Do we really need a new hyper advanced civilization in every expansion now?

[Granyala]

Yes, yes we do.
Sticking to medieval stuff only is boring.

[Iscah]

Yes, yes we do.
Sticking to medieval stuff only is boring.

Yes, but so – at this point – is ending every expansion with "surprise sci-fi out of nowhere". Come up with a different trick for once please.

[Granyala]

Yes, but so – at this point – is ending every expansion with "surprise sci-fi out of nowhere". Come up with a different trick for once please.

Uuh, sorry but I do not consider Amaurot or Elpis "Sci-Fi" at all.
These are magical civilizations, not technological ones.

Off the top of my head, only the Allagans, Omicrons and now the Alexandrians could be classified as "Sci-Fi".
Garlemald doesn't really apply, since they are still behind in tech compared to what we have in real life.
Garlemald is more steampunk area just with crude oil that their Magitek runs on.

[Iscah]

Uuh, sorry but I do not consider Amaurot or Elpis "Sci-Fi" at all.
These are magical civilizations, not technological ones.

Okay, was over-generalising for brevity there. But it still feel like almost every expansion goes on the pattern of starting out with "historical" settings and then going either modern or futuristic at the end with minimal foreshadowing. Amaurot might not be sci-fi but it's still drawing on an architecture that is closer to the modern day than anything we saw in the preceding zones.

[Granyala]

Okay, was over-generalising for brevity there. But it still feel like almost every expansion goes on the pattern of starting out with "historical" settings and then going either modern or futuristic at the end with minimal foreshadowing. Amaurot might not be sci-fi but it's still drawing on an architecture that is closer to the modern day than anything we saw in the preceding zones.

Which kinda makes sense, considering: if you are already in a primitive society, odds are high that you will encounter more advanced ones, especially when you are surrounded by shard dimensions/worlds that did not have to suffer through several world-shaking calamities that throws off any development.

Still, I wish SE would have done more with Paleo Alexandria. The map looks really cool, I was bummed that I wasn't really used in the MSQ. oO

[Galvuu]

Uuh, sorry but I do not consider Amaurot or Elpis "Sci-Fi" at all.
These are magical civilizations, not technological ones.

Off the top of my head, only the Allagans, Omicrons and now the Alexandrians could be classified as "Sci-Fi".
Garlemald doesn't really apply, since they are still behind in tech compared to what we have in real life.
Garlemald is more steampunk area just with crude oil that their Magitek runs on.

What? Garlemald is definitely scifi. They have a fleet of huge airships (look at the size of the Agrius), autonomous battle machines (colossus, scorpion mechs with lasers, vanguards, etc), an enormous high-tech city with these cool-ass giant trains, the Weapon project (unless you think Ruby/Emerald/Sapphire/Diamond Weapons aren't scifi), and a bunch of weird advanced technology, like artificial Echo, or the ability to upload a backup of someone's mind/memories into a living person and override their mind while weaponizing it (also part of the weapon plot line)... not only are they advanced compared to most civilizations in the game, they're advanced compared to us irl in some aspects (we can't do mind-upload nonsense like they do).
Sharlayan is also scifi, fwiw, with spaceships and Labyrinthos.

Like, I understand the argument that FF often has some ancient advanced civilization, but XIV has four (if we're throwing the Omicrons in that bucket, we might as well throw in the Ea too). At the very, I'd like to see them return to a different aesthetic. 1.X Garlemald had a very "clockwork" aesthetic (reminiscent of what you see in FF XII's Arcadia)- just look at the Magitek Dreadnoughts, that's such an unique look.
I wish DT leaned into IX's aesthetic rather than the cyberpunk look we got. The Terran vessels and tech has such an alien, unique look- the Invincible, while being basically a spaceship superweapon, has this... ornate, palatial look, all sculpted and a striking blue and gold, with its ominous eye. In XIV's defense, Omicrons, Garleans and Allagans all have a very distinct aesthetic.
Either way, I do find that XIV is falling prey to predictability, more now than at the start of its lifespan. The "ancient civilization out of nowhere" is just a symptom- the twist villain that the game tries to make us sympathize with, the ancient civilization, the final dungeon showing the past with narration... you get the point.

An advanced civilization like Alexandria does make more sense on one of the reflections, as on the Source there were the Umbral Calamaties, which kinda destroyed every empire around when they occured, except for the Seventh which was kind of made not as bad by Louisoix. Those Calamities never happened on the Reflections, so they've had the chance to build mostly uninterrupted since the Sundering when not being messed up by the Ascians.

I kinda somewhat agree on principle, but then again, compared to the Source, the people of the shards are supposed to be much less physically powerful, intelligent and magically apt, due to them being 1/14 of an ancient. This ShB retcon is gonna haunt XIV, because it's always going to be hard to justify anything in a shard being threat/as advanced as the Source because they're simply less powerful/adept due to the nature of the Sundering. It kinda works with the Void because not only do they plunder aether from the Source, they coalesce into a singular, more powerful entity (a voidsent made of 100 sundered, void souls is definitely powerful enough to give trouble to any warrior in the Source), but this explanation doesn't really work for the shards (unless the Alexandrian soldiers were juicing up on souls like Zoral Ja showed, but that has other problems, since your own sense of self is crushed in the process and I'm not sure the scientists would keep working as before or even have the motivation to).

[Granyala]

but this explanation doesn't really work for the shards (unless the Alexandrian soldiers were juicing up on souls like Zoral Ja showed

It works perfectly for Alexandrians:
The authors of Electrope technology were Lalafell, fled from the source via the Azem Mc-Guffin. Other Alexandrians openly admit that no one understands Dimensional Fusion (and by Proxy, Electrope) like they do.

So: couple Source refugees with a unique resource, constant war over Electrope and absurd desperation and you get the modern Alexandrian tech.

As for Garlemald: lets just agree to disagree here. I do not consider anything Sci-Fi that would be doable with current earth technology.
The only Sci-Fi elements that Garlemald has is stolen & adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

[Galvuu]

The only Sci-Fi elements that Garlemald has is stolen & adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

This also applies to Allag, which was built with heavy use of Ascian assistance, and even Sharlayan. And I don't think modern Earth tech can make flying vessels that large or laser robots, but well... this comparison is silly, because our physical laws and that of XIV aren't comparable. But sure, we can leave it at that.
(The Source migrants died within a generation- it's nebulous if their offspring would be Source-like or Reflection-like, although we have indication of the latter, given Emet's mortal children. That said, that point does ameliorate the issue indeed)

[Boa-Noah]

adapted knowledge from the Allagans... wo, if we want to be technical about it: got large parts of their knowledge from the unsundered Ascians / Ancients.

It's also important to remember the Allagans were one of the longest lasting civilizations on the planet, they had PLENTY of time to develop as they did, even without Ascian intervention they had mastered space faring vessels and complete aetheric mastery that enabled them to just swap body parts for the fun of it, not to mention Alexandria has (as far as I'm aware) existed and developed electrope technology for longer than the Ascian's were around, their shard had a super advanced flow of time compared to the source.

[CaptainLagbeard]

It's also important to remember the Allagans were one of the longest lasting civilizations on the planet, they had PLENTY of time to develop as they did, even without Ascian intervention they had mastered space faring vessels and complete aetheric mastery that enabled them to just swap body parts for the fun of it, not to mention Alexandria has (as far as I'm aware) existed and developed electrope technology for longer than the Ascian's were around, their shard had a super advanced flow of time compared to the source.

I don't remember if they gave exact time periods, but with how time works on the reflections and how it can randomly be slower or faster on them, it is very much possible that they've had Electrope and been using it and developing on it for longer than the entire Allagan Empire existed on The Source before being destroyed by an Umbral Calamity.