State of Raiding In Regards to Community/FCs.

Yeah, I think if you want something like this you have to start it. It can be intimidating if you’re not fond of leading things but it’s doable! I’ve seen it firsthand in my own FC this tier, actually. We’ve had a few members come and go, complaining there’s no FC raiding. This tier a bunch integrated a couple newbie raiders from the FC into a static with other members of the FC that have been raiding for a while. They’ve been progging every night this week, having a blast, and cleared e5s last night!

For more casual duties and raids, especially for first clears, we have worked hard to let people know to give a holler in FC chat if they want help/company.

It’s definitely about finding an FC that fits your needs and personality. Rewards won’t really change that, and might even increase the clique problems people run into because you’ll have groups only doing content together with people they know can clear it quickly.

I think that joining an FC and expecting to consistently raid with that group is unrealistic, because every FC would need to have exact multiples of 8 with exact party comps to make it possible to have 1+ statics in the FC. People come and go, people play at different times... Unless you're in a large FC that has 8+ raiding-minded members on all the time, it's unlikely that you'll get a static out of an FC--unless you specifically start the FC to make the static... Join raiding linkshells, use PF, advertise yourself as looking for a static... Maybe your static will one day evolve into an FC and then you'll be the ones excluding others. XD

That said, I agree that the loot system does discourage FCs from working together. My FC is having an issue currently where half of us (those of us with more time to play) have cleared content but the other half haven't--now we can't go back and teach/help the other half of the FC without killing their chance for any loot. Thus, the other half of the FC is stuck with PUGs who also haven't cleared yet, despite the fact that we (their FC mates) already know the fight and would love to help them if it didn't cost them a chance at gear. This does create frustration when half the group is excited about their clears and the other half of the group is stuck in PF hell. And we can't just resolve this by saying "We'll all raid together at this time" because we're all adults with conflicting real life schedules, soo...

Finding a way to make it so that FC members can help each other without punishment would be ideal, but in order to make that possible, Square might have to find some way to discourage people from jumping through FC after FC just for rewards... A tough situation.

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Originally Posted by SaberMaxwell

You see, our fc is a meme: we're casual oriented to the bone despite some of our heavier hitting members. In our group, we don't do too much to advantage raiders besides scream support for them on stream.

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This is very much the same situation as my own FC; it's a no-pressure friendly one that does a lot of spur-of-the-moment activities ("Hey, anyone want to run treasure maps this afternoon?") but there's certainly no formal raiding focus. Despite that, there are two statics which, while not entirely drawn from FC members, are predominantly from the FC. One is veteran, experienced raiders; the other (mine) is a group of all rookies new to savage content that the veterans are mentoring.

But it wasn't that the FC formally organized statics; it was that people organized statics, and happened to reach out to their FC members to see if they were interested. And honestly, I think that's the OP's best bet—not waiting for the FC to form a static, per se, but starting a static and seeing if others in the FC are interested.

Still, I agree that the game needs more discoverability. There should be a Free Company search that lets you advertise more effectively than the one on the Lodestone currently does, and there definitely should be a better way to advertise statics and linkshells and such than just using Party Finder to throw a party up with an advertisement as the description.

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Originally Posted by Vidu

For the record: I dont think its easy to find a static or a good FC - but I do think that a lot of people expect this to be far easier than seems realistic and I dont understand why.

Just to elaborate a bit what I mean: I view both a static and an FC as more than just 7 other people to clear raids with - to me they're friends, more or less good ones, some you're closer with, some you know less about, but they're all friends and its more a community than just the people that you kill Ramuh-savage with.
Joining as static is only the first step in becoming part of such a community - you need to understand that you're joining a bunch of people who know each other for a while already and who will be more familiar with each other at first than they are with you. Joining an FC doesnt mean you get straight into the inner circle or become part of the FCs static. It also doesnt mean that the FC is outright excluding people if they dont kick half the current static to make room for new memembers!
A community, an FC, a static is something everyone builds together - including (a general) you. Its something one needs to invest in - time, effort, kindness... on both sides.
I'm sorry if I'm missunderstanding things here, but often posts complaining about bad FCs read a lot like people were expecting to have 30 friends who are willing to do any content at any time with them - and thats just not realistic.

It takes a while to find a good fit - and it takes an even longer while to foster relationships within the static.
But suggestions like OPs wont help with that - forcing people to play together just because they're in an FC will more likely lead to FC you cant even get a foot in the door. It will lead to more gated communities, not better ones.

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Right, I mean, its not something that happens overnight. A Guild is an opportunity for like minded individuals to have mutual ground to hang out, chill, adventure, etc... We agree i think on that. Where i was kinda going with it though was that FC manageability and recruiting are so horrid right now (in-game) that it makes it difficult on smaller or mid-sized guilds to keep FCs active. Ideally, most statics would come from FCs imo, because familiar people that you can click with is who you would want to do savage content with and would more than likely be a part of your guild (though i concede that statics and guilds are not mutually exclusive), at least, thats how I've always gamed end-game content. But we dont really see that, which is a shame.