Please add endgame content requiring non-combat, team-coordination.
My Coil static has taken a lot of hits lately, and it's safe to say that it's pretty much done. There have been several reasons people have left, but I have to admit that it's been very difficult keeping people on board the whole time. I've been trying to suss out why that is, and through some discussions with a couple of folk in my FC, I've come to believe the underlying issue is very similar in most situations. Simply put, there is very little reason or incentive to be an active part of a Free Company for end-game content.
Let me break down where I'm seeing this:
1) Coil is essentially instant-access once you've unlocked it, and its content requires little participation outside of a once-a-week login for an hour. I've seen many complaints here on the forums about this, so I won't reiterate it too much. It appears many people want "more" content, but I don't know that this necessarily needs to be addressed through simply adding more Turns to Coil. Let's face it, people aren't really interested in just burning through more trash mobs with little incentive. More boss fights would be helpful, to a point, but at some point the devs are going to be stretched too thin trying to come up with original content on a regular basis.
I think the answer lies in developing content that requires team-effort to tackle and can't be simply queued for in the PF. For instance, the trigger system in Final Fantasy XI required end-game groups to get together prior to the planned raid night so as to acquire the requisite items to access end-game. This could easily be adapted to XIV in the following ways:
- Trigger items could be acquired through specific FATEs. Put the FATE on a slightly longer pop-time (60 minutes), or have it trigger only under certain conditions (e.g. rainy weather). This would require teams to put more time into accessing the FATE.
- Make the FATE a chain similar to Highbridge, with mechanics that require coordination (try to avoid just overwhelming the enemies). This will add depth the encounter and require that teams not just show up and whack a few enemies to get their item. It could even be where each part of the chain drop an item, which are then all exchanged for the end-game trigger.
- To keep this a team-focused enterprise, the item could be awarded solely to the leader of a party, and then, only if they achieve gold status on the FATEs. Don't make achieving Gold a ridiculous challenge, but it could be made so that only the best 50 or 75% of participating parties receive Gold status. There could even be conditions put on participation or Gold status, like parties must consist of the 2 tank/2 healer/4 dps setup.
- Put the FATEs in areas where access is severely impeded unless players are with a team. Gated zones with multiple switches comes to mind as one possibility. The zones could also have very high level mobs, requiring players to fight or sneak their way passed; make both fighting or sneaking viable options, as this would give players rewarding opportunities to "skip" trash if they're coordinated enough.
- Have a FATE chain for each end-game instance. So, if we were applying this to 2.2, there would be four FATE chains, one each for Turns 6-9. Parties would then have the choice of spending time each week prepping for a single night of Coil Turns, or they could do one FATE chain and its accompanying Turn one at a time.
The theme underlying these ideas is that it encourages people to join static groups, and they are then participating together in content outside of an instanced raid zone. Furthermore, because the reward for participation is only an access trigger, it would still allow people without static groups opportunities to participate as pugs, and meet potential statics through the content that isn't locked-out every week. Frankly, with a system like this in place, it might even eliminate the need for the current system of artificial gating of content. If the time investment to enter end-game is higher, it will still allow some kind of casual access to end-game, but very few will have the ability to spam the content repeatedly.
2) Vastly increase the incentive to join a Free Company. People have little incentive to join an FC outside of Coil or social reasons. If there were heavier bonuses for being part of one, it might entice people to participate.
Here are some thoughts:
- Greatly reduce a player's repair costs as the FC ranks up. Make it something akin to 25% off at Rank 4 and 50% off at rank 10. Give another 25% off if the FC has a house (any size).
- Give FC's the ability to have an additional Company Action active if they have a house, or make a higher tier of one of the actions exclusive to groups with houses. This way, while it isn't a necessity to have an FC house, there is a great incentive to putting in a team effort toward it. Players will feel more invested in their Companies if they've helped accomplish something like this, and there will be more than a simple vanity or convenience reward for doing so.
- Make tangible rewards for FC recruitment. For instance, a week-long experience boost for leveling up if your FC has added five new members in the past seven days. Smaller FC's aren't punished because it doesn't have an effect on end-game, but it does encourage people grow outside of their core groups.
The ideas here are to get players to want to build FC's and communities. When one of my static members told me this week that, if he could successfully pug T5 (which he did), there didn't seem to be a reason to commit to a static group or schedule. It rubs me the wrong way, but he has a very valid point. The game needs to have stronger rewards for people to play as a team than one-hour once-a-week content like Coil.
What I've suggested here are only my limited ideas on how this could be tackled, and I'd love to hear other folks' thoughts on how to build a more community-based game than we currently have.
tl;dr: Difficult content will only keep people playing together for so long. There needs to be more team-building elements to the game.
