[dev1017] Materia crafting system & Materia: A Matter of Mystery (08/26/2011)

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Originally Posted by Archadius

This will last about 30 seconds.

Everyone is going to start making materia right away and toss it on the wards, then 20 other guys are going to do the same thing and all of them are going to undercut the last guy by a little bit.

You will notice materia xxx drop from 1mil to 100k in less than a day, and the guys who put it up first won't be getting that 1mil because everyone else knows it's gunna drop asap lol

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yeah maybe, but the rank IV materia may take longer to spiritbind, I think prices will stay high on those for a while.

Also I can see crafters who are trying to HQ Crab Bow for example, no longer NPC those high level weapons, but instead spiritbind them into materia. perhaps only the high level weapons/gear can generate the grade 4 materia.

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Originally Posted by Sonic_the_Hedgehog

Uhhh guys, I think the only DOWs & DOMs can use the materia assimilator.

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Creating Materia
Creating materia requires the “materia assimilator” key item, an apparatus which can be obtained via a quest available to players level 18 or above.

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With the materia melder it only specifies DOH.

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I think to create the materia, any class DoM/W DoH/L can do so with their gears that reached 100% spiritbond and are level 18+, because crafters and gatherers wear gears as well for a start and they said that spirit bond will increase while battling, crafting or gathering.

To fuse the materia to another gear, you'll need crafters level 18+.

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Originally Posted by Sonic_the_Hedgehog

Uhhh guys, I think the only DOWs & DOMs can use the materia assimilator.

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It's for all classes above 18

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Creating Materia

Creating materia requires the “materia assimilator” key item, an apparatus which can be obtained via a quest available to players level 18 or above.

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I'm looking forward to this materia stuff! It'll make gathering feel more important *-*

will other player be able to insert materia into my weapons for me if i don't have the craft leveled?

"* In order to attach materia to a certain piece of equipment, Disciples of the Hand must fulfill the class and level requirements for crafting it."

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Originally Posted by Atomisk

will other player be able to insert materia into my weapons for me if i don't have the craft leveled?

"* In order to attach materia to a certain piece of equipment, Disciples of the Hand must fulfill the class and level requirements for crafting it."

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yes as long as its a tradable item.....

It may have all been a dream but... Didn't I read somewhere a while ago that once you slot a piece of materia to a piece of gear, that gear becomes "untradable"? Either way this will have a large effect on the economy.

Gear has to be sellable / tradable even with materia attached, otherwise you could not trade the parts to a crafter so he can make them and then trade them back.

My question would be how are these going to show in the wards search? right now its hard enough to find the +1/2/3 you need of an item but now if every item can have over 10,000+ different combinations of materia on them its going to be a near impossibility to find what you want.

> Will or can there be a special inventory slot for storing materia like the one we have that specifically stores crystals, or maybe a pouch-like item that holds all our materia that we can view through our items or key items tab (would be nice if the pouch is also upgradable or equipable)?

> Can you stack materia with the same effect and potency (e.g having 5 Intelligience IV for +20 INT) on one equip?

> Are unique/untradable equipments convertable into materia?


Hoping for a dev to respond to the many questions in this thread and to my first question regarding specialized storage for materia please.

I'm... immensely disappointed with the system, to be honest. It's precisely the same sort of thing that's been in many MMOs for years, and all it translates into is an endless, frustrating grind. I'd thought the dev team had stated they were focusing on making XIV less "grind oriented", but if so this is definitely a huge leap in the wrong direction.

While I understand the appeal and benefit of making crafted wares more desirable, consider that all those crafters have jobs with gear they'll want to imbue materia with as well. So, crafters benefit but everyone feels the pinch. Not to mention the whole "progressively more difficult as more materia is added" thing - combine this with total material loss and unless the success rate is quite generous, what we have here is a recipe for endless grinding with dubious payout. They are essentially asking players to gamble with many hours of their time for potentially (or probably, dependent on success rates) no reward whatsoever all in the faint hopes of incremental improvement.

I've seen this in other MMOs and while it's not a dealbreaker and rarely leads to screen-smashing fits of rage... It is very tiresome, and very annoying. I was delighted to have left it behind, but alas, the materia system seems to have fallen to the oh-so-common trap of MMO thinking: "If we give the players more to do, they'll play more!" True. However, all this is accomplishing is giving the players the same thing to do. Over. And over. And over. And there's probably a good chance they will have absolutely nothing to show for it. Giving players more to do is always a good idea as long as it's fun and rewarding. I'm having doubts about both of those with this system.

Don't get me wrong, setbacks are often part of a complete process and certainly have their place - but smashing up all of a player's hard work and saying "Go start over" is just flipping them one big middle finger - especially if they're upgrading + items. What this system accomplishes is discouraging risks and preventing players from using an upgrade system to its full potential.

If the success rate bonus for higher end slots isn't too punitive and the time taken to convert gear to materia isn't overly long, I won't have too many issues with the system. But, honestly, I sort of doubt it'll be that way. I'm expecting a huge disappointment.