Ala Mhigo should get a proper city-state

[Vrankyl]

Ala Mhigo was definitely done dirty. It deserved so much better than what it got, and honestly it and Doma should have been separate expansions period. More Ala Mhigo love and lore!

[Protantical]

So, you just want player housing there, right? Not a vibrant city to surround that Aetheryte? That would work fine, and certainly be easier, assuming SE ever decides to make more housing. I expect that the city would no longer be accessible by flying over it though.

Instance it like the other city-states. You know how we fly from, say, Central Shroud into New Gridania? Or Thanalan --> Ul'dah? You fly through the Ala Mhigan Quarter and then instance into Ala Mhigo proper. A real city hub with a marketboard and an inn room with pretty vistas would be the bomb, especially if they take advantage an lean into the Turkish-Tibetan aesthetic Ala Mhigo has going for it. It needs to add much needed color. Maybe even show the Fists of Rhalgr recovering their influence with a little temple or something in the city square.

And Ala Mhigan furniture! Imagine a vivid purple and gold embroidered rug item, some throw pillows based of Ottoman/Turkey homes, or a miniature shrine to Rhalgr for monk-themed homes?

Just thinking about it is really exciting. And with how much the dev team improved from Stormblood to EW, they can do it justice now.

[HisShadowX]

I want Ala Mhigo transformed to a hub city myself. Kinda makes sense to me. If it would cause the loss of Rhalgr's Reach as a hub I won't mind.

Trust me no one would mind not going to that dump.

[Lihtleita]

Ala Mhigo already stands head and shoulders above the rest of Gyr Abania aesthetically even if it's an aesthetic that doesn't appeal to you. I'm not certain what you're expecting from a region that's a desert lacking natural resources with the larger bodies of water contaminated with salt. The Royal Menagerie was an extravagant indulgence built by Theodoric for his wife that has got to be difficult to maintain.

maybe i was just spoiled with how vibrant the Thavnair overworld looked, but I'm hard pressed to find a distintion between Gyr Abania and Thanalan visually speaking. The biggest difference is the amount of smoking imperial wreckage in Gyr Abania.

I guess ultimately i expected the region to echo the aesthetics of the MNK job in the way ishgard did DRG.

[LaylaTsarra]

I would think Ishgard would be ahead of Ala Mhigo for city state been awhile since they've added one.

[Calysto]

A lot of things won't be possible nor make sense unless we get some sort of "peace-pocalypse" that change the world

A few examples :
Ishgard, the main city is still kinda in ruins even with all the brand new residential areas. The central coertas access is in ruin too while it's now part of the EA/EGC "oh yeah, we build a nice door with a symbol of peace for the dragons ; our allies can use the old one"
The beatmen zones are still hostiles while healed and part of the EGC.
The garleans castrums and outposts are still hostiles too.

WoL can go slain a few dozen beastmen/garleans before AND after they go to some world peace treaty event

With the fall of the garlean empire, there shoud be a lot of reconstruction that should affect the world, not just Ala Mhigo but also Doma, Dalmasca, Bozja, Corvos, etc...

[Protantical]

I would think Ishgard would be ahead of Ala Mhigo for city state been awhile since they've added one.

Ishgard is already a bonafide city-state. It has a marketboard and inn room and just got a housing district. And I'm glad, cause Ishgard has a cool aesthetic and all that jazz. Now that it's all prettied up, I want Ala Mhigo to get the same treatment since it's gotten the short end of the stick for so long in terms of LOOKING like a proper city-state.

Ishgard doesn't need an explorer mode to see what the Pillars look like, right?

[Protantical]

maybe i was just spoiled with how vibrant the Thavnair overworld looked, but I'm hard pressed to find a distintion between Gyr Abania and Thanalan visually speaking. The biggest difference is the amount of smoking imperial wreckage in Gyr Abania.

I guess ultimately i expected the region to echo the aesthetics of the MNK job in the way ishgard did DRG.

Seriously tho! You can make Ala Mhigo a lot more distinct from Ul'dah by leaning into the Ottoman-Tibetan aesthetics. It'll be a middle ground of Thavnair and Thanalan, just like it's supposed to in-canon since it was an important trade hub once.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Ishgard is already a bonafide city-state. It has a marketboard and inn room and just got a housing district. And I'm glad, cause Ishgard has a cool aesthetic and all that jazz. Now that it's all prettied up, I want Ala Mhigo to get the same treatment since it's gotten the short end of the stick for so long in terms of LOOKING like a proper city-state.

Ishgard doesn't need an explorer mode to see what the Pillars look like, right?

Given that the original design of the game was intended to have six cities, one each associated with a different element, I kind of feel like both Ala Mhigo and Old Sharlayan deserve to be promoted to city-states. At the very least they need to be world-transfer hubs, along with Kugane which shouldn't require city-hopping just to visit housing on another world, and probably Doma which is kind of a secondary hub in the East. While we are at it, just add world-transfer options to Radz-at-Han and the Crystarium aetherytes as well.

[Azuri]

A lot of things won't be possible nor make sense unless we get some sort of "peace-pocalypse" that change the world

A few examples :
Ishgard, the main city is still kinda in ruins even with all the brand new residential areas. The central coertas access is in ruin too while it's now part of the EA/EGC "oh yeah, we build a nice door with a symbol of peace for the dragons ; our allies can use the old one"
The beatmen zones are still hostiles while healed and part of the EGC.
The garleans castrums and outposts are still hostiles too.

WoL can go slain a few dozen beastmen/garleans before AND after they go to some world peace treaty event

With the fall of the garlean empire, there shoud be a lot of reconstruction that should affect the world, not just Ala Mhigo but also Doma, Dalmasca, Bozja, Corvos, etc...

SE had abandoned the idea of "living world" awhile ago. Overworld just serves as a linear backdrop for MSQ now. After it's done, the zones might as well not exist.