Ala Mhigo Reconstruction

[Rokke]

I don't know what Ala Mhigo was suppose to be based on. The concept art just makes it look like another Ul'dah. The Ala Mhigo armor was rather mundane looking, and the purple cannons that are everywhere look like they were from a cartoon. I don't think the devs ever had a handle on what Ala Mhigo was suppose to be because they didn't base it off a real world culture.
...
While I'd have loved to visit Egypt or Petra or Jerusalem during their heydays, Ala Mhigo is clearly not any of those. In fact, I can't understand why the Empire even took it over, clearly they weren't interested in their quarries or salt and that's all the region is, salt and rocks. It's basically a wasteland filled with poor people, not exactly at the top of most people lists on things people want to visit.

I think the reason why people say Ala Mhigo and Ul’Dah look similar is due to both having Islamic/Ottoman flavored architecture. That said, the two pull from different aspects of the source inspiration and if you look around the cities (imo) they're quite different -
Ul’Dah has its domed roofs and rounded off shapes

while Ala Mhigo has sharp squared off buildings and angular spires.

If you think they look the same you'll probably be disappointed if/when we go to Thavnair as it'll likely also have a vaguely similar aesthetic :P

As for the “WHY?” Ala Mhigo sits right by the landbridge connecting Eorzea & Ilsabard. With it under it’s belt the Empire had a straight shot to the last place on its To Conquer list.



@ the topic
as someone who wants/has wanted a arabian nights orientalism themed house since i was able to purchase one I've been disappointed by the severe lack of Ala Mhigan furniture this expac. The palace is beautiful and I only ever get to see it when 70 roulette put me in there. I'll happily glue the city back together if I can keep some of them beautiful bricks ;;

[Alleo]

I agree with the OP a reconstruction of Ala Mhigo would be nice. Because seemingly the attention should be splitted between the two in a good balance but Doma has gotten way more than Ala Mhigo did. Seeing how the city itself is a dungeon, a reconstruction of it could be possible imo because that would be personal developement thus newer people will still just have it as a dungeon while others could rebuilt in a extra zone. Its just strange that we were so long in Eorzea, helping it out, yet the only thing we did was finding that treasure for them, otherwise we have been helping Doma much more.

[Lauront]

If you think they look the same you'll probably be disappointed if/when we go to Thavnair as it'll likely also have a vaguely similar aesthetic :P

Well, that is if SE don't surprise us. The clothing so far has had that look to it, and some of the naming conventions do, so I am wondering if the Thavnairian Consulate's design is misleading or whether it is what to expect, since the Garlean Consulate's design is very clearly inspired by what we know of modern Garlean architecture.

They could also go with a more Indian-inspired design for its buildings, but we shall see. It could be that the naming and clothing are red herrings.

I could've liked Ala Mhigo, but most Highlander NPCs just piss me off.

[DamianFatale]

Making fun of Uldah, Ala Mhigo, and Thavnair for having a similar aesthetic is like making fun Ishgard, and Limsa Lominsa for both having castles, or Hingashi, and Doma for being eastern. It’s just not a good argument.

[Edax]

I think the reason why people say Ala Mhigo and Ul’Dah look similar is due to both having Islamic/Ottoman flavored architecture. That said, the two pull from different aspects of the source inspiration and if you look around the cities (imo) they're quite different -
Ul’Dah has its domed roofs and rounded off shapes

while Ala Mhigo has sharp squared off buildings and angular spires.


If you think they look the same you'll probably be disappointed if/when we go to Thavnair as it'll likely also have a vaguely similar aesthetic :P

As for the “WHY?” Ala Mhigo sits right by the landbridge connecting Eorzea & Ilsabard. With it under it’s belt the Empire had a straight shot to the last place on its To Conquer list.

@ the topic
as someone who wants/has wanted a arabian nights orientalism themed house since i was able to purchase one I've been disappointed by the severe lack of Ala Mhigan furniture this expac. The palace is beautiful and I only ever get to see it when 70 roulette put me in there. I'll happily glue the city back together if I can keep some of them beautiful bricks ;;

The Hagia Sophia is Byzantine building, built by Greek-speaking Romans, with more in common with the Roman Pantheon, but whatever. I guess it seems Islamic now with the minarets.

As for the “WHY?” Ala Mhigo sits right by the landbridge connecting Eorzea & Ilsabard. With it under it’s belt the Empire had a straight shot to the last place on its To Conquer list.

Thank you for this explanation. I have been baffled as to why the Empire would be interested Ala Mhigo beyond "for the evulz". But then they took over Doma, which is so far away from the Empire, so that means they can just fly armies anywhere?

And your right, I have little wish to visit Thavnair, nor the Empire to be honest cause I don't like that "evil metal" look they got going on. I just gotta imagine their toilets are just covered in metal spikes because it's so uninspired. I'm semi-interested in Sharlayan, since that at least Greek influenced with teal lights. (They should play up the Da Vinci's workshop vib) I am most interested in seeing the rest of Hingashi. SE has proven to me they have a strong grasp at portraying asian cultures. They at least are playing to their strengths, that are uncommonly seen in video games made in America.

I would love to see them bringing backing Ivalice. For me, Ivalice was the best FF iteration a desert culture, with artwork and armor that was so full of charm.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I remember complaining somewhere on here that the Ala Mhigan Quarter wasn't being used for something like this. I just think the team has no interest in doing more with Gyr Abania than they already have.

Notice how the last several patches have been Doma-centric, with new content based around the Othard areas.

[Bright-Flower]

Edited for spoilers

In 4.4 it's explained that when they razed Dalmasca the Empire shot themselves in the foot by destroying an important refueling station for their armies, making it diffiult to fly around the burn to get to Doma. And by putting up a barrier around The Burn, it because impossible for the Empire to just fly over it apparantly, guess the barrier is too high up to just fly over? So Doma seems relatiely safe from counter attacks for now.

Ala Mhigo as I understand it actually held the Empire back for a long time, and was only conquered because Gaius took advantage of a civil war. (I also hear that he may have had a hand in starting said civil war but I'm not 100% on that.)

With the stage set for an attack on Ala Mhigo in 4.5, I really hope it gets one last moment in the spotlight and some more development before we cross the land bridge to Garlemald in 5.0. The did leave the Fordola plot thread hanging, as well as Ilberd's two cohorts who were captured off screen. A big battle could be one last opportunity to make the expansion live up to its name too.

[Liam_Harper]

The Ala Mhigans, to me, were never painted in a particularly flattering light. Let's not forget that Fordola, as a child, witnessed Ala Mhigans stone her father to death right before her eyes. Upon being imprisoned for her own crimes, at no point did the Ala Mhigans try to understand why she did what she did.

Aye, basically they couldn't beat the empire, were too cowardly to try and turned on an easy target to vent their anger... their own people, which is rather disgusting. Not to mention they stoned their own to death for siding with the Empire, but when you come to rally them to war, they'd rather stay submissive to the Empire.

And then the whole wanting to butcher Fordola in the streets and desecrate Zenos' grave while Yotsuyu walks straight into Namai in broad daylight and the Domans can be talked into reason. Not to mention the amount of resentment towards the other nations for not helping them earlier in their war, that they can barely be bothered to fight themselves.

[Alleo]

@Bright-Flower: Should we post so many story spoilers about the recent patch in a thread that was not marked with spoiler warnings and that was not even talking about the story at all? I dont want to sound mean but some could just read through this thread because they would like a reconstruction and not necessarily get so many infos on the story. ^^;

Anyway a reconstruction would maybe help to finally learn more about the people there. And it always feels nice to really help them rebuilt too. (Even if I am a bit surprised how fast Doma for example rebuilts itself)

Also I still have hope that we in some way also help Ishgard too.

Putting the next answer under spoiler tag because its off topic and maybe have some spoilers about SB:

@Liam_Harper: "About Ala mhigans"

They couldnt beat Garlemald because they got attacked after a civil war. They probably did rebell but those got taken down quite harshly. (Lets not forget that this was over 20 years ago). Also some people doing something horrible because they saw her parents as traitors does not make them all into horrible people and those that are submissive to the empire are mostly those that lost their will to fight after losing nearly everything. Remember how Lyse was angry at her village that they did not fight even though they were mostly just old or wounded people that just went through much?

The people that wanted to kill Fordola was just an angry mob that wanted her to be punsihed more for her crimes but the game tells us through Raubahn that this is not the way to go and they listened to him. When she did help later, the people there were not friendly to her (which is normal if you went through so much) but also thanked her and with that probably at least forgave her a bit. I would say that this is quite the human reaction to it but also does show that they can let go of it too.

Unlike Fordola Yotsuyu was going there not as herself. Also she was wearing something different thus they did not recognize her right away. The Wol and Hien were right behind her thus the people (still shocked and probably also quite scared) had no real time to act. Do you believe that they would let it go so fast if this was the real Yotsuyu and not Tsuyu? I mean realistically Hien would have killed her if she had not lost her memories thus unlike Fordola who did land in prison, Yotsuyu would have probably got the death sentence.

In the end both crowds reacted on it and both crowds needed their leader or figure head to talk them down but listened to them, thus both could be reasoned with. The differences in behaviour could be explained by different cultures.

So just like Yotsuyus past and her bad life does not make all people in doma bad, the death of her father through some people also does not make everyone there bad either.

The imo bad thing is that we got to know more annoying Ala mhigan npcs through our journey, with no real way to learn more about them, while with Doma we met people like Yugiri and then later Gosetsu and Hien first and then learned about some bad things in the history of the land and at the same time still learn more about the good things now with reconstruction. So I feel like we really just lack any deep connection with the country.

Edit: Thanks for putting it behind a spoiler box Bright-Flower.

[Edax]

@Bright-Flower: Should we post so many story spoilers about the recent patch in a thread that was not marked with spoiler warnings and that was not even talking about the story at all? I dont want to sound mean but some could just read through this thread because they would like a reconstruction and not necessarily get so many infos on the story. ^^;

Anyway a reconstruction would maybe help to finally learn more about the people there. And it always feels nice to really help them rebuilt too. (Even if I am a bit surprised how fast Doma for example rebuilts itself)

Also I still have hope that we in some way also help Ishgard too.

Wouldn't that be amazing? A Ishgard reconstruction effort that unlocked Ishgard housing wards at the end of it as a reward.