More ideas:

[SIZE="6"]The Garlean Invasion (Campaign)[/SIZE]
We know it's coming, and if it's not it ought to be. (there's nothing more dissatisfying than playing a game for years set entirely on "the brink of war") There's just loads to talk about here, fun possibilities and ideas, the obvious ones involve combat classes, but I'm going to instead look at the less obvious, non-combat focused content.

First things first, I'm going to base all of these ideas around the idea that these invasions would work in a way that's a cross between RIFT's Rift system, and FFXI's Campaign system. But most of these ideas could be applied regardless of what way they choose to tackle it. A mixture of small attacks and raids, with outpost control and less-frequent larger scale zone-wide invasions where Dreadnaughts are flying around and the music and lighting change, combined with a Campaign style ops.

Let's not let the combat players have all the fun!
  • Resource Drive!
    This is a pretty obvious one, a la Campaign, resources should be integral to the war effort! We need a lot of transparency here though, it should be easy to see how the resources are distributed in any given area, what resources are needed, where they are needed etc. Disciples of the Land should be able to accept Ops at various locations to gather resources, which are then added to the total for the region. (For EXP and war credits) Possibly also allowing unwanted resources to be donated to the effort (as an alternative to being vendored.) When excess of certain resources are generated in one area, and needed in another, delivery OPs could be added, as well as convoy escort OPs for combat classes, that would, if successful, relocate those resources to wherever they are more needed.
  • Processing Resources
    Materials are useless in their raw forms, so put disciplines of the hand to work processing them into ingots/plates/string/leather/nails etc. These ops are made available as raw materials become available. Raw materials and resource processing should occur without these ops being complete, but only at a minimal rate that is required for bare minimum functionality within the camps. Resource processing would be best if it occurred at specific locations, be it hamlets or outposts with crafting facilities.
  • Industrial Centers
    As mentioned in the above note, it would be best to be wary of player distribution with the invasion content. Repairs are one thing, but it makes sense to have the processing of raw materials occur in a location with facilities. Ore processing ops for instanced offered in a larger outpost, camp or hamlet that has a refinery. Aside from a sense of believe-ability, it also accomplishes many other things. Prevents unnecessary amounts of running around (while a primary mechanic for DoL, this is not the case for DoH), provides key locations that are important to defend in the supply chain; adding depth, centralizes crafters; creating specific locations everyone acting as part of the war effort knows they can go to in order to get certain types of repairs. This is the option for the crafter that is focused on being part of the industrial machine, and mainly doing work in heavily populated areas.
  • Field Repairs
    For those crafters that are more interested in a little travel and exploration, ops offered to head out into the field and make repairs on outposts and NPC equipment should be offered regularly as needed by the war effort. Various classes will have different leves, to repair very different types of things, but that a-symmetry is what will give each a unique feel for their role in the war effort. Culinarians for instance, would have tasks to go to various camps and cook on the spot, and feed the hungry soldiers, as there are obviously no culinarian repairs.
  • Open the Way!
    Broken gates, destroyed bridges and rock-slides, as long as they never fully block off a path (but simply force players and NPCs to take longer routes) that require DoH and DoL presence to clear and repair, would be an excellent feature. The Garleans who would primarily drop troops off via airship would be less adversely affected by this, thus creating a very good reason for these missions to take high priority. Let miners do some blasting!
  • Salvaging the Parts
    After a battle, there's always a need to salvage any equipment, parts or weapons that may have been left behind. Whether it's parts from a crashed Garlean airship or merely weapons taken from allied corpses. As grim as it may be, it's an op that has its place.
  • Setting Traps
    Disciples of the Hand are often out and about the countryside, ops to set traps in key locations in order to thwart Garlean invasion would be the perfect opportunity for their trips through the land to contribute to the war efforts. These traps could be assembled by DoH at various locations and then transported and deployed by DoL during their gathering trips.
  • Reconnaissance
    Keeping tabs on the movements and number of Garlean attacks and encampments is important to everyone, updating the map so players can see where they are needed, and head off enemy invasions. Though these sorts of missions needn't be explicitly for DoL players, they are non-combat missions that would work well for the class. Players should be able to accept and report on these OPs through an NPC linkpearl (this should be the case for many OPs, to prevent what happened in XI, where a player would see something happening in Campaign that they could help with, such as a beastman delivery, or recon mission, but would not because they'd receive no reward without the OP previously accepted.)
  • To your Posts! Our role in Battle!
    When the fighting actually starts, there are roles that non-combatants would be more than apt to perform. Whether it's repairing battlements and cannons etc as needed, or setting traps, etc. There's more than a few ideas to come up with here.
  • Let's work Together!
    There are various ideas in my previous posts that could be adapted to use within the context of a campaign style system, and many of these ideas could be adapted to promote simultaneous play between adventurers, gatherers and crafters. Whether it be gathering resources while adventurers protect from Garlean raids, parts of destroyed bridges being salvaged by gatherers while crafters repair it, or what have you, there are many opportunities here. Using a public quest style system to promote cross class play, would be the most un-invasive way of introducing it to the player base, and warming everyone up to the idea.