Suggestion
Add a Free Company recruitment desk (with an NPC FC Recruitment agent) in the main Adventurer Guild areas - the Quicksand in Ul'dah, The Drowning Wench in Loimsa Lominsa and Carline Canopy in Gridania.
Presently there is no way for players to find a Free Company in-game other than approaching random players and asking about theirs, answering the random shouts of FCs who sell themselves like cheap gil, or responding to the random and unsolicited invitations that new players inevitably receive. I believe that this is a very poor way to handle such recruitment in Eorzea.
I suggest adding an Adventurer's Guild agent who manages an information desk where Free Companies who wish to recruit new members can register themselves. Players looking for a free company can then browse those FCs via the interface in order to select one to apply to join. This would in effect be like a Free Company marketplace where Free Companies can advertise themselves to prospective members.
The interface for this should be a Free Company search screen that uses the various attributes that FCs can set when recruiting new members;
Additionally, when a FC is selected various information should be visible including;
- Focus - Casual, Hardcore, PvP, PvE, Dungeons, etc...,
- Classes/Jobs sought,
- active times/time-zones.
- Name of FC Master other FC Leadership,
- A short statement by the FC leadership describing the FC
- Information about FC Housing, FC Rank, FC Size
- GC affiliation
With this kind of information, players can usefully evaluate the Free Companies who are recruiting on their server.
If a player finds a FC they are interested in, they should be able - via the interface - to send a message (Moogle mail) to the FC Master or nominated recruitment officer, asking about the FC. It must be possible for the FC master or recruiter to reply to that message whether the player sending the message is on their friend list or not. Ideally Moogle mail messages should also increase in size so we are not trying to communicate with each other by sound bites, say 2000 characters instead of 200 - if a limit is needed at all?
Last, If a player finds a company that they like, they should be able to click an application button in the FC recruitment/information screen to send an application for membership to the FC.
This would in effect be like a Free Company marketplace where Free Companies can advertise themselves to prospective members.
I believe that this would greatly improve the ability of all Free companies to advertise and recruit new members. I also think that such a system would make it far, far easier for players to find a Free Company that suits their needs.
Please consider this suggestion for an addition to the game. I believe that it would be very beneficial to all players.