Linkshell Guilds and Tabards
To the good men and women working ever so diligently to make Final Fantasy XIV the best mmo experience out there, I have some ideas that I hope get the attention of both the staff working on the game and the fans who enjoy the game. First, I'll start out by saying that I understand and appreciate the level of innovation and originality that goes into each and every Final Fantasy game. With each release, it's very apparent that the goal of the company is to raise the game play experience for the fans. Each game is it's own experience and never once entirely the same as the last. That, is a good thing and at the same time, can be a bad thing as well. A Double Edged sword, you can never understand what makes the fans happy if you don't venture out and explore new features, ideas, and gameplay mechanics, but at the same time, when those new features and ideas fail to captivate the fans, it hurts the game in the end. The point i'm trying to make, is that sometimes, in some cases, using features from an older title, or even another game altogether can benefit the game more than always working towards originality. That being said, the ideas that i'm about to talk about, in my opinion, i believe will truly make the experience on Final Fantasy XIV much more enjoyable. This is not something that I'd see as a priority over fixing the battle system, adding new zones and missions, job classes, even chocobo's and airships, but in the end, if these ideas are implemented, I believe XIV will just be endless amounts of fun.
So...Linkshell Guilds:
Back before Grand Companies were released, from the interviews and articles I read, the thoughts I gathered were something along the lines of "Oh my god! We're gonna get our own linkshell headquarters!!"
If I am correct in thinking this, please by all means go through with this idea, as this game raise the fun factor of the game dramatically. Think back to the Mog Houses of Final Fantasy XI, in my view, that was the basic idea of something that could have been so much more, but for my idea to get rolling, that is the starting point.
Staff and fans alike, imagine. Imagine your linkshell with it's own headquarters that only members of that linkshell are allowed to access. The location can be done in one of two ways. It can be just like in XI, where you'd run to a certain point in town and zone into your LS Headquarters, or give players the freedom to choose locations out in the regional areas of the game to set up headquarters (the best example I can think of that did this is Ultima Online).
Here's the order of what I'm thinking:
- Pick location, purchase property (using game currency and maybe even make quests for the license to even create a base).
- Name your new headquarters.
- Build your new headquarters. Create new recipes for crafters to create building materials and furniture. This will make having crafters in every linkshell extremely essential. The way i imagine it, you purchase land for your new base, then you purchase a contractor to build your base for you once you've gathered the correct materials (Kind of like how you get the current end game gear in the game, you kill NM, get runestone, hand in the runestone with other listed materials and the npc creates the said piece of equipment for you).
- Design the exterior/interior of your base. Before the contractor builds your base, there should be "Blueprint" menu that allows you to create the layout of how you want the interior of your base to look like. Also allows you to choose the building materials for the exterior (example: you want the outside to be built with stone, wood, metal, etc.). Once you (the linkshell leader) designs the blueprints, you finalize it, then the contractor gives you a list of materials to obtain. Make certain materials only obtainable by crafting, NPC shops, NM drops, quest rewards. So many ways to play around with that and keep people busy. Once all materials are obtained and traded to the contractor npc, the base gets built and your linkshell has a new home. :D
Personalize the interior of your new base. Every leader should have special options inside their linkshell base. One option should be the option to give members access to decorate the interior with furniture items, allow them to change flooring, wallpapers/color schemes, and even selecting BGM. Make it YOUR linkshell base.
Licenses: This is where I believe the fun factor of having your own linkshell base will come into play heavily. You want a cool looking base, but looks alone won't make your members want to hang around all day. Your linkshell headquarters should have access to many of the games features, so that your members don't have to venture out and waste anima to travel to different towns to get something. You should implement a license system, allowing the leader to obtain licenses for various features to be implemented into their linkshell base, like crafting facilities, a chocobo stable (when choco's are released) NPC shops that sell crafting materials, a terminal of some form that allows you to search for items in the wards before actually running to them, and even a dorm section.
These licenses can be obtained by various quests of NM battles that require large groups to complete (thus giving birth to new linkshell events). Licenses can also have different levels, example the first level of a license will give you low level materials at shops opened in your base, or allow you the use of only the first level of facility use. Higher license levels equal harder quests/NM's. There are endless ways to play around with this feature, these are just a few small examples of that.
The Dorms: This goes back to old school Mog Houses, in fact the dorms are literally just that. The design features of the linkshell base are given only to the leader of the linkshell and the members he/she grants permission to. However, once the license is acquired for dorms, every member has their own personal room (Mog House) where their retainers rest (when they're not selling items in the wards) or can be summoned to, just like the bell spots in the adventurer's guilds. This is also the spot where every individual member can decorate their room however they please.
Linkshell Tabards: The ability to create and design your own linkshell logo in the game and apply them to the interior or exterior of your linkshell base, maybe even to armor or shields as well. I can see alot of ways that giving the ability to create your own tabard can cause issues, but at the same time, having a tabard is the ultimate form of representing your linkshell, other than wearing the actual linkshell emblem.
All in all, my idea is based around linkshell play, but overall it affects the entire game to some degree. New recipes for crafters, new forms of party/linkshell play, new mobs/items/quests implemented into the game, just a whole bunch of new events that can be made from this and ways to keep players entertained and busy. I hope i managed to convey these ideas correctly and I would really like to hear the responses of fans and if at all possible even some of the developers of the game. I know this post is uber long so thank you for taking the time to read it, hope to read some responses soon. ^_^