The "Removing GC Restrictions Will Increase Interest In PvP" Caveat

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

While I agree removing GC restrictions might help enkindle more interest in PvP, I don't believe it would be the magic fix for one of FFXIV's least popular features. I say that because the Feast did just that, and still only saw a small spike in activity, and even then, much of that was people initially trying to get tomes quickly, without any real interest in actual PvP gameplay. Sure some of us established ourselves and continue to do so as avid PvPers in there, but we were likely the ones doing it even with GC restrictions in place already.

That said, here's a suggestion: As Grand Companies, lore-wise, are comprised of both normal national armies as well as mercenaries/mercenary groups (i.e. FCs), implement a system to allow players to queue in a Mercenary bracket: you will be placed on any of the 3 teams randomly. Allow for light/full party premades, as I'm sure many players have friends they'd want to team with, regardless of what standard they fight under. Now here's the catch: If placed on a GC team that ISN'T yours, you take a slight reduction in Wolf Marks/PvP XP. This is to maintain a balance and not completely kill off queueing for your actual GC. Possibly allow this point reduction to be bypassed if the player queues via a roulette.

Thoughts?

[Duuude007]

Restriction doesn't exist in feast.
Didn't make pvp any more interesting for my fc... people just grind during the rush for mount achievement, then never again.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

I noted that the restriction was removed for the Feast, and it wasn't the key to boosting PvP content popularity. Because some people say "if they removed it, more people would try it", I wanted to refute that claim.

The only thing that will make PvP more interesting is more people interested in it. Granted, while I'm not crazy about grindy rewards, making them too itasy would attract people who are purely interested in getting the rewards then never playing again. Still, more than just reward incentive is needed to liven up PvP. I encourage anyone even mildly curious to just try it. It's the best way to uderstand it, whether you grow to like or dislike it.

[Cleanse]

The main argument for GC removal is not that more people would try out PvP (sure there might be some), but that the current people interested wouldn't have to wait for the stars to align.

There most likely is 72~ people in queue quite often, but all 72 of the people could be in the same GC.

[NorthernLadMSP]

The main argument for GC removal is not that more people would try out PvP (sure there might be some), but that the current people interested wouldn't have to wait for the stars to align.

There most likely is 72~ people in queue quite often, but all 72 of the people could be in the same GC.

This.

The other thing that needs to happen is that the PVP gear you grind needs to actually do something, because it is now literally useless other than cool glamour.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

It doesn't help that, universally across all servers, the breakdown of GC membership is Adders> Maelstrom> Flames, according to the last Eorzea Census.

I would hope that SE is becoming aware of these metrics and planning to adjust accordingly

[Zojha]

It doesn't help that, universally across all servers, the breakdown of GC membership is Adders> Maelstrom> Flames, according to the last Eorzea Census.

It is actually 28% Maelstrom, 35% Flames and 37% Adders for 2015.

That's not actually a very huge disparity, when you think about it. Compare to 19% Healers, 19% Tanks and 62% DPS and you have 50% more DPS than the 1-1-2/2-2-4 setup supports, something the feast suffered from.

That's all just potential, tho. We all know that in practice, tanks are not as common as healers on average and likewise, a GC that is overall underrepresented might be overrepresented in PvP. We also don't know how the role distribution in PvP looks like. Heck, we don't even know if a game isn't starting because we're waiting on that one last adder or because we're 5/5/5. Transparency is rather lacking.

[Thekk]

That's all just potential, tho. We all know that in practice, tanks are not as common as healers on average and likewise, a GC that is overall underrepresented might be overrepresented in PvP. We also don't know how the role distribution in PvP looks like. Heck, we don't even know if a game isn't starting because we're waiting on that one last adder or because we're 5/5/5. Transparency is rather lacking.

Just having it show the number of people queueing for each company akin to what is done with roles would go a long way to help balance them out and reduce complaints from people having no clue why they are waiting for so long. I'm also pretty sure that would be much easier to implement than getting rid of GCs in frontlines, though that should be the end goal.

[Cleanse]

It doesn't help that, universally across all servers, the breakdown of GC membership is Adders> Maelstrom> Flames, according to the last Eorzea Census.

I would hope that SE is becoming aware of these metrics and planning to adjust accordingly

The overall GC breakdown doesn't mean much. We're talking about the PvPers on each datacenter (friends tend to all pick the same GC to group together). When one GC has long wait times and others are much shorter, that shows that a skewed interest is being shown per GC, per datacenter.

Also, as an aside, I am unsure if rank, language etc have any part in it, but those also are things that splinter an already small group of players.

Finally, removal of GC _could_ also potentially balance out matches. Organized groups will potentially be more spread apart and not all in one GC/team.

[Atreus]

Apples to oranges. Feast fizzled out because it's a competitive mode and not everyone has a team dedicated to it. While it was active though, it was only so active because there were no restrictions.

Frontline is a casual mode that many people would prefer to play with their buds. Can't always do that with GC restrictions. Furthermore all people do anyway is bandwagon to the strongest GC hoping for free wins, toppling the company populations even more.

Just kill the problem at its root and remove the restrictions. No more GC hopping, no more 72 players waiting for just one GC to have members, more players who can play with their friends without feeling like they have to start over.

Mercenary idea's fine, but it feels like just a bandaid for a gushing wound.