Evolith (Untapped Potential)

[Airget]

I've had this idea for a while ever since I saw evoliths. In concept it's a very interesting idea that could've lead to a lot of interesting gear, however in execution it failed to prove to be a worthwhile commitment to obtain better weapons/gear.

From a personal experience I tried my best to enjoy the concept, it was a very painful experience having to deal with random evoliths from grad 1-8, only being able to do it once an hour, having to fight a certain NM that ranged from popped to time based. Then to makes matters worse we had to fight pixies for color pigments as well as obscenely annoying mobs just to make them more specialized in certain jobs. As well with the low drop rate on said items it became a pain when you actually had to fight against others who were trying to get the same item.

However what I have in mind is not related to the pain it took to obtain the pigments or the specialization for certain jobs but the evoliths themselves.

For something that took a while to obtain the one you need they could be easily disposed of/replaced through a simple synergy. With how troublesome it could be to obtain evoliths I believe evoliths should have developed more of a collectors system where you would do the following,
VS Evasion: Filled Triangle: Wind
Grade:Aquan:Birds:etc:etc:etc:etc
1:Got :Got :Got:Got:Got:Got
2:got
3:no
4:got
5:no
6:no
7:no
8:Got

Basically "Got" means they have obtained the evolith of that grade and have etched it into a evolith holder which is a specialized evoilth that compiles all the evoliths obtained onto 1 slab. Now just pretend the above grade 1's are all the mob types in the game. When a person has succesfuly etched every grade 1 into the evolith they are given the option for Vs All: Evasion + Grade 1. They would also be able to freely etch it into any armor of there choice or pull it off and place it ona new piece of gear if they wished without worry of losing the item.

So basically the idea is if you were to obtain every evolith grab from 1-8 for all mob types you would be able to etch an augment for Vs All: Evasion + Grade 8.

Compared to with how gear is now the evolith system was just never really given any love but I believe that if the developers looked at the system as a whole and see the potential with it, they can turn it into something people can have a lot of fun with.

The are more things I'd like to add like more ways to obtain certain evoliths, pigments and job specialized materials however if the developers do take note of this I believe the top priority would be to look at evoilths and see how they can turn it into an interesting system that people can enjoy.

[Karbuncle]

The Evolith System i felt was a wonderful idea on paper, It was just not as good in Execution.

The Hunt System was a great, Great idea, The Restriction should have been removed however (once an hour i mean). the Sketching and Job-Geared Armor was also a great idea, as was those Specific Weapons.

My biggest grip with the Evolith system is it was too Situational to be useful. The idea of the majority of Evolith working only against 1 mob Family made the system fall behind. It was situational most people didn't bother with it. I had an Ebur Vest for quite some time I eventually gave up on and Sold when I finally saw the Evolith System was given up on.

It had a lot of potential i just think they were too restricting on the Benefits. I think an overhaul to allow the Benefits on any mob family would greatly raise the Appeal of Evolith, however having to collect the same Level of 1 Type for all families in order to ease that restriction would probably be deemed too much of a hastle by the Community unless they reduced the Restriction on how often you can do Hunts. Especially considering doing the hunts you still have to camp the NMs, Which in itself will generally take hours.

I do like your Ideas, But i don't know if that in all would be enough to Revive this system. It has such potential, But i think its been abandoned by SE. I'm not too upset about it, But it was an idea I thought had potential, it was just entirely too limited/Situational.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Eviloths were a terrible idea and all of the augments were pointless. There's a reason why they were only around for less then a month. lol
No extra fail please SE. ; ;

[Airget]

@ karbuncle
well the thing is they could develop new ways to obtain the evoliths, the method of hunting for them to an extent was faulty, while one could say at least 18 people can obtain it at one time, it was still a random mess that could be frustrating. In the example in which let's say i wanted a grade 4 and my friend wanted a grade 8, but I end up with the 8 and they get the 4 it's just mean. It's kinda sad how they reduced the "fix" to saying oh you can sell them for gil or use them to increase your nations influence in an area lol.

What I'm thinking though is maybe a full overhaul on obtaining evoliths so the journey to obtain all of a "family" type to gain the "all" effect doesn't seem to bad.

FoV: use tabs to purchase a random Evolith or a specific evolith based on the zone you are in.

Evolith merging: Merge evoliths to create new evoliths
Example: grade 1 Vs Beast: Evasion + and grade 8 Vs beast: Att += grade 5 Vs beast: MATT +

Alchemic recipes: using materials from the mob affinity to create evoliths.
Synergy Example: Evolith Core + rabbit hide= Grade 1 vs Beast: Def + (Alchemy 5)

Evolith Trading: Trade Evoliths through an NPC that are the same grade or type
Example: Go in a party with the person you wish to trade with, talk to the NPC to initiate the trade, Trade the NPC the item, then the other player does the same, the NPC checks to see if it's a legal trade and if it is both users confirm again before obtaining the evolith.
Example: Grade 8 + Grade 8= Tradeable
Grade 1 Vs Beast: Evasion + + Grade 7 Vs Beast: Evasion +=Tradeable

They could also change it and make it work like MMM in which you can use the evolith on yourself and it would be stored. And it would keep tabs of how many of that evolith you have stored and give you the ability to pull it out if you wanted to trade it or etch it to a Blank slate.

There are just so many ways they could've gone with it, while I won't disagree and say things like magian blow the whole concept of evolith out of the water, I just wish they had put more care into creating the system when they introduced it, just like with how MMM use to be a fun thing that died down. MMM use to be so popular they had to put a 24hr restriction just so people could get in easier lol. Sames goes for pankration, if I recall I swear they were going to develop it so people could have team battles and such but then it was reduced to nothing more then a time sink to obtain points to take pictures for ZNM lol.

Then there's the actual system they actually did scratch which is the whole coliseum thing, though it makes you wonder if they actually scrapped that idea how underdeveloped must have it been if they then released the evolith system only to have it stagnate with the release of magian trials.

[kingfury]

**Copied From "Making Evoliths Interchangeable Like BLU Spells for "Ebon-Type Gear Sets" New Life!" (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/5064-Making-Evoliths-Interchangeable-Like-BLU-Spells-for-quot-Ebon-Type-Gear-Sets-quot-New-Life!?p=69069#post69069)**

I'm still awaiting an overhaul to the Evolith system based on the "Ebon-Type Gear" :(

It was indeed a long road to completing my Ebur Cuirass set(the process of turning it into the Ebur set that is), and I've been patiently waiting for the whole "Vs Family" part to be coupled with LOTS more options (Like: Haste, Double Att, MDT, PDT, Evasion, Movement speed Evolith etc.) that cater to a much more broad spectrum of practical situations. In fact, the "Vs Family" should be one category, while "Battle Stats", "Enhancement Stats", and perhaps even "Skill Stats" would be possible others.

Making Evoliths interchangeable/customizable like BLU Spells:
With so many unique choices that are so very situational, it just never made sense to me that Evoliths were not interchangeable similar to BLU spells. I mean, you work your butt off to create the gear and make it look unique, and you have to work just as hard to obtain powerful Evoliths, only to be stuck with a Super Situational pieces of equipment. Granted, you can now remove the evoliths from the gear, but it still is far too much effort wasted when all the player wants is options. It just never made sense, which is why my Ebur gear is still not fitted with Evoliths to this day. ><

If the gear could be refitted on the fly (without Synergy) by users that simply have the Evoliths in their possession, the uses of the gear would sky rocket. Perhaps adding an "Evolith Attatchment Tool" item that would allow players to do this via a new evolith attatchment menu. The tools could be created via the Synergy process and sold in on the AH. The process could even have it's own unique animation while refitting/attatching Evoliths to gear:
*Possible animation* (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/soulchld4/EvolithTool-Web.jpg).
There could be a short penalty wait in-between swapping Evoliths similar to what BLUs deal with as well.

BLUs can alter their spell set based on any situation that arises so long as they have the spell in their list, and it would make perfect sense to mirror this functionality with these customizable pieces of gear. Everything else in the Ebon-Type Gear set structure is fine otherwise, since it takes effort to forge the set from scratch to something unique. I say reserve the Synergy portion of the process for forging the gear alone, and leave it at that.

Storing Evoliths to be swapped out on the fly:
Evoliths should have a special holding sack that stores them similar to how attachments are stored with Automations. Once you acquire them, you can store them via an "Evolith Sack", that would compile them to be readily attached to ones gear using the Evolith Etching Tool. This way, player inventory wouldn't suffer, and players could still strive to collect as many Evoliths as they want.

This type of overhaul would absolutely breath life into these wonderful pieces of gear. Just imagine a single gear set that had the potential to change based on whatever situation arose, and would have an endless selection of new and inventive options to choose from over each update. Gear that would be a staple set in everyones inventory because of it's super flexibility and growth potential to be ultimately unique. This coupled with the already unique color choice feature and job specific appearance of the gear would make this system whiplash back to the forefront once like never before.

The gear still looks great, and I would hate to only use them as "walking around town gear".

[kingfury]

**Added in a quick illustration of the possible animation to go with the Evolith Etching Tool ^^/