Recognizing parasistic game design decision

[Shougun]

I think squadrons may have been abandoned for two reasons after SB. 1) We were on The First, not the Source. 2) As they are only classes, they get no new abilities and were replaced by Trusts with jobs.

Another of course is they don't want us above the rank of Captain (added in SB) and could you really see us taking the rank of being in charge of the whole GC instead of say Pippin?

Everything are belong to me... all the bases... Farwell Pippin.... >:3

Hehe. For the reasons I'm sure trusts had an element to it, but it doesn't make squadrons feel any less abandoned because of it. Personally I think they should make trusts from early on, remove perhaps the leveling mechanic, but add in other progression systems (like squadron had tactics, even chemistry the ideas could move across although perhaps they could be romanticized a little like brother sister chemistry is a special default, and you can unlock them through playing the game etc, and "select" chemistries from there), perhaps multiple types of progression like AI tweaking unlocks, can pick X ability or Y ability (and if earned both choose to pick a different setup later), and then preparedness type ratings that have a general ilevel like effect (so if you're level 50 and farm a bunch of cool ability unlocks or whatever as soon as you hit 70 and do your first shb dungeon your trust isn't already god, yet you could rank up preparedness like an ilvl which just boosts your whole team, higher preparedness giving them food buffs, access to potions, etc). Then there are npc specific growth and global growth, which can act as a nice balance opportunity and progression of content (meanwhile obviously the general global growth can have caps tied to your max level / story, so you don't fly past a point that turns the difficulty into cheese).

Then Squadrons can be moved into a clearly their own type of content (trusts are for progression of main content), squadrons are for "x". One idea was like having a semi-Dynasty Warrior set up, besides using open world zones as large instanced battle spaces, perhaps you go into old dungeons, go to outposts, etc, and help your GC (old dungeon as in the lore you've already gone through and killed out the old enemies, now new monsters have invaded or you need to finish clean up, your GC may even build outposts in some areas which unlock you new features of content, like an outpost in the lava dungeon may provide you a new recipe / upgraded furnace in your GC areas (and island sanctuary when unlocked) that helps with certain actions. A lot less passive version of what you might see in some control the table modes in other games (including WoW garrisons, those are passive where you just send them out like a retainer), here you'd get to lead your group and appear a bit of a lord among your generals, as you go in and fight screen filling numbers of monsters lol. These systems I thought could also be built up in unison of making Hamlet content for FCs, as it would lore and mechanically potentially get use logically (GC being a sort of company). So while FC are full building a hamlet and defending it, and attacking strongholds as a team with far more difficult less swarm like numbers, your GC would be building up your GC garrison, helping your GC (as a FC-garrison-lite), and utilizing some similar systems.

Another was maybe player owned airship (your crew for your ship), can go around as a GC-sanctioned pirate or something lol. Then there is a unique content, again like the above idea, dedicated to them. Meanwhile trusts, which have far more lore wiggle room anyways and are pretty just a cool thing to experience given the story potential, move into the MSQ type content. Like, as may happen in the future, if you got to do your Praetorium with Cid would be awesome, but it would be a little less awesome if it was your squadron (not terrible, just having context lore characters making context lore comments and just generally fitting the setting and having logical actions for it... well that sounds good).

Not to say I don't know why they went trusts over squadrons, just that it's clearly, at least imo, an abandoned system that feels like a dangling appendage with fleeting purpose. Would like to have it remixed to have lasting purpose, and the better ideas of squadron married to trusts- as such that trusts just generally will work better and have more exciting progression (like currently squadrons that are maxed are just more powerful than trust members, in the feeling they give, I get you don't want trusts to go too fast, but it would be better imo to move away from the level system and go into things like unlocking special skills, combos, and general stat buff concepts).