Please Make First Stage Artifact / Relic / Empyrean armor 119

[radar]

This is such a huge new player trap for it all to be Ilevel 109.

This gear is worse than sparks, ilevel is specifically linked to trust level and so new players who don't understand this will put work into getting "better" gear and when they wear this gear their trusts will be 10 levels lower than wearing sparks and they will wipe far easier.

This really is a quit moment, and needs to be fixed.

All first stage upgrades should be 119 due to the link to trust level.

If you summon trusts, and change gear between 109 and 119 you'll see their HP rise and fall in real time as they level up and down based on the ievel of the gear. This is fine if you know the gear is effectively broken, but new players will not and use it.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/images/7/71/Anchorite%27s_Crown_description.png

[Gwydion]

Trap? Just farm the chapters and reforge the gear from 109 to 119.

Sheesh.

[Alhanelem]

How is it a trap? the game tells you what you're getting. The only issue here, if there is one, is the upgrade process isn't very intuitive, but any competent player should have one of the wikis or another guide at their disposal. But most players learn pretty quickly to have some form of a guide they can lean on.

You make a lot of assumptions about how new (and returning) players will act but I haven't seen any evidence of this being a significant issue.

[radar]

Because it does not inform you that trust level is directly linked to the shared item level of your gear and so new / returning players have no idea wearing Ilevel 109 gear is incredibly bad, and because you work for gear that is vastly inferior to what you already have for free.

The game should not punish you for putting effort into improving, it should inform you the gear is broken if nothing else and you need to get it to 119.

When you wear full sparks gear your trusts level from 99 to 117, when you put this on they lose levels and die easier.

For a new player getting the first set of 109 gear is a lot of work, cause they don't understand all the systems they need to engage with etc. To be punished for that is a very bad thing.

An easier way to fix it, is to simply remove the scaling for trusts based on gear completely and make them all 119 as long as you're 99. If you're naked or wearing 119 they should always be 119.

[radar]

Why do beastmaster pets need to gain their level from your main hand weapon Ilevel, why do summoners avatars gain their level from the ammo slot Ilevel? Same for puppetmaster. Why can't they all just be 119? They dropped the Ilevel progression system anyway, the original idea was they were going to keep increasing it and so it made sense but it does not make sense anymore.

I knew a player many years ago, that came back to the game and invested a ton of time in gearing their summoner (they even had a nirvana) but had no sachet. When I informed him of this and he got one, he was blown away the insane difference.

Why would this be a thing in the first place, there is no reason at all that this system should exist and all it does is punish low information / new players.

[Alhanelem]

Because it does not inform you that trust level is directly linked to the shared item level of your gear and so new / returning players have no idea wearing Ilevel 109 gear is incredibly bad, and because you work for gear that is vastly inferior to what you already have for free.You're really selling people short here. I don't think most people are that daft so as to not understand that a lower ilvl is worse by the time they're using ilvl items in the first place.

[radar]

It shouldn't be there, it is an unintentional new player trap.

The NPC you get it from doesn't even tell you not to wear it till it's 119.

[Alhanelem]

It shouldn't be there, it is an unintentional new player trap.I don't agree and I think most people by the time they get to this point understand what item levels mean and that higher is better.



The NPC you get it from doesn't even tell you not to wear it till it's 119. Why should they? It is entirely possible, even if it's very unlikely, that you don't have 119 gear when you obtain these and it may actually be an upgrade in that circumstance.

Aside from the fact that I don't even agree with the notion that people going after these items can be called 'new players' in the first place, I don't like your assumption that new players are all clueless and have no idea what any of this means. Every game guide (i.e. the wikis) has explanations for all of this.

I get that you just want to make sure that newcomers don't get frustrated and quit prematurely, but by and large I think people know what they're getting into when they start playing this game.

Show me someone who put this gear on, and had to be told that it isn't better than the 119 gear.

[Catmato]

They dropped the Ilevel progression system anyway, the original idea was they were going to keep increasing it and so it made sense but it does not make sense anymore.

They should have dropped and completely removed it immediately when it had such a poor first reception.

[Alhanelem]

They dropped the Ilevel progression system anyway, the original idea was they were going to keep increasing it and so it made sense but it does not make sense anymore.

They didn't drop anything. The plan was i119 form the beginning. They would have simply removed it entirely instead of stopping it otherwise.

[Catmato]

They didn't drop anything. The plan was i119 form the beginning. They would have simply removed it entirely instead of stopping it otherwise.

Do you have any statements from SE saying that 119 was the intended permanent cap when it was being designed? This is the first I've ever heard of this.

[radar]

The idea was to constantly keep increasing Ilevel, but people hated it because it ruined the feel of the game (rightly so).

XI isn't about chasing Ilevel and constantly throwing away earlier gear, it's about feeling you can still do content when you come back after being away for 2 years or building sets and being happy with it. Even though gear does keep on getting stronger it does so in a way that does not invalidate previous gear (visible Ilevel number would do that), cause our brains are stupid like that.

I don't have a problem with the gear being 109, I do have a problem with 109 determining the level of trusts, bst pets, summoner avatars etc

Imagine you are playing Elden Ring, and you kill the first major boss after hours of trying. It drops a whole set of armor, and it looks cool and has interesting stats you're impressed with. However it has a hidden stat of -100 defense, would that be acceptable? Cause that is what XI does.

[Alhanelem]

Do you have any statements from SE saying that 119 was the intended permanent cap when it was being designed?Do you have any statements from SE stating there were plans for ilvl to continue to increase? because I've not ever seen any. Suggesting it was going to go higher is just as much an assumption as anything else as far as I can see.

[radar]

"Taniguchi

FFXI had a level difference adjustment feature, although it was eventually dropped for areas implemented after Seekers of Adoulin. Therefore, small increases to the player's stats wouldn't really let them feel like they were more powerful, so we increased the base level so that they'd be able to notice a difference.
Matsui

So if you wanted to increase it further, you could?
Taniguchi

Yes, definitely. Firstly, we gave the final boss in Seekers of Adoulin a content level of 119, meaning that the item level cap is also 119. However, we looked beyond that for content that might be added in the future, and ended up setting the upper limit to about 150.

If you increase the item level cap, you'd also need to update the equipment for all of the body parts, excluding accessories, so I think it might be enough to drive you crazy... (laughs wryly)
Matsui

I think so too. Furthermore, increasing the item level cap leads to numerous other things that also have to be updated in order to keep pace. That includes things like the legendary weapons and also the artifacts. We realized that it would be an impossible amount of work if we tried to keep track of all of them, so that's why we stopped at 119."

[Catmato]

Do you have any statements from SE stating there were plans for ilvl to continue to increase? because I've not ever seen any. Suggesting it was going to go higher is just as much an assumption as anything else as far as I can see.

I don't, I'm not sure why you think I ever made a claim like that. What's with the snark? I was just asking where you got the information about SE's plan for ilvl. Do you have a source for it?

[Alhanelem]

I don't, I'm not sure why you think I ever made a claim like that. What's with the snark? I was just asking where you got the information about SE's plan for ilvl. Do you have a source for it? I don't either, but it seems the poster above you has the answer- letting the limit go higher was considered but rejected due to the workload it would have created.

If radar could put a date to that statement, it would really help make the case for whether or not they went any further than looking at it or if they decided "nope" before we got i119 stuff.