Gap of Squadron/AI dungeons.

Could Square please patch in level 60 to 70 dungeons for your Squadron? It just feels a bit odd how you can do up to level 60 and then there's nothing, only for it to pick back up in Holminster. While you're at it, patch in all of the dungeons in general. I personally enjoyed using my squadron to level my DPS, doing big pulls and all, but now it's just pointless for beyond 60.

Squadrons are a bit different from Trusts, though.

Squadron NPCs were dumb and would basically just follow you and attack whatever you pointed at. Beyond that, their programming was very limited. Good luck if your dungeon had any sort of mechanics! Some dungeons were an utter nightmare to do with a squadron.

Trust NPCs, on the other hand, are programmed to be smarter, and in fact there's a good chance they're gonna be better at the dungeon mechanics than you, especially on your first go. They're slower at DPSing than players, but honestly, better at not dying.

I would say that rather than expanding on squadron content as is, they either re-work squadrons entirely to work more like Trusts, or they retroactively add Trusts to older content featuring story NPCs.

Edit: Oh, and entirely remove leveling Trust NPCs and just give each dungeon a selection of which NPCs you can take for that particular mission. It'd be weird to take Gunbreaker Thancred with you in ARR dungeons, for example. Or, even weirder, NPCs that are dead/otherwise preoccupied at that point in the story.

I'm still hoping that one of the new system changes coming in 6.0 is a revamp of the multiple companion systems we already have in the game into one cohesive, continuous unit. Merge Trusts, Squadrons and the open world companion aspects of your chocobo into one thing. Will it happen? Probably not, but it would be nice.

Yeah, I'm hoping that this gets updated whenever we finally get access to the next (last?) tier of GC rank.

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Originally Posted by MevariNavalo

Squadrons are a bit different from Trusts, though.

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That's irrelevant. The suggestion was for something to fill the gap from level 60 to 70. It could be either an extension of Squadrons to level 70 or adding in Trusts down to level 60.

I'm not sure which would be more work for the devs, since Trusts would need complete AI behaviours for each dungeon and probably unique moves/animations while Sqaudrons still operate with 3.0 skills and mechanics with the requisite level cap of 60 so would need to be changed to use 4.0 mechs at the very least but probably realistically whatever the new 6.0 mechs are going to be at level 70.

I personally would like to see Lyse, Hien, Gosetsu, Yugiri, etc. become trusts for the 60-70 range.

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Originally Posted by StriderShinryu

I'm still hoping that one of the new system changes coming in 6.0 is a revamp of the multiple companion systems we already have in the game into one cohesive, continuous unit. Merge Trusts, Squadrons and the open world companion aspects of your chocobo into one thing. Will it happen? Probably not, but it would be nice.

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I wouldn't mind being able to run with any of those in a combined system, but I also don't want to lose the unique features of each, or have all the features spread across the board.

I don't think they've completely forgotten about Squadrons. It's just not a pivotal piece of content, since the squadron members themselves only go to 60 currently still. I assume they will let us level them to 70 the next time we get to rank up, though who knows when that will be.

As for which dungeons they have access to, I've always sort of taken on, they only want to allow squadrons in dungeons that may be pertinent to Grand Company activity. I know that doesn't hold up with dungeons like The Vault and such, but I mean... it'd be sorta weird for us to take our squad to Shisui of the Violet Tide or to Doma Castle, you know?

Now I'm curious: can you do Squadron as Blue Mage? If so, I might be able to steamroll some of the more obnoxious gimmicks.

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Originally Posted by Berteaux_Braumegain

Now I'm curious: can you do Squadron as Blue Mage?

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No, you cannot.

List of restrictions can be found here: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/bluemage/

I would much rather have Squadrons added to lv60-70 than trusts. I'll take clunky AI that absolutely melts dungeons when built right, than the smart but mind-numbingly dull single target grind that Trusts are. The irrational fear that Trusts would kill roulettes has made them far less fun. Why even add content that they don't really want us to use?

Now, if they added Offensive Mastery and some aoe to Trusts, I'd be all for it. I'd even be fine with it being something to work for and unlock.

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Originally Posted by MevariNavalo

Beyond that, their programming was very limited. Good luck if your dungeon had any sort of mechanics! Some dungeons were an utter nightmare to do with a squadron.

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The main nightmare dungeons were the Hard modes, because they (for some reason) decided not to scale the Squad with difficulty. The squad has exactly the same stats in both The Wanderer's Palace and The Wanderer's Palace (Hard), despite Hard requiring double the ilv of Normal.

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Originally Posted by MevariNavalo

Squadrons are a bit different from Trusts, though.

Squadron NPCs were dumb and would basically just follow you and attack whatever you pointed at. Beyond that, their programming was very limited. Good luck if your dungeon had any sort of mechanics! Some dungeons were an utter nightmare to do with a squadron.

Trust NPCs, on the other hand, are programmed to be smarter, and in fact there's a good chance they're gonna be better at the dungeon mechanics than you, especially on your first go. They're slower at DPSing than players, but honestly, better at not dying.

I would say that rather than expanding on squadron content as is, they either re-work squadrons entirely to work more like Trusts, or they retroactively add Trusts to older content featuring story NPCs.

Edit: Oh, and entirely remove leveling Trust NPCs and just give each dungeon a selection of which NPCs you can take for that particular mission. It'd be weird to take Gunbreaker Thancred with you in ARR dungeons, for example. Or, even weirder, NPCs that are dead/otherwise preoccupied at that point in the story.

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Squadron may not be as intricate as the trust program, but honestly level 4 and 5 squad mates are pretty brutal if you get the group set up correctly since they are still based on the old 3.0 skill set You can easily have some decent size pulls with them and clear a majority of the dungeons in about 15-20 minutes. The exception is WP Hard because you really do have to command your squad on the first boss and know the mechanics for second and third boss.

Yea I still send them out once a week for equipment durability scrolls and get some scrips and clusters in the process.

If anything I like to see them expand on the ability of using them in specific dungeons in StB and call it good.

I personally do prefer Squads over Trust as they do kill trash and bosses super fast. One thing I would wish the do is let a 2nd Lieutenant buy the books that change their jobs. On my Alts that have unlocked Squadron, suffer with getting certain jobs I want, specifically Healer. I like to have 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 melee and 2 range. This helps me with the Squad challenges, but getting a 2nd Healer is a pain to get as there so few of them, 1 per race. I can only get the books when I’m 1st lieutenant, but by then I probably won’t even need them anymore. Or also, maybe add new NPCs with the newer jobs to give us a bigger pool for each role. Not to mention the new races.

Honestly it feels like Trust is the successor to Squadrons. Which I'm fine with, but I also wish they'd give us a reason to level up our Trust NPCs - like, make them more lethal and finish the dungeons faster maybe? Retrofitting old dungeons with the Trust system would be awesome as well - more-so for alts or new players who can't or don't want to find a dungeon for 15 - 30 minutes. I like Squadrons myself but right now they're so rudimentary and basic that it feels more like a chore when you face any dungeon that requires mechanics.

Ya know, maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but this gap is actually terrible. My options are:

Heaven on High (which slowly drains my mental fortitude)
30+ Minute Queues for DPS (Oh joy)
Do PvP (Where I can get less EXP if I lose, which lets be real, coin toss baby. If I win, its about 10% of a level, which you get more in current level dungeon)
or some Beat Tribes (which are limited)

I guess I could also slap some hunting stuff from Kugane or something in here, but good lord. This is so bad. If I had my squadron, it'd a little less bad, but oh my. It's seriously been 2 years since they released this 'feature' can it get an update? Hell, this Bozjan Front update thats coming up would be perfect for it, but I have the feeling thats not gonna happen.

Local man is bored and a bit salty, wants to level up.

My vote would also be for squadrons, as a new player could possibly use them to help them with some of the Stormblood MSQ dungeon queues. Either way I'd love to see something to fill that 60-70 gap when you don't feel like waiting in line or taking chances with a roulette.

It would be nice for them to add squadron versions of a few of the Stormblood dungeons although they would have to not include Bardams Mettle for obvious reasons as the AI would not be able to do the "test your ability to dodge mechanics" boss

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Originally Posted by Peace-Division

It would be nice for them to add squadron versions of a few of the Stormblood dungeons although they would have to not include Bardams Mettle for obvious reasons as the AI would not be able to do the "test your ability to dodge mechanics" boss

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Only one player needs to pass that, so it would work just fine with squadrons since all you would need to do is pass it yourself.

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Originally Posted by Mhaeric

Only one player needs to pass that, so it would work just fine with squadrons since all you would need to do is pass it yourself.

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Oh I wasnt aware of that. I guess it could be included then, which would be good as the big gaps in the GC dungeons can be quite large so youre forced to regrind the same one a lot in the squdrons level range for too long eg lvl 32 brayflox, next is lvl 41 stone vigil