How come we can't play with friends?

[Sotek]

That's funny, I gather my friends and do maps fairly frequently. Other than an achievement I don't really remember much reason to do many of the NMs in 1.0, maps at least provide me with plenty of Gils.

Yoshi already mentioned they weren't bringing back the roaming NMs sadly. I think it's a missed opportunity. Then again things can change over time.

But we are getting open world Primal FATEs where, the Free Company that claims gets to later summon the Primal properly. So there's that.

One might be concerned that its a FATE, but... Well, firstly I seem to remember you can help random people with NMs in 1.0, you just wouldn't get credit if you weren't in the party that claimed it. Secondly, if a rival Free Company claims Ifrit, and you want to claim Ifrit so you can summon him, I really doubt you're going to join the zerg rush against Ifrit when you can instead watch them die and then claim Ifrit...

[Felis]

That's funny, I gather my friends and do maps fairly frequently. Other than an achievement I don't really remember much reason to do many of the NMs in 1.0, maps at least provide me with plenty of Gils.

The lowlevel NMs gave you lv 25 and lv 30 gear. The highlevel NMs gave you mats to craft highlevel NM gear (like Dodore Wings for Dodore Doublet) and the leve NMs gave you Allagan Runestone to give Rowena for gear (later it got changed that you get the gear direct instead the runestones).