Wondering about relics....

[Nutz]

What disappoints me on doing it, it's the money. I'm on my 6th book for Curtana and Shield - with no intention on finishing it -, but, thinking that the next step involves melding materias and that they're extremely overpriced... I just don't have the money to do it. I only have 400k and I've seen on reddit, that it takes millions...

Eh, you could do it on 400k easily. Tier III materia is super cheap. Just because making all crit/det is very expensive doesn't mean it has to be very expensive to finish the weapon. If you just want to get to the next step then use whatever you have/ can get. You can easily put a fair amount of crit and det on it, with some skill speed and/ or accuracy or even parry I suppose. It won't really matter much and can be changed at any time (with more alexandrite and materia, but you don't have to redo the whole thing).

Of course, if 400k is all you have, you'd better save up while doing the Nexus phase because the zodiac phase requires 400k gil in NPC bought items as well as a lot of HQ crafted items (likely to cost even more if you can't make them yourself).

[Mizi]

Eh, you could do it on 400k easily. Tier III materia is super cheap. Just because making all crit/det is very expensive doesn't mean it has to be very expensive to finish the weapon. If you just want to get to the next step then use whatever you have/ can get. You can easily put a fair amount of crit and det on it, with some skill speed and/ or accuracy or even parry I suppose. It won't really matter much and can be changed at any time (with more alexandrite and materia, but you don't have to redo the whole thing).

snip.

Probably for PLD, I think the best option is going for ACC and Skill Speed. I don't think I would invest in Parry, but either way, it's still unaffordable. Imagine a fresh lvl 50 - with just DoM or DoW and no other class -, how can we do money despite using Retainers and converting equips to some materia lvl 1? It's pretty hard to get that amount of money required.

[Niwashi]

They will add the continuation/sequel of the relic questline in 3.1. It has been confirmed that you don't need to complete the old questline to start it, but there will be "something" for people that have already finished it.

I wonder if that "something" you get requires that you have already finished it before starting its replacement, or whether you get that "something" at any point that you finish it. (i.e. whether continuing to work on your relic in parallel with also working on its replacement at the same time would be at all useful.)

[Kanemano]

From a game design standpoint and simplicity, i'd just have two options;

A. Start Heavensward Relic quest from scratch.
or
B. Turn in Zeta for advantage (skip stage 1)

That's it. Leave it up to the player to decide whether it's worth continuing to Zeta for the headstart, or just start Heavensward Relic from scratch.

Edit-
Here's a thought; As a Game Designer, if I STILL wanted to keep the relic/zodiac quest relevant, AND instill a different/distinct value on the Heavensward relic, I'd assign specific advantages to the two like so;

Heavens'Relic = Some new stat/ability tied to the weapon
Current Zeta = Stat customizability

A completed Zeta would carry over the customized stats, while a Zeta-less Heavens'Relic would not benefit from the customized stats, but still have whatever new stat/ability makes that relic unique. People who could care less about secondary attributes won't do the old Relic, and can still have their HeavensRelic, while min/maxers can go the full route.

[SlipperyToy]

They will add the continuation/sequel of the relic questline in 3.1. It has been confirmed that you don't need to complete the old questline to start it, but there will be "something" for people that have already finished it.

Yeah sure....Screw the people who have been getting screwed by the almighty Lord RNG.