Public Companies?

[Rutelor]

Am I the only one that finds that the soon-to-be-introduced company system sounds somewhat different to the one originally announced by the previous development team? I don't recall the word "public" being so prominent a part of the previous idea. All of a sudden, mentions of the fact that companies were supposed to be amalgamations of linkshells seem to have disappeared from discussions about, or references to, the company system.

The repeated mention that, allegedly, games are trending towards smaller parties and guild units usually accompanies news of the (new?) "public company" system, with no mention of linkshells being consolidated into big, player-administrated larger units. Some clarification would be nice.

Any comments?

[DavidLocksley]

Yes we need more clarification. There is way too much ambiguity. We will see what happens but for right now most people are just taking stabs in the dark at what will really come of this company system.

[Xatsh]

I have no idea what companys are going to be, honestly every time they are mentioned I am getting a worse and worse feeling about them. I fear Yoshi trashed Tanaka's idea on companys which is probally the worst possible thing he could of done as I thought that was probally going to be best update outside content the game was going to have.

Tanaka made it sounds like they where going to be player controlled with housing, ships, and are used for large scale battles basically a guild in other mmos while linkshells where for more of a social thing.

Yoshi is making it sound like it is just a npc pearl where everyone in the city will join together to fight off some threat. /epic fail if this is right.

The whole talk about a focus on small group and public group makes me question if the devs feel they can fix this game, almost like the mentality of Abysea and ffxi... well the game will be low population so make it so everything is public based or low manable to let the players who will remain be able to play the game without the requirement of alot of people.

Honestly I want Tanaka's version of it if my interpretation is true. The linkshell system fails hardcore, it would need to be redone almost 100% and making linkshells lowman only is the opposite of what SE needs to do. If Companys are not going to be player controlled and being used as more of an endgame/event element I think the devs are wasting a massive amount of time on something that will not be accepted well to begin with.

[BelgianRofl]

My guess based on what SE's been saying about these public companies is that they are not going to be player-run.

[Zenaku]

For my understanding there is public and one made my linkshell the public one you can enter and leave when ever you like and the ls one is more you have to get invite for.

[Rutelor]

Hmmm... I am getting the feeling that the Public Company system is going to be some sort of pre-set, faction-like series of quests related to "the danger that faces Eorzea". The mention of housing, ships, and the conglomeration of linkshells has been kinda dropped by the wayside. I hope I'm wrong. And if I'm not, I, for one, would like to know the reasons for the change. This somehow PR-Department-staged series of surveys has made no mention of plans, previously mentioned as part of the game, that seem to have disappeared from all consideration.

[Molly_Millions]

I remember reading that initially they wanted to be kind of like linkshells, but that their vision for them had changed. I thought this was already common knowledge.

[Molly_Millions]

what if public companies are related to hamlet defense? An NPC like linkpearl would be perfect for this. Imagine, a hamlet gets attacked by a horde of beastmen, you get a call on the public company pearl to lend a hand.

I don't think an npc like linkpearl is all that bad of an idea. There are a million different ways they can take it. Don't start complaining about something we have no idea what it entails yet.

[Chrees]

I'm a bit confused as well...but maybe they're planning on implementing companies as being both "public" and "private." Public companies acting the way previous posters have suggested, and private companies being the ones that have been mentioned in the past, being player-run and having the ships and housing that Tanaka promised.

Just throwing some ideas out there, haha.

[Grit]

I had intended to announce this in a future letter, but we will release information regarding the Grand Companies of Eorzea (what were referred to as “public companies” in previous posts) just before patch 1.17 goes live. We are currently readying a page dedicated to this exciting new feature, and hope to have it up on the Lodestone shortly.

Grand Companies has a better ring to it than Public companies, lol.