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.