Free Companies need More Improvements

[Louvain]

Hi all, I'll get straight to the point and make this as short as possible. Apologies if threads of a similar nature have been posted before, but I feel it is an important issue.

Free companies right now are incredibly lackluster despite the big role they can play in the community. The following list is a basic outline of some possible improvements that I've come up with that could make the system more fulfilling.

FC points

FC's are granted ways to generate points to buy buffs and items. However, the accumulation of points is much faster than what you can spend it on. Many FC's are sitting at millions of excess points with nothing to spend it on, unless they feel like buying dozens of bahamut figures. Some spending options could be

>More Furniture Items
>Grade 3 (or 4!?) fc buffs
>minions or mounts
>glamour outfits

# of buff's to be enabled at one time

As an fc grows larger the needs of its members become more and more varied. Despite this, an FC can only have two buffs up at any given time, even at rank 30. This forces members to weigh their options and try to choose the best ones for the day, or go as far as rotating them throughout the day. and as the food buff is almost a universal benefit to all members, that just leaves officers to pick one other buff.

It would be really nice to have this bumped up to at least 3 buffs on at a time, even if it requires the fc to be at rank 30 to receive it. (currently, there is no benefit for ranks 21-30)

Grade 3 FC Buffs (are a pain)

Currently the only way to obtain rank 3 FC buffs is to specially craft them and then allow them to sit on the aetherial wheel stand for 70 hours. For reference, these buffs still only last 24 hours, and only provide a 5% increase to the grade 2 fc buffs. Please decrease the marinating time SE, or improve the % increase and make them grade 4! T_T

Encouraging Parties within the FC

Similar to the mentor/sprout buff, it would be pretty neat if players got an overworld buff while in party with their fellow FC members. Maybe a small stat or exp boost with a fun title to help encourage FC members to group up and play together.

Fix FC Rank Permissions

Players with the promote/demote power, or discharging another player, can still, for some reason, kick/demote players who are set to a rank above them (excluding the FC lead). Many free companies have had this loophole exploited and abused to their detriment, so it would be great if this were to finally be fixed.

In Game Polling

I just think it would be neat! And useful if you're planning big changes for the FC and want everyone's opinions on it (vs having to use a discord, or chase people down and ask them etc).

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And that's just a few basic ideas. If anyone has other suggestions feel free to post as well~

[LisSquid]

I would throw in an expansion to the Workshop, and giving access to a workshop to fcs without a house.

[Shougun]

Haven't made a thread on it yet when I meant to but one of the ideas they had long ago was Hamlet Defense in 1.0, a content where the crafting and battle side protected a small town through a series of waves. I've always felt that sort of concept could be quite fun for FCs. Especially as you could envision it's more than just defending some location but it might be -your- FC's hamlet. Perhaps multiple hamlets as options, adding both scalability and custom scenarios for SE to deliver players. For example the FC made hamlet, being a group project in and of itself (and replacing any shortcomings the housing system has, so no FC is without a workshop), would have scaling invasions and generally be a bit more 'do-able'. Success and failure being a bit more tuned to each FC's flavor, perhaps you boost the difficulty like a leve quest if you wanted but you could also just be like "we are hyper low key so whatever, hand us a soft ball". Meanwhile you might get other locations in the game as scenarios where hamlets will hire your FC and are far more scripted in the sense of their delivery (like you either perform to "this" bar or you don't win).

Can invert the defense into an offense as well and have FC invasions into the beast tribe strongholds. As mentioned with the whole hire concept, this could generate leaderboards and some FC vs FC light content (or even FC assaulting / defending each other's hamlets). Ideally the competition part isn't seen as the sole purpose (such that if you're a fc that wants to do some here and there you're not like "why bother, I'll never defend 5000000000 hamlets by the end of the season").

The hamlet construction opening up lots of new stuff too like it always felt weird to me the reputation system in the FC was just kind of hanging out there, I thought it would be neat if you could work on behalf of your FC for other nations and beast tribes and npcs specifically to develop relations which would naturally unlock new constructions, helpers, and tech.

Although on a personal note I'd be happy if this was all on a sole player level too (like a Garrison), but I feel it would work well in a group setting so.. either way it sounds interesting to me lol. Similarly for what I've said about airships or magitek garage.