Making Evoliths Interchangeable Like BLU Spells for "Ebon-Type Gear Sets" New Life!

[Eeek]

I hope that the Evolith/Etching system stays dead and useless. I checked it out in earnest when it came out but yuck, it's just such a huge load of junk. It's hilariously over-complicated in truest FFXI style.

For the love of god don't encourage them to waste time on this, it's the biggest bullet FFXI players have ever dodged.

I completely agree with this.

[kingfury]

I completely agree with this.

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Nah ^^ most folks just don't want to put the imagination effort into making things better. Problem, Cause, and Solution are the keys to improving any issue ^^/

And in this case, we all know the problems with the system, and the causes, so now we just need the solutions part

I'm sure it doesn't sit well with the Dev Team that MANY players feel this way in regards to a system they invested man-hours and money into implementing into FFXI. I say the solutions are fairly simple, and the potential outcome would be game changing.

[Eeek]

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Nah ^^ most folks just don't want to put the imagination effort into making things better. Problem, Cause, and Solution are the keys to improving any issue ^^/

And in this case, we all know the problems with the system, and the causes, so now we just need the solutions part

I'm sure it doesn't sit well with the Dev Team that MANY players feel this way in regards to a system they invested man-hours and money into implementing into FFXI. I say the solutions are fairly simple, and the potential outcome would be game changing.

And I think the Dev Team should be spending their time on new projects and older content that didn't suck.

Also, my opinion is that you should have quit while you were ahead. But don't let that stop you, though.

[kingfury]

lol You mean like raising the level of Fellow NPCs? Or Augmenting older gear? Perhaps revamping old areas with new content (Abyssea)? You have to understand, it makes perfect sense to make outdate/older systems better via improvements and refitting 1st in terms of game development vs creating brand new content. So in essence, the Dev Team would be taking an "older" failed system and making it "new" ^^

Quit what while I was ahead? /huh?

[Rambus]

It's essentially the same thing ^^ you just have much more flexibility with the WoW Gem system. ^^

Matching the size, element, and shape simply meant you couldn't stick a Large Triangle wind element Evolith into a Small Round fire element gear slot ^^ It wasn't as complicated as it sounds

This is the concept basically, where the shapes are the Evoliths and the slots is what your gear would look like ^^ >>Example<<

But the displeasure of it all came from investing so much time into these items when the stats were overly situational and penalized you by forever losing them should you wish to change them out. That's what I'm proposing to change.

This is where I have to disagree ( may be due to lack of understanding of the system)

what I saw was not equal disruption of stats (like wow gem offered all stats and helped all jobs/situations) FFXI system to mimic that was poor, not only do you have to figure out what is good but you have to juggle all this +XXX on mob y. Too much information to know for a system (know all the different sizes, figure out what is good, then look oh tis only for a mob i never fight /fume, scew this)

not a system I want to deal with, i/e not for me.

your system may make it better or trying to make ti better, I am just explaining why i could not stand SE's system.

[Eeek]

lol You mean like raising the level of Fellow NPCs? Or Augmenting older gear? Perhaps revamping old areas with new content (Abyssea)? You have to understand, it makes perfect sense to make outdate/older systems better via improvements and refitting 1st in terms of game development vs creating brand new content. So in essence, the Dev Team would be taking an "older" failed system and making it "new" ^^

Quit what while I was ahead? /huh?

I believe you completely missed an important part of my comment: "And I think the Dev Team should be spending their time on new projects and older content that didn't suck."

1) Fellowship NPCs did have limited use, and unlike with Evolith Gear, I know many people with level 70 NPCs. It's only logical to update the NPCs in light of the level cap increases.

2) While I think we players first saw Augmented gear in the Evolith system, SE has since clearly demonstrated that the idea behind gear augmentation had a much wider scope than we thought when it first appeared with the Evolith system. Since then, we've seen augmented gear from ANNMs, FoV NM battles, Gold Chests in Abyssea, and the entirety of the Trials of the Magians system - from simpler weapons, to job /emote torques, and all the way to powerful Empyrean +2 Armor and Empyrean Weapons.

3) Abyssea was not the first example of new content in old areas. Until a solution is found, FFXI will be limited by both PS2 storage capabilities as well as the degree to which SE funds the continuing development of its old, legacy MMO. I don't know if SE wants to fund the development costs of new zones for events such as ANNMs, VNMs, Fields of Valor, FoV NM battles, the three Addon-Scenarios-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named (and all the NMs and NPCs associated with said expansion), Abyssea, and so on. There exists extensive stretches of unused space and dozens of largely unused zones in FFXI, and it's prudent to make use of some of that space.

I do think we'll see new zones in the future though. I'm fine though if we don't see pretty, new zones. I'd much rather experience good, fun content in reskinned zones. You know what game has fantastically pretty zones and no good content: FFXIV. And I don't know of anyone who'd call FFXIV a well-designed, fun, successful game. I'm thrilled that FFXI has the opposite problem of FFXIV.

4) "it makes perfect sense to make outdate/older systems better via improvements and refitting 1st in terms of game development vs creating brand new content [sic]." I don't know what to make of this sentence. While tweaking good, existing content is perfectly reasonable, it's an entire different matter to dig up and try to restore content that horribly failed two years ago. That dead horse has been beaten enough, and the good concepts from that system survived anyways. Those concepts evolved into something successful: Trial of the Magians. Never again will we play this game without augmented gear in one form or another.

The Dev Team already evolved the failed Evolith system into something new.

[kingfury]

This is where I have to disagree ( may be due to lack of understanding of the system)
what I saw was not equal disruption of stats (like wow gem offered all stats and helped all jobs/situations) FFXI system to mimic that was poor, not only do you have to figure out what is good but you have to juggle all this +XXX on mob y. Too much information to know for a system (know all the different sizes, figure out what is good, then look oh tis only for a mob i never fight /fume, scew this)
not a system I want to deal with, i/e not for me.
your system may make it better or trying to make ti better, I am just explaining why i could not stand SE's system.

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No, your absolutely right about those pit falls lol ^^ Most all of the issues you quoted is what in fact sunk the systems potential to be successful.

But you've gotta trust me on the simplicity of the size, element, and shape thing though lol ^^ it was no tougher than playing with a wooden shape box.

And yes, the things I'm proposing, Better/Stronger/more Relevant Evoliths, along with simpler ways to attach and swap them out, would be a major improvement to the system.

[kingfury]

I believe you completely missed an important part of my comment: "And I think the Dev Team should be spending their time on new projects and older content that didn't suck."

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o.o Not if your point was "new content". My point is that whether refitting older content or not, the Dev teams job is to fix issues with the content they implement to FFXI. Due to the overwhelming size of the game, however, certain things take longer to fix than others. My examples pointed out that even though things like "Fellow Npcs" hadn't been updated in years, the Dev team can still reach back and improve on that system. The same can be said for anything inside FFXI, Evolith included.
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4) "it makes perfect sense to make outdate/older systems better via improvements and refitting 1st in terms of game development vs creating brand new content [sic]." I don't know what to make of this sentence. While tweaking good, existing content is perfectly reasonable, it's an entire different matter to dig up and try to restore content that horribly failed two years ago. That dead horse has been beaten enough, and the good concepts from that system survived anyways. Those concepts evolved into something successful: Trial of the Magians. Never again will we play this game without augmented gear in one form or another.
The Dev Team already evolved the failed Evolith system into something new.

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Nah, they haven't evolved it just yet, unless they allow you to set evolith via the Trial of the Magians next update ^^ You're actually validating my proposal with this very line:

"Never again will we play this game without augmented gear in one form or another."

Now if the "Revised/Overhauled" Evolith system did not in fact hold the potential to drastically change the face of customizable gear, then I definitely would not be proposing it. It holds that potential so much so, that it could very well be better than options offered by likes of the Trial of the Magians system since you can't choose "Every" possible stat/enhancement when using it. You just have to think progressively for a few seconds to see that potential. ^^/

[Gwynplaine]

Yo dawg, I heard you like changing gear. So we put changing gear in your changing gear.

Equip swapping already is precisely what you're describing only without the bullcrap and arbitrary point collecting. You switch out one stat for another. No evoliths needed. Even if they did make your changes the system would still likely be ignored because it's not as straightforward and elegant as swapping plain gear in.

[kingfury]

Yo dawg, I heard you like changing gear. So we put changing gear in your changing gear.
Equip swapping already is precisely what you're describing only without the bullcrap and arbitrary point collecting. You switch out one stat for another. No evoliths needed. Even if they did make your changes the system would still likely be ignored because it's not as straightforward and elegant as swapping plain gear in.

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Well it's close to what I'm proposing, yeah ^^ But we have no gear in FFXI that can be altered to be anything we want, whenever we want to the degree of what this revised Evolith system could offer.

Even if you didn't want to stack the full 5 pieces full of Evoliths using this revised system, lets say you wanted to use just the Head and Hands to complete the current gear sets you have in your inventory(on different Jobs even). Picture being able to change Jobs, put on a near completed stat enhancing gear set that just needs better Head and Hand options, and then setting whatever Evoliths you need to fill those Head and Hand gaps thus completing your gear set. Then imagine doing the same for any other gear set on any other job you have! ^^

This is why I'm saying this Revised/Overhauled system could change gear options forever more in FFXI. Obtaining more gear is of course always a viable option, but imagine having a gear set that could changed to fit your growing needs whenever you needed it to. No purchase necessary ^^ just hunt down the NMs holding your new Evolith options, kill it a few times, and the new choices are yours to put anywhere you please.