Things like campaign/besieged

[VargasVermillion]

My god besieged would be amazing. This game's engine could handle it so much better than XI did too.



Besieged didn't require working as a team. You literally went in, killed what you saw, left when it was over. It would work just fine. It only took a few players really paying attention to the flow of battle to watch the astral candescence while everyone else fought the horde..

sounds like lame fate tier content.

[Zaft]

sounds like lame fate tier content.

It essentially was. But it was fun back then, when there weren't any FATEs so it was new and fancy.

[Tiggy]

sounds like lame fate tier content.

It was also an overly simplified explanation of the overall concept. Was just pointing out that it was quite easy for people to go in solo if they so wished and not be detrimental to the overall goal.

Besieged monsters would come attack a main hub city every so often you fought them and they would eventually retreat. You earned points to buy some average to low quality gear.

In the next expansion SE liked besieged so much they thought why not have it in every zone, so we got Campaign.

To expand further. The city had in it's possession a relic called the Astral Candescence. It sat in a shrine like room in the part of town that was attacked. Players were rewarded with various buffs for consecutive days that it was held without being stolen so all players were very interested in holding on to it as these buffs were not trivial. Occasionally one of the beastmen races would attack en masse to retrieve it from the city. All the way from lowly puk like enemies all the way to HNM-like bosses like hydra's would attack. These fights for the city would easily last around 20 minutes long and were no where near as trivial or as fleeting as fates. It was a large scale battle with hundreds of enemies attacking the town.

Additionally, the city had 5 Generals that would come out and fight with the players. Each conferring their strength to the battle. If they fell in battle it had a noticeable effect on the battle so players frequently would stick to a general and help them. If even a single beastmen reached the candescence they would take it and immediately pull out of the zone. Otherwise you had to fight them off long enough and they would eventually retreat.

One of the cooler side aspects was what happened with NPCs during the battle. Various NPCs in the town would be kidnapped during the battle. These NPCs were sometimes not so important or others were super important to the point of necessity. Players would then have to storm the beastmen strongholds and rescue those npc's before they could be used in town again. If the candescence itself was actually stolen the players would lose all the buffs it conferred and an alliance would be required to head to the main boss room at the back and fight the head of the beastmen race to retrieve it. This was generally considered to be a very difficult fight and when you finished it you were welcomed back like conquering heros, candescence in hand.

It was so much more than simply zerging enemies. It created intense moments of failure, spontaneous teamwork, and heroism. The complex mix of open world side content it produced and the severe sense of sever camaraderie was truly some of the best moments from XI.

[Cakekizy]

It was also super annoying for anyone at appropriate level for a region that was trying to quest or level there.