4.1 Squadrons can be party members in dungeons

Ive been seeing this going around lately, so what do you think this would do to the game. I mean I want it at least I think that I do , but I mean why chose people when you can just que into a dungeon with your on npcs? Is this overall a good or bad thing what do you guys think and of course it has been said 4.1 but could also mean much further into the expansion. But if it does happen in sb which it looks like it will what do you think it would do to overall player interaction?

I can imagine that they unlock this feature only for outdated content like they did with "undersized group".

I would think it might be interesting to let these squadrons run on retainer/dungeon missions and they actually do so - what I mean is you can find player's retainers in the real world occasionally, now you might be in a full party and come by Nic Pay's squadron setup camp in the dungeon, perhaps cast some buff spells on you as you walk by lol.

At the point that you get them and at the point they'll be useful is probably quite different though. I mean if you wanted to speed run old content you'd go unsycned, and I imagine you're not going to get them soon enough that you'd be able to level with them at level 65. At this point what I imagine is helping them through the content, which you can then run again later for maybe some bonus, but for the most part they might do something like learn the zone so you can send them on missions for items?

You may be able to use them for the daily level roulette on a lower level job? That might be helpful, ish. So I guess what I'm saying is I think it will take down the amount of players in public only slightly, since I have a hard time imagining that you're going to be like "LOL SQUADRONS IS OUT, GOODBYE STATIC, SAVAGE OMEGA SOLO~!"

I admit I have been curious about this function, I was not running my squadron prior to this announcement...

And now I have been building one.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

I would think it might be interesting to let these squadrons run on retainer/dungeon missions and they actually do

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Hah I would image no 8 man content but Im wondering how far it will go could you do like the level 50 roulette, 60 roulette with them. Im just curious as to if you can do things like this with them, cause I mean for instance if I wana play a dps job and its either hey que in with people wait for 20 or 30 mins.

OR my other option is now que in with my squadron I personally would chose the squad every time over waiting for 20 mins. I think if they allow this they have to be real careful in what types of content they will allow us to run with them, because with our long on going thread about df issues I dont see why people wouldn't chose the npcs instead thats if they where worth anything they could suck haha.

Did they mention what content you'd be able to do them with? Honestly, I doubt I'll ever run with a squadron because I gave up on mine a long time ago lol

For certain things this will be the preferred way to go. They aren't going to program squadron behavior for every encounter though. I wonder if they will include Stone Vigil (hard) in this and give squadron the ability to use the cannons. At the moment it seems impossible to undersize solo because 1 cannon isn't enough to beat the 2nd boss fast enough before enrage forces a wipe, and direct weapon damage doesn't work, so you need multiple cannon users to proceed.

Considering they've said before that it would be for a limited amount of content (only certain hand picked dungeons), I don't think it'll do much other than maybe flushing out some dungeons that people might either be sick of in their roulettes or just outright leaving the moment they pop up. Hopefully Aurum Vale is among one of the chosen dungeons you can use them in.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Considering they've said before that it would be for a limited amount of content (only certain hand picked dungeons), I don't think it'll do much other than maybe flushing out some dungeons that people might either be sick of in their roulettes or just outright leaving the moment they pop up. Hopefully Aurum Vale is among one of the chosen dungeons you can use them in.

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Wonder if they can bind this within the "live" system, like if they could make it so if the group starts to fall apart if you can bring in your squadron / chocobos, at least for old content. Steps of Faith, everyone leaves and you're sick of it, and you decide to stay with that one other cool dude who also hates life as much as you do, fill the rest of the slots with NPCs and do the content (at least until it fills them with players).

Have it sort of act like in HotS where when a player leaves it gives you an AI team member, better than nothing (usually), and you don't rage quit the whole content lol.

Another being you start a DF for steps of faith and the program running the show just starts dying laughing because you're the only person in queue and the history shows no one has queued for it for a while. Instead of continuing to roll on the floor it just says "would you like to continue in advance with your squadron?" and will continue to search while you attempt the content (of course don't let the squadron take place of players if the AI isn't ready for the content, that'd be a waste of the player's time).

Some people may want to /only/ run with their squad, and there may be reason to if SE made it so that's how they learned.. but I still think if they could bind it into the live system that it would barely touch the amount of players in the system while also accelerating queues for content that is dead or no one likes lol.

Would be sort of funny if they hang/back/cheerleader you when they get replaced (can see them pressing their faces against the magical wall before boss fights, staring deeply :D).

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Originally Posted by bswpayton

Hah I would image no 8 man content but Im wondering how far it will go could you do like the level 50 roulette, 60 roulette with them. Im just curious as to if you can do things like this with them, cause I mean for instance if I wana play a dps job and its either hey que in with people wait for 20 or 30 mins.

OR my other option is now que in with my squadron I personally would chose the squad every time over waiting for 20 mins. I think if they allow this they have to be real careful in what types of content they will allow us to run with them, because with our long on going thread about df issues I dont see why people wouldn't chose the npcs instead thats if they where worth anything they could suck haha.

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Lol I doubt they would let you replace players like that yeah, maybe for old 8 man content (Coil for example). I doubt we'll see people fully abandon the live system but it wouldn't hurt I think to intertwine them. It also depends onw hat doing the dungeon means with them though, like what has SE prepared as the reward? Big pile of seals? We'll have to see what the encouragement/purpose is. If the purpose is to replace real players in dead/low level content I don't think we'll really see the problem (since a lot of Deep Dungeons and no new content). Really depends at the moment what they want for it.

I just want my squadron to cap my tomes for me and relic grind while i sun and swim in Doma and Mist. That's about it. Not too demanding. ;P

All this will do is breed even more toxicity.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Wonder if they can bind this within the "live" system, like if they could make it so if the group starts to fall apart if you can bring in your squadron / chocobos, at least for old content. Steps of Faith, everyone leaves and you're sick of it, and you decide to stay with that one other cool dude who also hates life as much as you do, fill the rest of the .

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If we could get them in old eight man like coil or something it would def kill alot of the bird or pony farms u see in the pf at least the pony ones if they are that good to do coil even uysnc. If you could do old primals and stuff with them that would kill alot of the parties farming them or even new players farming you would get a certain drop if you could bring in your npcs.Ha but just from doing job quest my npcs have always seemed to be pretty decent and in some cases while leveling alot stronger than your character at the time.

But I just dont see how they could make them that great tho, I honestly dont see how npcs could go past say hakku manor if so they would have to of spent loads of money to do this. Like someone mention av no way the npcs would know to eat fruit ha, are qarn haha npc gona get the heads on the platform. The more I think about it unless they spent loads of money on this feature I couldnt see them being able to go past brayflax ha.

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Originally Posted by bswpayton

Ive been seeing this going around lately, so what do you think this would do to the game. I mean I want it at least I think that I do , but I mean why chose people when you can just que into a dungeon with your on npcs? Is this overall a good or bad thing what do you guys think and of course it has been said 4.1 but could also mean much further into the expansion. But if it does happen in sb which it looks like it will what do you think it would do to overall player interaction?

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That's all find and good, but I want my retainers to go with me. I created them, they look how I want them to, they need to give us the option of retainers and/or squad members.

The squadron would probably fail.

How many times have we been in a solo msq duty, only to eye twitch at the npc who won't move out of the telegraphed aoe?

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Originally Posted by bswpayton

If we could get them in old eight man like coil or something it would def kill alot of the bird or pony farms u see in the pf at least the pony ones if they are that good to do coil even uysnc. If you could do old primals and stuff with them that would kill alot of the parties farming them or even new players farming you would get a certain drop if you could bring in your npcs.Ha but just from doing job quest my npcs have always seemed to be pretty decent and in some cases while leveling alot stronger than your character at the time.

But I just dont see how they could make them that great tho, I honestly dont see how npcs could go past say hakku manor if so they would have to of spent loads of money to do this. Like someone mention av no way the npcs would know to eat fruit ha, are qarn haha npc gona get the heads on the platform. The more I think about it unless they spent loads of money on this feature I couldnt see them being able to go past brayflax ha.

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For the ARR farms I don't think it's an issue, maybe also for HW - why I say this is because you will be so overgeared from SB that ARR primals will be a real joke, and if you want to make a farm party with someone else that's fine but you could totally do it solo. For the current tier I don't think they would be allowed or capable of doing it lol.

(So imo, I don't really care if they allowed you to easily bird farm by yourself, because honestly if you hit 70 you could easily farm by yourself anyways).

I believe they will add custom scripts for specific dungeons, which depending on how much they care will either be modified mechanics or more complicated AI algorithms to follow the dungeon rules. The much easier of course is just to have the squadron not respect the dungeon mechanics like you have to, like Egi sort of already do. I definitely think they can make them work past Aurum Vale even, but they will likely do it by cheating lol.

Your ally is going to have like 75% damage reduction :D

The squadron right now don't have jobs and they are level capped at 50. so even if they made it so you can take them with you right now, it's not like they will be useful in any Lv 60 content.

i can see them just raising their level cap to 60 or 65 so that any Lv 70 content still requires actually players.

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

The squadron would probably fail.

How many times have we been in a solo msq duty, only to eye twitch at the npc who won't move out of the telegraphed aoe?

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Which is exactly why it's not possible to take the squadron into a dungeon right now.

They're improving on the AI for the squadron stuff, so it might be slightly better in 4.1, although I still don't have high hopes for it.

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

The squadron would probably fail.

How many times have we been in a solo msq duty, only to eye twitch at the npc who won't move out of the telegraphed aoe?

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Hehe.

First time I thought they'll add squadrons able to join dungeons soon was in the last MSQ solo battle.
Because there, at the last phase, all 3 NPCs actually dodge certain circle ground AoEs.

Yes, they still eat other AoEs like the cone AoEs of the 'boss', but hey.. that's more dodging I've ever seen so far. ;)

Meanwhile, I'm just wondering why they're working on the adventurer squadron stuff when I still can't even take my chocobo into an unsynced duty (let alone synced...).

I rather summon my retainer to fight along side with me..

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Originally Posted by Mysticales

I rather summon my retainer to fight along side with me..

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I totally agree wit this , but im guessin maybe because some people have retainers that are just botanist or that are miners. So I think the option there would be to allow I guess one of your battle classes to join your squad. I havent even finished leveling mine so I might delete one and maybe more picky on who I let join if we can actually take them places at some point.

Given how Trusts make FFXI far more enjoyable for those of us who loathe PUGging and don't always have the fortune to be able to get full LS groups it would work wonders for FFXIV too and Squadrons are pretty much the same thing.

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Meanwhile, I'm just wondering why they're working on the adventurer squadron stuff when I still can't even take my chocobo into an unsynced duty (let alone synced...).

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Originally Posted by Mysticales

I rather summon my retainer to fight along side with me..

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Both of these things seem like great things to address. Also want to throw out that I want a epic reunion with my companion from 1.0 XD

Filthy mouthed miqote or Thesaurus lalafell, come back to me - I know you're lost and hungry in the woods! lol

Retainer makes sense because you get to make them, but I've never really felt connected to them. Doesn't have a companion touch to them (imo). Chocobo especially due to that it already works like that, and if they add a breeder that relates to chocobo.. makes even more sense.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Wonder if they can bind this within the "live" system, like if they could make it so if the group starts to fall apart if you can bring in your squadron / chocobos, at least for old content. Steps of Faith, everyone leaves and you're sick of it, and you decide to stay with that one other cool dude who also hates life as much as you do, fill the rest of the slots with NPCs and do the content (at least until it fills them with players).

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That would be nice to just be able to continue on. The more likely scenario is it will be a specific choice of going into a dungeon with your squad from the beginning or going in with regular players and if someone drops you get to wait for more players.

I wouldn't expect it to be in 4.1 realistically. It took until the end of 3.x for egi glamour. It took until the end of 3.x for the Diadem rework. And so on. I'll use it whenever it comes out, but I'm not realistically expecting 4.1 even if they've claimed it to be so.

I can't help but feel that so long as you're playing the tank, the rest of the squadron will probably do well enough. I guess if you're the healer or DPS, you're going to be the one pulling and hoping the tank grabs the mobs. Could be interesting!

:oI wish you could add retainers, due to the fact you can make their appearance and choose their gear/job/item lvl

But maybe the next companions will be 1 chosen retainer

Well, if their AI is like the chocobo ones I don't expect too much...

NPC's can dodge AoE now. As long as the squadron can do that and hit every GCD, they are better than 80% of DF players. Gimme gimme.

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Originally Posted by bswpayton

Ive been seeing this going around lately, so what do you think this would do to the game. I mean I want it at least I think that I do , but I mean why chose people when you can just que into a dungeon with your on npcs? Is this overall a good or bad thing what do you guys think and of course it has been said 4.1 but could also mean much further into the expansion. But if it does happen in sb which it looks like it will what do you think it would do to overall player interaction?

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Although Yoshi said that he's looking for your squadron members to participate with you in dungeons, I would much rather prefer for your retainers instead. then YOU can decide how your party looks like, what they wear, etc, instead of the game.

As for how it would affect the game, think that depends on how it will be implemented. Maybe only for 4P content? Or the first time you have to play with others to unlock it?

Eitherway, I support it.

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Originally Posted by Keiko_Kumiko

Although Yoshi said that he's looking for your squadron members to participate with you in dungeons, I would much rather prefer for your retainers instead. then YOU can decide how your party looks like, what they wear, etc, instead of the game.

As for how it would affect the game, think that depends on how it will be implemented. Maybe only for 4P content? Or the first time you have to play with others to unlock it?

Eitherway, I support it.

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I think you should have to complete it once the normal way before entering with your retainers/squad members. I also think that you should not be able to run it unsync'd that way until you complete it with the NPCs while sync'd. And of course running unsync'd doesn't generate XP.

Should only be for light party content.

I'm with the others: I'd rather summon my retainer a la FFXI Trust System to fight with me as opposed to my squadron. At least he is decently geared and has a pseudo-job stone.

Plus my squadron fails missions more often than they succeed; I don't have much faith in them.

Would be interesting to see how this is implemented though.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Should only be for light party content.

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For stuff that's ancient that you can unsync wreck what would be the point of restricting what you find useful out of the system? At least for anything that can be solo-unsynced I don't see why the squadron can't do it either.

Unless you were meaning like to actually challenge the content, but I was I guess assuming SE wouldn't let them be capable enough to actually do current end game content with them lol.

Perhaps current leveling content though, there's a bunch of stuff they may be able to do to help the queue without killing it, or just hard cap it with timers... will be interesting if they make the AI better than the average player though lol (not on purpose, but because the bots actually use their cooldowns frequently).

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Plus my squadron fails missions more often than they succeed; I don't have much faith in them.

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"We're back captain.. but I'm sorry to say we couldn't get it done.. it was just too hard"
"..*hem*, the level 30 mission I sent you level 50s on? that one?"
"Yeh, lol."
"Gtfo. GET OUT! DISBAND THE PARTY!"

I feel like you could build that hitler video meme out of the event lol, with all the hands shaking to grab the glasses XD.

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Originally Posted by dragonseth07

Just saying. The only missions squadrons should fail is the once-a-week one that you can't 100%. If you fail others, you don't understand how the system works. >_>

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I understand how it works don't need to worry about it man. I once sent an imperfect team at the lower level ones just to see how it'd go (bonuses were better with the imperfect group), and it did fail. Which of course made me laugh because if you sent any combination of anything player level 50s to lower content it'd be fine.

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Originally Posted by Shougun

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Just saying. The only missions squadrons should fail is the once-a-week one that you can't 100%. If you fail others, you don't understand how the system works. >_>

@Shougun - lol basically. But then I'll send them on one with only 2 stats meeting the minimum and they succeed. ._.

I wonder if 4.0 will allow our squadron members to actually have job stones. I would find it kind of funny if they were all level 60 archers, gladiators, conjurers, etc.. It would be nice if you could call upon them to help with those solo instances. As long as they were more useful than the NOVs already present.

But they probably wouldn't know to move out of the pretty orange circles either so...alas. v.v

I'd like to one day finish off floors 100-200 in deep dungeon.
I know it's technically solable, but i just haven't found the willpower to bother.
If squads can be used on that content, then i'm happy to finally do it.

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Originally Posted by NefarioCall

I'd like to one day finish off floors 100-200 in deep dungeon.
I know it's technically solable, but i just haven't found the willpower to bother.
If squads can be used on that content, then i'm happy to finally do it.

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Unless SE deliver something similar to GW with their heroes it's only going to be usable in really easy content.

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Originally Posted by Neophyte

I can imagine that they unlock this feature only for outdated content like they did with "undersized group".

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Would be the only thing that makes sense. For those old contents that Party Finder never fills out for, you'd now have the option to just skip the hassle and bring your squadron with you. The question then becomes whether or not you'd have the option to run the content sync'd, or if it'd be forced into unsync'd (or some new thing made specifically for squadron runs even).

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Originally Posted by bswpayton

Hah I would image no 8 man content

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You have eight squadron members, there's not really any reason you couldn't run full party content with them. I can't imagine they'd be available for the current tier of raids of course, but old tiers? Sure. Considering how much of a joke it is to run Coil unsync'd now, Alex could easily be steamrolled once at the new level 70 cap due to how simple the mechanics are in comparison.

Use these theoretical dungeon bots to replace players that left/got kicked!

Assuming it does come to fruition that we can use them in dungeons, I just want them to be usable in older content. That is to say ARR and HW content. It'd be interesting for 4.0 content that is exceptionally old, like if it were the final patch for the expansion and you can finally use them for release dungeons, but absolutely not something to hope for.

I would hope that they'd be competent AI. Like the Trusts in FFXI, which works pretty damn well. They function better than most random players could ever dream to. I'd imagine that'd hurt some feelings though, to be compared to basic AI and it beating you in simple tasks (which I'm totally in favor of).

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Originally Posted by dragonseth07

Actually, a great feature could be using these theoretical dungeon bots as replacements for players that left/got kicked.

No more 20 minutes waiting for a replacement healer!

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That would be an excellent idea, especially for quiet times on servers during the pre-patch/expansion lulls.