't mean they need to be crammed into one story.

Doma being in this expansion has nothing to do with Samurai. they didn't want to tell a liberation story twice it would be repetitive and boring and the playerbase wants closure on Doma, that's plenty of justification to do what they did. yes, it is a little rushed but the opposite is not better, they didn't have two full stories to tell between the two areas.

In short, to think we'd be going to Garlemald so soon would be to completely ignore everything else on the map.

It's not soon at all, if Garlemald is not in 5.0, 6.0 is FOUR years away. 6.x won't end till 2023 that means it takes 10 years to tell the Garlemald story? and that's already not counting 1.0 at all. Wrapping up Garlemald in 5.x means they have liberties to introduce other parts of the map with a 6.x story that's not dictated by the Garlean influence.

There's also nothing wrong with ignoring everything else on the map because the playerbase and the characters don't know or care about them whatsoever at this point in time. You complain about shoehorning and want them to shoehorn even more irrelevant stuff at the same time?

[AlexionSkylark]

From a Lore standpoint, why would the Eorzean Alliance ATTACK and INVADE Garlemald?

It's one thing to liberate conquered territories, but why would the Eorzean Alliance or the Scions want to go full-blown G.W.Bush on Garlemald and conquer a sovereign country?
They lost their conquered territories, they're just minding thei own business now. Why would we do to them the same shit they did to us?

It's much easier and more plausible to go there as an ally against a common enemy then as an invading army. And in that situation, the Northern Othard zones wouldn't be any diffwerent from the others.

[Mysticdraggon]

From a Lore standpoint, why would the Eorzean Alliance ATTACK and INVADE Garlemald?

It's one thing to liberate conquered territories, but why would the Eorzean Alliance or the Scions want to go full-blown G.W.Bush on Garlemald and conquer a sovereign country?
They lost their conquered territories, they're just minding thei own business now. Why would we do to them the same shit they did to us?

It's much easier and more plausible to go there as an ally against a common enemy then as an invading army. And in that situation, the Northern Othard zones wouldn't be any diffwerent from the others.

yes, i completely agree, it does not make sense for the alliance to invade an enemy nation. however, you are forgetting that i never mention anything about invasion in the first place. for all we know, we could be going to Garlemald for a completely different reason. more for the reason of "scion" responsibilities rather than alliance responsibilities. hence the reason why i believe we wont be seeing many allies within enemy territory. probably a few freedom fighters, but little to no members of the alliance.

for example, imagine a small settlement in garlemald contacting the Scions and reporting that a military group of Garlean soldiers are ruling over their territory with a primal(s) threat without the emperor's permission or knowledge. while it would be a hard choice, the scions may take action for the sake of it being a primal threat. that's how i see us entering garlemald without including the alliance.

[Sandpark]

They could go all kinds of ways. I defintely don't want the standard put certain costume on for a little bit scenario. Or for things to go into a full on justice system like ESO.

I would like the WoL and a few scions to go into the empire with a alter persona sort of similar to the griffin. Where the empire thinks you are someone they know of, but no one can actually verify you are the true one except for certain empire characters.

The idea would be something like Aether currents. But the unlocking is not gained by finding green glowies in obscure places. Let's call these Notoriety quests. FFXII played with this some but it was a simple running around town shouting stuff. Below is the simple way in that game.

The player party rescues the character of Captain Basch from a dungeon, some years after his supposed execution. Basch needs to spread the word that his death was faked and he was alive. How? Let Vaan cause a commotion. Vaan’s idea of a commotion? Running around a city yelling that he is Captain Basch.

Here the premise is to influence certain people or groups of people to grow a fondness or respect for the WoL. When first entering any soldier occupied area the WoL must first don that persona, trying to keep his/her distance from the empire while exploring until all possible persons are influenced enough to a point the WoL can relax more, even walk up to most imperials and talk.

It would consist of doing, saying, acting whatever is needed to sway people in key areas. Some scenarios like gaining entry into a prison, sewer, etc would have story and key npcs hidden throughout. During the course if you fail or get too close to the wrong people, make a bad choice, or whatever. You get a Bounty cooldown, soldiers aggro. You can take down one if it's in a secluded area. But if you run into 3 or more you get automatically jailed.

As for the open world outside these hot zones, there could probably be the standard aggro. I hope unlimited sprint gets added and rather than heavy, sprint is disabled for a brief time. Perhaps the empire soldiers do not reset or deagro as soon as your standard enemies from previous expansions.

If SE still wants something Aether current like they could have climbing or deep diving currents where you gotta have them to traverse a deep dungeon/cavern or sewer system. Flying currents are cool but we already had those two expansions.