Variation of content?

[Derio]

I like the defense and attack idea. We already have that in pvp in a sense. However if you add a caste in. Add enemy NPC's and then add a 24 man alliance. I could see it turning out to be some really cool content.

I still think they are going to come up with random questlines that give rewards for Diadem though. I think they still have big plans for that area.

[Nalien]

I like the defense and attack idea. We already have that in pvp in a sense. However if you add a caste in. Add enemy NPC's and then add a 24 man alliance. I could see it turning out to be some really cool content.

PvE Frontlines (Secure) would work fairly well, though making it instanced robs it of much of its charm. There is no reason something like this couldn't be open world, just tie it in with FATEs.

Lets say you slap several of those capture points from Secure around Coerthas Western Highlands. Have it so they're captured/defended via FATEs. Controlling a lot of them provides some native bonus to everyone in the zone, as well as making the zone a safer place (since it's mostly controlled by Ishgard). You've then got a lot of defend/capture FATEs going on, and you can put in a few other ones (defending supply lines/etc.) to improve the defense (NPCs stationed there) of owned points. If we keep losing the points, eventually the only one we've left with is Falcon's Nest, and we have a huge battle defending it. If we own all the points, we get something similar, but with us attacking the enemy stronghold.

Obviously that doesn't work well for Western Highlands, you'd really need to design the map from the ground up with this in mind, but it's a solid enough concept. The rewards just need to be significant enough that FATEs are actually rewarding for once in their life...

That's pretty much the next step I see from Campaign in XI... Campaign had one outpost per zone, with XIV I see no reason why we couldn't have multiple outposts to fight over per zone. Multiple factions, too. Lets say we start moving into Garlemald in 4.0, we could have Ala Mhigo verses Garlemald verses Beast Tribes. Day one much of the area is controlled by Garlemald. Day two people have burnt through the area, leaving it in control of Ala Mhigo, affording players bonuses. Day three the Beast Tribes take over while we're busy on a new zone. Or, for consistencies sake, we could go with XIs Conquest "tally results every week" system. Either way, it gives us dynamic maps which we can impact. If we ignore a zone, it falls into enemy hands and we no longer get benefits from that zone, so we aim to take it back. FATEs go from crappy EXP/Relic grinds, to dynamic activities people (hopefully) want to do. People want those benefits for controlling regions, if a region is slipping out of our hands, people will want to go help out.