Open up More of the exising City/States to explore...

[cbwriter]

In future expansions it might be interesting to explore more of the city/states than we currently do. It might be fun to visit mom & pop shops in a mixed residential/business area, toy shops, etc.. It could also provide a possible in-game mog store instance. Also adding bath houses and onsen might provide new places just to chat with other players besides the inns.

It also might be interesting to actually see that rail service in Thanalan actually run ; ) I would expect the Imperials to have a running rail service as noted in the Ultimate Weapon fight.

[Enkidoh]

As much as I agree with you about wanting to explore more of each city, sadly due to technical reasons I don't think that will be happening - more areas means greater server demands and thus greater lag and possible server crashes. Also, it's kind of a FF tradition to show cities as much larger than what the player is capable of exploring (Midgar, Esthar, Lindblum, Bevelle, Archades, Palampolum, Insomnia to name just a few 'big cities' from previous (and successive!) FF games which show huge sprawling cityscapes... and only allow the player a tiny fraction of them to actually explore or access. So for that reason alone I don't see SE making any major expansions to each existing city sadly.

As for the trains in Thanalan, I fully agree! Personally I could see them being used much like the ferries are in that they could provide access to and from Ul'dah out into Thanalan to Black Brush and Northern Thanalan and the Goblet (the Garlean built railway that runs between Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona though is another barrel of moogles... but still could be an idea. ). Either way SE, please open up the railway!

Incidentally, there is a lore reason apparently why the railway isn't taking passengers - despite Nanamo trying to get the railway opened up for passenger use she has been continuously stonewalled by the Syndicate and especially Lolorito, whose highly lucrative chocobo-caravan business would be threatened by such a technological innovation (he owns the East Aldernard Trading Company, the largest and most powerful merchant and transport company in Eorzea). So nothing has come of it lore wise sadly.

[cbwriter]

I'd understand tech reasons if SE hadn't announced a new NA data center. They're going to add more area every expansion, why not open up more of the 'known' world as well. Sandbox mmos are starting to over take theme park, so why not slowly add sandbox type features to an already good theme park. Folks complain about end-game, why not give folks more to explore? New areas and content also take more time to develop so adding onto current areas might allow for more time to more fully develop new lands to discover.

Dev teams can't continually come up with great new lands and can always use a 'break' by being able to use already developed content in new ways to expand already explored content. This dev team has been doing a great job so far and I, for one, would not be disappointed by a 6.0 or 7.0 being mostly expansion of explored areas and other player suggested items. ( expanded housing, expanded inventory, etc..) Wouldn't you love to explore Limsa's Southern Isles? ; )

[WhiteArchmage]

It's not so much a NEW NA Data Center as it is a replacement for the one currently in Canada, which is why the servers are going dark as they move them. And comparing expansion areas to the three starting cities is...flawed... if they add content to starting areas, it has to be available for base game players [2.0] instead of walled off unless you get the x-pac, which is why you can access PotD with the base game, you just can't lvl past-60 (I think? someone confirm that last part?).

An expansion pack exploring more parts of Eorzea would be weird if we want to see more of the planet as a whole so why have a "Back to Eorzea" if we never really left? Not only is there a huge gap called the Garlean Empire between us and Othard, there's still the New World, the Southern Isles (which...aren't Limsa's? or are you referring to the Cieldales, which is south of Limsa?), Old Sharlayan, and Thavnair AT LEAST. I'd like to see MORE of the 2.0 areas like Mor Dhona, maybe go around the whole lake and stuff but gating those behind a whole expansion? ...uh, no thanks...

[cbwriter]

Considering that ALL the servers will be new, in a new location, with a new install, it's a new data center. Montreal's servers won't be the ones in the new location. As to availability to 2.0, that is totally within the control of the devs. Content access is fully dependent on what is coded, therefore 2.0 access is easily done.

And as I said, there comes a time where folks need more time to fully develop places such as those you mentioned. And of course they could always make more of the other places available as well, with no prior expansion purchases needed. Gates are up to the devs, not just released content.

Oh, doing so might just prevent the starting areas from eventually becoming dead. having reasons for veteran players to visit older areas is a good way to let new players know that it's not all end-gamers around and there will be folks around to ask if they want to ask for help or info. I remember how I felt when I went to starting areas in WoW and there were very few players around. It helps the game to have reasons to have veteran players keep moving through and around starting areas.

And this is what I was referring to as far as 'Southern Isles' (My bad for mistaking the Southern Islands for the Southern Isles):

Originally Posted by Thata Khamazom
1st Squadron 5th Levy Infantry. Yellowjacket Sergeant Thata Khamazom. I oversee all traffic to and from the Southern Islands.

What are the Southern Islands?
The Southern Islands are a myriad of tiny, wind-blown rocks connected by hundreds of wooden and rope bridges. On some of the rocks are built the homes of the city's citizens. These islands are called the Sailors Ward. Still, on other rocks, you'll find the ateliers and laboratoriums of countless different trades. These make up the market wards.

What is the Sailors Ward?
On nearly half of the Southern Islands you'll find nothing but street after street of tightly packed houses, built up, rather than out, due to the lack of space on the rocks. You'll still find your share of sailors living in the area, but don't think that because it's named after them, that's all you'll find there. This is where most all of the citystate's laborers come home each night to eat a hot meal and sleep away their hurts before trodding off to work the next day.

What are the market wards?
Crafters and merchants, mongrels and mongers, those who cannot afford to set up shop in Hawkers' Alley all congregate in the many islands of the market wards. Once, each island housed shops and workshops of separate professions, as you can see by looking at the names of the wards. However, the recent influx of adventurers buying up empty stalls and selling their random bits of plunder wherever they please has changed how the islands look...whether for better or worse, I cannot say.

What can you tell me about Maelstrom Command?
Shhh! Not so loud! You wouldn't want our enemies to hear you now, would you? The location of Maelstrom Command must be kept a secret if we are to emerge victorious in our fight against the Garlean Empire. If I told everyone who walked by that the Grand Company's headquarters were two streets down from the Frippers' Ward on the easternmost leg of the Southern Islands, why then, what sort of Barracuda would that make me?

Where is central Limsa Lominsa?
Why, you're standing in it! All the important locations are right here. From the Bridge, the Admiral rules the thalassocracy. From the Coral Tower, the Knights of the Barracuda maintain the peace. You'll also find Hawkers' Alley, the Ferry Docks, as well as several of Limsa's better-established guilds, including Naldiq & Vymelli's and Mealvaan's Gate. But if you're looking to make some coin, well...I think you'd have a better chance behind me.

[Chewy2nd]

One thing that has always confused me is, on Ul'dah's map, Erralig's Burial Chamber is on the map, like there is an area marked out for it, but you can't access that part of the map

[Enkidoh]

Erralig's Burial Chamber is an area that actually had importance in the original version of FFXIV (1.0) for the 1.0 Ul'dah storyline (it was where Minfilia's deceased father Warburton was laid to rest supposedly), so the fact that it was included in ARR shows that at least at some point in ARR's development SE did have plans for it to feature in the ARR storyline... only for that not to actually eventuate (kind of like the 1.0 MSK Guild in Limsa also exists in ARR despite the class never being added to the game), so it's a legacy area that has been included in ARR for whatever reason.

Either way, it's possible that at some point in the future SE may still make use of it... or else just ignore it.

[Belhi]

They might come back to 'local' areas if they have a story reason to do so. I don't see them adding anything like that prior to having such a story reason. That said, I think it will be a while before we run out of new areas, particularly with the map being expanded so much.

[Remedi]

would like to remind that when they announced the new arrows that display the exit zones from the maps gridania had an extra exit zone in the test screen which was promptly removed because it was showing something that was yet to come

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Why open up existing areas to explore? So we go and explore the area unlock the whole map and then enter area once in a blue moon. I welcome expanding old areas but if they are not adding anything into it then what's the point. HW brought us some beautiful looking large areas, yet they just feel like a time sync. Even areas like Gold saucer is huge yet so empty.