Dev Suggestion: Aether and transportation

So with all this "foreboding" we have going on, I thought of some ideas.

Well since we are getting crystals that have been void of their power I thought it would be a perfect time for the problem to be spread across the Aetheryte crystals (please continue to read and hear me out on this as I know this might seem like a step backward for some). Basically this means that the Aetheryte teleportation (Anima) would be not able to be used, or at least without some certain prerequisites which I will elaborate towards the end of the post. But now everyone reading might be asking, if we, the players, cannot teleport how can we get around?

Well we have all these wonderful towns (and even more seem like they will be added to the game soon, so why not make them more useful? Yes I know there will be Hamlet Defense added at some time, and this could even coincide with Hamlet Defense in its own way that I will discuss in a moment. But enough setup here is the idea.

Since we have some seaside or water side towns why not have boats that travel between the many different hamlets. In turn this could allow us to have battles on the ships with either pirates or Garlean forces or both! But why would the baddies bother with attacking these ships? They want the resources that are being transported across the nation is why. This is how it could tie into the Hamlet Defense portion of the Battle content. Before the example let me explain that the boats can/should travel from the main cities to the hamlets as well as from hamlet to hamlet.

For a simple example we have a ship carrying food rations to a Hamlet to feed the soldiers that are stationed there, a pirate's come and seize those rations leaving 0% of them remaining. Since there was no food to deliver the next Hamlet attack the NPC soldiers would have a lowered VIT or suffer from a HP decrease. And if there are no NPCs to aid us in these battles then if there are temporary items have the ones that effect HP missing from the load-out or list to pick.

Well now you might be asking what about the Hamlets that are not near the water at all? There are carriages already that we see in the game so why not utilize them! The same principles could exist as in the boat rides as far as attacks go. Of course these trips should be faster than walking and the attacks would not happen 100% of the time, as to not make the system too demanding for the casual crowd.

So that gives us Chocobo carriages and boat rides as a form of transportation from Hamlet to Hamlet and City to Hamlet but what about the Aetheryte camps? That is the location where we do the leves and are very important areas in the game! I agree! So this would be the most ideal time to give us Chocobos that we could ride to these various Aetheryte camps since the usage of Anima would be restricted. (More on this in a moment I promise ^^;) So this is pretty straight forward and will be coming, so on to airships, let us use them, but don't just give them to us, after all this is brand new technology to the nations and should be considered a privilege for the adventurers to use.

So make us do a quest to get an Airship license and once we have one it should allow us to ride the airships that travel between the main nations. To take it even farther with the introduction of player made companies (if this is still being planned?) to be able to craft a single personal airship (fits one person, or even maybe a bigger one that could hold a single party [8]) It would then be up to SE to decide whether to allow free roam of these airships or just allow the owner to pick the city to travel to, these airships could be attacked by other Garlean airships. Yes I know this portion of the idea is massive and of course it would have to be implemented in waves.

Okay now for the question at hand that I've promised to answer from the start. What of the Anima? Since the Aetheryte crystals have been weakened greatly their use has to be restricted. Each week the adventurers are limited to teleporting via Anima to a particular camp two times. This might also help with picking different locations and not staying in one particular town or Aetheryte camp, encouraging people to explore the realm a little more, by picking new locations and leves. Also with the use of Chocobos and airships I think it really wouldn't be too much of a burden. Oh, of course the 100 Anima points would disappear.

Square-Enix could even offer quests that would allow you to increase the amount of times you can teleport to a specific camp. IE: Do a quest at Camp Horizon, once completed they allow you to teleport to Camp Horizon 3 times a week total instead of just 2.

So that's it, I know it's a really long post and I understand if no one really reads it. I tried to be as elaborate as I could to not cause any confusion. That being said what does everyone think?