Random Observations

[L'ohba Tia]

The actual desert is south of Ul'dah anyway; the Sagoli is where it's just sand and sun. Thanalan itself is mostly unchanged since 1.0 if I remember the terrain correctly.

 

So would that would make the rain more of an amusing weather phenomenon due to programing of the game; rather than a sign of shifted weather patterns like Coerthas?

 

In 1.0, during the fall of Dalamud, the massive amounts of rain in Thanalan was given as a huge sign as something being very wrong. The rain has just remained. There's also much, much more greenery than there was in 1.0.

But is the extra greeniery  just cause of improved graphics or an intentional choice cause rain? Are we talking trees or just Sade grass?

Probably both. But in 1.0 while there was vegetation, it was mostly dry grass, brush, and cacti, aside from a lot of greenery in the wetlands under Horizon. Now, especially in Black Brush and Drybone, you can see a lot more vegetation where there didn't used to be any. That geyser area at Stonesthrow, the area around the dead goobbue in Drybone, a ton of greenery at the Burning Wall, and the vegetation leading to the Shroud. As was said before, Drybone was called that for a reason.

[GhostlyMaiden]

Since the passage of time in-game is much faster than the actual passage of time, I think chiming a bell hourly in-game would become an annoying background noise that happens way too often.

That's a fair point, but where would the sound come from? I don't know if I've ever even seen a large bell in-game. lol

 

Don't hold me to it, but I think somewhere in the Ishgard/Coerthas area they have a bell.

I'm probably going to be looking around for that later this evening......if I remember.

You get me a screenshot I'll eat my hat!

 

...also I'll send some gil to you or something for the trouble. lol

I found one!

[LiadansWhisper]

My personal favorite:

 

In Southern Than down at Forgotten Springs, if you go outside, there's a small stream/creek that flows into the pool the Miqo'te girls are in.

 

The stream is utterly barren on either side.

 

The reason this bothers me is that it makes no sense. So, the reason that people settled along the Nile (which flows through a desert area) is that it's GREEN AND BEAUTIFUL on the BANKS of the river (because of the water source). Even in arid places, wherever there is a running source of water, there is always vegetation around it (and often trees). That's why an oasis is an oasis - the presence of water means green vegetation and trees.

 

But there is no green on the banks of this stream. It's just sand. It makes no sense. It drives me nuts.

[LiadansWhisper]

In 1.0, during the fall of Dalamud, the massive amounts of rain in Thanalan was given as a huge sign as something being very wrong. The rain has just remained. There's also much, much more greenery than there was in 1.0.

 

There really isn't anywhere near enough to reflect the frequency and amount of rain they're getting, though.

[L'ohba Tia]

In 1.0, during the fall of Dalamud, the massive amounts of rain in Thanalan was given as a huge sign as something being very wrong. The rain has just remained. There's also much, much more greenery than there was in 1.0.

 

There really isn't anywhere near enough to reflect the frequency and amount of rain they're getting, though.

I agree there isn't, but there's still a lot more than there used to be. That along with them explicitly mentioning the heavy rains as strange during 1.0 seems to say that the heavy rain in Drybone is intentional. Just another shift of the climate like we see in Coerthas, the random jungle that sprouted up in La Noscea, and the expansion of the Sagolii into Southern Thanalan.

[Sounsyy]

You get me a screenshot I'll eat my hat!

 

...also I'll send some gil to you or something for the trouble. lol

 

GhostlyMaiden beat me to it, but there's a bell and belltower in Whitebrim. There's a quest about it called It Tolls For Us. Apparently the bell, symbol of Durendaire, was broken in a dragon attack. But through the quest you go through and fix it.

 

You want what? Oh' date=' to repair the bell! I cannot well recall its peal - I was still falling off chocobos when the dragons cleft it thus.[/quote']

 

 

_________________________

Why is it called Drybone when it rains there more than anywhere else?

 

It has more to do with the hot sun leaving nothing but the bones of poor merchants who can't make the trek through the desert than it does with the amount of rainfall in the region.

 

The sun is as hot hands pressing down on you here. There's naught left of those who succumb to the heat but dry bones' date=' hence the camp's name. I don't envy you adventurers in the slightest, what with all that gear and armor you must be carrying.[/quote']

 

Also, there is a reason why Thanalan gets a lot more rain/vegetation than your average desert/arid/savanna region, and it has little to do with the calamity, at least... not this latest one. Thanalan gets rainfall because Thanalan is NOT a natural desert. Thanalan used to be a lush forest region.

 

Never heard of the Desert Shade, have you? See, there? You've only proved my point. Well, I'll enlighten you. It is a group of concerned souls fighting for the ecology of Ul'dah. We do what we can to stop these arid lands becoming even drier. I hail from Gridania, myself. Couldn't believe me own peepers first time I laid eyes on Ul'dah. Never knew there to be landscapes without the merest trace o' green.

 

Willing to wager you didn't know this whole area used to be forests, either, did you? Aye, well it was. It pains me heart to think of all them trees and shrubs and whatnot, slowly drying up and dying. And look at this hellish-hot, barren wasteland left in the wake of it all. That's why I gathered together all those who felt as I did and founded the Desert Shade. Even got sanctioned by the Botanists' Guild so as we could register guildleves and get you willing and able-bodied adventurers to help our cause. Trouble is, on them rare occasions when we are able to get seeds to sprout in these fallow barrens, those damned stuffed dodos come along and gobble 'em up! It's enough to make you think Mother Nature don't know what's in her own best interests!

 

The Sagolii Desert

According to the Sons of Saint Coinach, the Sagolii Desert was once a verdant sea of lush plains capable of sustaining great civilizations, as is evidenced by the ruins recently discovered in the area. How such a place devolved into a lifeless desert remains a mystery, but recent disaster tells us an ancient Calamity is the likely culprit.

 

When did this desertification happen? Well, we can narrow it down to sometime during the 4th Astral Era. By the 5th Astral Era (whether by the 5th Umbral Calamity or not is unknown) and the time of the War of the Magi, the uninhabited Sagolii was already a desert, so we can rule out 5th Astral Era involvement.

 

Every night around the communal bonfires' date=' children of the U tribe are regaled with epic tales of ancient battles fought by wizards riding the backs of magicked dune mantas. If the children's claims are to be believed, such mantas still swim the dunes of the Sagolii as they did in ages past.[/quote']

 

 

_________________________

Shares a zone with the giant corrupted Burning Wall after all.

 

The Burning Wall we "see" in ARR is also not the actual Burning Wall, which no longer exists thanks to the Calamity. So while the name is still kinda apt due to the glowy corrupted crystals caused by the Calamity, the actual Burning Wall is gone.

 

The Burning Wall

Once an unscalable precipice severing eastern Thanalan from the Grand Wake, the Burning Wall earned its name for the deep red glow it would emit each evening as the sun set. Toppled by the Calamity, that cliff no longer exists, in its place a queer forest of crystalline sentinels and malformed creatures shunned by Nature herself.

[LiadansWhisper]

It has more to do with the hot sun leaving nothing but the bones of poor merchants who can't make the trek through the desert than it does with the amount of rainfall in the region.

 

That still suggests extreme desertification. Bone breaks down and decomposes just like everything else if it's exposed to enough moisture to foster bacterial growth while remaining exposed to the air. Fossils are generally formed because the body is covered completely (i.e. airtight/airless) by soil or other matter

[Sounsyy]

It has more to do with the hot sun leaving nothing but the bones of poor merchants who can't make the trek through the desert than it does with the amount of rainfall in the region.

 

That still suggests extreme desertification. Bone breaks down and decomposes just like everything else if it's exposed to enough moisture to foster bacterial growth while remaining exposed to the air. Fossils are generally formed because the body is covered completely (i.e. airtight/airless) by soil or other matter

 

All I'm doing is quoting lore, not saying it necessarily makes perfect scientific sense.

[LiadansWhisper]

All I'm doing is quoting lore, not saying it necessarily makes perfect scientific sense.

 

I know, I know. It just bothers me because it relates to the field I went to school for.

[Askier]

Since the passage of time in-game is much faster than the actual passage of time, I think chiming a bell hourly in-game would become an annoying background noise that happens way too often.

That's a fair point, but where would the sound come from? I don't know if I've ever even seen a large bell in-game. lol

 

Don't hold me to it, but I think somewhere in the Ishgard/Coerthas area they have a bell.

I'm probably going to be looking around for that later this evening......if I remember.

You get me a screenshot I'll eat my hat!

 

...also I'll send some gil to you or something for the trouble. lol

I found one!

I believe I need to eat a hat now -scarffing noise-

 

Also thank you Sounsy!

 

Your knowledge is impressive as ever. I'd tip my hat to you but I just ate it.

[GhostlyMaiden]

I believe I need to eat a hat now -scarffing noise-

 

Also thank you Sounsy!

 

Your knowledge is impressive as ever. I'd tip my hat to you but I just ate it.

 

Was it tasty?

[Askier]

I believe I need to eat a hat now -scarffing noise-

 

Also thank you Sounsy!

 

Your knowledge is impressive as ever. I'd tip my hat to you but I just ate it.

 

Was it tasty?

Little sweaty. :cry: