Grand Company squadrons

[Felis]

So, is this like their solution to dundeons like Aurum vale, and raids taking forever to Q or something?

No
It is their solution to bring own story and new ranks to the grand companies (i hope)

[ADVSS]

so again like fft provisionaries, sending out party members and hoping they dont die on the way. kind of a drag... could be worse though, i guess

[Felis]

so again like fft provisionaries, sending out party members and hoping they dont die on the way. kind of a drag... could be worse though, i guess

I think it will be something like the Grand Company missions during 1.x
Infiltrating strongholds, deliver secret letters, fight against the bad garleans, but this time with your own squard instead with other players.

[Myvar]

...

In 1.x, the Grand Companies played a larger role. Many of the story quests past the initial game release were tied to each GC and were different based on your GC. Some of the promotions within a GC even had requirements like killing something like a world boss.

[Nalien]

In 1.x, the Grand Companies played a larger role. Many of the story quests past the initial game release were tied to each GC and were different based on your GC. Some of the promotions within a GC even had requirements like killing something like a world boss.

The Meteor story was tied to Grand Companies, true, but it for the most part those where shared, similar to XIs Rank 3~6 (or whatever the Northlands + Shadow Lord ranks were, it's been years). I think there was some variation in how we met Cid, but that was about it... They all investigated Garlean activity in Mor Dhona, they all stormed Castrum Novum, they all did To Kill a Raven... Honestly, I think that only happened because they were dropping Dalamud and restarting the game... They couldn't follow on from the games original story without a bizarre shift in narrative, so instead they slapped their story on Grand Companies, and when Dalamud fell and 2.0 was ready, they could just put their story in the MSQ and Grand Companies lost their point...

I expected them to build upon that with 2.0, instead the rank up quests are turned into complete jokes and all plot is striped from them... Then we're stuck with the same ranks for years... It is such a disappointment, glad we're finally getting new ranks, but I'm not going to hold my breath for much story with... They'll probably introduce the Squadron mechanic and little else... I'm not even sure there are enough ranks left to flesh out a real story at this point...

[Ametrine]

The only thing about it is if we rank too much higher, it will be odd that we still act as an adventurer. Military duty is kind of a full time job, and now we have the power to command.

Although, I could wrap my head around the story BSing their way through this by using our WoL status as an excuse that we require the freedom to pursue primal destruction.



Oh, I wonder if the new GC stuff is to set up Grand Companies playing a bigger role in 4.0?

[Jynx]

The mere fact this isn't something big enough to consider expansion sized content has me skeptical at best.

[Duelle]

It also seems to be complete fluff at this point... They could always give it some serious rewards, but... *Checks previous Grand Company rewards* Yeah, no... Christ, this just seems like a more advanced version of Retainer Ventures to me... If Retainer Ventures didn't kill the game, I really doubt Squadrons will...

Indeed. The reason Garrisons hurt WoW was the elements tied to it that affected other parts of the game. WoD placed too much emphasis on garrisons, and combined with what that did to professions and gathering is why so many people hated them (not mentioning that once the comparison to facebook games took hold, it was pretty much over for garrisons).

Hopefully they won't do what they usually do, which is place stupidly rare crafting mats or something coming from those missions. Though I would not be surprised if the key ingredients for the new weapons come from those missions. It'd be bullshit, but par for the course.

[Cidel]

Until they release more information, I have no reason not to consider this as just "Retainers: Now with set appearances and classes and maybe unique personalities."

[Khalithar]

Until they release more information, I have no reason not to consider this as just "Retainers: Now with set appearances and classes and maybe unique personalities."

This pretty much sums up my view on it. But instead of ventures we'll probably pay them in company seals or some new kind of Grand Company Funbucks currency.