Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Iscah]

Where is the highway going out of Garlemald?

The four-lane overpass that comes from the north, curves through the city and exits into the western mountains? I'd say you can't miss it, but...

[Ayche]

How do we tie Solution 9 to a unified theme with rest of the expansion? I don't remember if I am making this up, but was not Tulliyolal set up as a naturalist society that tries to reject technological progress at the cost of nature. A cybercity would be a clear counterpart.

[MikkoAkure]

How do we tie Solution 9 to a unified theme with rest of the expansion? I don't remember if I am making this up, but was not Tulliyolal set up as a naturalist society that tries to reject technological progress at the cost of nature. A cybercity would be a clear counterpart.

Shaaloani in Xak Tural (Fantasy North America) is described as maintaining their traditions despite all the changes occurring including the construction of a railroad due to the discovery of ceruleum.

Solution Nine is described as being a wholly separate civilization from Tuliyollal


There seems to be a theme of changes and technological progress already going on. Wuk Lamat’s brother Koana, one of the other heirs to the throne, is already technologically minded and has been attending the Studium. In the Dawntrail trailer there are a lot of miqo’te wearing more “non-native”-looking clothing like suspenders, who may be from Shaaloani. There’s also a shot from Shaaloani showing a bar that is very clearly labeled in Eorzean but I don’t know if it’s because that region is colonized or because the devs decided everyone writes Eorzean now (except Solution Nine).

I wonder if a part of the plot may involve discussions or attempts to bring Solution Nine into the Tural fold. We know one of the brothers is a warmonger and there’s shots of burning Solution Nine-looking architecture.

Though there’s also scorch marks on a cliff side in Yok Tural in the Andes-looking region and that’s where the warmonger brother is in the benchmark.

[Cleretic]

Shaaloani in Xak Tural (Fantasy North America) is described as maintaining their traditions despite all the changes occurring including the construction of a railroad due to the discovery of ceruleum.

Solution Nine is described as being a wholly separate civilization from Tuliyollal


There seems to be a theme of changes and technological progress already going on. Wuk Lamat’s brother Koana, one of the other heirs to the throne, is already technologically minded and has been attending the Studium. In the Dawntrail trailer there are a lot of miqo’te wearing more “non-native”-looking clothing like suspenders, who may be from Shaaloani. There’s also a shot from Shaaloani showing a bar that is very clearly labeled in Eorzean but I don’t know if it’s because that region is colonized or because the devs decided everyone writes Eorzean now (except Solution Nine).

I wonder if a part of the plot may involve discussions or attempts to bring Solution Nine into the Tural fold. We know one of the brothers is a warmonger and there’s shots of burning Solution Nine-looking architecture.

Though there’s also scorch marks on a cliff side in Yok Tural in the Andes-looking region and that’s where the warmonger brother is in the benchmark.

Basically, given all the individual pieces of the expansion that we have, it is fairly likely that there's some kind of 'traditionalism versus modernity' thing going on, but nothing has explicitly been said. Ayche probably just jumped a couple reasonable conclusions ahead, and then forgot she did.

I suspect it's not the whole thing, and there's probably more facets to it all, but I would expect a major element of the central conflict is in how much Tulliyolal should stick to what's already worked for them, versus how much they should modernize and become more like their neighbors from the north (possibly by taking said neighbor's stuff). It'd actually be a fairly clean way to slot in that inter-Scion conflict that's been hanging over the plot, that I feel like we should be speculating more about and just don't have enough info to do so; out of every Scion I could easily see Thancred being the one to take the side of modernity, and meanwhile there's a few Scions I could pitch as being the types to stand in support of 'there's no need to throw out the old ways', G'raha's one of the ones most likely to in my book. (The actual most likelies being Estinien and Y'shtola, who are still wildcards.)

[Ayche]

Basically, given all the individual pieces of the expansion that we have, it is fairly likely that there's some kind of 'traditionalism versus modernity' thing going on, but nothing has explicitly been said. Ayche probably just jumped a couple reasonable conclusions ahead, and then forgot she did.

I went back to the NA Fanfest stream because I was sure I heard this from somewhere, and I think I got the idea from this line that Kate translates about Tulliyolal. "Unlike some other places we have been to, this city is not very industrialized because it is inhabited by myriad people who prioritize living with nature."

[MikkoAkure]

I know this has probably been said already and maybe even in this thread, but the one screen shot of Solution 9 that's on the official site just screams the Persidium on the Citidel. So, even if I don't expect to get any ME representation or jokes put in I'll be a little sad I don't have a hologram that tells me either to not to poke a squat praying mantis looking thing with a backpack on it or a random button nearby.

“I’m the Warrior of Light and this is my favorite shop in Solution Nine.”

That sounds like a direct challenge to Koji Fox.


Though we never had a FATE or quest named “First World Problems” in ShB and that would’ve been the most obvious thing in the world to do.

[SannaR]

“I’m the Warrior of Light and this is my favorite shop in Solution Nine.”

That sounds like a direct challenge to Koji Fox.


Though we never had a FATE or quest named “First World Problems” in ShB and that would’ve been the most obvious thing in the world to do.

It'd be an opportunity for Kate. That or a "There's something amiss at the Circle K." if we want to say the fountain drink is from a 7/11 or a McDonald's. Or even a joke about the WoL getting a slushie but didn't offer to get anything for anyone else.

[MikkoAkure]

To be fair, Garlemald was very weird. Like, for one… The presence of semi modern cars, in a city that’s like…5 blocks across, with barely any road infrastructure outside of the city is really really off. I get scale is a thing, and “well there’s more city off camera” but still… cars are primarily to go between locales. Where is the highway going out of Garlemald?

All of the cars found in Garlemald and the Novus D minion look like Japanese kei cars from the 50s/60s era or older European people’s cars, neither of which are really meant for highway travel and are designed for city driving. Considering that monsters are a thing that exists, the winter climate is extremely hostile, and there’s not exactly anywhere to drive to that’s close, it would be too dangerous and too expensive to drive anywhere far away anyway.

What we see is not the whole city of Garlemald because this is a video game and it’s scaled way down. Just like how Limsa Lominsa is much larger in its artwork than what we can play in. Even the rare cutscenes that take place in Garlemald before it’s blown up show it as much larger than what we later see and as a proper large city.

[Iscah]

Full artwork is revealed and there was no big secret in the upper left.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...mment/l7cvi0x/

[MikkoAkure]

Full artwork is revealed and there was no big secret in the upper left.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...mment/l7cvi0x/

Not surprised but I was hoping for at least some sort of crumbs.

I think I like the Tron idea that Solution Nine is a giant server holding the city inside and that might be my baseless speculation until DT launches. I’ll get there late since I intend on leveling Pictomancer before playing MSQ regardless how silly it will look threatening giant two-headed Mamool Ja princes with a paint brush and palette.

The four-lane overpass that comes from the north, curves through the city and exits into the western mountains? I'd say you can't miss it, but...

I thought I remembered that as a train bridge but I guess I remembered that one wrong.

It’s too bad that we didn’t get to see a lot of the city when it was whole and the zone we got can’t be reconstructed because it’s an active zone, just like how Yanxia and Ala Mhigo are still full of ruins, flames, and craters.

I wonder if there will be any sort of side quests or at least mentions of what’s happening to them now. The Garleans were the most visible villains for most of the game so it would be weird if they were just completely dropped. Maybe a return of Nero, some reconstruction stuff, and a full-size Novus D mount we can cram 4 Roegadyn in like a clown car.