Please Make First Stage Artifact / Relic / Empyrean armor 119

[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.