Materia: The replay value booster.

[Razor]

@DoctorMog: I've had my moments of entirely disagreeing with your posts, but also had some instances were I have to agree. And this is one of those times.

Initially when I read that you could lose gear from failing the materia synthesis I (like many other of the people on this forum) flipped a table and wanted to write SE an angry letter over losing gear.

Then I thought about it.

And I came to a similar conclusion as the subject of this post. Although losing gear sucks it is in effect a serious economy booster, which is something this game needs. However, the biggest issue I see currently is that everyone who sells things needs to be smacked around in the head several times over when they decide to sell things. An R10 weapon should not cost 100k, and if the NQ of something costs 10k, the +1 costs 200k, I think its ridiculous that the +2 costs 5mil, or some other stupid number that only that top 1% whos got 99% of the server's money can afford.

Although I think that mostly comes down to the fact of how closed the economy is and how most transactions probably happen within private linkshells only. I hope this fuels the economy to the point where people actually start legitimately selling things at reasonable prices and even some new player who has just started on the future PS3 version will eventually have a reasonable chance to get the kind of gear people since CE can get because they have over 100million.

That being said, I'm glad I have a retainer full of old gear because I am really interested in turning it all into materia and selling it. I think the whole system is a good way to break the ice between the "melee fighter who doesn't craft much and makes most of his money through leves/selling crap" and the "I eat sleep and craft money" players. Because since some hardcore crafters only craft, they will need those fighter classes to crank out materia into the wards.

Also as a side note I think it would be a much welcomed option to add some kind of costly "insurance" to a weapon. Would be a nice gil sink to need to drop 100k for r1->2 fail not to break the weapon, 500k 2->3, etc. Not that paying money would make the materia 100%, just make it so you don't lose the actual item from the failure. Could even be cruel and make it so that with insurance failing drops you down a materia leve with insurance instead of breaking the weapon.

It would also be nice if R/E NM gear was handled differently than crafted gear. Like say an NM drops a bow that can't have materia placed on it and is REALLY good for what it is, but would still be worse than an Materia 3, 4, or 5 Crab Bow +3.

[Hikozaemon]

Except you're forgetting that the majority of NM/raid gear is already obsolete compared to HQ crafted gear.

um wth are u talking about?!. i was simply stating that NM gear was not going to be able to have materia attached to it according to a previous post of the dev. team as many where posting that they couldnt wait to attach materia to there NM gear lol. And yes pretty well any HQ crafted weapon is better than NM dropped ones but on the otherhand most all armor that is dropped by NMs is far superior to crafted ones of comparable levels. Materia is being introduced as a way to surpass NM gear and a way to more so customize gear sets/ etc not only by stats but by what u like appearance wise too.

[DoctorMog]

And I came to a similar conclusion as the subject of this post. Although losing gear sucks it is in effect a serious economy booster, which is something this game needs.

I might have mislead with my OP,

I agree with you here. I am happy about this change and welcome it.

[MeowyWowie]

um wth are u talking about?!. i was simply stating that NM gear was not going to be able to have materia attached to it according to a previous post of the dev. team as many where posting that they couldnt wait to attach materia to there NM gear lol. And yes pretty well any HQ crafted weapon is better than NM dropped ones but on the otherhand most all armor that is dropped by NMs is far superior to crafted ones of comparable levels. Materia is being introduced as a way to surpass NM gear and a way to more so customize gear sets/ etc not only by stats but by what u like appearance wise too.

Assuming you mean lower rank rare/ex NM gear, there are only a few that are better than crafted gear. As for r50 NM gear, all of it is crafted.

Can you post a link of where the dev team said we will not be able to augment NM gear?

[LavellaNyteshade]

LOL @

"LoL @ when they release gear better than what you have on. Start all over again from square 1."

[ChiefCurrahee]

You would put the best materia into the best item to have the best weapon or armor.

Goal:
Crab Bow+3 and 5 +5 STR materia in it.

So, get a crab bow +3, start adding materia to it:
STR +5 Success!
STR +5 Success!
STR +5 Success!
STR +5 FAIL + Break Crab Bow +3

Start over: Remake Crab bow +3 and get a set of +5 STR materia again.


Thats just an example. Personally I find the system a good time filler. A decent reason to do the dungeon 200 more times. Its not enough to just get the gear anymore, you now need to get it, spiritbind it and break it, or fill it with a bunch of level 4 materia and chance losing it.

Or you could just wear it with no materia in it I guess.

Has it been 100% confirmed that you lose ALL items in a failed materia fusion?

When I read the description, I came off with a feeling that you lose not the weapon or armor. You lose the materia and catalysts when trying to fuse it.

I could be wrong, but so can you, until confirmation one way or the other from a rep or dev.

Losing the gear would be a great risk, would it be off set but the prestige of toting around a +5 weapon I dunno, depends on how big you need your E-peen to be.

I'd hate to see this game push good friendly players off to the side because they are considered inferior by people who min/max everything to death.

[TonyMontana]

As a full time crafter this both excites me and scares me. I see a lot of excitement and joy and I also see a new hole or two punched in my wall out of frustration. Im gonna need to keep spare sheet rock in my shed.

[Holy_Dragoon]

I'm certainly ok with a system that encourages replay. The dungeons are a lot of fun.

[Seikninkuru]

Yeah, kinda lame that crafted gear (hq) is already better, easier to obtain and is just going to get better...

Crafted gear should be the best crafting gear.

Dungeon gear should be the best mele/mage gear.

They naturally lend themselves to each other.

I disagree.

[IStolzI]

The dungeon item should be what holds you over until you have bought or succeeded personally in creating an item that is better. A dungeon item should be equal to an item that cost a crafter 5-10 mil to make, but an item that costed a crafter 100mil should certainly be far better than a dungeon item. Simply converting your old gear and popping into your new gear with maybe a 2nd or 3rd materia should not be as powerful as a dungeon item.