An idea to spice up private instanced areas

[cyborgmermaid]

FFXIV being a story-based MMORPG, there is of course present the contradiction where both everyone is the hero who saves the world and only you are the hero who saves the world, depending on whose point of view we're looking at, the players' or the NPCs'. However, we are often told, by said NPCs, things like "Gather your adventurer friends", which means the story does indeed acknowledge other players' existences.

So, I thought up an idea on how to integrate, if only slightly, other players into your story. In areas where each player gets their own private instance, like the Waking Sands, Rising Stone, and House Fortemps (and maybe even temporary instances like that gathering at the Sultana's at the end of 2.55), populate the area not only with their standard denizens, but with a small handful of NPC copies of players on our Friends' List.

They wouldn't do anything but loiter about, repeat an animation, and have some lines to say when you click on them, but it would add a ton of flavor, and be fun to talk about with the actual people, like "Hey, I saw you at the Rising Stones with Hoary Boulder. I think he likes you". For extra flair, the lines and actions could vary depending on things like race/gender/clan/job/etc. And if it bothers anyone that technically a character would be in two places at once, have it gather the list of possible candidates from only those friends who are currently offline.

tl;dr I love the various NPC interactions in the Rising Stones throughout the story and they should mix in actual players with them. It would be cool.

[synesthetic]

Would be interesting. But because of the old data transfer server load stuffs issue which already disallows us from various things like dedicated glamour slots, I can only imagine this happening if your friends' appearances are saved clientside. In which case, you could get some funny results.
Like maybe the last time you've seen someone, they weren't even the same race or gender, or even had the same name.

I can only imagine that some people haven't seen me since someone's wedding:

[Bixillarla]

Or just make the waking sands, rising stones, house fortemps, etc non instance so you can see the other players coming and going. I never understood why these area were instanced and private.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Or just make the waking sands, rising stones, house fortemps, etc non instance so you can see the other players coming and going. I never understood why these area were instanced and private.

Because the Waking Sands WERE non instanced in 2.0, which resulted in an F ton of players and their minions crowding the room and hovering over the NPCs needed to advance. Think of all the idling players in Mor Dhona and Idylshire, but shoved in a tiny room.

[Shurrikhan]

Because the Waking Sands WERE non instanced in 2.0, which resulted in an F ton of players and their minions crowding the room and hovering over the NPCs needed to advance. Think of all the idling players in Mor Dhona and Idylshire, but shoved in a tiny room.

But, you can just as easily create lobbies each of up to x players, or limit who's displayed inside your "instance", as give each player their own instance for a single room...

[WinterLuna]

I like the idea, I'm sure we can see other people's retainers walking around right? This isn't really any different other than minor interactions.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

But, you can as easily channel this into rooms of a given maximum number of players as give each player their own room, though, or even use a single room where only players on you're friends list or within x level range of you are shown?

I don't understand what you're trying to convey.

[WinterLuna]

I don't understand what you're trying to convey.

She means have instanced rooms but allow multiple players into those rooms at once (with a cap) kind of like a lobby, I think.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

She means have instanced rooms but allow multiple players into those rooms at once (with a cap) kind of like a lobby, I think.

If that's the case, then why make multiple instances for a room that will be devoid of players in a few months time?

[Shurrikhan]

If that's the case, then why make multiple instances for a room that will be devoid of players in a few months time?

Numerous MMOs will:

1. Start with a single lobby (or "channel").
2. At x number of players they make an additional lobby ("channel").
3. New players are sent to the lowest number channel available.
4. The server checks for the percentage open slots across the additional channels, and will typical prompt players with the option to merge back into the lowest open channel upon exceeding x% vacancy. This particular check varies between different MMOs, and others may allow direct access to channel switching and may list the population of each channel.

Others may also leave a given margin to allow prioritization in matching to a given lobby, such as by friends lists, level range, or quest progress range (especially where there is resultant phasing - changes to the world visible based on quest progression).