Some things I hope to see from crafted airship island exploration.

[Yeldir]

Airship Exploration Voyage

We’re planning to introduce new content where you explore uncharted islands with your crafted airships. Multiple parties can explore the same island at the same time. The concept will be to defeat lots of strong monsters. Gathering nodes are also available on these islands, so once the island is secured by the battle team, gatherers will be able to gather items to take back.

We wanted to give an old MMO-like feel for this one, and for FFXIV it'll be fresh content that hasn't been seen before.

I leapt on the workshop the moment Heavensward went live, as there's always been rumblings that this would be novel content. Each snippet of info we get has me more and more excited each time - perhaps not rationally, as I've no guarantee that I'll get what I want from it.

What I'd really like to see is something meaningful and progression related for big free companies to do. I see gathering as the incentive so far, and that has me worried - we all know that it is impossible to entice the pve crowd with anything related to the crafting cycle as things stand, as there are almost no situations where crafted gear can be used to an advantage in the scramble up the gear ladder at 60.

Consider for a moment the normal paradigm - everything important gets done by eight to ten people, week after week. Nothing really comes between someone and their static. So, what am I going to entice my members with? What's on the islands that they care about? What can we gather there that will matter in some unique way? Some suggestions:

Relevant, progression oriented crafting materials
Crafting materials that can be used to produce gear ten levels below the cutting edge, without an overwhelming reliance on red scrips, which virtually everyone but SE hates at present.

Special mounts and minions
That are rare and very flashy. (Perhaps these are made from exclusive materials?)

Rare, punishingly difficult fate-boss events with old-style MMO drops
That are rolled on by anyone who attains gold participation status. These should be highly desirable and difficult to obtain, and equivalent to cutting edge raid gear (or five levels behind), while providing an alternate set of substats to tinker with. Old-style drama and rage in the vein of EQ, so bring asbestos underpants and a sense of humor.

Psuedo-aerial combat
Your airship might be attacked en route or at islands in a fate-style event! Protect it from dangerous boarders or it will be crippled and return to your workshop, banishing your crew from the islands until it is repaired and sent back out! Fuel and your time are lost. ;_; The most lucrative and exciting areas should have more of these, and they should take some measure of skill and gear to repel successfully.

More to come as I think of them...

And what I don't want to see:
Rewards that do not fit into and enable progression through cutting edge raid content in some way. I will not be able to entice anyone to board our ships if they do not feel like they won't come out of the journey with tangible benefit.