[dev1017] Materia crafting system & Materia: A Matter of Mystery (08/26/2011)

[Nakiamiie]

Can't wait for Materia!

・Looking into changing the name of “Spirit Bond.” (This is important, so let’s hear your feedback!)

I thought Spirit Bond sounded nice, but since materia has to do with memories, why not something related to memory? Like Reminiscence Bond or something like that?

Looking into materia conversion of EX/RARE item next update

Sounds good. Maybe they could give rare/ex materia too?

Materia attachment to EX/RARE items will currently not be possible (Depends on content updates)

Hopefully someday it will be?

[Royal]

In order to attach materia to Rare/Ex I believe they only have a few ways to do it:

Options A
If Rare/Ex get materia they will become very powerful compared to Crafting items. The crafting items will have to get buffed to compensate for this to be equivalent to Rare/Ex. I'm afraid if this happens, why bother raiding when you can make the most powerful items from crafting.

Option B
The crafting items aren't buffed. Then dungeon items plus materia become the strongest items and make most of crafting useless (with exception of adding the materia).

Option C
Rare/Ex get maybe 2 materia and Crafting items get all 5. They converge to approximately the same item power. Rare/Ex + 2 materia requires raiding a dungeon and a little bit of luck for 2 materia but crafting plus 5 materia require a lot of luck but no raiding.

What do you think? How can they allow Rare/Ex plus materia in your mind?

[Andrien]

Etymology:
"Materia" is a Latin term meaning "matter" or "substance", probably from the phrase "materia magica" (materials for magical rituals). It is also the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese for the word "subject", fitting as Materia also hosts various kinds that have different effects.

With those in mind, here is my 2 cents.


Materia Junction (I think someone said this before)
Or
Materia Manifest

Reincarnation

[DGMart]

In order to attach materia to Rare/Ex I believe they only have a few ways to do it:

Options A
If Rare/Ex get materia they will become very powerful compared to Crafting items. The crafting items will have to get buffed to compensate for this to be equivalent to Rare/Ex. I'm afraid if this happens, why bother raiding when you can make the most powerful items from crafting.

Option B
The crafting items aren't buffed. Then dungeon items plus materia become the strongest items and make most of crafting useless (with exception of adding the materia).

Option C
Rare/Ex get maybe 2 materia and Crafting items get all 5. They converge to approximately the same item power. Rare/Ex + 2 materia requires raiding a dungeon and a little bit of luck for 2 materia but crafting plus 5 materia require a lot of luck but no raiding.

What do you think? How can they allow Rare/Ex plus materia in your mind?

Look, those who work hard for their gear should be rewarded accordingly. That's the point of having content. People saying that well everyone will be wearing the same gear is bulls*ht. First, not everyone is good enough to do dungeons, and I believe there has to be effort if you want the best gear. Right now what they stated is: grind pt, craft, gather and you will have the best gear... Which is beyond ridiculous. I might as well throw all my rare/exc away.(which i'm not, but I could)

Not everyone is equal and they shouldn't make it as such. Those with more skill should have the best. Just like any other mmo out there. That is not a hard concept. It has nothing to do with being a casual or hardcore, because let's be honest I've seen some hardcore noobs in my day and I consider myself a casual player.

There is absolutely no skill in grinding mobs, gathering items, crafting. Sorry... If you have all 50's and you have the right abilities, you're set. Next is just a matter of luck. Sorry Yoshi but this is the first time that I definitely do not agree with your direction and I believe it will ruin the game for the more skilled players that like earning their gear through content and not sitting around Uldah spamming standard or bold on the controller/keyboard.

[quantumsaint]

Just had a thought, and forgive me if this has already been addressed, but what if Rare/Ex gear could be turned into materia, and it always resulted in the same materia (example: Ascetic's Gear always turning into +INT materia) ? This way, if people wanted specific materia for a certain piece of gear they could raid a dugeon or fight the NM that drops it. That way, people that don't care as much about stat maxing can depend on the materia they acquire through crafted gear, and those that do care have a specific target they can depend on to get the materia that they want.

[Sidney]

snip

Look, those who work hard for their gear should be rewarded accordingly. That's the point of having content. People saying that well everyone will be wearing the same gear is bulls*ht. First, not everyone is good enough to put forth the effort to actually attach 5 materia to a piece of gear, and I believe there has to be effort if you want the best gear. Right now what they stated is: run dungeon, bypass content, open chests and you will have the best gear... Which is beyond ridiculous. I might as well throw all my crafted gear away.(which I'm not, but I could)

Not everyone is equal and they shouldn't make it as such. Those with more skill should have the best. Just like any other mmo out there. That is not a hard concept. It has nothing to do with being a casual or hardcore, because let's be honest I've seen some hardcore noobs in my day and I consider myself a casual player.

There is absolutely no skill in grinding dungeons, opening chests, and hoping for a rare drop. Sorry... If you have all 50's and you have the right abilities, you're set. Next is just a matter of luck. Yoshi this isn't the first time that I definitely do agree with your direction and I believe it will enhance the game for the more skilled players that like earning their gear through content and not sitting around in some dungeon auto-attacking and spamming weaponskills on the controller/keyboard.

Look! It works both ways!

-----

You are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I just couldn't resist. Sorry.

I agree with the first two sentences of your original post.

"Look, those who work hard for their gear should be rewarded accordingly. That's the point of having content."

Though, running dungeons and attaching materia aren’t all that different in my opinion.

Repeated dungeon runs looking for a particular drop from a boss or chest = grind
Crafting a bunch of gear, making materia, attaching it for success or fail = grind

Getting the super-rare drop loot from said boss/chest = luck
Successfully attaching 2-5 materia to a single item = luck

In both cases, having all 50s (in corresponding classes) with the right set of abilities greatly reduces the difficulty of completing objectives towards the goal, but has no effect on the final outcome which is ultimately luck based.

Personally, I would consider the crafting route to be the harder of the two. The chance for substantial loss is very real when attempting multi-materia attachments. If it is anything like the upgrade systems used in other games, where a failure results in destruction of the item, the investment required to successfully create a 4-5 materia item with be massive. Not only in terms of time but also resources and the skill required to successfully gather, manage, and utilize those resources.

In the future we will probably see dungeons dropping materials for crafted items. Grinding in a dungeon will still raise Spirit Bond towards materia creation. If the devs decide to allow Rare/Ex gear to be materialized (with no bonus to outcome) as is being considered, there will be a very good reason to run dungeon content repeatedly.

The whole system is still unreleased, and seems like it will have a lot of potential for substantial depth and customization. I doubt it will make anything existing completely obsolete. More options is better than less options. Customized crafted gear for elemental/abnormal status resistance seems like a decent use for the system and would help with the dungeon crawling end of things.

I'll be taking a wait and see approach myself.

[Royal]

Look, those who work hard for their gear should be rewarded accordingly. That's the point of having content. People saying that well everyone will be wearing the same gear is bulls*ht. First, not everyone is good enough to do dungeons, and I believe there has to be effort if you want the best gear. Right now what they stated is: grind pt, craft, gather and you will have the best gear... Which is beyond ridiculous. I might as well throw all my rare/exc away.(which i'm not, but I could)

Not everyone is equal and they shouldn't make it as such. Those with more skill should have the best. Just like any other mmo out there. That is not a hard concept. It has nothing to do with being a casual or hardcore, because let's be honest I've seen some hardcore noobs in my day and I consider myself a casual player.

There is absolutely no skill in grinding mobs, gathering items, crafting. Sorry... If you have all 50's and you have the right abilities, you're set. Next is just a matter of luck. Sorry Yoshi but this is the first time that I definitely do not agree with your direction and I believe it will ruin the game for the more skilled players that like earning their gear through content and not sitting around Uldah spamming standard or bold on the controller/keyboard.

I wasn't trying to defend any of those options and I apologize if I did. I just can't fathom how NM drops are going to work in all of this that's all. Sorry if my intentions weren't clear. Whether I agree or disagree, I was just showing how socketing materia to NM gear COULD work, that's all.

[Bayohne]

Yoshida made a post this morning in regards to balancing out the number of materia slots across different class/jobs, as well as future PvP. Take a gander.

Hi, this is Yoshida, the producer/director.

I plan on responding little by little, but let me start with this topic which I am a big fan of…^^;

This would mean that gladiators, conjurers, and thaumaturges will be able to add on an additional Materia. Unless it is "Materia that can only be equipped on shields and only affects shields," a gap will emerge. Yoshida has previously stated that he would like to incorporate PvP, and I would like PvP in a coliseum or similar venue. However, if this happens, wouldn’t the gap caused by additional Materia be too wide to overcome? Wouldn’t this upset the balance?

Let me start off by mentioning that there have been differences in locations for enchant systems in other MMOs that I used to play religiously. For example, classes with shields will be able to equip a one-handed weapon and shield, so they will have an extra location to equip Materia. However, for two-handed weapons, there will be more types of Materia with higher status boosts available for use, so we are working on balancing the total enhancement, rather than strictly the number of enhancements.

The balance between classes and jobs is being calculated with this in mind, so there will not be any significant gaps. (As you guessed, Materia for shields will be balanced so that they only benefit shield classes/jobs.)

The armory system is difficult to adjust, but we plan on adjusting one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, and dual wielding swords once the battle system is revamped. However, differences between the weapons are inevitable, so we plan on working towards balancing classes/jobs with that in mind.

As such, from the beginning of Materia implementation, we plan on being careful about the balance between classes when adjusting effects and their limits.

In PvP, fighting with complete equality would be very boring. Recently, games are designed so that individuality exists in addition to player skills. Even in FPSs, skills grow based on the opponents kill count. In MMORPGs where multiple classes and jobs exist, each class/job has different abilities, attacking ranges, HP, and durability ratings based on these differences. Therefore players play with pride, developing their strategies and distributing skill points based on their jobs/classes. Balancing PvP is very difficult, but this is something that I enjoy, so I will do my best to maintain balance while implementing Materia.

…wow, that was a major digression.

As a PvPer myself, it makes me very happy that you guys have an interest in PvP
However, the grass is always greener on the other side. Competitions of whose grass is greener may just be another aspect in the joys of PvPing. Just kidding…

[User201109011315]

Pretty sure most people's eyes will go straight to dual wield.

[Xquiel]

hmm... looks like PVP is just 1 vs 1 and party vs party, i want to see large scale PVP to conquest enemy LS castles with my LS! >.<
sounds fun =P