Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[Nalien]

Sigh...

Doesn't look like there is much in the way of story quests to go with new Grand Company Ranks... I really miss XIs formula of "Here is a quest to raise you Rank, it has an actual story", Nation Ranks provided some nice insight into the nations themselves, while Mercenary Ranks were kind of humorous... Still, anything is better than the "Bring me some Seals!" XIV has been offering so far... Had to do some dungeons at some point, but that was less "Here is some lore on your city and Grand Company" and more "Here's the backstory for this dungeon". Can we please get some Grand Company based quests at some point? Why is it that I know more about various beast tribes, than I do my own Grand Company...

Squadrons themselves could make for some organic player generated stories (I'll be recruiting an army of cats, for example), but given they're effectively just glorified Retainer Ventures for now? Meh... I'd care about these guys a whole lot more if I could be a terrible leader and end up working them to death... Would have been perfect with something like Hamlet Defense... Imagine defending against the Ixali and Garuda, only to lose one of your squad in battle, then see them fighting for the enemy next time because they've been tempered... That's the kind of thing I don't think cutscenes or dialog can really replicate... We can be told tempering is an issue, but until it actually impacts us directly it isn't really going to hit home...

I really wonder if they put Grand Companies in just to tick the "Must have Factions" box on the list of generic MMO things... I just don't get the feeling that they were added with any purpose in mind... PvP is the only place they matter, and that's more of a burden than a boon, that restriction cripples Frontlines more than it enhances it... Is, as with the rest of this games progression, it really all just about glamours? With 4.0 can we have less Hildibrand quests, and more Grand Company quests, pretty please?