Mostly-minor suggestion to change the Character-sheet UI

So, I'm going to start by saying these suggestions are *MOSTLY* minor. There is one suggestion that is going to sound pretty radical, but if you'll permit me to explain my reasoning, I think you'll see it actually isn't that big of a deal.

So first off, your "Job Crystal" should be up there at the top of your character sheet, right next to your weapon. It's just a lot more organic there, given its importance.

Piggy-backing off of that, the "Shield slot" should also be moved up there, but only displayed for Jobs that can actually equip them. Otherwise, just display the Crystal and Weapon slots.

Now for the seemingly "not-so-minor" suggestion:

Remove Belts from the game entirely.

HEAR ME OUT FIRST!!!

Belts are the one piece of gear that doesn't ACTUALLY exist in the game world. EVERY other item can visually be seen. So right off the back, Belts are a weird outlier.

Now ALSO consider that they're incredibly straight-forward. They come in four flavors; Tanks, Phys DPS, Magic DPS, and Heals. Such is true of most accessories, but again, those also have visuals.

My solution is to simply raise the stats of other armor pieces to offset the loss of Belts. That, or just increase a player's base stats in relation to whatever a Belt would've added, relative to their level.

The REASONS I suggest this are thus:

Firstly, because they lack ANY sort of visuals, and their stats are usually fairly inconsequential compared to any other gear-upgrade, they wind up being the one piece of loot at that NOT exciting to acquire. Even accessories can be exciting, because they can look pretty cool!

The second reason is: by removing Belts, and moving Job Crystals and Shields to the the top, consider how that affects the character UI?

Suddenly, it's totally symmetrical!!!

At the top you would see:

Job Crystal - Weapon - Shield (if usable, otherwise I would hide)

And on the left and right sides of your character, you would see:

Head - Earrings
Chest - Neck
Gloves - Wrist
Legs - Left Ring
Boots - Right Ring

As our buddy Thanos said; "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be."

Honestly, I'm a sucker for organization and clean UI's, so this honestly makes me really excited to think about.

Belts actually did used to be visible, in the original version of FFXIV (version 1.0). However, SE scrapped it in the changeover to ARR as they felt it restricted gear design in order to ensure every belt would not clip badly on every body piece/leg piece, so belts are now just a stat-booster and nothing else with no actual appearence (your body piece often has a belt on it instead). They're fine as they are really. It's just yet another legacy of 1.0.

As for it being the only piece of gear that doesn't have an actual appearence, that is wrong, your Soul Crystal also does not visibly appear on your character and that is equally important. So I do not see SE changing this.

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Originally Posted by Terin

They come in four flavors; Tanks, Phys DPS, Magic DPS, and Heals.

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It actually comes in 7 flavors, just like the other left-sided gears.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

your Soul Crystal also does not visibly appear on your character

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I actually want soul crystals to be removed as well and either a class cannot go past level 30 before they unlock and upgrade to a job (and once upgraded, cannot go back to being a class, thus making soul crystal irrelevant) or remove class altogether.

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Originally Posted by linayar

It actually comes in 7 flavors, just like the other left-sided gears.

I actually want soul crystals to be removed as well and either a class cannot go past level 30 before they unlock and upgrade to a job (and once upgraded, cannot go back to being a class, thus making soul crystal irrelevant) or remove class altogether.

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Ah, fair point on the belts/accessories; I play a Tank these days, so haven't paid close enough attention!

As for Job Crystals... they're TECHNICALLY unnecessary, but I think they're still really important to the overall "fantasy" for the game. Equipping a two-handed Sword doesn't really explain why I'm suddenly using the power of Darkness to fuel my attacks instead of Light if I was originally a Paladin.

Belts, though, I actually do think warrant being removed. They're far and away the least exciting piece of loot, and I think just being able to clean the UI up as I suggested would be *REALLY* nice!

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Originally Posted by Terin

As for Job Crystals... they're TECHNICALLY unnecessary, but I think they're still really important to the overall "fantasy" for the game. Equipping a two-handed Sword doesn't really explain why I'm suddenly using the power of Darkness to fuel my attacks instead of Light if I was originally a Paladin.

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I think they're great for unlocking the job, but bad for actually using the job since equipping them doesn't really mean anything. At least with a belt, you know it's supposed to be on your waist even if you don't see it, but where do you equip a soul crystal? And so it makes no sense since you technically have all your soul crystals with you at any time unless you put them on your chocobo or retainer.

If need be, they should just be added to some currency tab to show that you've unlocked the job, but remove them as an item in your inventory.

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Originally Posted by linayar

I think they're great for unlocking the job, but bad for actually using the job since equipping them doesn't really mean anything. At least with a belt, you know it's supposed to be on your waist even if you don't see it, but where do you equip a soul crystal? And so it makes no sense since you technically have all your soul crystals with you at any time unless you put them on your chocobo or retainer.

If need be, they should just be added to some currency tab to show that you've unlocked the job, but remove them as an item in your inventory.

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Well, I wouldn't be too upset of they just removed Job Crystals. I still think they serve an important function, though, just in communicating who and what you are; if you remove Job Crystals, then I'd be a little afraid it would feel like "well all I did was change my weapon, why are all of my abilities suddenly so different?". Job Crystals kind of explain that.

Having said that, I honestly wouldn't mind seeing the base "Classes" just start with Job Crystals, too, and make them mandatory/automatically equipped for each Job. Maybe when you start as a Gladiator, the item is just listed as "Strange crystal", but when you become a Paladin, it's "true form" is revealed to you as the Paladin soul crystal. Functionally, though, it would prevent you from being without a crystal, since the base "Classes" are completely redundant now.

Job Cristal, either remove it or make it useful. The only way I use this “feature” is by taking it off for my “glamour only” sets to allow me to use the hot bar of, for instance, archer, to bind “RP” friendly stuff on them.

About the visual of the belt. I liked the system of The Secret World. Your glamour and your “stat” item were 2 different things. Your “stat” items were only that, invisible item you equipped which gave you stat bonuses. And aside of that you had clothes which had a visual and that you could equip for the glamour part of the game.

I don't want them to remove job crystal equipping (and thus classes) for the sole reason of the hotbar storage options that classes give. The creation of custom UI hotbars controlled by macros benefits greatly by having classes in the game. It can still be done using DoH/DoL, but there's far fewer storage options for custom hotbars available with just those.

P.S. the job crystal does grant you stats like with any other equipment, they're just a hidden increase because it changes the base stat rather than giving a +x.

The job crystals have cool designs, it would be great if there was a special pendant or something that displays the one you have equipped.

Bumping this, because I honestly think with a new expansion likely being announced this week, I think it would be a good chance to revamp the UI, and in doing so, removing Belts (for the reasons listed previously).

As for Job Crystals... I'd still keep them, personally. Maybe tie your "Glamour Plates" to the Crystal itself?

I don't really care about the existence of belts, they not having a tangible graphic model makes kind of pointless to me at least. I'd rather have their budget stats being spread across the accessories.

As for the soulcrystals, I don't really mind their existence as an item slot, to me it seems just like decoration, because you don't really interact with it, or have bag space issues or anything like that. I'm not particulary fond of the lore behind the soulcrystals, tho, only because it makes most of them kind of a 'snowflake' situation when it comes to roleplaying, but hey, the whole WoL narrative also plays a big role there too.

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Originally Posted by linayar

At least with a belt, you know it's supposed to be on your waist even if you don't see it, but where do you equip a soul crystal? And so it makes no sense since you technically have all your soul crystals with you at any time unless you put them on your chocobo or retainer.

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They're clearly jolly ranchers, my dude. You don't see them, and your character is perpetually silent, because they're busy enjoying the many flavors of those sweet, sweet Soul Crystal juices.

I agree with the belts. They serve no function other than raw numbers and should be removed and their stats allocated. We'll never see that happen, though.

if we remove belts, we should get cloaks/capes instend in its slot

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Originally Posted by AncientWillow

if we remove belts, we should get cloaks/capes instend in its slot

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The game can't even handle long hair. It would look horrible.

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Originally Posted by Terin

Well, I wouldn't be too upset of they just removed Job Crystals. I still think they serve an important function, though, just in communicating who and what you are; if you remove Job Crystals, then I'd be a little afraid it would feel like "well all I did was change my weapon, why are all of my abilities suddenly so different?". Job Crystals kind of explain that.

Having said that, I honestly wouldn't mind seeing the base "Classes" just start with Job Crystals, too, and make them mandatory/automatically equipped for each Job. Maybe when you start as a Gladiator, the item is just listed as "Strange crystal", but when you become a Paladin, it's "true form" is revealed to you as the Paladin soul crystal. Functionally, though, it would prevent you from being without a crystal, since the base "Classes" are completely redundant now.

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I would simply make Job Crystals a Key Item, and then providing you have it at all (and you won't be able to get rid of it) then you will automatically be the Job version of whatever weapon class you equip.
No more level 50 CNJ's.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

I would simply make Job Crystals a Key Item, and then providing you have it at all (and you won't be able to get rid of it) then you will automatically be the Job version of whatever weapon class you equip.
No more level 50 CNJ's.

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I suppose that's technically fine. Like I said, I just think that even know *WE* know that changing your weapon means changing your Job and all your abilities, I think it's a concept that would be sort of harder to grasp if the Soul Crystal wasn't present on some level. I'd definitely like to see the UI updated a bit there; maybe merging the "Gear Sets" function with the literal "Soul Crystal", just to condense things down a little more?

Additionally, it might not necessarily be the worth thing in the world, if certain weapon-types were perhaps shared...? Dark Knights and Warriors, for example, both use heavy Strength 2handers; one is simply a Sword, and the other an Axe. White Mages and Black Mages both use staffs, to my knowledge. If Soul Crystal determined your "Job", then it would stand to reason that the devs COULD -- if they wanted -- have weapons usable by multiple Jobs, which is at least interesting to consider.

Also, having watched the Showcase lastnight, definitely happy seeing Belts removed! Hopefully they line-up the UI equipment slots as I suggested :)

They had better not remove rings! It sounded like they were still considering it for the future.

I think rings don't have to be removed, but they can make only one slot be required for stats and make the other slot a special optional slot only for appearance's sake and not an actual equipped slot. That would lessen the need to get an extra ring for people who don't care about it and they don't have to worry about it being unique.