Well I got around to it Vespar, lol.
This thread is dedicated to seeing more chocobo content, and upgraded chocobo content.
Main desire in general is to have chocobo companions receive an update, but also to see chocobo hot and cold mini game, which you you'll be familiar with from FFIX. The other points are tangent from there in terms of "how could we see this content introduced/improved over time?" (chocobo beast tribe?), "what kind of chocobo rewards could we see?" (new appearance options, beyond just barding!) and so on.
If you want to see some specific new feature to chocobos, hot and cold, chocobo zones like paradise, etc, please feel free to post them! I've tried not to be too specific because I think the systems sort of describe themselves, and since part of it references SE's old content (FFIX, other chocobos) I think SE can fill in their own gaps well too (but feel free to be specific too lol).
Chocobo Beast Tribe, Chocobo Paradise (Fat chocobo, chocobo content hub):
tl;dr: a new location and beast tribe to help facilitate chocobo content and rewards, a tribe to likely be updated across expansions (rather than other tribes that tend to be expansion specific content).
Pictures:
More details/words (lol):
First to kick off and introduce this content, and help facilitate growth/changes, would be a new beast tribe lead by the Fat Chocobo. Besides finally giving SE a solid excuse to build Chocobo Paradise/Heaven, yes please, it also gives the chocobo system an organized system of progression and content. Say for example there are new emotes, abilities, appearances, bardings, or chocographs that SE wants to hand out on a specific interval or medium, it could be through a daily or weekly chocobo quest that you've earned, unlocked, upgraded, or what have you through this tribe. The medium adds a lot of order and growth (like ranks), and already exists as a system to use as scaffolding. For those who don't have an inn room/dont want one, the chocobo paradise area can also allow you to care for your chocobo in every fashion a FC stable would. It would be a nice touch to see your chocobo roaming around freely when "stabled" there, with a station to feed/train if you need to summon them to you directly (or have them summoned as a battle companion in which case they will follow as expected). Also regardless of where your chocobo is stabled (FC perhaps) your chocobo can be seen and withdrawn here for your convenience.
Here I'd also like to see some chocobo mini-games for training, perhaps on the weekly challenge log for big exp boosts (for balance reasons). With those normal train options allowing mini games to enhance the reward if you do well, like if you ace a mini game it's 40% more exp or something (progress to a new emote, appearance unlock, ability, doesn't have to be simply exp). Currently training is just giving food and watching/skipping a non intractable cutscene "game". Can consider making a representative in the Golden Saucer at the chocobo area to easily visit here (either direction), to continue the mini-games smoothly (chocobo racing content linked?).
So some bullet point desires:
- Chocobo tribe used to organize growth and rewards, as we see with other tribes (can also allow you to visually upgrade the area, like other tribes)
- Mini games related to chocobo that help your chocobos growth whether exp or even other means like unlocking appearances or new abilities to use
- Able to fully care for your chocobo here
- Chocobo Paradise, Heaven, Lagoon, Garden and Forests created
Chocobo Game, Chocobo hot and cold (chocobo forests, lagoon, etc, chocographs):
tl;dr: a new mini game heavily inspired by FFIX's chocobo mini game.
Pictures:
https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/91/71891-261.pnghttp://shrines.rpgclassics.com/psx/f.../airgarden.jpghttp://shrines.rpgclassics.com/psx/ffix/Pics/choco1.jpghttp://www.finalfantasykingdom.net/9...raphlocal9.pnghttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/oGjgpYY9xwc/maxresdefault.jpghttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZVHDvQy1ZAQ/maxresdefault.jpghttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1C0yyN5IGw/maxresdefault.jpg
More details:
In FFIX (9) there is this hot and cold mini game where you can play on the world map and in chocobo forests. The basic idea is that you peck the ground, get a sense of how close you are to an item by the chocobo's feedback (kweh) and then adjust accordingly. In the forest you get a timer and run around trying to gather as many items as you can in the limit. While in the open world you utilize these things called Chocographs (usually from the forest iirc), which give you a vague idea where a treasure will be (a bit like our current treasure maps do, a bit). Chocographs have fixed rewards while the forest is a bit more RNG.
In WoW there is a profession called archaeology that has you going around digging up artifacts, opportunity for lore, and then being rewarded when you complete sets. It works by when you press a button you put down a marker that will point you in the direction of the item and a notice in about how far, so you go about trying to find these items using that system. I'm not suggesting SE copy that one exactly, would prefer not - cause we're dealing with chocobos! But I am suggesting there exists a functioning, semi-similar, concept of this where SE could see what worked, what didn't, and how to improve it (while importantly putting their own spin on it). Personally I feel even if they took exactly WoW's system, which they shouldn't, SE's would be better because in WoW you have to get off the mount which just adds annoying steps to it all - while your mount is your tracker in FF.
So as was suggested by others, besides items as you'd expect (cosmetic, useful, gear, what have you), you could find secret passages with your chocobo buddy so that you go to solo (w/ chocobo) dungeons or unique chocobo mini-game areas (like a rare chocobo forest). Besides willingly entering the mini-game I think it would be neat if your chocobo communicated with your more in this content update, like if you have on chocobo sense they'll occasionally kweh letting you know about something special. For example you're just waiting for a duty and so you're about thanalan and suddenly your chocobo makes an unusual sound (because you have his chocobo sense on, toggle ability while on mount like collect-ability on crafter/gatherers).. so you decide to put beak to the ground and peck about, the signals are a bit mixed and so you're unsure it's nearby or deep and so you up your chocobo's senses temporarily by using some ability you earned through upgrading your bird (normally you need to use a dread pepper), after some hot and cold gameplay you find a rare chocograph (could add some abilities earned through playing/beast tribe, so spice up some of the gameplay).
Now after the duty you go to the far corner of these floating islands on the map, as looks like on the chocograph, and it reveals a choco portal that takes you to a unique mini-dungeon content with a rare chocobo feather appearance reward at the end, plus some current end game tomestones and the chance at other drops. Another circumstance could be opening up a Chocobo Forest portal and you have the chance at a mad dash - trying to get all these items, like in FFIX. I would suggest based on your score at the end you can choose one parting item from the selection of possible RNG items in the forest, such that if you were really unlucky but did very well you could still pick out something nice (making the forests always great - technically FFIX used points too).
With the beast tribe, improved choco progression, new achievements, chocographs, and forests, I think you could also add to this hot and cold game some complexity, just don't make it savage tier content. It should be more exciting than gathering but less scary than end game star++ crafting (passives, actives, etc). Simple passive example, taking from the FFIX version, you do some beast tribe quests that unlock the water area of chocobo paradise, also giving you access to a water mini-game to train your chocobo. After training your chocobo learns how to do shallow water hot and cold and unlocks chocograph content there (also getting exp or choco tribe points while doing the mini game), unlocking the ability for new rewards (because more areas to play in are available now). Further for deep water/underwater. Also in the FFIX version the chocobo color changes to show the rank, I know we have dye for our chocobo but I think it would be nice to see perhaps a rare chocograph in ocean content that gives your chocobo a rich and unique pattern/effect for feathers (or beak). An effect from a special water chocograph could be the feathers are lightly shimmering and drip occasionally with a similar like appearance to Tidus's sword Brother in FFX (cover art sword).
Bullet points:
- Bringing both open world and instanced content, one being easy to pick up and put down like fishing or other gathering
- Some abilities and depth to the mini game to make it sometimes a bit more involved but nothing as complicated as DoH, it should be fairly relaxing (when not on a timer to collect all the items as fast as possible lol)
- Opportunity to create hidden parts of the world like in other FF games where the chocobo uses these jump points to find chests
- Unlock growth, like in FFIX and other FF games where you upgrade your chocobo abilities
- Chocobo may talk to you, at least if you have chatter ability on (lets you know about nearby stuff, related to the mini game at least).
- Besides the standard glamour and achievement rewards that are put into contents like this can also consider challenge logs or special forests that can give current end game rewards (for example 100 end game tomes after 5 chocographs on weekly challenge, helping you casually get a portion of your weekly cap)
- Consider for some of the chest content that is a bit low activity that having your chocobo be a valid help in that content, helping solo revitalize it.
Chocobo emotes, appearance, breeding, and abilities:
tl;dr through the above resources please expand to allow chocobos emotes, new abilities for combat and out of combat, and new appearances beyond just barding (like feather and beak appearances).
Pictures:
More details:
With all these chocographs, digging, achievments, and choco tribe tokens you should be able to earn special emotes, apperance upgrades, and abilities for your chocobo. For example a dance or bow, something you can trigger while on the mount or off (but while out of course). Appearance upgrades could be allowing a lalafell the large size chocobo (or a hilariously small chocobo for a Roe), different feather looks (like fluffy chocobos of some of the games), unique color patterns, beak, feet, feather length and so forth**. While abilities would range from cosmetic (do nothing, more like an emote), functional mount abilities (perhaps one could be unlocking a gysal treat mini game while on the mount to maximize speed, like 15% faster or use it ineffective for a very short but higher faster boost), and ones in combat to enhance your chocobo's behavior/tools.
**Chocobo Breeding: I'd still like to see chocobo breeding be a thing, I know there is a bit of it in the golden saucer but it's a bit hands off and heavy on menus. Here is the opportunity to do it again. In that case I'd just suggest SE gives players something like three whistle slots (for on call birds). If you have chocobo breeding then it might make more sense that the upgrades in chocobo appearance go through this breeding system, such that you learn special aether, food, and environments that can tune your chocobo into your liking (but a mix would be nice, perhaps a special aether bath for current birbs - just so you don't have to abandon a bird when you find a new look). Even perhaps these specially bred conditions unlock new "jobs" and level tiers for your bird. Can always have new jobs be done to existing ones but I think immersively its smoother if they're bred (but isn't required). For example you can upgrade your chocobo's defense path into Choco Knight altering and improving both the AI and toolset. These improved birds can also be helpful when it comes back around for the chocobo content, such that perhaps very hard choco dungeons require specially hardy birds.
Bullet points:
- chocobos can have growth in their appearances, like feathers (length, appearance, color perhaps (tip vs body colors, special effects), beaks, and other special looks
- I realize certain custom chocobo looks may not work with barding, I (at least personally) am fine with that. Although I believe many options could work, like tail feather length or unique patterns / shapes to the feathers.
- chocobos can have movement abilities that give them interesting but not other-mount destroying interactions (may also consider that if you learn these movement abilities on your chocobo that they will be optionally available to your other mounts if equipped to your chocobo, such that upgrading your bird upgrades your favorite other mounts).
- a speed mini game like in FFXV obviously would be one example, shouldn't be too strong messes with the popularity with other mounts or unless it also unlocks on them to (once work done with the chocobo)~
- drifting also from FFXV being an example that wouldn't really mess with other mounts (but again if unlocked on all mounts once unlocked with chocobo, that's not so bad)
- breeding that is far more interactive than the golden saucer system, even FFXI (imo) was better on that aspect. I felt really impartial and "eh" with the golden saucer breeding program (just my imo)
- emotes for your bird, such that they can dance, wave, bow, and so forth making them more lively
Advanced Trees, New Jobs - After Rank 10(s), level 20 boco (FF Tactics inspired job / sub job system):
tl;dr: FF tactics inspired system to keep the value of leveling long after the first time you max your job (like rank 10 defender, healer, or attacker) or max rank/level your chocobo (20 currently). Helpful for those who would enter this new content maxed, and helpful to keep the content going for a long while after. Also will give players more tools to personalize their chocobo experience and empower them further than they are now.
With the blue mage exp buff allowing many more people to quickly hit level 20 I wanted to reiterate in this post something I stormed up later in thread - the idea of advanced paths/jobs for the chocobo. Say for example the base defender route is at rank 10 (meaning maxed), now you have the ability to collapse all of those buffs and spells into one complete node. This node could be utilized as a equip-able passive slot which I'll call sub job/node now (if SE wants to add some unique customizing and better balance control) or it can be an always on passive that doesn't take up a slot (meaning each job finished just makes your bird more and more powerful). I say customizing because it means you could unlock many job nodes over your experience with the game but you would make a "build" of three currently in slot (ranking area) and one in sub job at half power (more details on that below), which is quite a bit different than perhaps keep it all, getting a very powerful bird that is also not really tailored once all things are said and done.
May visualize the nodes as chocobo job stones, where in the chocobo can have many job stones active at once (unlike us). And the passive slot like FFXI / FFT with sub jobs where you can level up a job and then put it under another at a lesser but still VERY helpful power bonus (gaining /some/ skills and powers).
My suggestion is that the node will be at full power if equipped in the rank section or half power if equipped into the single slot of passive (next to barding equipment area). Such that if the basic defender path gave you 100% hp and three kick abilities the collapsed node equipped on the sub job slot is 50% hp and a kick (very similar to sub job in other FF titles). You could move it back into the ranking section for full power but then you wouldn't be able to equip/level a new job in that place. You might wonder why the node has less stats when in the sub job slot near barding section, but that's because once you upgrade your basic rank path you can choose to replace it with a newer advanced form (with more powerful, and likely more niche options) - so it's that old job added on top of another thing (it's better in the end!). Then you may wonder what's the point of letting players equip the node back into the ranking section, that is simply a huge QoL for players - lets say you rank EVERY CHOCOBO JOB (wow good job) so now you want full power X, Y, Z (of things you already own nodes for) and half power sub job G... well you're in luck you can do that all (you don't have to rerank something to hold it in the rank area, your node can exist full power there just give them the node (job stone)).
It would be a good idea to think about how SE will lower the chocobo level when collapsing and if they need a different exp system, since if you remove 10 ranks worth of exp from a chocobo (to collapse a node, so they can earn a new node on a new job) you'd be at drastically different levels at the end based on what level your bird started at (20->16 or like 10->1 lol). There are some exp curves to think about as well. Besides just allowing that weird relationship (it could work, it doesn't have to change much) I could suggest two other systems instead of our current level 1 to 20 chocobo either:
A exp is a currency, aka dark souls sort of system, which would be similar to what we have now but more straight forward (chocobo experience is poured into a job to rank it up, like in souls to stats).
Or each job gets a share of the exp when monsters die (max ranked jobs take no share, passing it to the remaining) and that % share is modified depending on what mode you're in (healer, tank, free, damage). May visualize warframe a bit for this one (personally massaging the current exp curve or using the "souls exp" system would be better).
In this way the content above (like easier/smoother leveling experience and mini games) isn't lost on max level chocobos, and the journey for those who are at max rank is not over. Some of these advanced jobs could be unlocked by default while others are rewarded from various content, like a gambler job might be from the Golden Saucer, while choco knight is default available. Also consider with chocobo breeding as another way for max ranked players to be able to value the above content.
Some of many possible ideas could be:
- Black mage / summoner kit that allows chocobo "black magic" and ability to summon a "ahk morn" of the chocobo kingdom (fat chocobo booty pound) - perhaps a reward high up in the chocobo beast tribe system.
- Red mage type that focuses more on enfeebling the enemy and buffing you (the side of red mage we didn't get so much of in FFXIV's variant, that isn't a complaint about the red mage job just saying this choco red mage could enfeeble/buff more)
- Thief, giving the chocobo treasure hunter and mug (consider passives in these jobs like, increased drop rate, etc)
- Every year you can earn "Performer" from my little ladies event, being a sort of singer/dancer :)
- Gambler a fairly visual chance based job, inspired by the other FF title gambler jobs (some are not titled "Gambler" like corsair or lady luck).
- Explorer which adds a lot to choco passives and increasing exp gain of you and your bird, perhaps chance to find a chest after completing FATEs, etc - making it a great lone wolf sub job (as well as perhaps some better hot and cold senses). May consider some fun gimmicks like chocobo being able to rotate towards an aether current and sight seeing logs (better aether compass). This could be just some training in the above beast tribe quest/breeding but also may add some jump points (which would be helpful when you can't fly, especially so if the content doesn't ever allow flying like Eureka).
- Racer could be from doing well in saucer racing - adding some abilities related to nimbleness, speed (in and out of combat)
- White mage related kit that adds esuna a few more heal oGCDs and a 2 hour cooldown passive that will call your chocobo out and raise you if you die in the open world (to allow players to easily blood port still, have a long distances chocobo kweeeeeeh and after a little bit have them approach and raise you - that way you can easily still use death as a teleport if you had wanted without triggering the cooldown).
- For the extra dedicated if you unlock x, y, z nodes you can get special jobs like perhaps a Gold Chocobo type unlock that is just generally a very good very well rounded job (like maybe not the best at niche tasks but is just a /great/ class)
Bullet points:
- At rank 10 (not level 10) of a path you may collapse that path into a single node. Depending on SE balance it will either always be on or something you can equip into a passive slot for a substantial boost of stats and spells from that node.
- Once a path has been cleared, or perhaps a special item is used to clear it (without the benefit of unlocking the node), you can replace it with special jobs that offer unique spells, stats, and opportunities.
- This system will allow players who are at level 20 (3 rank 10 players) a nice way to continue forward with the above content, also because the above content is meant to smooth out the chocobo experience they wont be left out of playing some of the mini games and quests and getting that smoother experience (they'll just have a head start over other players with low level chocobos).
They had a gambit system, long long ago, that they spoke of us allowing customization to our chocobo minion but Yoshida said no to it because he thought it was so strong it could create a bot. Imo with more interesting chocobo skills I think a gambit light system might be nice, just to tweak something - especially if you're combining two or more ability heavy jobs (like mages, but I suppose if SE designs the system well enough it should be "okay" without).
Really off the cuff wild suggestion. . . but uh. . . you could build a sphere gird for the chocobo's progression instead lol. With certain grids (the idea of "jobs" above) requiring unlocks like in FFX, so very much like the above idea but visually exciting and way more convoluted hahaha. I'm not too fixed on it but I always liked the sphere grid although I saw it as something that'd just be a nightmare for normal progression on our jobs (maybe a merit system).. well chocobo doesn't need normal progression. Anyway.. just a wild thought :). A sphere grid would require many tweaks to the above thoughts so I'm not suggesting it's a plug and play scenario, but thought it quaint enough to mention~ lol.
Finally not really a section to dedicate but I think your chocobo should be allowed into squadron and trust content, I'm sure some balance concerns may arise and may need to be addressed but if you're going in solo with AI.. I think your companion should be able to go too, perhaps existing in the system as a member (taking up a slot if the chocobo is given enough power) or just as a side pet if not.
So would you like to see chocobo hot and cold / chocographs? How about chocobo paradise, and would it be interesting to have a chocobo beast tribe related to that you could help upgrade (also leading to chocobo upgrades)? Chocobo in dungeons like with squadron, including treasure dungeons? Chocobo emotes, light traversal abilities? What would you like to see?
Just wanted to end with all these ideas do not have to be put together, they're thought up of in the idea they might be a unit but I imagine they could easily become separated from each other and be okay.
Thanks for reading ~!!
Some further ideas on chocobo's place to companions, trust, squadron: here
Sister idea for a magitek update (different systems): here
Updated 1/24/2019 in response to many more max rank/level chocobos (due to a blue mage exp buff)
Updated 6/26/2019 small update to add a related thread and picture of Amaro, a new sort of (?) chocobo from another shard
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12-17-2018, 11:35 AMShougunChocobo Content Update (Hot and Cold mini game, Chocobo Paradise, Beast Tribe, etc)
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12-17-2018, 12:06 PMBubblyBoar
JUst make Chocobo Breeder/Racer a limited job and give it all this content. Levels can give skills and gear for making this some real nice solo content.
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12-18-2018, 01:34 AMShougunChocobo Paradise / Fat chocobo as your job quest giver, I am a fan of that lol. It'd be fairly unique, I think, that a job quest and beast tribe are intertwined and related content.Quote:
Originally Posted by BubblyBoar
I think that could make managing chocobo abilities on the mount bar really easy, but a few questions too~! :D
By the mount bar I mean we all know jobs have that "choose your abilities from other jobs that you want to use" section and we all select all 10 available because.. why not. Here however you'd have a list of abilities you've earned (over time very likely over 10 options) and you then select the skills and what have you that you want on the mount bar.
I guess the question would come in, since you said all the above content - are you including the mini game and any combat that may relate to that? I can imagine once you begin pecking about the bar switches to hot and cold related skills (if SE makes it that interactive), which would be easy to manage but also doesn't really require you be on your chocobo job. Are you envisioning the breeder / racer using chocobo theme'd combat abilities? I can definitely see the chocobo getting a huge power boost when you're in this limited job state, that and being able to stay out as long as you want them to. In fact I could see if you were in your chocobo limited job that you could even have multiple chocobos out at the same time! That'd be pretty interesting, wandering around the world with two-three of your own raised chocobos (perhaps finally a way to solo those FATEs that aren't normally solo-able lol). What sort of gear would they wear though? Perhaps DoL? Higher perception increasing their abilities (that care about stats), and having a chocobo out could be another stat booster?
Serious tangent here but if there are combat abilities one of the "ultimate" abilities for your limited job should be being able to transform into a chocobo for a short time lol (like 10 min cooldown, lasts 2 minutes - or even more exaggerated). Giving some nice abilities and a huge passive movement speed boost (now you look like a pack of chocobos running across the lands, which imo would look pretty cool in game).
Certainly changes some things when the content is bound to a job but it could also quite nice. I think one of the biggest QoL I can think of immediately from this would be instead of having multiple chocobos you have to rank up one at a time, you can go out with multiple and level them all together (besides the improved training that chocobo paradise offers as well, mentioned in OP). And the biggest stress would be if you had to switch to the job every time you wanted to do some basic chocograph, because extra buttons and it might mean you can't do it due level (say for example the job is only level 50 and you're in a level 80 area). Although on that point of stress I can imagine that the open world version doesn't need to change your job, just switch the ability bar and if they want to switch you to your job it could be when entering special forests/content areas (like for job quests it's a shimmering light that asks you to switch to the proper job and says "are you sure you want to enter?").
One of the unfortunate side effects would be you wouldn't get exp on your job that you use in other content, so I know this is talking about rewards in a bit too much detail for this early of a concept but I'd like to see some sort of choco sphere as a possible reward for some of the content that boosts exp and can stack with other exp boosting items then (to help offset that exp shift away from your other jobs).
The other concern being we have racing already in the golden saucer, I could see the golden saucer being a way to exp up your racer but I'm not sure it would be good balance to allow your job to affect the chocobo race in the saucer (although a lot of times you race against npcs, in which case whatever lol). I however wouldn't be opposed to SE remixing all chocobo content into a neatly organized and packaged system, that including Golden Saucer stuff would be okay too. -
12-18-2018, 06:04 PMJandor
You're obviously quite into these ideas, and I do want more chocobo content. Poor little birb feels like he has been left to languish.
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12-19-2018, 04:58 AMMsQi
I think Chocobos should be allowed in Eureka.
I'd like to see chocobo dungeons. 4 players with their chocobos. The dungeons could be entirely original or altered versions of existing dungeons. Instead of dropping gear for you, they drop chocobo related items such as food and new barding. -
12-19-2018, 05:22 AMIscah
Chocobo Hot & Cold was my least-favourite thing about FFIX. :/
I realise other people enjoyed it, but I just found it tedious from start to finish. -
12-19-2018, 05:27 AMShougunBanned! :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Iscah
That's okay though, I also loved the jump rope and card game lol. I'm a sucker for those FF mini-games. Although, do you think it possible to make it more interesting to you (without making it something 100% different)?
That would be a great idea to keep some of the older content going. I think the trust system, squadron system, and the companion system could see some marrying such that these likely to die down in interest after it's no longer end game dungeons, group restricted contents, and the like are still complete-able.Quote:
Originally Posted by MsQi
The chocobo dungeons could be pretty neat, could even add portions where you get to ride them in a dungeon lol. I can imagine one scene where your chocobo runs even faster than normal and you're barreling down a hallway trying to dodge all the aoes hehe. -
12-22-2018, 04:36 AMMsQiI personally found H&C quite satisfying. People seem to think it's slow and boring but it's meant to be relatively fast paced. If you play it slowly your progress is extremely slow. If you learn how to quickly narrow down locations you can clear each map in a few minutes and level up quickly. I liked the chocograph part where you go out into the world to find specific locations. A Chocobo H&C section could be incorporated into the sight seeing log.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shougun
I would like to see this content as alternative ways to level your chocobo. The beast tribe quests should be specifically geared toward using your chocobo and the conversations are between your chocobo and the chocobo NPCs while your character stands by looking confused most of the time. -
12-22-2018, 04:53 AMShougunI also found it quite fun too :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MsQi
Definitely the beast tribe having ways to level and improve your chocobo, they better! haha I'd be sad otherwise.
Question, I thought our Echo let us translate languages on the fly? I think it could be cute to have your chocobo speak for you, but I'm thinking in lore we should understand our birds right? I guess if it was non-verbal we'd be confused. W..wat was that a kweh and three pecks or a kweh and two struts??? Also could be that we start the quest from our bird (we find Chocobo Paradise via our own chocobo) and part of the beast tribe is ranking up our status so they stop treating us like we're so lucky our bird brought us, cause we're lowly peasants to the great chocobos. -
12-22-2018, 11:36 AMNalien
I wish we had a Chocobo Breeding system similar to Final Fantasy XI... Closest we get is whats involved with Chocobo Racing, but those birds pop out fully grown... XI you cared for an egg all the way up to adulthood, with various traits acting as stats for the Chocobo Digging side content, which was somewhat similar to IXs Hot-and-Cold minigame.
Just Chocobo Hot-and-Cold would be absolutely amazing though. Probably one of my favourite minigames in Final Fantasy. They've kind of already got the systems needed in place via the bunnies in Eureka... -
12-23-2018, 02:45 PMIscahIt's been a long time since I played, but I just remember it being tedious and luck-based. And I think also that it had a short time limit and then you had to restart the whole thing, instead of just keeping on going until you found something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shougun
I did like the "finding treasure chests from Chocographs" element but that's not really tied to the minigame itself, and isn't that far off what we already do with identifying treasure map locations. Though it could certainly be introduced as a different treasure map system. -
12-23-2018, 03:31 PMGeminaThen you must hate treasure maps in this game? It's nearly the same thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iscah
The thing about hot&cold was that the spoils were AWESOME! But they were also meant to be found one time. A chocobo hot and cold game in FFXIV would require some additional thought to perpetuate it. As usual, they would likely put bardings in there that are marketable with a ridiculous RNG factor. But I would be ok with it so long as we got something for our chocobos.
They could also add another 5-10 ranks on the company chocobos, and then place things like onions, peppers and other useful chocobo related items in the hot and cold game. The market on onions has already been obliterated since most players have maxed out berds these days. -
12-23-2018, 03:41 PMIscahAs I'd explained just above your post, I'm fine with treasure maps and the similar treasure-hunting element of Hot & Cold. But that was only a second step - and the initial process of having to dig for those maps is what I would actually consider to be "playing Hot & Cold", and I didn't like that part of it at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemina
Treasure maps are aquired in a different way here, so that seems irrelevant. -
12-24-2018, 01:12 AMGeminaI didn't see your post. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked. I apologize but it happens. I figured you were talking about finding the locations on the world map because that is what most people hated about that game. The actual mini-game where your digging stuff up in a certain amount of time was like opening presents, and the music was so catchy. It just never occurred to me that someone wouldn't mind the chocograph part, but dislike the actual mini-game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iscah
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12-27-2018, 09:17 AMShougunYes, remember seeing your baby chocobo? .. ... So cute! They can modern"ify" some aspects but the Golden Saucer does not count as chocobo raising/breeding to me in the sense that it just doesn't scratch the itch that I have had satisfied via FFXI or even other FF. Golden Saucer is too menu, low visual/interactivity, hands off, and a bit irrelevant unless you adore chocobo racing (important for making the best racers).Quote:
Originally Posted by Nalien
Also they could add to their moogle companion app the ability of taking care of your bird, so you could do it on the fly (if they make it interactive enough that such a thing would make sense) - careful on implementation that it doesn't become meaningless menu though.
One of the suggestions I made to the game was that the better your end score (how well you did) you'd get access to take one reward from the list of available rewards that were offered randomly (or perhaps some exclusive to "high score" rewards as well). Such that if you were trying to farm for dread peppers but didn't get a single one at the end you could at least spend your choco score on say 6 peppers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iscah
There are other things that can be done if we're taking the FFIX concept literally here too, such that each week or however often SE balances there is a special hot and cold mini game where the RNG is significantly controlled and therefore the rewards are much better. So you can imagine different rule sets on hot and cold like different rule sets to Triple Triad (or hopefully what they can do to Mahjong). So you may find one specific rule set to your liking, and depending on balance it'll be available easily or infrequently but still something to enjoy a variation of.
Definitely one of the things I like about chocographs is that you're looking around for a treasure, but you know its going to be a pretty great treasure! Hopefully SE doesn't lose sight of that element, they can add some RNG but I hope there are some non-RNG awesome chocographs or some balance to that idea. Even let's say it gets a bit complicated such that it's like "0-4 hours after it's rained in the chocobo forest you have a 35% chance to earn the dewdrop chocograph" (high enough % that doing it over and over is unlikely but not so high that there isn't an element of unknown and fight against the timer, getting it to rain again wont be as bad as hoping to get Ixion lol). That sort of "fisher" element, but them once acquired the dewdrop chocograph has a known drop and so once you get it you're checking it off the list of cool glamour/emote/bard/appearance/item you've earned. Some named chocographs could drop more than once and others are more of a onetime achievement/milestone, giving you an exclusive untradeable unique reward.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemina
Definitely the known rewards is really awesome, that's important. I think they can introduce some unknown reward graphs as well as sort of more frequent content (especially once you've unlocked all the "named" chocographs) but having the named chocographs exist is a great thing for the system!
For adding ranks: I imagine one of the things they could do is add chocobo "jobs" or templates. Such that you could replace the tank section with Choco Knight, with new, improved, skills and passives as well as AI tweaks and then have to rerank those sections. Perhaps the concept is once you hit rank 10 in a single theme you can upgrade that section into an advanced option, there in all the skills and upgrades condense into a single node that is also nerfed a bit. For example if you had +100% hp with a max tank chocobo (level 10 in that section) and you upgraded them into choco knight it drops their choco rank down by the amount lost by wiping that section (level 20 bird to 16 for example), replaces the nodes with new better items (for you to unlock), and then adds one permanent node to your chocobo called something like "mastered basic tank". This permanent, already unlocked, node from upgrading the job would be in theme of what was replaced for example it might have +35% hp and some skills associated with it like an enmity grabbing attack/aoe version as well. Now you can level the chocobo up again, making them stronger and smarter and with the chocobo beast tribe quests and mini games leveling should be a bit more fun, easier, and more varied (as you still have the old methods as well).
It may get a bit interesting if they allowed you to have more than one chocobo customized (say 3 chocobos can be leveled) and these chocobos are included into the squadron and trust system. Such that you could do MSQ / dungeons with your bird (and perhaps any content the blue mage can do under party finder). You may find yourself with three distinctly different types of chocobos (visually, not just barding), with three different AI and skill sets (even at max ranked they'd have different jobs "enhanced", and training), and you're conquering story, old content, and near to new content with them. Sometimes with other squadron, friends, and trust members. I think they should also get special rules such that they're even allowed into unique situations like letting you take your chocobo(s) into eureka once it's no longer content SE wants to be on the main treadmill (making weird places like that easier to not become "totally dead" once no longer flavor of the month, as you'd be able to supplement/make a sort of party when needed - at least for content not currently part of the treadmill). -
01-25-2019, 03:18 AMShougun
Due to the huge exp buff we had recently I added a section to the main post covering max level birds and how the exp/leveling content could still be valuable (beyond just adding chocobo breeding). Which I'm now part of the level 20 club, wewt... lol (was level 14 before the buff).
For people who don't know when blue mage first came out the exp buff for blue mage also applied a huge buff to our chocobos (like 100x), allowing for exceptionally fast exp (I know many know this but I imagine many months down the line, this explanation may help). There was also a hotfix released that has nerfed that exp buff (not back to default), but also brought up all the other jobs to the level of blue mage's nerf. Such that you should feel something around ~5x what you used to earn on a normal job fighting level appropriate monsters (at level 70 ~2k I think), but as a blue mage your 10k chocobo exp is probably now around 800 lol.
The section I added I'll post in spoiler tags below, but the TL;DR of it is a job customization system akin to main job/subjob (think FF Tactics) that adds value to keep leveling your chocobo and adding personalization, and while detailed a bit above is now better detailed in my post added to OP (and the updated section attached below).
Please bare in mind that the recent exp buff (for all jobs, nerf for blue) has made leveling less painful than before and major concepts of the OP post are there to make the experience smoother (like mini games and chocobo beast tribe quests) - so... don't jump back in fear you might have "another 4 years" to rank up your bird (it wont be! lol).
Where you can take the basic job of "defender","healer","attacker" that you have at rank 10 and turn it into a stone for sub job use, and then have your chocobo take that open space and learn a new job (meaning new abilities and concepts to experience, as well as a more powerful boco). Could be silly things like a special job with an ultimate skill of summoning a fat chocobo "primal" attack (like you might remember in other FF games), another allowing your bird to become a spell slinger weaving in fire blasts, an enfeebler/buffer, better tank, farm support via classic Thief concepts, etc.
Advanced Trees, New Jobs - After Rank 10(s), level 20 boco:
With the blue mage exp buff allowing many more people to quickly hit level 20 I wanted to reiterate in this post something I stormed up later in thread - the idea of advanced paths/jobs for the chocobo. Say for example the base tank route is at rank 10 (meaning maxed), now you have the ability to collapse all of those buffs and spells into one complete node. This node could be utilized as a equip-able passive slot which I'll call sub job/node now (if SE wants to add some unique customizing and better balance control) or it can be an always on passive that doesn't take up a slot (meaning each job finished just makes your bird more and more powerful). I say customizing because it means you could unlock many job nodes over your experience with the game but you would make a "build" of three currently in slot (ranking area) and one in sub job at half power (more details on that below), which is quite a bit different than perhaps keep it all, getting a very powerful bird that is also not really tailored once all things are said and done.
May visualize the nodes as chocobo job stones, where in the chocobo can have many job stones active at once (unlike us). And the passive slot like FFXI / FFT with sub jobs where you can level up a job and then put it under another at a lesser but still VERY helpful power bonus (gaining /some/ skills and powers).
My suggestion is that the node will be at full power if equipped in the rank section or half power if equipped into the single slot of passive (next to barding equipment area). Such that if the basic defender path gave you 100% hp and three kick abilities the collapsed node equipped on the sub job slot is 50% hp and a kick (very similar to sub job in other FF titles). You could move it back into the ranking section for full power but then you wouldn't be able to equip/level a new job in that place. You might wonder why the node has less stats when in the sub job slot near barding section, but that's because once you upgrade your basic rank path you can choose to replace it with a newer advanced form (with more powerful, and likely more niche options) - so it's that old job added on top of another thing (it's better in the end!). Then you may wonder what's the point of letting players equip the node back into the ranking section, that is simply a huge QoL for players - lets say you rank EVERY CHOCOBO JOB (wow good job) so now you want full power X, Y, Z (of things you already own nodes for) and half power sub job G... well you're in luck you can do that all (you don't have to rerank something to hold it in the rank area, your node can exist full power there just give them the node (job stone)).
It would be a good idea to think about how SE will lower the chocobo level when collapsing and if they need a different exp system, since if you remove 10 ranks worth of exp from a chocobo (to collapse a node, so they can earn a new node on a new job) you'd be at drastically different levels at the end based on what level your bird started at (20->16 or like 10->1 lol). There are some exp curves to think about as well. Besides just allowing that weird relationship (it could work, it doesn't have to change much) I could suggest two other systems instead of our current level 1 to 20 chocobo either:
A exp is a currency, aka dark souls sort of system, which would be similar to what we have now but more straight forward (chocobo experience is poured into a job to rank it up, like in souls to stats).
Or each job gets a share of the exp when monsters die (max ranked jobs take no share, passing it to the remaining) and that % share is modified depending on what mode you're in (healer, tank, free, damage). May visualize warframe a bit for this one (personally massaging the current exp curve or using the "souls exp" system would be better).
In this way the content above (like easier/smoother leveling experience and mini games) isn't lost on max level chocobos, and the journey for those who are at max rank is not over. Some of these advanced jobs could be unlocked by default while others are rewarded from various content, like a gambler job might be from the Golden Saucer, while choco knight is default available. Also consider with chocobo breeding as another way for max ranked players to be able to value the above content.
Some of many possible ideas could be:- Black mage / summoner kit that allows chocobo "black magic" and ability to summon a "ahk morn" of the chocobo kingdom (fat chocobo booty pound) - perhaps a reward high up in the chocobo beast tribe system.
- Red made type that focuses more on enfeebling the enemy and buffing you (the side of red mage we didn't get so much of in FFXIV's variant, which is cool I think FFXIV red mage isn't bad (just my imo~!!! lol))
- Thief, giving the chocobo treasure hunter and mug
- Every year you can earn "Performer" from my little ladies event, being a sort of singer/dancer :)
- Gambler a fairly visual chance based job, inspired by the other FF title gambler jobs (some are not titled "Gambler" like corsair or lady luck).
- Explorer which adds a lot to choco passives and increasing exp gain of you and your bird - making it a great lone wolf sub job (as well as perhaps some better hot and cold senses)
- Racer could be from doing well in saucer racing - adding some abilities related to nimbleness, speed (in and out of combat)
- White mage related kit that adds esuna a few more heal oGCDs and a 2 hour cooldown passive that will call your chocobo out and raise you if you die in the open world (to allow players to easily blood port still, have a long distances chocobo kweeeeeeh and after a little bit have them approach and raise you - that way you can easily still use death as a teleport if you had wanted without triggering the cooldown).
- For the extra dedicated if you unlock x, y, z nodes you can get special jobs like perhaps a Gold Chocobo type unlock that is just generally a very good very well rounded job (like maybe not the best at niche tasks but is just a /great/ class)
Bullet points:- At rank 10 (not level 10) of a path you may collapse that path into a single node. Depending on SE balance it will either always be on or something you can equip into a passive slot for a substantial boost of stats and spells from that node.
- Once a path has been cleared, or perhaps a special item is used to clear it (without the benefit of unlocking the node), you can replace it with special jobs that offer unique spells, stats, and opportunities.
- This system will allow players who are at level 20 (3 rank 10 players) a nice way to continue forward with the above content, also because the above content is meant to smooth out the chocobo experience they wont be left out of playing some of the mini games and quests and getting that smoother experience (they'll just have a head start over other players with low level chocobos).
They had a gambit system, long long ago, that they spoke of us allowing customization to our chocobo minion but Yoshida said no to it because he thought it was so strong it could create a bot. Imo with more interesting chocobo skills I think a gambit light system might be nice, just to tweak something - especially if you're combining two or more ability heavy jobs (like mages, but I suppose if SE designs the system well enough it should be "okay" without).
Really off the cuff wild suggestion. . . but uh. . . you could build a sphere gird for the chocobo's progression instead lol. With certain grids (the idea of "jobs" above) requiring unlocks like in FFX, so very much like the above idea but visually exciting and way more convoluted hahaha. I'm not too fixed on it but I always liked the sphere grid although I saw it as something that'd just be a nightmare for normal progression on our jobs (maybe a merit system).. well chocobo doesn't need normal progression. Anyway.. just a wild thought :). A sphere grid would require many tweaks to the above thoughts so I'm not suggesting it's a plug and play scenario, but thought it quaint enough to mention~ lol.
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01-25-2019, 03:49 AMNoitems
I'm all for more Chocobo content especially as everyone's been leveling it up through BLU. I think a designated area for them as well as allowing racing there too for exclusive rewards would be a fun idea!
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01-25-2019, 03:59 AMShougunI could totally imagine some chocobo paradise, garden, forest, and or lagoon race tracks! Would be nice to see part (or all) of at least one track be incorporated in the zone such that you can see the track as a character exploring the world rather than instanced only - even better with either faux racing (AI making it look alive), or an open track you can mess around on (like in FFXV).Quote:
Originally Posted by Noitems
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01-25-2019, 04:32 AMHaxaanI loved the ability to breed and raise Chocobos. It wasn't for everyone, but it was a fun bit of side-content that really gave me a better connection to my Chocobo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nalien
I have also been clamoring for a Chocobo Dungeon since 2.0 , I think a up to 4-man + 4 Chocobo Dungeon would be amazing! Rewards could be Chocobo items for dyeing and exp gain, and barding. I would love a player created Chocobo barding design contest! I bet we could come up with some really interesting stuff, from cutesy monster based ones to fantastical fantasy themed ones.
I just feel like the Chocobos have been left by the wayside which is sad. I definitely think having a Choco questline when you hit rank 20 to unlock further ranks which unlock barding and other Choco related items would be great! Maybe one day -
06-27-2019, 02:16 PMShougun
https://i.imgur.com/fu3OTfn.jpg
In anticipation for Shadowbringers I was thinking about the new "Chocobo" of our new shard. Of course they're not quite a chocobo but they were introduced with that sort of concept in the live letter (they say it's sort of a chocobo for the shard):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4FrFJMlWU
https://i.imgur.com/NdHVAiS.png
With that said I was wondering if these Amaro are truly chocobo equivalents or if that was just something they said to give players a semi-reference point (outside game commentary vs in game). Or in other words is it related like Ronso is related to Hrothgar and Lalafells to Dwarves or is it more like a great sword is related to a long sword in that they're both swords (but not the same thing).
Further then... I wonder if it would be possible for an Amaro to be in place of our Chocobo Companion (to fight by our side, race, hot and cold, and so forth). I imagine making some of the barding fit would be a challenge though. If yes they are chocobo equivalents and then yes included into chocobo content then Amaro genes into chocobo breeding could certainly add a lot of chocobo variation options (as I imagined in the first page soft fluffy chocobos like in FFXIII).
Yoshi-P talked recently about needing more blue mage party content, could be nice if we could use Blue Mages in those Chocobo Dungeon concepts~! Also I am definitely for the idea of chocobo dungeons and more (I made a line about perhaps allowing our chocobo to act as an extra squadron member when doing squadron missions and such too).Quote:
Originally Posted by Haxaan
Also a chocobo barding player contest could be really cool. . ! Agreed I feel Chocobos have been left alone/forgotten a bit. Like Airships imo Chocobos feel like a great nostolgia point for me and feel they're a bit soft spoken at the moment (made an airship thread too lol).