Are cracks in the Armoury System beginning to surface?

[Betelgeuzah]

Multiclassing is the name of the game.

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In any case...the XIV homepage is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY outdated, even compared to release.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

[Malakhim]

Multiclassing is the name of the game.

Which is part of class flexibility. You take that away and you take away one of the game's bigger selling points, Alexia.

[Rhomagus]

I've read OP thoroughly.

Personal answer to OP's subject heading: Nope.

Predicted answer from Square Enix: The Armoury System is working as intended. We would love to see more feedback regarding this issue. Thank you.

This is exactly how the Armoury appeases hardcore and casual players and represents the absolute beauty of it. It is how it has been advertised since day -365. Casual players can still play along hardcore players. Hardcore players have the advantage of having all of the actions they have rightfully earned with the time they've spent in game to utilize in a way that they see fit creating almost countless possible combinations.

Break the Armoury = Kill any semblance of beauty and originality this game may have had.

[Naqaj]

Should people be rewarded proportionately for the time they've invested?

Yes.

I beg to differ.
Players who play more are rewarded by having more fun play time. Considering this is still a game, not a job or school, that seems all the reward needed.
Including a systematic power advantage leads to exactly the kind of balancing problems as mentioned above. It creates the hardcore vs. casual divide, splits your playerbase, makes your development inefficient as you can no longer create content that works for everyone.
We have over 10 years of experience with MMOs designed that way, and it's kind of silly so many developers are still resistant to the lesson.

[AlexiaKidd]

Why not?

I find taking whats from the classes and utilizing them to your needs, being more resourceful.

I don't see why their skills should be degraded. If a player puts together a great build, then well more props to em.

The problem is that it will eventually lead to people having to level things to not be considered gimp. For example say god forbid a skill like Utsusemi comes along in FFXIV, it won't matter what Class it is on or what Rank it is, you will be expected to have it. People moaned about having to go /NIN in FFXI and in FFXIV that could very well be 10x worse for the amount of time needed to get those skills and abilities.

However at least in FFXI there was balance within the Jobs/Classes for the most part if I had levelled every Job to Cap that did not give me a huge advantage over someone stood next to me with the same Job/Sub Job, we both had access to the same skills and abilities and it was gear and skill that was the difference maker.

This is why I am not and have never been a fan of the Armoury System as unless SE can get it balanced it will just create and army of over powered Classes with those elite builds while a newer player will have even more work to do to try and catch up. Just getting there Class to R50 will not be enough, they will also have to level another load of Classes just to be effective, the coming Job system will have to give huge benefits to using those Jobs to make them even worthwhile using over the power that cross classing can bring.

[Bethor]

I beg to differ.
Players who play more are rewarded by having more fun play time. Considering this is still a game, not a job or school, that seems all the reward needed.
Including a systematic power advantage leads to exactly the kind of balancing problems as mentioned above. It creates the hardcore vs. casual divide, splits your playerbase, makes your development inefficient as you can no longer create content that works for everyone.
We have over 10 years of experience with MMOs designed that way, and it's kind of silly so many developers are still resistant to the lesson.

You won't be able to balance hardcore and casual content though. If you can put more time into the game than anyone else, you'll always have an advantage. Imagine implementing a dungeon which takes 3+ hours to complete vs. a dungeon which takes 30mins to complete with the same drops. Either Dungeon #1 won't be played or the hardcorers going to moan.

If you put in some "weaker" rewards in the 30mins+ dungeon then the casuals going to moan that they'll never be able to get the stuff which hardcore gamers will get. If Yoshi's finding a way thru the balance between those 2 playerbases then... I'll be impressed Other than that.. it's a hard way to accomplish. At least thats what I think..

[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.

[Rhomagus]

I’m fine with allowing someone who has all classes to lv 50 to be that much better then someone who does not, I will never have all classes to 50, or at least I am pretty sure I won’t anyway but if someone put that effort in then they should be reworded.

What I would have a problem with is if the dungeons become geared in such a way that ONLY someone who has that setup can be effective. Dungeons should be difficult but not impossible to play with just once class leveled, if you know how to play your class and have a good group of the same kind of people then you should be able to complete the dungeon.

If you leveled a multiple classes all the way to 50 and have access to some extra abilities then yeah, it should be a bit easier of a time but it shouldn’t be the only way to beat a dungeon.

Absolutely agree here. If it is the case that content is being developed for multiple high level classes to be required for gameplay that is the crack, but it wouldn't be in the Armoury system, it would be in the introduction of such content that required as such.

[Thanos]

I have no issue with this as the more time u put into ur character the more u are rewarded

I dont see any reason why anyone who ranks 1 class only should be able to do same content someone who ranked 5.