Quote Originally Posted by Tanama View Post
Another closed gate located southwest of Hawthorn Hut
I'm hoping this leads to a new Hamlet style area, for Hamlet Defense to make a comeback. The similar gate in Central Thanalan (near the zone to Southern Thanalan) could have the same use, and I'm sure Limsa can have something similar.

There are actually a lot of dead ends, with either gates or rubble blocking the path, off the top of my head;
  • East Shroud; 34X21Y, presumably takes us off towards Ala Mhigo
  • East Shroud; 32X13Y, more Sylphlands?
  • Outer La Noscea; 14X19Y, this one is interesting, if you go back and look at early concept map art for La Noscea, this exact spot is marked by "Zone to new Volcano area", so O'Ghomoro.
  • Southern Thanalan; 32X20Y, there are two here, one leading underground and one leading towards that tower. Theory; entrance to Paglth'an.
  • Coerthas Central Highlands; 33X15Y, a gate guarded by Ixali, likely leading to Coerthas Eastern Highlands, and on to Xelphatol.
  • There's also a few in Dravania, and a few landings kicking around that could be used for something, but that's far more speculative. Caves too...

I'm actually not so such 4.0 will be as focused on Ala Mhigo as others... The only thing really indicating we'd go there are; The games official promotional page, which featured Ala Mhigo and Ishgard since launch, and the fate of Yda and Papalymo, but I don't see any evidence that they've traveled from Ul'dah all the way to Ala Mhigo. I find it more likely that they're in an as yet unseen part of Thanalan, or perhaps Paglth'an, helping Ala Mhigo refugees fight off Garleans there. They weren't teleported, refugees in Ul'dah smuggled them somewhere, and I can't imagine it was back to Ala Mhigo, not when I look at that wall in East Shroud.

Then there is the story... We've already been told 4.0 will not be dependent on previous story content like 3.0 was. To me, that instantly rules out "We're going to Ala Mhigo because Y&P are there!", because it sounds like 4.0 is going to be something anyone can enjoy out of the box, regardless of MSQ progress. Having an expansion that gives us Paglth'an, Xelphatol, O'Ghomoro, all of which are the homelands for the original three Beast Tribes, as well as new Hamlets to defend them from, seems more likely to me. That is something that isn't dependent on the MSQ (and should have been in the game since 2.0!).

That said, a full on Ala Mhigo expansion would be nice, if done right. I'm just not sure how the story could be incorporated... Having a liberated Ala Mhigo, and part of Garlemald-proper, could make for some awesome potential for Campaign style battles... Hamlet Defense falls more on the Besieged side of things and would be great as well, but Campaign was always so much more interesting.