[Suggestion] Monster Bestiary

[Jynx]

Original discussion

With the UI interface changes proposed by the development team I can't help but myself feel like it's far too much information to be slapping onto the monsters name-tag. A good solution to this conundrum is perhaps allow players to have a personal bestiary they can access and view information they have aquired from monsters.

Such as Level range, agro type, link or not, elemental properties...Hell go a step further and toss some lore into the monsters give em a small snipet of information on the besitary page. I'm sure the dev team has concept sketches of all the monsters they would make perfect artwork for a bestiary page.

Anyone else feel this would be a better way to handle giving us all this monster information without having it clutter up the UI? From here on is the agregate buildup of suggestions.

I think after all this time it might be prime time to move away from the besitary just being a fix to the monster UI icon fixes. We have all grown rather accustomed to them I think, and while I still think it's a drab decision I'll live with it.

For now I beleive that a bestiary is still something that can "Spice up" the drab world we are exploring everyday, give us a goal to strive for. Even without rewards completing a bestiary is just one more thing for people to strive for and complete, one more activity among the new instalments of content. Givin that the developers are interested in spicing up the zones and making them a little more "Deep" I think a perfect addition to this thread is beyond the bestiary give the larger or more important areas a "Bestiary" like page as well.

Give us something nifty to read about the area once we unlock the page "Perhaps through exploration with the new up-coming map system?"

For a good relatable example let's say.... the new Amaal'ja base Zahar'ak

Zahar'ak

A stronghold erected by the Amalj'aa, its name meaning "like a rock" in their native tongue. Its location was said to be chosen by thaumaturges who, through ancient rituals, divined the position to be auspicious for waging war. Beginning life as a humble frontier outpost, over time Zahar'ak grew to become the foremost Amalj'aa base in all of Thanalan, boasting an intimidating array of siege engines and troop conveyances as well as a facility for breeding war drakes. Recent moons have seen a sharp rise in activity at Zahar'ak, which has sparked disquieting rumors among Ul'dahns of a full-scale assault on the sultanate.

Sure this is available on the loadstone but why not have it available in-game as well? I think having tid-bits of information like this before I waltz into the enemies fortress gets me more "Into" the area.

[User interface]
Bestiary

Possible implementation uses.

• Clear away UI clutter
• Collectable card game
• Progressive bestiary "more you fight monster the more it fills out"
• Supplement UI information

Possible Information listed

• Mob familly
• Mob level
• Agressive / Passive
• Linkable
• Elemental affinities
• Lore

Ways to gain Bestiary pages

• Sighting monsters
• Using a skill or item to capture a card "think panktration without needing to weaken the monster
• Killing monsters "once or multiple times"
• using a trading card obtained by other players via "capture" or killing monsters

Integration with Materia System

The Materia system could easilly be combined with the new Materia system to obtain special types of materia. The materia could range from the standard +1 str or even branch of specially for the familly of monster you are fighting to obtain the materia.

Possible system

1: Each familly of monster has a Gauge to fill, as you kill monsters from X-familly "Must gain SP in the process" the gague will fill depending on the ammount of SP you gain. When the gague is full you can extract a materia from your bestiary or continue to stockpile points for better chances at HQ materia.

2: Gaining % completion in the bestiary rewards with a set type of materia befitting the work needed to reach such completion. IE: 10% gives you a +1 base state materia 50% gives +8 base stat. Could be any number of combinations.

3: Finishing a certain monster familly in the besitary rewards with a special materia that adds a damage bonus to ____familly of monsters. IE: 15% damage boost to Forgekin ext.

I think the materia system and bestiary combined would create a much needed time sink into the game.

Integration into Lodestone?
While parusing the Japanese forums it seems they have subjects on this matter as well. here is a mock-up of a Lodestone besitary of sorts. Interesting stuff.

*Clickity clack for Photo*

These are all just suggestions within the thread and not a single cohesive plan, I just wish to give as much suggestions in the top post to get the topic flowing for the developers to read.

Related posts

Monster addition suggestions: Developers are asking what kind of new monster we want to appear in the game. Post your suggestons and Vote up the others you think are awesome. Lets hope someday we can have a massive beastiary full of unique monsters and lore.

Mockup Image
Clickity - Clack
http://oi52.tinypic.com/2hwnywm.jpg

Dev and Rep responses

Spoke to Yoshida himself about this idea and he said that he would like to implement a bestiary if they can make the appropriate parameter adjustments during the battle fixes.

(Quote of Yoshida speaking loosely on the subject with 4gamer in a interview post E3 2012.

also can't talk about the details but also planning to have something like a monster reference book (was it beastiary in English?? one where you collect mob data after kills and stuff )

If you support this idea, please post your thoughts and give this thread a "like" to let them know how you feel.

Community testimonials.

I think this is an utterly brilliant idea.

Make it happen ..

Absolutely love this idea.

I support this. Always good to add onto lore.

it would be like a poke'dex ^^ yes please /want <3

I'd love to see an in-game Bestiary though with bits of information filling in as you complete them. Using concept artwork instead of the actual character models as you suggested would be a nice touch too!

On topic yea bestiary would add a good deal of content to the game.

I like the idea of a monster bestiary. Its definitely something that would be fun to fill out, and feels very final fantasy ish.

Thumbs up for bestiary. I could see myself putting in countless hours just trying to fill up the pages.

I think it could really add to the whole exploration of the Eorzean world too!

I could see people like me going to each and every mob to get the card then continue fighting it until i got every blank filled out on the card because i am an exploration and side quest fanatic.

[REDace0]

I'm fine with rank, aggro, link being on mobs in the UI, but I would love to see the other things you mentioned implemented in a bestiary.

[Rjain]

Whether an alternative to aggro icon or not I would love a system like this. Perhaps list things like how many times you've beat that particular monster, and the monster's loot tables. By loot tables I don't mean everything at once, but maybe something like...

???? ????
???? Tin Ore
Pyrite ????

^ Things would display after you have actually acquired them, and items not yet acquired from that monster would be hidden.

[Enthy]

it would be like a poke'dex ^^ yes please /want <3

[reci]

nice idea. I will also toss here the suggestion I made on another thread.

How about a "scan" skill, juste like there is in many FF games? No agro icon nor lvl indicated (as it seems the dev are talking about currently), but once you use the skill on the mob, you have the relevent information (+elemental strength, hp/mp, etc). after a while the info fades. so no intrusive ugly icon.
All the info collected could then be placed in the codex and available to you anytime.

[SirEdeonX]

it would be like a poke'dex ^^ yes please /want <3

This would be very interesting

Also, the scan/libra skill is a pretty good idea too.

[Jinko]

A bestiary would be kind of cool, but I definitely want to see monsters level next to their name.

Scan/Libra is a waste of time IMO.

[Arcell]

I've been saying the same thing to a lot of people in my LS. In fact scan/libra could go pretty well with Arcanist and its associated lore.

I'd love to see an in-game Bestiary though with bits of information filling in as you complete them. Using concept artwork instead of the actual character models as you suggested would be a nice touch too!

[Veasna]

This info could be on cards that can drop randomly from mobs throughout the world, this way we could sell them or add them to our personal beastiary deck. All collectables are always great money sinks. Heck they could go further and make a game we could play with these cards if you have a fair collection. Like if you have a beastcard with fire affinity it will win vs. a beastcard with a mob with ice affinity. (prolly not good examples, but im sure SE has plenty imagination to do something nice with it)

[Jynx]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'm going to gather some more input from other sources and then work on a more formated suggestion to the dev team. Feel free to leave more ideas and comments and I'll see what I can do to add them to the OP.