Where do you hope the story goes next? (SO MANY SPOILERS, AVERT THINE EYES CHILD!!!)

[Fawkes]

I think I said it before, but if they really want 6.1 to feel like the start of a new story then it should be in a new area, with new NPCs. If we're just calling up the scions again and doing fetch quests in Ul'dah then it's not going to feel new. Ideally we'll be meeting new characters that will be the next "scions", our next adventuring group. Not that the scions have to go away, I'm sure we could still have them show up from time to time. But for the story to feel new it's going to have to have a lot of new in it.

I don't really care that much where it is specifically. Or what the compulsion for our new adventure is. I hope it's interesting whatever it is.

[Listrella]

I think I said it before, but if they really want 6.1 to feel like the start of a new story then it should be in a new area, with new NPCs. If we're just calling up the scions again and doing fetch quests in Ul'dah then it's not going to feel new. Ideally we'll be meeting new characters that will be the next "scions", our next adventuring group. Not that the scions have to go away, I'm sure we could still have them show up from time to time. But for the story to feel new it's going to have to have a lot of new in it.

I don't really care that much where it is specifically. Or what the compulsion for our new adventure is. I hope it's interesting whatever it is.

it's not going to be in a new area, zones are not introduced in patch content, we might get new NPCs though.

[Fawkes]

it's not going to be in a new area, zones are not introduced in patch content, we might get new NPCs though.

Well, they also haven't ended the main story arc and started a new one before.

They have added things in patches like Foundation and the Doman Enclave and Diadem/Eureka/Bozja. It doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that they could add a new zone.

[Iscah]

Well, they also haven't ended the main story arc and started a new one before.

I feel like people generally are putting too much stock in this being "the start of a new story" just because they brought Zodiark and Hydaelyn to a definitive end in 6.0 instead of dragging it out to 6.3. I don't see this as any different to the end of 5.0 feeling like a very definite ending to that story arc and yet we picked it straight back up again in 5.1 to introduce new problems or return to secondary ones in the existing zones.

I am expecting 6.X to be an "inbetween" arc, tying off loose ends and positioning the story for new things, but that it will be 7.0 that really kicks off the new story arc in a way that new players can boost to the start of the expansion and start from there.

It simply doesn't make sense to put the critical first chapter of the new story arc in the patch quests of the conclusion to the previous story, where people will have to play through 6.0 to see it - or at least, be expected to skip to 7.0 and then immediately navigate back to unlock New Game Plus and play 6.X.

As for new zones in the patch quests, it seems unlikely that we'd get a true new field zone, but I'm expecting Corvos as an additional Eureka-type zone. As I noted in another thread, it's been well set up in the story and they can reuse landscape assets from Thavnair (nearby), Labyrinthos (designed to mimic Corvos) and Allagan ruins, rather than designing an entirely new place. The ruins may also provide a source for relic weapons.