Are cracks in the Armoury System beginning to surface?

[Naqaj]

It's a system that reminds me of some SRPGs (like Final Fantasy Tactics). in FFT, you could have a unit with just "Knight" leveled, and while it could do a reasonably good job (and I do think a plain Gladiator does a somewhat good job currently), it became exponentially better as you added stuff from other classes, say a Ninja's Dual Wielding, a Bard (os was it Dancer?)'s Move + 3, a mastered white mage sub command if you want a bit more of healing....you get the idea. It think it works pretty similarly here.

Such a system of power inflation works well in a single player game, where you want to reach a point where your player feels really powerfull. In an MMO such a system leads to pretty massive balance problems.

Well, leveling multiple classes and augmenting each other is the point of the armoury system since launch. Even the fatigue system (may it rest in peace...) was set up in a way to (in theory) encourage leveling multiple classes, and as you level those classes, each individual class can become stronger even when not exactly being leveled up.

I'm not convinced the mix'n'match abillity puzzle was the real intention behind the Armoury system, at least not initially. If you remember the early "gameplay stories" on the XIV homepage, they were indeed showing people switching from one class to another, not building a best-of-all monster character.
They did mention cross-class abilities, but initially, the scope of that was much smaller, and they were supposed to have more severe penalties.
The idea was to allow players to customize their playstyle, not to create Superman characters.

[AdvancedWind]

Such a system of power inflation works well in a single player game, where you want to reach a point where your player feels really powerfull. In an MMO such a system leads to pretty massive balance problems.



I'm not convinced the mix'n'match abillity puzzle was the real intention behind the Armoury system, at least not initially. If you remember the early "gameplay stories" on the XIV homepage, they were indeed showing people switching from one class to another, not building a best-of-all monster character.
They did mention cross-class abilities, but initially, the scope of that was much smaller, and they were supposed to have more severe penalties.
The idea was to allow players to customize their playstyle, not to create Superman characters.

Point taken on a few things (and as for balancing issues, it can be solved based on the actual system, but still should - imo - reward those who invest more time).

In any case...the XIV homepage is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY outdated, even compared to release. =P.

[Naqaj]

Point taken on a few things (and as for balancing issues, it can be solved based on the actual system, but still should - imo - reward those who invest more time).

Absolutely! But more power isn't the only possible reward. More flexibility works just as well, and creates less problems with balancing out large power gaps.

[Krausus]

Such a system of power inflation works well in a single player game, where you want to reach a point where your player feels really powerfull. In an MMO such a system leads to pretty massive balance problems.

there isn't a balance issue when everyone has access to the same tools.