I wish we can revisit old places for new MSQ stories

[tsuchii]

I'd love to see a restored Doma and a restored Ala Migho for a major MSQ city.
Or Werlyt, a restored Bozja, a restored Garlemald... etc.

These are places we never really got to see. We only see Ala Migho and Doma inside a dungeon. They look like they could be propert cities.

Rhalgar's Reach was expansions ago but we never saw restoration. A problem it will make is MSQ consistency for people who have finished and have not. A solution will be making them into entirely "new" areas that only people with the newest expansion can explore. Like keep the old Garlemald but also let a restored one in a separate location.

I just had this thought while running old content. There's so much more from the original story that could be explored and I feel like there are more to these places post-Garlean occupation.

[kaynide]

Personally, if I were running the show, the next expansion would be an opened Ala Mhigo as the first city, with the zones filling in the space between it and ultimately Orthard.

Essentially, giving players the ability to walk from, say, Ul’dah all the way to Thavnair and/or (with a little swimming) Kugane.

The problem is what kind of story to set here. Myself, I’d like a story that keys on a problem that can’t be solved by might and requires tapping into every academic to get the answer. Something like a plague that we have to find the source of and cure. Zombie outbreaks related to early Ul’dah. Or something that deals with the politics of the previously occupied territories and how we find a way to live peacefully.

That’s really the problem though: it’s much easier to make a story about Meracydia or even a possible underground world. Or another reflection. Or even time travel as much as I’d hate that.

[elioaiko]

That’s really the problem though: it’s much easier to make a story about Meracydia or even a possible underground world. Or another reflection. Or even time travel as much as I’d hate that.

I don't think it's hard to connect back those places with adding missing parts/expanding areas. It could easily be areas for the next exploratory areas for the relic grind.

Kind of like Genshin Impact where they add in new zones to fill out the map while giving something new for players to explore. They've already kinda did that with Eureka with zones being presented for every relic stage patch.

[Packetdancer]

For something like a restored Ala Mhigo it isn't too difficult narratively to add more of the city or whatever.

For Doma, how do you work in whether or not the person has finished (or started!) the Doman Reconstruction? You could do it elsewhere in Doma, beyond the zones we've currently seen—which is probably best anyway, since people aren't always thrilled when a zone permanently changes—but you still have to figure out how to handle different states of optional content completion. Even if his you deal with that is "try to do an end run around and generally ignore the situation."

But something like Werlyt? That's even harder to work into the MSQ; the Werlyt storyline is optional content. If Werlyt turns up in the MSQ and someone gets to that point in the MSQ, how do you handle it? Just act like everything that happened in the Sorrows of Werlyt storyline happened even if you hadn't done that questline? Make more side content like Werlyt required (like making the Crystal Tower raids MSQ-required)?

That said, I liked the Tataru questline we got, as it did provide an opportunity to go back and visit places and people we hasn't seen for a while. So even if I think it would get complicated in some cases to put things in the MSQ, I would love to see more follow-up stories in general, even if they're relegated to side content like with the Tataru quest.

[CuteBucket]

It would also do a lot to make some of these huge, beautiful zones feel less empty and lifeless.

Go through the MSQ and cleared out all the sidequests? Cool. Now you never have a reason to come back here except for grinds like hunt trains and gathering and FATE farms. I don't want them to get rid of those things by any means, but I always LOVE when some side content takes me back to an old area and I get a chance to just run around and talk to the NPCs there and see what they've been up to. It just makes the world feel so much more real and alive. Clearly the map designers took all this time and effort to craft these beautiful zones with neat little details in them. It seems a shame to just run through them once and never return for an actual story reason.

I would love if they'd be willing to change the look of zones over the course of the MSQ more, too. I know there's some limitations there, but for example: Alexander in the Dravanian Hinterlands slowly emerging, Doman restoration getting built up over time, the night sky returning to regions of the First as you play through ShB, the tribal quests that build up an area and fill it with new things and NPCs running about... Those are great effects that we already have in game and wouldn't take some kind of new system or overhaul to do more of.

[Jeeqbit]

We do restore Doma in a sidequest. But it's a specific area of Doma where its government resides. If you complete the side content, it's fully restored.

I would like if there could be an extension to this that would restore all of the rubble in Yanxia as well. I would also like if, when you look at the Doman Enclave from Yanxia, that it would reflect the progress (it looks destroyed still from Yanxia). I would like similar restoration quests for Garlemald and anywhere else with rubble.

As far as Ala Mhigo goes, we actually do have access to part of it in The Lochs.

I do agree that the rest of Ala Mhigo should be a zone. In order to achieve this, they could make every single MSQ dungeon an actual zone after completing it and update its progress slightly (for example, replacing all the Garlean banners with Ala Mhigan ones).

In general, we do return to these places in the MSQ, it would just be nice if we could see them in their restored form if we've completed "restoration" quests of some form.

They definitely have the capability to do this - it happens with tribal quests and also with the Doman Enclave.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Can we at least put out some of the smoking wrecks in Ala Mhigo? Surely those should've burned out by now.

[Jeeqbit]

How about the smoking wrecks in Garlemald that are still burning slightly after 3 years?

[Willemdarke]

WoW figured this out 10 years ago. Simply flip a switch between the old/new version of a zone (in their case talk to a time dragon). This way they keep their old world relevant when it's needed for the present story, but low-level players can still level in the old version. You can even go back and forth - something we need to jump through hoops to accomplish for Living Memory.

As much as I dislike WoW, their basic systems (like transmog, world quests, relevant dungeons for example) and lightyears ahead and I don't understand why FF won't look to them for inspiration.

I'd also love to revisit Eorzea's zones again, specifically the Twelveswood and Gelmorra underneath. Also Garlemald, an empire that was apparently a single city + castle(dungeon)? Or Doma, which was presented to us as a tiny village + a castle(dungeon).

FF zones are beautiful, sure, but they are so underwhelming - basically open wilderness with barely anything, leading to disappointing "cities", despite their lore buildup over multiple expansions. Perhaps now with the graphics update they can finally do them justice?