Suggestion: Redoing Evoliths

[Duelle]

Note: I've been mulling over this for a while, and Aquilla's thread on breaking the game gave me the crazy idea of posting it here. It still has a lot of things that need to be ironed out, but was fun to develop.

Evoliths could easily be called one of the weakest additions to FFXI. The idea was boosting certain items with materials found in chests and in NMs, but turned into an under-used facet of the game.

The largest flaws of Evoliths include the fact that the system for evolith sockets was overly complicated (size, shape, element), the evoliths themselves were lackluster (+x damage against beasts on lightsday), and other gear just blew anything with evoliths out of the water. Overall, evoliths were not very well accepted, and barring a few exceptions are generally seen as not worth it. The bigger shame is that the sets that were released with evolith slots became graphics and designs gone to waste for the most part (ebur, ebon, furia sets). Thus, this OP is dedicated to rebuilding evoliths in a way that may work better with the current flow of the game. I don't claim to be a game designer nor programmer (nor caring for "balance"), but since we're just fantasizing here, it's all good.

I - Restart & repurpose

First, the entire evolith system would need to be scrapped. There's very little, if anything, that would be worth keeping around outside of the concept of different shape sockets.

Instead of aiming to give certain pieces of gear some longevity and others "unique" stats they would not be able to get otherwise, the new system would create a separate style of gear progression for players while putting more of the game's artwork to use. At the same time, it may help in creating some versatility in gear use and give the players a sense of choice as far as what they're wearing (instead of being the 20th guy in the room wearing a Scorpion Harness). For the sake of "balance", gear with Evoliths would at best be one or two tiers behind endgame drops.

II - The System

Any piece of visible gear that is not rare/ex can be put through a Process involving Synergy, stripping the item in question of all its stats (including defense and level requirements) and giving it 4 evolith sockets, 5 if the process HQs.

a) Processed Gear - Processed gear instantly becomes lv1, loses all stat gains and hidden effects, but retains job restrictions. In turn, processed gear gains 4 sockets when NQ, 5 when HQ.

b) Sockets: Four types of evolith sockets available.

Diamond: Determines level requirement to equip. Defense value scales with the item's level requirement.
Square: Increases base stats (+STR, +VIT, +DEX)
Triangle: Increases secondary stats (+Attack, +Accuracy, +Magic Attack Bonus)
Circle: Additional bonuses (Haste, Dual Wield, Zanshin, Counter, Refresh, Regain, Fire Affinity)

c) Restrictions:

- All evoliths have a level requirement assigned
- The level of the Diamond evolith determines what level evoliths can be socketed into a piece of gear (example: lv15 diamond evolith will only allow lv15 or below Square, Triangle and Circle evoliths to be socketed into a piece of gear). You cannot equip a piece of gear that has a Diamond evolith that is higher level than you.
- Replacing the Diamond evolith with a lower level Diamond will destroy any evolith in the other sockets that do not match the level requirement of the new Diamond evolith (Example: lv50 Diamond with a lv30 Square lv47 Triangle lv20 Circle is replaced with a lv25 Diamond. As a result, the Square and Triangle evoliths are destroyed.)
- Once evoliths are socketed into a piece of gear, they cannot be removed, but can be replaced by socketing a new evolith on top of the old one. The old one would be destroyed.
- No two evoliths of the same type may be socketed on to one item (If the item has two Square sockets, you can't put in two STR evoliths. One can be STR and the other can be something else.) *not sure about this restriction

III- The Rocks

a) Levels

Diamond: Each tier is in increments of 5 levels, so Diamond evoliths are lv5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and so on. The highest possible evolith is lv95.
Square: Each tier is in increments of 10 levels. Starts at lv30, so Squares are lv30, 40, 50 and so on. The highest possible evolith would be lv90.
Triangle: Each tier is in increments of 10 levels. Starts at lv10, so Triangles are lv10, 20, 30 and so on. The highest possible would be lv90.
Circle: Each tier is in 20 levels. Highest possible evolith would be lv80.

*Tiers and levels attached to them are subject to change
**an alternative for Diamond evoliths would be to have them all start at lv1 and gain levels as you kill mobs that give you exp.

b) Acquisition

Evolith synthesis would almost always involve elemental anima, and thus fall under Alchemy. Ideally, the materials required should be somewhat common to create a stream of people selling materials to make evoliths, but I'm willing to get some input from people who have actually leveled that profession.

Alchemists can craft evoliths up to a certain level using common materials, with the highest tier evoliths requiring drops from NMs or perhaps top tier targets in a revamped hunt registry.

IV- Sockets

The sockets gained through the process is Semi-random, and since synergy is involved, can be controlled in a way:

Socket 1: All gear when processed gets one Diamond socket.
Sockets 2 & 3: One or both can be Square or Triangle. (Note: I'd appreciate some input from someone who actually uses Synergy to give suggestions as far as how to go about this part)
Socket 4: Always a Circle socket.
Socket 5: Random. Can be Square, Triangle or Circle.

V- Preemptive Statements

Q: B-but won't this mean drops and such won't matter anymore?
A: Not really. The intent of the new system in that regard would be to give you alternatives that are perhaps one or two tiers below what we would find in voidwatch, BCNMs and Abyssea. Where it would be good enough if you don't feel like going for certain pieces. Not to mention you'd still spend time getting the piece, finding someone to Process it for you and then buying/farming the evoliths you're looking for. And whoa to you if you're looking for HQs with five sockets. That being said, also keep in mind more often than not, gear with evoliths would be single-purpose without the helpful extra stats.

Q: Can weapons be put through this Process?
A: I don't think weapons would be a good idea, if only because I'd be tempted to suggest Circle shape evoliths that give Weapon Skills so that I could then socket Chant du Signe into a Processed Duel Rapier with some Dex and maybe aim to HQ it so I could get some Double Attack in there too. There are some weapon graphics that have gone to waste, though.

Q: Why no rare/ex gear?
A: Said gear usually has a value to players that surpasses looks, specially the pieces that take time or a lot of luck to get.

Q: You're just looking for an excuse to create melee RDM gear while undermining Tanaka-sama's vision of BALANCE, aren't you?!
A: How did you--I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. >.>;

VI- Closing

I know it's a long shot, a pipe dream, and less realistic than Summoner spirits being actually fixed, but this was more for fun and an attempt to fix something that has been broken and does nothing but take up space.

That being said, the real challenge would be balancing numbers for evoliths and how far in terms of power they would go. Additionally, I am not really sure how to tier the evoliths in terms of power.

Comments, concerns, flames and so on are welcome.

TLDR: Evoliths scrapped and remade so that a lot of the gear that is currently vendor fodder for crafters or just gets tossed sees some actual use.

[Duelle]

Addendum: Gear (AKA "Yo dawg! I heard you like pipe dreams, so...")

Aside from the currently available gear for the process, there are some unique pieces that we may want to play around with that would normally not be able to because of the rare/ex status. For me, this obviously would be the AF sets. As an experiment, I propose that Clothcraft, Smithing, Goldsmithing, Leatherworking get recipes for what I call "replica" gear, limited to headgear from each original AF set with the exact same class restrictions. So if you're a DRK fond of your Chaos Burgeonette, you could have a Smith make you a Replica Chaos Burgeonette to Process and socket with evoliths. All Replicas would have a lv10 requirement for equipping (which would be stripped once it is processed). If Replica doesn't feel right, you could also go with the naming conventions for the lv50 job rings. If the experiment succeeds, maybe this could be extended to other pieces or even other sets of gear that don't see much use due to subpar stats but can't be normally processed because of the rare/ex thing.

The obvious Duelle-generated example would be:

Replica Warlock's Chapeau (or Fencer's Chapeau)
lv10
RDM

Becoming:

Replica Warlock's Chapeau (or Fencer's Chapeau)
<> lv95
[ ] DEX +10 /\ Attack +20
( ) Haste +6%
RDM


....yes, I hate how the Zelus Tiara looks. Why do you ask?

[Aquilla]

You know, I really like this idea. I would love to see more done with evoliths -- it was something i had great hopes for, until they put it in the game.

I'm all for 'recreating' certain gear so that I get the equivalent of mid-tier gear with a different look. I think that some interesting possibilities could be done with this, including making gear for less-than-popular job/function combinations.

I also like the idea of making these things crafted, since crafting desperately needs a boost.

I'd also like the ability to use synergy to dye gear -- a bit the way we have the ability to dye certain furniture items, like noble beds and whatnot. ^_^ /dream

[Mifaco]

Evoliths is one of the most horribly botched systems in the game. It's staggering to think that all that effort was wasted for nothing. It had the potential to be an awesome system complementing synergy, but the meh augments killed it.

[Draylo]

Should take a look at what Materia is like in FFXIV, that is what evolith could have been.

[Duelle]

Should take a look at what Materia is like in FFXIV, that is what evolith could have been.

I can see that too, except that Materia in XIV is too much like enchanting in Lineage II, with materia instead of scrolls of enchanting. My suggestion is more based on item modification as seen in KOTOR and also TOR (or shall I say, TOR's mod system in the beta before they made dumb changes to it).

[Cljader1]

SE could make evolith a lot better I wish the crafting system and be on par with creating items to the strength of top tier rare/ex gear...and what happened to Aern weapons, I hope SE consider adding a 2nd tier of these weapons

[Duelle]

SE could make evolith a lot better I wish the crafting system and be on par with creating items to the strength of top tier rare/ex gear.

The problem with crafted gear being equal to NM and event gear is that you then don't feel compelled to do the events. The content itself is accessible, but the drop rates are a pain.

That's why I explicitly aimed to make the new evolith system something more in terms of gear to hold you over while you aim for that drop (which gear a tier or two below NM, VW, Abyssea would do). Additionally, it gives those of us who are less than thrilled about certain pieces of gear (I wasn't kidding, I do hate the Zelus Tiara) alternatives, which is never a bad thing.

Lastly, it'll put artwork that no one ever sees to use. I never see Aketons, or coehardies, or even the lv70-ish JSE anymore; there's a good chance we could start seeing more of those around if we could somehow repurpose the gear, which is what my suggestion would allow. It's just sad to see so many gear designs gone to waste in this game because of crappy stats (or no stats at all!). Not to mention, it gives Synergy some use, gives Alchemy some use, and shouldn't get in the way of "balance". I'm still iffy on weapons, but that's more for the devs to decide.

[Cljader1]

well for my drk I have top tier gear and a lvl 99 apoc but I hate the fact that SE always give crafting and synergy the shaft...I wish SE would allow crafters to make very potent and memorable gear, but we always get slapped in the face with rare/ex gear being better