Valence

I like draft 4 since it condenses nicely draft1 storyline with draft2 motivations and character development that come out of it.

Draft 1 sounds reasonable and with potential to me. Problem solved by saying that the character got among refugees that fled Othard during her early chilhood before the test, and got abandonned after once in Eorzea as part of the traditions the family still clings to. It can even explain why the test was failed since it's a foreign land for everyone. Since some time must have past so that she is not a child anymore, it still fits considering that we have examples of xaelas that left/fled Othard way before the recent annihilation of Dhoma (and the Xaen lands). Can also be mixed up with some stuff of draft 2/3, like the resentment against the test that the family insisted to do even in such extreme circumstances, for example. The DRK mentor appearance can be inserted anywhere from there.

Recently I got into a Sephirot (standard) in a trial roulette... And you know how PUGs are for this one. It's a bit like titan, Sephirot is the big bad bogeyman that for some reason causes a lot of issues to a lot of players. Well, everyone kept dying, and the other WhM was either having connection troubles or doing nothing. Since I have rarely run that fight (I barely stumble on it usually), I'm not super aware of the mechanics and stuff, but whatever, it's not really hard. There is maybe one lethal thing to keep in mind and that's it. Well, we wiped 3 times at least, either through DPS not killing all the adds before the lethal mechanic triggering up, or just all the DPS dying for whatever reason... I healed that alone, which isn't super hard actually. I probably have raised people more than 15-20 times (the other heal probably half of those raises). I think only one tank and myself were really paying attention and being actually decent at it. Anyway, we finished it after lots of blood and tears the 4th time and I got 6 comms. But what I actually like, and maybe you will find it funny, but as a heal, I like when stuff like that happens. I enjoyed it a lot. A bit like the first week Midas was released, on A7 and A8 where I stopped counting the number of times I had to pop healer LB3 (only time in my life I had the occasion to do that...).

I don't have a botanist per se, but my character comes from a proud gridanian family of botanists. Don't hesitate to hit me up ingame!

Me? No powers IRL, unfortunately. My character though, I guess when she noticed that not everyone was able to hear those trees mumbling stuff all around...

Besides what people already said above, there is one thing you also want to consider: I think you can paint two kinds of villains: grey realistic humans with dark tendencies, and dark, mustache twirling villains. While both can reasonably be measured in terms of evil, there is a world of difference between both. Someone that seems to act evil by our current standards (and the usual alignement standards), can actually have lots of reasons to do so: pragmatism, selfishness, etc, you name it. Some of those might even be worthy ideals. They however rarely are pure creatures of evil and remain human. I would even argue that they do not necessarily lack qualities. Remember that scene in Gladiator when the son Commodus kills his father? Saying he too has qualities, but not the ones his father expected? There, you have it: a villain that remains human, even if he turns to be kind of a psycho. Then you have the pure creatures of evil, often chaotic evil in nature. The ones that have not very much left of their human side, if not at all. The ones that will maim, kill, or whatever, just for fun, or because it's evil and that's what they do. We have some of those in FF, and most of the time they are voidsent and the likes. You might see where I'm coming at, but the simple portrayal of a dark character can play a huge role in how the character in question can get along with others. A dark character can still be extraverted for example. A dark character can still need to interact with others, even in spite of what he would actually like. If your character however is designed like the latter, with absolutely no redeeming traits, well... you will have a hard time indeed. It's like playing introverted characters or exiles and pariahs, but here all of those mixed up together at once. Play a lonely, brooding character with cannibalistic tendencies? Well, don't be surprised that the character eventually get shuned even more and gets tremendous difficulties to actually have decent interactions, if not at all. Everyone will just want to get rid of it. That, and on the OOC level people might just get put off by him/her. The more you remove the human side of a character, the less attraction your character will exert on the audience OOCly. The less people will be able to identify to the character, and the less they probably will find interesting to play with. If it's too alien... Well yeah.

Elementals keep a certain control over Succor (White Magic), not conjury.

The Allagan node from Helix Matoya's last broom All lead by the captain of the Dainty Demolishers (dictionally devilish)

I'll probably make a few conjectures here, and I want to point out that it mostly relies on player interpretation. So, we are told by SE lore team that Eorzea can be a harsh place to live. People have to deal with monsters out there, bad stuff, the Calamity, wars, bandits, pirates, slavers... Some of those which are explored in quests. It's not either the middle ages, mind you. We seem to have many anachronistic contemporary projections that go right into the lore (gold saucer, etc). It also covers a huge real life timeframe, from late middle age (Ishgard), to classic piracy (Limsa), steampunk (Ishgard machinistry), timeless (Gridania), antiquity (Ul'dah/gladiators), machine age (Garlemald), SF (allag), etc. What bugs me a bit is that you say she got fired cause she was minor... But here is the thing... Is there even a minor/major distinction in Eorzea? Wouldn't children already work alongside their parents in many cases or already have responsibilities for nobles (like, you know, Emmanellain page/squire, or even Emmanellain himself)? Why would even an inn tenant care about her age? We are not in our modern world here I think, it's exactly like the cops will show up or anything. I could expect something of that vein in a rigid and more modern society like Garlemald actually. But in Eorzea..? Thing is though, that as I said it stems a lot from interpretation and personal logic here. It's a fantasy world, so whatever you roll with... It's up to you! Because, maybe I'm totally mistaken.

That's the idea behind the racing ring/place, yeah!

First of all, no, it's not actually about dragons! It's just that I don't have any good title/catchy name in head yet... And I'm basically going into Terra Incognita, so... Ahem. With that said, I am still trying to set up something that I care about a lot, and that is, airships/manacutters/machinist stuff and whatnot. Everything related to technology, mechanics, tinkering, Garlond Ironworks, you name it! Garlemald had its industrial revolution, and we want it too! [align=center][/align] Another aspect of the game that is even less explored by players I think, is racing. We now have the perfect tools for that kind of RP to happen, which is, manacutters. I think there is a lot of potential left around those and it's probably going very nicely with the first. [align=center]---[/align] [align=center]The reasoning behind[/align] So, while I'm still looking for other people interested to fiddle with the concept, I thought about it some more and I'm ready to try creating something more serious and broad. You will ask me, what exactly? If I put together all those little concepts I came up with something I find unique enough, and I hope, interesting: First, we know that Eorzea uses several means for travel: Aetherytes, that remain very specific considering the huge limitations they bring (insane fees and anima requirements for your average joe, can only bring what you can carry, etc) ; Caravans, a good way to travel by land, but slow and subject to various attacks ; Ships, and by extension now, the apparition of airships, which prove extremely efficient when it comes to moving quicker goods and anything else from point A to point B. They are probably more expensive to operate and afford, and their main issue is that they are subject to garlean privateers and air raids. [align=center][/align] Now then, there is this little technological marvel that was introduced by Cid pretty recently, and seems to spread slowly around Eorzea: the manacutter. It seems to be the perfect solution to the problem to me. Want to carry goods faster than stupidly slow caravans? Use ships and airships. Want to get rid of all those pesky garlean corvettes attacking your crews and outclassed airships? Use a damn manacutter! I think those things are the perfect little courriers. It leaves a legion of possibilities: high speed messengers, VIP transfer, smuggling, blockade runners, and even mail service or whatever... Possibilities are plenty! [align=center]---[/align] [align=center]So, what's the idea?[/align] [align=center] [/align] Well, it's pretty simple and I hope, encompassing enough. I have in mind a company, or a group of people, that specialize into that kind of trade. We got manacutters (it could actually be hella cool to have RP events around setting up the project, acquiring the little things, building stuff...), and we are not afraid to use them... I mean, we offer all those services listed above. And maybe more (who knows, maybe we can mount keel guns on our sky bikes and become sky fighters and flying bounty hunters, yarr). Then... we could also have our little hidden hobbies and be super passionate about it. There is no national eorzean sport mentioned in the lore, but heh, let's say we like racing with our things. We have underground circuits and all the jazz that goes around. Mechanics, bets, in a nice underworld gathering place where everyone comes, outside of any allegiance. A freeport of sorts. Whatever works! I'm not deadset on anything. Oh yeah, but how do you do all that ingame, right? It's true. We have some limitations on several things: First of all, the venues and the places. Yeah, I'm still thinking on that one. I would love to have a company workshop and all that goes around, but that's already a much bigger and demanding task, so for now... I guess the idea is to brainstorm it a little, and I'm sure we can come with amazing ideas. Second, races you say? Stuff in manacutters? How do you even emulate that ingame? Those are just mounts! Yeah, that's true too. We will never get the feeling of speed and intense stuff with what we have ingame. I thought a lot about it and I think it's not that much of a problem. What is really interesting is everything that happens around too. All the fluff around. The lives that could be lived, and the tales to be told. That is perfectly okay ingame. As for the more action packed stuff, then I guess there is also out of game mediums, like Skype, Discord, or whatever. There, it is possible to unleash all of our imagination easily and do things. The idea is still in its infancy stage, true. That's also why I'm doing an interest check here to see how many people could be interested by such an idea. I know it seduces me a lot. If something works out, then I'm planning to create a linkshell around it at first. [align=center]---[/align] [align=center]Who would be interested?[/align] Well I would say, a lot of people actually! Skyrates, racing or speed lovers, sky lovers, engineers, machinists, smugglers, or even traders! I think there is a place where pretty much anyone could fit, really. That's a ragtag of a group, really. What do you think of it? Is that a silly idea? Is that awesome? What could be better, or be made better? And the most important, does that sound fun?

Feel free to poke me ingame, or I'll try to do it if I can! I have a character with deep gridanian roots that has quite... forsaken, or forgotten her link to that. It's a relation that I like playing on from time to time.

I think there could also be stuff to be done on that idea around Tailfeather fluff.

Medical condition The body has a certain reserve of aether that is stored inside. For most people on Eorzea that's actually quite weak, and as seen with the Coco brothers storyline for the Thaumaturge storyquest, one of them is willing very hard to become a thaumaturge too but just has pathetic aether reserves which means that pulling out the simplest spell ever could threaten his life. The problem exposed in the conjurer quest is not that much that Sylvie and her mother pull on a limited pool of lifeforce every time they use it that way until it eventually depletes it and kills them, but that as seen with thaumaturgy, it's a rather dangerous practice since you have every time to pull out of your aether reserves and if you go too far or do it too often before it's regenerated, then you can die because you will not pull on your reserves anymore but your very life essence (which is composed of aether, and it's your soul). That's also why the coco brothers came with the astral/umbral balance aspect for their school of magicks. I personally suspect that the heaviest and hardest spells there is for a conjurer is actually healing and especially raising (as seen in the conjurer quest, when the girl tries to raise, it goes very wrong for her). Elemental spells are no different than thaumaturge ones: they cast from the elemental wheel and are already dangerous. I suspect that healing spells are even worse in that regard (at least, raise, which also costs a kidney ingame). Fortunately for conjurers, they don't draw from their body aether reserves. I can totally see cardiac arrest being a direct consequence to pulling too much into your aether reserves with that in mind. Pull on your lifeforce, and your internal things might start to fail in cascade. If your character has a natural weak heart, I could totally see it being the first thing to suffer everytime. Aether Draw I am not quite sure what you mean here? Could you elaborate what you have in mind exactly? Versatility Well you can go with your implants thing of course, but bear in mind that lore can also offer basically what monks do: they can channel aether in a specific cay through their body by opening chakras. Chakras open their inner chi/valves to let aether flow and their body becomes some sort of conduit. That becomes especially strong in presence of old battlefields and places impregnated with aether residues. So in a way it also pulls from the environment here, but through a rather different mean than the conjurers do: conjurers don't really gather that aether in their own body reserves, they just take from nature bounty and make it work. Monks pull from it and actually channel it through their bodies (something something Rhalgr), thus the difference in application. Hope that helps! Keep in mind there is a certain dose of personal interpretation on my side for the solutions I offer.

For Grit? That's the funny thing, I told myself as soon as I noticed it was a dumbed down version of Defensive "What a shame, it should have more flavour, it's grit!" Then I was like "Yes but what?" I guess I haven't thought about it enough. I was a bit rushed to make all those character sheets before the event.

Honestly I have no clue at all. I set foot once only in the Gold Saucer and it was for that unlocking quest... Then my eyes went all "IT BURNS US MY PRECIOUS" so I got the hell out. There is no chocobo races though in there? I mean, it was a big thing in the FFVII Gold Saucer, right? Though they were racing alone, with no rider on their back, a bit like dog races.

There is a way simpler solution than the echo though: astrologian. They study the stars and constellations to make future predictions and overall are time mages (focused on healing on the ingame class, but that's just a tiny bit of their abilities, cf Ishgardian astrologians and Sharlayan astrologians). For example some of their healing abilities actually stem from time reversal/manipulation. It is a seen a lot of quests in Coerthas and the most notable example is probably in the MSQ where ishgardian astrologians predict the awakening of Midgardsomr.

Chocobo racer? That's interesting. Welcome!

Well that's the thing, I usually like speaking about lore so that I'm making sure the basis is solid before going into what it implies on our roleplay. Well, nothing says explicitely in lore that you can't see aether and all. That you can't see aether without killing yourself in the process like Y'Shtola does. Maybe there is a way to do it safely, I don't know. I know however that I don't want to be that guy that plays a character that not only equals a sharlayan powerful sage, but goes event further as to do better than her. Though, if you are looking for my personal take on the thing since I play a (modest) character with a certain, some what random, magical affinity... She is a Hearer, so that means she has access to a specific way to deal with the aetheral world around her (not to be confused with the aetheral plane!). She certainly doesn't see it. She doesn't really sense it either (it's not for naugh that people have to resort to contraptions like aetherometers and the likes to measure it in basically every quest and the MSQ). But, she can get a glimpse of what happens around by just Hearing elementals. She is dependent on what they tell and say, and she has to interpret it as best as she can. Not that very different from say, an astrologian that can interpret the stars through magicks, or any other "magical profession" you can think of.

I think that's a bit misleading to reason like that. We are not exactly talking about pure R&D here. We are talking about a system in place with limitations, pros, cons, and a certain structure. In most cases people coming with revolutionary ideas will meet either one of those issues: - They don't know the code behind and so their miracle solution doesn't mean anything once facing the reality. - Their idea is perfectly valid and someone probably already thought of it. Then the newcomer will ask "then why the hell are you not doing it"? The answer will always be "Because its costs development time that is allocated to more important things". One of the most common heated arguments inside a company (well at least mine) is people complaining about dev allocation. - Anyone that never worked in the company can't possibly have a concrete idea tailored for the issues at hand for the simple reason that software, and most of the processes, are proper to the company and unique. You have to get a good look at it (and actually a certain time of experience getting accustomed to all of this in the company in question) before being able to formulate any solution. The time you will spend will be relative to your degree of experience in the field.

I'll probably be a bit blunt so forgive me in advance... As someone that actually work in the industry - but I do believe it's true for almost every other business - anyone that shows up with "good ideas" without any experience of how it actually works inside, that would probably make my day. It's a bit like someone being an amateur (and good) mechanic showing up at a car manufacturer and saying "Hire me, I'll revolutionize all your issues because the solution is obvious to me". Well, we often get those by shitloads. Interns that think they know it all. They sure have the theorical knowledge, but they know jack shit how it actually works inside, how are the processes, and what the actual software is and its limitations. Or even professionals that come from other fields of computing. Someone showing up with a flower in the mouth like that and saying that... Well, you just facepalm most of the time.

I just hope that those apartments will not just be The Roost / The Hourglass / The Mizzenmast / The Forgotten Knight redux 2.0. We will be able to do at least as many things in them as you can in your private room, right? Meaning, furnishing, inviting friends over, etc?

I wouldn't have to worry too much about styles of RP over there. It's quite diverse. If there is one type that might get harder to find, it's the opposite of what you are looking for actually, much to my dismay. It's FF. Most people are here for the grandiose and epic.

Well, don't feel too compelled to nerf that HP pool too much though. As I said, keep in mind that it was a tutorial for people, so my NPCs were basic gladiators and stuff... And they were only two against like, 5 of us! But yeah, I think that -20 HP can be cool. Since the HP bonuses for tank classes don't change it tends to differenciate them a lot more with the squishy ones. Eventually the nice thing is that you can adapt it to various groups of power: people playing average joes will get freelancers with 50HP, and people playing heroes facing tons of powerful enemies may want to buff it up a lot. Your new point system for magic looks fine to me. It's a good idea. I would probably still proceed differently in my case but that's mostly taste! Ideally, I think what I would do is an easy to grasp skill tree of sorts for pretty much every command skill: For example a conjurer character will pick up as one of their commands the healing magic one. The player says "my character is a novice", so they just take the basic package. Then they say instead "they are a senior conjurer", they take the basic lvl 1 package, the lvl2 one, as well as the level 3. I would break down every command into 3 tiers. Mostly for fluff, no points behind, just for a roleplay perspective. You know you play a powerful character, you choose accordingly. Well at least that's what I did myself more or less. All in all it boils down to "my character gained lots of experience in conjury the past year, so let's upgrade his conjury lvl1 to conjury lvl2". I like that because it allows me to differenciate grizzled vets from green novices. For the Grit skill, well, I would ideally have expected it you know, to have just a different effect than the defensive one, but I totally understand that at some point you just run out of different things to find with all that.

I think you people are just speculating a brassing a lot of hot air, without any offense intended. You just don't know what's going on behind, you don't have the code to look at, you don't know their constraints, you don't know their producing directives either... Honestly at this point, it could be anything, be it technical or just a mangement thing.