Dungeons

Themed dungeons with their own set of puzzles and monsters will be one activity a multiplayer party could tackle together. A limit on the party members' level would prevent cheating. If somebody dies in the dungeon, they're penalized a level or so and have to try the dungeon again with another party later. I'm still working on these details.
As for the actual places?

• Aether Plains - A celestial maze. The members of the Zodiac skulk somewhere up here. Elevators dangle you between clouds, and distance is just as much your enemy as the sky pirates ambushing you.

• Factory - I'm playing around with a 3D view for overlapping pipes, catwalks, conveyor belts, and ominous machinery.
• Snowy wilderness - I want to experiment with field-of-view and lighting to make outdoor, cluttered environments interesting from an overhead view.
• Traditiona room/hallway dungeons, but with a river running through it. Recall that a major recurring plot motif is Cyphen-Uben's river -- which way does it flow, and why aren't memories flowing down it? Tracking the river upstream seems like a reasonable goal.