Can we PLEASE get a GC Re-Assignment?

[ZDamned]

EDIT- I fdo thank everyone for their input, I am not here for an arguement, just for a personal gripe du eto what a friend and I are basing out descigeons to keep playing for the next year on. I hate to be segmented from my friends, but sadly we have been. Anyway, thanks everyone for your heated input, and keep it comming.

I want to play with my friend, and I'm so sorry tha I don't spend every waking minute of my day reading what th edevs post here... Honestly, I didn't even know they added GC in, because I'm a new player. I thought they were always there, and had no idea of what the devs said about it.

Please tell me where in the game it says go read the forums for any chance of making educated choices for the permanent future of your character. I play this game for choice of what I do.

What I want to do is a few quests with my friend, such as the Chocobo Caravan. but he;s an adder, so he's not allowed to help me, or get a reward from the time he spends if he wants to just heal me.
Seriously, tell me what the purpose of that is! Segmenting friends from content because we liked a different color better? I liked Red, he liked Yellow, now were locked out from doing eevrythign in the game together like we intended. Beautiful deisgn.

Point being, We don't read the forums activly, and we don't post often if at all. We honestly are brand new players, and had no idea that "they" told us not to choose based on gear.

Warnings or not, the game didn't tell us we couldn't do Chocobo Caravans if were not in the same GC. The game also didn't tell us we could get a bonus 500 Seals from the level 25 Ifrit. (Which IS significant for those o fus who don't have the time to grind out GC leves at 15 minutes each for 20 seals.)

Oh and BTW. If were at war with each other company, why the heck do we do recruit quests for all 3 without being considered a traiter? That makes perfect sense! "We want you to join us! so go help them out ven though we don't like them." seriously, if someone comes up with any justification to that quote, the logic is 100% gone from theese boards.

And the person who threw my 2 cents away, Your going to have a fun lonely time playing without any frineds arent you? WHY would you WANT a player segmentation implimented in this game with SO FEW people in it?

[Chardrizard]

The Garleans are invading your city. "Oh, I'm sorry Signore Chard, you can't help us defend Gridania, because you used to do some work for the Immortal Flames. Come back in 30 days, and we can use your help then, if we're not burned to cinders by magitek cannons."

Imminent threat is imminent.

You are adventurer, you can still fight without grand companies! you are not bound to be in any military group to defend your continent! as proven from most garlean invasions!

[Jynx]

I'm so sorry tha I don't spend every waking minute of my day reading what th edevs post here...

Warnings or not, the game didn't tell us we couldn't do Chocobo Caravans if were not in the same GC. The game also didn't tell us we could get a bonus 500 Seals from the level 25 Ifrit. (Which IS significant for those o fus who don't have the time to grind out GC leves at 15 minutes each for 20 seals.)

Oh and BTW. If were at war with each other company, why the heck do we do recruit quests for all 3 without being considered a traiter? That makes perfect sense! "We want you to join us! so go help them out ven though we don't like them." seriously, if someone comes up with any justification to that quote, the logic is 100% gone from theese boards.

1: You obviously ignored all the warnings that said "This is a permanent choice. Hell you don't have to check the forums to know that this is a big choice to make.

2: The Caravan NPC's clearly state that they offer quests for people of ____ Company, consequences of making a uninformed decision.

3: Who said they were at war? They are acting in their own collective interests but have their own goals and ideals as well. The main purpose of the game sending you to do all 3 companies is so that you can make a choice on what company best alligned with your own interests.

4: I'm going to call BS on you choosing based on gear yet never "Done any research" on the companies themselves, as far as I remember you can't check the item roster without either being in the company or looking it up. Might do yourself some good to do some more reasearch while you are looking up what is the best axe to get from the GC's.

5: In the end aside from the Caravans you are not limited to what you can do with other company members at this point in time, and I doubt that will change alot.

[Kinseykinz]

It is a shame that you and your friend didn't choose the same company. That being said, even without reading Dev posts or Letters from the Producer, the game does provide a box that pops up saying you can't change your company... and then asked...are you sure?.

I understand that this box doesn't explain that you can't do caravan missions together etc...and this is really what is bugging you. According to different Dev Posts on the plans and Ideas for Guild Companies down the road:
1. There will be joint missions between cities- these will grant bonuses or rewards if completed with a party with members from the cooperating Cities. (this IS something you and your friend can do together)
2.There will be competition mission against other cities (while you can't be in the same party as your friend, you can still have fun trying to be the better city)
3. Rewards will be evenly spread through each city in time. So maybe LL has the cool weapon you want now, but Grid will have a better one later

Lastly, currently, GC's are only a small aspect of game play. There are still LOTs of things you and your friend can do in the game together. Having stuff you can solo/do with other players isn't a bad thing. Maybe you'll both meet a Guild Company Friend or 5 that you enjoy as well and then you'll have a small posse to take all the baddies out with.

We are only seeing the bare bones of the Guild Company System right now. It has the potential to be really cool AND even more fun if your friends aren't in the same company as you. (Not all my friends are Adders with me) Maybe try doing other stuff duo and solo company stuff until they flesh out the whole company thing more

[ZDamned]

Jynx: As a Recruit you can purchase things from a company with the initial seals you get. You don't have to join to see the lists, and so my only research was while I was doing the qeusts to get a chocobo. (Which was told to me in game by a player as to what to do to obtian it.)

Kinseykinz: I appreciate your response, and I understand that completly all of your points I do honestly fully understand. I'm not here saying "LOL I DON'T READ AND NOW I'M MAD!" But I'm just dissapointed in the design choice. I know I was warned. It was in RED TEXT! I know it wa spermenent according to the text in game, but so was my characters appearance when I created her, and I',m now being teased about a Barbershop comming in 2.0. Are people also going to be angry about that? (Maybe that was a supid question? lol)

I also don't care about the loot any longer as it's not worth using, not that I am a far more seasoned player who never PL'd BTW..... As does my friend, but like I said we were new to the game AFTER this was added. As newer players it's not all that well laid out as to what was going to be restricted, and that design choice is a bad one IMO, and I know that there are quite a few peopel who agree with me.

Anyway. Hope this game does well, but I don't think choices like this are helping. =P Remember gear colors? lack of choice menas lack of happy players.

[Mihana]

Far as I've seen none of the gear is really truly beneficial over what can be earned elsewhere, materia-bonded stuff tends to make all that gear obsolete. Also, isn't SE inserting equipment for all classes regardless of allegiance to the higher up tiers? Last I recall there was a Gridanian Shortbow and Longbow being added at 40 and 50 for the Twin Adder at higher up promotions. That makes joining Ul'dah just to get the Ul'dahn Longbow obsolete. As for content, just about everything you experience between now and 2.0 is a one-time shot anyway, so it's not like it'll matter if you created a new character just to experience that stuff or not anyway. If you don't do it now, you don't do it period.

Still, I agree there should be an option to abandon your Grand Company at a later date that is. After the hells that threaten to destroy Eorzea have passed and we're into the Seventh Umbral Era (AKA 2.0's release.) we can talk about swapping companies then. Personally I think if we are allowed to switch you lose all progress you've made in your current rank, but keep your seals. So if you're a Sergeant in the Immortal Flames, joining the Twin Adder makes you a Private Third Class again, and if you swap back, you're still a Private Third Class upon rejoining the Immortal Flames. Consider it as a means of retribution for abandoning your army.

Also, personally I kind of wish they hadn't made it so you were forced to join a Grand Company just to get yourself a Chocobo, or participate in content such as Primal battles. This forced some people who weren't positive which company they wanted to choose anyway just to experience this content. I planned to join the Twin Adder from the start (Go Gridania! Whee~!) but I know a few friends who joined a company just because they had to so they could play with the rest of us.

EDIT: Also on a slightly off-topic comment, I hope they will allow you to change home nations in the future. Unless we're given a choice where to base our personal homes at, I'd hate to be restricted to living in Ul'dah. I loved their opening storyline but I love Gridania more, let me live there please! Thanks. Anyway, on that subject, I think allowing you to change nations would work best if allowed after completing the main storyline objectives.

[Leowilde]

FFXIV Does, as we all know, lack some tutorials for new players, although this is, as we also know, being taken care of. It's basically the same thing with the GC enlistment. I think it would be a good idea to add WHY one should think thoroughly about which GC to choose when given the warning. I doubt it will take any immersion away from the player if a small popup window explains that some content will be limited to the specific GCs, in example. Though correct me i this is already there, I can't remember it, but it's been a while since I enlisted, so my mind might be failing me.

But of course, it is perfectly possible that a player knew well what s/he was doing when choosing a GC, and changing taste down the road. In which one should be able to change, but not just like that. If choosing a GC is a big choice, so should changing it be. Let there be a quest for it, preferably a long one, like when enlisting. That might keep players from turning their cape with the wind, yet still making it possible to change for those who truly wish to.

[Catapult]

A little extra context for people.

SE cares about their story, even if not every player does, and want to be able to keep it consistent while things are unfolding, as they are now. If people were able to change Company, it would make the work for the writers incredibly more complicated and convoluted. The less variables between players, the better it is for their planning of story progression.

And it is also anticipated that, once the Grand Company-related stories are finished (over a year away, maybe longer), SE will open up the option to change company and thus allow people to experience the alternative perspectives, on the basis that the progression consistency is no longer a priority.

[Jennestia]

its a game <.<

It's a game but:

1. You were FORCED to do all 3 Grand Company introductory quests. - This alone was to tell you the decision is final, that's why you had to be absolutely sure. The only benefit to doing everything as same company is slightly more seals per Ifrit fight/Darkhold/etc, nothing major.

2. You were TOLD to chose the Grand Company that interested you more.

3. If we're going to just say screw lore and storyline, would you be ok with playing an MMO with zero story? There has to be choices made that affect things in an RPG (kind of the reason people were wanting SWTOR...) if you can just free hop between military organizations, what's the purpose of Player Companies being introduced?

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I think the compromise here would be able to allow members of different companies to assist with other caravan security missions. You have to be of the appropriate company to initiate, but your party members could join you in on it. Similar to the leves, where you may not get the full reward, but at least you can help in combat and not just be on the sidelines.

@ZDamned, unfortunately most players having been around as long as they have and being forum go'ers too, don't take into account a new player that starts up and plays the game more than browsing websites and forums. And as you said, nothing in-game quite indicates you will not be able to participate with your friends from other GCs on caravan security.