[Suggestion Compendium] Improving Current Content/Systems

Perusing the forums, I've gleaned three common complaints:

(1) not enough open-world, solo based content
(2) not enough open-world, party based content
(3) dynamic FATE's underwhelming/not meeting their potential

I'm designing this thread for suggestions on how to improve the systems we've already got in place to meet these objectives.


My suggestions follow, please keep in mind these are meant to be a holistic, systemic approach:


FATE's

FC Content (30-50)
Open-World Boss Encounters*
Randomly Located (e.g. Odin fight)
Mechanics/Stats scale with participant count
Light Party Tier: 4-20 man's on 2-4h respawns
Full Party Tier: 8-40 man's on 6-12h respawns

*Imagine Brayflox HM Boss #1, # of snipers scaling, & new bombing patterns
*Imagine Haukke HM Boss #2, # of adds/axes/beams scaling, & new floor patterns


Guildhest's

Light & Full Party Content (50)
Daily Roulette: High-Level Guildhest
Daily Roulette: Extreme-Level Guildhest
Mechanically Advanced, Quick-Fire Challenges
Ranging from Legitimately Hard to Insanely Difficult


Leve's (Solo GC)

Solo Content (40-50)
Gated by GC Ranking
Lore-Based Encounters*
Strict lvl/ilvl de-synchronization
GC Focused (epic military op's)*
Single Random Daily/Elite Weekly
Finely tuned, hardcore solo content
A new means of earning Tomes solo

*Get to know your militia more deeply
*Learn about operations behind enemy lines
*Chance to fight alongside popular NPC's (Raubahn)


Leve's (Party)

Duo to Light Party Content (20-50)
Level Selection/Sync
Suggested Player Count
Suggested Player Count though...
Gated by number of Leve Allowances
Doable with less/more (min/max of 2-4)
Guaranteed Spoils upon Completion (e.g. Maps)
Spoils scale with level/member increases/decreases
Greater Spoils for below-member/above-level completions


Maps

Alliance Content (50)
Diverse Challenges
No Scaling/Syncing
Better Tome rewards
Bigger, more epic additions
Certain tiers cannot be traded
Isolated, open-world raid bosses


If all these were improvised as such, I think the game would become truly, far more epic.


...

End Game Guildleve
Balance it based off of ilvl and the rewards should be tokens

FATEs
Change XP to Mytho when players hit 50

Add current dungeons to open world
Dailies tailored to player with ilvl of that specific HM Dungeon
It would explain the story from how it went from normal to HM

Expand areas that require a group
Dailies that require a light party to complete

Treasure Map
Expand on this concept where the high end map would require a full party of ilvl90 players.

I had the idea for an endgame open-world zone which incorporated many of these changes too (dailies too).

Dynamic mission or time-locked chambers/paths which hold outerworld bosses or provide special access to new, intense timeworn map locations.

FATE's could be huge here with enemy assaults/sieges taking place... have skirmishes/wars break out all around. Even scripted FATE sequences that are chained together...

One group needs to handle the brunt of the enemy force tearing through the front, whilst another needs to hold back the flank, etc. Depending on the success/failure that would turn the tide of ensuing events, ultimately altering the overall outcome.

Get crafters/gatherers involved too, bringing up supplies or building/repairing various war machines.

Different battalions waving the flag of their respective Grand Company, etc. Could be tons of fun.

Grander scale events could be biweekly or something, with smaller operations always ongoing.

@Dyvid, moving current dungeons to outerworld is especially interesting!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parz3val

@Dyvid, moving current dungeons to outerworld is especially interesting!

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100% agreed. Personally I spent a lot of time in Shposhae just for the unique items. It was fun.

Why, SE? Why nix it from existance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Issac

100% agreed. Personally I spent a lot of time in Shposhae just for the unique items. It was fun.

Why, SE? Why nix it from existance?

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Intriguing... I didn't realize that had an outerworld dungeon in 1.0... looks exciting.

Hamlet Defense also intrigues me, a lot of people have been bringing that up lately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parz3val

Hamlet Defense also intrigues me, a lot of people have been bringing that up lately.

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Yeah they nix'd that, too. Confuses me so much.

Redesign things in any way, shape or form you want. People won't flock to new content because it's 'fun'.

People are only interested in the quickest way from point A to B. Look at Hunts, people aren't doing them for fun but because the rewards are so good. And so the following mindset is "If you're not hunting, you're missing out"

Sure, they might not 'flock' to the content.

But making it more fun wouldn't hurt, and perhaps give each it's own "rewards-niche" with some overlap so people have more diverse options still.

Even though Timeworn's aren't very lucrative, we still like to do them because they're entertaining & a nice change of pace.

Also, these proposed changes have more to do with updating already 'obsolete' content like Guildhests & Leves (at 50).

I remember Yoshida recently prosing (essentially) what the point would be to add more Guildhests. I think the answer is here... they have a lot of current systems they could capitalize on & give use for end-game.

These changes would do so much for the open-world.

I love these ideas... definitely would serve a lot to "elevate" the gameplay & a natural step of evolution for these already obsoleted systems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parz3val

Sure, they might not 'flock' to the content.

But making it more fun wouldn't hurt, and perhaps give each it's own "rewards-niche" with some overlap so people have more diverse options still.

Even though Timeworn's aren't very lucrative, we still like to do them because they're entertaining & a nice change of pace.

Also, these proposed changes have more to do with updating already 'obsolete' content like Guildhests & Leves (at 50).

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I'd love to see a spot on the GC Seal vendor that sells "Grand Company Companions" other than chocobos (essentially, I'd love to see it expanded on, being able to gear/set actions for abilities. This would also be a very nice way to get people buying even more gear. Maybe spending GC seals or tomestones as a way to 'buy' new ability slots or traits)

That way if 3-5 people want to do a map, or lowman a random hunt monster, and call companions you'd see humanoid companions too, making it feel a tad more immersive. Maybe that's just me though, but there WOULD be some cool potential if you could pick from a list of 4-5 companions from your GC to work as a "Merc" in your employ, maybe paying them in ventures? (another way to get more people doing stuff to accumulate lots of ventures?) And being able to set roles, akin to the chocobo skill list, but more diversified, by using the PC classes/jobs we have access to. I want to hire an actual GC White Mage!

A GC Merc Companion is a really cool idea :) in general I would love to see the Companion System expanded in the future... so long as we can have them out during a queue...

The most lacking areas in this game that would be easiest to exponentially improve are in my opinion

Lack of Grand Company related -questlines- (Like, actual plot that is episodic based upon your rank. Not Beastman dailies persay, just a handful of story quests per rank much like the Postman content has been episodic, in the same manner based on the release of ranks or something akin to the Job/Class questlines)
and
Lack of NPC companions outside of the Chocobo who I find hard to develop any meaningful attachment to or desire to use. Easy fix would be to just allow us to party up with your retainers when soloing, I mean we gear them up for ventures and can see all their stats so it seems simple enough to implement. Alternatively add an adventuring fellow companion that we're allowed to customize ala FF XI or FF XIV's path companion. In the implementation of the latter they could even have their own questline much like in XI to boot, for example every "X" amount of companion levels you unlock a new quest, boom.

There are a ton of other things I could recommend but those two seem easy to implement working within our current constraints and do a lot to flesh out otherwise underutilized systems in game.

Would love to see more 8-man dungeons outside of coil and story mode. This could open the possibility for (gasp!) support jobs to possible be included in the party, which I know is likely a pipe dream seeing that yoship has mentioned a number of times that he wants to stick strictly to the holy trinity of jobs. But a man can dream, no?

Also would like to see dungeons with more mechanics in them aside from run through, clear trash asap, then kill however many bosses (3 or so) that are strewn throughout the dungeon.

Retainers would definitely make awesome party companions. Especially if they were tied into the story as actual allies. The temperament you chose could affect certain actions they take or things they say, they could be your surrogate voice in a sense seeing as how we're silent protagonists.

I also am a huge advocate of Pure Support Jobs.

I hope the Expansion brings relevance to things like Guildhests & Leves outside of leveling from 50 to 60.