Battle Square idea

[Lambdafish]

So I've been thinking about how this can be done, and the new PVP mode (feast) gave me some ideas about how to make this game mode really cool, without spending a tonne of development time (looking at you LoV).

Basically it is a horde mode in a halitali-like arena for a party of 4, the enemies come in waves and become increasingly strong. The waves are split into blocks of 5, and at the end of every 5 waves you get a treasure coffer, which awards MGP and a status upon opening (mandatory opening to continue). The status's are random but are mostly bad and last either indefinately, or for the next 5 waves depending on balance. These and are designed to make later waves more difficulty and can be things like infirmary, bleed, and slow.

As you delve deeper, harder types of mobs could start appearing and even boss monsters (imagine fighting a cyclops and ultima at the same time).

I'd love to know what people think of this idea, especially what could make it more enjoyable

Edit: I wonder how much inspiration could be taken from the Olympus coliseum from Kingdom hearts

[GenericMagus]

Or perhaps solo challenges for people as well. I really enjoy this concept, and there should be a reference to FF7 as well (Buster Sword with the same cost as Omnislash would be a nice reference, plus we could hopefully get SOLDIER gear glamour as well). It would be interesting taking a concept of the Battle Square and giving it life in FFXIV as a gauntlet to test the capability of the party.

But that's just my thoughts and I will support this idea.

[SoloKing]

I would be all for this.

Even in those bad RNG moments when you get status effect combos that you might aswell put the controller down for lol

[Lambdafish]

Or perhaps solo challenges for people as well. I really enjoy this concept, and there should be a reference to FF7 as well (Buster Sword with the same cost as Omnislash would be a nice reference, plus we could hopefully get SOLDIER gear glamour as well). It would be interesting taking a concept of the Battle Square and giving it life in FFXIV as a gauntlet to test the capability of the party.

But that's just my thoughts and I will support this idea.

I thought about solo challenges, but they would be a lot less interesting and have to be significantly less powerful and chaotic than a tank healer DPS party mode

[Enkidoh]

See I disagree - I think a solo-based one on one PvE battle would actually pretty fun and an interesting FFVII-reference that would be perfect for the Gold Saucer (although I disagree with Generic's idea about the Buster Sword, seeing as that is already in the game as the melee Limit Break ).

Continuing the parallels with the FFVII Battle Arena there should be handicaps inflicted on the player the more rounds they win but with greater rewards the longer they last (say, things like 'weapon break - reducing the equipped weapon's condition to 0%, Half HP - reducing your total HP by half it's current cap, Soul Crystal Broken - de-equipping your current Job (HW Jobs it would instead disable all the abilities above level 30), Item Level Down 50 - reduces your average item level by 50 points, level down 10, reduces your current class level by 10, etc etc.

By tweaking the difficulty it would also make it an interesting counterpoint to all those idiots who say the game "is too easy!" Say that when facing down something like Ultima Weapon solo in the Battle Arena with a broken weapon, your gear level and class level reduced by 50 and your Soul Crystal unequipped.

[Lambdafish]

See I disagree - I think a solo-based one on one PvE battle would actually pretty fun and an interesting FFVII-reference that would be perfect for the Gold Saucer

The reason that I don't think that it would work solo is because of how jobs work in this game. How do you balance this kind of solo content for jobs that don't have self heals? and how would you balance hard hitting enemies for players playing squishy jobs? The combat system in this game is designed to need a trinity of players to survive powerful foes, with each role complementing the other two. FFVII never had that kind of issue

[FoxyAreku]

Nah I'd rather it be true to the original battle square.

You go in solo as any class you want, fighting mobs, difficulty adjusted by your class (if you're a healer, expect to have to heal yourself a lot, if you're a bard, expect to have to kite, squishy jobs like ninja can be expected to have to dodge a lot, etc) and you fight and kill them round by round.

Also after every round, you get a random handicap, like you get turned into a frog for the first 30 seconds of the fight, or you get level synced (the horror!), or you lose an important ability and have to do your rotation without it. Or you get poisoned with a debuff that can't be removed for the whole next round.

And you go through this for 8 rounds, and if you win all 8, you win a bunch of MGP or a prize of your choosing.

There should also be spectator seats so it can be a great social experience and people can share strategies for certain fights and watch how their friends do.

I think this would be by far the best way to do a battle square.

The reason that I don't think that it would work solo is because of how jobs work in this game. How do you balance this kind of solo content for jobs that don't have self heals? and how would you balance hard hitting enemies for players playing squishy jobs? The combat system in this game is designed to need a trinity of players to survive powerful foes, with each role complementing the other two. FFVII never had that kind of issue

WoW has the same trinity and archetypes and they did a solo arena just fine. It's difficult, but possible to beat with every class.