[dev1031] [dev1003] Suggestion: "Monster Hunting" Grand Company quests
EDIT: tl;dr added at post bottom
I just had a lil idea about nm/hnm hunting and wanted to share it with you.
Right now we have 3 kinds of NM spawn conditions:
- Most mid-level NMs spawn 24h/24, with few minutes respawn time
- Some high-level NMs (Great Buffalo & co) only spawn during a part of the day (daytime or nighttime), with one of them only during a special weather condition (Dodore)
- Lone Coeurl which spawns with special conditions (in this specific case, when all wolfs in the map have been killed)
These all are nice for who want some NM hunting but still dont like to wait hours/DAYS to claim it (or, in most cases, to LOSE claim, sometimes to a bot lol) and kill it. I'm one of those, I hated the waiting NM system in FFXI.
Tho, I loved the "rarity" of those NMs (taking 1 or more days to spawn) and the feeling of fighting them, given not only by the fact they were mid-hard fights that required a lot of ppl and could drop nice items, but by the fact itself that to get them you just didnt have to wait some minutes after a previous kill of the same NM (respawn).
So, how to get the best of both philosophies?
Repeatable "Monster Hunting" Grand Company Quests (MHQ) for mid and high level players. (Quests would be the same in all 3 GCs)
How would they work? Just like the materia system needs a "start" quest, MHQ would need one too. After starting the quest, a special NPC Linkpearl is given to the player.
A new GC NPC would offer Monster Hunting quests, similar to FFXII. After that...
1. For example, I choose a quest "X" which ask me to kill a NM called "Voluptuous Vivian" (VV, respawn time: 2-3 real life days)
2. When VV spawns (or is about to spawn, maybe?), all online members that activated the quest "X" receive a message by the MHQ Linkpearl saying that VV is up (or is about to spawn) - lore: maybe the GC NPC got a magic-something that lights up when these NMs spawn! :P
3. This NM can spawn in more locations (like 2-3 for every high level NMs, 1 for mid level NMs) but, the road to every of those locations is infested by tough mobs that require at least a Light Party to go through (for high-level NMs only, much easier mobs for mid-level ones). Or simply 1 NM = 1 spawn zone, but still with tough mobs on the road.
This would get away the camping-for-hours/days system of FFXI (by a party or by a player with the role to notice his/her LS or some to "stall" it), but still introducing the "rare" NM Hunting, with a random-time feeling (and not just scheduled contents like raids, etc). It's nice to login in the game, and for example after few mins the NM(s) spawn(s)... "Let's go guys! Let's hurry!". It would give less monotony and predictability and more "surprise" to the game.
Additional ideas and details:
- Every MH Quest should be repeatable to keep them always active (and be noticed when NMs spawn)
- MH Quest could give few Company Seals (always) and/or special items (when completed for the first time)
- Still, these NM could drop items (both R/E and crafting tradable materials... or something similar to abjurations FFXI system, where both R/E drops and crafted items are involved to finalize the item)
- After getting to the spawn location, maybe instead of the real NM there could be a special aetherial node (just like the Ifrit one), that can be accessed only if at least a particular number of players are in the party (like 2 for Mid-NMs, 4-6 for Mid-High, 8 for High); this is to avoid 1 or 2 players camping it to start "stalling" it as soon as the NM spawns. After a party uses the node, the node disappears and that party is teleported to an istanced area, to avoid mpk attempts from other parties (like: DoTs on a slept mob)
- For some special very tough NMs, instead of the NPC Linkpearl message (or together with it), when they spawn something could happen, for example in most zones (cities and some outside zones) a special weather condition could happen for a very small time (like 5-10 seconds)
tl;dr: put NM/HNMs with long respawn time in the game (2 or more days), but make us know when they spawn by a NPC GC Linkpearl. Don't put NM in the open world but, instead, a Ifrit-like Aetherial node which teleports to an instanced area with the NM only by having a particular number of member in your party to avoid 1-2 players camping it to stall it as soon as it spawns (remember Khimaira in FFXI?)
This could avoid the problem of camping-for-hours/days, bot claiming, etc but still giving the opportunity to fight rare enemies and break monotony of schedulable events (raids, etc)