Thread: Patch 7.1 Discussions

I feel that the society story was meant to be a huge let's recover from the huge storm that's been attributed to Valigatmanda's prison weakening for the most part. Yet during the MSQ the havoc it wrought was treated as some mild inconvenience. Only to go hard on the Pelu Pelu belief that one can only find happiness from striking a deal that benefits both parties. So of course everyone is fine with it all.

My thoughts on the 7.1 MSQ:

I thought the ending of it was a fantastic setup for the next patch. The rest of the patch was like "Okay, now we know." We now know the missing answers of both Koana's and Galool Ja's parents. Yes, they could have easily put this into the 7.0 MSQ, but they didn't and it had to be answered otherwise people would have that lingering thought and wonder if it's important. Now we know it isn't really. It just had to be answered lol.

Sphene returning isn't really surprising if we paid attention to the story. We have heard of this shadowy organization called Preservation a few times in the 7.0 MSQ. The Neo-Regulators are obviously flawed from the get, and the artificial scarcity of only 5000 being available for distribution is intended to cause panic among the Alexandrians, who are completely in fear of dying and will desperately try to seek the comfort of not having to worry about it, IE becoming an Endless. We know this means the slaughter of the population and a preservation of their memories in the Cloud. This facsimile of Sphene is a reset version that doesn't have the memories of us or Wuk Lamat. It's the version that worked with Zoraal Ja initially, only a tad bit more insane. The upgrade lol. Preservation is obviously behind this as well, and their goal seemingly for now is to control the population of Solution Nine, and the rest of the Star as well now that they have a gateway to the Source directly. My guess is that these Neo-Regulators are not going to turn people into Endless as we know them, but something more akin to a grotesque monster akin to Sin Eaters/Blasphemies as they lose their souls and their memories warp into an amalgamation of fearful thoughts.

Next patch is shaping up to be insane. x.1 patches have always been the initial setup before the climax of the post story. We'll see what they got. I say let em cook and see what happens. I know people have been very polarizing on this story so far, but I really enjoy it and the implications at play here.

Originally Posted by Dastan

My thoughts on the 7.1 MSQ:

I thought the ending of it was a fantastic setup for the next patch. The rest of the patch was like "Okay, now we know." We now know the missing answers of both Koana's and Galool Ja's parents. Yes, they could have easily put this into the 7.0 MSQ, but they didn't and it had to be answered otherwise people would have that lingering thought and wonder if it's important. Now we know it isn't really. It just had to be answered lol.

A bit of my own thoughts on the 'importance' of those first parts, because I don't think you're wrong, but I do think it's a little more complex.

I think it's interesting in seeing how these two character reveals specifically feel in 'importance'. Because Koana's isn't narratively important, but was deeply personally important; a huge amount of his personal journey came from his relationship to his perception of tradition, and his hatred of what he thought was a culture that left him to die because 'that's just what they do'. If we pick apart Koana's journey as a person in retrospect, I feel like this patch will be the moment for him, that greatly changes how his life goes. ...but Koana and his parents aren't actually important to the core story of the expansion, so as big a character moment as it is for him, it really does feel like it was just necessary cleanup that we had to get to eventually.

Gulool Ja's mom on the other hand I think is exactly the opposite: almost the entire reason Gulool Ja wants to look into this is because it doesn't matter to him, and he feels like it should, like he owes it to his mom to have feelings about her. I don't honestly feel like that part is different afterwards, but I highly suspect this isn't the last we'll hear about Teeshal Ja. This is just predictions and vibes going, but I think that once the book's closed on Dawntrail's patches this will probably be looked back on as a big deal, in a similar way to the first appearance of Fandaniel in 5.1.

I had been looking forward to Nitonikwe's delivery questline thinking there would probably be an interesting story to tell, but it just seems completely devoid of anything besides a single plot point dropped in the intro quest and then basic tasks each week. "We're fixing the train. We need components. We need maps. We need tools."

Meanwhile it leaves me wondering what the heck is going on with Vanguard -- or rather, the two country governments for which Vanguard is the sole border crossing -- that confused passengers are left to wander the facility alone, with or without a paper map to help them find their way through. At bare minimum we should be providing bollards and signposts rather than map-making supplies, but really this seems like something that should be a concern for higher agencies than the railroad company.

Originally Posted by Mchappy

Patch 7.1 MSQ

Before Dawntrail released, I recall seeing the mask on Sphene's character design on her waist. Therefore, I am still holding out for hope that there is some Ascian connection here that will turn the story on its head, or make it feel more personable to the Warrior of Light. Right now, I am just a casual observer to be used as Wuk Lamat's fighting tool. I want to feel more connected moving forward.

I hate to rain on your parade, but the thing you're talking about isn't the thing you think it is.

The ornament on Sphene's hip isn't a mask, and would be a pretty uncomfortable one if it was. It's the symbol of the Endless; it's Alexandria's emblem as seen across both the Solution Nine administrative building and Otis' shield, with an infinity symbol tacked on. From a design perspective it's got some interesting extra shades to it; that infinity symbol actually clashes with the Alexandrian emblem in a way that makes it look like an after-the-fact addition, and not one that's actually caring about integration with the original symbol, which sounds about right for a personification of the Endless system.

And frankly, it never looked like an Ascian sigil in the first place.

And is an Ascian actually a meaningful threat enough to get you invested on their own merits anyway? Their central decision-makers and means of prolonging themselves died in Shadowbringers, and the central object of their planning died in Endwalker. Sure there's somewhere between two to five Ascians plausibly still alive, depending on how good you think Gaius and the Students of Baldesion are at killing them, but are they actually a threat when they can't enact their goals? Do they even care anymore without Emet, Elidibus and Lahabrea leading them? Fandaniel sure didn't.

Personally, I'd far more engaged with the threat we're probably actually looking at: Preservation. A big question mark to be sure, but all evidence suggests that they're probably still around, and probably have as much access to their core tools as they ever had; whatever they want to do, they're eminently capable of doing it. All it requires is that you care about the people they're threatening--and you already should, they're as much people as anyone else we've met.

About the Ascian remains, do we know if they only kept one active shard per Ascian? Our 3 main boys where special, but the others were basically throw away tools... maybe they actvated more, especially considering the flow of time - i imagine doing any plans when there might be centuries between the shards within the time you find a new host...?

I really wonder of the Arcadium or Preservation has some in em...