Final Fantasy XIV Cataclysm

[Iscah]

To reach Zodiark, all the shards have to be recombined into one. We are on the first and I've got a feeling that something cataclysmic will happen that results in the prerequisite for Zodiark to be unlocked to occur, meaning we could see the revamp to the old world in FFXIV 6.0.

For a start, we don't want to reach Zodiark. That's the Ascians' goal and we are trying to stop them from achieving it.

We have just spent a whole expansion preventing the rejoining of the First and counterpart Calamity in the Source.

I think you're also mis-estimating the impact this would have. It's not "shift some things around and merge the First zones into the Source".

It's the utter destruction of the First and the death of everyone on it.

It's widespread death and disaster in the Source - a Calamity. Shadowbringers made it clear how awful it would be.

Additionally, from a gameplay perspective, you would be permanently locked out of the First and every possible activity in those zones. It would throw away the entire expansion.

[Iscah]

Oh yeah, I think the old zones are too tiny to have flying right now. Supposedly some barriers were being introduced in the old zones for flying, so I was thinking about what they might do to expand those areas such that flying actually makes sense. If they combined certain small zones into bigger zones it would make sense that they would have flight barriers. They might also be opening up more space like the floating city of Nym over in La Noscea.

If you haven't already seen it, the new Leap of Faith stage uses the Floating City and you can see upper/outer La Noscea below you. It's possible that changes to those zones are simply to accommodate this use. Though of course if they were making larger adjustments, this could be side content making use of their work (or testing the stability of it, or something).

[Penthea]

Anyone else think that they might pull something like catacylsm in FFXIV with the old world? Have the first come crashing back and we return to see a very different world than before?

If they do that I hope they would do a better job than WoW did because in WoW the story stopped being told in chronological order due to starting in the first zones which were changed by the cataclysm, but then essentially going back in time when you reached expansion zones that existed before the cataclysm, and then going back to present day again in expansions after that. It confuses new players trying to follow what is going on.

Given FFXIV is an incredibly story driven game, they would have to literally change the whole msq for the story to still be told properly if they were to do it like WoW did. Unless the calamity happens in another part of the Source we do not currently have access to, which I think is the most likely way for SE to do something like this because it won't affect how the story is told from beginning.

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

That wouldn't need a calamity either. A calamity is only needed if you want to change the zone drastically, and a graphical overhaul changes the appearance of the zone without necessarily changing the zone itself. (Of course, even changing the zone only requires a calamity if you want to acknowledge the change in the lore. They can always do a retcon and just say the new zone has always been that way.)

I'm not saying it would NEED a calamity. I said it's the only suggestion where I would expect or accept one.

[ElazulHP]

They might once the current main story focus comes to it's conclusion. Have it sunder the world a bit, add better graphics(hopefully new character customization options as well), change some zones around if needed, overhaul everything out of date, ect and then once that is complete they can focus on an entirely new story and keep on going for a couple more expansions at least.

[linay]

If they do that I hope they would do a better job than WoW did because in WoW the story stopped being told in chronological order due to starting in the first zones which were changed by the cataclysm, but then essentially going back in time when you reached expansion zones that existed before the cataclysm, and then going back to present day again in expansions after that. It confuses new players trying to follow what is going on.

Given FFXIV is an incredibly story driven game, they would have to literally change the whole msq for the story to still be told properly if they were to do it like WoW did. Unless the calamity happens in another part of the Source we do not currently have access to, which I think is the most likely way for SE to do something like this because it won't affect how the story is told from beginning.

I think FFXIV is pretty good at keeping its chronology, and part of that is its insistence that its story and how players experience that story matter. Hopefully that won't change.

I'm not saying it would NEED a calamity. I said it's the only suggestion where I would expect or accept one.

It's because you "would expect" it that I say it's not needed even for that, so just saying not to expect it if it's just a graphical overhaul.

[Lauront]

The only reason I'd expect another calamity is if they were re releasing the game with a complete graphical overhaul. One that would bring it into a more modern appearance. If they're not reworking it onto a new graphics engine or having a rebuild of it without all its spaghetti code, then there's little reason to blow it all up again. Especially not for adding flying to old areas.

Agreed.

If the payoff's good, I'd be all for seeing the rejoined Source.

[SkylineSenpai]

World pvp in 6.0

[Colt47]

World pvp in 6.0

And an honor system. Lets not forget the honor system!

[Stepjam]

They won't do anything cataclysm level to the world because the game is one ongoing story, so doing something like that would affect new players' stories unless they did like a big multi-instance thing permanently, which would probably be too resource intensive.

But yes, it does seem flight is coming to ARR soon.