Thread: 1.0 vs ARR Areas - A Visual Comparison

Originally Posted by DiaDeem

Limsa's Aetheryte Plaza (Limsa Lominsa) - You used to be able to see players from up here.

Hm. I recall the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte being in a hall near the Drowing Wench... not out in the open on the lower level where it is now. I probably have a screenshot of it somewhere. I'll post it later if I can find one.

Originally Posted by Mikita

Hm. I recall the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte being in a hall near the Drowing Wench... not out in the open on the lower level where it is now. I probably have a screenshot of it somewhere. I'll post it later if I can find one.

Yeah, I swear the structure in that screenshot was a stone statue that resembled an aetheryte, not an actual aetheryte. But I also admit it's been a veeeeery long time since 1.x, and I did not care for Limsa's layout, so I spent as little time there as I feasibly could; I may be misremembering.

EDIT: Hey! I found the old Speaker's Network videos comparing the 1.x and ARR versions of Limsa. We were not in fact misremembering. The stone monument in the Octagon (the modern aetheryte plaza) was in fact a stone monument; the aetheryte itself was in a really stupid location on the upper decks. But as the video points out ("To address the elephant in the room..."), literally everyone first thought the stone monument was an aetheryte, because it made a lot more sense to have put the aetheryte there. (Which is, presumably, why it is there now.)

Videos for the Lower Decks and Upper Decks provide a nice walkthrough. And also some fun trauma at remembering the absolutely terrible naming scheme for Limsa's market wards:

Originally Posted by Packetdancer

Yeah, I swear the structure in that screenshot was a stone statue that resembled an aetheryte, not an actual aetheryte. But I also admit it's been a veeeeery long time since 1.x, and I did not care for Limsa's layout, so I spent as little time there as I feasibly could; I may be misremembering.

EDIT: Hey! I found the old Speaker's Network videos comparing the 1.x and ARR versions of Limsa. We were not in fact misremembering. The stone monument in the Octagon (the modern aetheryte plaza) was in fact a stone monument; the aetheryte itself was in a really stupid location on the upper decks. But as the video points out ("To address the elephant in the room..."), literally everyone first thought the stone monument was an aetheryte, because it made a lot more sense to have put the aetheryte there. (Which is, presumably, why it is there now.)

Videos for the Lower Decks and Upper Decks provide a nice walkthrough. And also some fun trauma at remembering the absolutely terrible naming scheme for Limsa's market wards:

Thank you for finding and posting that.
I had forgotten the old Lower Decks since I didn't go to Limsa Lominsa very often back then. Ironically, it's where I spend most of my time now.

Originally Posted by Mikita

Hm. I recall the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte being in a hall near the Drowing Wench... not out in the open on the lower level where it is now. I probably have a screenshot of it somewhere. I'll post it later if I can find one.

The actual 1.0 Aetheryte Plaza was on the Upper Decks:


The main issue is that Limsa's Upper decks changed a lot from 1.0 to now, and though geographically in the map the old plaza would have been somewhere roughly where The Aftcasle currently is, the old building is just completely gone. The whole area has been redesigned almost entirely.

Looking from the same passageway from The Drowning Wrench:
1.0 (Building with old Aetheryte Plaza in view on the left-center)


ARR (The Aftcastle in view instead of old building)


The only feature that remains is the building to the right, and even that had its bridge changed from wood to stone.

Originally Posted by Mikita

Hm. I recall the Limsa Lominsa aetheryte being in a hall near the Drowing Wench... not out in the open on the lower level where it is now. I probably have a screenshot of it somewhere. I'll post it later if I can find one.

I wish someday they remake the old main cities and remove the loading between the layers.

Originally Posted by ReynTime

There was a lot of empty and copy-pasting in 1.0 but one thing I still prefer about the maps is the sense of scale. The sense of scale and distance was perfect.

Well, except the shroud. That has always sucked and I prefer ARR shroud.

I am normally a very calm individual, the peacemaker in a group who tries to get folks to get along, etc. "Rage" is not a thing I usually do.

But the 1.x Black Shroud actually did the near-impossible and inspired the flames of fury in me after I spent an entire evening trying to get across it, getting lost, dying, and so on—and thus utterly failed to meet up with some friends. Not that their luck was much better than mine.

(To be fair, the fact that I'd run out of anima and so couldn't use aetherytes was my own fault... but it's not like 1.x always had aetherytes in the most convenient of places sometimes, either, even if I hadn't been anima-poor. ANYWAY.)

I literally proclaimed "This forest is terrible, the Elementals should feel bad, and I hope it all burns!" and force-quit the game to log out. The only other map in any game, ever, that has come even close to inspiring that level of hate from me is our own Eureka Pagos... and even at its worst, Pagos has never driven me to force-quit the game and walk away from the computer.

As I said earlier in the thread, my salt over the 1.x Black Shroud is dead and buried... but it is a very, very shallow grave.

However, setting aside the memory of my blind, seething rage towards whatever sadistic map designer inflicted that torment on us... I will absolutely grant that the Shroud was, in many ways, a good take on the "dark and forbidding forest" of folklore; traveling through it was sometimes terrifying, as you could easily get lost. And then things would eat you. And whatever else you want to say about the zone, the music was one of my favorite pieces of the original soundtrack. (For those who didn't play 1.x, the 1.x Black Shroud zone music still exists in game; it's now the music for Slitherbough in the Rak'tika Greatwood.)

Originally Posted by Mikita

Thank you for finding and posting that.
I had forgotten the old Lower Decks since I didn't go to Limsa Lominsa very often back then. Ironically, it's where I spend most of my time now.

To be fair, I don't think anyone went to Limsa very often in 1.x if we could avoid it.

But in keeping with the "the zone I avoided/hated is where I now call home"... despite all my (extremely obvious) dislike of the 1.x Black Shroud, somehow I ended up playing ARC/BRD in the ARR beta and then maining CNJ/WHM after launch. And I remain an Adder to this day. Go figure.

Originally Posted by ReynTime

There was a lot of empty and copy-pasting in 1.0 but one thing I still prefer about the maps is the sense of scale. The sense of scale and distance was perfect.

Well, except the shroud. That has always sucked and I prefer ARR shroud.

Originally Posted by Packetdancer

I am normally a very calm individual, the peacemaker in a group who tries to get folks to get along, etc. "Rage" is not a thing I usually do.

But the 1.x Black Shroud actually did the near-impossible and inspired the flames of fury in me after I spent an entire evening trying to get across it, getting lost, dying, and so on—and thus utterly failed to meet up with some friends. Not that their luck was much better than mine.

I didn't like running through the old Black Shroud either, or trying to run past the ants in eastern Thanalan without getting aggro, or through the narrow cliff passages trying to get to Broken Water as a base for the fight with Ifrit.
But those old places did inspire awe, wonder, and sometimes fear or anger.

The overworld in 1.0 was a much bigger part of the game than it is now. I don't think I would want to go back, so I'll just savor the nostalgia.