Trust "Avatar" Mode -- Are the name changes necessary?

This was done from a coding stand point. Avatars need to be leveled, scenario mode npcs don't because they will be set to the level required. SE did this so that you don't need to level them all up again in order to run a trust dungeon when your character reaches the level of it.

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Originally Posted by Olinara

In 6.0, if you decide to run with NPCs that weren't available for the story-mode run, you have to use "Avatar Mode." So instead of running with Y'shtola, Thancred, and Urianger, I'm running with "Y'shtola's Avatar," "Thancred's Avatar," and "Urianger's Avatar."

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I think it's because in 5.0, you had the scenario mode (i.e., running the dungeon with Trust when you first unlocked it), and otherwise you had to level the Trust characters to run dungeons with them. And I saw threads various places with people confused about "But I could run Malikah's Well with Thancred when I got there before, why can't I run it with him now when I'm leveling this alt job?" and thinking that doing the dungeon with the Trusts for the first time as part of story meant the trust had been automatically leveled up to that level permanently because "but Thancred was already level 78 before, how'd he level down?", etc.

I suspect that having Scenario mode repeatable (i.e., using the specific valid NPCs to run the dungeon, but giving them no XP) for leveling alt-jobs (or farming glamour/minions/whatever) was meant to make it a viable path, and then having the "you have to earn XP for these characters and level them" mode specifically denoted as "Avatar Mode" and making the versions of the trust characters who you must level explicitly labeled as someone's avatar even in the instance is meant to add clarity there.

I admit I was annoyed by seeing the "<name>'s Avatar" bit too, just because it felt clunky, but putting on my game dev hat for a moment I can also see viable reasons why they'd want to make a clear and obvious division between the modes that's hard to miss.

Makes sense to me, lore wise and immersion wise - like how glamour are illusions. FFXI did something similar with avatars, I believe they were memories or something like that.

I don't see any evil in removing the avatar from the nameplates, especially if it annoys people (that's not a helpful feature lol), but personally I think keeping it somewhere in the game itself as story logic makes more sense than not. There are situations that cannot happen with certain npcs- that is lore breaking, but using your special power to summon their embodiment makes a lot of sense. Especially given later story info. Such that they are still avatars (sans specific scenarios when they're 'actually' there), even if not explicitly stated by the UI, and may be explained as such in game - helping more, I think, if they choose to kill one of them too lol (so summoning them isn't some weird retcon / time travel / 'gaming logic- dealwithit.jpg').

Also I'd love to see the opportunity to grow these npcs at some point (actual growth mechanics, like how the squadrons had), and I think avatars as a conceptualization makes a lot of sense for that too, like if you had a crystal for each trust member (again akin to the story). I appreciate they took feedback on the whole gating of the current exp system though, I believe that was an element of listing to feedback. Yet I think it might flow better if the exp system was changed and there were no two modes of entry- you just picked people and entered (regardless of what their level was). If there was exp to earn you'd earn it, and perhaps then it's not really exp anymore but other progression mechanics that fit better / potentially more interestingly (like how squadron has their own interesting systems).

I always saw the "Avatars" as our Azem magic creating "Familiars" for us to run the dungeons with. Much the same way when we summon things to fight with us during big battles in the MSQ. (Because they are real people via DF, so referring to them as avatar is unnecessary but as far as the story is concerned, they are avatars).

Perhaps my take is wrong, but it really has helped make the game more immersive when I just keep referring to anomalies such as this as the WoL creating "familiars".

Thing is, even when running with NPCs who weren't there for the dungeon in MSQ, they'll give dialogue unique to their personality, like Y'shtola commenting at the last boss of Don Mheg when it does the tiptoe crossing mechanic. Not complaining about it, but it's realistic enough right until you see their names on the party haha.