Grand Company update

Grand Company and squadron content is sadly abandoned but I'd like to see it expanded.

Let us upgrade to the Eorzean Alliance/Grand Company of Eorzea:

- no more restriction on GC city states or alligeance. We keep our original alligeance but can operate in any GC and wear any GC gear
- quests to institute a HQ in other cities that will be functional as we raise the ranks. Hunt boards and clans integrated into EA HQ
- expanded seal limit
- new seal gear inspired by newer allies and beast tribes
- new crafted gear insipired by local culture with new seal crafting materials

Squadron update:

- squadron limit increased with rank
- squadron max level increased with HQ construction in different city states
- gear up recruits and use job stones just like retainers

Squadron content revamp:

- Squadron party can accompany you in the overworld for FATEs, hunts and exclusive treasure maps
- Grand Company leves replace Command missions and will take your squadron inside dungeons to defeat various bosses (you'll be teleported right into the arena)
- weekly missions to defeat spawnable overworld hunts - you get to spawn S and A ranks that can only be attacked by your Squadron party (like leves). Same mechanics but adjusted for light party (they are functionally the same mobs but aren't related to hunt achievements and rewards)
- possibility of full party with 2 squadron controlled by 2 different people for actual multiplayer gameplay (2 "people" maps or S rank "marks")
- Squadron missions are embarassing. Delete them and move the rewards to the overworld content above, not the boring stat simulator. Let us fight with them more. New recruits will appear after the new dungeon missions.
- customizable barracks. Expanded with increased recruit limit, we can decorate it however we want. Barracks will be accessible from any HQ (but will stay the same).

New Chocobo content

- more barding
- more levels and abilities
- exclusive emotes, running and flying styles
- 2nd dye channel for chocobos

I like the idea of expanding the GC alliance, but I don't like the idea of bringing back Squadrons.

Squadrons was a mess. Even if you brought them into FATEs, you'd overwhelm the system with more players than there needs to be. I get the idea makes sense when people stop doing FATEs, but zones where there's still active FATE farming would be a mess and people would be sniping the enemies too quickly.

I wish GC would be tied together with the housing interior upgrades.

I also think stuff like Phoenix Downs should be sold with GC seals

Grand Companies are in dire need of an update (or making relevant again).

Bring back Arachne Web and co., for master recipes too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

I like the idea of expanding the GC alliance, but I don't like the idea of bringing back Squadrons.

---

Squadron are indeed a mess which is why I'd scrap everything related to them that exists right now (they make no sense now that there's Duty Support) but I still like the original idea of commanding a squadron and I'd rather have it in the overworld + unique missions while leaving everything dungeon-related to DS/Trusts.

Squadron missions are also super boring. I would love a minigame like FF7RE: Fort Condor but GC themed for training exercises/combat simulators.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

Even if you brought them into FATEs, you'd overwhelm the system with more players than there needs to be. I get the idea makes sense when people stop doing FATEs, but zones where there's still active FATE farming would be a mess and people would be sniping the enemies too quickly.

---

You don't need an HQ in every city right away. You can still have current exp areas player-only with current max level CG leves and maps in older areas. Farming FATES with squadron would be inefficient anyway, it's mostly just for those couple of hard FATES per area that nobody does anymore.

You could even have random chances of important NPCs visiting the barracks and accompanying you for the day. Like say, you enter Ishgard's HQ barracks and you find Lucia or Ameryc checking them out and you can use them for the day as one of your recruits.

There could be multiples options for GC indeed. We can already purchases banner and military colors as housing items of almost every nation of the game, but, for many things, we are still stuck with only the 3 firsts allegiance to Gridania, Uld'ah or Limsa. Just think of Frontline where we do take the colors of one of those.

It probably wouldn't be too hard to allow players to have other nation's color in the match. I don't mean going back to the time where if you allegiance was Limsa, you had to queue as maelstorm only. Queue time was a problem and uneven back then and the randomisation of players was a good answer. But instead of the 3 same team, we could uses the current 8 big nations/cities from the game.

Squadron was a nice thing but I think that they ran out of ideas of what the players can or could do. The content was not super popular too, it was the first tries to get an AI helping you with dungeon, and the trust system is like the "2.0" of that system that works better, making squadron pointless. The weekly reward of the squadron is usefull, even if it didn't had any upgrade, it's a free personnal fc buff that can be activated when you need it, so it's still usefull.

And of course, our military grade could get higher, but it's more like an honorific title than an actual one. We don't command the armies, but, in the story, we are often above any of the GC leaders and they rely on us.

Of course, if we talk of GC update, I also see in parallel with that FC updates too. Many things have been unchanged for so long. First, why no cross-server FC ? Adding new fc buff? Adding a calandar or allowing a bit more text to the FC news than 250 characters ? Maybe some FC objectives with rewards in game to give players things to do together and a purpose to try to organise things with fc members?

There is too much politics behind a "Grand Company of Eorzea" for it to work in the way you want.

Have you forgotten those blue uniforms already?

This game stopped caring about politics in Shadowbringer. It's also very easy to write around it, the Erozean alliance already exists, and all older zones are part of it. Hunts currency are cross-dimensional and no one seems to mind.

I feel like they could further merge Grand Companies into PVP as I think it's the best avenue for player chosen factions.

Aren't Free Companies already player-chosen factions? At least, in fiction. It would be nice if mechanics followed it more closely.