The "So what happened to X?" Thread

[Enkidoh]

** Free roaming primals

I think we can safely say this has been quietly abandoned, as nothing has been mentioned since before launch, and it's pretty easy to see why they've dropped it (the reasons Sove92 mentioned, no doubt SE quickly realized such a system would be monopolized by players to the point it would just be same handful of FCs locking it to themselves week in week out. That kind of nonsense ruined FFXI, and Yoshi wisely decided to forestall any possibility of it happening again here.

Not to mention it doesn't even make sense with the game's lore (Primals are bad period and we're the 'Warriors of Light' who destroy Primals not summon them no matter what. So yeah, you may as well give up waiting for this as it's almost definitely not going to happen I'm sorry to say.

** Ability to alliance with other FCs

I'm pretty sure this was an idea that was only recently discussed and was stated for 3.1 or sometime thereafter so just have patience.

** A proper Lore Library (we got a bit in the Gubul Library dungeon, but will the library be expanded as an open area later with more lore tomes?)

I admit I'd love to see this too, but I guess I'm also realistic in that I understand just how expensive such an area would cost in terms of development time needed to add (all that writing for starters). To be really honest, I'd be more happy to have a vieawable bestiary/lore log in the interface, but whatever is easiest to add I guess.

** Addons/More HUD customisation

They're probably concerned about how best to ensure add-ons won't ruin gameplay or imbalance the game (I mean, look at the nonsense we're already seeing with parsers). Hacking concerns are probably also a big fact too into why SE haven't said anything more on the subject lately as well. To be really honest though, I'd at the very least just like to see more deeper GUI customization added, especially the ability to change the interface's art style and font (i.e. to 1.0's style, but retaining ARR's functionality).

** Ability to complete dungeons with NPCs (possibly GC related iirc?)/with chocobo

Apparently this is planned to be added with future rank increases in your Grand Company where you will be able to lead a unit of GC soldiers into a dungeon or raid, so therefore this is most likely still on the drawing board. So don't give up hope!

[Nalien]

I think we can safely say this has been quietly abandoned, as nothing has been mentioned since before launch

Actually, I recall it being mentioned around the time of 2.5~2.55. Specifically that they're waiting for it to make sense within the context of the games lore before releasing it. In the lead up to Heavensward I think they even said it's still coming, I imagine they're being so quiet about it because it's a pretty big story spoiler; If they said it's coming in 3.4, then we'd know between now and then that something changes that lets us summon Primals. Better to be ambiguous about it and let me jump to conclusions whenever I see plot developments like Iceheart summoning Shiva.

I wouldn't really say the biggest problem with it is monopolization, since there actually can be workarounds for that. The bigger problem I see is that there simply isn't content in this game that can effectively utilize such a system, perhaps the Sky-Islands in 3.1 will change that, but for now I can't really get excited over the prospect of rofl-stomping a dungeon/FATE/Hunt with a Primal. If we had Final Fantasy XIs Besieged or Campaign, that would be a different story; A Free Company who has Ifrit could jump in and turn the tide with the summon. That would be epic. One-hitting a Hunt mob with Ifrit would just be sad. Very very sad...

[Nadirah]

snip

I don't think it was *us* summoning primals, but more like roaming rare spawn world bosses. Not crap like S ranks, but stuff you need a full alliance to kill. Think Avatars of the Gods from EQ2, or Nalak/August Celestials/Oondasta from WoW.

And yes, world boss monopolization is a real thing. Happens in a lot of games with world bosses, particularly ones with long respawn timers. (participated in a number of them myself. Park an alt at the spawn point, when it spawns, tell guild and no one else, and we quietly kill it before anyone else finds out)

[Nalien]

I don't think it was *us* summoning primals, but more like roaming rare spawn world bosses.

It was both, though I don't think they ever really commented much on the roaming aspect outside a brief comparison to Odin (who was called the roaming Primal, though he doesn't do a whole lot of that with his static spawn points...).

Basically the plan was; We'd be able to fight a Primal as a Free Company, we'd do something in order to charge it up, then we'd be able to unleash, during which the weather would change, indicating to the server that the Free Company had summoned the Primal, and that there was a new chance to try and claim it. They never really commented on how it would spawn, just that there would be one version (so one Ifrit, one Garuda, etc.) per server.

And yes, world boss monopolization is a real thing.

I know it's a thing, I said it wouldn't be much of an issue if they put proper workarounds in place. This is mostly because they've always talked about roaming Primals as something we'd effectively capture and then use. Right off the bat, they can limit a Free Company to a single Primal; If you got Ifrit, you can't claim Shiva or Ramuh. One of the mechanics they specifically mentioned was the weather changing, to let the entire server know that Ifrit has been summoned. A small group then, cannot monopolize a Primal, since they'd be finishing up whatever they summoned Ifrit on while Ifrit is out ready to be claimed again. For larger groups they could quite easily limit your ability to have one sub-group summon while another claims, they could literally just say "You had Ifrit this week, so you get no Primal next week".

Were this like the old school world bosses, where a group claims it, kills it, gets some loot, then waits days for its respawn window to reopen, then monopolization would be an issue. That isn't what they've suggested though, the "loot" from the roaming Primals was always the ability to summon them, and since that is tied to Free Companies, they can quite easily limit monopolization there. The bigger issue, like I said, is the utter lack of content to use them on. If you can use them on instanced content, then that is just simply unbalanced. Being open world content, they should be used solely for open world content, yet sadly we've yet to see the bigger, better version of Hamlet Defense. They even said the whole world/server would be involved in the summoning of them, and if I'm summoning Ramuh to get an easy A4S clear, that simply isn't true. We need open world content where summoning these can feel epic, and making short work of an S Rank or FATE boss really doesn't seem epic to me... With that in mind, monopolization actually becomes even less of an issue. Yeah it sucks that that group gets a Primal each week, but if they're using it to turn the tide in a Besieged/Campaign style event? The entire server is benefiting from them summoning it, rather than it solely being for their benefit.

[Dyvid]

And yes, world boss monopolization is a real thing. Happens in a lot of games with world bosses, particularly ones with long respawn timers. (participated in a number of them myself. Park an alt at the spawn point, when it spawns, tell guild and no one else, and we quietly kill it before anyone else finds out)

Well you just need to be smart about it. I made a post about the system they could use which basically is FATE. Lore wise any beastman with echo can become a primal and ascian can give echo like it's candy. All that aside, every SMN Egi complaint is how they wanted to summon real primals. Adding something to the community that does this would help a lot. Highly cinematic summoning is a FF staple and needs to be added into the game.

[Gralna]

Ability to queue for DF with our chocobo summoned, this is the main feature I'd like to see implemented.

/visor for eye patches to swap which eye they cover.

Not requiring all crafts to be maxed, to make endgame crafts.

As for how to make non-linear dungeons, where people will go through the effort to actually do the ENTIRE dungeon, instead of speed running through the shortest route? Do what DAoC did, if you pull the final boss and there is still trash/mini-bosses still alive, they all come running to boss room as adds

[Nadirah]

Apparently this is planned to be added with future rank increases in your Grand Company where you will be able to lead a unit of GC soldiers into a dungeon or raid, so therefore this is most likely still on the drawing board. So don't give up hope!

Ugh.

That kind of sounds like what Blizzard said when they were designing Garrison missions but what it ended up being was an Assassin's Creed: Black Flag ships Facebook game template thing.

Click, click, click, send on mission, click click click, send on mission...

Was only worthwhile to do because they could start bringing back raid loot.

[Miyu20]

Ugh.

That kind of sounds like what Blizzard said when they were designing Garrison missions but what it ended up being was an Assassin's Creed: Black Flag ships Facebook game template thing.

Click, click, click, send on mission, click click click, send on mission...

Was only worthwhile to do because they could start bringing back raid loot.

Sounds like Free Company Airship Missions...