Question to Devs about 3.0 new jobs relic weapons

What the relic questline can give though, is longevity. At the moment, there really is no incentive to stay subscribed from one patch to the next, since each major update completely antiquates gear 2 generations ago. It's a great business model for the casual player to pick up and play and then just drop, but outside of crafting and relics, you could drop the game and catch up pretty easily several patches down the line.

Long questlines generate constant and secure revenue with the players that remain invested in the game. Take that away, and success rests solely on how well you can craft each update. It doesn't have to be the entirety of the game, but a smart on-line game (or any game) is designed so that you have instant, mid, and long term goals for the player to keep busy with.

The relic has already progressed into a new weapon in the latest stage, so I'm sure that will continue going in to 3.0.

Also, people talking about new players having trouble with the relic quest line, it's not like it's in it's original state any more, it's already much faster to grind and I'm sure if it does continue into 3.0 the grind will be even easier/faster.

Realistically, if the Relic Chain was continued through expansions and you had to start at the very beginning every single time... most players would not go anywhere near a Relic Weapon.
Lets be honest here, a year from now, or say 1.5-2 years from now after 2nd expansion and perhaps a lvl cap increase to 70. You have a choice between raiding for a weapon with pre-set stats, maybe several weapons with different pre-set stats. Or you can get your Relic weapon where you pick your own stats...

Except the Relic Weapon starts out as something weaker than lvl 51 items (lets say we've got a lvl cap of 70 now). Then you have at least a month of grinding and camping various things to make it about as good as a lvl 55 item. Throw in another few weeks and hell knows how much cash to get the stats you want. (We're on Nexus now)
Then a somewhat reasonable (by comparison) quest to upgrade the weapon. (Zodiac) And then... idk, another 5-10 such long, time gated, tome/dungeon/rng grinding, fate camping quests to get it to be on par with the aforementioned pre-set items.

The idea of the relic is nice and all. But if we have to start it from scratch every single time, then a new player who hit endgame will see the following choices:
1. Spend months obtaining and upgrading an effectively useless weapon to end up with something that has the ideal stats (for me).
2. Spend those months obtaining a pre-set weapon of the same quality as the finalized Relic, perhaps with less than perfect stats, for probably 3-4 classes... With MUCH less time investment.

This does not seem like a smart marketing strategy.

I (personally) think the best approach would be to greatly condense the Relic chain down to major steps.
1. Obtaining the Relic, though we can cut down the # of mobs to kill and maybe make 4 man versions of Ifrit/Garuda/Titan HM.
2. Upgrading the Relic to Nexus, have it be objective based. Complete 5 arbitrary fates in 12 specific zones. Complete 10 specific dungeons. Obtain 1500-2000 grindable tomestones worth of Thavnarian Mist. Get scroll from guy. Put everything together, pick your stats (no materia needed), and boom, Nexus. Not fast, still forced people to do old content, but it is now a "sane" amount of grinding.
3. Upgrade the Nexus to Zodiac. pretty much the same as it is now, maybe increase some desynth rates a bit, make recipes a bit easier, raise drop rates of token items from dungeons.

All in all, this sequence, once completed the first time, should take no more than 2 weeks of semi-casual playing, say 4 hours a day. Or for a skilled hardcore player with a dedicated group and time, maybe 3-4 days at 8 hours a day? 24 hour Relic (to current state).

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Originally Posted by Saren

I hope they continue infinitely. Now that's relic worthy.

You spot one and imagine everything it and it's owner have been through and then you feel motivated to do it yourself.

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ehrmagehrd, he has spent 200 hours on his weapon that has worse stats than mine that i spent 2 hours on, i wanna do that grind too!

they can do as they please with the relic weapons, i couldn't care less. no matter what they do they are going to piss some people off, but i'll just stick with my primal/raid weapons.

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Originally Posted by Stormrider

No one will ever do Aurum Vale again.

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People thought the same after they unlocked Amdapor Keep the first time.

Hmm this being my first MMO and just finishing my second novus yesterday(and almost at nexus with my first) I kinda think that the upgrades will keep on going(so basically not influenced by they reset it vs the this is how it was in ffxi brigades).

But at the same time while we get to start where we are; those that opt for it will start from a closer point in time at expansion. Maybe we'll start a step+1 or +2 in the expansion with zodiacs while the rest start at newrelic+0. Maybe they'll make it so that you start at the novus stage(getting alexandrite and materia infusions) while those of us that will be at zodiac by then will be going on from then.

They'll either make it a similar newrelic quest like the current one(or even leave that part as well) but then you get to upgrade to novus straight up after you get it - maybe for 1600 tomes and then another whatever tomes the inks will cost by then.

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Originally Posted by Katsaria

There's only so many times a single weapon can be reforged and it's getting overly silly at this point.

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Isn't the Zodiac version a completely different weapon that's simply been infused and bolstered with a super materia made from you now non-existent relic nexus? I've yet to finish this particular part of the quest, but that's how it seems to me.

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Originally Posted by Themis

Isn't the Zodiac version a completely different weapon that's simply been infused and bolstered with a super materia made from you now non-existent relic nexus? I've yet to finish this particular part of the quest, but that's how it seems to me.

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The same concept kind of applies though. What are we going to do: break this one down into a super duper materia and infuse another weapon which becomes a super duper mega materia for another weapon...?

I think theyre gonna make a new relic quest so that everyone can sstart from scratch, however, im hoping that those of us who got the latest upgrade will get some kinda bonus/advantage like the stats allocation we melded.
It would be so stupid to get a full det-crit novus which will cost about 15 mil gil, and when theres a new expansion those 15 mil gil you just used is a total waste

If they do keep the current one, they'll ease up on a lot of the processes going into 3.0 even more so than now.
If they don't, you'll probably get a title, or achievement to show you did the quest prior 3.0. It may even give you an advantage in the new line.

Thats how it seems.