Are these gates expected open in 4.0?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

[Nalien]

I think they mentioned doing something like a "Previously, on Final Fantasy XIV", but I've no idea if that's confirmed or not. Wouldn't be the first concept to be mentioned and completely forgotten about forever... Seems fairly silly to me anyway, unless they intend to repeat 2.0 and just dust 2.0/3.0 under the rug to give us an entirely new starting point.

If they do that, then they're mad, though... I don't get this teams desire to constantly keep churning out content they intend to effectively delete... When did MMOs stop being about virtual worlds, and start being about lobbies for the latest content fix?

They really should just copy XI though, the way Chains of Promathia was worked was ideal; The starting events of that expansion should have carried on from the previous, but most started Chains long before Zilart, just because of the way it was set up. They accepted that people would want to do the new expansion, regardless of previous progress, and they let people break sequence. They didn't directly mention the previous plot a great deal (if at all?) so it stood on its own, but there was a nice little quest at the very end to connect the two. To be really simple, lets say 3.0 ends with us wiping out the Ascians and Nidhogg. 4.0 then starts with us moving onto a new threat, Ascians and Nidhogg are a thing of the past, and the new area and new threat are all that really matters. That can stand on its own, but then we might get a quest at the very end that requires 3.0 and 4.0 completed, that goes "Surprise! I, Lahabrea, was behind it all along! I was freed after you defeated Nidhogg or some bullshit! Now I will take revenge for Elidibus or whatever!".

That effectively gives us a stand-alone expansion, which follows on from previous events without making them a requirement. We can go to Ala Mhigo and Garlemald, but when we're there they don't have to center everything around how we encountered them in Azys Lla, like all of 3.0 centered around how we'd run from Ul'dah and needed to find the Scions. 3.0 can end with "Now we should focus our attention of Garlemald!", and 4.0 can start with "Lets liberate Ala Mhigo!", but 4.0 doesn't have to go "Lets liberate Ala Mhigo because we saved Ishgard". We don't have to carry the Scions over into it, for example. Their journey can end in Ishgard, with them showing up again in the 3.0+4.0 finale quest. The whole thing can just be its own separate adventure, for the most part.

[Belhi]

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

I believe they actually said that it will be but they wont make people play through everything to play it. They said they would have to make some kind of catch up summary for new players to give background for where the story is at.

Honestly I'm not sure why people wouldn't just play through the story anyway since it is probably one of the fastest ways to get exp and gear while levelling.

The downside of all this though is we will probably see bots again in 4.0 areas.

Personally I like the progression of characters along our journey with us. I would be kind of bummed if we ended up leaving all the characters we have been developing with behind in 4.0. That continuation really appeals to me.

[ChandraNoctis]

I believe the devs said 4.0 won't be linked to 3.0 so that anyone can do the story there and not be gated like 3.0 was.

It will be interesting to see how they implement this. You would need to be able to start a character at close to current max level or have new leveling areas too. Although maybe they just mean you wouldn't have to complete the story but would still have to level in 2.0/3.0 areas.

[Theodric]

Expanding Eorzea further by filling in the gaps would be pretty neat. It'd also allow Limsa and Gridania to get more focus and lore - because there's the volcanic region in Vylbrand and then there's the hidden ruins in the Shroud.

[Pomelo]

I would love the next expansion to include new areas, but also expand the old areas, show a timeskip, new quests/events and so on in all the old areas...

[dinnertime]

I hope they open up more on the older areas and more on Eorzea, like West Shroud, the southern half of Mor Dhona, Coerthas Lowlands and Eastern Highlands (seriously, what happened to these areas?), some of the islands surrounding Eorzea, more of Abalathia's Spine, and finally Xelphatol and Gyr Abania.
Maybe someday we could travel outside Eorzea like the Sharlayan motherland and Thavnair being some of the most possible locations.

Maybe connect the region fractions as one zone like it was in 1.0?

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I'm under the impression that all of these zones will eventually open up in later expansions. We just don't know what the devs have in store. However, they do listen to us on the forums. With the new Letter announced a few days ago, we could ask Fern if these missing zones will eventually be made.

[Frederick22]

I'm under the impression that all of these zones will eventually open up in later expansions. We just don't know what the devs have in store. However, they do listen to us on the forums. With the new Letter announced a few days ago, we could ask Fern if these missing zones will eventually be made.

I can asnswer taht on an old leetter, they devs said that this is being "discussed"