Free Company Content

[Wobi]

I was regaling my FC with tales of the 1.0 era and I remembered a few of the planned but lost updates that were originally slated to happen before the subsequent chaos of retooling the entire game in ARR.

I for one run a rather busy FC with my friend and we’ve long desired more FC content that requires you to actually run with your FC. They had originally planned things like ocean exploration/battles and large scale siege content. We saw things like FC owned ships etc in the mock-ups. I’d be interested to know what sort of content other people would like to see on this vein.

Obviously if such content existed and had good rewards it would likely eliminate smaller Free Companies as members would take off for more established FCs with the members and resources to complete this content, however SE already talked about a solution to this in one of the very early live letters. They had a plan where you could form an alliance with another FC to make an official sister FC and they would be able to join you for Free Company content without changing or having to dissolve their existing Free Company. I feel like this would allow smaller groups to participate in large scale content without losing the smaller FC they have in place.

I’d love to see something like this as I feel it would allow them to create this type of content but have a way to make it accessible to smaller groups. SE had quite a few good ideas for this game and it would be nice to see some of them come to fruition.

[Wanzzo]

It would be good if they create this alliance system.

Some small FCs could be united as one.

They could do something similar as the Island Sanctuary but for FC members inside one such alliance. But instead of "living in a farm" we could have another concept of interactions allowing parties and team work (like "fates") inside this area. What do you think?

[Saraide]

Any type of content could just be made without a lock to FC necessary. FCs are social structures, the thing that gives them life are the people inside not the label "free company"

I'm going to assume your idea would allow cross world alliances. Do you want one FC to only be part of one alliance?

[Wobi]

The entire point would be content to do with your FC for the benefit of the FC, it would also give more of a use for the FC points as many free companies generate far more than they can use. The alliance would allow a smaller group to combine resources and join with another FC to do this content and retain the goal of keeping their FC relatively small as some people shy away from larger free companies. If you visit the Community page they even have weekly/monthly rankings for free companies but it’s solely based on how many points you generated. Depending on the nature of the content they could make it competitive with rankings. Many people consider an FC a glorified chat channel, so it would be nice to have content that would encourage people to engage and foster teamwork to earn cool new rewards for your free company.

[dspguy]

Whenever I run content with FC mates, I have a great time. Whether that be 4-man dungeon, 8-man trials or maps, 24-man raids. I find the PF system to do a great job at serving its purpose (and it is superb) but conversations tend to be limited to:

o/ when you start and...
gg when you wrap up

And I'm fine with that. But at times, it is like running it with NPCs. Hell, the NPCs actually talk more. While I am grateful for the PF system, I'm glad my FC does run 24-man and 8-man content on a schedule, it makes for good times. I think SE should consider from FC-only restricted content. I just don't think it will happen. SE's actions in the last 9.5 years has signaled that FCs are pretty much social channels with a common place to hang out.

[Saraide]

The entire point would be content to do with your FC for the benefit of the FC, it would also give more of a use for the FC points as many free companies generate far more than they can use. The alliance would allow a smaller group to combine resources and join with another FC to do this content and retain the goal of keeping their FC relatively small as some people shy away from larger free companies. If you visit the Community page they even have weekly/monthly rankings for free companies but it’s solely based on how many points you generated. Depending on the nature of the content they could make it competitive with rankings. Many people consider an FC a glorified chat channel, so it would be nice to have content that would encourage people to engage and foster teamwork to earn cool new rewards for your free company.

How would that be different from normal content that encourages people to engage in and foster teamwork to earn cool rewards? What kind of content do you envision? (dungeons? raids? chocobo races? treasure maps? fates?) How would FC points be used? How does this nebulous type of content become more interesting by only letting FCs engage with it?

[Kalania]

Whenever I run content with FC mates, I have a great time. Whether that be 4-man dungeon, 8-man trials or maps, 24-man raids. I find the PF system to do a great job at serving its purpose (and it is superb) but conversations tend to be limited to:

o/ when you start and...
gg when you wrap up

And I'm fine with that. But at times, it is like running it with NPCs. Hell, the NPCs actually talk more. While I am grateful for the PF system, I'm glad my FC does run 24-man and 8-man content on a schedule, it makes for good times. I think SE should consider from FC-only restricted content. I just don't think it will happen. SE's actions in the last 9.5 years has signaled that FCs are pretty much social channels with a common place to hang out.

This. I am doing far more than ever with my FC as I get higher level and having a blast. The duty support/trust system is more interesting than running with PUGs because yeah; they talk lmao.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I was regaling my FC with tales of the 1.0 era and I remembered a few of the planned but lost updates that were originally slated to happen before the subsequent chaos of retooling the entire game in ARR.

I for one run a rather busy FC with my friend and we’ve long desired more FC content that requires you to actually run with your FC. They had originally planned things like ocean exploration/battles and large scale siege content. We saw things like FC owned ships etc in the mock-ups. I’d be interested to know what sort of content other people would like to see on this vein.

Obviously if such content existed and had good rewards it would likely eliminate smaller Free Companies as members would take off for more established FCs with the members and resources to complete this content, however SE already talked about a solution to this in one of the very early live letters. They had a plan where you could form an alliance with another FC to make an official sister FC and they would be able to join you for Free Company content without changing or having to dissolve their existing Free Company. I feel like this would allow smaller groups to participate in large scale content without losing the smaller FC they have in place.

I’d love to see something like this as I feel it would allow them to create this type of content but have a way to make it accessible to smaller groups. SE had quite a few good ideas for this game and it would be nice to see some of them come to fruition.

Yes it sounded interesting when they mentioned competing for a FC primal

[Jojoya]

((Heavensward Diadem rears its ugly head.))

While such ideas sound good in our heads, they don't work out well in practice. Formal FC only content and FC Alliances run into problems.

Who ends up responsible for organizing the FC only content runs? What happens if they can't play or leave the FC?

What rewards are interesting enough to keep repeating the content without making FC membership feel mandatory to get those rewards?

What happens when the rewards everyone wants are assigned to a type of content the FC doesn't do while the type of content the FC likes to do hasn't be added or has poor rewards in comparison?

What happens when your FC has more members online than the content allows or not enough online to meet the minimum party requirements?

How do you stop those organizing content events from encouraging flattery and bribes from members trying to get picked for content, or stop FC officers from pressuring those individuals to include their personal favorites?

Who gets to be the boss in an Alliance with final say on what the Alliance does and what roles members from each FC get to have?

How do you prevent cliques and favoritism from occurring so everyone has equal access?

How do you stop displays of elitism by those who feel they contribute more to the FC than others (even when they don't) and therefore should have priority?

If your initial thought to any of these is "that would be someone else's problem to solve", then you're seeing the problem with such systems. Everyone is fine with them as long as they don't have any responsibility but also are always included when they want to be included. The moment they're asked to take on some of the responsibility or get excluded, drama starts. And most of the time, that ends up falling back on the game developer as players scream "this isn't what we wanted!".

Informal systems work better for informal social groups, which is what a FC is. You do things together because you enjoy each other's company, not because you're out for the reward.

[Wobi]

((Heavensward Diadem rears its ugly head.))

While such ideas sound good in our heads, they don't work out well in practice. Formal FC only content and FC Alliances run into problems.

Who ends up responsible for organizing the FC only content runs?

What rewards are interesting enough to keep repeating the content without making FC membership feel mandatory to get those rewards

I feel like you’ve been in some very badly run FC’s, like any content the people interested will turn up and if you have too many you can always run multiple groups. It’s something we commonly do in ours when turnout for raid/dailies/maps are high enough. Ideally this type of content would be scalable and more of a participation focused content. I’m talking about fairy casual content. There could also be rewards for those who participated as well as general rewards as your FC ranks up in the new content that anyone would have access to. People keep trying to make this a single player game and we could honestly use some MMO type content that encourages grouping up.