A Guildleve Revision Idea

[Sandpark]

XP-Chains.
We still have xp-chains actually. We just no longer pace our CDs or (especially) pool our (1.x-style) TP in order to maximize them because the individual mob exp is relatively poor, AoE options are a bit too clear-cut, and kill order not focused on as much in ARR (by which I mean all things past 1.x until such time as there are significant enough changes to require a separate term for the game's framework). Were trying to kill off a specific enemy at an exact amount of time despite gradual suppression on it a bigger thing (actually, I can't remember any time past T5-7 where avoiding a pad push was a real concern), and were there just a bit more synergy between pure AoE and single-target choices, and mob exp made viable, this would probably return to a real concern in FATEs. If mob camps were ever returned, then doubtless exp-chains would be a thing there too.

But that's a lot of conditions to get it off the ground; the framework does nothing without surrounding changes.

Wouldn't increased xp for xp chains start training people from the get go how to maximize damage? I mean if you are trying to kill hundreds of monsters in the fastest time possible. I would think that would give people practice on mastering rotations and how different enemies require different rotations.

NMs.
We still have NMs. They're our hunts. They're just bland as hell, because apparently there's this assumption that players can't handle more than two abilities per open world mob, let alone without a clear and immediate telegraph. Is that SE actively trying to hold themselves back, or is it an excuse for shallow work? I don't know. But consider also the issues we have with complaints of "early pulls". In XI, only one group could claim credit for an NM kill. Here, anyone who attacks can. And still we take issue.

I feel a channel or phasing system should be used for NM. Then SE could create more interesting open world fights without worrying about zergs.

Skill-chains.
Consider also what strange but seemingly fun battle concept ideas you might excuse through the revision or implementation of XIV skill-chains. Perhaps you have an expansion that's largely focused around elementals, or the harnessing of elemental power. Well, now you have license to create a system in which elemental force projected (produced by players), received (taken by players), and environmental (field effects or lingering from projected or received) can be harnessed and reused. Let's say you have a Garuda... Savage fight that begins in a larger canyon, where you fight fragments of Garuda (e.g. Suparna and Chirada) of the original Garuda size, while the actual Garuda is typically at greater distance (and about the size of her spirit release from Ultima) and must be warded against by bending the winds within the canyon to starve or overpower (and thereby re-aim) Garuda's wind attacks, all through your combat and positioning when fighting the fragments. Spit-ball idea, meant to represent spit-ball ideas, but would it potentially, after whatever number of revisions, connect to our make sense to introduce with the XIV skill-chains. ...Same question for literally every other attractive but vague combat idea that comes through your mind.

I like this idea of an expansion around harnessing the elemental powers. I wish I could hear more of this. Any reason to give a make sense of skillchains would be a plus in my book. It doesn't have to be a copy paste from XI, that's for sure.

AI.
As for aggressive AI, that's just such a massive and obvious opportunity that I don't know why it isn't on the roadmap. And I mean this both in the open world and in instances. Everything obeys the exact same laws of enmity. That may be convenient, but it makes zero sense; these are supposed to be different mob types, with different natures, conditions, procedurals, etc., etc. We've lost the curious cobblyns, the clacking crabs, blood-smelling wolves, vibration-sensitive ghosts, what have you. Granted, that may not mean much when 80+% of the world cannot respond to a max level character anyways, but perhaps that's all the more reason to consider universal level-syncing or whatever else. But the in combat effects, for the time being, are even more noticeably lacking. The most aggressive AI-ish characteristic we have right now is a threat reset. And it's not even AI. There is no typal AI. Arguably, there is no AI of any sort, only a table, a pointer, and a queue. That's a crying shame.

A crying shame indeed. One of the key features that draws me to games like XI or Dark Souls is the world's environment and creatures telling a story. It takes AI and lore to do that, sometimes less bread crumbs is more.