My Ideal Expansion [Archive] - FINAL FANTASY XI Forum

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:52 AM

Job Abilities (Set Cap: )
* New Abilities
* Augments and Enhancements of existing abilities.

Again, mostly Job-Specific shards in this category, however, this will contain a new variety of shards that actually add new abilities to any job with the shard equipped. Most of these new shards will be created through a process much like unlocking weaponskills on Nyzul weapons.

Previous merits that fit this category include Mantra, Angon, Martyr, Feint & Saber Dance, however, I think all abilities and spells should be "learned" by the job naturally from leveling up/scrolls/questing, with merits simply enhancing/augmenting them. I'm just working within the existing system here.

Weaponskills (Set Cap: )
* Weaponskill enhancing.
* Weaponskill unlocking.
These shards aim to enlarge the weaponskills available to players on multiple jobs.

Spells (Set Cap: )
* New Spells
* Old Spell Potency/Accuracy Merits
Similar to the Job Abilities category, there are mostly Job-Specific shards here, with the new shards that grant access to new spells.

Traits (Set Cap: )
* Job Trait Mastery Shards
* Augments/Enhancements to Traits
* New Traits
Similar to the Job Abilities category, there are mostly Job-Specific shards here, with new shards granting a wide variety of new traits or improvements to existing traits. Existing merits that grant traits that fit into this category include: Snapshot, Ninja Tool Expertise, Fine Tuning, Optimization, Closed Position and Overwhelm)

Auto-Status (Set Cap: )
This is a new category of shards that provide status effects as long as they're equipped. They cannot be dispelled.
* Auto-Haste
* Auto-Life
* Auto-Shell
* Auto-Protect
* Auto-Regen
* Auto-Refresh
* Auto-Regain
* Auto-Reflect

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:53 AM

Non-Combat (Set Cap: )
These statuses do not belong in with combat nor are they limited to specific jobs.

Crafting (Set Cap: )
* Increase High Quality Rate
* Decrease Material Loss Rate
* Increase Desynthesis Success Rate
* (Mog House bonus enhancements?)

I'll stop there. (someone posted an idea about meriting our Adventuring Fellows (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14390-Adventuring-Fellow-suggestion-compilation-Ideas-for-your-partner-in-Arms.?p=190455&viewfull=1#post190455), which sounds like a great idea to me.)

Many details were left open, such as Set Caps and individual Shard Tier Costs. I didn't want to go into full detail with every single existing merit, and new merits for every job, or how I'd adjust every single job's merits, since we know a Merit Revamp/Overhaul is on the horizon.

Hopefully, this Crystal Shards merit system concept inspires the development team and gets their imaginations running!

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:55 AM

* "Monster Arena": (endgame event)
The Simulacrum forces the re-opening of Hazhalm Testing Grounds' secret Soul Plate laboratory. Here, they focus their research on creating never-before-seen monsters to challenge in the arena. Nothing pleases them more than experiencing something new and different.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:56 AM

Tavnazia
This endgame event is actually two separate events.

(I'm "Hiding" this stuff since it spoils a lot of stuff from several storylines; mainly Chains of Promathia.)

* The defending of Tavnazia in the past is part of the Simulacrum arena's "Historic Battles" selection.

* Retaking the city from the Beastmen forces in the present.

A crazy thought...

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:57 AM

Personal Airships (Mog House addition)
We have outgrown our Mog Houses. They may be nice quiet places to go while in town, but why can't we have a more dynamic base of operations (while keeping our Mog Houses)? Airships are the perfect platform to use for this purpose, flying buildings that aren't limited by location.

* They should have more than one room that we can decorate and store things in, possibly allowing us to set up several rooms with different mog enhancements which we can choose from as our activities change.

* They would also allow us to quickly go where we need to go without waiting on schedules. To avoid the problem of docking: place a teleport rune on the airship and at locations where we can disembark (likely near savepoint crystals and in our Mog Houses in each nation). Moogles can run our airships and manage our landing sites. (Adventuresome moogles may paradive down to create new landing site locations for us! We may have to reach locations by "normal" means before we can simply warp down in the future.)

New Airship Battlegrounds
* Fighting monsters on the deck while in flight will be possible (HNMs that take a group - remember we can invite other people into our moghouses now - same function here) and we can keep our ships in flight for as long as the battle lasts, instead of being tied to scheduled departure and landing times (we don't actually have to have a destination).

We could equip our airships with weaponry (cannons, energy nets) to help us in these battles (furniture), and gather support NPCs (moogles, adventuring fellow, reflector monster) like Tenzen did (Chebuki triplets). This personal airship may also be the only way to reach certain destinations that allow access to HNMs.

New Airship Activities
* New furniture that enables Triple Triad and those tables added to most towns "could" be there (though I don't see them being very popular).

New Airship Zones
These zones would be for airship flight, possibly with Wyrms and other enemies flying around that you could fight on the deck of the Airship, but more importantly, they'd be ways to access regions of some areas that are inaccessible from the ground, similar to the first mission in FFX-2. Clearly, there wouldn't be a sky for every single zone in the game, more like:
* The Skies of Mindartia
* The Skies of Quon
* The Skies of (one for each of the outer continents - maybe one zone entrance is in the highest mountains of an area surrounded by the emptiness below, working its way up.)
* The skies above the Shu'Meyo sea would be too dangerous (need special protection or flight devices) for our airships, requiring the use of Cid's airship in The Sealion's Den in the Safehold. That way, Tu'Lia and Al'Taieu stay off-limits - though, you may be able to teleport to Tu'Lia through the green teleport pads or maybe a new moogle location near the region ownership flag.

A story-related point is that likely, initially, the only ways to reach the outer continents will be by seafaring boats which are notoriously slow for sea voyages as compared to speedy airship travel which doesn't exist outside of the middle lands (we'll have to assume the only airships in existence were created by Cid and the Zilart) and later, teleportation magic? Maybe trains, though they'd have to either go across a massive bridge, or tunnel under the water) (plus, Trains were discontinued in Bastok, but they prove that level of technology is possible) However, only personal airships would make sense to travel to and from these areas in a timely manner (and teleportation methods obviously.)

(another section cut short to get this whole expansion idea out there)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 09:58 AM

Triple Triad
Using the soul plate system to create the cards fits right into the game-related theme of this expansion. It's the perfect game for FFXI to have available anywhere (but due to the coding issues involving NPC dialog filling up whatever space was needed just to cram the Abyssean warp NPCs into certain zones, I could certainly see this game only being available in the field, or special zones like the Coliseum, Chocobo Race Track, Simulacrum Arena, etc) If playing in town meant essentially "zoning into" the Triple Triad zone for each game, and getting warped back to town each time a game was over, it might work out, but it would also cut people off from the shouts they're hoping to hear while waiting around, among other things like party invites. Perhaps this game zone could share the same "Yell" region as towns.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:00 AM

New Jobs:
I fully understand that these are unlikely to be created since we already have 20 jobs, and many of them need adjustments. However, if there is any chance whatsoever that new jobs ARE considered, these are the ones I'd like to see. (There are 6 jobs, keeping things even. The first 2 jobs I personally want to play more than any current jobs available.)

* Chemist (See Full Post/s)
With the advent of Synergy and portable furnaces, Alchemists and Engineers create a way to make the mixing of potions practical on the battlefield with portable alembics and a new method of Chemistry, extracting the essences of practically everything in the world to mix into potent new potions with a wide range of effects, both helpful and harmful.

* Engineer (See Full Post/s)
The nations of Vana'diel again turn to their Engineers to devise a way to protect them now as in the past during the Crystal War and more recently with the help of Cid in the conflicts with the biotechnological weapons such as the Mammets, Ultima & Omega and the Caturae. Their wide range of technological tools, constructs and traps give them the edge in the battles ahead.

* Judgemaster (See Full Post/s)
To oversee the games of the Simulacrum, Judgemasters have been appointed. They use powerful techniques and technologies to enforce "laws" on the participants of battles in their vicinity. They can change the course of a battle by prohibiting certain actions entirely or penalizing their use on one hand, or approving the use of other actions on the other hand. They can also render judgments on the participants of battle, further swaying things one way or the other.

* Mimic (See Full Post/s)
The combat style used by most of the Simulacrum is that of the Mimic, playing to their strengths of being able to learn how to perform techniques and magics after watching a single time, having learned all there is to know about physical and magical combat. They can copy the actions of those around them and pick and choose from abilities and traits they have already mastered for whatever battle they see ahead, adjusting to the challenges they must face. This requires that a mimic already have much experience with combat themselves, long before they attempt to mimic the combat style of someone else.

* Jikuu Sage (time & space mage) (See Full Post/s)
Understanding Atomos and how it interacts with dimensions and time itself, a new school of magic once only known to the Simulacrum becomes known to those of Vana'diel. The strategic use of both the flow of time and warping of space may just give the adventurers the advantage they need. (I totally thought this job was going to be added with Wings of the Goddess)

* Geomancer
I didn't have time to fully flesh this concept out (no post of its own or skill/spell lists), but it would be based mostly on FFT's Axe-wielding Geomancer with a mix of FF3, FF5 (bell wielding guys), and Mog from FF6, using themes from the western continent of Ulbuka with "Native American" and "Aztec/Mayan" visuals.

Mini-Geomancer-post:

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:01 AM

The job I would have added, but didn't:

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:02 AM

New Job: Chemist (CHM)

~*~ The Concept:
The gameplay of Chemist revolves around their items. They have three sources of items, the first of which is open to all players: normal medicines and thrown weaponry. These require a lot of inventory to make use of, do not stack in enough quantity to make use of for extended periods, and can be quite expensive.

Clearly, they must have more practical methods to access potions. To this end, they have a special "Stockpile" of potions for use with their common job abilities that never runs out. They can also freely "Refill" a selection of items into two "Stashed Items" lists (one full of beneficial items, the other destructive) at set intervals. The number and quality of items refilled increases with levels. However, these readily available items are of the most common variety. To make use of the Chemist's true strengths, they must purify, concentrate and mix new items in the field using a "Portable Alembic" to combine ingredients. And that brings up the topic of ingredients.

Ingredients are in constant demand for a Chemist. In the field, they can turn many common items into potent ingredients by "Extract"ing their essences from them. They can then take those base components and use them as ingredients in their most powerful items. Each item requires at least two ingredients. Each item requires a certain mixing time before it becomes available in their "Stashed Item" inventories. Only one of each item can be in this list at any time, so they can't just keep using their most powerful healing or damaging items back to back. Thankfully, they have a diverse list of potential concoctions, if given enough time to prepare.

In combat, Chemists need to be in close range to splash special potions on party members and having applied harmful potions to their weapons, they can deal out nasty, short duration status ailments with melee strikes. But, when that's not necessary, they are fully able to use guns and cannons while lobbing grenades and elemental surprises. (Keeping in mind at all times that Chemist is primarily a healing job nearly on par with White Mage, not a nuking job.)

While this job can both heal and damage, if they're doing one job or the other in their party, they won't have time to mix the strongest or most necessary potions to do either job at the level expected of a dedicated healer or damage dealer. This is an innate limitation placed on the job by its own game mechanics that keeps it from becoming overpowered and doing all things at the same time.

~*~ Game Mechanics
Use Normal Items with increased potency.
* This is more of a last resort for Chemists. They just can't hold too many items.

Use Stockpiled Potions (Always Available)
* The Job Abilities/Traits that use Stockpiled Potions are: Health, First Aid & Auto-Potion
* These JA/Traits explain their functionality by saying they use potions that do not physically exist.

Collect Ingredients
* The Move-Find Item Trait will give random ingredients as they walk around.
* More commonly, ingredients are created through the "Extract" ability which turns many "junk" items into useful ingredients.
* Alchemy Skill, from 1-60, increases chances at extra ingredients being produced through the "Extract" ability.
* Ingredients are stored like Fewell in their "Portable Alembic", not in inventory.
* There are 53 ingredients, and you can store 999 of each.

Mix Items
* These require ingredients that are mixed to create new potions with powerful effects.
* To create "Mixed Items", Chemists must first learn the "Ingredient List" recipes (they act like scrolls.)
* Select the Mixed Item from a list. The command will create the "Mixed Item", consuming the required ingredients.
* Chemists make use of a "Portable Alembic" to create potions (animation only, no mini-game)
* Some items require the use of the "Eureka" ability to allow mixing with new insights. (Balance feature)
* Some mixed items can only be used during the Chemist's 2hr. (Balance feature)
* While most of the items created through Mixing are taken from the "Temporary Items" list provided during events like Besieged, Salvage, and Campaign, ideally, these wouldn't have to be "Temporary Items." My solution would be to add a set of inventory bags that are only available to Chemists or /Chm, similar to the Mog Satchel - Call one a "Mog's Healing Stash" (for 80 beneficial mixed items), the other "Mog's Devastation Stash" (for 80 attack mixed items). Disconnects and zone changes will be massive annoyances otherwise. Items could not be manually moved or traded into or out of these stashes from normal inventories, and the contents of these stashes would be saved through job changes. (minor note: There are far more than 160 possible mixed items, so they can't create one of everything ahead of time anyway. Good Chemists will create items as needed, while keeping a few essentials on hand at all times.)
* The "Refill" ability can be used to provide a selection of "Mix Items" that increases in quality and quantity as your level increases.

In Battle:
* "Peep" to see enemy weaknesses and use the most appropriate items in the battle ahead.
* "Use" or "Sip" any beneficial "Mix Item" on yourself.
* "Apply" a status inflicting potion to your weapon.
* "Splash" any beneficial "Mix Items" on alliance members. (including those normally "self-target only")
* Use "Treatment" to remove & prevent the "Medicated" status of a party member to use "Medicating items" on the same person.
* "Toss", "Lob" and "Launch" attack items onto enemies. (both normal and Mix items, if possible)
* "Prescribe" "Mix Items" to other party members. (move item to their inventory/stash without a trade window)
* Quickly "Purify" items to make them into +1, +2, and +3 versions.
* "Concentrate" items to make their status buffs or debuffs last longer.
* Make your next beneficial potion hit your entire party with "Diffuser."
* Administer "First Aid" and Phoenix Downs to revive KO'd people.

As a Support Job:
Mix times are doubled.
Most of the other drawbacks are level related: Your available mixes are severely reduced, Item potency increasing traits only go up to 40% bonuses, and the most versatile chemist abilities are above level 50.

Combat Skills and Gear:
A+ Throwing (for throwing potions and attack items)
B Marksmanship (primary equippable weapons are guns & cannons; some abilities require a cannon equipped.)
B Club
B Dagger
C Swords would not be out of the question, but limited selection.
C Evasion, C Parry, no shield, no guard, they mainly rely on their auto-potion ability

They wear the "Plate" & "Scale" armor, since they have to hunt down some pretty rare ingredients from some dangerous foes. In parties, they know they need to stay alive if they're going to keep anyone else alive, so they often find themselves in the thick of the battle lines in heavy armor. At times, they also mix in Leather gear with lots of pockets, and Doublets and Harnesses.

Their artifact/relic/empyrean gear should include one set with gold plate armor, gold turban and green accent clothes /scarves /sashes, and a backpack holding many vials, bottles and other tools of the trade hanging off of it.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:02 AM

Chemist JOB ABILITIES

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:03 AM

Chemist JOB ABILITIES (pt2)

Chemist JOB TRAITS

Chemist MERITS (assuming current Merits system, pre-revision)

~*~ Gear

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:05 AM

~*~ Important Lists

List of Extractable Ingredients
Many, many more items can be added to the lists to make better use of "junk" items, since many of these are either dropped or sold to NPCs. If the Chemist job becomes popular enough, there may actually grow to be a demand for these items.
* All of the ingredients can be extracted from level 1 onward. It's the mixes that are level restricted.

Format: Ingredient (Purpose) = Convert one of these base items into this ingredient.

Damage

Status

Restorative

Curative

Protective

Enhancing

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:07 AM

MIX ITEMS
Each Mix will need an "Ingredient List" that functions like a scroll for mages. They are level restricted, so Chemists can't go around with Shadow Flare and Giant's Drinks at level 1, even if they have access to the proper ingredients. This is the list of all possible mixes.
* Levels and potency will still be a matter of balance. I worked out many of them, but I figure it's not going to stay with my figures anyway, so too much work for too little benefit.
* All +1, +2, and +3 items must be "Purifed" from the base item and have no direct Ingredient Lists of their own.
* "Self only" potions can only be used on others by use of chemist abilities, or given to them through abilities.
* Each mix will have its own charge time to create and recast before the same item can be mixed again.

Format: Mix Results (effect) Ingredients

Healing

Pet Healing

Beneficial Status (I did not finish the levels for each status)

Protections (I did not finish adding levels for each protection)

Status Recovery (I did not finish adding levels for each status recovery)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:09 AM

MP Restoring Ethers

HP and MP Restoring Elixirs

TP Restoring

Elemental Physical Damage Items (Damage ranges: "Small":50-175 / "Medium":250-300 / "Large":400-500 )

Non-Elemental Physical Damage Items (Damage ranges: "Small":50-175 / "Medium":250-300 / "Large":400-500 )

Non-Elemental Magic Damage Item

Enfeebling (I did not finish adding levels for each enfeeble)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:10 AM

New Job: Engineer (ENG)

~*~ The Concept:
Engineer abilities revolve around using tools and structures. Their understanding of technology has allowed them to make use of allied and beastman technologies as well as relics of the ancient Olduum, Kuluu and Zilart civilizations. Pioneered during the Crystal War, many of the abilities of the Engineer are also related to the tools of war; bombs and structures on the field of battle. With the increasing number of dangerous mechanical monsters, the nations now rely on their engineers to gain an advantage when facing such threats.

~*~ Game Mechanics:
Engineers can deal significant damage to enemies, debilitate them, buff themselves and put up major defenses, enabling them to focus on any of these facets to a great degree, perhaps even allowing them to switch from tank to DD to support as the need arises.

Several Engineer abilities are only effective against "Machine Enemies." There are several monster families that contain monsters that fit this category, but not all types within those families are mechanical.
In context of Engineer abilities, for future reference, "Machine Enemies" are:
* Arcana (Magical Pots, Spheroids, Golems, Acroliths, Mammets, Cardians, Caturae, Dolls, Mimics, Iron Giants)
* Archaia (Gears, Chariots, Ramparts, Mirrors)
* Luminions (Ghrah, Zdei)
* Warmechs (Ultima, Omega)
* Orcish Warmachine, Automatons, Siege Engines, Fortifications, Structures
* Maybe Memory Receptacle as an "Empty Machine" of some sort
(Arcana that are NOT machines: Evil Weapons, Bombs, Snolls, Djinn, Clusters, Khimairas)

Some tools can be directly bought or swiftly converted from Automaton attachments. Most tools are created by finding or purchasing Blue Prints (with a list of components on it), then collecting the necessary "components" (usually by using "dismantle" on mechanical enemies) and finally bringing them to certain NPCs to combine them together:
Cid for the exotic "Kuluu and Zilart" Tools.
Cid's Galka assistant Raibaht for "Allied" and "Beastman" Tools.
Raibaht (Abyssea) for Caturae Tool(s).
Dkhaaya the Olduum researcher for "Olduum" Tools.
Ghatsad (or an assistant) for automaton attachment conversion to Tools.

You could say all tools are "quested" in this manner. The resulting tools are "used" and are placed in the Engineer's Toolbox which is accessed by the Engineer's "Tools" Command in combat.

To power their tools, they make use of a Kinetic Converter that changes kinetic energy in the form of "Tactical Points" into energy usable by tools. This power can be stored in rechargable power cells for future use with their tools when there is more demand. Not all tools require as much energy as others, allowing for multiple tools to be used in rapid succession.

When dealing with the ancient technologies, engineers have discovered some that fuse magic with technology, called Magitek. These require both TP and MP to activate. Their effects can be quite powerful, but they are just another type of technology, not superior in all respects to others engineers have access to (they generally cost much less TP).

While tools are the mainstay of Engineer combat, they also make use of traps, bombs and structures on the field of battle. These all require proximity either to the enemy, alliance, or the Engineer. When allowed to make advanced preparations, or when they're not the target of attacks, they can surround themselves and their enemies with various machines.

In combat against machines, Engineers have many advantages. They can "Dismantle" and "Sabotage" machines, causing major damage and status afflictions. They can also "Reverse Engineer" the beneficial status effects on these enemies, emulating the technology used to create them for themselves.

~*~ In Battle:
* Use Construct to set up defenses and regenerative structures.
* For Machine enemies, use Dismantle to cause damage and Sabotage to enfeeble it.
* Reverse Engineer a machine's buffs to copy their effects.
* Use Magitek upgrade or Supercharge to enhance your melee attacks.
* Use Construct to add to your damage and place traps that both continue their effects over time.
* Use Signal Jammer (Machine Circle) and Electronic Interference to give your party the edge it needs.
* Use TP to activate tools for your main source of damage.
* Use Demolition to set bombs on enemies. Blow up bombs and traps with ranged attacks to intensify their effects.
* When TP is not needed, or to prepare for a strategy, store TP in power cells for future use.
* Link Reserves to use the power cells to activate tools in rapid succession.

As a Support Job:
Allows use of TP to cause extra damage or use other tools without consuming all TP, unlike weaponskills.
As Dancer is the TP-based healing support job - Engineer is the TP-based damage support job (non-weaponskill)
Very useful for Puppetmaster (unique ways to heal automaton)
Cannot target bombs and traps with Guns for early detonation bonuses, no Spear bonus to Dismantle, no enhanced Sabotage duration with Hammers.

Combat Skills and Gear:
A- Spear
B- Club
B- Marksmanship
B- Sword (Edgar could use all swords & "Charged Ammo" swords were "made for" Engineer)
C Dagger (since many "Charged Ammo" weapons are daggers too)
C+ Throwing (grenades and such)
Defensive:
C+ Parry, B+ Shield, D Evasion, no guard

They primarily wield Spears (Edgar FFVI, Cid FFVII), Hammers (Cid FFIV) and Guns (Mustadio FFT).
Spears are their strongest weapons and enhance "Dismantle" damage.
Hammers are their utility weapons; their selection should cause status effects. They enhance "Sabotage" duration.
Guns are for ranged damage and can be used to enhance the damage done by bombs and potency of statuses caused by traps.
They have low gun skill so their damage doesn't get too high with ranged, but they have tools that increase ranged accuracy.
Swords are for their special ammo-boosted melee weapons. (insert gunblade here, half-joke)

Their tools don't generally require ranged positioning, and their constructs provide them with bonuses for being nearby. Since they like to "dig in", they wear Plate armor when defense really matters, but usually find their special features on Chain, Scale, and Harnesses. Robes/Hooded gear would be only for looks, like the Armathrwn Society.

Artifact/Relic/Empyrean (and possibly other normal gear for Engineers) should include headgear like helmets with goggles, glasses, and that one-eye visor Nag'molada wore. They could even get Goblin-esque face masks for dealing with bombs and such. Advanced gear may include "Mana Batteries" that grant Max MP to engineers, since their Magitek tools require MP to function and they do not have any innate MP, and a mage support job would not be beneficial.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:10 AM

JOB ABILITIES

Job Ability (Category): Tools
Level 10
Tools (sub-menus)
> Offensive
> Debilitation
> Utility
> Defensive
> Travel

Use tools to produce a variety of effects.
This is the mainstay of the Engineer Job. Their tools are taken from many technological sources, from Goblins and Bastokan researchers to Olduum, Kuluu and Zilart ruins.
* Each tool has its own separate Minimum Level, Charge time and Recast. (No shared global tool timer.)
* Most tools require varying amounts of TP to activate.
* Since tools will not provide the Engineer with TP earned on hits, they should give very little (if any) TP to the enemy.
* It would be *nice* if "Offensive-sub-menu" tools could participate in skillchains, but that may be a lot to ask.
* Some tools can be bought from shops in Bastok or Al Zahbi.
* Some tools can be adapted from Automaton Attachments. Marked with (A)
* Some tools can only be created by taking weapon components from machine enemies. Marked with (W - enemy type)
* Some tools are "Magitek", requiring both TP and MP to activate. Marked with (M)
* The balancing aspect of the tools is a combination of timers and TP/MP requirements. I do not think they need to 'set' these abilities like Blue Mages or equip them like Automatons. If they can get enough TP in the time it takes to use these abilities, they're giving up weaponskill damage to do it. If any more balance is needed, I'd just require use of Charged Cells for certain tool activations instead of current TP.

* Offensive Tools (Primarily Damage Dealing) (they start with Auto-Crossbow default, part of intro quest, ideally)

* Debilitation Tools (Negative Effects)

* Utility Tools (Positive Effects)

* Defensive Tools

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:12 AM

* Travel Tools (No TP or MP cost, most simply have very long recast timers)

(Lower level) Engineer JOB ABILITIES

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:13 AM

Job Ability (category): Construct
Level: Varies by structure.
Construct (sub-menus)
> Continuous Traps
> Regenerating
> Damage
> Protection

Allows the Engineer to construct several battlefield machines to aid in battle.
* Only 1 of each category of construct can be active for each Engineer. (1 trap, 1 healing, 1 damage, 1 protection)
* They can be removed by the same Engineer that constructed them, so a different structure can be put up.
* They require a "Construction Kit" in inventory, not ammo.
* Multiple constructs of the same type have cumulative effects, when 2 or more Engineers are present.
* Constructs have HP. They can be destroyed by damage.
* Constructs have durations. They disappear after a certain amount of time.
* Constructs gain enmity so enemies want to attack them, with no further actions other than existing.
* Moving interrupts building.
* Taking direct damage interrupts building.

Continuous Traps: Set down traps that regularly(15sec) produce a short duration(5-15sec) AoE enfeeble.
(Appearance: Glyphs of Light that produce pulses of light)
Traps can be targeted by the Engineer with their gun, and when they are destroyed by this attack they produce their normal AoE enfeeble with higher potency, and a longer duration than normal.

Regenerating: Structures that provide AoE regenerative powers to the alliance.

Damage: These structures deal damage at regular intervals.

Protection: Structures that protect the Engineer.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:13 AM

(Higher level) Engineer JOB ABILITIES

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:14 AM

Engineer JOB TRAITS

Engineer MERITS (assuming current Merits system, pre-revision)

~*~ Gear ~*~

Other machines I couldn't categorize properly:

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:15 AM

New Job: Judgemaster (JDG)

~*~ The Concept:
To oversee the games of the Simuilacrum, Judgemasters have been appointed. They use powerful techniques and technologies to enforce "laws" on the participants of battles in their vicinity. They can change the course of a battle by Prohibiting certain actions entirely or penalizing their use on one hand, or approving the use of other actions. They can also render judgments on the participants of battle, further swaying things one way or the other.

Judgemasters control the battlefield. Their means to regulate battle are the "Laws" of combat. These "Laws" are imposed upon a battlefield by means of "Judge Cards." All Judge Cards create a very large aura effect around the Judge, impacting equally all players and monsters in battle range. The range extends beyond the maximum casting distance so everybody involved in the battle is held to the laws.

Their abilities are based on a combination of Legal Judge and Referee, since they took on this merged role in several games, both in their role in the story, and their functions in gameplay.

~*~ Game Mechanics:
There are four types of "Judge Cards":
Yellow: Penalty Cards - Penalize actions.
Red: Prohibition Cards - Prevent specific actions.
White: Approval Cards - Reward actions.
Blue: Permission Cards - Bypass Prohibitions.

These cards activate the "Judgment Field" device (Key Item) that the Simulacrum created after studying the Olduum civilization's technologies and the Iron Colossus in particular. This device creates a localized effect around the Judgemaster, akin to Pathos and Sanction, based on the Judge Cards used.

Prohibitions and Permission

Prohibitions are the most powerful of the cards. These Red Cards prevent the specified actions from being used by anyone involved in the battle. The only ways non-judges can perform actions currently prohibited is for a Judge to grant temporary permission with an "exempt judgment" or cancel a prohibition with their permission via a Blue Card.

Penalized and Approved

If someone breaks the "law" of a currently active yellow card, the "Penalized" status will be inflicted on the offender that lasts until the penalty card is removed from play or expires, and the Judge who's rule was broken gains a Judgment Point. Continually performing penalized actions while "Penalized" can result in being afflicted with "Timeout" status.

After triggering the approval effect of a white card, the "Approved" status will be granted, lasting until the approval card is removed from play or expires and the Judge who's recommendation was followed gains a Judgment Point. Continually performing approved actions while "Approved" can result in gaining the "Advantage" status.

If a person engaged in combat involving a Judgemaster is under a card effect and they leave the combat area, the card effect will be removed, but they will have a new status: "Spectator." In this status, they cannot interact with any player or monster under a Judge Card effect at all, and for the next 30 seconds after returning to the aura effect area. (The Spectator status can also be used in other areas of the game to allow players to watch battles without interacting with anyone involved.) Anyone who takes any action on anyone with a card effect on them becomes subject to the card effect, with the same benefits and restrictions as those directly involved with combat.

Use of Judgment Points

Judgments can be rendered by spending Judgment Points. A Judgment point is lost when the Judge breaks a penalty card's restriction. Judges can take actions normally prohibited by Yellow or Red cards as long as they have a Judgment Point to be spent for each action, without any other penalty. Judges will still be marked with "Penalized" by breaking a penalty (This is important because of their Job Trait: Fair Play)

* Judges can accrue 50 Judgment Points and they stay for 2hrs. They are lost when the Judge changes zones.
* Only 1 of each Card can be in effect at any time for each Judgemaster. (one Yellow, Red, White (blue only removes red))
* Only 1 of each effect can be active at any time. (2 Judges cannot have the same Penalty, Prohibition or Approval active)
* NPC Judges have longer lists of Penalties, Prohibitions, Approvals and Judgments that are not accessible to players.
* Penalties, Prohibitions and Approvals are learned via "Law Cards" which are used like spell scrolls.
* Separate "Law Cards" are needed for each Job, Magic School, Enfeeble & Buff for each Penalty, Prohibition and Approval.
* Judgments are simply gained by levels.
* There are some broad categories that function identically, "Job", "Race" (includes both monster families and player races), "Magic School", "Weapon Type" (includes individual weapons and general damage types), "Enfeeble" and "Buff". These would tend to make the listings quite difficult to navigate manually due to how many options there are. (macros would bypass this issue for often used options) If possible, I suggest breaking up the "Declare" commands into new Category menus with sub-menus within the category.

~*~ In Battle:
* Declare Penalties to produce increasingly potent enfeebles on enemies and build Judgment Points.
* Declare Prohibitions to stop specific actions for short periods of time.
* Declare Approvals on actions to help you and your allies and build Judgment Points.
* Use Judgment Points to render Judgments against enemies or for allies.
* Enforce Penalties with "Penalty Box", and reward those who are Approved with "Advantage"
* Keep your party safe from enemy Judges with Abate, Yellow Clip and Judge's Permission.

As a Support Job:
They cannot use Prohibitions at all.
The Penalized and Approved conditions do not have a chance to automatically cause "Timeout" and "Advantage."

Combat Skills and Gear:
* Polearms A- (no spears/lances/javelins) They get access to a new design: The Glaive (Scimitar, Spear or other large blade on each end of a staff for Drg, Sam, Jdg - Slashing and Piercing versions) This is the signature weapon for Judgemasters.
* Great Sword A-, Great Katana A- (these weapons fit them well, but wouldn't be geared toward Judgemaster in most cases)
* Sword B-, Katana B+ (these are for use when dual wielding)
* Great Axe C+, Axe C+, Staff C+, Hand-to-Hand C+, Club C+ (they're skilled melee combatants, but not as good as War)
* Throwing C+ (books)
* Evasion C, Parry B+, no shield skill, C guard skill, no magic skills

They wear Plate armor like Paladins, but they rely mostly on their penalties, prohibitions and judgments for defense. (Plate, Chain, Scale)

Artifact/Relic/Empyrean gear needs to be impressive plate armor with a ram-horned or dragon-horned helmet.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:15 AM

Judgemaster JOB ABILITIES

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:16 AM

Judgments

These abilities can only be used by spending "Judgment Points." Most of them require large amounts of JP to prevent them from being used too often, even if their timers are up. Also, there are many Penalties and Approvals that will not grant many JP compared to others, making use of Judgments less frequent to balance their usefulness. Only 50 JP can be stored at any time for up to 2 hours like Finishing Moves and they are lost upon zoning.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:16 AM

Job Ability: Declare Penalty
Level 10
Duration: 5min
Recast: 2min

Using a Yellow Card, declare a ruling on the field of battle to change the required strategies. These penalties are able to be avoided if the participants follow the ruling. Those who break the penalty rulings will be found worthy of adverse judgment.
* If someone breaks a penalty rule, they receive the "Penalized" status with differing effects for each rule. In addition, if they break the same penalty rule under this status, they may randomly be inflicted with the "Timeout" status, and the "penalized" status makes them vulnerable to the Judgemaster's "Penalty Box" ability (which forcibly induces the "Timeout" status.) (See Job Ability: "Penalty Box" for details).
* The "Penalized" status remains until the Penalty Card they breached is no longer in play.
* Penalty effects start out weak, increasing in potency with each infraction. (Like Dnc steps)
* The "Blind" status occasionally stops a Judge from being awarded a Judgment Point. Also reduces the "Vigilance" trait's ability to grant an extra JP for penalty breaches and from granting random JP on recurring penalty breaches.

Penalty List (Requires Yellow "Penalty" Cards)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:17 AM

Job Ability: Declare Approval
Level 10
Duration: 5min
Recast: 2min

Declaring a certain set of actions to be approved encourages battle participants to use strategies involving those actions. When participants do so, those actions grant Judgment Points to the Judge. Participants who have gained the approval of a Judge are granted additional bonuses as an incentive. Continuing to perform "Approved" actions can result in the "Advantage" status.

Approval List (Requires White "Approval" Cards) Long durations.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:18 AM

Job Ability: Declare Prohibition
Level 30
Duration: 2min
Recast: 5min

Using a Red Card, the Judge can declare certain actions illegal, preventing their use entirely.
Notorious monsters may partially resist this effect, treating it like selective paralysis.

Prohibition List (Requires Red "Prohibition" Cards)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:18 AM

Judgemaster JOB TRAITS

Judgemaster MERITS (assuming current Merits system, pre-revision)

~*~ Gear ~*~

Special "Declare Prohibition" Laws: (Used by NMs, Arena Judges, and some other NPC Judges)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:19 AM

New Job: Mimic (MIM)

~*~ The Concept:
This job is the culmination of the Simulacrum's knowledge of battle. Mastering mimicry requires the mastery of many other disciplines of combat first. The full extent of mimicry's potential is only realized in combat at the side of those who have mastered their own disciplines of combat. Since their native job abilities are mainly for mimicing their party, of all the jobs, this job is impacted the most by its selection of support job and party composition. They have complete use of their support job's non-merit spells, abilities and traits, however they suffer from lower overall stats including HP and MP.

~*~ Game Mechanics:
* Low basic stats compared to other jobs. (Str/Dex/Vit/Int/Mnd/Chr/HP and MP)
* Able to use all of the abilities and traits of their support job, all the way up to 99. (with the exception of their 2hour)
* Able to set Job Traits. (starting with 1 Trait at level 1, 2 at 10, 3 at 30, 4 at 50, 5 at 70, up to 10 with merits)
Selectable Job Traits are collected from all previously leveled jobs (up to Mimic's current level). ("set" like Blue Magic, only limited by number, not by "set points" - the highest tier of any Job Trait that is set also sets all lower tiers of that Job Trait for no additional set slots.)
* Able to set abilities from any other previously leveled jobs. (starting with 3 at level 1, up to 8 with merits)
Can only set Job Abilities and Spells up to the Mimic's current level. They can add Provoke when they reach level 5, but must wait until level 35 for High Jump. Spells share slots with job abilities for a Mimic, so they can only have 3(8) individual spells and abilities available through this method.
* Traits, spells and abilities that are set will never include those unlocked only through merits.
* Traits and abilities can be set in the field, but all timers (except 2hour) are triggered when set. (If you set Chakra, you'll have to wait 3 minutes before you can use it. If at the same time you set Warcry, you'd have to wait 5 minutes before you could use it, independently of Chakra's cooldown.)
* Setting Traits and Abilities are handled separately. Setting Traits will not trigger ability/spell cooldown timers, however, those traits will not be in effect until 1 minute passes.
* There could be a provision for Mimics to be able to have a higher "Crystal Limit" than other jobs, to set more shards in the "Crystal Shards Character Advancement System", offsetting their innately lower abilities.

There are 2 forms of mimicry: Perfect and Imperfect

Imperfect: You do not have access to either the Job Ability/Spell, or have not unlocked the target's job.
* Imperfect Mimicry will have a delay in the mimed ability's activation. (5 seconds)
* Increases recast time on the mimed ability by at least 50% if not more.
* Less powerful effect than original Job Ability/Spell where applicable. (like Meditate, Sneak Attack and Utsusemi)
* See "Imperfect Mimicry" entry for other drawbacks for specific mime abilities.

Perfect: You must have access to the Job Ability or Spell on a previously leveled job.
* No delay between the action and the mimicry.
* No increased recast timers.
* Acts as if you are the Main Job when you perform the action.
* Alternative access to perfect mimicry: Merited trait that removes "imperfect" drawbacks.

In Battle:
* Mimic another player's "combat style" to set skill caps and draw on your own skill from previous jobs.
(When solo, Mimic yourself to use your support job's skill caps at its main job level)
* Copycat someone's Job Ability or Echo someone's magic, as needed.
* Borrow a spell or ability from anyone in your party for one-time use.
* Shadow box to increase both evasion and rate of attack.
* Trap enemies in an invisible box so their attacks backfire and can't reach you.
* Occasionally freely use a weaponskill if others in the party perform a weaponskill who are using the same weapon type and are under your "Mimic Combat Style" status.

As a Support Job:
Cannot set Job Abilities, Traits or Spells.
All mimicry is "Imperfect."

Combat Skills and Gear:
C+ skill cap in all skills: Weapons, defensive skills, and magic skills. (see abilities)
(This means, they can gain skill in any of these categories, and merit them at 75)
Their gear is a complete mix of all types, although, Robes, Doublets and Tunics are "for looks".
(see Job Trait: Attire Simulacry)

Their Artifact, Relic, and Emyprean gear is mismatched robes with gaudy colors, patterns and textures. They wear hoods and veils that cover their faces. They can "be anything", so they prefer to appear "like nothing and everything" as the case may be.

NPC Mimics would also wear big jewelry both to distract and to advertise their prominence in the Simulacrum.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:20 AM

Mimic JOB ABILITIES

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:20 AM

Mimic JOB TRAITS (their only unique traits that they don't have to set)

Mimic MERITS (assuming current Merits system, pre-revision)

~*~ Gear

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:21 AM

New Job: Jikuu Sage (JKS) (Time and Space Dimension Mage)

~*~ The Concept:
Jikuu Sages are masters of magic that manipulate the dimensions of time and space. They are sometimes called "Time Mages" by those who wish to over-simplify what they do when they explain this to the commonfolk and footsoldiers.

Selectively speeding up time is a great advantage, allowing faster combat & travel, and can be crippling to enemies, aging them beyond their years in a matter of seconds. Slowing down time can allow for faster response times, longer durations to status buffs and slower movement speed for enemies you'd rather not deal with right now.

Not to be forgotten, is their control over space, allowing them to attack from a distance through folds in space-time, increasing the effects of gravity, opening a portal to other locations on Vana'diel, and even into deep space to draw in a swarm of flaming meteorites or causing an icy comet to crash into an enemy.

~*~ Game Mechanics:
They use their powers to make time flow in ways that benefit themselves and hinder their foes. Most of their power comes from their spells, but they also have Job Abilities that alter time & space. Due to the abundance of Job Abilities, they are most like Scholar of all the mages in terms of how they play. Many of their spells and abilities are complimentary to other mages, freeing those other mages to focus on other tasks that they are more suited to perform.

In Battle:
* Perhaps begin by remembering the perfect condition of your party as a Pivotal Moment in the battle. Then use Temporal Reversion on party members to restore them to their earlier condition when they are seriously injured, die, or just need their Ability or Spell timers back (at great cost to you).
* Speed up your allies with spells like Haste, Flurry, Quicken and Accelerate.
* Slow down your enemies with spells like Slow, Bind, Gravity, Slow Motion, Singularity and Stop.
* Then bring the heavens crashing down on them with Stardust and Comet spells.
* If you saved Pivotal Moment, use it when the enemy is near death or before it has a chance to use a powerful self-buff, just in case it has a chance to restore itself for some reason. Send the enemy back to its near-death or pre-buffed condition.

As a Support Job:
This job has many spells and abilities that will be useful as a support job.
Many mages could make use of its special spells for enhancing and enfeebling.
Some melee jobs might be able to use the Job Abilities, rather than spells in useful ways (still very limited since most of their job abilities cost MP to use).

Combat Skills and Gear:
B- Staff
B- Club
C+ Dagger
Enhancing Magic A-
Enfeebling Magic A+
Elemental Magic B+
Dark Magic C
Divine Magic C
Evasion C

They wear Robes and Tunics for armor, as they're "Back line" mages.

Their Artifact, Relic, and Emyprean gear is a mix of blue, purple, white and orange robes with tall orange hats often decorated with a single giant star (The star symbolizes Atomos' cavernous maw, so they may stylize their hats to be similar to maws).

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:22 AM

JIKUU SPELLS
Most of these spells deal directly with time and space manipulation, with healing & damage "Over Time" spells thrown in to round out their abilities, and these are generally drawn from other jobs. Unique spells may fit better, but this is easier.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:23 AM

JIKUU SPELLS (part 2)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:23 AM

Jikuu Sage JOB ABILITIES
Most of their Job Abilities cost MP to use or maintain, unlike most other jobs. They are different from spells in that they cannot be interrupted, nor do they have casting times; they are Job Abilities.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:24 AM

Jikuu Sage JOB TRAITS

Jikuu Sage MERITS (assuming current Merits system, pre-revision)

~*~ Gear

~*~ Time for a Jikuu Sage joke!

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:25 AM

~*~ The Simulacrum Soul Plate Shops ~*~
One of the more eccentric techniques of the Simulacrum is the manipulation of soul plates. These can be used to create many different things, even combining plates together to customize the results. The Simulacrum allows storage of soul plates as long as they get to study them. The main creations of "Soul Plate Simulacry" offered to adventurers are:
* Soul Plate Storage (lots of plates - we're looking at a lot more usage of soul plates)
* Customized Maze Runes (Rune Fusing)
* Tabula Overlays (Tabula Overlaying)
* Triple Triad Cards
* Corsair Cards
* Automaton AI Cards
* Judgemaster's Law Cards (function like spell scrolls) and Judge Cards (consumables for Judgemaster abilities)

Take pictures of creatures from around the world and then use them for a myriad of purposes.

* Soul Plate Storage
The Simulacrum will give adventurers a Soul Plate Album that they can drop plates into for safe keeping, which will allow them to study the contents from afar. Due to the unique nature of each soul plate, this storage feature may take one of several forms (new inventory section, a key item list, something like an automaton attachments menu ... they all may work), best decided by SE's programmers, but ideally, it will hold one of each unique plate, and many more than just 80.

* Rune Fusing
Fuse runes with soul plates to specify the exact enemies you want to face in your mazes.

Examples of Fusing:

* Tabula Overlaying
The Simulacrum saw great potential in the moblin tabulae and set about perfecting them, creating new field effects.

Overlay Process:

* Introduce at least one new tabula with more holes to fill, please.

* Triple Triad Cards
One of the more simple transformations is making Soul Plates into Triple Triad cards. Each monster has its own stats in card form, not changing based on anything on the Soul Plate. Boss cards are some of the most powerful in the game.

* New Corsair Cards
Soul Plates can be turned into special cards used in <Job Ability Not Yet Created>.
(Corsairs may also gain this as a normal Job Ability to create these cards directly from monsters in battle without first making a soul plate)

* Automaton AI Cards
Soul Plates can be turned into Artificial Intelligence program cards for Automatons. These are equipped like attachments in 2 new slots (not attachment slots) one in the head, one in the body, and they change the AI of the Automaton, giving players control over the abilities used by the automaton and access to new abilities and traits.

These AI Cards are separated into two groups: Weapon and Ether Control Cards. While they only drop from Archaic Machinery (Gears, Chariots, Ramparts), many Soul Plate cards can be used in the creation of AI cards to enable other special properties. Ether Control Cards can only be created from soul plates taken of enemies with mage jobs. (AI cards are added to the Automaton's attachment list, or something exactly like it, only for cards.)

Judgemaster's "Judge Cards" and "Law Cards"

* Judge Cards
While all four can be purchased from a Simulacrum city merchant, they can also be crafted.

Synthesis recipes for the consumable Judge Cards:
(1 Synthesis creates NQ 33, HQ1 66, HQ2 99, HQ3 99x2) Quiver into Cases.
Penalty (Yellow) Polyflan Paper x1, Paralysis Powder x1, Yellow Textile Dye x1, Earth Crystal
Prohibition (Red) Polyflan Paper x1, Terroanima x1, Red Textile Dye x1, Earth Crystal
Approval (White) Polyflan Paper x1, (any Mandragora Bud x1), White Textile Dye x1, Earth Crystal
Permission (Blue) Polyflan Paper x1, Photoanima x1, Blue Textile Dye x1, Earth Crystal

* Law Cards
Law Cards are the means by which Judgemasters learn their Penalties, Prohibitions and Approvals.
These are created by bringing in a soul plate related to one of the laws. Each soul plate could create a range of laws depending on the monster in the picture. Thus, this method of card creation must ask for which law you wish to learn from those available. The NPC will create the selected Law Card from the soul plate. The NPC will keep the soul plate as payment to research, while you get the Law Card for free.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:26 AM

Details about Automaton AI Control Cards
Based on Empress Jubleel's research into programming Automatons so they could act on their own without direct control of every action by their Puppeteer, the Simulacrum scientists have created new programming AI cards to modify the actions of Automatons using the traits and tendencies of creatures whose data has been recorded on soul plates.

I'd only expect an On/Off sort of system, or choosing triggers from the elemental list, but if a rudimentary "Gambit" system could be put in place for more precise control, it would be even better, though not a realistic expectation. For those who think Pup already has enough control of their automaton through maneuvers, I think it's far too limiting, and new attachments keep eating active maneuvers, ruining control setups, both for weaponskills and magic priorities.)

AI cards can be switched out on the fly, and flipping abilities and spells on and off can be done without deactivating the automaton, unlike attachments. (Switching any option on or off will reset all hidden ability timers for abilities like Shock Absorber, ranged attack and spellcasting cooldown as if they had just been used.)

All Weapon Control Cards (WCC):
* Enable/Disable weaponskills and abilities from a menu.
* Last used Control checklist should be saved for each Head/Frame combination. (I won't suggest this for each AI card)
* This removes maneuvers from the weaponskill priority system.

Weapon Control Cards created from most enemies simply grant the generic job traits of the source monster's job to the Automaton. Bosses sometimes grant unique traits and the occasional abilities to the automaton.

Examples:

All Ether Control Cards (ECC):
* Enable/Disable spells from a menu.
* Ether Control Cards often add all the spells of their source monster's job.
* Cards can also add an AI tendency to prefer certain spells over others.
* Maneuvers now only control attachments, not AI.
* Last used Control checklist should be saved for each Head/Frame combination. (I won't suggest this for each AI card)
* The menu for spells cannot be as detailed as Weaponskills since there are so many more options. They should be grouped together, such as:

The list would auto-trim down to only those spells available with the Head/Frame combination in use.

Example Ether Control Cards:

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:27 AM

Fat Chocobo Storage
A new field-accessible storage inventory of 80 slots.
(Requires key item "Gysahl Whistle" earned from Chocobo Derby)

New Weapon Varieties (These are only varieties of existing weapons using new models, but sharing their family's combat skill, weaponskills, animations, etc - not a suggestion for brand new weapons)

* Polearm:
~ Glaive (Scimitar, Spear or other large blade on each end of a staff for Drg, Sam, Jdg - Slashing and Piercing versions) This is the signature weapon for Judgemasters.
~ Swallow (Dagger, Katana or other thin blade on each end of a staff for Drg, Sam, Thf - Slashing and Piercing versions) This requires that Thief be given Polearm skill, but only allowed to wield the Swallow versions. It gives Thf a 2-handed alternative that may be advantageous compared to daggers, in some situations.
* Scythe:
~ Reaper (A Scythe blade at each end of a staff. Can't leave Drk out of all the fun of dual-ended weapons!)
* Ranged:
~ Whip (Ranged/returning weapon for Smn, Bst, Dnc, - Slashing Damage) (allows auto-ranged-attack from a distance?)
~ Book (Grimoire for Sch and Law Book for Jdg - Magic and Blunt versions + Slashing paper cuts? + Piercing words?)
~ Dice (Deal random damage depending on roll, plus used in a new Corsair ability to use the results of the last 3 rolls to determine a new effect like slots - Probably Blunt damage, maybe magical, for the basic roll/toss attack) These may be a new type of ammo rather than a new ranged weapon.
* Dagger:
~ Fan (Dancer defensive weapon, Folding fans, most have bladed edges - Slashing and Blunt versions, technically more of a female weapon, so to make their appearance less feminine, I suggest each fan-fold be a blade. An additional thought is that Dancer has some Hand-to-hand skill and some fans could be wielded like Hand-to-Hand weapons, similar to Sainti so they all don't have to be in the Dagger family, although, I'd raise their skill to at least C+ in H2H if Fans are made H2H. And I'd give them very good guard skill (B?), the whole point of fans in the first place.)
* Sword:
~ Gunblade (half-joke, but really, we've already got weapons that use special ammo for additional effects (wind fans, hydro pumps and batteries -- not to mention Virtue Stones and Magnus stones) mainly for Cor, Rng, Eng - Slashing Damage + additional effect)

The only additional touches I'd add to these weapon varieties are:
* New animations for variety in main attacks and always for double attacks while wielding the dual-bladed weapons:
~ A double attack should make use of the "other" end of the weapon in a fluid jumping, 360 degree-rotation animation. This isn't necessary, but would be a really impressive touch emphasizing the agility required to wield them.
* Gunblades could always produce the additional damage effect as long as they have ammo, even on weaponskills. Probably too complex to add this, but I'll leave that up to the programmers.

Throwing Combat Specialties
Each job with throwing skill gains access to a command menu that makes use of their unique combat style.
Ninja: Throwing Arts
Thief: Concealed Weapon
Puppetmaster: Transmit
Beastmaster: Whiplash
Corsair: Trick Dice
Dancer: Flamenco
Ranger: Trick Shots
Monk: Blitz
Summoner: Subdue
Samurai: Toss
Warrior: Hurling
Dragoon: Javelin
Judgemaster: Law Book
Chemist: Item Tossing
Engineer: Sabotage
Bard: Cacophony
Black Mage: Channeling
White Mage: Restoring
Red Mage: Channeling and Restoring
Scholar: Grimoire Toss
Jikuu Sage: Dimensional Weapon
Geomancer: Toll
(See related "Ranged Weapon Abilities" (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/2936-Throwing-WS?p=102776&viewfull=1#post102776) and new job posts)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:29 AM

For a game with such a broad history of summoned monsters, FFXI could have a much richer selection. Of all the possibilities, I've worked out the details for relatively few (only 6), but I have brainstormed a potential list of 53 (including the 13 current summons - counting Cait Sith and Atomos, but not including the "Nature Pact" summons.)

New Summons:
Atomos (follower) Enfeebler
Siren (follower) Manipulator
Asura (follower) AoE Healing
Maduin (follower) (the winged moogle-lion avatar, also called "Madeen") Holy attack
Phoenix (new 2hr: Rebirth Flame plus conditional 'random' activation, see summons for more details) Resurrection
Bahamut (new 2hr: Megaflare) Epic Fire attack
See Chocobo Derby rewards for additional "Nature Pact" summons - similar to the dangerous original Animastery of Karaha-Baruha.

I could see the potential to add Bahamut as a new 2hr summon, if, in the story, he can be convinced to lend a fraction of his powers to the adventurers. Restoring light to the Mothercrystals as part of the new endgame event "Warriors of the Light" may earn his trust, since he seems to be a protector of the crystals (or at least protector of keeping the crystals separate).

Tenzen said: "Bahamut is known as the conqueror of the skies for a reason. The power he and his minions possess is beyond anything we could imagine--the power to control time and space." So, they have a link to Atomos/Cait Sith...

Cait Sith and Atomos were recently announced Officially as new summons, Cait Sith being a carbuncle-type follower and Atomos is just a 2hr... disappointing. I'll still present my concept of a follower-Atomos, since it takes into consideration the addition of the Jikuu Sage and its selection of spells the same way elemental avatars use the magic of Black Mages (and they can still change Atomos, using the 2hr ability as its Astral Flow).

A review of Summons and a look into the potential future.

Terrestrial Avatars (guarding the Mothercrystals):
Rabbit/Squirrel/Rat: Carbuncle, Bringer of Rainbows (Light of Holla: Courage) (Taru)
Wyrm: Bahamut, Conqueror of the Skies/Guardian of the Gates of Paradise (Light of Dem: Compassion) (Mithra)
Bird: Phoenix, Bird of Resurrection (Light of Al'Taieu: Justice) (Galka)
Wolf: Fenrir, Guardian of the Moon/Tomorrow (Light of Mea: Trust) (Elvaan)
Bat: Diabolos, Ruler of Dreams (Light of Vahzl: Hope) (Hume)

Celestial Avatars (Elemental Protocrystals):
Fire: Ifrit
Earth: Titan
Water: Leviathan
Wind: Garuda
Ice: Shiva
Lightning: Ramuh
Light: Alexander
Dark: Odin

Current/Potential Animal Avatars (no known crystal relationships):
Cat: Cait Sith (Tears of Altana)
Sandworm: Atomos (Devourer of Time)
Unicorn: Ixion (Guide of the Slain?) (Valkyrie-like)
Orobon: Siren (Lure of the Seas?)
Chocobo: Tritoch/Valigarmanda (Harbinger of Catastrophe?)

"Sky 'gods'" (They seem to be similar to Terrestrial Avatars, made gods from animals when the crystal was split, without the glowing and they're clearly linked to seasons/directions, but that's from earth mythology, not Vana'diel - They also seem constellation based in mythology, so I've added one...) I doubt they'd ever become "summoned monsters" that players can control.
Adamantoise: Genbu
Tiger: Byakko
Great Bird: Suzaku
Dragon: Seiryu
Manticore: Kirin

Snake: Elidibus? (if they carry over the constellation mythology)

Most of the next Summons fall into a Special Summons category, activating one effect, then disappearing. A few may be followers like the current Avatars, while others are new 2hrs. (In other words: Brainstorming possibilities, not directly suggesting all of these appearing as new summons)

5 Playable Races' Avatars: (perhaps gained in the west as Totema?) They may exist in the crystal world where the Celestial avatars are dreaming, without physical avatars until now.
Hume: Valefor (Multi-winged bird) Sonic and energy attacks. Highly evasive.
Elvaan: Gilgamesh (Multi-armed weapons master) Has copies of famous weapons & a naginata; pet "dog": Enkidu. (The pirate named Gilgamesh in Norg was named after this mythological figure, to explain them having the same name.) The avatar may travel through the dimensions through Atomos.
Galka: Doomtrain (Multi-car Train) Inflicts multiple potent status ailments.
Tarutaru: Hecatoncheir (Multi-armed giant) Earth-based monk giant, very high quadruple attack rate. DoT summon.
Mithra: Asura (Multi-faced queen) Random effect from: Strong AoE heal, AoE all negative status removal, Low AoE heal
(You'll notice a theme there... the other summon that shares this theme is Kujata who should have thousands of eyes / ears / mouths / horns, etc, and may be in opposition to the playable races, or an ally - He's linked to the mythology of Bahamut.)

The "Old" races:
Zilart: Ultima/Altima/Dawnmaiden?
Kuluu/Tonberry: Uggalipeh (Eidolon of Altana twisted in the Tonberry's minds)
Olduum: Ragnarok (sentient weapon, summoned when Alexander and Odin battle - through that rip left behind by Alexander - might interact with the Gordion Knot, Raiden may become involved to end Ragnarok, or Raiden may be the fusion of Odin and Alexander for a brief time, wielding the Light Bringer sword, also known as Ragnarok? If this is the Light Bringer... there's plenty of lore regarding its usage with Tavnazia... it would make sense that Olduum was sunk by its power...)

Beastman Avatars:
Pixie: Sylph
Moogle: Maduin
Orc: Typhon
Yagudo: Quetzalli/Quezacotl/Quetzalcoatl A feathered serpent.
Quadav: Golem
Gigas: Bismarck (They have a navy)
Sahagin: Remora
Antica: Hashmal (Bringer of Order, they're military)
Mamool Ja: Zahak (Multi-headed dragon, and there are Blue Mage Mamool Ja)
Moblins: Zoneseeker (not Death Gaze, although they seem related by appearances)
Goblins: Anima
Poroggos: Cuchulain
Qiqirn: Yojimbo (They both like their shinies)
Troll: Shoat (Petrify)

New Beastmen:
Mermen/Mermaids: Eden Found underwater.
Sasquatch: Crusader Blind rage.
Vargs: Wolf Beastmen: Lakshmi
Dwarves: Mole Beastmen: Hades (Blacksmith from FF9 - Forge Crystal Armor?)
Minotaurs: Kujata (Tetra-disaster)
Arachne: Spider Beastmen: Pandemona
Cyclops (Branch of Gigas?): Raiden (or Death Gaze, vision related) (Raiden may be related to Odin/Alexander/Ragnarok)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:30 AM

While Atomos has been announced as a 2hr-only Avatar, this was my concept for Atomos when I expected a him to be a follower. (It wouldn't be a stretch to grant Atomos follower status in addition to whatever 2hr they have already planned if they like this concept!)

NEW SUMMON: ATOMOS

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:30 AM

The quest required for Phoenix should start with

NEW SUMMON: PHOENIX
2-hour Summon (Like Odin/Alexander)
Rebirth Flame: Deals heavy fire and light damage in a large Area of Effect and simultaneously casts Raise III on all fallen alliance members and Curaga III on all living alliance members. The attack does not require anyone in the alliance to be dead. All effects are in a large AoE around the Summoner.

When a Summoner obtains Phoenix, they also gain a new Job Trait:
Phoenix Pinions
When a member of the Summoner's party dies (including the Summoner), and they have the Phoenix Ember key item, Phoenix may randomly bring them back to life (better than a 50% chance).
* Raise III effect. (no fire/light based attack accompanies this auto-raise feature.)

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:31 AM

NEW SUMMON: SIREN
Perhaps part of the Echidna or Uggalepih storylines, or the heavily sea based northern stories involving the vikings and such; Siren draws people to their dooms. Siren conceals its hideous true form with the appearance of a young, barely clothed entity who sings a beautiful song. This cloak of deception draws upon each hearer's own desires, so its appearance is actually different to each race and gender. The true form of Siren is like an orobon with massive jaws and very low mobility (thus needing to "lure").
(Terrestrial Avatar version of an Orobon)

Basic abilities (but not all):

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:32 AM

Simulacrum Arena
This arena was created for challenging the masters of all known combat and magic in fights against monsters and against each other; one against one, and team against team in locations mundane and extraordinaire. When two equally knowledgable competitors battled with the full range of their strengths, these battles often resulted in stalemates which were unsatisfactory to the Simulacrum. To make things interesting, they began to impose limits on themselves and their opponents so certain strategies could not be employed in the same manner repeatedly. This forced them to be creative and devise new and exciting methods of fighting, greatly pleasing the hedonistic audiences.

To prevent "cheating" and encourage new tactics by the competitors, the Simulacrum appointed Judges to enforce laws on some (not all) of the battlefields. These powerful officials can create debilitating forces (Laws) that block certain actions from being performed and penalize those who break other laws with afflictions that make them weaker, while at the same time lending their approval to sanctioned abilities to encourage their use by making those who use those actions even stronger.

Basics of the Simulacrum Arena:

Categories of Games:

* Ballista/Brenner/Diorama - The classic PvP team games. As few as 1vs1 allowed. Not restricted by a pre-set schedule for matches.
* Elimination Tournament - PvP, One on One battles, without the petras and rooks associated with the games. Exhibition matches and official brackets for championships.
* Endurance - PvE, One on One battles, progresses from weak monsters, stronger each round. A new status effect (randomly good or bad) is imposed on the player each round, cumulative with previous rounds. No breaks between battles. Better rewards for the more rounds you can survive.
* Pankration - The original games, plus team battles. PvP, PvE, PvP teams, PvE teams plus players themselves battling directly against pankration monsters.
* Epic Battles - Story Boss Rematches (ie: Shadow Lord, must have completed the battles during the normal storyline to gain access to "rematch"), Character Challenge (ie: Lion, Prishe, Trion, even some minor NPCs that people want the chance to fight), and Historic Wars (ie: Campaign style: Fall of Tavnazia)
* Cross-Dimension Battles - Bosses from past FF games
* Special Battlefields - Similar to Assault missions
* Chocobo Derby - Elimination Challenge, Digger's Delight, Knock Out Tally, A-Maze-ing, Slippery Slope, Pursuit, Subdue and Official Tournaments. (Detailed in its own thread)

Unlockable Features for Simulacrum Arena Games:

These "Laws" are enforced on all Simulacrum Arena games by a Judge:
* All participants are revived without loss of experience, at the Arena, when battles are concluded.
* Consumables and Ammunition are not consumed in Official Matches. (if a Ranger has a Rare/Ex ammo, it will never be used up in these games, even on multiple attack Job Abilities like barrage, Beastmaster Jugs will not be used up, Ninjutsu tools will not be used to cast, automaton oils will not be consumed when repairing automatons, etc) I'd have called this 100% recycle, but not all consumable-using jobs have a recycle trait for all of their ammo.

Special Challenge Feature of Judge-Supervised Simulacrum Arena Games:
* Official Judges obtain judgment points when any participants perform actions that are declared as "penalized" and can then declare "Judgments" against those participants. They can also perform helpful actions for any participant at their discretion. (Normally helping the side with non-penalized members, when the other side IS penalized) These penalties and Judgments are the same as those available to the Judgemaster job, including the meritable ones. These Penalties are in addition to the "Limiting Laws" and "Unlimiting Laws" below. Treat the following lists as "in addition to the Judgemaster job's existing Penalties, Prohibitions and Approvals". Some laws are grouped, so only one from that group can be active. (they should be easy to spot without marking)

Limiting Laws: (These are treated like Judgemaster Red Card prohibitions, except nearly all can be active simultaneously, whereas only 1 Red Card per Judgemaster is available for a player)

Unlimiting Laws:

During "team games", players are given "Uniforms" for their teams based on the Aptant Sets ("Ebon/Ebur/Furia" Breastplate: Cuirass, Haubert, Mail / Frock: Bliaut, Talar, Coat / Harness: Togi, Jerkin, Vest) perhaps with Nation-specific flag color schemes/features - red/blue/green. With this feature in place, no matter what gear a player is wearing, the "Uniform" is all anyone else will ever see. When a person switches gear, their uniform does not change, so they will not blink. Armor swapping is no longer penalized since it cannot be used to avoid targeting. Weapon swapping, on the other hand, would still cause blinking and be penalized as all swapping is currently.

During PVP events, each person can customize their "Uniform" with unique models gained through Ballista points. Extending this functionality to normal gear would be a step in the right direction for the rest of the game too. If it is not too difficult, this system could be put into place for all players to create their "Signature Appearance" by "equipping" any gear in the appropriate slots, so regardless of whatever actual gear they're wearing, this appearance is seen by everyone else. There would be 2 ways to see through the Uniform of a player. The first would be a filter type setting that either shows or does not show any Uniforms; so those who chose to turn Uniforms off will still be subject to seeing people blink (this would be disabled during PVP). The other is the "Check" command to see their actual gear as well as gain access to their bazaar, read their bazaar comment, and see their title.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:33 AM

Ballista, Brenner & Diorama style PVP
An overall change to Ballista/Brenner: Keep the revolving level capped Official Matches that impact regional influence, but add the ability for anyone to initiate unofficial Ballista/Brenner at any time when no events are going on.
* Ballista/Brenner: PVP teams

* Players versus players, Exhibition Matches. (without the associated "games" of Ballista or Brenner)

~ Everything about the PVP system is the same, except there are no petras/rooks/etc.

Elimination Tournaments: (without the associated "games" of Ballista or Brenner)

* Endurance Battles
And an old friend from FF7, Endurance Battles, joins the arena system. How many rounds can you last?

One on One battles progressing from weak monsters to stronger, each round growing in strength. A new status effect (randomly good or bad) is imposed on the player each round, cumulative with previous rounds. No breaks between battles. Better rewards for the more rounds you can survive.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:34 AM

Pankration Battles
First, a few updates to Pankration:

Pankration Battle Modes

The above pankration matches were all variations on the original system, always with Pankration monsters fighting each other, the next matches are fights using the normal FFXI combat engine, with actual players fighting Pankration-raised monsters. One version has players fighting against a Pankration monster that is controlled by a player Pankration style (from the command box, issuing vague commands to influence the monster's combat style), and the other lets the Pankration monster go wild, without any controlling player, which will likely be the only way to do battle against the boss-league enemies in the "Monster Arena" event.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:36 AM

* Epic Battles
These would be the main draw to the arena for many, and much of the work is already done! Some of the most interesting battles in FFXI were those encountered during the stories. Normally, the only way to revisit previous story battles is to assist new players as they experience them for the first time. A desire has been expressed by many, to be able to revisit these battles whenever we like.

Another opportunity people look forward to, is the ability to do battle with several of the heroes we encounter during the storylines. In a limited manner, this is already possible as we have seen at the fan festivals and through the invites obtainable through the Mog Bonanza. There are many other notable figures who would be interesting to challenge in battle that could appear in this expanded event.

The final main part of the Epic Battles category includes historic wars. These are battles that we've only heard stories of, or watched in cutscenes, such as the fall of Tavnazia. Battles of this sort could take place Campaign style, or multi-stage series-bcnm similar to the airship battles involving the mammets, ultima and omega.

An afterthought that would mainly be fan service, would be the dimensional crossover battles listed at the end.

* Story Boss Rematch

~ PVE: Fight boss battles from the storyline again!
~ Includes Assistance from Hero helpers or NPCs that you had to Protect.
~ From 1 (yes, solo), up to 18 members unless the original battle limited it to less, then the lower limit is enforced.

* Character Challenge

~ PVE: Fight the heros of the storylines.
This includes most "good guy" characters we encounter in the stories. (not all of them have to have been fighters)
(Different battles than those initiated by the "Invitation" items won through Mog Bonanza or played at Fanfest. Since they're part of this new event, they can be fought without level caps, in different groups and combinations, even single battles 1 on 1.)

Here are some suggested storyline-related combatants (and annoying NPCs some people want to fight): (not a full list)

- Figures from the Crystal War (with their unique special attacks, maybe a way to gain their weaponskills?) -

- The Crystal Warriors from Divine Might each had special weaponskills that may be available through this arena battle.

- Various wielders of the Relic Weapons -

* Historic Battles

~ PVE: Sometimes Campaign style battles, sometimes BCNM style, depends on the historic battle.
~ Travel to the past in an alternate timeline/dimension already marked for consumption by Atomos and participate in the most important battles in Vana'diel history.

Here are a few examples:
Campaign Style:
-

- The Second Battle of Konschtat (plenty happened in this fight, but maybe there's a storyline plot twist that links it to the outbreak of the Bastokan Blight and possibly Doomtrain.)
- The Hydra Corps' attack on Beaucedine Glacier that ended with their being drawn into Dynamis.
- The real assault on Castle Zvahl that included the freakish multi-limbed Cardians on the allies' side.
- The Kuluu's attack on Fei'yin (While the area was still forested, not an icy wasteland)
- Bahamut's attack on Al'Taieu (battle in the skies and on the ground... fight for the Zilart or Bahamut)
When fighting against Bahamut, get the assistance of Warmechs (Ultima/Omega) Zilart engineers with those energy nets, perhaps Luminions (Zilart security forces before they were warped into the forms we see in Al'Taieu) and the five towers that used to be used for healing, but were adapted into weapons to fight the wyrms. The goal is to hold them off until the city can establish the Empyreal Paradox, taking it out of the reach of their attackers.
When fighting against the Zilart, you get the assistance of wyrms (Ouryu, Vrtra, Tiamat, etc) and the Kuluu. Possibly the Dawnmaidens and the entire cast of terrestrial avatars "in person" like Bahamut, plus Kuluu summoners with the terrestrial avatars. The goal is to destroy the devices that make it possible to move the Celestial Capital into the Empyreal Paradox.

BCNM Style:
- The Sahagin attacks on Bastok's ships (battle on boats)
- I'm sure there are a few more out there mentioned in the histories that would be interesting.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:37 AM

* Dimensional Cross-over Battles

~ PVE: Fight Boss battles from other FF games!

~*~*~*~ (minor) SPOILERS (bosses from previous FF games) ~*~*~*~

* Special Battlefields
These include "The Swarm" and "The Gathering Storm" which may have "versions" in this event, but not exactly the same, and would not yield the same titles (maybe no titles). (They seem like fun events to "waste" only on special events once a year, to be experienced by only a small group) Similar game mechanics were used in Assaults where waves of weak enemies attacked, so I know it's more than possible.

These could also include Assault-style activities (perhaps using the "un-used" assault maps)
* Matching NPCs
* Leading NPCs
* Using NPCs to destroy obstacles
* Flipping switches to open doors
* Hunting NMs
* Disarming bombs.
To list only a few...

I spent very little time on this section because I wanted to get the whole "expansion" idea out there sooner rather than later, but I could see it becoming one of the largest sections of the Arena, depending on the creativity in these additions. Assault missions were some very interesting alterations on normal FFXI gameplay.

* Chocobo Derby (Detailed system, needed its own thread which I posted earlier. (link)) (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/10475-Chocobo-Derby%21?p=132772&viewfull=1#post132772)
A fully player-controlled group of mounted activities. Some games resemble mounted Ballista, for example. Activities range from PvP to PvE, and some transition from mounted activities into normal combat.

This event isn't entirely related to the whole Simulacrum expansion suggestion, directly, anyway. However, it fits in with the concept of the games and judges, so I link it here. (They could implement the Chocobo Derby before any of this!)

A tiny note at the end here about Besieged:
The Chocobo Derby system could be used during the time the beastmen are advancing on Al Zahbi. There are even mounted enemy units in the Mamool Ja forces already. Wiping out an enemy unit's endurance could force it to retreat before reaching the city.

It's also possible to add Chocobo Derby elements to quests/missions.
In Wings of the Goddess, San d'Oria quest 9: "Bonds that Never Die" could start with a Chocobo Derby style battle where you pick off the Orcs guiding the young behemoth, and then wear down its endurance. When the young behemoth's endurance is wiped out it runs and hides in a cave, the normal battlefield battle begins in the cave that you climb down into.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:38 AM

Walk of Echoes
Walk of Echoes is in need of a major overhaul of its reward structure and monster behavior if SE wants it to remain a casual method to obtain the lesser-empyrean weapons without large groups to take on the challenges of Abyssea bosses and the time involved in collecting the key items to pop said bosses.

The WoE enemies must not have the special hate systems and linking potential that makes soloing nearly impossible in most battlefields of the event. Most of the rewards should be obtained from killing the non-boss enemies. Killing the bosses would still be required to progress with opening new battlefields (but a party of 6 random people on jobs that can normally solo the non-boss monsters in the battlefield should be able to defeat the bosses. For example, this means no spamming of highly damaging AoE attacks.)

It may be best to include a currency similar to Einherjar's Ampoules of Therion Ichor (Battle Arena Points) to reward participants from each kill based on their performance, similar to Bastion, to spend on items purchased from an NPC, which would remove much of the controversy surrounding the "drops" issue. People would attend on the jobs they currently bring to Campaign, fully expecting to be solo. Battle Arena Points can be spent to purchase "Coins" so progress in the event does not rely on clearing all enemies and bosses from the zone and receiving a chest at the end.

Currently, because you need to fully clear the zone to get anything, the event rewards only organized groups. Instead of being treated as a casual event to go to like Campaign to grab one of the "lesser-Empyreans", you have to treat it like a linkshell event, gathering enough people to actually "win" a zone to get anything worthwhile.

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:38 AM

Campaign
Some Simulacrum Arena games will make use of the Campaign battle system with enhanced objectives beyond just killing beastmen and defending/destroying fortifications. I also suggest these changes/additions to Campaign:

New Objectives:
Currently, the only player objectives are "Destroy Fortifications" and "Defeat Enemy Forces."

I am not counting the limited number of Campaign operations possible to carry out each week, which effectively makes them a non-issue in battles once you have 0 ops left to carry out. This system suffers from the same issue plaguing Bastion: people who WANT to carry out the special objectives can only do them a limited number of times... and the majority of players who do NOT want to do them squander their ability to impact the battles. I guess some programmer said, "Hey, what if every player on the server decided to do these operations non-stop and totally ruined the game balance?" ... that's clearly not an issue. Ease up on the per-player restrictions and these objectives might become part of the game!

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:39 AM

~*~*~*~ Arena Rewards ~*~*~*~

AyinDygra

09-06-2011, 10:41 AM

And that about does it for now!

I'm sure I'll find something to add here and there... and I have to go back through and add a few hyperlinks.

Mirage

09-06-2011, 11:01 PM

Holy shit, how many do you expect to read through all that?

SpankWustler

09-07-2011, 07:39 AM

What?! I thought all of these posts where from different people!

I...but...if...how...than...when...why...can...but...

Retsujo

09-07-2011, 09:19 AM

You had me at "expansion."

Teraniku

09-09-2011, 01:36 AM

AyinDygra

09-09-2011, 01:52 AM

Many people probably skipped down to the end, unable to keep things together due to how many different posts each topic had to be split into, and I couldn't fit this in the first post (10,000 character limit GAH!)

Anyway, here's an index to help find things easier.
Index:
Story pt1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190058&viewfull=1#post190058) / Story pt2 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190059&viewfull=1#post190059) / Characters, Plotpoints & Themes (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190060&viewfull=1#post190060) / Quest notes & Boss notes (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190061&viewfull=1#post190061)
New Zones (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190064&viewfull=1#post190064)/ New Enemies, New Beastmen, New Status effects (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190066&viewfull=1#post190066)
New Endgame Event: Light Warriors (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190068&viewfull=1#post190068) (monsters (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190069&viewfull=1#post190069)/bosses (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190070&viewfull=1#post190070)/rewards (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190072&viewfull=1#post190072))
Crystal Shards system (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190074&viewfull=1#post190074) & examples of shards 1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190075&viewfull=1#post190075), 2 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190077&viewfull=1#post190077), 3 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190079&viewfull=1#post190079), 4 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190081&viewfull=1#post190081)
New Endgame Event: Monster Arena (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190084&viewfull=1#post190084)
New Endgame Event: Tavnazia (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190085&viewfull=1#post190085)
Personal Airships (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190086&viewfull=1#post190086)
Triple Triad (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190087&viewfull=1#post190087)
6 New Jobs (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190090&viewfull=1#post190090) (5 full job concept documents, but I didn't make a full post for Geomancer yet, and a seventh one is an old job given a new twist (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190091&viewfull=1#post190091))
Chemist (Concept (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190093&viewfull=1#post190093) / JA pt1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190094&viewfull=1#post190094) / JA pt2, Traits, Merits & gear (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190095&viewfull=1#post190095) / Ingredients (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190098&viewfull=1#post190098) / Mix List pt1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190102&viewfull=1#post190102), pt2 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190106&viewfull=1#post190106))
Engineer (Concept (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190109&viewfull=1#post190109) / JA pt1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190110&viewfull=1#post190110) / JA pt2 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190111&viewfull=1#post190111)/ JA pt3 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190113&viewfull=1#post190113) / JA pt4 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190114&viewfull=1#post190114) / Traits, Merits & gear (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190116&viewfull=1#post190116))
Judgemaster (Concept (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190117&viewfull=1#post190117) / Job Abilities (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190119&viewfull=1#post190119) / Judgments (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190120&viewfull=1#post190120) / Penalties (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190121&viewfull=1#post190121) / Approvals (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190125&viewfull=1#post190125) / Prohibitions (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190126&viewfull=1#post190126) / Traits, Merits & gear (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190129&viewfull=1#post190129))
Mimic (Concept (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190132&viewfull=1#post190132) / Job Abilities (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190133&viewfull=1#post190133) / Traits, Merits & gear (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190134&viewfull=1#post190134))
Jikuu Sage (Concept (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190137&viewfull=1#post190137) / Spells pt1 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190139&viewfull=1#post190139) / Spells pt2 (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190143&viewfull=1#post190143) / Job Abilities (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190144&viewfull=1#post190144) / Traits, Merits, gear, joke (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190145&viewfull=1#post190145))
Soul Plate Shop (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190146&viewfull=1#post190146) / Automaton AI Cards (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190149&viewfull=1#post190149)
Fat Chocobo Storage, New Weapon Varieties, "Ranged Combat Specialties" (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190151&viewfull=1#post190151)
New Summons (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190156&viewfull=1#post190156) / Atomos (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190158&viewfull=1#post190158) / Phoenix (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190160&viewfull=1#post190160) / Siren (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190162&viewfull=1#post190162)
Simulacrum Arena (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190164&viewfull=1#post190164)
Ballista, Brenner, Diorama, Tournaments and adjustments & PVE Endurance Rounds (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190166&viewfull=1#post190166)
Pankration (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190169&viewfull=1#post190169) / Epic Battles (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190171&viewfull=1#post190171) / Dimensional Cross-over battles, Special battlefields, Chocobo Derby (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190173&viewfull=1#post190173)
Walk of Echoes (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190174&viewfull=1#post190174) / Campaign (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190177&viewfull=1#post190177)
Arena Rewards (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/14365-My-Ideal-Expansion?p=190179&viewfull=1#post190179)

AyinDygra

09-09-2011, 01:54 AM

Me, being a story person, does not like the story behind it, just because it's another alternate dimension. Love the wealth of ideas presented here though. Unsure of what could be implemented into the game given current limitations.

Actually, it's not yet another dimension... it's making use of the dimension we already have access to, but has very little actual story behind it (The Threshold)

Edit: I updated the two main story posts with "Summaries" at the end to spell things out very clearly.

Jeez

09-12-2011, 12:59 PM

I'm impressed! I really would like a personal airship exactly as you say. Being able to build a fighting force for atop the airship using Pankration would definitely give me reason to do it. Having a Colosseum for amazingly powerful monsters was one of my hopes before they gave us Pankration instead. I've only read about halfway through the whole thing, but I agree, SE needs to give us the other continents in the lore.

SNK

09-20-2011, 03:31 AM

Just wow... you put in a hell of lot of thought into this... more then I would seriously have ever cared to...

Emitremmus

03-07-2012, 06:01 AM

I'm hella impressed. I'm moreso scared at the fact that you've mirrored almost 90% of all the things that I would personally like added to this game. We should work together.

I've also got a job suggestion called Machinist, which is close to your idea of Engineer (which is what I originally called Machinist. I'm sure we're both thinking of Edgar here...) which uses tools much like a DNC uses TP to use it's abilities. Awesome work.

Puck

03-07-2012, 09:36 AM

Trumpy

03-07-2012, 11:09 AM

i am more amazed he/she got soo many post posted before someone interupted it with a post. post at 4 am or something?

AyinDygra

03-07-2012, 12:39 PM

I feel really sad for you, because you invested MANY hours typing many ideas the dev team will NEVER read, regardless of however good they may be.

You realize that first, before the dev team will ever see it, someone would have to spend several hours translating all of this stuff into Japanese? For that reason alone, it won't be seen by the devs.

And even if it was in Japanese, and posted on the Japanese forums, the devs would tl;dr it. They hate new ideas for things players would enjoy. They much prefer their own ideas, full of grueling and unrewarding content.

I agree with that assessment of what will likely happen, as I posted in my general discussion post introducing this megapost:
"I'm fully aware that this is a ton of text and most of it likely won't get translated and presented to the developers unless there is enough positive feedback for the ideas presented. I can only hope the people who do translate this sort of thing like the ideas enough to translate it all because they want to see it happen as much as me!"

I just had to get it all off my chest, since it had been swirling around in my head for months.

i am more amazed he/she got soo many post posted before someone interupted it with a post. post at 4 am or something?

Well, it was posted in the "Missions and Quests" forum section that doesn't get many visitors, and I had it all pre-typed and ready to copy-paste into my posts. (I had it all planned out so it was all together :)

Ciecle

03-07-2012, 01:51 PM

Not to be a killjoy or anything... but chances are, even if the reps were to translate the posts and give it to the devs, we might not see it... SE claims copyrights to all 'new' material before even thinking of using it... It's how people knew that 'Abyssea' was coming and 'Walk of Echos' was in the pipes...

The biggest problem I can forsee, not that you'll do it if any of this were to be implemented, You thought of the ideas, and you use a bit of SE's copyrights which makes them part owner, but you wouldn't get any sort of payment for your ideas thus giving you the ability to sue the company for 'stealing my ideas!' which is dumb, but due to writing it all down for everyone to see first means that you technically have 'copyright' to your ideas. Which you probably wouldn't win the lawsuit anyways, but regardless, it's something that a company usually does not want to dip their hand in especially now since everyone budgets are stretched so very thin...

Don't get me wrong. I love the thought and the idea behind what you've done. I loved FF4/5/6. It's just probably near impossible due to what they would fear as 'legal issues' and such...

The biggest thing i can suggest, is trying to get a job with SE as a content writer(or any sort of job in SE land for that matter... you really only need to be an employee) and then giving them this same info... It'll give them a reason to use it with out any sort of legal repercussions to fear, due to most jobs having an 'Open door' policy, and accepting new and inventive ideas to help boost their sells...

Syto

03-08-2012, 04:44 AM

To OP:

Its nice but... I don't know if these are like your final posts before you quit the game type of thing?? Or what? I just hate to hurt your feelings but, you really did waste your time posting all of that here. lol. Its just going to get bashed down by trolls or ignored by SE. I just hope you enjoyed wasting so much of your time. At least then I won't /facepalm as much. To each his own though. >.>

Vandheer

03-08-2012, 05:25 AM

o_o.........

Holly shit. Props to you AyinDygra. I've yet to read through it all but from skimming it it is impressive. Way to show the dev team how its done. Bookmarking the thread to read more later. :D

Camate, my friend! Bring this thread to the team to get them going! If not to get them going at least to show them how serious we are about wanting GOOD new content.

Vandheer

03-08-2012, 06:32 AM

New Jobs:

* Geomancer
I didn't have time to fully flesh this concept out (no post of its own or skill/spell lists), but it would be based mostly on FFT's Axe-wielding Geomancer with a mix of FF3, FF5 (bell wielding guys), and Mog from FF6, using themes from the western continent of Ulbuka with "Native American" and "Aztec/Mayan" visuals.[/INDENT]

Mini-Geomancer-post:

Love the overall jobs you've explained and planned out thus far but I'm looking forward to seeing what you were thinking in more detail with Geomacer. ^^

(Sorry for double post)

Puck

03-08-2012, 07:05 AM

I agree with that assessment of what will likely happen, as I posted in my general discussion post introducing this megapost:
"I'm fully aware that this is a ton of text and most of it likely won't get translated and presented to the developers unless there is enough positive feedback for the ideas presented. I can only hope the people who do translate this sort of thing like the ideas enough to translate it all because they want to see it happen as much as me!"

I just had to get it all off my chest, since it had been swirling around in my head for months.

Well it makes me feel a little better that you knew the futility of it before you posted, but still, I can't help but feel empathetic. It's just kinda depressing to see someone dish out so many hours of productive activity knowing that the people that can do something with it (devs) aren't going to. It's hard not to imagine how much time and effort you put into it, and then remember how much the dev team ignores the English-speaking community even on smaller great ideas that DO get translated and sent their way.

But yeah, hope you had fun with it, at least. There are lots of bits and pieces that are definitely fodder for great future content. You might want to cherry-pick some of the best ideas and have someone translate them for you so they can go on the JP forums. If it generates enough buzz from their community there's a chance, albeit slight, that the devs will at least take a look.

I'd stay away from presenting anything suggesting new jobs, though, as I'm sure they see as many of those kinds of ideas on the JP forums as we see here, and there's pretty much no chance at new jobs at this point in the game.

Zerich

03-08-2012, 12:35 PM

All I have to say is kudos for the OP!
I wish people like you had an outlet for this kind of thought.

Smokenttp

11-12-2012, 07:21 AM

first of all grats for putting alot of tought and effort to it, i have skiped alot of reading but your merit system really got my attention. there are alot of potential there for implementention (partially because they can be added to the current merit system and since the devs are lazy nowadays they would just go to the easiest route anyway) i would sugest 2 things : add a shield block rate merit also and copy your merit idea into another thread so it will be easier to catch the devs eyes.

Nightfox

11-13-2012, 02:41 AM

And that about does it for now!

I'm sure I'll find something to add here and there... and I have to go back through and add a few hyperlinks.

Very nice, even if people tell you this is waste of time, ignore it. The amount of time and effort put into this massive post shows your thoughts clearly, hopefully the dev team will notice it, even if it might not be considered/implemented for a while. /like

Vinedrai

11-13-2012, 07:41 AM

i did skimmed through most of your whole post and i must say that it was an amazing read. so many great ideas that would easily fit into lore of vanadiel and current game mechanics. there was hardly anything i wouldn't want to be added to the game from your ideas (although some of those ideas are now overwritten (idk if that is the right word) by the recent announcement of SoA). if i knew japanese, i would happily translate all this stuff part by part slowly if there was no one else willing to do it any faster.

also, as long as you enjoy this, it is never a waste of time. we are no one to judge how you spend your free time if you actually enjoy what you do.

some suggestions i can give off the top of my head;
*judgemaster sounds a bit weird etymologically (?), no? something like "justiciar" or simply "judge" would sound better imo, just a thought.
*about chemist's move-find item trait (...FFT ; ; ): you worried about potential RMT abuse if the findable items were to be convensional mats, but there is a pretty simple solution to that. those items can simply be only a very small piece of the whole thing like "trace of X", "pinch of Y" etc which would also make more sense for the chemist to be able to carry in their "extra" sachets in great quantities rather than stuffing a bunch of ores, logs w/e into their pockets XD. you know in chemistry, it is all about working with minuscule amounts. also, those items would have a new item tag like "ch" for chemistry. another option is, yet kinda illogical, if it would be too much work to rename all those items (and possibly rewrite descriptions), then the items found this way can be just be turned into an "exlusive" type version of said items on the spot with a new item tag (see first option) but same name, same description.