FC Alliance System... Where is it?

[Thayos]

Off and on, we've heard mentions from the development team about Free Company Alliances, yet we've heard nothing concrete about when these will be implemented into the game.

We need these ASAP.

The problem with this game's community isn't a lack of players, but a lack of mobility. The FC system encourages people to remain in small, fractured FCs that have already invested in housing and racked up points.

Linkshells are good situationally -- such as for hunts -- but in this game, they're not the same community hubs as they were in Final Fantasy XI. Free companies are the primary community hubs here. Until the FC alliance system is implemented, the game's community will be unnecessarily hamstrung by built-in incentives to remain isolated (such as housing).

We need the FC alliance system to encourage people to form more cohesive groups.

[OdinEon]

I am all for this as well, many times have I been in a consolidate fc's type linkshell and that's always it. I/no one I know is willing to give up their hard work. I want a house, I have pretty much soloed my fc to rank 4 with the help of new players here and there, most of them leave to join the big3 on our server after some time with me. I enjoy helping others, but there are a lot of small fcs on mateus that would ally on Mateus if given the chance.
/vote yes

[Thayos]

If they allowed real estate sales along with a FC alliance system, this game would instantly be 100x better from a community standpoint. The long-term benefits to the game's subscription base would be huge.

Blows my mind SE hasn't made this a top priority.

[Sadana]

A major problem with linkshells is that they only have space for 128 members while a FC can hold 512. >< Allied FCs could have been already using an in-game feature if these numbers had been reversed (or at least, the same)!

While an alliance sounds good... I don't actually know what it would entail. >.> Is it just a label? Another chat channel? PF for the alliance only? Is this even gonna happen at all? :/

[Mcshiggs]

I would rather they finish free companies before adding alliances. We need a true recruiting tab, where people can search for FC's, not the little inspect me to see if my FC is recruiting they gave us. We need FC weekly challenge log, FC achievements, FC chocobo barding, FC furniture for our houses, bulletin board or FC wide mailings, I am sure there are a few more things I'm not thinking of now.

[Thayos]

Mschiggs, we need all of that IN ADDITION to FC alliances.

That's the problem... even if you added all of that into the game right now, you'd still have the same problem of people not having incentives to move about and be social. Right now, the game encourages isolation, and that's a huge problem. What good is having 1 million players (or whatever it is) if most of them are split into FCs with just a handful of active members?

I personally think correcting the game's social infrastructure is more important than any other kind of content that could possibly be added.

[Lokark]

I believe last time this was brought up they said it was in the works but other things are taking priority right now.

[Aeonblade]

An alliance system like DAoC had if anyone remembers that game would be perfect. You could have up 20 guilds in an alliance and had dedicated alliance chat and everything. Was still the best guild/community system I have seen to date and that was nearly 15 years ago.

[Tiggy]

Blows my mind SE hasn't made this a top priority.

There are many features more important than this, and this is what blows your mind? You must have a low "mind blowing" threshold.

[Thayos]

There are many features more important than this

Like what? Hunts? Clipping? Viewing old cutscenes?

In an MMO, nothing is more important (although some things are equally important) than the infrastructure for a community. Poor community infrastructure diminishes nearly every single other facet of the game, from coil all the way down to low-level partying.

If you disagree, do explain. Which outstanding issue is more important, has more of an impact on so many players and can't simply be ignored? Hunts? Nope. Coil? Nope. Weekly lockouts? Nope. Small patch delays? Nope.

If you truly have a worthwhile opinion on this, then certainly you can do better than your low-threshold post above.