I quite like the Shared Fate idea, hope to see it expand, and perhaps go to ARR/HW/SB

[Shougun]

Not really a title and more of a sentence but, uh yeah the title acts as a pretty good tl;dr lol.

Haven't maxed them out yet but I like the idea of shared fates as it makes the fates have a bit more worth and encourage more open world content, imo, and I like upgrading stuff (ooo +1 of something, wooo! ).

Expand:
I was thinking it could be fun to expand the concept a bit more even, for example when I finished a shared fate tier it said I made the area safer, I think it would be quite neat if the area changes as you rank up. It's okay that it might not be anything serious but you might see more people in the town, traveling merchant, maybe a broken building being worked on, something like what happens to beast tribes as they level up. I'd also like if there was a splash rank up message, bit anti-climatic to have it just be gray text in my chat box lol.

May also introduce quests into the system like aether currents behave in order to make some of the changes feel more logical in progression (could be pre-existing quests to save on resources and encourage each area to be "completed"), such that it might make more sense when a building is fixed or what have you (the major component to leveling an area of course still being FATEs, just suggesting MSQ or a side quest may act as a gate for logical reasons). At that point it might need a new name like Zone Tiers [ZT] though lol. I think having visible changes and little cutscenes showing the minor changes and the splash text on screen when ranking up (like beast tribes) would add more encouragement to complete these tasks too, as it would be a bit more of an accomplishment (already it's cool because of the minions and materials to buy, just saying it would add to that pool of reasons why).

In order to better facilitate a state change in the area I think it would be a good idea if the gemstone trader (or whoever) of the area gets a quest or completed quest icon (like how gemstone or chocobo stations have ! even though they're not a quest per-say). When you talk to them it'll trigger the pan over the area cutscene (like beast tribes) and a short blurb on the changes you bring. At this time I might suggest an exp reward, this being a one time thing (per rank up, at time of cutscene), but further making FATE's a valuable source of leveling (at least once per area per completed ZT). Particularly I make this comment for ARR and HW areas so even if all your jobs were X level you still might be like "I guess I could get some exp on my gunbreaker in ARR zones, alright yeah I'll do that". So I'd say the reward should be a % + age of an area. So like rank 2 is ~20-30% exp, perhaps growing 5-15% per rank (rank 3 being cap right now lol), but also an added bonus for old areas the older the area the larger % bonus (in this way even if the FATE itself isn't giving good exp for you there would be some compensation by the rank up reward, so rank 3 of an ARR zone could be very substantial exp-). May consider a base amount based on level of the zone for the benefit of lower level players (so it's great exp no matter the level). If you accept the reward at max level perhaps you can earn a very big pile of poetics and a decent amount of the secondary tome of the expansion (the non weekly capped tome). There might be a worry you could save up rewards and then unlock them on new jobs, so that's something to consider on how the system works/rewards- I don't really mind if someone blazes ahead in levels with a new job.. since they'd still have to do the MSQ lol but SE may heh (tweaks may be needed).

On exp, another beast tribe-ish concept that might translate smoothly here is the bonus exp for FATEs themselves after ranks (you get more exp from beast tribe quests at certain rank milestones with a tribe), meaning greater longevity past max rank up status itself (though I think the rank up reward should still be one of the big hooks, as that would then give you a lot of areas (expansion(s) worth of areas) to head about too). You could play with that concept a bit too say maybe the reward is based on getting all of Thanalan to rank x = bonus y exp, or something like that (not saying it needs to be this way but it has some play room).

Make sure people who've already ranked up this expansion can go get the pan cutscenes and rewards :3.

Short recap:

• Splash text, like when you rank up beast tribes (actually made a thread on that in UI section already lol)
• Small changes to the area with a pan cutscene (like beast tribe), bigger changes are welcome too (so long as it doesn't ruin the vibe of an area) but obviously less expected and less reasonable (don't want to divert resources away from some other perhaps more important pieces of content, MSQ, raids, etc).
• Interconnected with story of the area when it needs to be (so changes make sense, like if a dwarf area changes due to ZT rank, might also require a tier in the dwarf tribe as well), but of course FATEs are still very much a core part of the system
• One time reward for ranking up, not so much important for "current" content but will help quite a bit for the below (may consider other reward adjustments of course)

ARR/HW/SB:
So for ARR and HW, as title says, I'd of course like to see Shared Fate (ZT?) system be implemented as well. If possible (not distracting resources from other important content), perhaps in relation to the beast tribes, it could be neat to have the system touch up the zone just a bit as well (changing some things, a "it's nice to be back and see things change" feeling). But just having the system would be nice (even if it doesn't change anything visually). As for rewards of the ARR/HW/SB zones I think adding the materials and music would be a strong start but also I think you could get quite a bit of value out of adding relic steps to them (each expansion system relating to it's own related Relic, this part of course not being a required component of the concept- if you hate it that's fine lol).

Making the beastmen related in the older system could be a nice way to encourage players who skipped them to do them now, may consider in the future for our ShB zones that beastmen relate too only at later ranks (like rank 4 ZT for Khlousia has some Dwarf relations). So say for ARR/HW/SB since we already have our full beast tribes they can relate sooner into the system but in ShB rank 4 / 5 will require you to progress with beast tribes before the ZT can move on. Like in Kholousia at rank 4 you see some Dwarfs going about on Ironfrog movers perhaps as traveling merchants, maybe even a new cave opens up with a node for miners.

Some random example of perhaps ARR, Kobolds could have some hovels off the cliff side with a walkway that loops around to the Limsa camp (Northern La Noscea zone), Ixal have a few creations in the air and some new floating decorations are in Fallgourd Float, each area having some sort of development between beast tribe, environment, and their new allies. Though the Kobold one is a bit more extreme, sort of depends on if there are easy made structures to get it done (adding some terrain from pre-existing objects vs needing entirely new pieces made).

I think what can spice up the beast tribes even further which had some revival from the ZT system (if materials, music, and story of the "land" progression isn't your thing from the ZT system), by making them be able to greatly help old relic progress, for the relic part of course you'd need to spend their currency (encouraging older players to do them again, if they're out of that currency at least lol) and be a given rank for the zone/their tribe. Some random, incomplete, examples of what ARR tribes might provide:

• Amalj'aa camp provides Atma shards and the beginning step broken weapon piece
• Kobold provide stackable alexanderite maps at cost of 75 poetics (like Mor Dhona) and tribe currency (or greater cost and 2x-3x alex if there is some underlying system that prevents stacking maps) and perhaps a chance for a bit more on both (so on a really lucky haul it'd be like 30 Alex, but usually ~10-15).
• Sahagin provide glistening materia pearls, that may act as a materia replacement in the scroll and beginning broken weapon step (they do nothing)
• Sylph provide light, like other relic purchases it can be in tiers so with north shroud and tribe at tier 1 you can purchase flowers that double your relic light gained (and then wither, but you can buy a stack of them), but at tier three you've helped create a flower garden that pools dew at the foot of the bed and bathing your weapon will give it light (2-3 dungeons worth, recharges daily) and may purchase a triple light flowers.
• Ixal provide book easing services, may lore it as they retell with great enthusiasm the tales of their flights and engineering progress- not quite what the book girl wanted but it charges the books somehow anyways (lol). The service, power based on rank, allows you to cut down the number of tasks a book needs (perhaps to the point that only three tasks remain in order to complete a book, preferably either you get to choose or it's the dungeons. . at least imo the specific FATE required step was the most annoying step in books because I just sat and watched paint dry till that specific FATE would pop haha).
• This is getting quite tangent but after a certain rank I'd love to see beast tribes unlock retainer and squadron potential (I understand if you can barely or not at all customize their appearance then lol).

In terms of priority I think releasing them from oldest to newest might be good, such that we go back and experience what's least fresh in our mind first (ARR->HW->SB). I mean if you can get them all out at once, I wouldn't complain either though lol.

Short recap:

• With the above exp reward per rank plus bonus for being an old area people may come back to these old areas occasionally (another reason to do so).
• A bit obvious but felt like it should be a bulletpoint of it's own, adds some more open world presence- not only are you going back to old areas but you can get some decent exp and open access to some not too shaby rewards (relic progress, HQ materials, music, whatever).
• Small changes again just to give a feeling that life has progressed, some of these steps working with the beast tribe tiers of the area (to allow the zone rank to have some part including them). I feel it's nice not to view places constantly as if they're in stasis (I love changing areas, beastman tribe pan cutscenes are things I look forward to lol).
• A means to help relics pop up on the grid a bit more by reducing some of the relic annoyances, strictly this will only be added when the relics are OLD. Never to fairly fresh relics. So perhaps only relics older than 1.5 expansions (so for now ARR, and HW, not SB, yet, and especially not ShB ). However, it might mean a lot to people to know the currency will become quite valuable later ("what will I do with these 400 tokens.. so useless" now = "can't wait to convert them into relic progress").
• A way to consistently farm HQ materials of ARR/HW/SB areas, like what the ShB provides.

Super aside, I'd love if more of these phased objects (like that big Namazu structure- can't stand on it's head ) or most things that don't have collision were adjusted to have proper collision (like objects that weren't phased in). I figure it's part of the trouble and concerns they have with phasing objects in the first place but if they've figured it out or think they can I really hope for more physical as you'd expect objects to be (being able to stand on things that you think you should, not being able to pass through objects you shouldn't).

tl;dr (title seems good enough but)- I thought the Shared Fate system was neat and thought it could have some beast tribe like influences, in that it acts a bit more flash (fanfare, title splash) and brings changes to an area and includes the tribes in the development of the area itself but also that area's development into the tribe too (even if they're just minor changes like "eeeeeyyy new lamp posts" or "more hooman vists namazu yes? yes?" lol), finally to be able to add a fairly valuable reason to revisit old areas while also giving them a bit of "change over time" (bringing the system to older content).