Feature Expansion: Companion [suggestion]

[Shiro--Tsubasa]

One thing I hope for in the future is an expansion on the companion feature. I really like having a monster type pet follow me during my travels in the open world. I kind of wish there was more added to this to make it something fun and easier to add more to it in the future.

Some things I like to see done with it.
Add a way to include more monsters and monster types to it. Not all need to have 3 trees, but have one or two that suits the monster type giving them unique abilities that are specific to that monster.

Monster Stone/Orbs: An extremely rare item drop from monsters in the open world (maybe even fate bosses?). When you have access to it, have a system set up to where you can use it to unlock the monster type you got the item from. Later on can feed them same type monster stones of monsters with different skins to give them that skin.

Potentially new DoL/DoH job based around monster breeding.

It would be fun when you can have trademark monsters or your favorite monsters as your companion to fight along side you. Monsters like Behemoth, cactuar, tonberry, even some of the new ones from SB like those giant walrus like monsters or those angel fish demi-human like monsters.

[Shougun]

Out of curiosity do you think this would step into the realm of Beastmaster? All for NPC companions but if we're talking about stuff that beastmaster makes companions wouldn't it be better just to do that? I guess if beastmaster became breeder, a DoL/H sort of job, it could all fit together nicely and to me the pet/raising is the most fun but I think people who liked beastmaster as a combat class would be a bit peeved about that.

Would love to see Moogle companion, but.. yeh.. I'd like to see them come back in many features lol. FFIX/XI, like SWOTR sort of butler, companion, on call mini shop, buddy.

[Shiro--Tsubasa]

I don't think it will. Beastmaster would have more of a synergistic role with their pet than through the companion feature. For example a beast master could offer buffs and support for their pet where as a companion isn't. Plus, beastmaster would be able to bring their pets into instances while you can't do that with a companion. Although these two concepts are similar they provide different things for the player. So I might ask, why not both?

I do however like the idea of creating a new DoL/DoH jobs based around monster breeding. So I'll add that to my main post.

[Shurrikhan]

Out of curiosity do you think this would step into the realm of Beastmaster? All for NPC companions but if we're talking about stuff that beastmaster makes companions wouldn't it be better just to do that? I guess if beastmaster became breeder, a DoL/H sort of job, it could all fit together nicely and to me the pet/raising is the most fun but I think people who liked beastmaster as a combat class would be a bit peeved about that.

Or just into job-less freely allocate-able skill spreads... Trade out some ranged utility for a pet on an Archer, or Surges for some synergetic strikes on a Lancer or—

Sorry, right... Those design concepts are dead and gone.

[Abriael]

Personally, I'd much rather have an actual humanoid companion than a monster, like we had in the first Final Fantasy XIV or in Final Fantasy XI. An expansion of the retainer system into full fledged adventuring companions would be ideal, IMHO.

[Aeeninwen_Taldel]

It would be nice to alternate between your mounts as a companion, though I'm very attached to my chocobo and his Apple Green feathers.

[KisaiTenshi]

One thing I hope for in the future is an expansion on the companion feature. I really like having a monster type pet follow me during my travels in the open world. I kind of wish there was more added to this to make it something fun and easier to add more to it in the future.

Square-Enix needs to be careful about this if they consider it, because feature-creep in the game is already a problem, and it then everyone just uses the BiS companion, it will be the only one you ever see.

The ideal mechanic behind this is to actually have a Trainer/Beastmaster job. In another thread we were talking about puppeteers, this is basically the same premise except with monsters.

In another game that has such a class, you "capture" monsters with a skill, and once you've done it once, you can release them as a kind of DPS AI.

The problem here is that FFXIV's AI is horribly stupid. Even if the monster had it's regular AI, but targets reversed (so it attacks other monsters) it just gives the player a brainless thing that keeps having to be healed or re-summoned like the Arcanist DPS/Tank pet.

A more elaborate form of this could take a cue from NieR:Automata where you could "control" a monster from a third-person perspective, but can fire the monsters skills manually in a "attack target, AOE, and Special" kind of simplified thing. Thus you could only use monsters that are actually in the respective dungeons and field areas.

Other games have "pets/mounts" that can actually be used in battle, and this again comes back into the power-creep problem.

A flip side of this could be a "Creature Husbandry" type of DoL job. Where you can capture and "breed" certain levels of monsters together to get monsters with special skills and colors as an alternative to just focusing on the Chocobo. That said, this would likely have to replace the chocobo as the companion, and would not be permitted into duties since it would disturb the play balance in a way that can't be play-tested for.

Like, one (ridicious) thing I'd love to have the Magitek mount have it's own AI as a companion. I'm sure other people would want to do this with some other mounts as well. The catch I see is that these don't work particularly well in any game since they clutter the play field and make targeting a mess.

So I don't know, I would like to see something other than the Chocobo as a companion, or maybe being allowed to take the Chocobo/ combat mounts into "undersized party" duties, but the AI to date is just not very good. Even programmable client-sided AI seen in other games tends to just get abused.

[savageink]

I would love to see a Ranger type class with an archer base and companion beast(s) like a wolf or bear or something. Bard is getting less ranger like and more support based in the new expansion, and I've been thinking of switching to MCH since I'd rather DPS then manage 14 different song buttons to do any damage. I'm waiting to play it to see if it is as annoying as it looks.