Question about FFXIV v1.x - Hamlets

[Kosmos992k]

Can someone who played before ARR arrived please explain a bit about how the Hamlet defense system worked?

Thanks.

[Vaer]

It was an instance that was pretty much like tower defense, it's been so long so I don't remember exactly what the setup was and completely how it worked.

There would be mobs that pour through the gate that would try to destroy the carts which you pretty much defended the entire time. You had a bunch of friendly NPCs that would attack them that were placed in between them and the various carts. The carts were basically defenseless. One strat would be to turtle with a bunch of WHMs to heal the NPCs so they didn't die (they do most of the DPS), a tank and I think a couple of gatherers and crafters. Gatherer jobs could pick up potions from objects around the field and turn them in to debuff the mobs. If you matched certain combinations of colors you would cause an effect to occur. IIRC, attack down was 3 reds. The crafters would make items to turn in to buff the NPCs I believe.

The tank would wait at the gate and grab the boss that would come through, and bring it to some empty location and kite it around for the rest of the time.

The reason for all this defense is to easily get a good amount of points which increased the loot you got at the end. There was a scoreboard at the end which determined what score you got and how good the loot could be. Stuff like keeping all the NPCs alive, killing all the mobs. killing limited time mobs that would spawn in some out of place location for a little while and would despawn if you didn't kill it. If you killed the boss, it would end, hence the kiting it around and killing it at the end so you could kill more waves of trash mobs to get more points, turn in more potion combinations, etc.

Before you even entered, there was a little turn in mini-game period that the entire server could participate in where you would turn in crafted items to increase the defense level of the hamlet being attacked. If someone in your group was in the top 3 places, you would get a higher chance at getting a seal from the hamlet. Not sure if it affected drops (maybe crafter offhands/personal loot to the person who is on the board only). Once this period ended, you could enter and actually do the Hamlet Defense. The seals were used for the relic in 1.0.

Might be forgetting a bunch of stuff but that was the gist of it from what I remember. There were certain other ways you could approach this but was one of the ones I took part in a lot.

The three hamlets were Hyrstmill, Aleport and Gold Bazaar. The locations still exist in 2.0, though. Most if not all the green crafted i55 militia gear in 2.0 were drops from hamlet defense.

[Kosmos992k]

It was an instance that was pretty much like tower defense, it's been so long so I don't remember exactly what the setup was and completely how it worked.
**snip**
The three hamlets were Hyrstmill, Aleport and Gold Bazaar. The locations still exist in 2.0, though. Most if not all the green crafted i55 militia gear in 2.0 were drops from hamlet defense.

Thanks! I thought it might be a survival mode type of defense play where you defend your base against a stream of attackers. Sounds like it could be a fun addition to the mix.

Any idea why it was omitted from ARR?

[Vaer]

Thanks! I thought it might be a survival mode type of defense play where you defend your base against a stream of attackers. Sounds like it could be a fun addition to the mix.

Any idea why it was omitted from ARR?

No idea, but there are a couple of FATEs that resemble something like it just without the gatherers/crafters and the point system. There is a FATE at Golden Bazaar in Eastern Thanalan where it gets attacked by waves of Amaljaa, (It also has similar music to what played during Hamlet Defense IIRC) and the other one is a FATE in Upper La Noscea where Poor Maid's Mill gets attacked by a bunch of kobolds. Not sure if there are any more than that.

[Zaft]

Thanks! I thought it might be a survival mode type of defense play where you defend your base against a stream of attackers. Sounds like it could be a fun addition to the mix.

Any idea why it was omitted from ARR?

Because it was horrible. It sounds like a good idea, but this is what it really boiled down to:

Pre-invasion: Everyone sits around by the NPC, waiting for the last second in an attempt to snipe first place so that they get the guaranteed drops. If you didn't have the backup of all your FC crafters (or tons of money to purchase items yourself), you would never place. At the last second, everyone would dump all their items and pray to God that they had the most.

Invasion Phase 1: While you could mix it up and do fun things like all DoW or all crafters, it rarely happened. Generally, it looked like this: Your party was comprised of 1 tank, 2-3 healers, 2-3 DoL and 2-3 DoH. DPS? Those were the NPCs. The tank would taunt mobs off the DoL and DoH whenever they pulled aggro (which was a lot) and pull enemies closer to the middle of the NPC archers so that you wouldn't have archers standing around doing nothing. The healers would stoneskin/regen the archers (SS/regen was extremely powerful in 1.x, nowadays you'd just heal like normal, probably plant a fairy in the middle of them). DoL would run around, picking up flasks and turning them in to cause debuffs. DoH would sit around, crafting stuff and turning it in for specific buffs.

Invasion Phase 2: The boss shows up. This is where things get...well, even more boring. The tank goes and picks up the boss and immediately pulls him far away from the archers, because as soon as the boss dies, the Hamlet is over, and to maximize points (and rewards), you need to let ALL the enemies die first. This generally meant the tank would run around a tree for 20 minutes, or run up and down a cave for, or just run around. Whatever. With the exception of the cave, he didn't even need heals, because the boss would never reach him. Everyone else just continued as usual. Finally, you finished off the other enemies, pulled the boss into the archers, and won. Hurray.

TLDR: It was boring as all heck. It would have to be completely redone. The idea was good, the implementation was not.

[Kosmos992k]

Because it was horrible.
**snip**
TLDR: It was boring as all heck. It would have to be completely redone. The idea was good, the implementation was not.

I'm trying to read into the replies to understand, but it sounds like the battles were essentially a passive experience with the NPCs doing the fighting and crafters/gatherers feeding them with supplies, a healer to keep people from dying and a tank to corral the enemies. Sound about right?

Hmm...based on the replies in this topic it sounds like it could be an excellent addition to the game - if implemented differently. In other words, not as a gate to the relic, but with a lot more direct action from DoW/DoM instead of the passive NPCs do the work aspect.

I guess it was a way to get crafters and gatherers involved in a combat event. I can't help thinking that most combat biased players would rather be doing the combat, and most crafter/gatherer players would rather be working on their latest attempt to corner the market.

[Zaft]

snip because CHARACTER LIMITS OMG

Yep. Like I said, it was a good idea, but badly implemented. I think it could be really fun if improved and added in the future. Like, if they did a 24-man raid hamlet, with DoW/M/L/H all having to do their jobs, and without a horrible "twiddle your thumbs for 20 more minutes while all the enemies die" system, it could be a lot more fun.

[Hiruke]

I'm trying to read into the replies to understand, but it sounds like the battles were essentially a passive experience with the NPCs doing the fighting and crafters/gatherers feeding them with supplies, a healer to keep people from dying and a tank to corral the enemies. Sound about right?

Not quite. Well, you could go in with any class combination, so you could go in with all battle jobs, or all crafter jobs, for example, but generally folks did this:

1 tank
2 healers
2 dps
1 crafter
2 gatherer

Or something like that. People definitely brought dps to this and killed the monsters. If you let the monsters kill certain objectives, you were going to have a bad time. People only brought crafter/gatherers because the buffs they put up were pretty crazy. I think the content was more fun than it's given credit for. It's interesting that this, along with choco escorts and old school behests, were stripped entirely (as well as making levequests even close to viable past using them to level up).

[Dererk]

Hmm...based on the replies in this topic it sounds like it could be an excellent addition to the game - if implemented differently. In other words, not as a gate to the relic, but with a lot more direct action from DoW/DoM instead of the passive NPCs do the work aspect. .

HAVE YOU NOT BEEN READING PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE WARDEN DO NOT SUGGEST THEY BRING THIS BACK Unless they take away the point system.

You need to understand that there was a lot more lag back then in 1.0 and yes the tank did get hit and it was for a lot of damage not to mention you can't be hitting it because everything else had to die first for the full credit if they get rid or the point system then sure could be fun but having it as a gate for stuff noo

[TheRogueX]

It was an instance that was pretty much like tower defense, it's been so long so I don't remember exactly what the setup was and completely how it worked.

There would be mobs that pour through the gate that would try to destroy the carts which you pretty much defended the entire time. You had a bunch of friendly NPCs that would attack them that were placed in between them and the various carts. The carts were basically defenseless. One strat would be to turtle with a bunch of WHMs to heal the NPCs so they didn't die (they do most of the DPS), a tank and I think a couple of gatherers and crafters. Gatherer jobs could pick up potions from objects around the field and turn them in to debuff the mobs. If you matched certain combinations of colors you would cause an effect to occur. IIRC, attack down was 3 reds. The crafters would make items to turn in to buff the NPCs I believe.

The tank would wait at the gate and grab the boss that would come through, and bring it to some empty location and kite it around for the rest of the time.

*snip*

Before you even entered, there was a little turn in mini-game period that the entire server could participate in where you would turn in crafted items to increase the defense level of the hamlet being attacked. If someone in your group was in the top 3 places, you would get a higher chance at getting a seal from the hamlet. Not sure if it affected drops (maybe crafter offhands/personal loot to the person who is on the board only). Once this period ended, you could enter and actually do the Hamlet Defense. The seals were used for the relic in 1.0.

More info:

Hamlet Defense - Final Fantasy Wiki

Wow, content in the game that actually is INCLUSIVE of crafters and gatherers? That gave you points for stuff like using emotes and specific party/equipment setups?

THIS is how you innovate in MMOs. It's sad that everything else was so broken (and the fact that modern MMO players don't like 'different') that the game failed, because stuff like this is awesome.

Square-Enix: Bring back this sort of gameplay.