regarding Player-NPC hangouts/dating alternative

[Qhode]

Now Im not the type of person who would think their demands would be met after making making a thread on a forum but I was told that I should at least try to share my thought.

Ok so I want to be brief: Very recently fanbyte released a interview with Yoshi-P (Thanks to MrHappy for sharing it) in which they talk about many things, the dating/hangout system included and why it hasn't happened. It notes that they haven't done it in part because of the restrictions it would put on the story and the world itself.

(Source)

“It is a live game,” he begins. “I consider the NPCs as living beings. All of these characters have their life that continues within the realm of Final Fantasy XIV. You never know what happens to them in their lives. And by having that sort of date event with the Warrior of Light, it might kind of narrow their possibilities, you know? I’ve given it a lot of thought, like, what can I do to make that possible?”

The idea that came to me was the possibility that we don't get a the typical hangout system as in you take characters in a date but instead get some form of a diary where the warrior of light would write his personal interactions with NPCs during his whole journey. They take place in the story, and time they took place in, they however bear no relevance to the plot since they are simple hangouts with NPCs.

To make a example of a hangout:

lets say that at some time at some moment after arriving at Kugane during the events of Storm Blood you find some free time and hang out with Alisaie and buy her some nice Elezen new earrings, eat some of Kugane food or idk somethig.

This way it would allow the player to experience something similar to what everyone is asking for without limiting the story and even adding more, we could read our diary and hangout with the y'shtola from 3 expansions back and we could play that hangout by selecting it in our diary and we could unlock them as we progress through the story as in implying: "these were the hangout events that happened during the story you have progressed but we obviously didn't show you because they had no relevance to the story".


PD: Sorry, this wasn't as brief as I wanted it too and please if this ever happens let me hangout with Yugiri.

[Eldevern]

Technically, it's not that complicated. But...

Unfortunatly creating such kind of content as narrative can become a big work for scenarists.

For RP players... it sounds like a double-edged sword. Some will find inspiring, some other will think it kills some room for their own RP.

Maybe as an alternative, they could allow to "invite" some NPCs as companion to hangout with, in order to create our own narrative. I'm not sure about the work it represents. What I mean is something like the pet or mount call + emotes.

[Shibi]

Maybe as an alternative, they could allow to "invite" some NPCs as companion to hangout with, in order to create our own narrative. I'm not sure about the work it represents. What I mean is something like the pet or mount call + emotes.

If they allow it then the NPCs might need to be invisible to everyone else and very much unable to be directly emoted. Otherwise, knowing the NA community, Limsa would be a million pole dancing Cids and Xenoses with the associated /dote spam.

Restrictions on who was grabbed and where they could go would also need to be in place (we don't need Khloe Aliapoh, or even the teens Alisaie & Alphinaud, ending up in an ERP stripclub)

[Eldevern]

...

Fair enough, I should have mentioned this aspect as an evidence. This said... since people can play RP as a team, NPCs should be visible by the team.

But... yeah, since SE don't want to break the image of the Scions, it will never happen anyway.

Thanks for the reminder, since I'm not playing weird RP (and RP in general)... I forgot this problem.

[Bruhai]

So while I would love this idea I dont see the problem with rp. Like the WoL and my character are not the same. As in while for the game story I am the WoL when I rp I am just some person in the world. Yeah I carry a sword but I mean who wouldn't in today's day and age.

[Bright-Flower]

Most people who actively RP (not just having a headcanon for the character to determine dialog choices, but actually RP socially with other players) do not RP their character as a warrior of light.

Partly to have more freedom in defining their character's story, and in part because RP is a social activity and when you have five or ten or a hundred warriors of light running round, or really only just two, this story written for a singular protagonist falls apart fast. Some people do RP as warriors of light but they're in the minority.

That said this isn't really a system I'd be interested in seeing fleshed out. I'm all for some story moments here or there where the characters get to hang out, like that dinner with Aymeric, so long as the scenes leave room non romantic interpretations and not thrust on people. But having a whole system dedicated to this stuff on its own? Doesn't really interest me.

[SilverObi]

Something like this would likely be fairly easy to implement depending on how in-depth they wanted to make it. FFXI had a feature where you would interact with key areas in cities that would call your companion NPC to you and you could have conversations with them along with the other functions specific to that feature of the game. They could do something similar in XIV where you could go to say The Rising Stones and choose to interact with an NPC of your choice in a short cutscene with some dialogue options.

[Qhode]

If they allow it then the NPCs might need to be invisible to everyone else and very much unable to be directly emoted. Otherwise, knowing the NA community, Limsa would be a million pole dancing Cids and Xenoses with the associated /dote spam.

Restrictions on who was grabbed and where they could go would also need to be in place (we don't need Khloe Aliapoh, or even the teens Alisaie & Alphinaud, ending up in an ERP stripclub)

Well yeah I would expect the hangout to happen in a instance, it would be the most logical way. The way you're putting it just makes them sound like bigger minions with animations