Can the devs please give Ala Mhigo some love?

[Protantical]

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

Hard agree. As much as I love the idea of Ala Mhigo and all the super poignant themes of nationalism, brotherhood, etc., its just undeniably bland for some reason! I'm not expecting the Fringes or Peaks or Lochs to suddenly get redesigned obviously. That's WAY outta their scope I'd imagine. But using what we've seen in the dungeon, you can TOTALLY make a visually interesting city-state instance. The palace is beautiful and Ala Mhigo HAS actual greenery. And the Royal Menagerie is a clear indication the people cared about adding color to a mostly brown locale. Just use the dungeon as a base and build from there with a marketboard or retainer bells and pretty screenshot spots like a public bathhouse or scenic view from near the top of the citadel. You'd think they'd be crazy about sundecks given how nice the sunset is in the Lochs.

[anhaato]

Coerthas and Gyr Abania both suffer from the designers' scopes being terribly limited by the zone patterns. Coerthas is 2 zones of nothing but snow and ruins, and Gyr Abania is 3 zones of nothing but arid highlands and... ruins. Well, that's not fair, it has a pretty cool lake, even if they obviously didn't do as much as they could've with it. For Coerthas it doesn't feel like this is the case because we head to the Sea of Clouds and Dravania right after, but when you look at the big picture Coerthas is also honestly suffering from lack of interesting design. And I realize it's because of the calamity that it's all frozen over... but did they really have to go all the way with it? Like damn, not even a hint of grass?

If you compare Coerthas and Gyr Abania to the likes of the ARR zones it's a massive difference in just how fleshed out the latter are. Even if the individual zones are tiny, there's numerous of them and they all show different aesthetics. La Noscea gets windy cliffsides, tropical beaches, and jungle at the base of a volcano. Thanalan gets badlands, desert, canyons, and whatever the hell Bluefog is. The Shroud gets forests, lakes, and wetlands. And all three of them get sprawling beast tribe lands. The most we've gotten since then for city-adjacent zones is the little Ananta settlement in the Fringes. That one's cute and all but eh... at least Coerthas has Natalan from ARR, but it was a lot cooler back in 1.0. Sue me.

It would've been nice if Gyr Abania could've had at least one zone with coastal lowlands, considering it has a coastline. Or they could've given the Fringes more grass to express that it's bridging between Gyr Abania and the Shroud. Dimwold doesn't cut it, sorry. The Peaks also has some nice little grassy areas, but that's only on the northern end. I really like certain parts of the Peaks and I thought it was obvious they had a good initial direction, but everything on the south end is just tragic. However, I must hand it to them about the Lochs, THAT is a sick ass zone. The only thing I would change or improve is the lake itself. The salt flats in, you guessed it, Turkey are an example of what they could've done.




Hey look, it's even pink!

[Protantical]

Coerthas and Gyr Abania both suffer from the designers' scopes being terribly limited by the zone patterns. Coerthas is 2 zones of nothing but snow and ruins, and Gyr Abania is 3 zones of nothing but arid highlands and... ruins. Well, that's not fair, it has a pretty cool lake, even if they obviously didn't do as much as they could've with it. For Coerthas it doesn't feel like this is the case because we head to the Sea of Clouds and Dravania right after, but when you look at the big picture Coerthas is also honestly suffering from lack of interesting design. And I realize it's because of the calamity that it's all frozen over... but did they really have to go all the way with it? Like damn, not even a hint of grass?

If you compare Coerthas and Gyr Abania to the likes of the ARR zones it's a massive difference in just how fleshed out the latter are. Even if the individual zones are tiny, there's numerous of them and they all show different aesthetics. La Noscea gets windy cliffsides, tropical beaches, and jungle at the base of a volcano. Thanalan gets badlands, desert, canyons, and whatever the hell Bluefog is. The Shroud gets forests, lakes, and wetlands. And all three of them get sprawling beast tribe lands. The most we've gotten since then for city-adjacent zones is the little Ananta settlement in the Fringes. That one's cute and all but eh... at least Coerthas has Natalan from ARR, but it was a lot cooler back in 1.0. Sue me.

It would've been nice if Gyr Abania could've had at least one zone with coastal lowlands, considering it has a coastline. Or they could've given the Fringes more grass to express that it's bridging between Gyr Abania and the Shroud. Dimwold doesn't cut it, sorry. The Peaks also has some nice little grassy areas, but that's only on the northern end. I really like certain parts of the Peaks and I thought it was obvious they had a good initial direction, but everything on the south end is just tragic. However, I must hand it to them about the Lochs, THAT is a sick ass zone. The only thing I would change or improve is the lake itself. The salt flats in, you guessed it, Turkey are an example of what they could've done.




Hey look, it's even pink!

I would absolutely LOVE this!!



Even in some of the old concept art for Ala Mhigo, we see those super cool temple-esque cathedrals or buildings and we just get some bunched together houses that we can't even enter. I'd love for a giant central 'Rhalgr-esque' mosque or something to be a gathering hub for players to fuck around in. Maybe overlooking these types of salt flats or lowlands.

[anhaato]

I would absolutely LOVE this!!



Even in some of the old concept art for Ala Mhigo, we see those super cool temple-esque cathedrals or buildings and we just get some bunched together houses that we can't even enter. I'd love for a giant central 'Rhalgr-esque' mosque or something to be a gathering hub for players to fuck around in. Maybe overlooking these types of salt flats or lowlands.

To be fair, I did enjoy the concept they were going for with Ala Gannha. It was an obvious reference to the rock-cut architecture of Aksaray and Göreme. The tomb area past the gardens in the Lochs was also dope. (Your img is broken so I can't comment on it) I personally would love to see them pursue the architecture cut into the cliff faces of the highlands. The concept arts for it that I could find, and the Lochs loading screen art, show architecture built into cliffsides as well as above ground architecture with a fair bit of verticality.



It's a bit sad when you realize that this art is most likely of the eastern side of the city and that's something we'll never get to see past some looks off into the distance from the menagerie. Which, to be fair, is a pretty cool view. I just wish they pursued it more, yknow? And didn't have so much of it destroyed, like imagine how sick that Rhalgr statue over the lake was when it was whole. Imagine how pretty the outskirts of the city could be if they had some greenery or more fleshed out architecture that wasn't obviously just thrown there quickly because we're not expected to go to those certain aetherytes for more than just a shortcut to a gathering node or a hunt. But even still, they have us going to the Quarter all the time and what does that look like? Copy-pasted boxes that don't open. And a fountain. Wow! Sometimes, when it comes to making fantasy cities, less is more. I would've much preferred more open courtyard areas with little flowerbeds over it being completely crowded with stone box buildings. At least the stairs and bridges are kinda cool.

[Vencio]

Stormblood overall felt more in Kunai’s favour & overall plot emphasis to it where it far diverted the story progress for Alla Mhigo.

Not sure if this might be “cultural biased” given Kunai is heavily emphasized on Japan along with Uwus/fan japanese obsessed (without hurling insult).

Either way It felt rushed & truly there’s so much to ask & cover regarding Alla Mhigo since it was yoked with our main storyline & the refugee crisis along with the effects of Garland’s regime…

Even then Garlemald in EW receives equally short sighted & just rushed as it did with Alla Mhigo.

I want to see Alla Mhigo as a Grand Company like Ishgard; not some partial city/town.

[anhaato]

The grand company system being dashed is a tragedy. They could've totally expanded upon it. For that matter, I'd like it if Ala Mhigo were to be a 2 tiered city like the others. The ship on Sharlayan has sailed, but it would've been nice if they were that too, considering they used to be part of the Eorzean alliance (through their colony though). Should we get Sharlayan to rejoin the alliance in the patch quests, that's just yet another location I wish would have a grand company.

[Divinemights]

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.

Ala Mhigo is a nation of losers in the lore
They are hostiles towards 5 city state and invaded Gridania but got beaten left and right by Twin Adders alone.
Lost all their force and elites then got taken over by the Empire.

Political point of view, it is best interest for remaining city states to keep Ala Mhigo with military occupation rather than help them to rebuild, just like what US did to Afghanistan and Iraq

[Vencio]

Aaaaannd look where that currently turned out to be; further mayhem, discord & disdain.

The Grand Companies weren’t any different as they too have had blood on their hands.

PS: Not effective & convenient to merge & mention any possible irl references that would otherwise set aflames the forums

[anhaato]

One day the Ala Mhigo haters’ war on reading comprehension will end this is so sad.

[Soge01]

Though the Mad King is dead, I wouldn't mind exploring more secret ruins surrounding this guy. It'd be pretty funny if it turned out he was still alive and he trued taking back Ala Mhigo with a horde of undead and voidsent minions.Though, I'd also like to get his hairstyle for male characters as well.