Grand Company platoons

[Zohar_Lahar]

I have been wondering, what exactly will we be doing with these platoons? Is there going to be some kind of special levequests/guildhests designed for them?

[Khalithar]

We don't know yet. I have a feeling it will be it's own unique set of instanced Duties where we train them and work with them to build them as a team and from there we'll probably have some special quests with them. Maybe some dailies? Or maybe we can take them out in the world and summon them and level them in a similar manner to our chocobos? That's my first guess.

[Nalien]

My hope is they're bringing back Hamlet Defense in a big way, and we'll be able to send off our Platoon to do various things to prepare the Hamlet for the coming battle, perhaps even level them up and station them in the Hamlet for the battle... That essentially makes them like Retainers with Ventures, I guess, but who the hell cares if the Platoon is disappointing if we have Hamlet Defense back?

After Free Company Airships essentially turned out to be a rehash of Retainer Ventures, perhaps I'm onto something here... Great... Now we'll probably just get Platoon Ventures without Hamlet Defense... Hamlet Defense is probably never coming back and I hate everything...

I think it would work quite nicely though... Bring Hamlet Defense out of 1.0 and make it more like the new and improved version of Besieged it should have been... Rather than trading in random crafted items to prepare the Hamlet, everyone instead has their own Platoon that they send off to do various things; Prepare defense, train and level up, scout out the enemy, ambush enemy supplies, etc., then when the attack starts that can end up impacting various things. Say not a lot of people sent their Platoon to prepare defenses, so all the fortifications go down fairly quickly, but a lot of people sent their Platoon to train or ambush the enemy, so the ally NPCs in Hamlet Defense are slightly stronger, while the enemy NPCs are slightly weaker... Something like that could be really interesting...

[Khalithar]

Snip

I really hope it's not just another variation on retainers or something that we send out and forget. This is just my own personal thing, but if we get a platoon of soldiers from our Grand Company then I want to actively fight alongside them. I want to lead the charge in to battle and have them fight side by side in battle with me while we crush our foes as a unit.

[Nalien]

I'd be fairly disappointed if they're solely there to act as a means to solo dungeons... I can already solo dungeons... I don't need some (likely) characterless goons following me around while I do so...

Q: In a previous Letter LIVE, you mentioned a new feature that would let us make our own platoons. Can you please tell us how it's coming along?
A: There were some setbacks in the planning stage, but we're expecting to have this ready for Patch 3.4 as of the current schedule. However, I cannot make any promises as to whether they will be able to enter dungeons alongside you at the time they are added to the game. We're also planning to unlock the first lieutenant rank for Grand Companies at the same time. These ranks will not be ready for Patch 3.3, although there will be new Grand Company equipment.

This quote taken from this Live Letter makes it sound like actually fighting alongside them in dungeons is more of a secondary feature though... If they're going to be ready for 3.4, but might not be able to enter dungeons, then they must have some other function, right?

If it's just leveling them up through some means so they can later come with us on dungeon runs... Meh... Change dungeon runs to Daidem and I guess I'm slightly interested however... I should probably just stop thinking about it and wait for 3.4, I'm almost certainly going to be incredibly disappointed by this... I'd love Hamlet Defense to come back but that's almost certainly not happening, no matter what that little mistake in 3.3s patch notes is telling me... I'd still like something new to justify those new ranks and Platoon though...

[Istaru]

I would love to see a return of Hamlet Defense.

[Khalithar]

I would love to see a return of Hamlet Defense.

I've heard this talked about a lot before. As someone that didn't play during 1.0 onwards, can anyone explain what this was and how it worked to me?

[Nalien]

I've heard this talked about a lot before. As someone that didn't play during 1.0 onwards, can anyone explain what this was and how it worked to me?

Basically, Beast Tribes (Ixali/Kobold/Amalj'aa) attacked Hamlets in 1.x. It was instanced, there was some gathering/crafting gimmick. The preparation phase had players turning in items for some reason (I forget) and when the Beast Tribe actually attacked, you could form a party and enter the instance. It ultimately suffered for the same reasons most of 1.x suffered... With 2.0 I think they could make a lot of improvements to it, making it closer to Besieged from XI... Make it open world for starters, then actually make the Beast Tribes somewhat more fearsome by... Oh, I don't know, summoning their Primal? That's the kinda stuff that would have just melted 1.0s servers, should be possible with 2.0 though... I'd probably settle for the old instanced version, but it really needs to be open world if it's going to have any consequences like Besieged... Your server could fail Besieged, and then you had to go into enemy territory for a special instance to get back the Astral Whatever... That sort of content is sorely missing from XIV... Heck, even if you didn't fail Besieged, NPCs from the area could be taken away and you could go save them... Stuff like that made XI feel less like a video game and more like a world... Right now XIV feels very much like a video game... The open world is practically just a pretty lobby we sit in while waiting on the Duty Finder, way too much instanced content...

If XIV tries its hand at FFXI's Campaign for whatever reason in 4.0 as an example, imagine how all of this could be utilized to further your Grand Company's standing, defending various GC-controlled outposts with other players and their own Platoons or plotting coordinated attacks on enemy strongholds.

HNGHHH, don't tease me man! An XIV version of Campaign is the stuff of dreams... That old Free Company Primal Summoning concept they mentioned forever ago and is long forgotten by people who aren't me? Imagine that sh*t in Campaign! Your server is losing the battle to hold an outpost against Garlemald, when a Free Company walks in a throws Ifrit in their face!

Epic sh*t like that? In XIV?! Nope, have some more FATEs instead... B*tches love FATEs... If 4.0 abandons FATEs and gives me anything close to Campaign, I might die from happiness...

[Grimgrum]

.

Haha, yeah, we would finally be like all those heroic NPC commanders like in WotG. They had some seriously cool individuality going on, something that'd be amazing if players can participate in as well for XIV. Rise up in rank, maybe gain the ability to command even more Platoon mates or unlock more diverse customization options, and team up with others forming a small GC battalion of your own. On the enemy side of things, imagine Garlemald busting out some new Legatus at certain intervals to completely whoop unorganized players, prompting greater coordination to make a counter-attack. Stuff like that can definitely take the concept further.

I completely failed to realize Platoon will be 3.4 content, so hopefully it's something they can build upon over a long period of time, reaching its full potential with 4.0. With the way the devs are keeping an eye on PotD, I have hopes for this and other long-term content.

[Grimgrum]

It's probably safe to assume 4.0 will emphasize some sort of heavier military/wartime theme, taking non-Ishgardian plot developments into consideration, prompting a justification for assigning adventurers in the Foreign Levy/Free Brigade/Yellow Serpents various positions of limited command. Would be a serious breath of fresh air, both gameplay and story-fluff wise.

There could be multiple forms of content under the overall Platoon umbrella. Nalien's Hamlet Defense / Improved Besieged idea could be one major facet of utilizing your Platoon, then have some open world content that allows you to deploy one or two Platoon members as companions to fight alongside you. If XIV tries its hand at FFXI's Campaign for whatever reason in 4.0 as an example, imagine how all of this could be utilized to further your Grand Company's standing, defending various GC-controlled outposts with other players and their own Platoons or plotting coordinated attacks on enemy strongholds.