Materia System

[Chrees]

You're going to have to if you want to improve your character. It's not a choice.

I don't like the idea of having to wear equipment I don't like just to build attachment points to convert it to a rock.

I don't see the problem here. As someone mentioned quite a few pages back, the Materia system will happen parallel to you doing leves, dungeons, etc. as you rank up. When you want a new weapon or piece of gear, you can break down your old ones into materia and fuse them to the new gear. It's not like you really have to do any extra grinding to gain Attachment Points.

I understand your frustration that current players are getting the short end of the stick, particularly those who already have a lot of high-ranked classes, but that's the small price we're going to have to pay. You have to look at this from the perspective of a new player, or someone starting out in a new class. As I mentioned earlier, it should be a fairly fluid process. Plus we don't even know how long it will take to even get enough Attachment Points to be able to convert into materia, and I'm sure you'll be able to buy materia as well.

[Firon]

Since everyone likes to speculate im gonna speculate that this system while create more parties like Skill up pt's in XI. Get a few people and grind points till you get what you want. >.>

[Felis]

We don't need to grind our materia. All what we need is to play the game (Leves, Dungeons, Behest, ...). It's like breathing. You don't need to concentrate on it, it just happen.
And you don't need to level low level gear to upgrade your actual gear. Instead you can level your actual gear to upgrade your future gear. Then you level your future gear to upgrade your next future gear.

[Naylia]

Well...if Materia attachment rate is based on wearing Optimal Rank gear then this could be a useful side benefit of ranking second/third/fourth classes. While ranking them, you are turning that mid-grade gear into Materia and removing the gear from the game. Could be a good incentive to wear OR gear during the middle ranks and spur the demand for those items. And if you're planning on turning r50 gear into Materia than I wouldn't say that you're doing it with gimped gear...just less than optimal gear since you'd be using trying to increase attachment to a NQ r50 item so that you could then attach it to your HQ r50 item. (This all assumes this system is designed well and doesn't reward attaching lower rank gear more than higher rank gear.)

[Kiara]

Hi tachikoma,

I agree with Peregrine here that using a +3 Item to get the best version of a Materia is *not* the way to go.

That'd lead to DOUBLE the amount of NQ and +1, +2 items flooding the market right now, because the hardcore would try twice as hard to get TWO of every +3 item. A few people suggested a better solution in that the +3 Item (and any HQ version) would just give you a slight % chance increase to get an HQ, but a NQ would also give you that chance.

That way, NQ and HQ items are roughly equal in Materia Conversion and you don't have people flooding the market even worse than it is now.

But I love your idea about Gaining Attachment Points based on Monster Rank. I think is a good solution to add to Peregrine's running list:

2. What if the points you earn are based on the type of mob your fighting? fight high lvl NM's -> get monster AP,
Grind crappy low lvl mobs (think what bots do all day long) -> get little to no AP. This keeps the botters from grinding materia.

I think this is one possible solution to prevent RMT / Botters from exploiting it too much. For the real players fighting Rank-Appropriate Mobs (R55 Raptors, NMs, etc.) they'll get way more Attachment Points vs. an RMT Botter who is grinding R1 Star Marmots all day.

[Firon]

They should just make it so your weapon or armor produces the materia, but you don't have to loose your weapon for it or armor that said weapon or armor can only generate one piece of materia ever.

It would make collecting higher end gear much more rewarding cause you could get a good weapon and along with a good materia to use. I mean for real who would want to hold an piece of gear that took forever to get and always wondering what that materia it could be.

[Rowyne]

They should just make it so your weapon or armor produces the materia, but you don't have to loose your weapon for it or armor that said weapon or armor can only generate one piece of materia ever.

It would make collecting higher end gear much more rewarding cause you could get a good weapon and along with a good materia to use. I mean for real who would want to hold an piece of gear that took forever to get and always wondering what that materia it could be.

I agree. I still have all of my tier armor sets in WoW. Why would I disenchant armor that I worked so hard to get? I bank those pieces and look at them fondly. They're memories.

I wouldn't want to destroy my gear in FFXIV, either, especially if that means destroying something like AF just to socket something.

I collect armor sets in MMOs. I have banks full of them. I would never want to destroy them.

[Anonymoose]

I'll reserve judgment until I try it out, but I was a lot more excited before the clarification. It ruins the whole sentiment to me - we get attached to our gear by owning it for a while... so we can get rid of it? I liked the idea more when it seemed like I'd be forming meaningful attachments and memories to the gear I had, as opposed to just running around in it for a while in hopes it'll turn into something nice later.

It seems like another half-heated attempt to justify crafters having their own classes by forcing uses for them into every crack they'll fit in.

[Peregrine]

Considering the details we do know are scarce, give it a little time before you pass judgment on the system before we even know exactly how we'll have to go about it. For all we know, growing the "bond" with your weapon to be able to upgrade it might be something that comes naturally during, for instance, Raptor grinds.

I do agree with the first part of your post though, garbage gear needs to be eliminated quick. And, considering all we have in the game is garbage stat-wise (barring Dodore Doublet lol?), it'd be a big step in the right direction.

No, I'm not really a fan of their incredibly terrible failures at getting patches right the first time. They can't even get 3d effects right with three attempts.

If we don't spell this all out for them, they will never see it coming, fail miserably the first time, not really get it the 2nd time, and finally barely pass the third time. Thus instead of knocking it out of the park in JULY, they barely limp across the finish line in DECEMBER.

They're going to screw this up without us dragging them kicking and screaming. They haven't done a single thing right on their own to DATE.

Such has been how this game has gone thus far so no. I will not wait for them to screw up before I tell them how to not screw up.

[Peregrine]

Even if wearing gimp gear is promoted with this system the community can always like trail weapons reject people wearing crap gear. Tearing up your materia sounds more like a solo activity anyways.

And that's a low-quality MMO system that is a waste of quality players' time and panders to mindless drone subscribers. That kind of poor gameplay makes you, your players, and your game look bad.

Materia skill up parties=poor design, more 4/10 game.

There is NO reason to make an inferior choice like that.
Simply do not require that gear to be currently equipped. Let players put their best foot forward in everything they do, and still cook materia on the side.

Trial weapons are pathetic content. Materia farming is pathetic content.
We're looking for GOOD content. Not the same hack garbage design that no one wants to do, but everybody does because that's what the genre says you have to do to be good at it.

Inferior gameplay choices create inferior games.