Will we ever get an "outside" simili capital like Mor Dhona was in ARR ?

[Katt_Felista]

Will we ever get an "outside" simili "alternative" capital / town like Mor Dhona was in ARR ?

Back in the ol' dayyyys (yeah i know...) Players liked to gather around there, i remember everyone being in that place every week especially even more on raid days, and busier as ever as new raids opened up. It felt like a very nice experiment and very lively, even if some of us with small configurations back then were complaining a bit but almost 10 years have passed and the minimum configuration everyone sports in their personnal computer should make for the next expansion's town / capital or gathering place, allow for in and out open world travel if the graphical upgrade / shaders doesn't have that much of an impact.

Also we now have a nice built-in maximum display of characters around, so there's just already options for everyone that can't get bothered by the display of hundred players around reduced to 20.

But Mor Dhona suffered one simple thing, it was too small of a town / area to properly give space for everyone and their mounts (it was kind of crowded / clogged around the aetherythe)

I was really hoping for Old Sharlayan to bring this as it's scale seemed to fit the idea. But it didn't happen unfortunately...

Do we really need to wait another 10 years to get this type of open area meet and greet with your mounts, back into the game ?

[FudoMyoo]

I believe we have Idyllshire & Rhalgr's Reach also.

But for these outdoor area to be really "packed" and gathered with players they need to add the 2 following:-

1) Marketboard
2) Aethernet that allow players to access housing district and datacenter travel.

[Seraphor]

I believe we Idyllshire & Rhalgr's Reach also.

But for these outdoor area to be really "packed" and gathered with players they need to add the 2 following:-

1) Marketboard
2) Aethernet that allow players to access housing district and datacenter travel.

Which doesn't happen because having access to marketboard and retainer databases at the same time as overworld monster/FATE databases would cause you to lag out.

[Jeeqbit]

Revenant's Toll's problem is that it's in the same zone as Mor Dhona, so when everyone would gather in Revanant's Toll, it would lag the entire zone including far away areas in Mor Dhona.

To prevent this problem, Idyllshire was abruptly changed from being part of the Dravanian Hinterlands to being a separate area and that's why it doesn't have an aetheryte. Every tomestone area since has been a separate area. Idyllshire was always very popular as well, Rhalgr's Reach was popular enough that you could ask a question and get an answer and Eulmore was moderately populated and occasionally had a question or two put in the chat. Radz has seemed completely dead lately with less than 10 people but it's probably the patch lull and new game releases.

[ReynTime]

Shame about the technicalities of it. One of my favorite things about the previous version was each nation being a single map combining city with overworld. And yes I did not mind the winding tunnels and long bridges.

[Illmaeran]

I loved the concept of Revenant's Toll when it came out! It was fun to hang out there and help the Adventurer's Guild build the place up. I wouldn't be surprised if a goodly portion of the player base thinks the concept is awesome, but places like Limsa have more functionality and convenience so people congregate there. At this point, the general congregation points have become so ingrained in the population I highly doubt they're going to change.

Any new hub would need to have the following things to have a chance of replacing the old ones:

1. GC reps to do daily crafting/gathering and Expert Delivery turn ins.
2. Marketboard, Summoning Bell, and FC chest in close proximity to the main aetheryte (2/3 for Old Sharlayan).
3. Seating and other things for people to interact with while chilling and taking screenshots (Limsa and Gridania).
4. Inn with Glamour Dresser in close proximity to an aetheryte.
5. Tomestone/Scrip vendors in close proximity to an aetheryte.
6. Easy access for new players and who haven't progressed through all expansions.

So far Old Sharlayan's hits a number, but not all, of these; second only to Limsa since you don't need to take an in-city aetheryte to get to the, inn, market board, and retainer bell. It doesn't have the seating no GC reps. I can understand the design decision to have the tomestone and scrip vendors be in different zones/instances to avoid congestion issues, but it's totally doable by using something like the Studium and Rowena's House of Cultural Promotion.

If the new hub were able to hit all these marks I wouldn't be surprised if it were the permanent point of congregation for the majority of the population. If course, they'd have to make it have a huge capacity to avoid lag issues, which is something I know nothing about.

[TaleraRistain]

Idyllshire and Rhalgr's Reach are outside zones and functioned the same way in their respective expansions. Idyllshire in particular was always busy as heck in Heavensward. But those zones tend to die out because of things like no Marketboard.