Expansion takes place in the future, Il Mheg < Ala Mhigo

[DSCH]

If we are trying to avert a catastrophe, would it not make more sense to go back in time? I think more than likely we are being guided by a figure in the future. We'd see the future in an echo vision at best.

[QT_Melon]

If we are trying to avert a catastrophe, would it not make more sense to go back in time? I think more than likely we are being guided by a figure in the future. We'd see the future in an echo vision at best.

Depends on which time theory you subscribe to.

[GenBroadaxe]

The tricky thing with time travel is that these new zones have to persist going forward in game. If we go to these new zones back in time, then what need would there to be in the present once everything is done? Thancred's line about "this place has changed" could simply reference someplace he's been before. He's been back forth all over the map in his spying on the Empire for the Scions, so he's been all sorts of places we've never seen in game. Same with Urianger's lines. He's all about ancient tomes and prophecies since it's one of his key points of research with the Scions so it could easily match something he's read.

I could much more easily see someone coming back in time to our present or crossing dimensions then having the WoL time hopping all over the place. Time travel stories are messy even with the best writers and it just seems like more trouble then it's worth when they already have alternate Shards they could use instead.

[QT_Melon]

The tricky thing with time travel is that these new zones have to persist going forward in game. If we go to these new zones back in time, then what need would there to be in the present once everything is done? Thancred's line about "this place has changed" could simply reference someplace he's been before. He's been back forth all over the map in his spying on the Empire for the Scions, so he's been all sorts of places we've never seen in game. Same with Urianger's lines. He's all about ancient tomes and prophecies since it's one of his key points of research with the Scions so it could easily match something he's read.

I could much more easily see someone coming back in time to our present or crossing dimensions then having the WoL time hopping all over the place. Time travel stories are messy even with the best writers and it just seems like more trouble then it's worth when they already have alternate Shards they could use instead.

I'm not sure about that since we repeat events in dungeons through the power of echo. Once you play through it on story that's one thing, but you wipe in a dungeon you cleared before? Plus Echo likes to make sure we get specific percentages in older content later on? WHY???

[ObsidianFire]

The zones really can't be in a state of "time travel". They are used for things other then the MSQ including Sidequests, FATEs, Beast-tribe quests, gathering, etc. Things like Sidequests and the Beast-tribe quests have always been portrayed as happening in the patch they are released in. It would be very, very weird for the normal passage of time to "stop" in very specific zones when the entire rest of the game portrays events as happening in sequence in the rest of the zones. This especially gets relevant when quests from the 4.x series are portrayed as happening in 3.x zones during the events of 4.x.

I don't foresee SE giving themselves some kinds of weird "time-traveled" zones that need to be able to be accessed by players at all times. Such ideas would work a lot better for something like Diadem or Eureka or a raid. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing that hints the revealed zones are simply somewhere on Hydaelyn we've never been before. I mean... If any zone would belong on some other shard, it would be a zone like the Churning Mists. But nope, floating islands made out of crystal are something on Hydaelyn. The revealed ShB zones are nowhere near the level of weird and alien that the Churning Mists are.

[QT_Melon]

The zones really can't be in a state of "time travel". They are used for things other then the MSQ including Sidequests, FATEs, Beast-tribe quests, gathering, etc. Things like Sidequests and the Beast-tribe quests have always been portrayed as happening in the patch they are released in. It would be very, very weird for the normal passage of time to "stop" in very specific zones when the entire rest of the game portrays events as happening in sequence in the rest of the zones. This especially gets relevant when quests from the 4.x series are portrayed as happening in 3.x zones during the events of 4.x.

I don't foresee SE giving themselves some kinds of weird "time-traveled" zones that need to be able to be accessed by players at all times. Such ideas would work a lot better for something like Diadem or Eureka or a raid. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing that hints the revealed zones are simply somewhere on Hydaelyn we've never been before. I mean... If any zone would belong on some other shard, it would be a zone like the Churning Mists. But nope, floating islands made out of crystal are something on Hydaelyn. The revealed ShB zones are nowhere near the level of weird and alien that the Churning Mists are.

Emphasis mine, but I don't see it being a problem, there are many zones in which you cannot get into until certain events happen in a story. Since you're saying must be accessed at all times - this is a falsehood. You can't start at level 1 and enter the Doman Enclave for example. Also even the Enclave is in different states depending on how much you progressed on that area, but is shared by other players

We're in a game now that a lot of things that don't quite fit their lore or reasoning is generally explained by Echo, The Ascians, The Allagans like how Star Trek defaulted to the Space Time Continuum.

That said, I'm not exactly aboard the time travel theory, but just that I'm pointing out that people's reasoning against it is also not without its own set of flaws.

[ObsidianFire]

What I mean is end-game access. Whatever overworld zones turn up in the MSQ for a given expansion need to be able to accessed by all max level characters after the MSQ is finished for a given patch. You can't just have something like a zone be in the past and then have something happen in the MSQ that makes accessing the past impossible to do otherwise. We would always need to be able to access "the past" to get to that zone. Which starts to get a bit ridiculous and requires a certain level of "you are in a video game" to influence the lore and worldbuilding of FFXIV that's never gone so far before.

[Enkidoh]

It would totally make sense. Mimicking ffxi's expansions. Sky, sea, far east, past... next there will be maws appearing through out the world and we will be traveling in time.

I sure hope not. Dimensional travel to paralell universe versions of an existing zone is bad enough, but FFXI's Wings of the Goddess expansion killed time travel as an enjoyable plot point for me. So for SE to simply copy and paste that idea here.... words can not describe my disappointment if it's indeed true. We'll see though.

[silentwindfr]

I sure hope not. Dimensional travel to paralell universe versions of an existing zone is bad enough, but FFXI's Wings of the Goddess expansion killed time travel as an enjoyable plot point for me. So for SE to simply copy and paste that idea here.... words can not describe my disappointment if it's indeed true. We'll see though.

exept we know that dimension travel will be involved since we did learn about the different shard.... however, don't forget that dimension traveling don't means only reach area that are similar, the split did happend very long time ago, multiple thousand years ago.... means civilization, technology and such did split more from what we know. then each shard can be really really different... that why when the calamity in the past did happend, new form of magic, new life form did appear... they was part of the shard that did collapse.

i will be blunt, they will not use time travel.... people are simply going too far in them speculation. like about the comment about rewrite story.... the first shard is already satured of light, the collapse is close and something we can't avoid right now.... rewrite story, means we can maybe bring back balance to the shard and avoid the 8th calamity!

because all the time travel theory, none did bring us why we will have a 8th calamity... none! because it's not time travel, but we will go to the 1st shard...

finally, involve time travel, means.... ascien can time travel.... or it will be easy to travel back in time for stop even the other calamity or the split... but if ascien was able to time travel.... why didn't they have win already? it was easy to send someone back and kill us before becoming a trouble? or come back in time for avoid the kill of all the ascien by gaius....

[LineageRazor]

I don't foresee SE giving themselves some kinds of weird "time-traveled" zones that need to be able to be accessed by players at all times.

Why not? This is precisely what they did in FFXI's expansion, "Wings of the Goddess". It's quite doable, and has a precedent. I don't actually think that's where the plot is going, but free access to time-travel zones does not have to be an instanced thing.

I sure hope not. Dimensional travel to paralell universe versions of an existing zone is bad enough, but FFXI's Wings of the Goddess expansion killed time travel as an enjoyable plot point for me. So for SE to simply copy and paste that idea here.... words can not describe my disappointment if it's indeed true. We'll see though.

I thought the time travel in WotG was actually handled pretty well, all things considered, even though I'm very much a supporter of "stable-time loop" style time travel rather than multiple timelines. Spoilers follow:

The introduction as Atomos as a being that consumes unused timelines was interesting. I also liked the concept that our timeline was a FALSE timeline, brought about by Altana's divine intervention because the original timeline, in which the Shadowlord was never defeated and the world was stuck in an eternal was, was just too sorrowful a fate for her to bear. Both of these facts gave the villains plenty of motive for why they were doing what they were doing - after all their struggle and sacrifice to hold the line decade after decade, to have that all thrown away potentially into Atomos's maw at a goddess's whimsy, must have seemed cruel beyond words. It's not at all surprising that they tried to undo what Altana had done, even knowing that the result would be a world of misery compared to the (relatively) peaceful timeline of the game's setting.

In the end, we were mostly successful in keeping the timeline pointed where we wanted it (there were a few changes here and there, but nothing that would have had any effect at all on the game's events up to that point, or on any other expansion - and since these changes were things we would not have had any opportunity to witness, we can assume that they were that way all along). The villains were out of luck, and their timeline would not be "primary", but Lilisette went to help them out and attempt to keep the timeline strong, and therefore a low priority for Atomos's consumption.

It was an odd take on the multiple timelines concept, but internally consistent!

And regardless of how you felt about WotG, there's no guarantee that FFXIV's take on time travel would be at all similar.