Making FATEs smarter! (Comprehensive FATE (+guildleve/quest) fixes/redesign)
FATEs need to be smarter. If they are better designed, then the game overall will be more entertaining/challenging and you will likely see FATEs not be a brainless escalator to cap. At the moment FATEs make up some of the worst content I've played in a videogame in years (I mean that even beyond MMOs). The system is flat out garbage (in every aspect) and makes the game look like garbage just by existing (this is the face of the leveling experience after the main scenario is cleared and it is ugly). While I know people like seeing numbers go up real quick, I believe they should be redesigned to be more fun and rewarding (and not just nerfed). However the dev team changes it is fine as long as they change it for the better. I'll post my long list of ideas, with reasoning to back them up.
Smarter to me means: Harder to break, more challenging, and less abusable. It also means more stimulating for players during their overall FFXIV experience. FATEs have the role of not only being shared open-world quests, but also replacing content like world NMs, open-world EXP parties, and hamlet defense (successor to Besieged/Campaign). In total they make up most of the game's sheer volume of content aside from the main scenario. A lot weighs is on their shoulders, so I think they must be better for people to see the whole of FFXIV as a better designed game. I realize some of these changes may go against their original design, but this is how I think they would be best improved. Some ideas build onto each other, but I think there is value in even just implementing a few. Still, before making any judgments, maybe read all my changes and see how they work together. In any case, I would love criticism, so please give me your thoughts.
I will first briefly summarize this very long list of changes (which I’ve made very detailed to cover weird exceptions and whatnot). I’m going to say a lot, but it is not I'm saying complicated stuff.
1. Require FATEs to be manually joined. Use this to limit the number of players who can participate in a FATE and add additional rules to make FATEs work cleanly in light of this change (including adding a minimum level, special requirements for some FATEs, advanced joining/leaving mechanics, companion mechanics, death mechanics, etc.). Use this new system to making scaling easier, including scaling by roles filled (changing enemy/NPC numbers, their stats, and their attack patterns on the fly). Add better character loading priority in combination for limited participants should make FATEs far less hectic and easier to balance.
2. Adjust the scoring system to encourage activate participation (penalize quitting, have score decay over time), basic cooperation and coordination (scoring different for each role and each FATE to encourage smarter tactics and varied content), and friendly competition (a new medal reserved for the VIPs in each role).
3. Adjust enemy mechanics and patterns to make FATEs more exciting and harder to break. This includes temporary unkillable rage states for enemies who’s health drop far too quickly, AoE resistance built upon repeated AoE hits, making bosses interact with non-tanking players more (including off-tanks), and having enemies give each other benefits for more dynamic battles. Turn certain FATEs into a system as complex (and increasingly difficult) as Hamlet Defense in 1.0 (or Besieged/Campaign in FFXI), where crafters and gatherers can get involved in between raids.
4. Make FATEs less frequent, but allow players to increase the rate FATEs appear by doing other activities in the same area, with the main method being guildleve parties. Allow players to jump between levequests and FATEs without losing progress in the former (“pausing” the levequest). Additionally, to support guildleves’ new role as a FATE-spawner, allow players to slowly gain back leve allowance through dungeons and guildhests. Finally, make so FATEs can stack onto each other in an escalating fashion, so busier zones see big moments/pay offs.
5. Use this new FATE system for main scenario and side quests that features players spawning specific enemies in the overworld to fight, creating smaller, shorter FATEs that scale and level sync instead of having several players create duplicates and have messy (often unbalanced) battles with AoEs.
So here is all that in excruciating detail, just so I’m understood:
Participation
1. Change the way players participate in FATEs. (Create more controls)
a. No longer will players be able to "join" a FATE merely by walking into its area. Now all FATEs require players to hit “Join FATE” under their duty list, taking the place of the “level sync” button. This will automatically level sync players, deleveling them no higher than 1 level above the recommended level (making all FATEs more challenging for higher leveled characters). Players who "join" a FATE should get a special duty status similar to taking on a Guildleve. Let's call it "Fated" for now.
b.Fated can canceled in the same way level sync can, immediately ending that player’s access to FATE content and distributing their reward (see below). Only those with the Fated status will be able to interact with specific FATE game objects and other players taking part in a FATE (including cures, raises, etc.), among other things (see below). Characters are locked to their class while Fated.
c. Using this new system, the number of players who can participate in a single FATE will be limited. FATEs are public content, so the limit should be very generous. Smaller FATEs should still allow up to 15 people, even when 5 will do. Bigger FATEs should still allow 30 people, even when 15 will do. I can imagine Odin and Behemoth allowing 48 (6 full parties). This should mainly work as a hard limit to prevent the game from crapping itself and making scaling reasonably possible. Once a FATE reaches full capacity, it should disappear from the map and only reappear when spots open up.
d. To support party play, when a member of a party joins a FATE, they will reserve spots for nearby party members (same as “teleport” range) for up to 12 seconds. This will only happen if no party members are a member of that FATE (so it generally only happens once for a party).
e. Who can do FATEs can also be limited using the new join system:
i. A minimum level restriction should be put in place. Again, it should be generous, so something like 5 levels before the minimum even if they are still getting penalized (Endgame boss FATEs may want to limit this higher).
ii. To ensure players can transfer over into the next FATE in a multi-part FATE, make use of reservations. Reserve spots for those who took part in the previous FATE for a time based on the distance they must travel to the next FATE (30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds). Party reservations can still be made when people with reservations join. In general, multi-part FATEs should grow in scope and allow more players to join with each step.
iii. Some FATEs can use all sorts of prerequisites to make them more quest-like (or allow their use for quests). That can mean main scenario/side quest progress (i.e. unlocking FATEs), other FATEs, guildleves, etc. These requirements can be permanent unlocks or temporary available access that has to be refreshed.
iv. Another type of lockout mechanic can be a timer to prevent the same players doing the more popular FATEs every time (and monopolizing their unique drops). Something like only allowing them to take part in Odin half of the time may work (so if Odin is expected to appear once every three days, make it have a weekly timer). This lockout could be loosened after a few minutes if it is only meant to make space for new attempts.
f. Before appearing on the map, the appearance of a FATE should be announced to those in the local area first. Something like a 30-second head start is fair. This gives an advantage to those exploring/on the move instead of those just dully looking at their map while gaining rested EXP.
g. In addition to canceling their Fated status, players will be removed for being out of bounds for 15+ seconds (receiving a warning every 5 seconds). When removed they will "cash out" and gain their reward at a penalty. They will be unable to join that specific FATE for 5 minutes. Disconnected characters are given 2 minutes before automatically cashing out (all the while their reward will also be decaying, as explained below).
2. Change how Chocobo Companions work to reflect new mechanics.
a. Companions take up spots for FATEs, but cannot hold them if players want to join. In a scenario where a companion is taking up a spot that a player must to fill due to the FATE being full, they will be “put away” (but remained summoned), exactly how they work in towns. They will return when the FATE ends. Companions cannot be summoned by players in a FATE too full to allow them (including the presence of other companions taking up spots).
b. Companions are put away based on the order those players join, with new players’ companions being put away first. For example, in a scenario where a player fills the very last spot while having a companion with them, their companion will be put away immediately.
c. Companions are factored into scaling, but to a much lesser extent and not based on their skills/stance.
3. Prioritize character loading to make busier FATEs more playable, especially for PS3 players.
a. The order should simply be the following:
Self > Nearby engaged enemies > Fated player party members > Own companion > Boss (if not engaged or is distant) > Objective NPCs/gathering points (everything before this point should usually always appear) > Distant engaged enemies > Nearby unengaged enemies > Companion party members > Nearby Fated players (lower health takes priority) > Fated Party Member’s Pets > Nearby NPC allies (lower health takes priority) > Distant unengaged enemies (including Non-FATE enemies) > Distant Fated players (lower health takes priority) > Distant NPC allies (lower health takes priority) > Non-Fated player party members > Fated players’ pets > Other Fated players’ companions > Non-FATE NPCs > Non-Fated players > Non-Fated players’ companions/pets > Minions.
FATE Mechanics
1. Change how dying works in FATEs. ("Fated" status)
a. Players who are defeated with the Fated status will be offered a raise after a minute, gaining weakness or double weakness status. Those who are defeated with double weakness will have to wait 5 minutes before being receiving a raise. However...
b. Defeated characters will lose their Fated status and cash out if they remain KO'd for 5 minutes. I.e. characters that are defeated with double weakness will be automatically raised the moment they are removed for being KO'd that long. Cooperating with Fated raisers will be required if players plan on attacking dangerous enemies with double weakness on (zerging and whatnot). (Also to state it plainly: Return will likely force you to cash out early.)
c. Manually withdrawing from a FATE while KO’d will immediately offer a raise.
2. Make scoring more meaningful and use it prevent repetitive, lazy, or sloppy play.
a. Scores will decay over time, requiring players to remain active in FATEs. The rate of decay is sharper the higher the score. Being safely above Gold requires a lot of activity, while Bronze has very slow decay. Scores will not decay while a character is KO'd. As such, the overall amount required to get gold will be increased.
b. There are also caps in place that increase the longer you participate, meaning you can only access higher medals after a certain amount of time. Getting Silver or Gold requires participating in the FATE for over 1~ and 2~ minutes respectively. This prevents very late joiners skyrocketing their score with limit breaks and whatnot. As it intensifies the higher and higher you go above Gold, decay functions as a soft cap in itself.
c. Cashing out immediately decays the score based on how much time is left in the FATE with the penalty softening after counting a certain amount of time (like 10-15 minutes). Getting Gold while cashing out would require not only quitting towards the end, but also being there for most of the FATE and having accumulated a very high score despite decay. Getting a gold, quitting, and getting another (or even a silver) should be very difficult (don't forget that there is a 5 minute waiting time upon cashing out).
d. How score will be given out will depend on the role, pushing roles towards certain types of cooperation. For example, damage dealers may gain score points at a slower rate while dealing damage to enemies that have them at the top of their enmity list. Tanks may gain additional points based on how much damage they were able to mitigate (through actions/parry) rather than just take. Melee may see higher contributions to score for landing their combos (i.e. good timing/positioning) or stunning attacks. Healers and ranged DDs may be faced with an increased rate of decay for a short time if they are hit by avoidable AoEs. AoE heals may gain more score based on how many targets they hit, while single target may be based on the target's enmity and/or health remaining. These rules can be general ones or specific to a single FATE. They can also include interacting with NPC allies, carrying objects to goal, etc.
e. FATEs can also give larger penalties for failing to meet certain objectives. e.g. Every NPC captured in "Attack on Highbridge" should mark a significant reduction in score for all participants. Roles each having different secondary objectives shouldn't be out of the question.
f. A new medal granting slightly higher rewards (and bragging rights) called "Platinum" is given to the highest gold-ranked scorers of each role (meaning the Platinum medalist has to have earned a gold) in FATEs where at least two members of that role received silver or higher (three or four for DD). The number of awarded Platinum medals for each role increases based on the number of participants under that role, with damage dealers expected to have twice as many participants. (e.g. a FATE of 4 tanks, 4 healers, and 12 damage dealers should have 1, 1, and 2-3 platinum medals respectively)
3. Prevent brainless farming of FATEs. (Changes "hand in item" goal mechanics.)
a. FATEs with respawning enemies secondary to the objective (e.g. defeat certain enemies, collect items) will spawn enemies slower and slower as more are defeated and they will have more and more health and damage dealing capabilities despite rewarding the same base EXP. As the spawn rate plummets, players will be pressured by score decay to finish the FATE to get a good medal. FATEs where the objective is to defeat a number of enemies are left unchanged (although these should scale particularly well so they are not zerg fests).
b. Immediate EXP gained from defeating Fated enemies is only given when it actually contributes to the battle. This mainly applies to scenarios where players have to gather items (either from spots or defeating enemies) to hand to a NPC. Players will only be given EXP when they are presented an item to hand in upon that enemy’s defeat. They will only be able to carry a certain amount (somewhere around 5~) and once they hit that cap, they will no longer gain EXP from defeating FATE enemies until they hand in their items. (Note: "Hand in item" goals should scale enough so that FATEs never feel like they end in under a few minutes.)
4. Base FATE appearance rates on players doing other activities. (Incorporating guildleves and other content)
a. The general (base) rate which FATEs reappear will be significantly reduced (half as often~?).
b. FATEs will appear more frequently (back to normal or even faster) based on players completing quests, levequests, and defeating enemies in that local area (meaning not whole zones, but instead an area surrounding a camp with a general level range). Defeating enemies will only slightly boost the rate (hundreds would have to be killed to make even a dent), but doing quests and levequests will factor in a lot.
c. Guildleves will count every player who clears a shared guildleve rather than the single completion. To put it bluntly, the best way to spawn FATEs will be to have players party up and sharing guildleves. Since leves are a limited resource, this means FATEs will likely overall see less activity on slow days without a party effort (half as much at most), encouraging more variety in leveling and partying up to EXP (in more meaningful ways). (Note: There should probably be a limitation so that players can’t be overleveled for a levequest and still contribute toward spawning FATEs.)
d. To better implement of this idea of parties mixing guildleves and FATEs, players will be able to join FATEs while doing a guildleve without any penalties. This will “pause” the guildleve, stopping its timer and preventing any sort of progress until the Fated status in canceled. I think having parties jump between several leves and into varied FATEs will create an overall better leveling experience. (Upping the difficulty levels of a guildleve may be necessary.)
e. Adding a level sync for guildleves may be in order. Ideally, this would work like FFXI’s (level sycning to another player), where at least one person has to be the level to make doing guildleves worthwhile for EXP (and challenging).
f. As guildleves are tied to FATEs to an extent, there should be a way to recover them at a slightly faster rate. A very small amount of leve allowance should be recovered upon completing a dungeon or guildhest. To keep in line with the game’s current strictness, I suggest it be around 1 for every completed dungeon and a decent chance for 1 for every guildhest cleared (the formula should be that dungeons take x amount of time and doing multiple guildhests for x amount of time will give you a leve). This encourages players to add a little more variety to their activities. Giving crafters and gatherers a means to recover leves isn’t a bad idea either. Perhaps, have it tied to contributing to the resources for “defending area” FATEs. Free Company mechanics can also be a source of more leves.
g. Failed FATEs (including FATEs no one participated in) will respawn at a faster rate than usual (four times the base rate?), unless if failing leads into another FATE (e.g. Attack on Highbridge, other "defend area" FATEs as described above).
5. Turn open-world quest battles into small FATEs.
a. In many main scenario and side quests players are tasked with going into a certain area and spawning one or more enemies to defeat. I suggest these quest battles get turned into very small FATEs as they would now work. Ideally, these FATEs would be limited to around 4 or so players, have relatively short timer (so anyone else doesn’t have to wait long if someone is slow), and should not appear on the map at all.
b. The advantages of this includes more neater questing and easier cooperation (not having to deal with several people spawning several enemies and AoEs making a mess of things), level capped content that will remain challenging and satisfying to players of all levels (this is a good thing!), and quests gaining an interface that makes them feel more like meaningful encounters rather than MMO filler.
c. The scoring system would have to be different (likely more binary), but it should still reward some decent EXP (less than normal FATEs, of course) while granting credit for the quest. The FATE's content should scale with more players.
d. Since it is only bound to come up for this, completing a quest battle FATE should be considered being “removed”, so there is a 5 minute timer before it can be tried again.
e. This doesn’t include “Kill x number of enemies” quests, but I think that could be handed by making linking occur much more frequently and earlier. Most characters can fight two enemies of the same level (if not defeat one and flee), so the game should reflect this by throwing more monsters at you, especially if you are above level. If you mix in “party tactics” (see above), then you make on-level questing (and filling hunting logs) much more exciting. Alternatively, you can turn all of those quests into mini-FATEs that pull those enemies into it (likely activated like guildleves are). (Note: Instanced (solo) quest battles are left untouched. I’d like to make those both harder and more educational, but this doesn’t involve it.)
FATE Content
1. Scaling
a. Scaling should be based on the number of players who joined the FATE, changing on the fly as players join or leave. Percentages/bar (of enemy health, objectives filled, etc.) should remain the same, but the actual numbers the percentage is representing should scale freely based on the number of participants. FATEs can be scaled intelligently because the game knows exactly how many people are participating (and what role they are on). Enemy health should be scaled particularly high as the numbers climb.
b. Classes should also be factored into scaling, mainly for when roles are missing during FATEs which are not meant to be particularly challenging (not special NM FATEs, “defend area” FATEs). Fewer tanks mean fewer additional enemies besides a boss, bosses using their wide AoE auto-attack less often or for less damage (see below). Fewer DDs mean less enemy health, particularly for additional enemies. Fewer healers mean less damage being dealt, again mostly for additional enemies. FATEs should begin at their hardest and only scale down when a lot of players are participating but there is a dire lack of certain roles.
c. Easier FATEs should always be possible to clear, even solo and as a healer, thanks to the presence of NPC allies. These should also scale on the fly, with allies joining/leaving and their stats/current health adjusting as the situation changes.
2. Enemy Mechanics
a. Enemies that suffer a rapid decrease of health will enter a state for a certain amount of time where they cannot be killed, depending on how disposable they are suppose to be. This means they take half damage (granting score, but at a lower amount), but will not lose their final HP until that certain amount of time. This should be anywhere from 4 to 10 seconds depending on the FATE's design. For shorthand, let's call this status above "Frenzied".
b. Frenzied enemies will also deal much more damage and use more special attacks (especially AoE ones) at an extreme frequency.
c. Boss enemies getting Frenzied is not out of the question, but it would likely work best at 50% and again at 1%, making their HP freeze and making them more offensive (still receive damage (half)/give score) for 20-30 seconds if players hit those marks very quickly.
d. Enemies will gain resistance to AoE damage if hit more than once with an AoE attack in a short amount of time. This increases with each AoE attack, quickly bottoming out to 0 after a 2-3 AoE attacks within 4~ seconds. (This doesn't apply to Limit Breaks.)
e. Generic FATE NMs with normal attack patterns will often use avoidable AoE attacks with random targets independent of their normal attack patterns. Many boss FATE NMs will gain these attacks if they do not already have them.
f. Both generic and special FATE NMs will occasionally have their auto-attack swapped out with a cone AoE version of that attack which deals more damage, but lowers based on the number of people it hits. How frequent this happens is based on the number of tanks or melee DD (depending on the FATE) participating. This attack be parried, etc. by all who are hit by it, as usual. This is a means for secondary tanks to participate and gain score through damage mitigation.
g. "Party Tactics" should be given to enemies found within the same FATE. These are special bonuses enemies give each other, encouraging a specific kill order for a cleaner victory. An example of this bonus could mean -50 to 100% reduced damage taken, a damage dealt bonus, rapid health recovery, evasion bonus, share enmity, etc. "Sub-boss" enemies are those within a mob of trash enemies that have more health, deal more damage, and grant bonuses widely (these should appear more with higher scaling). They do not replace the role of bosses, only increase difficulty of FATEs many players are taking part in (increasing the use of tanks). This mechanic can be used to make adds very important in boss fights or vice versa.
h. Dodging an avoidable AoE while being targeted (top of enmity list) by a FATE enemy will reduce enmity. The amount reduced should be based on how deadly it is, with less deadly attacks reducing more and deadlier attacks reducing less. This means off-tanks will a better chance of catching up/competing. It can also mean tanks will play differently depending on whether or not they are working together with a healer.
i. Not sure about this yet, but I was thinking of a mechanic where powerful NM enemies cannot be stunned until a certain condition is filled. Mainly, this would be if it is receiving enough auto-attacks in a short time-frame. I'd call it the "stagger" mechanic. This would be to encourage the importance of vulnerable melee DDs versus BRDs and BLMs. (I'm mainly talking about FATE, but this could be good for all sorts of content.)
3. Specific "defend settlement" FATEs made more complex. (Hamlet Defense successor)
a. These FATEs, including "Attack on Highbridge" and whatever else that needs to be made more like that one, need more complex enemy patterns. Taking "Attack on Highbridge" as an example, enemies should spawn from both sides of the bridge, they should sneak around the buildings and begin spamming ranged AoEs as artillery. Sub-bosses should be commonly involved. (If you've played FFXI's Besieged or Campaign battles where two or three enemy forces were attacking, it should feel like that.)
b. Similar to Hamlet Defense of old, DoH and DoL should be able to contribute to these FATEs in between periods of activity, granting EXP or leve allowance. Providing gathered and crafted items will strengthen an area, making success more likely.
c. Every time an enemy force is repelled, the FATE should become more and more difficult until it is lost (then the difficulty should reset). This level will be marked under the FATE's name.
d. In the case of rescuing NPCs, it should take multiple FATEs (spaced over time) depending on the number of captured NPCs. Players should also be given some form of investment to want to save these NPCs. (The source of daily quests?)
4. Since FATEs have become rarer occurrences, add more parts to current FATEs. (Ambush FATEs)
a. To make single-part FATEs more exciting and worth seeking out despite of them being rarer, there should be a chance that a second, unrelated FATE will begin immediately after the end of the previous one. This would count as another part in a “multi-part” FATE, following the same joining rules explained above. This should be mostly random (or dependent on indirect factors – weather, some beast tribe resource number mechanic, etc.), decided more by the area than the completed FATE. The most basic example is being ambushed by a beast tribe or powerful FATE NM after completing a more mundane FATE. An exciting, but rare sequence would be:
“Defeat X enemies” FATE -> Ambush: “Defeat special NM of that enemy type” FATE -> Ambush: “Defeat the seven moogles as they try to summon their primal” FATE -> Part II: “Defeat Good King Moggle Mog and his revived seven helpers” FATE.
b. These Ambush FATEs should become more frequent based on the number of participants in that FATE and other FATEs in that area, with more people taking part in FATEs making ambushes more likely. They should always be more inclusive, growing in scale with each additional FATE. A full sequence leading into a huge FATE should be a small exciting moment for the server (as when Behemoth spawns, etc.) This could also replace the current way Behemoth and Odin appear.
Quite a doozy. If you are only more confused after reading all that (thank you, btw), just check out the summary again.
