Content Suggestion - FF7 Battle Square, since Masked Carnivale system is in place!

[zeth07]

With the release of the Masked Carnivale they now have a system in place that can let us do solo battles in an instance through multiple rounds. This leads to the possibility of a FF7-style Battle Square being a viable option for content.

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Lore Quest Context:
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Starting NPC = Royse in Ul'dah

Royse tells you that the Masked Carnivale has been a resounding success and business has been booming. So much so that it has caught the attention of Godbert Manderville who has proposed a new business opportunity for Royse and wants your assistance in the matter. Travel to Gold Saucer to meet with Godbert.

While meeting with Godbert at Gold Saucer he explains he has decided on a new attraction inspired by the Masked Carnivale. He offers Royse a cut of the profits which is too good to refuse to not interfere with the Masked Carnivale's business. Royse agrees and suggests that you should be the first participant in the newest attraction, The Battle Square. (Here they can have alternate quest text depending on Masked Carnivale completion or not).

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Core System:
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- You start it in much the same way you do the Masked Carnivale, talk to NPC, pick an option.

- Costs small amount of MGP to enter.

- There will be different tiers available that must be cleared in order to unlock the higher ones that get progressively harder.

- Completing each tier rewards a set amount of MGP first time, then an additional smaller amount each time after.

- Winning rounds earns BP = Battle Points

- You can give up after clearing a round to retain BP, or risk losing it all if you die in the following round.

- Battle Points can be exchanged for unique prizes, or converted into MGP at a lesser value.

- Rewards: Glamour, minions, mount/barding, Battle Square "utility items/equipment" see below.

- Possible tomestones rewards based on the relevant tiers, so if you get up to the Lv.70 you can use it to farm your current tomestones instead of other content. Probably shouldn't be the most efficient but if people want to just grind it they could even if it is slower.

- There should be some reward/s available that has unlimited purchases to give people a reason to continue participating even after doing all single purchases.

Examples: Grade 5/6 battle materia, teleport tickets, ventures, dark matter, XP Battle Manuals, glamour prisms, maybe relevant battle food but not the best.

- Possibly sync'd levels for different tiers, would seem kind of silly to just steamroll everything as a Lv.70. But I do think there should be higher levels available and not just limit it so "everyone" can participate.

- Alternatively, make it have it's own leveling system.....again.....like Deep Dungeon and Eureka. This would promote slightly more grinding and let the content last a little longer. They can give it a special name for context, like "Battle Prowess". This would also give a reason to try multiple jobs. Attach achievements for reaching it with different classes.

- MAYBE actual experience points rewarded for full completion of rounds relative to level, similar to Deep Dungeon if they go with the above. Again this should be relative to time commitments. If PotD takes 10 minutes gives X amount, then Battle Square takes 5 minutes gives X/2.

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Battle Square Mechanics:
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- Select a tier to enter, each tier has a "random" group of enemies, each round has a "random" set of enemies progressively harder.

- After each round you roll for the handicap like in FF7 obviously.

- Each handicap provides a bonus BP value.

- Handicaps included get harder the higher tier.

- Most of the same handicaps from FF7 should be available.

- Weapon/Armor broken can just provide the usual "debuffs" we typically see in fights instead of just outright removing their stats.

- Accessories broken will be a different thing and not your actual accessories, see below.

- Materia would be a separate thing as well, see below.

- Certain effects seen from Deep Dungeon's Pomanders should be handicaps.

- Good rolls available as well.

- No positional requirements on mobs.

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FFXIV's Battle Square "Accessory/Materia/Equips" Feature:
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- Because accessories/materia in FF7 provided actual benefits besides stats, they were hugely important for Battle Square, particularly Ribbon.

- Instead we should have a feature that allows us a certain number of slots to equip these features to help us with the fights and use against the handicaps.

- For example, Ribbon could be earned through BP then equipped before reaching the "Special Match" tier that would almost guaranteed be a requirement. Alternatively you could hope to get lucky and have the Ribbon effect be a rare handicap roll.

- Special Materia could also be equipped to provide specific abilities as duty actions, this would be similar to the Eureka Logos Actions. For example if a job needs a better way to heal they could equip "Curaga" materia and have that as a duty action.

- There could even be ones for Limit Breaks that turn into single use per entry, or maybe one that passively increases LB rate.

- You would unlock more slots as you progress through certain tiers, maybe up to 5 slots (there would be more tiers though).

- So you could equip up to 2 duty action Materia slots, then 3 passive Accessory slots at max. But early on you wouldn't have all the slots so you would need to decide what benefits you most per fight/tier.

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Special Match:
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- Requires some specific combination of Materia/Accessory slots equipped, ones that presumably cost a lot of BP to unlock and thus progression.

- "Ultima Weapon" = When equipped gives buff that increases damage relative to remaining HP and max HP.

- "Omnislash" = When equipped changes the Limit Break action to "Omnislash".

- "W-Spell" = When equipped gives a buff that allows you to Dualcast. Cannot be used with W-Skill.

- "W-Skill" = When equipped gives a buff that allows you to Dualskill. Cannot be used with W-Spell.

- Requires 3 above, with the game hopefully being able to recognize what type of job you are on and requiring either W-Spell or W-Skill.

- Has a set group of enemies, all very hard and the hardest possible odds on handicaps with either NO positives available or much more rare.

- Maybe an even more EXTRA Special Match if you have an exact 5 slot setup requirement......Godbert Manderville BOSS.

- Various prizes for first few completions, then large mgp reward for each one after, dependent upon time of completion versus other means of getting mgp.

- Godbert's autograph should be one of them for failures, upon use gives 10 MGP. Or maybe just give his triple triad card, since it is available for trade in.

- This should be because of the RNG of the handicaps so your first win might be because of getting A/B/C rolls but getting your second win was from X/Y/Z rolls.



In conclusion, with the Masked Carnivale system, Logos Actions mechanics, and Deep Dungeon/Eureka leveling available, I think it is the perfect opportunity to bring over the FF7 Battle Square as a new type of content to do.

Thanks for reading.

[Ilyrian]

I like it -
But how would you balance it around the different classes?
The Masked Carnivale is BLU only so everyone is on an equal footing (assuming you have all the spells) - how would you balance it? Or would it be for specifically DoWs? Would healers be OP or useless etc?

[WellFooled]

I've been wanting a Battle Square for awhile. New battle content and new Gold Saucer content at the same time? Count me in.

- Alternatively, make it have it's own leveling system.....again.....like Deep Dungeon and Eureka. This would promote slightly more grinding and let the content last a little longer. They can give it a special name for context, like "Battle Prowess". This would also give a reason to try multiple jobs. Attach achievements for reaching it with different classes.

But please not this. I'm so tired of having to re-level my character over and over and over again. It feels like I'm playing a bunch of tiny games attached to each other through a duty finder instead of an MMO.

I like it -
But how would you balance it around the different classes?
The Masked Carnivale is BLU only so everyone is on an equal footing (assuming you have all the spells) - how would you balance it? Or would it be for specifically DoWs? Would healers be OP or useless etc?

I don't think it would need to be balanced. No matter how you do it, there will be jobs that are more efficient than others if its solo content, kind of like solo PotD. Though I would love to see a 4 man and solo version.

[zeth07]

I like it -
But how would you balance it around the different classes?
The Masked Carnivale is BLU only so everyone is on an equal footing (assuming you have all the spells) - how would you balance it? Or would it be for specifically DoWs? Would healers be OP or useless etc?

I wouldn't say it has to be balanced in the typical sense. Deep Dungeon is an easy example, it is basically impossible for some jobs to solo it so other jobs are OP by comparison. In the end the same thing would obviously apply here I guess with Red Mage being busted by default.

If they really wanted to push it as a challenge they could purposefully do things like setting one fight as a hard dps check, so the standard could be set based on a top tier healer dps numbers and average dps numbers. This way if you were doing bad dps on healer you wouldn't be able to beat the fight unless you got a good handicap roll or set certain equips to make up for it. If you were really good you could beat it anyway, which maybe goes into the chance of hitting a bad handicap and still being able to beat it.

Then of course for actual dps there could be things that hit hard so you would need to properly balance Bloodbath / Second Wind or equipping your duty action to heal or maybe an "equip" that provides a strong Regen.

But again I don't think it has to be purposefully balanced in a literal sense when we already know some jobs are just inherently OP, even in things like actual PvP, so they know that already and yet continue to not have true balance.

This would just be another fun content type.

[Derio]

Actually It wouldnt have to be balanced. It would just have to be mechanics heavy in the late tiers but mostly random. Each expansion they can add new tiers to accomodate for ilvl

[LeoLupinos]

Not necessarily that, but I would love some Gold Saucer content where there's a continuous mechanics overload, that are randomized each week, something like Bardam's Mettle second boss. For each month the top 100 rank get a bonus MGP reward and achievement. You grow more in ranks the more time you last there. There could be a weekly limit of 5 tries of something.

I had seen this type of content in "Rayman Adventures" (Mobile game). For every season they randomize for a new queue of mechanics, whoever last longer grows in rank.

[FantasyFuel]

Actually, that would be a good idea, it could also serve as a training tool for all the mechanics you see late in the game.
There could be duo challenges, where a tank would just need to survive a slew of tank busters while a healer heals through them, while avoiding AOEs or something.
You'd have to differentiate between normal moves and tank buster moves.... or watch/count the auto attacks to see when the harder hitting attack would come up, something that makes you pay attention to the enemy, but i don't know, just spit balling ideas xD

[Penthea]

I like it -
But how would you balance it around the different classes?
The Masked Carnivale is BLU only so everyone is on an equal footing (assuming you have all the spells) - how would you balance it? Or would it be for specifically DoWs? Would healers be OP or useless etc?

WoW had something similar, think it was called Proving Grounds (been a long time since I last played). The sort of proving ground you fought in depended on the role of your class, so all healers got the same one, all tanks got another etc. A massive issue was that even if classes are in the same role they don't share the same strengths and weaknesses. So some classes had a very noticeable advantage while others had the odds stacked against them. Sadly there is no way to balance this sort of content properly without having unique fights for each class in the game.