[Dev 1082] Summoner Design Concept

[Arcell]

Pretty much. They are gods that even the beastmen worship and wouldn't even think about messing with. You know, those beastmen who are an actual threat to us because they possess comparable power and numbers. They are gods who control the elements. Now it should be noted that it appears that Leviathan does some of the Sahagin's bidding but likely only because they worship him and of course complete the necessary ritual to summon him for short periods of time. This is more apparent in the 3rd Limsa story quest though one could also say it was merely a coincidence that Leviathan appeared and attacked you, he could be attacking you of his own will.

Aion however actually had an interesting system. Instead of summoning a god you summoned an elemental spirit. As you leveled up you got higher ranks of the summoning spell which allowed you to call forth larger and more powerful variations of that elemental spirit. However people wouldn't be happy with anything remotely similar for XIV as anything short of all the classic summons would bring about a riot.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

I'd rather have us be the avatars and then be able to summon them for their ultimate attack though :S

Sure why not, we could summon the avatar and our char would disappear while we control the avatar itself. Though our HP would be linked like suggested before. So if you die while in avatar form, your char dies as well. Then you build us elemental energy through attacks which let you use the ultimate ability when you reach a certain amount.

The amount of energy required should be high enough so that those ultimate abilities aren't really usable when figthing short fights but really something that you get to use on bosses fights. So you would get to use its like 1-2 times if the fight is long enough.

Just throwing up ideas.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

Pretty much. They are gods that even the beastmen worship and wouldn't even think about messing with. You know, those beastmen who are an actual threat to us because they possess comparable power and numbers. They are gods who control the elements. Now it should be noted that it appears that Leviathan does some of the Sahagin's bidding but likely only because they worship him and of course complete the necessary ritual to summon him for short periods of time. This is more apparent in the 3rd Limsa story quest though one could also say it was merely a coincidence that Leviathan appeared and attacked you, he could be attacking you of his own will.

Aion however actually had an interesting system. Instead of summoning a god you summoned an elemental spirit. As you leveled up you got higher ranks of the summoning spell which allowed you to call forth larger and more powerful variations of that elemental spirit. However people wouldn't be happy with anything remotely similar for XIV as anything short of all the classic summons would bring about a riot.

Beastmen might not dare to attack them because they fear the primals too much, but that doesn't mean that special adventurers need to take the crap from them and not oppose them and then force them to obey us (if you are a summoner).

And yes, if a summoner job is release, they need to make them the classic summons, what would FF be without them.

[Nikita]

Kinda ruins it though. The primals are supposed to be badass, actual gods, and now every single player in the game has the ability to tame them and make them their pet?

That makes me very sad :/

I think it is quite possible for players to be able to summon the Primals to assist them while maintaining their... badassness? Fenrir from Final Fantasy XI was a perfect example of that. :P Also, they are adding Cait Sith and Atomos!!!

While playing XI, and summoning, I thought of it more as summoning was borrowing the powers, not actually summoning the entire being, just borrowing a portion of their power.

I really hope we see them impliment Summoner as a playable job someday, it was my favorite job to play in FFXI. I really like the idea of linking the Summoner and the Avatar... Err, Primal's HP, it would make for micro-management that required a lot of thought, and you would need to do things like pull your summon away from a boss as it charged up an AOE or something. :P

[Winterclaw]

As I've said in every single "Summoner please!" thread, with how the lore of the game and the main story is there cannot be a pet class summoner. The Primals are not subservient in any way, shape or form. In fact others worship them and do their bidding.

Summoners have been around for how many FF games?

People want them, so they are going to make it into the game regardless of the lore. The question is how would they best be implemented in terms of gameplay.

[AreeyaJaidee]

So let me get this straight:

-SMN isn't allowed to be controlled as a pet job; but it's accepted as a one time genie in the bottle spell?

-SMN shouldn't be able to effectively use summons in a manner liken to their individual theme because it's considered multiclassing and op; but rdm can jack of all trades and did rather well for skilled players in FFXI?

So what is a SMN then?

Here's the issue: the original uses of SMN did make them effective healers, buffers and DDs in previous titles: but it was not the capability of every single summon; yet rather the way the summoner used the summons for their individual capabilities; that's what made SMN fun; that's what being a SMN is all about

[Misha]

@Arcell
The lore's already set up for them, who cares if they are subservient or not?! They've always had a hint of worship because ... well, they're powerful beings that seem almost god like with elemental attributes of the world. Any lesser being is surely to worship them xD Have you even played the other FF's? And who's to say like the other ones that once you fight a primal you won't gain their respect/power/ability to summon them?!...

Aside from that there's some pretty nice suggestions in this thread, especially love the idea of summoning an avatar and becoming them Who cares about being a hybrid/jack of all trades though? If that's what they become then that's what they become^^ It's nice having a few of those around, personally that's mostly what I play in mmo's xD

[AreeyaJaidee]

If the SMN puts the time into the job to learn every aspect and grind out lvls for all his primals then it should be his right to use them as he pleases.

It's akin to saying that elite gear shouldn't exist in the game because any hard working player could earn it and be prideful of doing so.

Good old double standards

[Perrin_Aybarra]

Here's the issue: the original uses of SMN did make them effective healers, buffers and DDs in previous titles: but it was not the capability of every single summon; yet rather the way the summoner used the summons for their individual capabilities; that's what made SMN fun; that's what being a SMN is all about

True, I wish also that they could be effective in any sphere of the game if the player is skilled and plays his jobs properly. An unskilled summoner would have trouble managing it all but a skilled one should be able to take advantage of it and be effective at anything.

Also having to equip them on you bar should somewhat limits you on what you can do on a given fight so you need to prepare accordingly for your role before a fight.

[SuzakuCMX]

-SMN isn't allowed to be controlled as a pet job; but it's accepted as a one time genie in the bottle spell?

I think X, XI, and XII were the only ones where you actually controlled the summons (unless you count XIII inputting preset buttons as controlling).