Herding

[crc0427]

Herding was originally planned as a DOL for 2.0 but we never got it. Think we'll get it in 4.0?

[Khalithar]

My immediate thought for that was "exactly what would that add to the game? It's not like it can provide anything we don't have." But then as I mulled over the issue more, I realized that it could be a very useful way of getting hides and meat from various creatures without having to go out and fight things or send our retainers out. Shepherd is the perfect gatherer to help support LTW and CUL a bit more. But the other question is how exactly can we make it work as a class?

Do you have a private instanced field? Do you go out and and find animals to tame? Fishing, Mining, and Botany are easy to add to the world based on what you're gathering. But raising and herding animals is a time consuming process, I can't really imagine how this could work in the open world. It would have to be it's own separate thing, maybe giving the players a private farm or something to work with? Something like Harvest Moon and related games but with the emphasis purely on the animal rearing aspect. But then why even make shepherd a class? At that point it's more like a rancher or something.

TL: DR version- I love the idea, but I can't imagine how to integrate something like that in to the open world which is clearly where they want gatherers to be.

[ADVSS]

I jokingly stated with friends about having a FC(or personal) house ranch/farm/ trapper class, and why did i come up with that idea? Buffalo milk. Some monster drops just arent high enough rate to make...rolanberry cheese. even retainers coming back with 10 or so... would be interesting for a trapper/farmer class to raise some monsters...so you can...well i feel awful suggesting this...but it is the crafters life in eorzea i suppose

[Culfinrandir]

I jokingly stated with friends about having a FC(or personal) house ranch/farm/ trapper class, and why did i come up with that idea? Buffalo milk. Some monster drops just arent high enough rate to make...rolanberry cheese. even retainers coming back with 10 or so... would be interesting for a trapper/farmer class to raise some monsters...so you can...well i feel awful suggesting this...but it is the crafters life in eorzea i suppose

You can buy Buffalo Milk everywhere but I know what you mean. ;P

[LineageRazor]

But the other question is how exactly can we make it work as a class?

Why, exactly like Botany and Mining! You approach a "herding point", which visually is represented by a shiny node in the middle of a grazing herd of some kind of animal. You chop away with a machete amidst gouts of blood, and meat, bones, or hides (depending on your selected gather) are deposited in your inventory, all while the herd continues to peacefully graze.

Okay, maybe that would be a bit silly. XD

[Khalithar]

Why, exactly like Botany and Mining! You approach a "herding point", which visually is represented by a shiny node in the middle of a grazing herd of some kind of animal. You chop away with a machete amidst gouts of blood, and meat, bones, or hides (depending on your selected gather) are deposited in your inventory, all while the herd continues to peacefully graze.

You have problems. XD

[Culfinrandir]

Why, exactly like Botany and Mining! You approach a "herding point", which visually is represented by a shiny node in the middle of a grazing herd of some kind of animal. You chop away with a machete amidst gouts of blood, and meat, bones, or hides (depending on your selected gather) are deposited in your inventory, all while the herd continues to peacefully graze.

Okay, maybe that would be a bit silly. XD

Actually, it's not as silly as it sounds. It's basically a buffed version of DoW/DoM "gathering" & makes sense if you break it down. It'd also mean you could get Herder Retainers that return more than 10 items, unlike the DoW/DoM ones. Don't know what would happen to DoW/DoM retainers though as they'd be redundant - unless we send them to dungeons to get rare drops for new crafts.

[Enkidoh]

Herding was originally planned as a DOL for 2.0 but we never got it. Think we'll get it in 4.0?

As far as I was aware it was never mentioned as being considered for 2.0, but a Disciple of the Land class for version 1.0 called 'Shepherd' was apparently planned but never implemented, apart from it's class icon dummied out in the 1.0 game files, and a locked and empty Guildhall that existed in 1.0's version of Falcon's Nest, with the aforementioned icon mounted on a sign above it's door (it should go without saying that no longer exists now). Either way, if SE still are considering it, they have remained very quiet about it so I'm probably going to say that any plans for such a class have long since been abandoned sadly.