Chapter XXIX: Companies, transportation and maps part 2 - Company relationships

Continuing with intercomapies relationship, it’s important to say that there would be some relationship between companies and factions.

Companies from the same city can, as example, form alliances for temporary business that interest both parts, merge (one buying another. In this case, though, the owner and all officers from the original company will receive a fraction of the company value (the owner can or not set a price for his company…if he does, it can be bought by another company. The amount paid would be 40% to the owner and 60% equally split among all officers) but they would have 2 options…all them being demoted as common members of the company who bought it or being exiled from it (becoming member or being exiled is an option chosen by the buying part in the moment they set the merge). Also, someone who sold his company cannot ever again create another company in that city) or employ factions for temporary services. Factions, in other hand, can only set alliance with other factions or be employed by companies, with no kind of merging being allowed at start. Factions can, however, after they worked together for long enough, create a “syndicate”, that would have a name and a crest different from all names and crests that would be used for large-scale content or missions with members of both factions. Once a syndicate is formed, all factions that took part of it would lose their tally position and, instead, the syndicate name would take their place on tally, joining the effort of all related factions as one.

So, in short, companies would work like “companies”, being able to hire factions, create alliances and even buying other companies…and factions would work as freelancers being able to be hired by companies or setting syndicates with other factions to become stronger tally-wise…this said, so yes, a 5-faction syndicate would be even to a company in influence regarding tally.

But now back to growth. Once the company got its headquarter, the next step would be transportation.

The first and most simple transportation method is classic…the chocobo. Once they build a stable (stables have a limited chocobo slots…so small stables can support only a few chocobos) they can start buying chocobo eggs (or putting a shepherd to breed chocobos for eggs or hunters to hunt wild adult chocobos) until the stable is full. Once it’s full of adult chocobos (while capturing them is faster, breeding them might offer better long-term result), they will be allowed to ride chocobos. The number is limited though, so if the company has 3 chocobos and all 3 are being used, no one else can ride chocobos from that company.

After you got enough rank, the next transport method would be boat. Obviously certain companies cannot have boats at their headquarters…if you have a company in Silver Bazaar, you must go to Vesper Bay, where your boat might be, to have access to it. Small boats might cost pretty cheap, while big ships might not only require much higher company rank but also a large amount of gil. You cannot have an Astalicia-like ship if your company isn’t big enough.

Just like boats, you can also, when you get high enough rank, access the airship option. The starting airships are meant to be just like the current balloon-like ones already seen in Eorzea, while the last version is actually the ultimate transportation method.

In short, you would start with chocobos, boats and balloon-like airships and keep upgrading from them to a more elaborated version…like even chocobos would be upgraded by carriages and then multiple chocobos carriages…

Think that certain missions would just require a certain transport method, like some supplies requiring just the chocobo while some escort and larger supplies requiring carriages.

But it’s important to say…the main goal would be a mix of all three…hard to imagine? Of course not! We had this in FFVII! An airship that can move in water, that can fly and that can carry chocobos and carriages for ground travels!

At next part, the why of these transportations!

Chapter XXIX: Companies, Transportation and Maps part 1 - Companies

Se, we have the Eorzea we know, the maps we know and all…the question is…is it enough? It’s not! Eorzea is too small at same time it’s too big…we are plenty of space, but only like 20% was usable (just look at inaccessible areas in every map). So the idea here would be using the company as a way to gradually upgrade the maps.

Let’s start about Companies…I’m not talking about current ones from current FFXIV…my vision is a bit more “older”…I see the companies as FFTA clans…small, specialized factions/militia that can accept tasks based on their ranks and challenge others for regional influence! That’s the companies I want to see!

I can imagine it as, at start, a LS…with a leader just paying a large amount of gil to a NPC in one of the cities (as soon as the city has grow enough to support a company…again, I’m using the player-made map concept said earlier, where cities just have the core part but all the rest being built based on players investments on that city) to receive a Company Contract.

The Contract would work just like a LS…but with a 4 colors crest (with possibility of drawing it…many games already use 80x80 or 100x100 pixel boards for local drawing…just look at Mario Kart DS…that’s what I would want to see here…and for those not willing to draw, templates with 3 color crests plus a stamp), a limited number of “pearls” (number of members would increase with company rank, starting with 15 members, a full party, limit) and access to a meeting room (“soundproof room” located at City Hall. It’s like public WC though…each City Hall has a limited number of meeting rooms…if all are filled then you need to wait one free before you can use).

Also, the number of companies a certain city can accept is based on its size and, even though people from any city can join any company, would be interesting to have the option of giving players a bonus for living at same city, as well an option of moving from a city to another when you join a company. And it’s important to say…each player can be member of only one company.

As your company grows, more options would become available…first one would be building your own headquarter. It would require large amounts of gil, materials and/or crafted stuff (like players being required to pay, let’s say, 500,000 gil for doors or having the option to trade 60 oak logs (which would cost much less than 500,000 gil for those with botanists in the company) or even 15 oak doors (which would use much less planks (like 3 planks per door) than 60 oak logs would create and 15 iron door knobs, still much cheaper than the 60 logs or 500,000 gil…but only for those with carpenters and armorers in the company)…it all depending of the effort and the amount of gil the players are willing to pay), but once built the players now would be able to have their own headquarter where only members would be allowed to go.

Of course, the headquarter would be the very first step…with even the possibility of upgrading it later, like building advanced crafting facilities in it, taverns where you could place vendors, bank system and even, later on take part of local tally.

Once a company reached a certain rank, there would come the main option…becoming an Official Company (pledging allegiance to the local city and start taking part at official missions involving security, like escorting, defending the city from attacks, patrolling the area, doing supply missions, etc.) or becoming a Faction (an allegiance-free group that accepts offensive missions, not only from that city but from any city, like taking up mercenary missions, bounty hunting, spying, assaulting, etc). While official companies have much larger rewards than factions (because they are restricted to a certain city), factions are free to go and accept missions everywhere, having reward diversity over amount.

The tally for both would be separated though, while an official company can only take part at local tally (if my official company is from Aleport, I can only expand my influence through Skull Valley region and, if it ever becomes big enough, through La Noscea at most, having much more impacting influence than factions), factions can take part in all regions’ tally, being then able to spread small influence around all Eorzea or to focus in a certain area of interest regardless of its headquarter location. I’d say that a good relationship would be 5:1 the proportion of official company x faction influence, with official companies getting like 5 times more influence than a faction by doing the very same thing.

Also, it’s important to say that there will be both NPC companies and factions from each main city-state like, as example, Limsa Lominsa having the Maelstrom as company taking part at La Noscea company tally and Aleport having the Brotherhoo of Broken Blade as faction, also taking part at all tallies.

Relationships at part 2!