Possible melding NPC.. .what do you think?

During the live letter it seemed Yoshi P seems ambivalent about adding an NPC that melds materia (advanced melding excluded). His reasons against is that it means less player interaction in an MMO.

Personally I am on the fence on this since I have no problem shouting at the FC wards and/or Iddlyshire for anyone to meld my materia for free; therefore a melding PC would not make such a great difference for me- perhaps some added convenience.
So what do you think? Just add it for convenience and for players that just don’t want to interact at all?

I want to see more reasons for people to level crafting classes, not less.

Lazy...
mean opinion? Yes, but that's okay.

If I, the epitome of "I don't want to talk to you" can /sh to friends or strangers (since late at night my friends are asleep) for a few quick melds, then so can you.

Redundant feature.

You already can get away with minimal interaction via DF. Melding too? Come on, the whole point of a MMORPG is to interact with each other so you can't do everything without depending on others PLAYERS. It's not hard to make friends, really, start by greeting people in your FC/LS/dungeons/pf, if things are well, add to friendlist, if they ask for help, offer, or if you need help, ask. People on the internet aren't out to bite you.

I can commiserate - I never melded any of my leveling equipment both because i knew it wasn't worthwhile to deal with materia until end-game and because it meant shouting and tracking down other players which is always going to be something of a barrier.

An NPC that can do basic melding would definitely have players like me getting a lot more use of grade 1-3 materias and it'd make it a lot easier to just throw some Vit or main stat onto a piece of leveling gear for the hell of it. BUT, I would NOT like to see this hypothetical npc in my opinion. There has to be a better way to encourage participation in the Materia system that doesn't remove the player/player interaction element of the whole thing. Losing that would be too big of a cost.


I'd like to see a system where you can request melds from players and fulfill requests for melds - much like the current market board. Something where you might have to leave an item on the 'Materia Board' for a few hours while you wait for a player to fulfill the request, and maybe post an attached donation to anyone that does. This kind of system would encourage participation more than what we have now (shouting in a populated area) but it would retain Crafters/other players as the sole participants.

tldr: removing player/player interaction from an MMO is not the way to handle this issue.

Personally, I think the player interaction doesn't need to be forcibly enhanced via the current melding system. Further, I think that my interactions with melding have been pretty meh. I have received melds from numerous people on my server, and if you asked, I'd be able to regurgitate only one of their names.

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Originally Posted by Luxea

Redundant feature.

You already can get away with minimal interaction via DF. Melding too? Come on, the whole point of a MMORPG is to interact with each other so you can't do everything without depending on others PLAYERS. It's not hard to make friends, really, start by greeting people in your FC/LS/dungeons/pf, if things are well, add to friendlist, if they ask for help, offer, or if you need help, ask. People on the internet aren't out to bite you.

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I think it needs to be stressed that the "interact" portion of this is in the sense that you're actively seeking real people to do something for you. For anyone who may look at that as not being a form of interaction to build lasting relationships, it isn't supposed to be lol. It's just a tool to interact between each other, no matter how minimal said interaction may be. It's your typical craft request sort of thing. Hello's/request > action > goodbye's/reward. The same sort of interaction that might happen with IRL stores or services... which is literally how it traditionally was designed to be in MMORPGs.

Having said that though, I don't see the NPC addition to be of any detriment to the game. This does practically nothing on the scale of reducing interaction. Again, going back to the IRL stores reference, how meaningful is that to someones daily social life? If you're a typical socially healthy human being, not much. Keep in mind that it also removes the uncontrollable burden on both parties of present.

Starts with the player wanting someone to meld, where the variables are 1) finding someone capable of melding, 2) finding someone with those capabilities that is willing to do it, and 3) said person is willing to do it for an acceptable price (ranging from free to X). If any of those are not there, the seeking player is out of luck... and socializing does literally nothing to help it. In fact, if such a streak continued, it'd be possibly detrimental to socialism in general, due to an outlook that said server is unhelpful/dead/etc, not to mention an overall distaste for the game. Of course, the option to level crafts is there too, but that's another matter.

If they want to add in a limitation of basic melds only to NPCs, that's fine. That's probably the preferred approach to this, given the new means of materia use. Personally, I'm one of those crafters who don't actively heed the requests, unless it's someone I know... even then, I may not lol. As selfish as it sounds, I didn't level crafting with the sole purpose to help others or be at their beck and call. Having crafting as a large reason to why I played MMORPGs for over a decade, I've dealt with more than enough situations where people request crafters for something, which in turn made me wait around for 30-60min or more for them.

I don't see the problem with it. With the new gear having Materia slots I'm not surprised something like this would come up sometime plus overmelding stuff would still require a crafter therfore I don't see much of a loss in player interactions. :)

I don't think player interaction should be forced in this manner, especially when it feels I'd just be pestering friends to meld my gear so I support it. Overmelding will be kept to crafters, as it is now.

If they're going to spend any time on the melding system I'd rather it be them adding a retry option to the Request Meld feature (like they did for personal melds in 3.2) so I'm not stuck waiting 10 seconds between attempts on someone's 8% overmeld.

If they add a melding NPC, it should only be usable for the guaranteed melds on White gear. No Greens, Blues, Purples, Pinks (well, if Pinks get meld slots anyway). Just the basic White gear.

EDIT: Maybe (big maybe) on crafted Greens too...but have to charge a ton for it

And for reference, if someone asks me to meld, I'll do it. If they tip, yay, if not, didn't cost me anything anyway

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Originally Posted by Canadane

I want to see more reasons for people to level crafting classes, not less.

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This.

Make the NPC charge 100k a meld though and I'll be okay with it. Seems fair to me if they're too lazy to level AND too lazy to shout in idyllshire for a crafter.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Again, going back to the IRL stores reference, how meaningful is that to someones daily social life? If you're a typical socially healthy human being, not much. Keep in mind that it also removes the uncontrollable burden on both parties of present.

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Logical relevance????

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

1) finding someone capable of melding, 2) finding someone with those capabilities that is willing to do it, and 3) said person is willing to do it for an acceptable price (ranging from free to X). If any of those are not there, the seeking player is out of luck...

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1) Player search tool.
2) Ask a qualified player nicely, remember to remain humble and say please. Ask people without the AFK sign. Wait for their reply.
3) I've never met a melder who charged me. In fact, when I tried to tip one, they told me "OMG no, please please, it's for free". Maybe I'm just lucky? Or perhaps politeness and ability to show appreciation was rewarded?

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

and socializing does literally nothing to help it. In fact, if such a streak continued, it'd be possibly detrimental to socialism in general, due to an outlook that said server is unhelpful/dead/etc, not to mention an overall distaste for the game. Of course, the option to level crafts is there too, but that's another matter.

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1) I'm not sure I quite understood you, but if your server's dead, time to transfer, or level your crafters so you can meld things. It's not detrimental except for some special ppl.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Personally, I'm one of those crafters who don't actively heed the requests, unless it's someone I know... even then, I may not lol. As selfish as it sounds, I didn't level crafting with the sole purpose to help others...

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Bolded. Nuff said.

I would like it. Right now I get my melds from one of the crafters in my static right before we start a raid, but it would be convenient to be able to do it on my own.

I don't really get the "player interaction" arguments here. I have melded for people around Idyllshire or even outside my personal house/FC house, and I barely ever get more than a "Thanks!" and the person runs off. It's not like that builds any kind of community. Maybe on an RP server, I guess? I think it'd be pretty awkward trying to strike up meaningful conversation with some random person after giving/receiving a meld.

Personally, I would like to see an NPC added. Aside from this character, I have three alts with multiple 60s, and I don't want to level crafters on all of them. It's enough work already keeping up with weekly stuff like tomes and midas on multiple characters, and then I feel bad having to bug friends or randoms for melds on top of that. Maybe that puts me in the 'lazy' camp too despite having all crafters on my main.

For people worried about the incentives for leveling crafters, you already have:

1. Advanced melding
2. The ability to repair your own gear anywhere, anytime
3. The ability to make your own food/meds/equipment far cheaper (generally) than market board prices
4. Potential networking via crafting linkshells/groups
5. This adds onto 3, but access to a variety of vanity items earlier or cheaper

Obviously not an exhaustive list, but if that's not already enough incentive, you probably aren't going to level your crafting anyway. I just don't see how an NPC offering melds for 100% slots only could hurt anything at all, but it definitely would improve the quality of life for others.

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Originally Posted by Silica-chan

With the new gear having Materia slots I'm not surprised something like this would come up sometime plus overmelding stuff would still require a crafter therfore I don't see much of a loss in player interactions. :)

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You mean that gear that forbids over-melding......?

The translation from the live letter was

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A: There’s actually already a system in place for NPCs to meld materia into equipment that has open materia slots. However, I’m thinking advanced melding should be requested to those who are Disciples of the Hand, but we’ll look into this carefully as we keep an eye on feedback.

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What I get from that is he saying there already a NPC that can meld your gear if it has 100% slots but apparently that not good enough for people and they want to be able to over meld without needing a crafters help which he is saying no to. I don't see why people want to play a MMO and feel they are being bothered to actually play with others.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

The translation from the live letter was



What I get from that is he saying there already a NPC that can meld your gear if it has 100% slots but apparently that not good enough for people and they want to be able to over meld without needing a crafters help which he is saying no to. I don't see why people want to play a MMO and feel they are being bothered to actually play with others.

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Where is this NPC that melds into guaranteed slots?

There is no NPC in-game that can, they just have the ability to add it already if they actually felt like the game needed it. Currently they don't.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

Where is this NPC that melds into guaranteed slots?

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Idk apparently what Yoshi-p said during the live letter. You can find it at this link post #15

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-Thread/page2

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Possible melding NPC.. .what do you think?

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Not a bad idea, but on the other hand I'm pretty sure all those people that leveled their crafting classes to 60 just for this purpose would be pretty ticked off if this ever became official, so maybe not? :\

I read it as the NPC already exists. I don't know if he is referring to the possibility that the Dev Team has already made one and just hasn't put it in game yet, or he was just confusing this feature with the NPC who removes materia which is already in game. Regardless of which he might be referring to, I support the addition of an NPC to meld open slots. Hell, I started a huge argument over this a month or so ago. lol. Also have to agree with Yoshi-P's sentiment that overmelding should remain with the crafting classes.

I'm not going to hold my breath on this and have been slowly leveling my DoH solely for the purpose of melding materia...and oh how I hate doing so!

I don't like the idea of a melding NPC. It's counter intuitive, actually. I believe players should level at least 1 crafting class to unlock melding first, and so they can do normal melds for any of their gear. Over-melding should require the specific crafting class + level. Best of both!

Personally I think we should just be able to meld to basic slots without a crafter or an NPC, the slot is there, you're literally just sticking a ball in a hole. But with advanced melding it makes sense to need a crafter, you're basically shoving the materia into the gear and I can see how a crafter might be needed for that. We don't need an NPC, just let us meld basic slots without a craft and leave advanced melding as is.

Honestly I don't think its a big issue either way. A 30 second interaction with another player isn't exactly difficult, but on the other hand it doesn't really add anything to the game either so I wouldn't be against a NPC who could do basic melds for a small charge.

just dont meld anything then if you hate doing it.

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Originally Posted by Luxea

Logical relevance????



1) Player search tool.
2) Ask a qualified player nicely, remember to remain humble and say please. Ask people without the AFK sign. Wait for their reply.
3) I've never met a melder who charged me. In fact, when I tried to tip one, they told me "OMG no, please please, it's for free". Maybe I'm just lucky? Or perhaps politeness and ability to show appreciation was rewarded?

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You mean how services rendered IRL is identical to services rendered in-game? Pretty sure it's self explanatory on that. People look at crafters as a means to an end. A tool, essentially. It's not a bad thing, but it's no different than opening the yellow book IRL to find a business to do some job you need done. Do you get in contact with those people to build a relationship with them? Your argument was about losing a socializing tool by adding the NPC. I'm saying that you wouldn't lose anything meaningful by this. The example of IRL services to how you would look to a crafter for in-game services is there to showcase why it's not a big deal. That is, unless you do so with the express purpose of making a friend in the process. Most people don't though. If you want to make a friend, seeking melds is not the only way to do it.

Again though, all of those variables must be in play. If one is not, then the seeking player is out of luck and must wait till one is avail or willing. You're right in that most crafters are okay to help you out, but it's still an unreliable variable for something so minor. Your replies are very short sighted, even though I spell out why those thoughts apply. Wall of text mentality maybe, as I do preach a lot.

The NPC system is already in place, as much as some of us don't like it.. its coming.

I personally like being able to meld for my friends and I don't think I'll be asked to meld anymore once the NPC is in the game :(

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3635290

I'm on the fence about the idea.. I think people should have to ask real people for melds.. on the other hand.. I hate seing so many people run around with no materia because they're lazy..

I don't really care tbh. I leveled my crafters because I like crafting and i don't seek to make money with it. I think a game that needs to force people to interact doesn't have a good idea of what an MMO is. It doesn't mean that you have to be forced CONSTANTLY to group with people (as DF does already if you want to get exp from a dungeon). Not forcing people to group every time they are online doesn't mean people won't group. It gives people the choice, which is the best they can do.

As for the NPC, I believe it should have a 30-50% failure rate and be a gil sink. People want to be lazy? Pay for it.