Will Grand Companies ever get an update?

It does feel like the Grand Companies are lagging behind, but I think lore-wise it was never meant to go past Heavensward considering proximity, and far as I've seen I think not every dungeon is accessible yet which I hope they will work on for the sake of players who need certain dungeons.

I think there was only a few dungeons that their GC-mates shouldn't be able to come with you on concerning certain parts of the story.

I think only Stormblood needs a remedy, and it would require a new type of faction with Kugane.

I think they are relics from 1.0(I cant remember), which is why they are low priority. Yeah its cool having higher rank than the guy that gives you the squadron missions lol.

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Originally Posted by Rasikko

I think they are relics from 1.0(I cant remember), which is why they are low priority. Yeah its cool having higher rank than the guy that gives you the squadron missions lol.

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They are - lore wise they were originally founded by Gridania, Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah as a way of consolidating their resources (especially manpower) in the wake of Nael van Darnus's renewed aggression towards Eorzea and the summoning of Dalamud. This was because the three citystates did not have actual standing armies, they had little more than militia guards (that were literally sellswords in Ul'dah's case) that obviously were not enough to meet the Garlean threat. So the GCs were formed as the volunteer armies of the three cities, enlisting adventurers who answered the call to arms to defend the realm. After the Calamity, the GCs kind of ended up mostly forgotten, as the player's character started to become more associated with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and less a soldier in a Grand Company (the player did join the Scion's Sixth Astral Era predecessor the Path of the Twelve in 1.0 as well as a Grand Company upon it's formation, but the Path story was abandoned for the GCs towards 1.0's storyline).

Hence why later added cities such as Ishgard and Kugane do not have GCs - Ishgard is unique in that it has had a fully mobilized military for a thousand years, in that they've never stopped fighting against Nidhogg and the Dravanians (they do have a mercenary/volunteer force in the form of the Convictors, but they're considered little more than riffraff in the eyes of most Ishgardians and are nothing like a GC). And Kugane is neutral in political matters hence it's military refuses to get involved in international affairs.

So I'm afraid you will not be seeing an expansion of the Grand Companies to other cities, the Twin Adders, Immortal Flames and the Maelstrom are pretty much the only three GCs that will be available (Okay, there was that one time a fourth one was formed for a while... but... that did not work out so well...). ;)

As for the squadrons, unfortunately it's technical reasons why the squadron has such a limited amount of dungeons you can take them into - SE has to program the squad's AI for every dungeon they use to handle the mechanics, and it's a time consuming task. So they have only implemented a small number of old ARR/HW era dungeons for them, it's simple pragmatism (this is also why the Trusts are limited to ShB, those the dungeons are specially designed for Trusts, so they're easier to program for).

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

As for the squadrons, unfortunately it's technical reasons why the squadron has such a limited amount of dungeons you can take them into - SE has to program the squad's AI for every dungeon they use to handle the mechanics, and it's a time consuming task. So they have only implemented a small number of old ARR/HW era dungeons for them, it's simple pragmatism (this is also why the Trusts are limited to ShB, those the dungeons are specially designed for Trusts, so they're easier to program for).

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But the squadron completely ignores every mechanic, so how do they have to be programmed to handle them? They never handle them to begin with.

I'd like some more ranks added. I want an Immortal Flames gunblade.

If getting the squads to work in existing dungeons is too much work, maybe the Guildhest format could be revived? Create some short quirky missions to take your squad on, maybe even add a bit of a randomly generated component to it?

Could be an: attack/rescue/defence mission.
- If defence, then it could take place at: X, Y or Z.
- If it's an attack on Z, then the attackers might be: A, B or C.
- If the attackers are C, then a random mid-mission event might be: F, G or H.

The whole mission system reuses existing assets, maps, mobs, NPCs, etc, and could easily be expanded by plugging more random variables made from yet more recycled assets into it.

I kind of think I'd rather do that anyway, over rerunning Doma Castle again but this time with NPCs instead of players.

Since GC ranks forced you to use Squadrons, I haven't ranked up at all. So unless they remove that requirement, no.

I hope if they do they do something to streamline leveling the Squadron. The missions take far too long for too little reward. It would be nice to have lesser reward hourly options like retainers have.

But really I would hope they just go away from the Squadron idea entirely. It's a bigger block than it has to be to rank up.

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Originally Posted by Tlamila

But the squadron completely ignores every mechanic, so how do they have to be programmed to handle them? They never handle them to begin with.

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I think that's part of the problem. I haven't gone through the list, but for example they can't do Qarn - that might be because they would mindlessly attack the stone heads that need to be manoeuvred into position on the switches.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Since GC ranks forced you to use Squadrons, I haven't ranked up at all. So unless they remove that requirement, no.

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Only the last two ranks require you to level squadrons. There's no need to avoid the system entirely.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

Ishgard never needed a grand company, as it had a standing army. The other city states did not, which is why the grand companies were formed.

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they could call it the fre--i mean ishgardian foreign legion

I think they are actually close to being good enough, though could use an update indeed.

• Squadron member account increased by 2
• Addition of viera and hrothgar recruits for your squadron
• Squadron level cap increase to 70; add command missions accordingly
• New glamour items
• Hunt mark bills can be updated anywhere via the hunting log (general system update)
• Faster turn-in of junk; don't need the fanfare when I have a few dozen pieces of loot to offload
• Maybe a quick review of the item pool for GC seals; could use desynth items for other crafting disciplines, new food, etc.