Company System Discussion - What do you want?

[AlexiaKidd]

Thought it would be good to see what people want and are expecting from the Company system once it comes into play. So what do you all want from this system?

HUGE POST WARNING

I personally think it could have a lot of potential and it would be a shame for SE to waste a great opportunity to involve everyone in something much bigger than what we could achieve alone.

Here are a couple of my idea's of what I would like to see in the Company System:

Grand/Public Companies

I would like the Public Company system to use FFXI's Campaign system as a starting point. With this we choose to pledge our allegiance to a nation and in return we start off at the bottom rank for the Company. We can work our way up the ranks by taking part in missions and campaigns against enemy troops. As we move up the ranks greater rewards are unlocked and more challenging missions become available to us. A new monetary system called Company Credits could be used within the system and as rewards for taking part in Company activities that could be used for buying temporary items, new exclusive gear and weapons and upgrading the Company House.

Now for Content:

DoW/DoM

First I would like the feeling of a constant war with skirmishes taking place all over the regions. Introduce new Camps/Forts/Quest Hubs/Hamlets that have to be defended or they they will be taken by the enemy. While they are under our control we can have access to more items and equipment to help us in our battle maybe even cheaper Anima cost to them. While defending our Camps we will also have to push on the attack to take over the enemy strongholds as well. Battles and targets will be decided by our Company Commander and they will deploy NPC divisions to help us hold/attack positions. Having NPC troops helps a lot in times of low population and is great for Solo players. If you are playing a mage you can Cure troops to help boost your SP/EXP, if you are a MRD and lack Curing you can stay near the Mage NPC's and they will keep you Cured so you can concentrate on the fight.

This type of system is great for Solo and Party players and would I would hope the Company system at least has something like it.

As well as Attack and Defend missions what about Recon missions where we have to sneak into enemy territory to retrieve something or NPC's that have been kidnapped.

DoH/DoL

Lets not forget Crafting and Gathering Classes in all of this. Crafters could be used to make supplies of new weapons and gear for the NPC armies. Blacksmiths forging Blades, Culinarian's cooking up treats to boost morale, Alchemists brewing potions and so on. Crafters could even repair/build defences while the Battle Classes defended them. Gatherer's would gather supplies to keep our stock levels high so Crafters would have what they need to produce what that have to. Gatherers could also have missions to retrieve rare items that could help turn the tide of battle.

Then there could be group crafting and gathering activities like building ships for Limsa's fleet and cannons for defences. Maybe even a group effort to provide our leaders with the best and highest quality Armour possible. Miners could have excavation sites where they could dig up special materials used by Companies to power their big weapons.

There are lots of possibilities for the Public Company system and I am sure some of you have even better idea's that SE could use.

Private/Player Companies

Within the Public Company system sits the Private Company system. This would function like a Linkshell with objectives really. Private Companies again could grow in rank and stature by the missions and quests they undertake. Private Companies could deal with more local issues to start off with. So for example for Limsa they could deal with the Sahagin and Seal Rock and have story lines that go along with it. The essence of Private Companies is teamwork with team based objectives.

Limsa is in a fortunate position as it has islands around it that they could use for instanced battlefields for Private Companies. We could have our own boats that we could kit out and upgrade and use them as mobile command centres when docked on an island. They could have Chocobo stables in them to store our trusty mounts ready for deployment when on a mission. DoW/DoM could head out into the island to neutralise the threat and recover the object. DoH could keep the ships defences going by repairing the boat and maintaining the ships defences to repel any attacking forces and DoH could head out and gather supplies to keep us going and make sure the DoH have what they need to keep the boat operational.

As our Company grows we could eventually gain Airships to use that could take us to even further and more remote battlefields.

Company Housing

For Private Companies I would also like Company Housing. This would be our HQ I guess, a communal house where we would have access to various features. As our Company credits grow in our Private Company account we could use the funds to buy upgrades to our housing. So maybe we start off in a run down building and as we grow we can buy either upgrades to the existing building or a whole new bigger and better building. Then we could add extensions to it like the Chocobo Stable's, Airship landing pad and so on. A few things I would like in this house would be the following:

• A main communal room which we can decorate and also mount trophies from our NM's kills and completed missions/accomplishments.
  
• A Communal Storage area where I can drop off mats and items which I may not find useful but a crafter in our Company might.
  
• A Chocobo stables for raising our Chocobo's and looking after them.
  
• An Airship landing pad for our Airship. Our Airship would be fully upgradable so we can kit it out with new features and perks as we grow as a Company.
  
• A dock for our boat. Same as the Airship we can fully upgrade it.
  
• Private quarters that we can decorate and also storage for our gear that we wouldn't put in the communal storage.
  
• A crafter area that you could kit out with support benches.
  
• A garden would also be nice too that we could grow things in. It would be great if you could grow things for Botanists to harvest, and maybe even some types of rock plants for Miners to harvest too. Also a pond for the Fishermen/women within the Company.

Again with Private Companies there are a lot of possibilities, as your Company and reputation grow you could find yourselves hired by other Companies or leaders like Coerthas to take part in even bigger operations to help save Eorzea.

If SE could pull all of this off I would be very happy and kept very busy for a long time, but I want to hear other peoples idea's as to what they think the Company system should include, so come on lets get some idea's going.

[DoubleEcho]

You basically took the words out of my mouth with your Private Companies ideas. Those are pretty much everything I'd like to see.

Edit: And Company Housing too!

[YUGON]

Awesome everything.

I rly like the Public Companies ideas, being like (more or less) in FFXI's Campaigns. Even with all you said, they can add "Campaign Story Missions" to give us more "realism" for that war, with special Cutscenes and special mobs and missions.

It may take time, but it will be this game grow up!

[AlexiaKidd]

Awesome everything.

I rly like the Public Companies ideas, being like (more or less) in FFXI's Campaigns. Even with all you said, they can add "Campaign Story Missions" to give us more "realism" for that war, with special Cutscenes and special mobs and missions.

It may take time, but it will be this game grow up!

Yes a proper mission structure and story line would be a great addition as well to the Company System. I would like one that is not based on your Class Rank but based on your Company rank so that you couldn't just steam roll through it but had to work towards it by contributing to the Company.

[IllustriousClyne]

Awesome ideas. Will never happen though.

[Captaindownsyndrome]

i think my team should be able to make a big ass cake or im done playing jk, my guess is that they already have a set plan and dont plan changeing anything tell its all done, and if they did the changes would just slow down the updates even further and i think there taking long enough dont you. but with that said i do like some of your ideas and hopeful they can be added later. if they were not already part of there plan.

[Volsung]

I read your post and I definitely want some of the systems you've provided. Housing and airships being the most important stuff on my list.

This is a simple listing of things myself and some others feel would be interesting to have when the eventual placement of player run companies starts.

A company retainer, that sells many items from the players of a company

A company bank, where people are appointed and one would be needed present for withdrawal.

Town rep, available through company quests dailys grind (fetch, kill, defend, escort, travel). This will provide the linkshell with buffs that a player can obtain via similar to a signet. As the company levels and has higher rep, the leaders/appointed members set the buffs that effect all members, more buffs with more rep.

Leveling the company via player earned exp. Companies would have levels with higher levels allowing for more stuff (that can be elaborated upon by SE, larger housing area available etc)

Crafting center for the company, place to craft with workshop access and do repairs, can be upgraded for larger space, then each workshop added.

Gatherers could be responsible for gathering the base materials to make the base/airship/boat/weapons/defense

Crafters could take the base materials and make them into other materials as needed

Friendly competition with other companies like conflict, but you invade the others base training against defense systems they've produced. You get defense systems specs by company quest, company leveling so that they're able to be made, then materials from gatherers and crafters.

Providing base materials, crafted goods, tech to the city state for the garlean invasion that will take place.

Tandem work with Grand companies/fighting alongside npcs in events. Company related story mission/quests

Company fishing hole, can be leveled up, add fish etc

Company garden <-- really like this idea could be like harvest moon but everyone works together. could be leveled up, new plants etc

Company Choco stalls, this could be where players raise chocos unless their ideas for chocos are that drastically different.

Company stats board to view member contribution/exploits

Company dungeon, not sure here just being honest maybe a once a week, company determines the time, they go through the dungeon for items/exp? Maybe npcs could join on the trek for a twist.

Company tele spot that lowers anima costs <- would take forever to make but such a goal!

once airships are implemented, make airship content of course, exploring areas unavailable to normal hiking and sky fighting/training

So it would play out like this

Do the initial quest, probably require lots of money or lots of players doing an event to become recognised, to be rewarded with a small disappointing area of land near/in the town. Not much can be done with it at the moment, low functioning areas and small. Starts at level 1. Level it by exping! eventually it becomes exponentially harder to level, making it take longer duh this should be expected.

At the first level, not much can be done, just company quests. Once leveled, you can start upgrading stuff to level 2. A larger piece of land, more functional spots, collect items via gathering/crafting to create stuff. then exp more fore higher levels, rinse repeat.

Basically as long as materials and level are good, aesthetics can be changed/upgraded but becomes exponentially harder to level up/obtain the items for top tier things

Caidryn made a great post, theirs can be found here

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...a-Rallying-Cry

from the original post at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-free-to-share

[AlexiaKidd]

I read your post and I definitely want some of the systems you've provided. Housing and airships being the most important stuff on my list.

from the original post at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-free-to-share

Some great ideas there Volsung ^^

I have been thinking about our boats and what they could do with them. As well as the original suggestions in the OP I thought that maybe they could do ship to ship battles while you are travelling to your destination. So kind of like how Pirates could attack in FFXI while you were on the ferry, here you could get attacked and they would try and steal your supplies for the mission ahead.

Your ships cannons would damage the enemy ship so while the battle onboard was going on you would have to keep your ships weapons operational. The attacking party would try to get away with supply's so DoW/DoM would have to repel them from stealing your stuff. If you could destroy the attacking ship or defeat all of the attackers onboard then you would have won the battle and possibly get a bonus for the mission you are about to undertake.

This could also work for airship battles as well, so you could get attacked by Garlean forces or even Dragons, smaller dragons boarding the airship while a larger one attacks from further away that you could try and shoot down.

[Volsung]

Some great ideas there Volsung ^^

I have been thinking about our boats and what they could do with them. As well as the original suggestions in the OP I thought that maybe they could do ship to ship battles while you are travelling to your destination. So kind of like how Pirates could attack in FFXI while you were on the ferry, here you could get attacked and they would try and steal your supplies for the mission ahead.

I hadn't even thought of a Maritime relation to Companies. Nice thoughts.

[Physic]

excellent ideas, this is what the companies should have been, i think your private companies are close to what they had planned, hope this come to fruition, although recent reveals about game direction seem to be toward making a standard mmo with standard everything, soooo