Frontlines: Add a GC-in-need bonus?

[Rufalus]

For example, if maelstrom and flames players are having difficulty playing frontlines because there are not enough twin adder players queuing on the duty finder, then a very visible and substantial bonus should be offered to players of that grand company to incentivise them to participate.

Additionally, players of all grand companies should receive a substantial 1-a-day bonus for playing, just like roulettes for other kinds of content, except it wouldn't be a roulette because there's only one frontlines map. It should include non-pvp-specific bonuses such as allagan tomestones and gil to encourage people who do not usually play PvP to add it to their daily routine alongside roulettes.

These measures would help players who wish to play a lot of PvP matches get into matches with less delay.

[StouterTaru]

They already have a bonus; getting into FL without waiting for an hour or more. I would rather see them drop the whole GC attachment in FL, and sort people based on PvP rank and premade parties, just dumping the first 72 people to queue in.

[Blubbers]

I think these are great suggestions. The GC-in-need would also give greater transparency as to which GC is holding up the queue and certainly wouldn't hurt the current GC imbalance on same data centers. The 1-day bonus would encourage those who don't do pvp as much to queue, expanding the base of players, making more people aware of frontlines, and overall encouraging the dev team to develop more content.

[Atreus]

coughorremoveGCrestrictionaltogetherbecauseit'sstupidcough

[Nalien]

I swear, I must be the only person who likes the Grand Company restriction... I enjoy the pseudo roleplaying aspect of fighting for a Company, and glamouring gear to match (still think Elite Hunt gear should be PvP gear and Animal gear should be Hunt gear...), and I enjoy running into the same players over and over. I'd much rather have "Oh Hi again X! Lets kick ass again" and "Oh look, it's that idiot <Job> again", than "Oh Hi... Aren't you that <Healer> I wreaked and teabagged?"...

My main issue with Frontlines, or rather than Grand Company aspect, is that the game has no other rivalry between Grand Companies. It's something which is locked away in an instance, when it could be something similar to Conquest in Final Fantasy XI. If Grand Companies were ranked, in game, on a weekly basis, with first place gaining some bonus, that would be great. Frontlines wouldn't even need to be the only factor in deciding the ranking, but it would add a fairly good reason to do Frontlines outside the existing ones which tend to result in people no longer queuing once they've gotten their mount, for example.

[Layth]

I wouldn't mind the GC vs GC aspect if it wasn't a three way battle. I would have preferred one against one with the odd GC filling in for missing members on each side, much like how ballista worked in 11.

[Nalien]

I guess they could always add a fourth faction, which is basically just a group of mercenaries that can fill any slot in Frontlines. Leaves the Grand Company aspect in place, but allows people who don't care for it to queue with friends/etc... Though I guess the reason people cannot queue with friends already is because people don't want to leave X Grand Company, so maybe not... Is that mostly down to glamours? They could always let the fourth faction purchase and equip from any Grand Company, but perhaps at an extra cost.

[Vandril]

I guess they could always add a fourth faction, which is basically just a group of mercenaries that can fill any slot in Frontlines. Leaves the Grand Company aspect in place, but allows people who don't care for it to queue with friends/etc... Though I guess the reason people cannot queue with friends already is because people don't want to leave X Grand Company, so maybe not... Is that mostly down to glamours? They could always let the fourth faction purchase and equip from any Grand Company, but perhaps at an extra cost.

The reason most PvPers don't want to leave their GC is because they don't want to regrind their PvP Ranks, as those are tied to GCs.

A fourth faction wouldn't help, anyway. That's just silly. The solution is actually simple: get rid of GC queue restrictions and retcon the PvP lore to make it work.

[Nalien]

A fourth faction wouldn't help, anyway. That's just silly.

How so? People who don't care about Grand Companies can join it and fill out needed slots. People who do care about Grand Companies can remain in their Grand Company.

Losing PvP rank upon switching is a legitimate issue, one which they should sort out anyway, though it only exists because they opted to have Achievements for ranking up with Grand Companies. A Mercenary Faction wouldn't necessarily need such Achievements, so they could just opt to allow PvP rank to carry over for it. Effectively making it the default faction for PvPers who don't care about Grand Companies. Heck, they could literally just make it an opt-in kind of thing from your existing Grand Company; "Would you like to help other Grand Companies as a Mercenary?", and then you go from being a member of the Maelstrom, to being a Maelstrom Mercenary who can end up helping the Immortal Flames or Twin Adders in Frontlines.

[Buff_Archer]

I get what you're saying... it sidesteps the issue of disparity between those (masochists) who choose to grind up multiple GC's PVP ranks and those who just want to play without losing the right to all they've worked (and queued for days) for. It's better than the system we have now.