Implement a talent-tree of some kind, like the License Board from FF12...

..or perhaps something similar to the Sphere Grid from FFX.

Now obviously SE would need to make it like the License Board from the international version of FF12, where each character (i.e. each job) had their own unique License Board, rather than everyone sharing one big License Board like the original version of FF12 (the only version we ever saw here in the United States).

But I think that if such a system were implemented, it would allow people to customize their character's stats and abilities in a meaningful way, while still alleviating the problems we're seeing with the basic Stat Allotment we have now.

I absolute loved the Sphere Grid, even 12 and 13's. I wish they'd do something like this again.

I'd totally be down for this. It would add for greater character customization without relying on stat points or leveling a ton of different jobs to do so.

It could also fix the equipment issues, people equipping gear way out of their rank range, etc, without imposing a level requirement on gear. Want to wear that Hauby as a Rank 12 Gladiator? Fine, but make sure you have your Haubergeon gear license.

Or something similar to the Zodiac Job System.

The armory system IS a variant of the license board system.

Instead of having to gain enough points to unlock an ability to use whenever you want, you rank up the class in which it belongs and eventually unlock the ability.

Or there can be FFXIII's system

Or there can be FFXIV's system.....oh whoops

The difference between the Armory system and the Crystarium(other than a sweet interface) is having to click more buttons in the latter. The Crystarium is pretty much a straight line(not unlike the rest of FFXIII) in most of its trees.

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Originally Posted by Malakhim

The armory system IS a variant of the license board system.

Instead of having to gain enough points to unlock an ability to use whenever you want, you rank up the class in which it belongs and eventually unlock the ability.

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I don't mean with abilities, though the original poster might, I was thinking specifically as far as gear as concerned. For example, in FFXII if you wanted to wear a certain armor type, you had to unlock that armor type with points.

Let's say I'm a Gladiator. By default I have certain armor types available to me and unlocked. As I level up, I gain points. I can use these to unlock stronger armor along the trees available to me, or maybe I want to wear a different armor type and choose to unlock a whole new armor tree. Something like that.

I think this would be a brilliant replacement for the bonus point system.

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Originally Posted by Malakhim

The armory system IS a variant of the license board system.

Instead of having to gain enough points to unlock an ability to use whenever you want, you rank up the class in which it belongs and eventually unlock the ability.

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There is no logic in your statement whatsoever considering something like that can be said about many games. The current system has nothing to do with the Incense board from FFXII and I hope it never does, it just wouldn't work in the MMO imo (and I loved FFXII so its not that).

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Originally Posted by Mack

There is no logic in your statement whatsoever considering something like that can be said about many games. The current system has nothing to do with the Incense board from FFXII and I hope it never does, it just wouldn't work in the MMO imo (and I loved FFXII so its not that).

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Try scratching a bit further than the superficial and you'll figure out that the entire concept is the same.

In fact, upon further consideration, leveling up in FFXII is much like raising your physical level in FFXIV, save that in FFXII, stat and HP/MP growth is automatic while in FFXIV you allocate your own bonuses. The license board system is the same horizontal leveling concept present in the different classes in FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by Mack

There is no logic in your statement whatsoever considering something like that can be said about many games. The current system has nothing to do with the Incense board from FFXII and I hope it never does, it just wouldn't work in the MMO imo (and I loved FFXII so its not that).

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Why wouldn't it work? It seems like it could even work as far back as XI. Instead of requiring a certain job to equip, it would require a certain license. It doesn't even necessarily need to have a license board interface, it could be a list of Armor/Weapon types available for purchase with points. I'd be interested in hearing reasons why it wouldn't work, there may be something I missed and didn't think of. It happens to me sometimes @_@;

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Originally Posted by Vasch

Why wouldn't it work? It seems like it could even work as far back as XI. Instead of requiring a certain job to equip, it would require a certain license. It doesn't even necessarily need to have a license board interface, it could be a list of Armor/Weapon types available for purchase with points. I'd be interested in hearing reasons why it wouldn't work, there may be something I missed and didn't think of. It happens to me sometimes @_@;

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Look at all the "feedback" that people are giving about FFXIV thus far: Auto-attack, automatic stat allocation and the removal of physical levels, etc.

What we're seeing is what could be interpreted as a general push for the game to "do everything for the player". In this type of environment, you should be able to see how adding another level of complexity in the form of expending points just to be able to equip gear would not fly at all.

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Originally Posted by Malakhim

Look at all the "feedback" that people are giving about FFXIV thus far: Auto-attack, automatic stat allocation and the removal of physical levels, etc.

What we're seeing is what could be interpreted as a general push for the game to "do everything for the player". In this type of environment, you should be able to see how adding another level of complexity in the form of expending points just to be able to equip gear would not fly at all.

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I suppose that could be the case, however I've also noticed a lot of people want more visual customization. I think as far as customization is concerned many players would only see it as worth their time if they can see the effects. There's a push for auto-allocation of stats and a push for the ability to customize gear color and hair color, etc. I figured the license board style system would be well-received because it would allow for players to visually customize and represent themselves based on licenses they required. I don't think they'd lash out against it like they do for allocating stat points because there's a visual result of their extra effort, and the player base seems to really like visual results.

Or I could be completely wrong, it's all just theory at this point.

I think adding FFVII's Materia System, or FFX's Sphere Grid system would make our characters much more unique. I loved both those systems, they were great!

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Originally Posted by Malakhim

The armory system IS a variant of the license board system.

Instead of having to gain enough points to unlock an ability to use whenever you want, you rank up the class in which it belongs and eventually unlock the ability.

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And that right there is the fundamental problem with customization within the Armory System: you have to do an inordinate amount of grinding and level multiple jobs before you can even begin to get any real level of customization. The amount of customization you have within a single job is extremely limited.

Plus, by allowing players to mix and match abilities from all jobs, you eventually end up with just one big conglomerate job that has all the abilities and everyone is the same. Yoshi-P has said that he and the dev team want to establish job uniqueness in FFXIV, but that's going to be impossible to do as long as jobs can all share abilities with each other.

So my idea is that we remove the feature for jobs to share abilities with each other, but keep the existing class names for the current jobs, and then add classic FF job names for sub-jobs. So like say you've got a Thaumaturge, but then within the Thaumaturge class structure there are different paths and branches you can take, and you have to ask yourself what kind of Thaumaturge do you want to be? For example, do you want to be a White Mage Thaumaturge, a Black Mage Thaumaturge, or a Red Mage Thaumaturge? And there would be three different Thaumaturge License Boards (one for WHM, one for BLM, and one for RDM), and you could choose to level up in just one, or mix and match abilities from all three License Boards.

This is where ability customization would come in, and so a Thaumaturge could no longer use abilities from a Marauder or a Lancer like they can now, thus providing unique job distinctions, and would instead customize their job abilities by selecting combinations from the abilities provided by the different WHM, BLM, and RDM branches on their License Board.

Here's an image I threw together in Photoshop to give kind of an idea of what I'm talking about in my previous post:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...censeBoard.png

FFXIV does not need more customization, it needs more class definition.

^We need both customization and class definition, actually. Both are very important aspects of an MMO, and neither one can be ignored. A License Board type of system would allow us to have both.