Lets discuss NMs again, as well as other forms of Open World content.

[BlaiseArath]

Hey everyone, I know this is a topic most people flinch at because not every likes NMs, and some people even think it could end up as Hunts and we all know that Drama train, right? But, I've been thinking about how they could implement Open-World NMs without them being a completely ridiculous crap fest. They already have systems in place that help prevent a lot of issues games like XI had with NMs, so bare with me here and read a paragraph or two before you decide. I welcome any informed, constructive criticism, but I also want to put emphasis on "informed". I'm not asking to bring back XI's system, I'm not asking for HNMs, I'm not asking for Raid-tier and needed gear from these systems I propose... so seriously, bare with me, read it, and make an informed post regarding it. Please!

I love the look of a lot of these zones, but I find I lack reasons to go to them. We have Hunts but all of you know the drama crap fest that they are, and FATEs are mostly for exp grinding, and I'd consider them more of a "from spot to spot" rather than a reason to look at nooks and crannies of these remarkable landscapes. Theres many solution but I want to address just two today, two that I think with proper care would work quite well in XI. Open World NMs and Chests. Open world NMs have always been one of my favorite past times in XI. It didn't matter what they dropped, it was just the fun of hunting them, even if it took a long time, I talked to friends, I killed surrounding wildlife like it was my purpose in life to extinct that species, and so on. Most of the time the NMs I camped were obscure out of the way NMs who dropped items most would consider useless (and were). I mean, I had things like this, this, stuff like that. Useless stuff but unique none the less.

Now, A lot of you like Vanity armor, weapons, and so forth. Things that most players would scoff at but some players might really like to collect. So I would propose open world NMs drop Level 1 (Or higher, like the Behemoth stuff) Vanity armor and weapons with unique skins, that are dye-able, or Untradeable Mounts/Minions. Basically, they would drop things that wouldn't be considered "End game", but would be really nice for collectors, and for unique skins and such. I thought about perhaps having them drop materials so it could support crafters, but then it would effect the market and I know a lot of you wouldn't like that.

Still if given the option, I would enjoy it some NMs dropped materials used to craft unique vanity items, so we could throw crafters a bone with the system too. Anyway, down to the nuts and bolts of it.

===The System for Spawning, and how they should handle drops===

The system for NMs should be something like a Mix of what XI had plus some features for XIV.

1) NMs should spawn in specific locations, unlike Hunts. So theres no "HOLD THE HUNT" drama to follow it. Half the drama with hunts is they're timed and can spawn pretty much anywhere blah blah. This would not happen. If you want the NM, go camp it, thats the idea.

2) NMs could be either timed or Lottery, with Lottery ones having a ceiling pop of about an hour, but they could balance that however they want.

3) Claiming. In XIV we already have a claim system that would make bots worthless and that mistake would never surface, claim wars would not exist. Everyone can hit the enemy.

4) Its difficulty. Based no its level, but should have more HP than surrounding enemies by a generous enough margin.

5) Drops. Now for everyones worry, the claiming and the loot distribution, I propose they take a page from "Voidwatch" Chest systems in XI. When an NM is defeated, everyone who participated in the fight will be able to click a chest that spawns at the enemies location. It can contain whatever they want it too, anywhere from 200 gil to Synth-Material from the monster (I.E if you killed a Wyrm NM it can drop Dragon Skin and such), and the chest would also have a chance of that NMs rare drop. I won't touch % drop rates and such as SE should balance those as the system progresses like ANY SYSTEM EVER.

So thats that. XIV is a game where It would not be wise to add Raid-level gear to the open world, because thats not in Yoshi's vision and I can respect that. I think a good start would be simply adding about 1-2 NMs over a few of the new zones, don't need to rush things... could even just give them a specific token like how some FATEs work, though I'd prefer it just be a direct drop from the NM's chest, as the "Omg, I got the item!" is like, 95% of the adrenaline from defeating an NM, its far less exciting to walk a "EX Egg +1" to an NPC to trade said item...

Basically, making the items from open world content be Untrade-able and such would eliminate a lot of the problems XI NMs had, the way XIV's claim system works would eliminate most others, and with NMs having chest spawn, that would eliminate pretty much the last remaining issue with the problems XI's system had. You wouldn't be competing against the person camping the same NM as you, in fact it would benefit you both to work together. It would not be remotely the same hateful experience as Hunts or XI NMs. The system would make it as enjoyable a possible for those involved. Some of you might think they would be like the Odin/etc FATEs who have similar concepts. I'd have to disagree, they wouldn't be 24hr+ spawns, they'd be relatively short spawns so it wouldn't be such a blinding crap fest. I've thought a lot on this and while during the first couple weeks of introduction it might be pretty busy in some zones... It would never be a matter of claim wars and such like old Aery days.

===Treasure Chests and Treasure Coffers, an Open world content idea===

The idea for this one would be borrowing a lot from Destiny and Guild Wars II. They could handle open world Chests/Coffers in either of those ways honestly, but I think the most solid method would be the Destiny Method as it would be easier to implement in XIV. This being that chests respawn quickly, and can be opened by anyone, but once opened, they remain there for a time before despawning and respawning somewhere else, allowing other people to open them as well. I think with XIV, once opened, they should stay there for about 3 minutes before despawning, and repop immediately in a new location.

Treasure Chests and Coffers in XI could contain many things. I think a good start would be like making them less-loot heavy Treasure Maps, with each zone that contains a chest/coffer having 1 Unique rare item. For instance, Dravanian Hinterlands (the forest one,IDK) could have a chance of giving the player the "Chocobo Card" for Triple Triad, where as the Churning Mists could have a chance for the "Blue Dragon" Card. They could even make zones with special FATEs (Prey Online, etc) have chests that rarely load one of those Exclusive/Untradeable items (Exoplating for Prey Online) in place of one of the other materials you might get.

Since these chests would contain loot that some would consider valuable, they should have a restriction on how often you can open them. I would propose a timer similar to maps, but perhaps 12 hours would be a good time. This would be necessary to prevent just massive amounts of RMT farming chests or some other such worry players might have. So add the, but restrict them slightly.

As for zones that contain them. I think i should be limited to maybe 1 zone per "Region". an "Ul'dah" region, so forth. But i dont think every single zone should have an open world chest.

Now, this system would be similar to Maps, but consider them "Daily" Maps that you don't need to spend gil on, with a chance at a rare item for each zone.

[StrejdaTom]

I am kinda satisfied with hunts so I won't comment on that suggestion.
But the chests are definitely a good idea. I even liked the system in LII, where you had to have a key, there were multiple chests but there was a lower chance that it would give a drop.

Every suggestion that will make people roam these beautiful locations is welcome.

[Marxam]

I think the hunts are fine as is. It's just SE's poor implementation of bottle necking content into it. It's like they didn't see what happened in 2.3. Your idea sounds like a refined hunt with a tangible reward, which sounds pretty good, but with any new content it will always be a zergfest followed by drama. Not to mention the community will work together to figure it out similar to the "Let's talk about Hunts" thread. The main issue is that they die so fast you don't get to see any of the mark's attacks. Imo if you want NM's to be more proactive/threatening there needs to be an "Enrage" mechanic.


Here's how it works:

-NM spawns and people start to congregate.
-Someone decides to "early pull" and dies.
-NM gains a 10 min "Rage" buff to dmg, def, and hp (10%/stack) to a max of 10 (x2 hp). Rage is gained if the NM kills its target.
-Players are now prepared to fight it (full parties/alliance). If any player dies to any attack of the NM it gains a stack of "Threatening" up to 10 that increase frequency of special attacks and evasion (at 10 stacks will require acc cap of hardest content in game to not miss).
-While fighting more people show up and start attacking. A built-in parser on the NM will dictate the next enrage. If the players exceed the dps ceiling fixed for that NM regardless of amount of people fighting it, the NM enrages again.
-NM enters a transition phase (becomes invulnerable) and doubles current hp/attack, "Threatening" and "Rage" stacks up to a maximum of 10.
-Players now need to co-ordinate tank swaps/splitting damage to survive as NM can now potentially OHKO.
-Players have 5 min to kill the NM before it fully enrages and kills everyone that fought it.
-If players fail a chest still drops but with poor loot. If players succeed loot drops as normal.

Now the problem with this idea is that it will still gate it behind hardcore players/ls that specifically do this content but at least it would make it more fun.

Personally I would like the fates to be more proactive. Like you said, it more of a "spot to spot" xp grind. Would be cool if some of the bosses in Fates would go looking for players. For example if the Dzu in the "I fought a Dzu" fate didn't die or the fate timed out, the next time it spawned it will start at its same place but he will move up towards the camp or until he aggros the first player to get caught in the fate area. It can even be a programmed route similar to the Behemoth fates in Coerthas. This is all wishful thinking though

[Felis]

1) NMs should spawn in specific locations, unlike Hunts. So theres no "HOLD THE HUNT" drama to follow it. Half the drama with hunts is they're timed and can spawn pretty much anywhere blah blah. This would not happen. If you want the NM, go camp it, thats the idea.

2) NMs could be either timed or Lottery, with Lottery ones having a ceiling pop of about an hour, but they could balance that however they want.

3) Claiming. In XIV we already have a claim system that would make bots worthless and that mistake would never surface, claim wars would not exist. Everyone can hit the enemy.

So instead of a active chat we would have hundreds of players standing around of the spawn spot, waiting for some hours watching the screen in silence

[Terribad]

NMs are basically FF version of world bosses right?

[Havenae]

Miss my emperor's hairpin...

[Moonleg]

Am I the first to ask what NM stands for in this context?

[Kallera]

There seems to be this limit to how many people get hit by a particular move. As long as that exists, no mob will be able to hold their own against a zergfest for long.

I think stuff like coffers was a step in the right direction. Perhaps make it something like ZNM in FFXI, where there is a string of bosses linked by spawning items. Starting from soloable bosses, to those that require a party, and finally those that need an alliance.

[CodeCass]

Am I the first to ask what NM stands for in this context?

"Named Monster" or "Named Mob" I do believe. For example, a lizard mob named Leaping Lizzie. Or in the world of XIV and hunts, it'd be a Tyranosaur named "The Scarcrow". Just a term used to differentiate between normal mobs and the special hunt mobs in this game.

[Xensai]

NM stood for Notorious Monster in FFXI