Letter from the Producer, XXXII (07/23/2012)

[xopher]

Scenario #1 seems most likely. It's pretty easy to write time travel into a plot. Especially a Final Fantasy plot. *coughWOTGcough*

[Croy]

I'm going with a mix of #2 and #3. Something rises up to stop Dalamuud (the crystals come up from the ground to stop Dalamuud/make a pedestal for it to land on) and the resulting entrance of the container (Dalamud) releases whatever is sealed inside it on to the world.

As for the Garleans an interview around E3 more or less confirmed 2.0's story would be the war against the Garleans.

Edit: Found it, was from the gamewatch interview.

After talking about the nature of Dalamud and the 7th Umbral Era, the interviewers asked this:

Will this just be out in current version but will it have some purpose in 2.0?

And Yoshida Followed it by answering with this below.

Yoshida: In 2.0’s main story I would like to put an end once to Garlemand Empire trying to invade Eorzea. For that reason we have another story line to tie in the current gods, primal battles and these two will intertwine. This will be the main story as for Final Fantasy series and within that there will be a side story to explain what all the 7th Umbral Event was and in that story the satelite Dalamud will be mainly focused on.

[Alkar]

Imo Dalamud will end up becoming a hovering "moon" like Cocoon. Yoshida said he's planning to include the "world" of XIII into XIV so Dalamud is the most likely candidate at this point.

[Croy]

Imo Dalamud will end up becoming a hovering "moon" like Cocoon. Yoshida said he's planning to include the "world" of XIII into XIV so Dalamud is the most likely candidate at this point.

They could also work Lunar Cry from FFVIII into it too if they wanted. We are supposed to get new 'Umbral Era Monsters" (from Producer Letter XXX), and if they appear due to the immediate presence of Dalamud or even some how come from it, would be a nice bit of fan-service from another Final Fantasy game that did something similar.

Edit: Oh also for those saying they heard it will fall and crash. This was also from the gamewatch interview.

Q. Many cut scenes has been released but what kind of existence is the Dalamud?


Yoshida: In current version no matter where you’re at you can see it coming in close and this fall the current version will meet the finale of 7th Umbral Era, so please think of it that way. However this will also be a keyword in post 2.0 also.


Q. So if this falls it’s not the end but it keeps on floating?

Yoshida: I can’t say anything, not even if it’s going to fall or not either (laugh)

In other words they have went out of their way to make it ambiguous, we don't actually know what is going to happen other then part of the aftermath changing the world.

[Lordender]

#3 It cracks open and spills its Cadbury creme filling allllllllll over us.

Then you find out it really wasn't cadbury creme, it was just all those mithra pervs that were chained blow the surface.

[Raldo]

[Meko]

Just because I haven't been following it closely, is there any remote time table for 2.0? Also, won't those of us who purchased the game initially automatically be in the 2.0 beta etc?

[Gokulo]

No, beta testers will still be selected by them, no one get a sure in.
The game is supposed to hit winter 2012, but that also could refer to the beginning of 2013.

[Psion]

I think there's going to be somewhat of a time skip, due to grids city changing fairly drastically from the concept art. But it doesn't have to be a huge jump: it could be that the huge amounts of aether getting sucked into dalamund not only changes the landscape, but also accelerates plant growth. It is life energy after all, that shits like miracle miracle-grow. You might not be able to rebuild a city overnight, even with magic, but you probably can grow a giant forest overnight, especially with a large influx of magic energy.

[Gokulo]

If you're talking about the latest concept arts (from E3), I don't think that's Gridania actually, probably some new quest hub city like Yoshi mentioned.

[Niiro]

I don't think anyone cares if cities getting a makeover isn't explained in the plot, it's not like the annoying layouts have anything to do with.....anything other than being poorly designed.

Unless Gridinia is suddenly covered in snow and Ul'dah is underwater they don't need to come up with arbitrary reasons for altering the zone layouts.

[LD]

Are they ever gunna redesign the cities or are they just saying fuck it forever?

[vadre]

I'm really hoping they'll at least add in non-instanced locations for the grand companies / echo-mission-place-in-Uldah-that-i-havent-been-to-in-a-year

If they want GCs to be central features of the game, they need to FEEL like theyre central in the cities.

[Tomino]

Many NPCs explained that Dalamud *hitting* Eorzea will cause total destruction. Think disaster movies, they're not about some landscape changes, but wiping of human life on earth.
Also, I don't see why someone should build a very advanced weaponized satellite just to make it crash like a glorious super-sized stone.

I think that, as others suggested, Dalamud will come very close, enough to dish destruction / release creatures, and its interaction with aetheryte will cause quakes and overall chaos. The conclusion of FF14 1.0 may lead to players and GCs managing to destroy the satellite, having to deal with the aftermath in 2.0.

[LD]

Has it been explained what it was designed for? I thought Darnus was the one who was using it for that purpose regardless what its original purpose was. Cuz he's funny like that.

[Gokulo]

It wasn't even created by the garleans no? But by the Allagan Empire, one of the reasons was to seal some "sin" inside of it (unknown power/monster w/e), no idea about other reasons, don't remember the lore too much.

[Spira]

#1 its going to smash into the planet and we'll start playing 300+ years into the future

I'm going with this. except instead of everyone dying altana a wizard decides to take pity on them and transport them into the future, when the world has recovered from the calamity. This way everything has changed, the world is more or less stable and the garleans have move on. They probably weren't that affected since they live further away anyway.
In the meanwhile, Eorzea and the cities could have been rebuilt by survivors and new migrants who actually faced the meteorfall.

i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that dalamud was built as a prison to house some evil thing, maybe the dark powers of a primal like odin, or an unnamed thirteenth bastard son god in the pantheon.

[Insanecyclone]

Don't forget how close it is in this 2.0 shot

[Kurokikaze]

Awwww yeah! Armorer's Visor. Got my mats ready to make it after the patch. :D

[Alkar]

Don't forget how close it is in this 2.0 shot

Well Cocoon is pretty close as well, it's just not a giant ball of red doom that's about to crash on you. Either way a planet crashing on Eorzea wouldn't change the land like in 2.0 but create a huge crater and basically kill everyone. I'm sure we'll find a way to stop it somehow and the aether craziness will do the rest.
After all if it can pull up a freaking Crystal tower it can also reshape the areas.