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.

[Lucke]

It wasn't a very popular event in 1.0. In order to get a seal and therefore your relic, you had to grind THOUSANDS of items just to get enough points just so you would even have the SMALLEST chance at a seal. And other crafters could come in an knock you down a peg pretty much screwing you out of a seal after all that work. And you needed like 3 seals from each of the 3 hamlets. Basically it was too much work for little to no payoff. The militia gear was probably the most valuable items because they had the legendary +Enmity stat for tanks (there were no enmity combos back in the day).

[Kosmos992k]

So, if the Hamlets had not been a gate to the relic, would they have been more fun, and less annoying? I'm thinking more in the sense of this being something else to do that is different from other content. Something people do for fun, and not because they have to in order to obtain their relic.

[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.

[LlenCoram]

I miss my militia gig.

What people aren't mentioning so far is that, other than increasing the final rewards for when the "defence" part started, the "stock-up" part would also reward you. In 1.0 teleports were paid for with anima, which was a self-refreshing currency. You'd cap out at 100 anima and use a certain amount based on how far away the port was. Originally the system was absolutely atrocious but with later fixes and the addition of favourite points and the ability to set both an aetheryte return and an inn room return, it became an excellent system.

Handing in items at the hamlets before the actual event started would give you back anima. It wasn't a lot if you only handed in a few things, but all of the items you could craft or gather could be gathered or crafted in large amounts with little effort. For instance, fishers would hand in Young Indigo Herring, but back then different fish had different catch "caps," so you could catch up to a maximum of 10 young indigo herring from a single reel. It took around 80 to go from 0 anima to 100 anima, so near the end I was able to keep my entire linkshell's anima at maximum for very little effort.

I still have around 55 stacks of young indigo herring. I'm hoping they'll be used for something in the future.

[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.