Arbitrary Stat Caps on Materia Melding & Freedom to Meld MAIN Stat Please

[Lux_Rayna]

You guys are getting off-topic. What you can craft is not the point, its the stat caps for melds.

Personally, i find them quite intuitive most times. In the OP's first example, that gear has a greater affinity for control materia than craftsmanship. This is obvious because it has a high control stat and a very low craftsmanship stat. A rather small leap in logic will tell you that the item in question has a low craftsmanship cap and a high control cap. There's a reason craftsmanship is only +3, and its probably not for giggles. Makes perfect sense to me.

In regards to the rest, the system is the way it is to prevent stat stacking and to make all the stats useful. This in turn creates variety in melds and builds, which means we all aren't just going to be 100% one stat for every meld (like it was in 1.0).

I basically disagree with everything you said.

[Kiara]

Personally, i find them quite intuitive most times. In the OP's first example, that gear has a greater affinity for control materia than craftsmanship. This is obvious because it has a high control stat and a very low craftsmanship stat. A rather small leap in logic will tell you that the item in question has a low craftsmanship cap and a high control cap. There's a reason craftsmanship is only +3, and its probably not for giggles. Makes perfect sense to me.

Exactly how is it intuitive or consistent when you have:

Weaver's Trousers HQ (i55): Craftsmanship +3, Control +31.
When attempting to meld a Tier IV Craftsmanship Materia (there's only +3 default on the item), you can only get +1(!) Craftsmanship to add. Yet, you can add a FULL Tier IV Control Materia (even though this item has a whopping +31 Control already). And you can only add +1 CP, and there's NO CP on this gear at all.

Amber Ring HQ: Vitality +6, Parry +9.
You can add NO Vitality or Parry at all to this item.

So we have 1 item that has a default +31 Control (and is its highest stat), and you can add an *entire* Tier IV Control Materia; yet on the Amber Ring with it's biggest stats (VIT and Parry) you can add NOTHING?

That's not intuitive or consistent at all.

And in 1.0, there were plenty of players testing out various builds vs. just 1 Stat Stacking. Look at WHMs testing out MND Builds vs. Healer's Hand Builds vs. Sound of Certainty Builds.

[Lux_Rayna]

Exactly how is it intuitive or consistent

It is really really easy. Low stats on an item means low melding cap. No stat on an item means the same thing (usually). High stats on an item indicates a high melding cap. You're just looking at it the wrong way. What you see when you see stats is that things with low stats/no stats have room for more, while things with high stats are close to cap; that is not how it works. The stats on an item *tells* you (mostly) how you can meld it. The only thing thats really tricky is when something doesnt have a certain stat on it. That requires some trial and error, but thats not a bad thing.

Its fairly consistent. Both of your examples fit what I just told you.


EDIT: And sure ppl tested, but Stat Stacking was by far the most used and most recommended method of melding. This system is far better, as it doesnt make 80% of the stats useless, as was the case in 1.0.

[Kiara]

It is really really easy. Low stats on an item means low melding cap. No stat on an item means the same thing (usually). High stats on an item indicates a high melding cap. You're just looking at it the wrong way. What you see when you see stats is that things with low stats/no stats have room for more, while things with high stats are close to cap; that is not how it works. The stats on an item *tells* you (mostly) how you can meld it. The only thing thats really tricky is when something doesnt have a certain stat on it. That requires some trial and error, but thats not a bad thing.

Its fairly consistent. Both of your examples fit what I just told you.

We'll just have to disagree. What you said doesn't explain those 2 examples: The Weaver's Trousers have Craftsmanship +3 (low number), but you can only add +1 more stat to it. It has Control +31, and you can pour in a full Tier IV Materia into it. It doesn't have CP at all, and you can only add +1.

The Amber Ring only has 2 Stats displayed, and those are *high* numbers in their category (i.e., a Tier IV VIT Materia is +7), so it has +6 VIT and +9 Parry. Yet you can add ZERO to either of them; completely opposite of the Trousers. Yet you can then add a full Materia not displayed on it (Determination, Crit Rate, etc.), unlike CP on the Trousers, which were practically locked out.

Sorry, but that makes no sense, nor is it intuitive. I'm glad you like it.

In addition, the current system still doesn't resolve a key point I mentioned: Most Mainstream (and even veteran) players will naturally look to enhance and increase their Main Statistic that was taught to them by this game (DRG for STR, BLM for INT, etc.). Nowhere does it teach them that, "Sorry, you can never really add anything (via Materia) to your Main Stat, even though we tell you it's the most important." It's just locked out. Which I find absurd.

Again, I realize why Yoshi P is doing this, and it controls stat stacking, and allows him total control over Game Balance, but IMHO, it's not as enjoyable, and is eliminating one path of materia gear development (and probably the most obvious one).

[Jinko]

You guys are getting off-topic. What you can craft is not the point, its the stat caps for melds.

Personally, i find them quite intuitive most times. In the OP's first example, that gear has a greater affinity for control materia than craftsmanship. This is obvious because it has a high control stat and a very low craftsmanship stat. A rather small leap in logic will tell you that the item in question has a low craftsmanship cap and a high control cap. There's a reason craftsmanship is only +3, and its probably not for giggles. Makes perfect sense to me.

Sadly it doesn't always work that way, as some items with low stats still have silly caps.

For example crafting accesories.

A lvl 15 ring which only has CP, not allowing me to put a full piece of control or craftsmanship on it, yet low and behold I can put 2 CP materia on it.

I don't see why you need stat cap on socketed gear anyway, enforce it on forbidden melding only and there is no issue.

[Tirocupidus]

Personally, i find them quite intuitive most times. In the OP's first example, that gear has a greater affinity for control materia than craftsmanship. This is obvious because it has a high control stat and a very low craftsmanship stat. A rather small leap in logic will tell you that the item in question has a low craftsmanship cap and a high control cap. There's a reason craftsmanship is only +3, and its probably not for giggles. Makes perfect sense to me.

I find your description to be the oppostive of intuitive. If you can boost an item's highest stat even higher, I don't even see a point in having caps at all.

Knowing that materia caps exist, the intuitive presumption is that different categories of stats have one cap for the entire category. For example, if I have VIT 5 on my helmet, and I can't add additional VIT through materia, it's logical to assume that 5 is the cap for all primary attributes on the helmet.

Sadly it doesn't always work that way, as some items with low stats still have silly caps.

For example crafting accesories.

A lvl 15 ring which only has CP, not allowing me to put a full piece of control or craftsmanship on it, yet low and behold I can put 2 CP materia on it.

I think you've described exactly what she was saying, in which case, it does work that way.