Gameplay idea: Camping

[Yuki_Murasaki]

I created a post in Reddit a few weeks back but didn't gain much traction. I figure I can post in the forums too. Original post here.

ZeplaHQ released a video "How is FFXIV's OPEN WORLD?"

She talks about what we can do to liven up the open world & urged us to think of ideas. I had a small idea & it grew as I listened on. As stated in the title, it's Camping!

Inspired by Zepla & FFXV Noctis & the boys

CAMPING!

Activities

• Form a party
  
• Pick a scenic spot (points awarded)
  
• Set up camp, camp fire, seats, food.
  
• Gather, fish or hunt nearby for food (points awarded)
  
• Craft food & consume (points awarded)
  
• Take GPose photos (points awarded)
  
• Participate in FATES in the area (points awarded)
  
• Log off in the camp for small buffs the next time you log in
  
• Camp tent will be visible after you log off & will be gone after the camping trip ends. (Maybe have an FC flag at the side of the camp area because why not?)
  
• Buffs (below) will be awarded after certain hours logged out in camp

Rewards

• Extended hours of current best food buffs (good for raiders)
  
• Small additional tomestones earned from Roulette (good for casuals)
  
• Small additional gil earned for a period of time (good for everyone)
  
• Small additional exp earned for a period of time (good for alts or newbies)
  
• Whatever extra currencies, mounts, minions they might wanna throw in
  
• Clear a slot for Wondrous Tails or earn Second Chances
  
• Note that this is not meant to be a grind. Maybe something you can do once a week with friends for a little something extra
  
• For added complexity
  
• Certain weather conditions / locations / time of day may give more rewards.
  
• Preparation of camping gears may give extra points
  
• Have a theme each week like Fashion Report where we have to guess the best site to camp.
  
• Maybe certain FATES, Fish, gathering items can only spawn during camping trips.

Continue on next post

[Yuki_Murasaki]

Possible Pros

• Fill the open world with activities
  
• Decent FC activity you can do with your FC mates or even strangers
  
• A meaningful way to appreciate and interact with the many breathtaking places in Eorzea (and the First!) which would otherwise be untouched after a quest or 2.

Issues to be resolved (Possible Cons)

• How the points are to be awarded? How do you award a GPose photo?
  
• Depending on how it's implemented, certain spots will be filled with tents while other spots are empty.
  
• Do everyone have to log off around the same time? How much log off hours will be ideal?
  
• Takes much effort and dev time, probably not a priority.

Do you think it's a good idea? Or do you think it will never work because _____? Or maybe you have points to add on to this? If you see anyone with better ideas than listed here, be sure to upvote them for awareness!

I dunno how far this will go. Will the devs see this & create something inspired from this? I have heard that they actually read feedbacks from Reddit as well. I dunno. But I figure it's not that much work to juz type this out, so here it is.

[DPZ2]

Issues to be resolved (Possible Cons)

• Takes much effort and dev time, probably not a priority.

Do you think it's a good idea? Or do you think it will never work because _____?

Largest con: Folks looking for rewards will zerg this content much the same way you currently see hordes of high level characters swooping down on level 1-20 outdoor areas now for Yokai Watch FATE farming. Afterwards: crickets.

Smaller con: In order to get the content you'd like to see, independent instances for each 'camp site' would have to be created, which basically removes the players from the Overworld. 'Camping' in such an instance could be pretty fun, but defeats the purpose behind the proposal.

[Mimilu]

Smaller con: In order to get the content you'd like to see, independent instances for each 'camp site' would have to be created, which basically removes the players from the Overworld. 'Camping' in such an instance could be pretty fun, but defeats the purpose behind the proposal.

What if you could camp with players and/or NPCs?
There could be a normal camping trip with a party of 4 and a big trip with 8 and any empty spots will be filled with random NPCs (the story could be that these are the NPCs you could get to come on such a short notice). As you go through the story and different questlines, you could gain NPCs in your NPC pool. Maybe certain NPCs could have like friendship meter that you can raise by interacting with them, which will make them more likely to come when you queue.
People have wanted a dating sim in the game and this could be close-enough. >w>

[Boa-Noah]

Not to be rude or anything, but you can camp out as it is, just find somewhere out in the open world and sit on the ground/mount for a couple hours, easy peasy.

That aside, and to be more constructive, this is basically impossible and relatively pointless for the devs to implement, it feels a lot like the kind of thing you could do in Final Fantasy XV and while it was a lot of fun in that game it's not really the kind of content that would do well in an MMO setting. Namely the vast majority of players want rewarding content, something fun and RP-ish while mellow and relaxing like this just won't cut it, not when there's so much more that can or should be added first, no offense again, but it's just not the kind of thing the dev team would invest time and effort towards.

Further with the incredibly limited engine functionality and the struggle the dev team has with even adding something simple like hair styles I doubt a fully fledged camping minigame/activity would be something they even could accomplish without MONTHS if not a full year of development.

[VenKitsune]

I really doubt it'd serve any purpose as a feature like you mentioned, honestly.

But...If we were to ask for something simple? Maybe a placeable campfire that is visable for everyone so long as you're in the area, and dissapears when you leave? If server load is an issue, make it so that you cant have a minion out if you want to set up a campfire. No bonuses, just a campfire, maybe for RP or for screenshot purposes.

[Yuki_Murasaki]

No offence taken!
I agree this might be a "waste of time" for some people. I definitely think this isn't a priority. Having said that, we have seen some "pointless" features added to the game over the years. One might argue that housing is pointless too. And I'm slowly realising that the devs spend significant effort catering to this part of the community. The latest being the "Fashion items" & GPose features. Some love them. Others, not so much.

Thanks for your feedback nonetheless!

[SenorPatty]

I don't see an issue with the idea in itself. It sucks that tech limitations just seems to bar pretty much any good idea that's posted on the forums. I'll still hope for the best though and support it.

[Yuki_Murasaki]

With regards to technical limitations; I feel that if it can handle Hunt trains (barely, I know), it can handle a few campers. XD
But what do I know? I'm not a game dev. If it is indeed an issue, it's a fair point.

[Jojoya]

If you want to gather or craft, you can already do it.

If you want to participate in FATEs, you can already do it.

If you want to use gpose, you can already do it.

If you want to find scenic spots, the sightseeing logs already exist.

Nothing about what you propose is really adding anything new to do to the game outside of giving trolls the ability to set up a tent over the location of known quest objectives or gathering nodes then walking away to watch players trying to do those quest objectives or gather get upset when they can't. Going into the open world to do the content that already exists there is going to be a lot more unpleasant when you're stuck looking at a bunch of abandoned tents.

It's a decent idea for a co-op game where there's only a handful of players present by invitation on a local client. It's a bad idea for a MMO with thousands online sharing the same game server.

There's already quite a bit of content in the open world zones. Some of it is one time - MSQ, side quests, sightseeing logs. Other is repeatable - hunts, FATEs, gathering, beast tribes. There's plenty already going on there for players to do if they're interested. It's okay for some players not to be interested in the content there.

What needs to kept in perspective is that the open world zones are primarily a vehicle for the MSQ and SE has to be cautious in the additional content that gets added to them. Add too much content so more players are in the zones at all times and congestion/latency becomes an issue. It's disruptive to the players working on the MSQ, not to mention the other content.

I'm not saying there isn't room for SE to add a bit more, but it has to be done with caution and for good reason. At least make it content that is different from what we already have instead of just reusing the content that already exists to give more rewards.

With regards to technical limitations; I feel that if it can handle Hunt trains (barely, I know), it can handle a few campers. XD
But what do I know? I'm not a game dev. If it is indeed an issue, it's a fair point.

I would imagine the players experience issues during the hunt trains would argue it's not handling them.

Having a bunch of tents in random locations being added into the list of things the servers need to communicate and local clients need to render won't help.