The Thirteenth is OUR salvation - a new Exploratory Mission zone idea

[Dandelly0n]

Howdy guys, like many of you I feel the relic steps for this expansion were, to put it lightly, uninspired in the gameplay department, however what is done is done. This is, of course, a rough idea and I am in no way a game developer but I love this little mmo we have so here is something that could make it better



TLDR: a new exploratory zone for Gatherers, Crafters and Combat jobs, in the 13th world where all 3 types of players do various types of content together to progress the area and the relics.


I have below the bare bones of what could be a big integration between the 3 relic types: Gathering, Crafting and Combat

*Spoilers for 6.5

By the end of the patch we leave Zero and Golbez on their mission and promise to rebuild their world.

This my friends, is the story setup for the new Exploratory Mission:

We are to help our two new friends in their ravaged world as they try to reclaim territory from void monsters and others who do not want a restored 13th.

Gameplay features:

- 3 hubs distinct in style and architecture serving as landmarks as We get close to the capital of their kingdom to reclaim it.

- 3 large scale raids (48 man) with their own glam, emotes, minions, songs, relic currency and mounts.

- Gathering Zones

- Crafting Areas like Ishgard Restoration



But how will all of these different gameplay systems work together?


The restoration of the 13th questline will need not only our might in arms but our skills in crafting and our knowledge of the land.

For Gatherer Jobs: The maps would contain nodes for gatherers to farm resources , the materials then are traded for their own progress in the Botanist and Miner and Fisher relics. The materials go into a "storage room" keeping it filled with regular and rare materials is their goal also for progress in the relic tool and questline.
When they reach the server wide special goals every facet of player (gatherer, crafter, combat) gets a bonus for a period of time.


For Crafting Jobs: Every settlement would have events and a server shared board of crafts that are needed for progress in the relic tool and questline.
When they reach the server wide special goals every facet of player (gatherer, crafter, combat) gets a bonus for a period of time.

For Combat Jobs: Nothing new here our formula of Squirmishes and Critical Engagements, plus rare mobs (with hunt timers) would be enough to fill this gameplay facet. Players farm resources from all of these to trade in for progress in the relic weapon and questline.

But why are we all here together ?

The point is cooperation , between players and servers and FCs and discords and whole communities. The bigger the player engagement in the 13th's Exploratory Mission the better it is for everyone involved.

The towns flourish because of the gatherers, crafters and combat players, everyone wins , everyone has fun TOGETHER.

[Dandelly0n]

*Special and experimental features:

Fate type content but for gatherers, crafters and combat jobs all at the same time.

- Protect the town: During a set period of time monsters are attacking the walls, combat jobs need to kill world bosses , while gatherers and crafters work together to keep the walls up.


- Craft the key to the dungeon: each 48 man raid has a regular entrance and a special one, with new bosses and more currencies and special rewards.
But there's a catch, crafters need to create a special key.

*How will they do this? *

They need rare materials that are more challenging for the gatherers to collect, however the zones where the materials are found are corrupted, combat jobs need to find the Void Lord world bosses defeat them thus spawning a special Critical Engagement after it is defeated the land is cleansed.


Special mentions


The whole point of this idea is to promote cooperation between everyone, and I believe something like this would be a great expansion feature for us.

With that said it is a bit unrealistic to expect that after 7.0 ends every community driven goal would be achievable. Simply due to players loosing interest in the zone in favor of new stuff in 8.0 and beyond. So every major bonus goal are not necessary to finish the relic and story line, they are treated as such extra steps for fun.

"But I don't want to do all of this just to get a weapon , its too much work I rather just pay 1.5k tomes and be done with it"

It's understandable and if you just want the weapon , you can for 1.5k of the current uncapped tomesones and you get it, by choosing this route the player would also lose access to the 48 man raids and the new zones, but no one should be left behind.


Thank you for reading all of this giant wall of text. Please if you liked it share your ideas and lets get the devs to know what we want in the future

[Davixxa]

While I like the theoretical idea of all facets of the game working together, I don't want it to be the Thirteenth. We've had enough dark and purple for the next few expansions, if you ask me.