Can the devs please give Ala Mhigo some love?

[Protantical]

It really bums me out that the devs and sometimes the community outright wanna forget Ala Mhigo rather than petition to improve how it looks and give it a proper city-state feel.

Hell they even leave the place out of promotional material. It's got a unique aesthetic, so why not actually do something with it? It feels like we liberated that place for a convenient spot to have the military leaders rather than liberating a real city.

[anhaato]

The community is super salty towards Ala Mhigo for the crime of getting screwed over in the story, it's very cringe. A proper city state for it would be much welcome, I always loved how it was inspired by Turkey with some Balkan and Levantine tidbits here and there. You pretty much never see west Asia in any sort of fantasy setting so it was pretty innovative. Sucks that they don't want to give it the fleshing out it deserved. It also sucks that they didn't put much thought into making its themes sound Turkish, even though Turkish folk music is pretty cool, or that they don't seem to want to express its culture through stuff like cul recipes (past a few items) or housing items (past the phasmascape). Even though they keep shuttling us off to the Lochs for msq stuff, it hardly exists otherwise.

[Protantical]

Not even a single furnishing item! Honestly I know for a FACT the community would eat up Ala Mhigan silk curtains or cushions or what have you. Given their so intertwined with Ananta and they make really pretty silks that's on par with Thavnair (cultural exchange and all that) it's so crazy they haven't bothered doing something with that. And now that Thavnair is getting back up, I can totally see them making a restoration based around Thavnair renewing trade relations with Eorzea through Ala Mhigo (since in canon that was the closest port city and SUPER important for trade!)

[Enkidoh]

As someone who is rping a character who is Ala Mhigan by birth, I would love at the very least an Ala Mhigan banner as a furnishing, as we even have one from the Azim Steppe, yet, no Ala Mhigan banner? (Although we don't have a banner for Garlemald, Doma or even Ishgard yet either).

Alas I think SE are just... bored with Ala Mhigo as a setting (and by extension, Eorzea in general), hence why they kind of pushed it to the side and shoehorned in the Far East into SB, at Ala Mhigo's expense. Sadly, I think the Ala Mhigan airship has sailed and we probably won't get much more from Ala Mhigo in terms of content/items/furnishings, as much as I would love to have them.

[anhaato]

Not even a single furnishing item! Honestly I know for a FACT the community would eat up Ala Mhigan silk curtains or cushions or what have you. Given their so intertwined with Ananta and they make really pretty silks that's on par with Thavnair (cultural exchange and all that) it's so crazy they haven't bothered doing something with that.

Just go to the Reach to see some lovely rugs! Why can't we get those as housing items, THEY'RE RIGHT THERE! And as far as Turkish furniture goes; hello, ottomans? Or how about these stunning lanterns:

Why can't we get that as a chandelier? Or a wall mount? Or tabletop form if that's your jazz:


As far as Turkish food goes, it's not as if it lacks for iconic items, they just chose not to acknowledge any of them except imam bayıldı. Why not some form of köfte? Döner kebab? Rice pilaf? Rose petal jam? Revani? The reason I'm so hung up on something as simple as cul recipes is because they're opportunities for little injections of lore through the descriptions. In SB we got forcefed tons of Japanese dishes in the endgame cul recipes, among other Asian recipes, and NONE from Turkey save imam bayıldı. And, of course, the descriptions of all of those recipes contained little lore tidbits. The devs had so many opportunities to really flesh out their culture and they passed up each and every one. Soken couldn't even be assed to throw a bağlama in any of their music...

And now that Thavnair is getting back up, I can totally see them making a restoration based around Thavnair renewing trade relations with Eorzea through Ala Mhigo (since in canon that was the closest port city and SUPER important for trade!)

I'd rather have a restoration for Ala Mhigo solely, and have trade relations with Thavnair pop up through side quests related to the restoration. It would be nice to bounce off of the Ala Mhigo dungeon layout and expand it out into an actual city layout through clearing out rubble and Garlean structures, and building infrastructure and reviving commerce. The end result would then be Ala Mhigo as a proper city with a market board, inn, and airship route to all of Eorzea and Thavnair. It doesn't matter to me if the city ends up being relevant to the following expansion, the devs need to stop being afraid to break the mold of 2 cities and 6 zones.

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

I fully agree with this thread.
Going through the Ala Mihgan Quarter, I see a magnificent city filled with people, but there are no shops at all. Just one repair place (hardly a shop).
People may say "there's Rhalgr's Reach for shopping purposes" but you have more shops in some back-water village in ARR -- as a result the whole country feels under-developed.

I also feel I am left without detail on how exactly the area is governed after it has been liberated.
Where do the leaders meet? Who are the leaders? I get it they will set up a republic with some sort of representation from each area / faction, but I don't see any real content that shows this set-up.
When I compare this to the level of detail shown with other areas just within stormblood (Doma, Kugane, Azim Steppe), the areas in Ala Migho pales in comparison.
Definitely cannot compare with the intricate cultural / social structure detail shown in Heavensward.

It sort of sticks out as an oddity among all the other areas.

[Lustre]

+1 I agree, the place really didnt get enough attention, and the fact that the city looks massive and majestic from the outside, then you get there and it's essentially a small square you can run around in with copy pasted buildings is really sad. Like a worse version of uldah, when it really doesnt need to be. Kugane is fully fleshed out and feels alive, why isn't ala mhigo? Seems like a mistake to have made rhalgrs reach the end game hub, and kugane the main city. But, to sort that would require restructuring the msq and theres absolutely 0 chance of that happening lol

[Kozh]

+1

Feels like they're too afraid from fanbase backlash because Ala Mhigo isn't popular (or maybe I should say Stormblood in general). If we ever going to get Ilsabard-centric expansion, I wish for them to use Ala Mhigo as the starting city (main hub). Yeah they need to update the city again, but it got potential to be really interesting and pretty.

Bonus if they let us team up with lyse again, but that's my personal and biased wish UwU

[Soge01]

It would be nice if we could help Ala Mhigo restore the statues of the Fist of Rhalgr and his various places of worship dotted all over Gyr Abania. A reconstruction effort, if you will. Same goes for the city state now that the Garleans aren't a threat to their borders anymore and so there is next to no risks of Garlean invasion of their captial again. :3

[Jettinson]

The closest we got on helping Ala Mhigans as side thing... are the Anantas, M'naago deliveries, the salt thing that Lolorito ended up hiring ala mhigans and EW Healer role quests. Maybe the SB Goldsmith quests too if we want to include more job opportunity and jewelry.

Still all of those (aside Ananta)did nothing substantial on changing/adding stuff in the area, not much to add on ala mhigans cuisine, furniture and such.

Ala Mhigo also suffers for being a massive place with just nothing to look, you only went there just for the palace and that's it.
It kinda sucks because I was invested with ala mhigans since ARR so it feels empty now