Materia and the Past/Future

[AJ_Anyia]

The whole point of the materia system is to destroy gear. Gear is constantly recycled in this economy. You essentially pay in the price of repairs to use gear, then once you're done with it sell for nearly the same price as you paid for.

Materia system destroys gear and turns it into another commodity that is also supposed to be completely destroyed at regular intervals.

It's a rather ingenious idea, economically.

Right, and it will be further developed and exploited with the toning down of the crafting system that's due to happen. His will ensure that a constant flow of gear is available for purchase when the need arises.

[AJ_Anyia]

So let me pose a question to the community then, I want everyone to hit me with their best shot as to what they speculate the materia system is going to be like. I've already seen a few people's thoughts and want to know what more of you think. When this is released I'd rather it be with us talking about it and preparing ourselves for whatever it can be rather than, "OMGWTFBBQ is this %$#@"

[Falcus]

the idea of having augment slots in equipment again is diffidently something that i would like to see again.. I loved the system in FFVII something similar to this with the current shard/crystal materia item already in place like being able to craft MATERIA from shards and crystals and so on and so on.. just an idea

Would be pretty cool if you could turn shards/crystals/clusters into materia.
Just something like Fire Shards = slight boost to fire resistance if put on to armour, or slight elemental damage if put on a weapon, kinda like the elemental materia in FFVII which did the same thing depending on what materia was linked with it.
And crystals would add a higher amount.

So something like: (All numbers are examples, nothing more)
Fire Shards = +5% Fire Resistance/Attack
Fire Crystal = +10% Fire Resistance/Attack
Fire Cluster = +15% Fire Resistance/Attack

I think it would be pretty nice if you could add different elements to your regular attacks and defences.

[Roaran]

So let me pose a question to the community then, I want everyone to hit me with their best shot as to what they speculate the materia system is going to be like. I've already seen a few people's thoughts and want to know what more of you think. When this is released I'd rather it be with us talking about it and preparing ourselves for whatever it can be rather than, "OMGWTFBBQ is this %$#@"

I think they've already explained what exactly it will be. Most pieces of equipment, as you use them, accumulate 'attachment points'; and, when this reaches a maximum level, you then have the option of converting the equipment into materia. The materia is an item that enhances equipment, presumably of the same type.

In the materia creation process, the equipment is destroyed, and materia is generated. When the materia is attached, you could consider the materia destroyed as well. Most likely that piece of equipment will converted into materia as well, thus destroying completely both pieces of equipment and the materia as well.

The only thing I am worried about is how diverse materia will be. NM and HQ versions are much much more expensive than their NQ counterparts, and the quality of materia should reflect this.

Here is an example: If a NQ Banneret Lance is worth 50,000 gil and when it is converted into materia which gives Attack +4. Now consider the a Banneret Lance+2 worth say 2 million gil. The difference in quality of materia should be reflected in this difference of price. It's hard to say just how much more Attack or whatever extra stats should be added, as it is determined more by player demand than anything else. I would say, a decent example could be: NQ Materia = Attack +4; HQ1= STR+2 Attack +4; HQ2= STR+3 Attack +6; HQ3 = STR+5 Attack +10.

Edit: Now say you have a Champion's Lance, worth 2,000,000 gil With NQ Materia = Attack +6; HQ1 = Str+3 Attack+10; HQ2 STR+5 Attack+12; HQ3 = STR+7 Attack +15

If you don't have a decent gap between the two types of materia, people will never convert the more expensive equipment when it is more cost effective to just use something cheaper. But if, the NM Gear gives significantly better Materia, then that would create a real demand for special equipment. I think this will be the hard balancing point on the whole Materia system.

This however is assuming that the materia crafting process works differently from normal crafts. In this example, the assumption is each piece of equipment is automatically converted into a certain type of materia and there is no effect on the quality of materia through the actual synthesis process. If in fact the materia synthesis are identical to other synthesis and the equipment just acts as simple ingredients, Higher quality equipment only raising durability and quality during synthesis, then I still think it would be necessary to encourage players to convert their HQ equipment into HQ materia by having higher quality materia.

That said, I think there will be a lot of materia available... the price of materia should be formed by the initial cost of the weapon itself + some gil to pay for the players time in accumulating attachment points. Unless ofcourse there is too much materia being generated, then players would end up losing by turning gear into materia, and would end up reselling the equipment. This is actually a very good mechanism that helps keep equipment in stock.

All in all, as a econ major and total econ dweeb, I can really appreciate how much potential the Materia system has.

[RabidSquirrel]

The whole point of the materia system is to destroy gear. Gear is constantly recycled in this economy. You essentially pay in the price of repairs to use gear, then once you're done with it sell for nearly the same price as you paid for.

Materia system destroys gear and turns it into another commodity that is also supposed to be completely destroyed at regular intervals.

It's a rather ingenious idea, economically.

It's definitely an interesting alternative to the bind on equip style systems. Hopefully there will be more incentive to convert old gear into materia instead of repairing it and reselling it.

[Roaran]

It's definitely an interesting alternative to the bind on equip style systems. Hopefully there will be more incentive to convert old gear into materia instead of repairing it and reselling it.

I kind of just touched on that point a little bit in the post I just made... but more specifically...

If it is more advantageous to convert Equipment into Materia, meaning when you're done using the equipment the materia is worth more, then obviously people will destroy the gear and sell the Materia.

Eventually if there's an over supply of the Materia, the prices will drop and likely drop below the price of the gear itself. This will encourage players to instead resell the gear.

I'd just like to add that the Materia will naturally be more expensive than the gear, as the price of the materials ( in this case the equipment ) is included in the price of the Materia, and there's an additional increase in the price of the Materia in the time it takes to accumulate attachment points. So in reality, there should always be a healthy supply of materia, and the only time it will drop below the equipment price is when people try to make more gil than possible, by oversupplying the market.

[AJ_Anyia]

I kind of just touched on that point a little bit in the post I just made... but more specifically...

If it is more advantageous to convert Equipment into Materia, meaning when you're done using the equipment the materia is worth more, then obviously people will destroy the gear and sell the Materia.

Eventually if there's an over supply of the Materia, the prices will drop and likely drop below the price of the gear itself. This will encourage players to instead resell the gear.

I'd just like to add that the Materia will naturally be more expensive than the gear, as the price of the materials ( in this case the equipment ) is included in the price of the Materia, and there's an additional increase in the price of the Materia in the time it takes to accumulate attachment points. So in reality, there should always be a healthy supply of materia, and the only time it will drop below the equipment price is when people try to make more gil than possible, by oversupplying the market.

Well the ratio of equipment : materia will be reflected in a variety of things. And I, not being much in the way of econ subjects, ask a couple of things. How do you see the changes in the crafting system being reflected in the materia system for starters? lol

[Nuru]

Well the ratio of equipment : materia will be reflected in a variety of things. And I, not being much in the way of econ subjects, ask a couple of things. How do you see the changes in the crafting system being reflected in the materia system for starters? lol

The Materia System will most likely be effected mainly by Crafting. Certain Materia will be created by certain equips, and with that said, there will be a demand for different types of Materia to support the different Classes. Depending on how many different types of Materia there are, it is going to take a lot of time before people figure out the best Materia-Armor/Weapon combinations. Once these combinations are found, the price in those items will probably go up, as the initial demand for them will be at an extreme once everyone catches on.

[AJ_Anyia]

It sounds like NMs will be over-camped so people can make materia from their gear drops.

[Jamison]

This thread is the first I've seen talk that equipment will be destroyed with the creation of materia... not that I'm doubting anything, but is there a link to a dev comment or a letter from the producer that talks more about that?