[Suggestion] – Guildleves with multiple (optional) objectives

[Delmontyb]

While I know the battle system and other systems are the focus in the development cycle right now, I figured I would toss this idea out there in regards to guildleves. And while I know that the primary focus of leves is to gain SP, this has lead us into a repetitive leve grind, where we run the same leves each time. Those playing the game as well as the dev team are well aware of this issue, and some ideas (like including an SP bonus for completing the leve) have been brought up before, might help in resolving that issue.

However, I would like to see guildleves (at least some) include optional objectives, and branching paths. What I mean by this, is to say that:

1. Guildleves would include objectives (hidden or visible) that are optional to the completion of the leve. If the main objectives have been completed then the leve is completed. And by completing the optional objectives other rewards, drops, or what have you, open up to the player.
2. Some optional objectives wouldn’t always be available, could be determined based off of if the leve was last failed, or how many stars were traded in for the leve itself.
3. Some conditions could be based on previous successful runs, or the number of links the party has made.
4. Sometimes these optional objectives could change the main objective, by completing them, perhaps the main objective would update, locking out the previous objective, and thus taking the leve in a different direction.

The main issue, as it is with the current setup is balance. So the optional objectives would need to vary from killing mobs, to solving puzzles. And since most players would always look for optional objectives, as it would mean more SP (possibly), the difficulty would need to be increased not just in a mob, but perhaps in the way the player completes the optional objective. For example, the objective might be listed to kill five of x mob, but the location of those mobs wouldn’t be highlighted on the mini map, and they might not all be in the same spot.

I guess the best example of all these ideas in one leve would be the following:
In this example, I’ll use a popular leve, Dunesfolk for Dinner.
Now, this time we will add in an optional objective to investigate 5 locations marked out on the map, that are spread out from the main pop locations. During your investigation, you might have a leve mob pop, but more or less you would be lead into areas where the aggro population of a mob is pretty high. So, you would be fighting mobs, but not making leve SP for doing these objectives.

Now, you’ve investigated these locations, you compete the leve and get a 200sp bonus for completing the optional objective.

Now, the next time you run the leve the same optional objective shows up again, these locations might be the same as last time, or they might be updated to different spots to keep the action fresh. Being that there is an SP bonus for this extra work; your party decides to run it again. But this time after you completed investigation your objectives are updated to defend the last location you investigate, so new mobs start coming at your party from all sides.

You defend the location successfully and go and complete the leve as normal.

Now, you might run the leve again down the line, and the first time you ran it is what happens, or it could be the second time, etc. But really this is where the leves open up to more dynamic content. By having yet another variation that ties into completing the first to variations, followed by other conditions, where during your investigation you are taken into a cave, and then a boss NM pops for your party to defeat.
Now, that is kind of a dream scenario that I just made up but the concept or something similar is possible. By adding some dynamic elements to leves as well as bonus to SP, I feel that would go a long way into opening up guildleves to their true potential. At their base is the way to get SP, but by giving players different variations of current leves as well as new leves I feel would breathe some necessary life into the system itself.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

[Rydin]

What do you think of my idea from this previous thread?
(Shameless plug)
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ev1001-Dev1011

Its kind of a long read... and it was actually put into the correct sub-forum so it doesn't get as much love as general discussion....
But I think it is a good example of how guildleves could be fun

[Delmontyb]

What do you think of my idea from this previous thread?
(Shameless plug)
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ev1001-Dev1011

Its kind of a long read... and it was actually put into the correct sub-forum so it doesn't get as much love as general discussion....
But I think it is a good example of how guildleves could be fun

I remember this post, and I think it's a pretty cool idea. I like arcs that tie the story all together.
Great idea.