State of Raiding In Regards to Community/FCs.

[AmiBeau]

I'm going to be speaking from anecdotal evidence; just to preface this.

I have been playing the game casually hardcore since roughly the latter half of Heavensward and I have felt like something is missing from my gaming experience, at least on the servers I have played on thus far in NA. This game is definitely geared toward community and making players interact with one another on a frequent basis, which is great; I'm not going to knock it at all for this. The issue I have noticed is lack of the Free Company's ability to integrate newer members and participate in actual FC interactions of duties.

Let me be frank and come out with what I mean. For a few years now, I haven't really felt like I've been able to DO anything involving raiding with any of the FCs that I have been with. Every. Single. One; has had their own "Static" on the side, and thus the members don't or aren't willing to succeed or fail as their own communities. Instead this is replaced by cliques and creates a sort of divide between FC members. There are social events, sure; however, when it comes to raiding and/or higher end duties, something is missing.

[AmiBeau]

A possible solution to this problem could be to give incentives for raiding or completing higher end duties with your FC members instead of your Static. It's going to be a very unpopular opinion; however, a few other MMORPGs have little programs in place (i.e. currency, items, exclusive things,) that you HAVE to do with your FC.

There is the obvious solution people are going to bring up... "Why don't YOU just find a static of your own?" While this is indeed a possible solution; my rebuttal is this. Why should I have to PuG, if I joined an FC for the supposed community of like-minded individuals? What is says to me, is that they are willing to do the content... with and only with their chosen group; and not with random people in their FC. Some of the community is fantastic for people who are new to content; others are only interested in parsing and will invite you if and ONLY if you have seen a certain phase, have a previous clear under your belt, etc. That old trope of "You need experience to get experience."

[Penthea]

A possible solution to this problem could be to give incentives for raiding or completing higher end duties with your FC members instead of your Static.

I'm 100% against this even though my own static is fc based.

One of the best things about this game is that you do not have to be tied down to a fc if you want to raid. This means you don't have to leave a fc you love in order to find a raid team, nor do you have to stay in a fc you dislike to be in a raid team. Whether raid teams are fc or ls based the rewards are the same, and this is great. This allows people to raid with whoever they want without having to leave anyone behind.

Adding your suggested rewards would instantly create a hierarchy as to the best way to raid, and it would kill ls-based statics. Not a good thing. It would be punishing players for wanting the freedom to not have to leave their fc to find a good raiding team.

The issue I have noticed is lack of the Free Company's ability to integrate newer members and participate in actual FC interactions of duties.

There is the obvious solution people are going to bring up... "Why don't YOU just find a static of your own?" While this is indeed a possible solution; my rebuttal is this. Why should I have to PuG, if I joined an FC for the supposed community of like-minded individuals?

It's not anyone's fault their fc doesn't cater to your personal needs. Every fc is different so they all have a different approach to building and nurturing a community. If raiding in a fc-based static matters that much to you then find a fc that does this. They are out there.

Or make your own fc. Easier said than done I know but this is what I ended up doing when I couldn't find the sort of fc I wanted to be in.

[ErryK]

Why should I have to PuG, if I joined an FC for the supposed community of like-minded individuals?

Well, you clearly joined the wrong FC, and that's on you.

[Crushnight]

1 problem with this is what if you like to do raiding and being socialable. Having incentive for FCs to clear raids will either force cliques within FCs or cause people who would otherwise be fine in normal everyday FCs into raid only ones just for those extra rewards.

Believe it or not ARR and early HW had very social raid areas, loads of talking in Wineport/North Shroud/N.Thanalan/Hinterlands, you also had inbetween instances sections where groups could congratulate each other, what killed it off? allowing to queue into raids from anywhere, once this change happened you only saw people as they unlocked things or in Hub areas.

I don't think adding extra incentive for doing savage raids/Ultimates for FCs is a good idea However if the rewards were titles only I think would be fine.

Actually surprised SE hasn't done something like World 1st titles for Ultimates.

[Vidu]

I think this suggestion would just make it harder to find both FCs and statics.

I'm sorry that you only joined FCs so far who didnt live up to their promise - or to your expectation, but it also sounds a bit like your expectation was to join an FC and instantly have some sort of static aswell...?
The way this game handles lockouts you have a huge incentive to only raid with people who havent cleared Savage this week (or you'll end up with a loot penalty) - so theres kind of an incentive to raid with a static. That wouldnt change even if those 8 people were from the same FC: Anyone else, even if in the same FC, would be left out. You'd still have cliques and FC-statics that you cant get in, because they're full. So you could join an FC with like-minded individuals, who then tell you "Sorry mate, but the FC-static is already full" - or who wont let you join in the first place (so now you're out of a static AND an FC).

As long as the rewards for all-FC-clears stay minor (and I'd actually prefer if those were something FC-related, like maybe special crest-options or something similiar?) I'm not opposed to your idea - but I dont believe it will solve your problem one bit. You'd just see PFs like "FC-static looking for healer, raiding three times a week! MUST JOIN FC!!" instead of "static looking for a healer, raiding three times a week!"
You'd also reduce the pool of potential candidates if people dont want to leave their current social network just in order to raid.
An FC-intern-static would still only do Savage with their choosen people in order to avoid loot-penalties (and probably because they like playing with this exact group of people). You wont have an easier time getting a foot into that door if you cant get one in now. There simply is limited space is a static and joining an FC will never guarantee you a spot in a static, unless thats the specific condition of joining, I guess.

And I have to say that I actually like having the social aspect and the "progression" aspect seperated. I think its best that no one is basically forced to pick between hanging out with the people they like and those who they do Savage with - ideally both groups are the same, but I know enough super pleasent people who have no intrest in raiding and enough people who only log in to run Savage - I'd hate ending up with an FC in which half the people never log in to do anything besides raiding.

[Sesera]

The only incentive you'll get with that is people leaving for a FC with a better clear rate.

[Kitfox]

The raiding loot system is very "anti-community". You can only clear once yourself and can't even go back to help others without robbing them of their loot. If you could raid more freely with other people, I would see bigger communities and non-statics raid together more often. The problem is that with the current savage system if loot was available even when clearing with people who already cleared, you would get 1+7 parties where all loot is funneled to a single person. This would mean the most effective gearing plan would be to run alts and clear the raids 8 times every week for insane loot.

Alternatively, we could have savage use the normal mode loot system, or something alike it, where everybody has their own personalized loot for each fight. That would allow people to help their friends regardless of their own progress very easily and for communities to support each other. The problem is that when helping is easy, it's also very easy to sell the help. Selling content clears and loot would become rampant. I don't think there's an easy way to have one without the other.

I'm not sure if that's an acceptable cost, but at least it would make the raiding community more open instead of the closed static style we currently have.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Just make a FC with your static.

[Satarn]

I have been playing the game casually hardcore

What are words, what is meaning, lmao.

While I do think that this game's FC system could use a lot of improvement(seriously, the lack of actual in-game board is infuriating) and more FC-specific activities, the "clique" problem is on players, not the game and SE shouldn't really try to "enforce" doing things as FC rather than statics imo. It's up to leadership to set up events for practice and farms and up to members to show up to them - which can also be an issue sometimes, when you set something up and only a couple of people show up while you see others PFing, it sure doesn't make you want to organize more things.

Rather than incentives to raid with your company(which already are there - not having to wait in pf and then getting bad/impatient players is plenty incentive), they should fix issues which make it harder for FCs to organize themselves. The before mentioned problem of not having a proper board to keep people informed and sign up for things is one such issue and the other is the weekly chest lock-out.
There isn't really much good reason to decrease the number of drops when people who already cleared participate in a run - it's only a punishment that makes people less likely to help each other. Keep the rolls limited to first weekly kill, but remove the stupid 1/0 chests system.