Interest Check - Here be Dragons!

[Valence]

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!

 

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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.

 

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[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. 

 

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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!

 

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[align=center]So, what's the idea?[/align]

 

 

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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. 

 

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[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? 

[Tex]

Like I mentioned in-game the other day, this sounds like it could be a lot of fun! I can see a lot of options. I think racing them would be fun. You might be able to do something with their maintenance, too; people learning to do the more basic tasks, before they need to go back to Garlond Ironworks for the pros to handle.

 

You might also consider having something for the enthusiasts -- not just the people who work as a courier for the company, but the ones who like racing and maybe take occasional flights on the company's behalf. Freelancers?

[Valence]

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