So atm I'm still not sure what new field content will really be, and how it will play out. But from whats been said it seems the new cosmic area will be our exploration(relics)/restoration/Lifestyle content. And Ofc we'll get more clarification later, and I can have misheard.
But I have had an idea for a while People have complained about instanced content and the tome stone grind for a while now, and I feel the best way to approach things is to kill two birds with one stone, but not in the traditional way.
There should be a new instanced area, but it should support more casual ways to contribute to a goal and the goal would be triggering a playable dungeon/raid and Rare hunts/duels for people who want PvE content, and more casual crafting and gathering for people who may be coming in from work who are tired and might not wanna get into anything major.
And ofc there would be more involved crafting and gathering as well as more relaxed PvE content. Imagine killing unique b ranks and doing smaller fate chains for the more casual PvE content, and having to sneak and make your way into enemy heavy territory to fish and gather rare items and huge fish.
This could also lead to seeing the area where people craft and do turn ins slowly change over time with each update and the instance expand for more content to be released within. People would feel rewarded for contributing and it would create a seemless way to transition from casual relaxed content to people going for more engaging group based content to earn our relics.
To add clarification this is due to relics most likely being attached to this and that I genuinely don't trust them to create an alternative that won't end up like Zadnor where you're better off farming CT and normal raids over doing Zadnor to complete your relic. And while I think just back loading the relic alternative for people who don't want to participate would be fine, I do think there are many other ways to approach it.
That also being said it is true that this most likely would then come at an over simplification of the content in question as they'd want to get people in fast and have a low gate to entry for it all. Relics in of themselves are decisive and This is so far one idea that did stick. I definitely don't want to see more things dumbed down but I also look at the fact that SE is liable to lump as much side content together as a means to *increasing multiplayer interaction* in the simplest ways possible.
As much as I don't like making massive assumptions, their track record for things point to them doing something that would in a basic sense, be multiplayer content, which would make the criteria to them, and possibly not us. Because I think what we want, multiple forms of unique and interesting multiplayer content, and what they'll offer, a hub that has multiple forms of multiplayer content, which will all blend together and not be unique, is the most likely case. Not trying to be cynical, but while they have acknowledged how things didn't pan out well with EW, they have said nothing of being better with giving us what we have asked for, and then them not really hitting the mark, see variant/criterion dungeons.
So my goal is to hopefully steer things in a better direction IF any of this were to be the case.