Poll: Gear progression, horizontal or vertical?

[ckc22]

Horizontal gear was done horribly in FFXI which had things like BiS pieces that were level 7 and weren't fazed out/made obsolete for YEARS.


Although at least we don't need a hundred gear swap macros in XIV. That was a boring nightmare.

[Izsha]

Vertical unless they overhaul the entire game.

Horizontal only worked in XI because of the ability to gear swap via macros in combat combined with a more complex damage system that was heavily effected by the monsters stats and you buffs at any given moment. It allowed otherwise useless pieces of gear to have a BiS function in specific situations. You could Wal around with 70 pieces of equipment for 1 job and use all that gear over a few hours of play.

Horizontal Progression gear doesn't work when you can't swap gear. The math heads will calculate the best set and that will be it. Maybe 1 or 2 minor deviations, but that is no different than what we have now. Every system gets boiled down to a simple BiS. Horizontal vs vertical is the illusion of choice. It only worked in XI because there was literally a BiS for every individual action, job ability, wweaponskill, spell, and even sub stage stuff. Example:
Black mage casting flare:
Before cast: equip full set of fast cast gear (makes spell cast faster).
During cast: equip full spell interrupt down gear (reduces chance of spell being interrupted by being hit)
Right before cast finish 1: pile on potency gear (gear to make flare hit harder
Right before finish cast 2: many variations of potency gear that includes more magic accuracy for differing targets.

Each of those sets could swap all 16 pieces of gear to optimize each part of the process. So you could travel the world collecting gear from everywhere because everything had SOME situational use. There was a BiS for everything, but there were hundreds 9f actions with different BiS sets so it felt like there was more freedom.

There is no way to make horizontal 'progression' if you can't change gear. It's still just boiled down to a BiS that you aim for. The systems are the same. Add new gear in patch. Calculate new BiS set. Go obtain said gear. It doesn't matter what ilvl it is. The process is the same. Horizontal is just the illusion of choice and plays out the same way as vertical. If there are no situations that demand different gear, then there is no situational gear and only the mighty BiS. XI is the only game that had that, and it was only stumbled into by pure dumb luck.

[Darkoon]

Horizontal.

[MageBlack]

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[LineageRazor]

Boring gear is boring. Give me Horizontal progression. I don't care if one piece lasts for ages, as long as gear has at least a LITTLE personality to it.

[Kiara]

In an ideal world, HORIZONTAL.

But given the WoW influence and compromises, I think HYBRID (some Horizontal Gear Sets (same iLevel) w/ Unique Stats spread across 2 patches), and then item Level Increase) is fine. Example of Hybrid:

Instead of the current:

* Patch 1: i90
* Patch 3: i110
* Patch 5: i130

Hybrid would be:

* Patch 1: i90 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 3: i90 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)
* Patch 5: i110 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 7: i110 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)


It at least slows down the Gear / Stat Inflation in this game, and gives SOME feeling of your gear meaning something for a period of time.

[Arkenne]

Would say Horizontal, but Im not sure how that would work for a game such as this were every class have a specific gear and one character can use all classes. :/
I mean, inventory is pretty cramped as it is...

[Cakekizy]

In an ideal world, HORIZONTAL.

But given the WoW influence and compromises, I think HYBRID (some Horizontal Gear Sets (same iLevel) w/ Unique Stats spread across 2 patches), and then item Level Increase) is fine. Example of Hybrid:

Instead of the current:

* Patch 1: i90
* Patch 3: i110
* Patch 5: i130

Hybrid would be:

* Patch 1: i90 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 3: i90 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)
* Patch 5: i110 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 7: i110 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)


It at least slows down the Gear / Stat Inflation in this game, and gives SOME feeling of your gear meaning something for a period of time.

Why do you wanna slow down stat inflation?

[Nepenthe]

Hybrid ideally. I honestly lean more towards horizontal; most games I enjoyed playing were that. Even if it boils down to an "illusion of choice," it still adds variety and things fun to play around with. Not *everyone* and every group has to have the flat out best min-maxed stats, some just like having fun with what they have. Whether it be challenge, RPing, or whatever.

A hybrid between the two at least allows people who want flat out stat increases to get them while not being stagnated for a very long time.

[Caraway]

Why do you wanna slow down stat inflation?

Because the exact same stats +5 is... Kind of boring.

I've already voted (Horizontal is something I prefer in general) but I should point out that horizontal wouldn't really work with this game as it's designed. As someone else pointed out, we don't have the stats to be able to handle horizontal without it being pointless. You need different kinds of stats with different affects to combat to really get horizontal progression. Or have equipted/activated effects.

To those people pointing to FFXI as an example of bad horizontal progression, I suspect a lot of that is because of the whole in-combat gear switching thing. If you couldn't swap your gear in-combat than the whole 'hoarder' thing would be less of a point. And let's get real here; who's going to change their pants in battle? That system never made sense to me... Swapping weapons I can understand, but changing out of your actually clothes while fighting an enemy just doesn't compute in my head.