free companies

[Nero-Voidstails]

ok don't get me wrong I get the general idea of a FC but my question is this why is there so many solo player like what could make FC more appealing to them(me included).


like my point of view is this.
most FC say run content but I can throw a pf.
everyone can do the "endgame" solo still.
most FC have small group into them making it hard for new player to join in content or speak.
you have NN that can teach new player(not all NN are equal)


so I do wish there will be more stuff link to a FC other then maybe a social group or buff.

I don't say FC's are pointless at any point I just wish we could have more link to them to give player a reason to join one

[Rabblerabble]

What is an example of something you want from an fc?

When I led mine I took advantage of the submersibles bringing back the salvaged jewelery to host events, small as they were it was always nice to see people win a prize for a costume or talent show or win a hide and go seek with strange rules.

A well decorated FC is also a great place to relax, letting interested members have decorating rights can help it stay fresh over time as well.

The fc chambers are a great idea also, especially if you like to host mini venues from them.

FC's that also allow more active people access to the crafting station in the workshop also help make it more tight nit, and active. I helped people on several occasions with making skins for their houses.

To me these are great ways to have links to people in your fc.
But I know not every fc is "for social purposes" like that.

With all that tho, what else would you like? I missed the period of time people could go to Diadem, except one trip there like a week before they took it away from FCs. A cool function like that may be nice tho.

[Eremite]

FC's are in a bad place right now because they don't have any particular use aside from a social linkshell with benefits.


FC Buffs/Actions:
* 99% of the time, this is Heat of Battle for XP. Not actually that useful since it's only from killing mobs/bosses. Nobody grinds mobs to level, so it's only useful if you're running highest-available dungeons to level. Most people in the FC aren't doing this.
* 2nd action is a wildcard and rarely helpful.
* If you have Squadron unlocked, you can get these same buffs as a scroll that you can activate precisely when you need it for 2 hours.

Diadem Access:
* Being in a FC with an airship used to give you access to a better version of the older version of Diadem where there was a combat system inside. This was neat and would get groups together to meet up at the FC house and depart together. This is scrapped.

Airship/Submarine:
* The theory is everyone works together to donate resources to build airships that can be sent out like retainers. The reality is maybe one or two people do this and keep all the rewards. Other people are incentivized to make their own FC if they care about doing this content.

Party Finder and a unified sense of purpose:
* Some FCs try to do stuff like "Map Mondays" or "Savage Saturdays", etc. People have varying schedules though and it's infinitely easier to just queue up with random people in party finder who you'll never speak with again and hardly talk to while you churn out some maps, etc.

Guild Housing:
* More incentive for people to split off into their own tiny FC so they can have an extra house slot.
* Private rooms are just crappier apartments that you can lose if you leave the FC.

Discord / Outside Comms:
* If you have something you're interested in, there's a Discord for it. It doesn't encroach on your chat window and you can mute it whenever you want.

FC Tags/Descriptions:
* More incentive for people to split away from large FCs so they can have more space to customize their character with their own custom guild tag, name, description, etc.

Social Chat in-game:
* You can have so many more Linkshells and Cross-World linkshells that this is just redundant.

I could go on, but the short story is FC provides no real benefit and design choices have actively pushed people into avoiding FCs so they can make their own.

-edit-
I suppose the one thing that I didn't consider is that it does provide a physical place to hang out in-game with the FC housing if people actually use it instead of idling in Limsa/etc. You have MB, summoning bell, etc there but can't world hop for better market prices. Also the crafting stations (IIRC) are useless for anyone who was at the max crafter level before the expansion dropped, so those are pretty much only useful for very new players.

[LibitIncarne]

FC's are in a bad place right now because they don't have any particular use aside from a social linkshell with benefits.


FC Buffs/Actions:
* 99% of the time, this is Heat of Battle for XP. Not actually that useful since it's only from killing mobs/bosses. Nobody grinds mobs to level, so it's only useful if you're running highest-available dungeons to level. Most people in the FC aren't doing this.
* 2nd action is a wildcard and rarely helpful.
* If you have Squadron unlocked, you can get these same buffs as a scroll that you can activate precisely when you need it for 2 hours.

Diadem Access:
scrapped

Airship/Submarine:
not community

Party Finder and a unified sense of purpose:
* Some FCs try to do stuff like "Map Mondays" or "Savage Saturdays", etc. People have varying schedules though and it's infinitely easier to just queue up with random people in party finder who you'll never speak with again and hardly talk to while you churn out some maps, etc.

Guild Housing:
lol

Discord / Outside Comms:
* If you have something you're interested in, there's a Discord for it. It doesn't encroach on your chat window and you can mute it whenever you want.

FC Tags/Descriptions:
* More incentive for people to split away from large FCs so they can have more space to customize their character with their own custom guild tag, name, description, etc.

Social Chat in-game:
* You can have so many more Linkshells and Cross-World linkshells that this is just redundant.

I could go on, but the short story is FC provides no real benefit and design choices have actively pushed people into avoiding FCs so they can make their own.

-edit-
I suppose the one thing that I didn't consider is that it does provide a physical place to hang out in-game with the FC housing if people actually use it instead of idling in Limsa/etc. You have MB, summoning bell, etc there but can't world hop for better market prices. Also the crafting stations (IIRC) are useless for anyone who was at the max crafter level before the expansion dropped, so those are pretty much only useful for very new players.

Buffs:
It's usually Heat of Battle and Reduced Rates unless your FC Lead has some form of intelligence. In which case you might see Mark Up, Jackpot, Meat and Mead, or Proper Care.

Purpose:
Now that crossworld Party Finder and Data Center travel is a thing, statics in FCs aren't a thing anymore.

Social Chat:
It still fulfills the best kind of social chat. You don't see CWLS invites advertised nearly as much, and Linkshells don't work if you're off home world.

[MeanDragon]

Buffs:
It's usually Heat of Battle and Reduced Rates unless your FC Lead has some form of intelligence. In which case you might see Mark Up, Jackpot, Meat and Mead, or Proper Care.

Purpose:
Now that crossworld Party Finder and Data Center travel is a thing, statics in FCs aren't a thing anymore.

Social Chat:
It still fulfills the best kind of social chat. You don't see CWLS invites advertised nearly as much, and Linkshells don't work if you're off home world.

We run Heat of Battle as the "Secondary" buff and rotate through the primary (This was chosen by the FC members and we run a poll every once in awhile). Reduced Rates is up when we run Treasure Maps, Jackpot up on Saturday evening, Meat and Mead for raid nights, Mans Best Friend during FATE Farms. And we don't keep them up 24 hours and swap as needed. (Except the Rank IIIs)

[PercibelTheren]

Yes, you can run things in PF but having an FC makes things much easier. Most FCs I know of also do maps, which seem to be quite annoying to set up through PF. Not every FC is cliquy and unaccepting of new people, either. My particular FC also does trivia quizzes, movie nights, glam contests and other social events. My experience with the NN has been purely negative, so I envy servers where it's actually useful.

[Grumblecakes]

The way the game is designed makes FCs less important. I am in one, I love the members in it, we all get along and we do stuff like maps and socialize. When they play. The thing is the regular active players are savage raiders. They do their raids in their statics on Aether, do any new content ASAP, and then when done, poof until next major patch. I am now a mostly solo player because I simply cannot rely on people to even be online let alone want to run older content with me since I'm more recent to the game. So yea, the game isn't designed around alot of casual to midcore content FCs can do together imo. Right now it's basically a ghost town in my FC with all of them currently on WoW since they are done raiding for now. Kind of sucks if you are more midcore or casual like myself.