Free Company Workshops and Ships

[Nalien]

Before I get to the meat of this suggestion;

Simply put, the Workshop should not be tied to Housing, given the limited supply of plots. Instead, a corner of the three starting cities should have an entrance to the Workshop that any Free Company can purchase access to, with the existing Housing version simply being a "shortcut" to the same instance.

Furthermore, I think the Aetherial Wheel should be removed as furniture in its current function, and instead moved to the Workshop, with the existing Workshop recipe changed to function as an upgrading system to this new version of the Wheel. The old version could perhaps remain as a simple furnishing, but once again, the utility it provides (Grade 3 Free Company Actions) should not be gated behind owning an estate.

Not a Housing "fix", but it would sure take a lot of the heartache out of not being able to get a plot, which is a reality for a lot of Free Companies, given how pants the whole Housing system is handled.

Now that that's out the way;

Rework the Airship/Submersible system. I honestly think this could provide some fun additional Exploratory Mission style content to the game, that is Free Company based. Something akin to Treasure Maps perhaps, just a bit bigger in scale and based around Free Companies (you know, those things that have no purpose).

First of all, add Boats to the mix as well. You build a Boat, then an Airship, then a Submarine. Classic Final Fantasy vehicle progression.

Second of all, add a new function to the Retainer Venture aspect of sending these things off, so that when they return you have a chance to gather your Free Company together and enter an instance for additional rewards. Random chance to gain access to that instance, maybe based off the ships stats, rewards could dip from the same pool as the Ship Ventures themselves perhaps, just in greater volume since you'd be doing actual content for them this time.

These instances would be based on what you sent out of course, Airships would have you exploring Diadem style floating islands, Submarines could have some underwater bubbles/caves, maybe even some sunken ruins, etc. Boats would naturally take you to some uncharted (?) islands, you could even have anomalies at Sea which result in a special boss fight with you fighting on the Boat vs say a Kraken. Could do all sorts of interesting things with it TBH.

Objective wise for islands/caves, you could do a number of different things, though I would first have a reason to split the group into two. One stays and defends the vessel from waves of enemies, with the ship taking damage if they fail, eventually resulting a a wipe (plus ship parts requiring extra repairs). The other would be the "exploration" group, which has the goal of finding the "treasure" and bringing it back to the ship. You could vary the types of encounters both groups face, a basic idea would just be to copy FATE design, mob waves, boss FATEs, collect X to ward off enemies, etc. with it up to your group to access the encounter and decide how many people to send out and how many to defend. Perhaps your exploration group wipes, so someone from the defense group goes out to raise them? Could do plenty of interesting things with this I feel.

TL'DR; Have you seen Sea of Thieves? Basically that, but good. I think that would be fun, something like Treasure Maps, just a bit more involved and interesting off the back of Free Company Ships.
Again though, to reiterate my first point; You cannot add something like this while the Workshop is limited behind Housing. It just doesn't make sense to make something interesting like this when it's locked behind something only a finite number of groups can access - certainly not why Diadem failed the first time, but there was certainly a lot of complaints about the Free Company specific version of Diadem back when it was originally launched, precisely because of this issue. Building and having a group Airship should be something cool and exciting, but it's not... It's just an additional Retainer Venture... If you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be able to build and own an Airship in a Final Fantasy MMO? I'd have been so damn excited. I'm not though, and I don't think anyone is, and not because the majority can't access the content, but because Ship Ventures are lame af... Please fix... Make it fun, interesting content, that justifies the existence of Free Companies...

[Ryoutoshi]

I agree that FCs feel pretty useless besides just being social groups. Linkshells and Fellowships now do that just fine.

I agree I feel that the workshops and ships should be what is changed to fix this. FC specific exploration content like treasure maps is along the lines of what I've been wanting as well.

I won't comment on implementation as I'm not a game dev. But something an FC can recruit around is the main thing I'd want out of it.

The system should be something for which I as an FC leader would be driven to recruit members. Basically, as players create statics for raids, an FC would have a Exploration Team. A team of crafters for the workshop, gathers for the materials on location, and a raid party to clear the mechanics and mobs barring the way to the good parts.

Whatever you can do to foster this kind of meaningful FC interaction is what I'd be requesting.

[Kisshu]

Would love to see them expand on this so it's not just another retainer venture.

Make it a real FC activity like expanded treasure hunt.

First you build the ship parts and assemble it, then fill the fuel tank(works as a cooldown mechanic instead of the current time duration). A new stat called Fuel Capacity is based on the different ship parts, higher rank parts allowing for more fuel.
When the ship is fueled and ready, the FC makes a party and depart, with one person as the captain who stears the ship. This sends the group to a huge map based on the ship type (air or under water). From here the group will travel from location to location, using fuel as they travel.

For sky islands, the group will disembark to explore the island, kill enemies and discover treasure chests that are sent back to the ship. This works with the second stat, cargo capacity, which can also be improved with new parts and is a limit for how much treasure the group can gather during the trip.
The group can also bring gatherers for the trip for some exclusive gathering points and buried treasure.

The group can fly around the entire map as they want, but at each island they have a chance to discover a log that points towards another island. Once this is found it creates a permanent aether current the group can use to quickly travel to the next island in the chain.

Underwater the group would explore ship wrecks, sunken temples and underwater caves. Some would have air pockets with enemies.

Some hazards for the ship would be storms in the air or rogue currents under water, this can damage the ship and require repairs beyond normal wear and tear.
Anomalies might also appear which are random chance for more treasure or an aether pocket that recharges some fuel.

Stats:
Fuel capacity - How long the ship can fly/sail, a limit for how much the group can explore each time. Fueling takes time and this will act as a cooldown mechanic between trips. A bit of fuel is used when idle like when exploring a location.
Speed - How fast the ship travels, higher speed means it's more fuel efficient as it get you to the location faster with less fuel spent.
Health - Based on the four parts of the ship, if any one is critically damaged(0% HP) the ship loses the bonus from that part. If all four parts are critically damaged the group is forced to return to base.
Capacity - How much treasure the ship can hold
Surveillance - Warns about hazards near the ship and anomalies. Better stat means bigger radius and higher probability of discovering hazards and anomalies in time.

[Gula]

I agree that FCs feel pretty useless besides just being social groups.

You could say that about any guild in any mmo honestly. What XIV lacks is FC tied content that's substantial. But que the screeches from the dark recesses of the OF about exclusivity.

I would like to see more FC specific content, but it's a tricky balance. Because there will be people who only want the rewards, difficulty scaling, and woe is me for having just shy of the minimum requirements. In an old mmo that is long shut down, there was guild PVP where players would fight each other in a base round, and climb to the top of a fortress with each win before defeating the fortress guardians. Then, they would have to hold that spot until the duration of the event ended.

I can hear the vomiting and spitting from here to the idea, but I am explaining something that worked in another game. That's all.