FFXIV should take a note from SUIKODEN

[PlumpyMcduff]

In Suikoden, you built up a personal castle or keep & both playable characters & non-combat NPC's would move in & join your cause...

It'd be really sick eventually to have this sort of a thing going on where we liberate an old castle & make it our own.

The Aesthetician would have his own barber shop, Garlond Ironworks would have a shop, you'd be the master so you'd have your own quarters, the Crystal Braves militia quarters would exist...

This could be truly epic, with the castle expandable with the story.

You'd have your own Chocobo Stables, etc. Perhaps even make it customizable!

HOARY BOULDER COULD MOVE IN!!!

What do you all think? Discuss.

i'm confused by your use of "we, our, you..."

This is an instanced Castle that only applies your own character that only your character has access to?
If it is instanced every one potentially could have their own Hoary Boulder.
If it's not instanced, how is it different from Revenant's Toll?

Fair point. It would be instanced. And yes, everyone could have their own Hoary Boulder but that's already how it is if you examine MMO's critically. Allow me to explain:

Every individual player is on their own timeline, so my Hoary Boulder is not your Hoary Boulder already if we're not in the same place for the Main Story Questline.

This would be no different; and Hoary may be a poor example for an "optional recruit" as I'd like to see him be the shining example of a 'minor-major' story character.

If this Keep were part of the Main Story, you'd have some characters who'd come & go along with movements in the story (e.g. Cid takes leave for a mission, is replaced with minor NPC's during his travels).

...it would essentially be a "Garrison".

And my argument to that is, so? I envisioned this sort of feature for MMO's long before Vanilla WoW even. Just because WoW is the first to get to implementing a feature of this kind, I don't think others should be locked from such a cool system.

Besides, I think FFXIV could do it a lot better... Garrison's are pretty whack.

Honestly, it would be nice, but there would be too much data in customization. I also think it would be messing with the storyline that they're crafting if you have NPCs moving in. If you notice, the NPCs move around depending on the part of the story you're on...

If done in a fashion where changes/unlock progress with the story, much of the data would be client-side. As for messing with the storyline, just like Suikoden, characters would come & go as the story continues (e.g. Cid leaves for a mission, is replaced with engineer NPC for a time). And the nature of NPC's wouldn't act any differently than it currently does, there's a timeline & my Hoary is different from your Hoary if I'm further along in the story. To make things easier & work with the story, it could be the Crystal Braves' Castle.

...it cuts you of from the rest of the world by putting you in your own instance never to see another player again (mostly).

No, not necessarily. There are plenty of ways to implement it so this is not the case.

One example, if it's an integral part of the Main Story, it could be like the Waking Sands or Rising Stone where other player-characters are present.

It could be developed in such a way that certain portions or NPC's are present for some but not for others depending on place in the story's timeline.

On the flip side, if fully-instanced, it could be such that you have some extra things to do there but not so severely gated that you wouldn't step out into the world frequently.

Personal Housing is already like this anyway minus some features (yet more to come).

Heck, Keeps could be FC-wide / developed. How epic would that be!