Direction while crafting

[larrymc]

I always stand in a particular direction while crafting depending on the crystal. I can find no hard evidence that this helps significantly - but I figure that it cant hurt.

I find this statement about the new Geomancer job seems to favor the idea that SE could have put a directional component into the crafting system. At least the idea has been in their mindset.

Its under the section : New Job: Geomancer!

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafest2012/

"Their job trait Polarity (temporary name) allows geomancers to receive different bonuses to their elemental magic spells depending on the direction they face when casting"

[Vold]

I always stand in a particular direction while crafting depending on the crystal. I can find no hard evidence that this helps significantly - but I figure that it cant hurt.

I find this statement about the new Geomancer job seems to favor the idea that SE could have put a directional component into the crafting system. At least the idea has been in their mindset.

I think it's just a playful nod to the direction theory. We most certainly gave them the idea for it(although I don't put it past them for conceiving the idea of using direction for something due to the in game star chart, I think it is. But that could just be there for the sake of going with the elements and days. It could just be purely lore reasoning)

I'm relatively certain based on how SE folk have responded to questions about the theory that it's a bust theory. We basically got a lolareyouseriouslyaskingthat response. It seems good enough for me to say it's a bust theory but I don't know. I got tired of keeping up with it "just in case" and I can't really say anything has changed for me when crafting. Like I always say, if it's built into the system, it's barely barely BARELY worth the hassle. It's probably so little of a bonus/curse to your synth attempt that it's not even worth discussing.

[Raksha]

but I figure that it cant hurt.

I wonder why people think this.

How do you know you're not facing the wrong direction, and therefore are hurting your chances?

[Alistaire]

I wonder why people think this.

How do you know you're not facing the wrong direction, and therefore are hurting your chances?

Simple. Someone, years ago, figured out a theory of a pattern. So at that point either 1 of 2 things is right: 1. direction does affect crafting. or 2. it doesn't.

on #2 it definitely doesn't hurt.
on #1 it doesn't hurt unless they figured it out absolutely wrong. Considering the people who put the time into figuring out patterns do so with at least some sort of reasoning that's at least a little more likely to be right than wrong.

So without knowing for sure you'd have to say 50/50 on whether it helps or not, making it at least a bit more likely to not hurt since it's 50% + whatever # you'd put in for the quality of work of whoever figured out the pattern.

The only way to say it's more likely to hurt is if you're going to say the info was put out there wrong on purpose. There's certainly some history for JP doing that but not really a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Edit: What would be great would be if someone from SE could comment on this. This is that other myth/theory that's pretty much right up there with treasure hunter as a mechanic the playerbase came up with ideas about but SE kept quiet about how it really worked. So, SE, does direction/moon phase/day of the vanadiel week affect crafting or not? And if so, did we figure it out right?

[Raksha]

on #1 it doesn't hurt unless they figured it out absolutely wrong. Considering the people who put the time into figuring out patterns do so with at least some sort of reasoning that's at least a little more likely to be right than wrong.

This is my point. If you believe that direction affects crafting you'd be much better off facing a different direction every time you synth. Let's say there are 8 different directions, and one of them will hurt you, choosing a different direction every synth gives you a 7/8 chance of not being negatively affected. The only way to know for sure if a particular direction affects crafting is to do controlled tests. And since no one has done any of those you have no way of knowing what affects what.

[Sotek]

People have tested crafting directions ad nauseum and never found a significant difference. The only basis I see for the theory in game would be the star charts, and iirc most of the common crafting directions are completely wrong when compared to that. SE has already answered the question of directional crafting though "Believe what you want to believe", thats either a resounding "No" or "We don't know", and given their history I'd assume the later. That said, people are welcome to believe what they want to believe, I imagine thats part of the fun of video games, but it wont change the fact that all the empirical evidence and a large amount of logic says the theory is bogus. I doubt they'd even leave such a thing as elemental directions up to crafting alone, if anyone believes in directional crafting they might as well believe in directional nuking.

Which brings me to the OP I guess, where did you get that quote about Polarity? It doesn't sound like what I took back from the VanaFest. They made it sound more like your position in relation to the monster gave different effects, rather than the direction you face. I'd back that up with the fact that they showed an image of a monster with the effects based around its position rather than a player character facing different directions, as well as the fact that Geomancer sounds to be based very strongly on your position for literally every other aspect of its play.

Unless I'm wrong on that, direction plays absolutely no part in this game what so ever and never will, position is the import factor. Sneak Attack is based on your position in relation to your target, as are Yonin and Innin, Polarity sounds exactly the same. I highly doubt there is anything in this game that tracks the direction you face.

[larrymc]

Which brings me to the OP I guess, where did you get that quote about Polarity?

I understand your doubt and disbelief - I shared the same until I read this directly from the FFXI web site - hence this post...

Its under the section : New Job: Geomancer!

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafest2012/

[Raksha]

People have tested crafting directions ad nauseum and never found a significant difference.

Not that i'm surprised, but do you have any links to these tests? Would be nice to have bookmarked when people bring this up again.

[Sotek]

While that is an official channel, I'm always mindful of what they say simply because I know how terrible SE usually is when it comes to translation error. While the site may be official it has a pathetic amount of information compared to other community sites.

Literally everything about Polarity and the way they displayed it suggested it will work based on positioning, even then name though that can go both ways. The mechanics are already in the game for how I see it working, while directional bonuses would have to be entirely new. Conveniently they left the image I'm thinking of off that site, but here it is;

That really doesn't say "The direction you face will enhance your spells" at all, it says "If you're North of the mob... If you're South of the mob...", though maybe the fact that it isn't on the site means they decided to change the fundamental workings of the ability just days after announcing it, which I guess wouldn't be all that surprising.

Well, other than what I've already said I have nothing else to say, we can wait for Geomancer to be released to get a clear answer on how Polarity works to prove or disprove what I said, though everything about empirical evidence and logic still remains true for directional crafting. If I'm wrong and Polarity works based on the direction you face, they may just add directional crafting some day, if I'm right and it is based off your position, people can continue to argue about directional crafting till the servers shut down.

Not that i'm surprised, but do you have any links to these tests? Would be nice to have bookmarked when people bring this up again.

While I'd love nothing more than to go looking for old links, its been years since I've cared about the topic enough to, I'd imagine somewhere like BG has some though (and I imagine that instantly discredits my opinion on directional crafting for most). I really don't see much reason in arguing the point anymore though, people who want to believe will believe and I can't really blame them, it would be nice to have some sort of control over the results of synthesis.
The burden of proof really belongs to the individuals who believe in the theory though, until they test it for themselves they'll likely just discredit any data you present them or more likely not even know how to interpret it.
Ultimately directional crafting is just arguing for arguments sake, I don't care what direction people face when they're crafting because direction doesn't mean a thing. It would be nice for this argument to finally be put to rest, but I doubt even a direct "Directional crafting? What are you stupid?" from the death bed of Tanaka himself would resolve the issue.

[Theytak]

This is my point. If you believe that direction affects crafting you'd be much better off facing a different direction every time you synth. Let's say there are 8 different directions, and one of them will hurt you, choosing a different direction every synth gives you a 7/8 chance of not being negatively affected. The only way to know for sure if a particular direction affects crafting is to do controlled tests. And since no one has done any of those you have no way of knowing what affects what.

The basis of the theory was that the two directions that impact any given crystal both have a positive and a negative attribute; one direction increases the likelihood of failing, but also increases the chances of skilling up and/or HQing, while the other direction decreases the likelihood of failing, as well as decreasing the chance of HQing and/or skilling up; and/or's depend on which of the earlier theories you favor/follow. Either way, you're not really screwing yourself over by being cautious and playing the "it doesn't hurt" game. Besides, until SE flat out says "that's a load of nonsense" people will continue to believe it, and honestly, even if they do, people may continue just out of habit, or because they're superstitious.