[Another] Event Suggestion: "Festival of the Hunt!"

[Shioban]

I'd first like to note, this was just an idea we cobbled together quickly just for the fun of it. If this was ever considered as a legitimate event in FFXIV:ARR it would need A LOT of revision/tweaking and careful planning this is just a rough idea on how we could shake up the norm on somewhere that's normally quite peaceful, quiet and safe.

A friend an I had considered the following as a potential event in FFXIV:ARR based on our previous experiences.

What is the Festival of The Hunt?

"The Festival of the Hunt refers to an event in the world of Final Fantasy IX. The Festival of the Hunt is an annual competition hosted by the church in the Business District of Lindblum. It began centuries prior to the main storyline, when the city of Lindblum was a huge forest." http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Festival_of_the_Hunt

Basically; the premise is that adventurers would participate in the hunt, killing off monsters that have been released throughout the city, as the players defeat the monsters (either on their own or with others) points would be awarded based on their participation (In this case FATE ranking would be appropriate).

How often would this happen?

As the event would render the city pretty much completely inoperable for the most-part, this wouldn't happen that often with perhaps a weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly set 'time' for the event to occur.

One suggestion was;

3 times daily for the set 'day' of the event, whatever this may be where the hunt would release new monsters into the city. Traveling cages would appear in the city when the event was to begin soon to provide a pre-cursor (or warning) was to when the event would begin. NPC'S accompanying these would provide the details on what the festival was about and the date and time it would begin/end.


How would this work?

There are a number of potential ways to do this, for which the game already has the tools build in for (a few ideas we've had so far are);

•City Wide F.A.T.E

The entire city (as per the original IX style) would have monsters loose and roaming/patrolling throughout the city, there are very few clear areas, enemies could be around any corner.

Certain areas would have a higher volume of weaker mobs, where-as others may have a single-large enemy with a huge volume of health and some mechanics that require some from of basic or advanced planning and co-ordination.
The potential scale of these events could easily change, making them easily expanded upon and adjusted/changed as time progresses.

•City Wide F.A.T.E(s)

This would be the safest option:

Sporadic numbers of fates scaling in difficulty/level for players to participate in, where some FATEs would require a larger number of players with decent end-game gear to complete, and others much weaker but easier to complete (with an obvious variance in reward for completion, based on the level/difficulty to avoid farming)



• Instances

The three cities states would have separate instances where a (similar to 1.23 with skirmish) and NPC would trigger the instanced event for the participants.
This would take away the community feel of the event, but also provide a fairer way for solo/party play should players prefer to do it this way (and would perhaps secure the contents longevity in the long run).

Solo
Party of 4
Party of 8

A set time would be given to defeat the enemies set throughout the city, where the player(s) would kill as many of the allocated enemies (perhaps shown as a duty-finder tracker EG: (4/12 Direwolves Vanquished)

Difficulty would scale depending on how many people are in the party (perhaps even based on item level instead of level for Lv.50).
A solo option being made available to stay true to the original (whilst yielding less of a reward, but with item level the difficulty could scale creating an interesting challenge.

Another possibility; Difficulty Adjustment

Various "levels" of difficulty being made available for the instance, where a higher difficult would provide a greater reward overall at the cost of considerably stronger enemies.

Would people even enjoy doing this?

When FFXIV 1.23 was closing, mobs were released into the cities for players to kill (which sparked the idea for us originally), some died easily, others required time, sadly none really required any planning or skill to defeat which is where the intriguing part of this event could take a twist on this.

The point however, is that players really enjoyed the event, it was fun partying up or attacking mobs solo, the only problem lay in that the players then asked the question "I wish there was an award for this, it would be even better." (To which we did as the game was closing we all got free relic weapons temporarily) Which leads to the next point!

What would I get for doing it?
There's a good number of things we could gain from this, similar to Behemoth/Odin and akin to the original IX version of the hunt, you could obtain Festival Points based on what you kill to earn rewards, what these rewards could be wouldn't matter at this point however an educated guess for a fair reward would be;

•Vanity Gear
•Vanity Weapons
•Minions
•Mounts
•Unique Event Items/Emotes (Similar to the peach-confetti, fire-sparklers, snowball/firedance emote)

The potential outcome of how to provide a reward for this would lie completely with the development team.

But wouldn't this put the city out of commission for maybe up to an hour? And what about the lesser populated servers?

Yes! The events would put the city (and or parts of it) out of commission for a time, where-in NPCs would simply become unavailable for use, which is why the original idea for the event would lead to the point again where it would be something not quite so regular (once a week/bi-weekly).

FFXIV can be too safe and considerate at times, changing the world and placing new boundaries could prove for a more interesting and overall less static world.

From a Lore Perspective, how would this work?

A rough idea would be;

The (currently) three grand companies of Eorzea have agreed to rekindle the dangerous yet thrilling lost tradition of The Festival of The Hunt, where the bravest of Eorzea would participate in this treacherous activity. Previously banned for the Grand Companies inability to control the surge of monsters and maintain their positions throughout the city, as the ranks of the Grand Companies have bolstered so has their faith in their ability to maintain the event once again.

With grand company representatives overseeing the event throughout the city, the most vigorous of participants would be awarded Festival Points as it progresses.

Only the strongest and bravest of warriors will make their way to top and achieve the coveted title of 'Master Hunter'.

(This isn't cannon fact, just something we've made up because, why not /shrug)


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Thank you for taking the time to read up on this.

Your opinion matters, let us know what you think;

What would you change/add? Let me know and we'll edit the original post (And credit your addition/edit)
I'm pretty sure I've made countless mistakes and or errors here.

Feedback:

I better see a Zaghnal in this. Support!

Most definitley!

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Zaghnol

[juniglee]

I better see a Zaghnal in this. Support!

[AdamuKun322]

That would be a lot of fun actually.

[axemtitanium]

[Duelle]

So you finally put your Festival of the Hunt idea together. XD

As the event would render the city completely pretty much completely inoperable for the most-part, this wouldn't happen that often with a weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly set 'time' for the event to occur.

I would do it on the last complete weekend of the month, as a three-day event (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

•City Wide F.A.T.E

•City Wide F.A.T.E(s)[/I]

Another option would be to allow people to sign up for the event (remember that Zidane and Freya had to sign up to participate). Something like sign up with a festival official that gives you a buff called Hunting Permit. Assuming you're using FATEs, the permit is used up the moment you attack a monster in said FATEs, changing to a different buff that lasts until you exit the designated FATE area or finish the FATE.

You could make the permits something like a safeguard by explaining that the monsters react to those with permits and will ignore those without. That way you don't need to make it an instance; not to mention that part of the entertainment of the festival is that you had spectators. You could even change the dialogue of some of the NPCs during the hunt to show that even thought they know the monsters won't attack them it is still unnerving to have pelicans and packs of dire wolves running around the city during the festival.

•Vanity Gear
•Vanity Weapons

I suggest a Hunter's set for DoW and a Tracker's set for DoM. I can't draw for my life, so I can't give you rough drafts of either.

As for weapons, here's two designs I think would follow the theme of the festival. Hunting Sword. Hunting Axe.

[Milmoko_Gemoko]

God I forgot about this from FFIX (so long ago lol), but yeah I like this event idea
Have to admit the pics from V1 I've seen with monsters in the Cities looked pretty cool.

[Wilan]

This.
I would have loved to see the old hunting festival from FFIX revisited in some way since when I was playing FFXI.
FFXIV and its instances and FATEs would actually make the whole thing a lot easier to accomplish. I'd be enthusiast to play this content!

[Andybell256]

Awesome idea love it !!!

[Kirosuu]

nice one
this is sure awesome

[Tam_Hawkins]

I really loved this Festival in FFIX and would like to see it here again, but wouldn't there be to many Players? I can already see 200 Players swarming one Monster...