Remember that you need to look at the linkshells to determine if they will be doing a Free Company. FC = Free Company. Linkshells are just as important though! A Free Company's house isn't just a house that can be decorated as you expand the building, you gain permanent buffs to your characters like 25% exp increase and other things like that.
So a Free Company is REALLY important. That said, you can really set up Linkshells for Alliance chats, guilds that don't want to be structured heavily, or even use them as specific chat channels. Last I checked a Free Company can have 512 members roughly and a Linkshell is 128 I think? So there is a big difference. I know for Company I'm running, we still have Linkshells as part of our structure so we can have non-company folks hanging out with us and a dedicated roleplay channel.
And Free Company does have its own chat channel too. Its really nice how Square did this and I'm very pleased with it. I also recall that Free Companies will get further abilities later on and more will get unlocked through specific quest completions. I think they mentioned awhile back, Free Companies will eventually be able to summon certain creatures. That may have changed and also if your interested in PVP I think there is things tied to Free Companies. It was a good idea overall.
Oh I forgot one more. You can have 15 ranks in a Free Company, while as a Linkshell its just a person who can give out an invite and the founder. No ranks really.
I hope that answers a bit of the FC questions vs LS.
So a Free Company is REALLY important. That said, you can really set up Linkshells for Alliance chats, guilds that don't want to be structured heavily, or even use them as specific chat channels. Last I checked a Free Company can have 512 members roughly and a Linkshell is 128 I think? So there is a big difference. I know for Company I'm running, we still have Linkshells as part of our structure so we can have non-company folks hanging out with us and a dedicated roleplay channel.
And Free Company does have its own chat channel too. Its really nice how Square did this and I'm very pleased with it. I also recall that Free Companies will get further abilities later on and more will get unlocked through specific quest completions. I think they mentioned awhile back, Free Companies will eventually be able to summon certain creatures. That may have changed and also if your interested in PVP I think there is things tied to Free Companies. It was a good idea overall.
Oh I forgot one more. You can have 15 ranks in a Free Company, while as a Linkshell its just a person who can give out an invite and the founder. No ranks really.
I hope that answers a bit of the FC questions vs LS.