Bring back Squadrons - Gacha

[AshtonCrowe]

I've been thinking lately and totally wasn't inspired by a certain YouTuber (I forgot which one) to bring up this topic.

Squadrons currently only serve to get your Captain rank and loot tied behind that rank which can be sold for egregious amount of Gil or to get your collectables. There is no purpose to them after this is completed, Instead of letting them rot whynot introduce a kind of . . Gacha system. .

This System would enable you to use your Dev Handcrafted waifu / husbando to do story content in the future instead of relying on "B-But my scions!" sure, You can still use Scions but having your squadron at hand allows you to just use them for dungeon content / trusts and enable them to get stronger alongside you. The first couple clears will be slow af, But after you get them some EXP they can output the same DPS as a human if not more efficient.

This allows SE to make more money, You get 10 pulls a day (Free) + 10 Tomestone pulls at 100 Each, Then sell "Reset vouchers" for 1.99. Put characters in the gacha that look like The Waifu's you'd get in Genshin or recycle old Final Fantasy characters like Lightning or Fran. You already have the framework that allows characters to enter our world for "Events" there's no reason why you can't have Auron in your FC to repay a soulbond or something. Make a few defaults you can get w/o the gacha like Vaan or Zidane then allow the player to make their own parties.

These don't need to be voiced, They'd purely exist to do content when you literally can't find other players which is very common in Dawntrail sitting for 20+ mins unable to do current patch dungeons unless you DC hop into Crystal.

Gacha system makes more money for SE, Gives players strong trust members, Lets players play with unique characters, Adds more content for Squadrons, More loot to farm, Emotes, Mounts, Cosmetics, ETC.

. . At the same time you can put Inventory slot expansions in the loot reward for doing trusts with Squadron NPCS.

[Raraka]

Seems like you forgot this is a suscription game, not a free to play like Genshin.

More squadron content good

Gacha bad

[AshtonCrowe]

Seems like you forgot this is a suscription game, not a free to play like Genshin.

More squadron content good

Gacha bad

Trying to entice SE here, Otherwise they'll never come back to it <_<

[User202503201232]

Seems like you forgot this is a suscription game, not a free to play like Genshin.

More squadron content good

Gacha bad

FF14 makes less content and for worse gameplay than literal gacha p2w games.

[Kranel_San]

I've been thinking lately and totally wasn't inspired by a certain YouTuber (I forgot which one) to bring up this topic.

Squadrons currently only serve to get your Captain rank and loot tied behind that rank which can be sold for egregious amount of Gil or to get your collectables. There is no purpose to them after this is completed, Instead of letting them rot whynot introduce a kind of . . Gacha system. .

This System would enable you to use your Dev Handcrafted waifu / husbando to do story content in the future instead of relying on "B-But my scions!" sure, You can still use Scions but having your squadron at hand allows you to just use them for dungeon content / trusts and enable them to get stronger alongside you. The first couple clears will be slow af, But after you get them some EXP they can output the same DPS as a human if not more efficient.

This allows SE to make more money, You get 10 pulls a day (Free) + 10 Tomestone pulls at 100 Each, Then sell "Reset vouchers" for 1.99. Put characters in the gacha that look like The Waifu's you'd get in Genshin or recycle old Final Fantasy characters like Lightning or Fran. You already have the framework that allows characters to enter our world for "Events" there's no reason why you can't have Auron in your FC to repay a soulbond or something. Make a few defaults you can get w/o the gacha like Vaan or Zidane then allow the player to make their own parties.

These don't need to be voiced, They'd purely exist to do content when you literally can't find other players which is very common in Dawntrail sitting for 20+ mins unable to do current patch dungeons unless you DC hop into Crystal.

Gacha system makes more money for SE, Gives players strong trust members, Lets players play with unique characters, Adds more content for Squadrons, More loot to farm, Emotes, Mounts, Cosmetics, ETC.

. . At the same time you can put Inventory slot expansions in the loot reward for doing trusts with Squadron NPCS.

Please return back to the Genshin that spawned you.

[AshtonCrowe]

Please return back to the Genshin that spawned you.

No please, Not back to the gulag D:

[Raraka]

FF14 makes less content and for worse gameplay than literal gacha p2w games.

Rest asurred that if 14 was free to play they would sell:

-Classes (via gacha)
-Every glamour that isnt a recolor
-Housing (not permanent though, a subscription)
-Storage space (separate from retainers)
-Consumables to boost exp and stats
-Glowy weapons
-Glowy armors
-Glamour plates
-Gearset slots (by default it would be reduced to 10)
-Gil
-Viera and Hrothgar hairs and hats DLC (only other players that buy this dlc can see them)
-Collab items
-Reused assets from every zone as furniture
-Triple triad cards
-Every new minion (in a gacha bloated with every other minion)
-Every new mount (in a gacha bloates with every other mount)
-Advanced graphic settings (Reminder that they sold us Audio settings in the past)
-Differently colored Titles
-Event items
-Contest rewards for a deluxe price (aka, 300+)
-"Deluxe" or luxury items that are either glowy or golden for hundreds of dollars
-Deluxe emotes
-Deluxe fashion
-Deluxe chocobo barding
-Skill effects for every class in different colors
-Teleport effects
-Customizable emotes
-Makeup
-Body Tattoos
-Beards
-Long hair that has physics and doesnt clip into your clothes
-Premium teleport vouchers that let you go directly into Inns and other important places
-Portable retainer bell
-Materia bundle
-Dark matter bundle
-Tribe skips
-Questline skips
-Glamour dresser expansion kit
-Adventurer framers kits
-Bait storage/box
-Dye box
-Increased armoury chest space
-Grand company rank skips
-Boss themed cosmetic bundles (Ex. Roses of may bundle with fashion set, orchestrion, cloak accesory, weapon, and emote)
-Old FF cosmetic sets and weapon sets
-Alternate UI themes
-Levequest allowance vouchers
-Mount speed increase (suscription)
-FFXIV Premium, with QoLs bundled on a monthly suscription
-New dyes and RGB wheel Dye
-Supporter pack (100$ to get a I love XIV title)
-Gatherer/Crafter level skips
-Island sanctuary level skip
-Master recipes unlock bundle
-Crystals and Clusters Bundles
-Submarine level skip
-Premium Companion system (NPCs and Retainers)
-Premium companions gacha (as OP wanted)
-Old feast top 100 rewards but with 1 pixel difference so its not the "same"
-That one Yukata Tataru wore in stormblood
-Premium submarine parts with better stats
-Premium materia that can be used for overmelding (you have to gacha wich materia you get though)
-OST packs that add new music to the game (as now all dungeons will use the same generic music)
-In game Hydaelyn statue that costs 200 dollars and gives you an emote of swiping the Wols credit card in the air
-Transformation consumable to turn into NPCs
-Lopporit race
-Burmecian race
-Alternate summons pack for summoner
-Gold saucer DLC that opens up a new floor
-Chocobo racing kit (Max pedigree and level chocobo with skill of your choice)
-Zenos bodypillow accesory/mount
-Y\\'shtola bodypillow accesory/mount
-1000$ Y\\'shtola in a Jar
-Housing outdoor furniture capacity bundle (+5)
-Housing indoor furniture capacity bundle (+5)
-Butt slider
-Extra face options/sculpts for each race
-Alternate body types for each race
-Hair gacha
-Emote gacha
-Dance emotes of popular tik tok dances
-LGTB+ flags as furniture, makeup, and accesories (But only sold and visible in-game during pride month)
-Advanced house editor (suscription)
-Tomestone currency bundle
-Eureka level skip
-Eureka weeklies reset voucher
-Bozja level skip
-Bozja field notes bundle
-Bozja lost actions bundle (Fragment gacha)


I would keep going but I stretched the joke enough, I was waiting for a teacher to arrive at college and got bored, my apolocheese

[Loggos]

I think the idea itself is very interesting without the gacha!

Making squadrons more useful again is a good idea imo and I don't even mind "pulling" from them because the recruitment is already random so it wouldn't deviate from the core principle of squadron recruitment.

However this should definitely not be paid for. In a subscription-based game this should be free just like the way island sanctuary or housing is free.

Despite being an avid Genshin player lootboxes/gacha is one of the most detrimental and toxic monetarisation systems in modern gaming in my eyes. I am glad to have one place where it doesn't exist. I don't need even more fomo and predatory marketing psychology in a game I want to relax in. On top of that, there's already an oversaturation of gacha and fomo/battle-pass-ish live service games that compete with each other. Not only do all of them demand a certain continuous dedication in terms of time (and emotional investment/attachment), you just can't pay for them all. Sure, not every FF14 player is also into Genshin/HSR/ZZZ/WW etc. but I'd just be glad if FF14 didn't jump on that train and contribute to this problem.

--

To expand on your idea (which again I like):

Instead of money you could revitalise ingame currencies. For example, let us buy "tokens" with company seals. Giving the latter some more relevance beyond stormblood loot boxes (which is ingame gacha too) could breathe some air in this old system. It might also benefit content like fates and dungeons because people might be more inclined to farm those for pulls.

Also, this could be a good incentive to finally add more grand company ranks. You could make it so that the higher the rank, the better/rarer/stronger the units you can recruit (also makes sense ingame: if you are a high-ranking military leader, you'll attract more elite warriors).

This would also counter the implemention of fomo-systems/limited "banners" because unlike p2w gacha, where you can pay to pull for every character even at low levels, it would be incredibly player-unfriendly to offer limited characters that are only obtainable for 2-3 weeks (and then need months to return) when players with low grand company ranks can't realistically rank up fast enough to "pull" for them in time.

Since this is more of a side activity anyway and nothing that needs to be designed to maximise gambling profits for SE you could just have a pool of permanent characters that you can work towards like with achievements and regularly add new ones.
This system should also have something like a "selector", as in "after X recruitment attempts a character of your choice will be guaranteed" (X varies with the rarity of the character).

Seasonal events could be good opportunities for that. Since we already get NPC-based stories why not use those small stories to introduce side characters that can become our companions and are added to the permanent pool?
Teaming up with Papa Gruff? Come on! (Yes, you would have to write around the fact that Papa Gruff somehow joins you via a grand company but I have full trust in the writers that they can pull this off. *cough*)
To clarify: I don't mean that they should remove normal event rewards like glams and emotes and tie them to "event squadron characters". Normal event rewards should stay the way they are. In addition, a dedicated NPC from the event story is added to the squadron pool. This could also be some good advertising for squadron content.

After all you don't need to design kits or animations like you have to with normal gacha games.
Just give rarer characters better stats. (And if you are very attached to that one low-rarity character and want to do every piece of content with them, you could use duplicate copies to increase their stats so every character remains viable throughout all dungeons.)

However you could use this as a smart way to introduce new glams: Give rare characters unique outfits* or cosmetics that the player unlocks if they are recruited.
* Those unique outfits can also be dyable versions of undyable dungeon gear or "lvl 1" replicas of existing gear without class restrictions so we can finally glamour that one plate armour (or crafter set!) over our black mage gear.

This would also allow the devs to add a lot of random "filler" characters without any noteworthy stats or story because there is so much restricted glam. You can literally make filler adventurers for every dungeon and (alliance) raid, (older) EX weapons, and every crafter and gatherer set (why yes, let the miner join your squadron, their pick axe is quite lethal) with each of them wearing one of the dungeon's role set (e.g., full maiming set) but dyeable** and without glam restrictions. So if you want that one pair of gloves from that one Shadowbringer alliance raid for your perfect outfit but were always held back by glam restrictions you might be interested in collecting this character.

And you could also tie a character's rarity to the gear set's original level/expac. So characters wearing ARR sets would be a lot more frequent whereas characters from EW would be rarer (because lore-wise they'd have to be quite strong to be able to obtain that gear) and characters wearing DT sets would be the rarest.
And then if SE is generous they could create a handful of special/"super-rare" characters that have their own/unique glam and great stats (which goes back to the seasonal event idea).

I'm not sure how I feel about exclusive characters like older FF characters. Of course, if SE wants to put in the effort to give us those characters for free then yes please. But I worry that this could open the door for monetisation and actual gacha again and that's something I'd really want to prevent.


** I know that Savage already offers dyeable version of normal raid gear so my idea here steps on the savage system's toes a bit but I'm sure that's more of a detail problem that can be solved.
--

Like this, they could implement long-wanted features (restrictionless glams***) and overhaul systems (company ranks, seals, seasonal events) in a (somewhat) innovative way that gives players something to do.
*** (Ideally we wouldn't even need such a convoluted system of course because we should just be able to glamour stuff without restriction anyways. But since SE doesn't want that for some reason this could perhaps be an imperfect compromise.)

Though, yes, it's still fundamentally grindy - but perhaps they could add seals to a broader variety of content, including seasonal event mini-games, or give you different venues to buy "pull" tokens like PvP currency (Please! We need something to spend our PvP currencies on. This here would even be GC-related.), gold saucer currency or lower-value tomestones.

(And if SE really has to make money with this, allow us to dress up our squadron like retainers. Then people can buy glams from the mog station for them if they want to.)