Missed FFXIV's Cosmic Exploration Upgrade Event? So Did Many Others--But Present Say Not To Fret

Already, Final Fantasy 14’s latest content has hit a bit of a crash course for some players, as many say they didn’t have a chance to partake in a limited-time event. Others, though, are saying that, actually, it wasn’t a big deal. Today, with the moondust settled, we ask: what is the truth? 

Yesterday morning at about 2:00 a.m. PDT, patch 7.21 launched with the new Cosmic Exploration mode, a “large-scale”  multiplayer game system where players join with others and Loporrits to build bases on the moon (and beyond, eventually). With a fresh opportunity to flex the “economy” classes, it has a lot of players excited to get back into the grind. 

However, some FFXIV players, especially those on more populated servers, woke up and logged in to realize that a limited-time, server-by-server event was already completed, especially. Certain “stages” of base-building activities unlocked immediately upon the content’s launch, and although there are more to come, the brevity caught many off-guard—and many were upset they didn’t have a chance to join in. 

So what was the big deal? 

What Was There To Miss At Cosmic Exploration’s Launch? 

Some who actually engaged in the gameplay point out that maybe there wasn’t really all that much to miss. One video on Youtube by Blessings O’Babylon shows the full gameplay session of Cosmic Exploration on Bismarck, a server on the Oceanic Materia data center, considered to be one of the slower regions. 

Mostly sped up, the video essentially shows a bunch of interactions with certain points, totalling a grand 21 minutes, and the description reads: To those with FOMO on the FATE that upgrades the moon camp… Dont. This took 21 minutes and there was only two of us, but even then I can hardly call this engaging gameplay. Sped up to 800% for the majority of the experience.” This is followed by “...John MADDEN. John MADDEN. John MADDEN,” a reference to the classic Moonbase Alpha meme. 

 

A Reddit post on FFXIV's biggest unofficial subreddit also gives a similar sentiment, with the “FATE” lasting 40+ minutes for the group, with little to no fanfare once all was done. 

“Quite literally, the only thing you actually missed is the social interactions of /shout chat during these events,” the post by /u/Gelgumi reads. “The zone upgrade event was just a 40 minute long fate where you're doing a single task on loop and it gets tedious 10 minutes in. After that you're just teleported at the start, with no cutscenes attached, that's pretty much it.” 

However, a lot of players have argued that it’s not about whether it’s boring, but instead that they were able to be there and contribute to their server’s progress. After all, it’s a group event within a massively multiplayer online game, and that’s part of the fun. 

In short, you can’t “well, actually” away the vibes of a server-wide accomplishment, nor the joy of joining into something that’s at least somewhat social. After all, area-wide “shouts” of varying levels of insanity is part of the perpetual joy of an MMORPG. 

But Are There More Multiplayer Opportunities…?

It turns out this “FATE” was only the start of Cosmic Exploration’s base upgrade mechanics. As with FFXIV’s other large-scale projects such as the Ishgardian Restoration, other “stages” in this game mode will be time-gated, with the next stage coming… eventually. It’s more than likely there’ll be some kind of heads-up that's done in Cosmic Exploration itself, and if the Restoration players' good habits continue, these players have a habit of going around letting everyone know beforehand so it's hard to miss. 

In the meantime, there are other timed massively multiplayer events in Cosmic Exploration to partake in. It sounds like the FFXIV team really took the positive feedback from the Ishgardian Restoration’s mini-games and baked it into Cosmic Exploration. 

The Red Alert missions, which take 20-30 minutes, beckon players of certain crafting and gathering expertises to join in a timed mission, which requires a certain threshold to be reached by all players collectively. Everyone gets credit for participating, but bonuses are given if that threshold is reached. 

There are also even more frequent “Mech Ops” happening throughout the day–arguably even nonstop, from how often I got pinged about it. Up to five players are randomly chosen from a paid applicant pool to pilot a mech, and other players can offer “ground support” by accompanying it in the event area. 

(Yes, all of the images in this article are official, straight from Final Fantasy 14's pages.)

Still, the pain of missing a first-time, unique event is understandable. Of course, with more time-gated “stages” ahead, there’s always the possibility—or more realistically, the hope—that FFXIV devs look at this controversy and adjust how long these events are gated or how they progress. 

Until we see what’s next, FFXIV players will still get to grind away at their Disciple of Hand or Land classes. (Personally, I’m back on that Hulu grind with some House.)

Did you get to join in the initial base-building? Have you dove into Cosmic Exploration at all? And did you know Final Fantasy 14 has an entire official special site for this game mode that's essentially just the Help guide, but slightly neater and not stuck on your game screen?