FFXIV - Battle Royale

Just posted this as a Lodestone blog, but thought might be fun to hear folks ideas and thoughts here! Am definitely not saying is the best idea, but is a fun thought experiment.

Battle Royale in FFXIV
Vague Lore Reason - Guerrilla Force Survival Training

Is it madness, or genius? I'll let you decide!

Could it be done?

Honestly, I think you probably would be able to make a Battle Royale PvP game mode for FFXIV, with a few caveats.

It would 100% need to be a team game, probably working off the same queueing and balancing system as Feast. That means four man teams, comprising of:

Tank
Healer
Melee DPS
Ranged DPS

I really can't see you being able to have non-stomp or fights that felt winnable and fun without forcing this unfortunately, just due to the nature of the PvP in this game.

Map creation I have absolutely no doubt that the FFXIV team could handle, probably something like the Eureka maps, especially the final one which I forget the name of - though Anemos would work really well too I think.

Anyway, you could definitely have a map big enough, and surprisingly SE are really good at designing interesting looking PvP maps with decisions that need to be made regarding safety or speed and rotations etc

Player Numbers and the Looting Dynamic

For player numbers I would go for something like 120 - that is 30 teams total if my primary school maths checks out, and we know the game can support that in an instanced field due to Diadem and Eureka.

As for looting, I would steal from two systems here.

I would have Weapon/Armour boxes like in Deep Dungeon content, though the boxes would be clearly identified and only for the first person in your party who opened them, for simplicity sake and tactical decisions for your team. Better make up your mind quick or another team will take them!

Secondly, I would have the ability to level up, based on defeating other players and AI monsters - this would probably work more like the Soaring status in Rival Wings.

I feel it is important to make people fight in some way, and have benefits to gain from it over someone who hides away all match - the final team showdown should ideally be between two grizzled and bloodstained teams in this mode.

In things like shooters I am more willing to let you hide, as all it takes is one good shot to change a match, but that doesn't work out with the PvP combat here, so better to make sure the people lasting longest are the ones taking calculated risks.

So, the way to get strongest would be defeating enemies as a team (both players and AI), and then equipping yourself with 'loot' found in chests around the map that gave small bonuses - the big bonuses would still come from fighting other players and monsters, but it could very well be the edge your team needs.

The Circle and Monsters

So, I've mentioned AI monsters a few times, and as we all know, AI is far from unknown in FFXIVs PvP. I was originally thinking wildlife, but different Mammet varieties like in Rival Wings makes much more sense now that I think about it.

These, in my mind, would not respawn once defeated, but would be used to make your character stronger in some fashion. Likely max HP, or perhaps small buffs to attack speed/recast times. Something that you benefit from, but doesn't win the game for you if the other team is just that much better or gets the drop on you.

As to the circle, am sure SE could close off sections of a map with pulsing AoE, and the FATE system is already nice circles with countdowns and announcements - I'm sure it could be kludged in the necessary manner as required if a new system wasn't created.

Dropping in

So a final few thoughts to bring FFXIV Battle Royale up to the current modern specs of the genre.

For insertion into the map, I would probably use the aethernet system currently ingame. At the start of the match in the period before you are able to leave the landing area, I would have the map marked as to where the first circle is going to be - think the current implementation in Call of Duty Warzone.

Your team would then select which aethernet shard they wish to portal to on the map - I would have a bit of randomness to it, so you would arrive in a general map grid rather than an exact spot.

If the game could support hopping out of an airship and gliding down on parachutes like you see the Garleans doing in Ghimlyt Dark I'd be all for that, but I get the feeling it wouldn't actually be possible.

KO and Aid

Unlike other PvP modes, Battle Royales tend to have a way to bring your teammates back into the action in the midst of a battle, with only the defeat of your full team bringing a true end to things, and more modern Battle Royales also tend to have respawn mechanics for players who had earlier been finished off, but their team survives.

So how do we deal with that here?

For KOs recovery, I would have a Duty Action much like we see our characters do at many time in the MSQ and side quests - Aiding!

While KOed, players could not be healed back to their feet, instead requiring a player from their team to revive them. It might be fun if different roles had different animations, such as Phoenix Down, or casting their class revive spell, but outside of that it would be a channelled cast that could be interrupted if you are hit.

I don't think I would let you finish off downed players as it doesn't seem very Warrior of Light, nor would I let them crawl about - again, I am not sure the engine could deal with this, they would likely just be KOed like in any other content with an automatic countdown before they can no longer be revived where they fell, just that you have a special action to revive them while they are in the KO state.

Respawns

As to respawning fully defeated teammates, I would make use of the aethernet shards I made mention of as spawn areas earlier - essentially you interact with them and it basically summons any defeated teammates to you.

The issues being of course they can only be used once per game by one team, and that they would all be marked on players maps, so you might have people waiting to ambush you.

I believe the game has a spectator camera already in Feast, though am unsure if it can focus on one player - I mention this as most games while you are fully defeated you get the PoV of one of your teammates, rather than your death location or a black screen with UI.


Final (Fantasy) Thoughts

So there you have it, a rough and ready plan for Battle Royale in FFXIV, Fortnite / Warzone eat your heart out! Thoughts? Opinions? Improvements and suggestions?

Thanks for reading, and hope at the very least it gave you a disbelieving laugh!