Chapter XXII: Incapacitation

This is a very nice feature of this game…and one that should be expanded much more!

Right now we not only have very restrictive incapacitations but also most of them have no visual indicator. Would be very nice we seeing more visual indicators, like when incapacitating a bandit’s left arm he dropping the shield, or being able to destroy gobbling bags or kobold helms…or even having monsters that can regenerate from incapacitation, like skeletons, changing stances based on incapacitation, like start kicking if they lose the arms or start crawling in the floor if they lose the legs.

Monster’s mutilation would be also cool, like chopping off eft tails or crab legs…just imagine the strategy involved when, using crabs as example, having it much more resistant than it is now until you incapacitate the shell, opening an weak spot in the back or chopping of a frontal arm, that would cause it to change stance (standing up in 3 legs in order to use a leg to attack), leaving the belly exposed in the front…it would be similar to that FFXIII armadillo that is extremely resistant until you break its shell. Same for imps and ahrimans…imagine us chopping off their wings, causing them to fall and change to “walking stance”.

And, for this, we could have a class similar to FFT’s Holy Swordsman, a class specialized in incapacitating targets. Imagine a class that can incapacitate every single part of monsters…could even make the other types of incapacitation too, like bind, pacification, silence or amnesia… It would be a very interesting class (especially if dressed like FFT…cowl, gauntlets, sabatons and a 2-handed sword)!

And, lastly, I think we should be able to receive from monsters incapacitating actions too…from temporary “knock off” effects that make the character temporary dropping the weapon or shield, losing then access to respective actions to even gear-destruction actions, meant to destroy specific pieces of armor (by destroying I mean automatically changing it to 0% durability), which would be specialization of our infamous soldiers/knights, with actions like Weapon Break, Shield Break, Armor Break, etc.

This way, we could have much more strategic fights!

Chapter XXI: Party Buff

This is one of the said “modern MMO” concepts I do like…having multiples effects based on party composition would add a brand new fan of strategies to the game, not being based on “who deals more damage” like it often happens.

However, a bonus “just for being in party” adds nothing to the game at all…it would be interesting having bonuses based on certain combinations…with a 15 members party I’d say combinations of 3 members would be very nice.

About the combos, I’d add the city combo, the guardian combo and the class combo, having each combo increase one aspect of that group. Here some examples:

If we have 3 Ul’dahn players, you would receive the “Ul’dahn Party” effect, that would add -3% damage taken (analyzing Ul’dah, we see that all 3 classes from there does have potential tanking possibilities, making this very directed to them).

If we had 3 gridanian players we would have “Gridanian Party” effect, which would increase in 3% the damage dealt (because Gridania has the classes with biggest damage dealing potential).

For Limsa, since we have only MRD as reference right now and the other 2 classes will use ranged attack (since one is DoM and the other uses gun) so we could make “Lominsan Party” effect increasing the arracks’ range in 5% (would also help MRD range when using AoE attacks).

For deities, we could make something like 3 players with Menphina deity generating “Menphina Party” that would, as example, increase healing potency in 10%. For deities, though, since they cover every aspect of the game, we should have some that generate effects that help not only with battle but also with gathering activities and crafting, like “Nymeia Party” adding 3% success rate to all synthesis or “Byregot Party” adding +3% high quality rate. For gatherers, we could have ”Oschon Party” that would increase the number of attempts per gathering point by 1 attempt or “Nophica Party” that would decrease the remainder depletion by 5%.

For classes, we could have bonuses specific for each class patterns, like “Marauder Party” increasing the stamina cost of basic actions by 5% but increasing the damage and TP generation by 5%, or “Archer Party” increasing the movement speed by 5%.

Of course the names can change…specially classes ones…would be much cooler we having a “Tracking Party” than “Archer Party” or an “Elemental Party” instead of a “Conjurer Party”.

Also, it’s important to say that the effects are meant to stack, with priority going from class effect as highest priority (since they are the more specific ones) then city then guardian, generating a maximum of 5 effects when in full party (there would b a limit of 1 effect for every 3 members). For strategy purposes, the party leader would be able to, at party screen, be able to see the class, city and guardian of each member and also have the option to flag a certain member to only take part in a certain effect since leaving this as an automated feature might not always generate the best or the intended option, like we having certain players able to take part in multiple party effects and the automatic effect generation putting him in the “wrong” party.

This option could also be a player one, being able to toggle on/off certain party buff, like a player with Oschon, Gridania and ARC ,if thinking these effects wouldn’t be interesting, could just toggle these 2 options off, only accepting party effects with Gridania.

Chapter XX: Guardian Aspect part 2

Another point…Where we have element we also have an elemental wheel…always. An element alone loses its purpose so we will always have the wheel. So this would also affect the guardian aspect. Each guardian aspect would give you access to not one, but 6 deities’ aspect. Back to Menphina example:

As Menphina servant, my “main” guardian aspect would be Menphina’s one…the only one I’d be able to reach the fullest potential. Still, as we are talking about elemental deities, by ice we have 2 deities…so this would actually give me access to Halone Aspect too. Halone, however, would use only 75% of my ice affinity while calculating its effectiveness.

But now we have the wheel…where there’s ice, there also fire and wind. So be it! I would have access to Azeyma, Nald’thal, Oschon and Llymlaen aspects as well…but these 4 aspects would use 50% of their element’s affinity. So if I invoke Azeyma aspect but have only 30 Fire affinity, I’d be using 50% of it to calculate the aspect’s effectiveness, generating a very weak effect of 15% of its default effectiveness. So, while you can invoke the aspect from other deities, they wouldn’t be nearly as impacting as if they were invoked by someone that had them as deity. “But what’s the purpose of this then?” you ask…it’s simple….freedom!

The player will be free to, if he really needed that effect, to invoke it. Also, this would be a way of players to still have some freedom during the purge period…If I’m with 200 Ice affinity and changed to Nald’thal, I’d be really in a bad shape until the purge period is gone…but with this I would still have access to Menphina and Halone aspects that, even if with 50% of the affinity, would offer a much superior performance than my raw fire affinity (assuming that to reach 200 affinity in one we had to put every single bonus allotment points in ice).

So this is it! A nice way to make players more interested to deities!

Chapter XX: Guardian Aspect part 1

The guardian aspect, while a very important concept of the game, it doesn’t really fits its name. The Guardian aspect should be expanded to a really deity-related content. Let me elaborate an example:

I have Menphina deity…still, right now my guardian aspect has the very same effect as if I had, as example, Oschon as guardian…it just makes no sense at all. When I choose I deity I should be fated to be under its effects.

So, starting at beginning, we already needed some animation that reflected the deity. If I’m invoking the aspect of the ice deity, it’s at least expected to have some “ice-related” animation here. Second, the aspect icon…it’s a VERY confusing icon…until now I never really understood that image…as we would be breaking the aspect to each deity, would be very nice having the deity symbol as aspect icon.

Now the important part…the effects. While guardian aspect has the default effect of increasing skill points gain (which should stay), it should have a more expressive and impacting effect depending of the deity, like having directly affected by your elemental affinity. Also, being able to invoke it outside guildleves would be very interesting too.

An example would be the duration length…like making the guardian aspect lasting 2 times your elemental affinity…so if I have Menphina but my ice affinity is so-so, I wouldn’t have the effect lasting long enough…but if I’m a truly “icy” character, then I’d have its effect at optimal performance!

Another point is the secondary effect…you see…only SP boost isn’t enough to make it important…because sometimes SP just doesn’t matter. It should be a more impacting effect like, as example, having those with Menphina aspect having INT boost (INT since it’s the attribute related to ice), magic potency increased and “Ice Spikes” effect (not the FFXI one…I mean just anyone that touches the character being countered with ice element spike damage). Also, would be nice the effectiveness of aspect being based on elemental affinity. Make it all balanced for 100 element points…if I have 100 ice affinity then I’d have the 100% default effect…but if I have 90 ice affinity I’d have only 90% effectiveness of aspect…and if I have 200 ice I’d have 200% effectiveness (obviously a cap would be important here…I’d say 200 in one element is already impacting enough since elements would be working as a second set of attributes, affecting the overall character performance as said at elements topic…so if a player have 200 element it would have maximized effect of that element, but minimized effect of all others, turning his extremely vulnerable to most types of damage). This would start making players actually reflecting about his deity. Also, if that’s the case, we could make a deity purge quest, where the player would be able to change deities in exchange of 100 guardian favor (or more…if he has more than 100 he would lose them all anyway…because by the time you reject your deity it’s obvious that you will be also rejecting all its favors). Also, when you change deities you would have an elemental allotment penalty for 7 days, not being able to change the affinities during this period…let’s say it’s the time your character is getting used to the new deity.

More at part 2!

Chapter XIX: Monsters, Nests and Claim

These are 3 aspects related to battle that I think are important. Seeing here we have monsters with nearly unique behaviors and pretty much them all with ranged attack, it’s interesting to offer an option better than “roaming” to players that feel like grinding.

But before talking about nests, is important to specify some quick claim rules here to make the gameplay more enjoyable...
a) Whoever hits the monster first get the loot. The monster name will turn red to those that will get the loot and purple to others.
b) Since this is a game that focus on multi-targeting fight, it’s interesting leave players free to attack as many monsters as they want. Only one will be claimed and offer loot though. The monster turning into claimed while already damaged won’t affect the loot.
c) The experience and skill points will be shared to all players/parties that damaged that monster. If a party damaged a monster for 60% of its HP and another player deal the last 40% damage, the party will receive the equivalent to 60% of the monster’s full reward and the player who dealt 40% damage the other 40%. This would enforce the cooperation between parties. The highest player who damaged the monster will dictate the experience point and skill point earned.
d) Notorious monsters would be under a different rule. Only those with claim can take part on battle, with outsiders not being able to either attack the NM or support the party who claimed it in any way.

It’s also important to say that monsters will have difficulty and EXP/SP reward based on its size…because small monsters like rats and coblyns are meant to be easy kill for solo players, while larger monsters like morbols, buffalos, drakes, peistes, etc. are meant to be party-based challenges, being nearly impossible to be soloed. This being, obviously the larger monsters will offer an EXP/SP gain much higher than small ones, even if in a full, 15 members party.

Now about the nest mechanics…it’s somewhat similar to FFXI pephredo hives and Salvage’s archaic ramparts. Imagine the NPC nest (based on monster type…can be a hive for bees or midges, webs for yarzons and diremites, holes for coblyns, nests for birds, etc) that have its own HP bar. It will always have 3 to 6 monsters guarding it (depending of the monster type, since while a party can take care of 5 aldgoats at same time, 5 peistes might be very troublesome). Every time one of these monsters is killed, the nest loses 1% HP and instantly spawns another one.

Now the fun part…these monsters are divided in 3 groups…the workers, the soldiers and the queen. Let me use the Aldgoat as example.

The workers would be the nannies. Monsters that aren’t aggressive and don’t link. The soldiers would be billies, that would stronger than nannies, aggressive and would generate a party with all nannies close when it spawn (very short range…it’s like in case it spawn right on another monster from hive…just to keep players on their toes since they won’t know if the monster is solo or in party until they attack it). Soldiers would only spawn after the nest was down to less than 50% HP.

The queen, in other hand, would be a NM-like monster, like Mosshorn for aldgoat example, that would only spawn when the nest HP was down to less than 10% (the queen will always spawn…so if the nest is down to 2% you can bet that once the next monster is killed and the nest go down to 1%, it’s the queen who will spawn…so it can spawn earlier or later on, but will always spawn). When the queen spawns, automatically all monsters from next make party with it, so better the players being ready for a tough fight. While it’s outside, the nest will recover HP until it reaches 50%. When the nest gets back to 50% the queen will despawn and the party with the nest monsters will be disbanded.

If the queen is defeated, it will drop a loot exclusive from it (maybe rare crafting material) and the players will be free to defeat the last monsters until the nest “die”. When the nest die, it will despawn and a chest will spawn as reward. Once the chest is claimed (individual chest…every player who took part in battle will receive his own chest) the nest will respawn somewhere in the area.

With multiple nests, not only parties can grind on them but also would offer to player some kind of “minigame” since it will also have a boss and reward!

Chapter XVIII Repair Tools:

This idea is based on FFXI ninja tools. Think on them as not only a way of crafting a more generic repair material but also a possibility of crafters to take part in parties too if you guys ever decide giving them battle-wise support actions, which i'd love to see...even if they cannot engage the monsters in battle they do should have a back-line role possibility in parties.

The idea is adding repair kits. Its just like ninja tools that can be used for repairs and for battle actions, like repair actions (repairing the players midfight for a small percent but without the need of setting repair) and even buff actions (like ARM being able to cast buffs that improve the heavy armors performance or being able to cast buffs that increase the target's block rate).

But now about the repair kits...the idea is to make them simple recipes that will generate 32 repair kits. Just like arrows and baits, no HQ other than quantity is needed.

Some examples:

ARM:
Repair Kit (Armorer)
x1 copper plate
x1 copper square
x1 copper rivets
x1 copper rings

Repair kit II (Armorer)
x1 bronze plate
x1 bronze square
x1 bronze rivets
x1 bronze rings

Repair Kit III (Armorer)
x1 iron plate
x1 iron square
x1 iron rivets
x1 iron rings

Repair Kit IV (Armorer)
x1 silver plate
x1 silver square
x1 silver rivets
x1 silver rings

Repair Kit V (Armorer)
x1 steel plate
x1 steel square
x1 steel rivets
x1 steel rings

LTW:
Repair Kit (Leatherwork)
x1 sheep leather strap
x1 sheep leather spetch
x1 copper buckle
x1 mole sinew cord

Repair Kit II (Leatherwork)
x1 dodo leather strap
x1 dodo leather spetch
x1 bronze buckle
x1 antelope sinew cord

Repair Kit III (Leatherwork)
x1 buffalo leather strap
x1 buffalo leather spetch
x1 iron buckle
x1 hippogryph sinew cord

Repair Kit IV (Leatherwork)
x1 toad leather strap
x1 toad leather spetch
x1 silver buckle
x1 diremite sinew cord

Repair Kit V (Leatherwork)
x1 boar leather strap
x1 boar leather spetch
x1darksilver buckle
x1 raptor sinew cord

For the other crafts I’ll just leave the grade I example since for higher grades you just need to replace materials with the higher version of them.

BSM:
Repair Kit (Blacksmith)
x1 bronze nugget
x1 mudstone whetstone
x1 bronze nails
x1 animal glue

GSM
Repair Kit (Goldsmith)
x1 copper nugget
x1sphene
x1 copper square
x1 animal glue

CRP
Repair Kit (Carpenter)
x1 maple lumber
x1 maple plank
x1 bronze nails
x1 animal glue

ALC
Repair Kit (Alchemy)
x1 silencing potion
x1throat drops
x1potion
x1ether

WVR
Repair Kit (Weaver)
x1 hempen fent
x1 hempen yarn
x1 copper buckle
x1chocobo feather

CUL
Repair Kit (Culinary)
x1 boiled egg
x1 acorn cookie
x1 spinach saute
x1 orange juice

So, this is it. You might be wondering why I added repair kit to CUL and ALC…it’s like I said…the idea is to actually add a tool for these classes to be able to not only repair but also take part on battle, even though they wouldn’t be engaging the monster. We already had in FFT chemists as a starting healer…we can have culinarian as healer too…allowing these classes to take part on battle would not only relieve the disciple of magic classes but also add some immersion to them.

In short, it’s a way to treat all classes as real classes since it was an awesome idea added in this game! Just because they cannot obtain skill points in battle doesn't mean they cannot take part in battles!

Chapter XVII: Signature actions

This is important...because the main quest that always appears is “What defines this class?” Maybe the HP…maybe the gear…maybe the weapon. Still, people want something unique…and for this nothing better than signature actions! In years of FFXI we all learned to fear certain classes exactly due their signature weapons…the so called 2-hours ability.

That’s not what I want here…not an action that can define a fight, but an action that can make the class recognizable regardless of gear. The first step would be specify them…they had to be class exclusive, good and expensive. No less than 5 actions points for one!

For now, I’d ask 3 signature actions for each class…one rank 30, one rank 40 and one rank 50. Here the ones I’d make signature actions (some classes have less than 3 because I wasn’t able to notice any other that was worth being signature move):

MRD: Iron Tempest, Maim, Storm’s Path
GLA: Luminous Spire, Rage of Halone, Riot Blade
PGL: Victimize, Simian Trash
LNC: Doomspike, Chaos Thrust
ARC: Arrow Helix, Quick Nock, Barrage
CON: Ancient Magic
THM Shadowsear

In short, often the actions that consume all the TP, are the strongest card of the class and generally are class-exclusive. Would be nice having them improved in animation and performance and turned class-exclusive so anyone who see it would recognize the class.

Also, another point I think is valid…would be cool we being able to only learn by rank up the tier I of actions, but having what I’d call “Training Quests” where you can upgrade the tier of the actions…just imagine the action & traits screen…you having only the actions and after each name having 5 star placeholders.

If all stars are empty, your action is tier I…but as you complete the quests it start getting stars, going up in tier for each star. So, if you reach 5 stars you access the “Master” tier of that action. This way we wouldn’t need multiple versions of the same action at menu…Let’s say you reached the rank required for Skull Sunder II…you would have Skull Sunder’s first start at actions glowing, indicating that it’s time to take a training quest to improve it. Once you complete the quest the star would change to gold, indicating that now Skull Sunder became tier II (which would means having the skull sunder I replaced with skull sunder II since no one actually uses the lower tier actions).

This would make things very “interesting”, also increasing the bonds of the player with the class. You guys could even restrict the total stars you can have, like FFXI merit system…where players would be able to choose between focusing in certain actions for optimal performance or spreading the stars for an average moderated performance.

Chapter XVI: Monsters Behavior

This is a very nice characteristic of this game…nearly every monster having its own behavior. But this could be greatly expanded!

Not only carnivore monsters becoming aggressive if you’re too low or having curious/careful behaviors…but much more than this! Here some possibilities:

Some monsters could have their territory reduced during night, like aldgoats, having them all clustering during night just like real cows/goats…some could have their territory increased, like having undeads and bandits staying in caves during day but being able to walk outside and spread around the area outside the cave during night.

Certain monsters, like billies, could become aggressive during night, while nannies could have a flock behavior, being non-aggressive but linking if the alpha-male is attacked.

Monsters like Raflesias (can’t resist…I loved those monsters from FFXI) and diremites could set traps during night, like raflesias pretending to be environmental lush vegetation until the player step on them or diremites burying self and leaving only the tail outside with a green glow in it to pretend it was a firefly.

We could have mime/environmental trap monsters too, like one I posted a suggestion at forums... the "Taru-Taru!" (DO NOT assume it’s a joke! It is a serious suggestion...i'm just using this name because it just fit the idea better than any other!)

Just imagine an aggressive, lalafell-shape potato monster that has 4 big dark green leaves (dark green outer side...inner side can have a nice color) in its back and uses them for mimesis, covering its body with the leaves as if it was a cowl. The idea is that, while in cowl mode it does look exactly like a lalafell from far. Would be nice it having only a "jack-o-lantern-like mouth" at "face" so we could just see those smiles from under the hood.

The idea is that while its mimicking a lalafell (cowl mode) it would be invisible map-wise (no dot there...exactly because it is an environmental trap) and it shows its name as green (Like "Taru-Taru Trapper") until someone is too close to avoid aggro. If the green name is no good, leave no visible name then.

Only when it aggro it would show its "potato" form followed by an instant binding spore WS that binds everyone in range, forcing the combat (well, as environmental trap it has to be a predator).

This is a so cool idea that would even allow placing them in some hamlets...just imagine you going to Quarrymill and see a "Taru-Taru Adventurer" walking there...this is why i think it would be extremely funny to have them green-named until it aggro.

The one at hamlets could even be a NM...when it aggro it also pops from soil 3~7 "Root Servants" mobs (which i'd be satisfied if they had the very same potato looking but without the leaves and being much smaller than the taru-taru).

The options are endless! From Opo-opos climbing trees during night and falling aggressive if anyone try to log that tree to Yarzons spreading their legs in a star-shaped stance against rocky walls and jumping on people passing by…or even the infamous worms that are really missing in this game…here some other suggestions of monster with environmental trap stances:

-flea-type monsters that stay untargetable at those big bushes and then stick at target when they aggro rendering him immobile until the mob is killed by someone else or unless the player struggle enough to get free (like those resident evil parasites)

-Raflesia-type monsters that stay open at ground until someone steps on it, then grabbing them by legs until killed or until the player struggle enough to get free.

-Worm-type mobs that stay underground until the player step on them, then jumping from ground and biting the player's ass and rendering him immobile until someone kill it or the player struggle enough to get free.

-Goobbues and toads to "swallow" players, randomly removing a certain players from fight until its killed or spit him up. This would bring an extra new possibility to fights since from time to time a certain member would be missing.

Chapter XV: Action Bar and Proficiencies

Regarding actions, would be nice we learning our way to interact to the environment. Let me toss a few examples from here and from FFXI…here we can see gathering points with any class and in FFXI we could track monsters thru map…but while there were required a few specific classes, here it’s free to anyone.

So would be nice we having a few proficiencies regarding environmental interactions more explicit…like we learning a proficiency that allow you to see the gathering points when you start a Disciple of Land class…and all those proficiencies being like affinity traits, only working on other classes…Example:

A BTN can see Logging Points naturally…but if I want to see it with another class, I’d have to equip the proficiency “Eye of Nature” at proficiency slot (it would be a separated 10 slots, just like we have traits and abilities).

LNCs can jump, climbing larger ledges, unaccessible to other classes…but if you equip the proficiency “Dragon Foot” you can also jump ledges up with any class.

And this could be expanded to every class…like having shepherds being able to find monster’s nests, hunters being able to track monsters, marauders being able to swim, we having classes able to automatically avoid small environmental obstacles like stones and fences, etc.

Also, proficiencies would be especially important to Disciples of Land and Hand…let me say you are MRD and decide playing BTN a while…you do know already how to use an axe in combat…and still BTN cannot use. There should be a proficiency that allowed certain classes to “borrow” basic actions to another ones with proficiency traits, like BTN being able to use Light Swing and Broad Swing (the starting ones only…and with power and accuracy penalty…it would be just to take down eventual aggressive monsters on the way since they wouldn’t receive skill points at all for defeating monsters), or classes that use hammers using blunt basic attacks from a club-wielder class…all more for self-defense.

About actions, I’d like to have the action slots increased to 36 so we could use what I call “Expert Flower”. It’s pretty complex for both dev team to implement and players to use but, performance-wise, it would increase drastically the players response once they learn how to use it.

For explanation I’ll use the PS3 joypad as reference…imagine four 3x3 matrixes (this is why I want 36 slots) taking the place of action bar…it would be up to player to leave them all expanded or only the active actions expanded. “Active actions?” you ask? Yep! Imagine that each matrix is referred to a joypad button…square, triangle, circle and cross. Now let me list the mechanics:

a) Each button is referred to a matrix, so pressing it will use the action of that matrix. Also, each matrix would have its own action pointer.
b) When you use the directional arrows to select an action, all 4 pointers would react at same time. If toy press left, all four pointers would move to the left slot at left, ((2, 3) position). When you release the arrow the pointer resets to its default position, the center of the matrix ((2, 2) position).
c) Players can choose between have all matrixes visible fulltime or only the active actions being visible and the others shrinking. This mode where unselected actions shrink is what named it “Expert Flower”. The option of Shrinking actions would be to help saving space at screen, making all actions actually using the space of like 1.5 lines only.
d) With these new slots, new actions could also be added, like having a battle regimen action or a synthesis action.

This might look weird at start, but player performance-wise I can say it might be close to optimal when using joypads…and if that’s the case you guys can also leave an option for straight action bar just like we have now…but instead of 3 lines of 10 we having 4 lines of 9.

Chapter XIV Battle regimen part 4 - Twelve Regimen

-Twelve Regimen: This is the strongest regimen of all. ”Why?” you might ask…because there are 12 deities so having the right combo will be very hard…in special the Tier IV one that will require 12 players with different deities, making it nearly impossible to be done but, if successful, it would be able to define the battle against even the mightiest enemies. Just like Battle Regimen, I’ll just list the combos to save space…its already too long.

Tier I: Menphina>Halone, Oschon>Llymlaem, Nymeia>Thaliak, Althyk>Nophica, Azeyma>Nald’thal, Rhalgr>Byregot. The order here doesn’t matter. Menphina>Halone would generate the same as Halone>Menphina. For tier II explanation I’ll use “T1” to refer the deities already used at tier I regimen.

Once Tier I is set, another 2 positions will become highlighted. So there will be positions from 2-12 to 11-12, excluding the ones already used on T1, generating a combination of 10 positions, 2 by 2.

Tier II: T1 >Both deities of weaker element, T1 > Both deities of Stronger element.

The tier II positions will actually start the elemental wheel in one of the 2 ways…it might follow the power way (weaker being followed by the stronger element) or the inverted way (stronger being followed by the weaker element). Once a way is set there will be no turning back. Also, the first one to get in position will decide the way…If we haveT1 using Fire element and the first one to take position at tier 2 is one from Menphina, the order is already decided. Incase both are already in position when it started, the power way will always have preference.

Once tier II is set, another 2 positions will be highlighted. The player accepted in these positions will be only the ones with the 2 guardians required to follow the wheel. Excluding all the occupied positions, this would generate a combination of 10 positions, 2 by 2.

Tier III will work exactly like tier II regimen, accepting only the 2 deities of the correct element at chosen wheel. It will generate a combination of 8 positions, 2 by 2.

Now that we already have 6 players in position, all other positions will highlight for a Tier IV regimen. This IS supposed to not be done like…ever. This is why it does require 12 members…it would be an extremely powerful strategy for large-scale endgame only, where people would face the best Eorzea has to offer. Assuming that there is possible to have 12 players with all different deities to be in position in less than 5 seconds (yep, people must know what they’re doing since the timer waits no one…the idea is to have players already in place by the time the regimen is triggered if they want it to be the highest tier one). For this regimen effect, I’d use the most classic name of all FFs: Ultima!

I tried to have it the most detailed possible…it’s extremely complex and will require a crazy amount of battle animations…but if done properly it can become the ultimate skill combo ever seen in a MMO…because at same time it can be extremely complex to program and require a large effort from animation team, for players it will be extremely easy to use since all they need to do is, when he notices a position highlighting, stand on it.