How Would They Implement A "Calamity" Again?

[Aniya_Estlihn]

No Calamity, but I feel the Final Days repeating is pretty much worse than any calamity could be. So we don't need a calamity, when narratively, the literal fabric of reality is being torn to shreds by the end of the world.

We'll likely see this represented through custom weather; which they already did on the First, as well as client side changes like they did with Rhalgr's Reach at the start of Stormblood and do with the Beast Tribe areas. There's plenty of ways to mess up the world on a client-by-client basis without ruining the game world for everyone playing—they've been experimenting with this more and more of late; think of how Puppet's Bunker's quest blew up a literal mountain range to reveal it for those on the quest.

So we can expect things like that I feel.

[Hyperia]

They could use zone instancing to show you the new world while people in the old world get to experience the game without changes. Veterans could toggle back to the old world via an aetherite or being in a group with a sprout.

[Fawkes]

Shadowbringers started doing more phasing-type stuff. Depending on where you are in the story your sky could be bright while someone else's is dark and I think there was a brief part before The Heroes Gauntlet where it was a star shower. So I could see them doing something in the next chunk of story where along with the spooky towers we start seeing a dozen Dalamuds dangling in the sky, while new players just see regular old ARR. With the addition of flying to older zones it's possible that they intend to use them for more than just a couple fetch quests, also there's the part of the Endwalker trailer where La Noscea is on fire. But I assume the story will have us ultimately preventing the full calamity, so who knows how far they'll take it.


If you just meant a calamity in the sense of like a 1.0 to 2.0 change in the game itself, I don't really see that happening. That story was made to explain the changes they needed to make to the game, not the other way around. There are definitely aspects of the game that need a tune up, but nothing on the scale of blowing the whole thing up and staring fresh.

[TaleraRistain]

I've been wondering if this might end up being XIV's Cataclysm expansion.

[Bright-Flower]

I've been wondering if this might end up being XIV's Cataclysm expansion.

In the sense of 'the world is in danger from this disaster' sure. In terms of the restructure and changes to the vanilla zones that Cataclysm brought, the recent revamp to the ARR quests and addition of flight to ARR zones is the closest we're getting. Given that FFXIV has a far more linear and mandatory story than WOW they're not going to do what WoW did tot he eastern kingdoms and kalimdor.

[TaleraRistain]

In the sense of 'the world is in danger from this disaster' sure. In terms of the restructure and changes to the vanilla zones that Cataclysm brought, the recent revamp to the ARR quests and addition of flight to ARR zones is the closest we're getting. Given that FFXIV has a far more linear and mandatory story than WOW they're not going to do what WoW did tot he eastern kingdoms and kalimdor.

Yeah I meant the restructure. Unlikely, but it could be interesting. It did work for WoW since the story is a lot more fractured there.

[ItMe]

I've been curious, seeing some responses people have posted that say they think SE may implement another calamity, or at the very least that they hope they do ahah. So I guess my only question is how do you think they'd do this?

IF they did this, the main way I think it might go down is by something happening in the story (like surmounting the shards all being messed up & having them linked together in a symbiotic way that doesn't lead to calamities as they're absorbed into The Source, or whatever) where the WoL ushers in a new era where everything is in balanced and the worlds are flourishing... and that manifests as a graphical / system upgrade.
Not that they'd need to tie the change into the lore, but it could be fun.

[MilkieTea]

IF they did this, the main way I think it might go down is by something happening in the story (like surmounting the shards all being messed up & having them linked together in a symbiotic way that doesn't lead to calamities as they're absorbed into The Source, or whatever) where the WoL ushers in a new era where everything is in balanced and the worlds are flourishing... and that manifests as a graphical / system upgrade.
Not that they'd need to tie the change into the lore, but it could be fun.

That sounds like it'd be an amazing update. I'd tune in to see this!

[MsQi]

The only reason to have another calamity is for story purposes, not to rebuild the game.

No you should not lose progress and the previous content should remain.

[Payadopa]

Not sure whether that's an unpopular opinion, but I hope come the new story arc we loose our powers (not ilvl stuff but story-wise) and not be a demigod anymore. I find it harder and harder to relate to my character who's the bestest at everything. Even the main cast starts joking about it more and more.