The layout of Ishgard does not make 3 dimensional sense

[Nalien]

Either that, or the zone design team said "meh who will ever notice" and didn't even try, thus leaving slightly obsessed people like me pulling their hair out trying to make sense of it.

It wouldn't be the first time. See; Wanderer's Palace. If you look at it from Bronze Lake, the entire dungeon basically doesn't exist, there is no structure around the base of the tower like what we fight through in that dungeon. It has annoyed me since 2.0... Fairly sure Dusk Vigil falls into this trap as well, as do a few others I'm sure (Sohm Al and the Churning Mists seems off to me).

I think it's a problem that stems from the way they make areas... In 1.0, Ul'dah, Gridania and Limsa were one complete map, so when they ported them over to 2.0 and split them into two maps, the effect was minimal... I kind of wish they did that kind of thing for everything... Make the entire game as one single map, then split areas off into different zones so that they actually all clearly connect properly...

[Catwho]

It wouldn't be the first time. See; Wanderer's Palace. If you look at it from Bronze Lake, the entire dungeon basically doesn't exist, there is no structure around the base of the tower like what we fight through in that dungeon. It has annoyed me since 2.0... Fairly sure Dusk Vigil falls into this trap as well, as do a few others I'm sure (Sohm Al and the Churning Mists seems off to me).

I think it's a problem that stems from the way they make areas... In 1.0, Ul'dah, Gridania and Limsa were one complete map, so when they ported them over to 2.0 and split them into two maps, the effect was minimal... I kind of wish they did that kind of thing for everything... Make the entire game as one single map, then split areas off into different zones so that they actually all clearly connect properly...

I'm giving Sohm Al a pass because "The South Face" inside the dungeon ought to have been named "The Western Face" - the western side of the mountain can't be seen from The Dravanian Forelands, and we're clearly climbing up that side and crossing through the volcano a few times. Moghome is situated on the very western top of the floating bit right above the cone of the volcano. The mountain itself blocks the view of The Churning Mists, except for a few islands here or there.