Remove the Grand Company aspect entirely from Frontline

[Divinemights]

I'm mostly interested in why you think things will be worse off if hey removed GC from Frontline.

Simple, It is not Malestorm always win the Frontlinebefore 4.4; it is the premade. In matter of fact, everyone will intentionally to keep Malestorm lost every game.

[Divinemights]

Although, 4.4 also open the flood gate of people who don’t know how to play to each GC; but because of 72 men mode, the chance of Malestorm getting those veteran premade is increased. This creates a fakest image that Malestorm is always winning

[Canadane]

Throughout the history of Frontlines, Maelstrom has not always been the dominant force. Most times yes, but then there's waves of times when others join for easy wins and it floods the team with less skilled players. I've seen 'seasons' of Flames and Adders winning almost always.

Some people like representing their FC, be it Maelstrom or otherwise, changing it now would be kind of a kick in their pants.

[Ramesses]

Throughout the history of Frontlines, Maelstrom has not always been the dominant force. Most times yes, but then there's waves of times when others join for easy wins and it floods the team with less skilled players. I've seen 'seasons' of Flames and Adders winning almost always.

Some people like representing their FC, be it Maelstrom or otherwise, changing it now would be kind of a kick in their pants.

Yes, this.

To the OP:

The GCs are an integral part of the lore surrounding the Frontline... in fact, that's the reason why various Frontline battles exist. The three main nations needed a 'passive-aggressive' method of gathering Allagan tech for research without having to outright declare hostilities amoungst one another. Hence, their respective GCs "fight" these proxy-like battles to gain a fair chance at obtaining these artifacts.

Gameplay wise, you just have to keep playing or transfer GCs as needed to whatever suits you. Just as Canadane said; when Frontlines first started, Maelstrom dominated so strongly that many players began transferring over... and to be honest, we were just exceptionally skilled at winning. The running joke at the time was that Adders and Flames were only participating to find out who would not come last... I still have several screenshots of this from back then.

Eventually, many of the great Maelstrom players stopped playing once they got their achievements, wins, mounts etc and Flames rose in prominence... they had their era for a while, then Adders, then Flames, then Maelstrom again and after that, dominance just kept on shifting depending on the lull or surge within the playerbase numbers.

[Divinemights]

Malestorm tends to lose in secure a lot because of the way they behave: use number to overpower other GC and cares about Middle too much. All you need is 2 to 3 to harrass manor and their OP you will see their entire group waste time in reining between two nodes

[Ramesses]

Malestorm tends to lose in secure a lot because of the way they behave: use number to overpower other GC and cares about Middle too much. All you need is 2 to 3 to harrass manor and their OP you will see their entire group waste time in reining between two nodes

Ahhhh... I think I need to clarify.

The period that I'm referring to is around the summer of 2014 when patch 2.3 brought Frontline Campaigns. I remember that particular patch... it remains one of my favourites in FFXIVs history because it was densely packed with so many new features to the game-- Hunts, Housing, Dyable AFs, more Hildy stories, more treasure hunts with Hidden Maps, Winebaud's Riddles and some great dungeons .

Back to my point, when this patch released Frontlines, I believe back then there were three main elements that made "MaelstronG" dominate very strongly from the onset (my mind is a bit fuzzy on this one but I'll explain as best as I can):

• There was already a great surge of Maelstrom players who were Warriors. This was in part due to the fact that when 2.0 released, Yoshi himself said that the WAR class was arguably one the Devs favourite during development; and this was proven when players tested it out and confirmed it to have great DPS even back then. Since the Marauder class begins in Limsa, one could see the correlation and as such, many players who started out in Limsa went ahead and joined Maelstrom.
• Secondly, "Maelstrom" had an ample number of truly brilliant alliance leaders who called out the strategies in very clear steps. The key was to function as a unit with great focus on speed, proper healing and great timing.
• Thirdly, when patch 2.4 brought Ninja, Maelstrom were the first to really utilize their hide ability to snatch bases.

There are a few other factors but these were amoung the main reasons why Maelstrom did so well back then. The joke back then was that Adders and Flames could only win on Tuesdays and maybe on Wednesdays because all the great Maelstrom players were in Syrcus Tower trying to get their weekly drops.

And yes... the trash talk back then was the stuff of legends.

[Zalestra]

The long and the short of it is that lore should not ever alter the chances of winning a PVP match. And unfortunately, our "lore mechanic" of choosing to fight only with your Grand Company is doing just that.

There is no reason to remove the lore backstory which revolves around the the Frontline modes. There will still always be Maelstrom, Adder, and Flames fighting each other. That lore backstory will remain there.

However, because it is a mechanic which is able to be exploited to rig matches, the queuing with your Grand Company must go. Freelance for everyone, or Frontlines will never be truly fair.

Concerns over pre-mades can wait until after this obviously exploitable issue is addressed.

[OskarXCI]

Yes, freelancer for everyone.

This will make people do premades instead, which is much better than only one GC having winning streaks. If premades have too much sway, they can limit them to light parties only, 4 players, like in Rival Wings.

[Kaposhipi]

Hello Frontline (and Rival Wings!) enthusiasts,

I'm posting this here since that looks like the most recent/active thread about all things Frontline.

We are aware of a long-time request regarding melee DPS in Frontline and Rival Wings. Melee DPS have a harder time than ranged DPS in these contents since they have to constantly be in the heat of action and put themselves in risky situations.

Well, I'm happy to announce that we're looking into some adjustments to melee DPS only for Frontline and Rival Wings, coming in Patch 4.5.

The Feast won't be affected by these adjustments.

Details will be shared at a later time so... please look forward to it!

[Seraphor]

Melee DPS should just get a gap closer like lunge.

As for GCs, maybe we shoukd get new Frontlines that arent GC focused.
One in Allamigo that pits the three main settlements afainst each other.
One set in Azim with three tribes.
These arent GCs so it would force everyone to freelance.