SE, Please do somthing about the boring gear stats.. Please just read first...

[Nalien]

I'm waiting for something like this.

Gear gets some degree of interesting stats to aim for? Check.
Those stats don't force you to wear that gear for the next ten years like in Final Fantasy XI? Check.
Additional grinding content to further enhance and specialize your Jobs, like Final Fantasy XIs Merit system? Check.

Certainly seems like a perfectly simply solution to giving gear unique stats without making certain gear vastly superior because of those bonuses... I mean of course it is, it's an idea taken directly from the best Final Fantasy game. Just do it Yoshida. It has plenty of room for additions going forward as well; Bards AF1 body could have "Enhances Ballads", AF1.5 could have "Enhances Ballads II", and the upcoming AF2 "Enhances Ballads III". Would add an extra level of thought going into encounters as well; "Do I need this set for this fight?", etc. which I'd certainly enjoy. Only issue I'd perhaps have is grinding to unlock stuff, but as long as it is streamlined and not stuck suffering at the hands of the RNGesus (like Materia, I swear 99% of my hate for SBing comes from Convert giving me trash) I don't think I'd mind too much.

[Sylve]

Bards AF1 body could have "Enhances Ballads", AF1.5 could have "Enhances Ballads II", and the upcoming AF2 "Enhances Ballads III". Would add an extra level of thought going into encounters as well; "Do I need this set for this fight?", etc.

Because in addition to carrying around gear for 12 Jobs, i absolutely want to also be carrying 3+ sets for each of the 12 Jobs.
Because we don't ALREADY have a buttload of crap to store.

The problem all these threads seem to miss is that if we had for example, 20 unique stats and random job specific bonuses, then the math folk would simply do as they did for WoW and every other MMO (XI *only* got away with it because you could change gear in combat) and math out the best stats to make the best possible DPS and then all other stats are junk.

Hell, as a Warrior in WoW during early Lich King, i loved my crit/haste build. It wasn't the greatest DPS, but it was incredibly fun. Yet i was not allowed to use it in raid content because full Strength+Armor Penetration was statistically superior in every way.

You need to realize that if you have 100 unique stats to mix and match with, all of those need to be 100% on par with each other. Thus removing the "fun" because it doesn't matter what you wear, your DPS/healing isn't going to change.
If one stat gets even 1% ahead of the other stats, everything else is junk.

[Nalien]

Because in addition to carrying around gear for 12 Jobs, i absolutely want to also be carrying 3+ sets for each of the 12 Jobs.
Because we don't ALREADY have a buttload of crap to store.

Except you don't carry the gear around... Did you even read the suggestion I linked?

You get the gear, Spiritbond it (or whatever, really, they could do anything to make it work), then you unlock the trait on the gear permanently in a menu similar to the Additional Actions in the Actions and Traits menu. Do whatever with the gear afterwards.

I guess you'd perhaps need to carry it around to Spiritbond it, but that shouldn't be a length process (since RNG should be cut out). Really though, all I'm seeing is an argument for why they need to improve the inventory in this game... That's something they just need to do anyway...

[Sylve]

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I didn't even see your link there, light red on cream background made it kinda blend in.

That being said, even with your small explanation in this post, I'm still against it. Its just one more thing that the encounters have to be tuned around. Gear that i am absolutely forced to acquire in order to do my Job properly is not something I want to see in XIV.
And don't even pretend such things would not be a requirement in PF and DF or even something as simple as FC recruitment.

I still believe the Materia system can be modified to provide the "interesting stuff" we can do with gear. Generic enhancements aren't the way to go.

[Nalien]

And don't even pretend such things would not be a requirement in PF and DF or even something as simple as FC recruitment.

I still believe the Materia system can be modified to provide the "interesting stuff" we can do with gear. Generic enhancements aren't the way to go.

Well now you've confused me. You're for Materia offering "interesting stuff"?

I can check your gear and see what Materia you've melded. I cannot check your own personal menu and see what stats you've unlocked/set. So you'd shoot down the suggestion no one but yourself can really check because people will be elitist, but you're for the one which people can actually out right check by examining you? That seems backwards to me, sorry.

As far as balance goes, individually I do not think these things would be particularly powerful or anywhere close to required. They would just be bonuses for people who want the bonuses, just like getting full raid-tier gear even though you cleared the raid without it to get it, except unlike such gear (and materia) elitist pricks wouldn't be able to examine you to determine whether you even have that 0.5% bonus. Something extra for the developers to worry about balancing, sure, but personally I'd rather my subscription fee go into doing interesting "new" (how new is it when its from a 15 year old game?) things, than just copy and pasting the exact same progression system from 2.0 update after update.

Again though, these are optional traits. Nobody would really be able to check you have them and kick you as a result... It's not like Swiftcast or something, where people can observe you never using it or check your Black Mages level to see if you even have it. Nobody would really be able to discriminate based on such traits. I mean perhaps someone with a parser could, but that's already against the rules so /shrug. Perhaps something like Auto-Life, but that's OP single player tier and I really don't think anyone would suggest we get something like that.

[Sylve]

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Heh. I wasn't quite as articulate as to what i meant, Sorry.
I'm against generic enhancements because they become a balance factor for content. Do the devs expect the Tanks to all have the Enhanced damage reduction skills for their cooldowns? DO you expect the bards to have the highest rank of Song enhancements? Do you expect the Healers to have the Enhancements to Regens/Shields?
Which Enhancements do you balance around?

I made a post a long while back about using Materia to modify our skills directly, Sort of like what the WoW Glyph System was originally supposed to do but ended up being generic damage/duration/cooldown bonuses.
The short version of it is basically change Materias to offer changes to the way our Skills work.
To throw an example, a Materia that causes Umbral Ice and Astral Fire for a Black Mage to flip effects, Allowing a Black Mage to use Blizzard the way they now use Fire.
Or a Materia that causes a Monks Auto Attack speed to skyrocket, but reduces the damage dealt accordingly so that its a visual change more than a power bonus.
Essentially, small, mostly playstyle changes that make our Jobs feel a bit more personal in HOW we play them without altering the base mechanics of what they do.
The Egi Glamour system talked about by Yoshi is one such system that lets us alter our Jobs visually without the need for attendant Balance modifications.

[Nalien]

Heh. I wasn't quite as articulate as to what i meant, Sorry.
I'm against generic enhancements because they become a balance factor for content. Do the devs expect the Tanks to all have the Enhanced damage reduction skills for their cooldowns? DO you expect the bards to have the highest rank of Song enhancements? Do you expect the Healers to have the Enhancements to Regens/Shields?
Which Enhancements do you balance around?

Well, I expect them to be marginal enough to ultimately not really matter, just like optimal gear ultimately doesn't matter when it comes to clearing content, just like optimal party set up doesn't, just like food doesn't really matter.

People who want every single advantage would care, people who just like that sort of thing would care, people who are "casual" perhaps wouldn't and it wouldn't really impact them in the slightest. Fights would continue to be balanced around a lower iLevel than what people will eventually farm them with, with Healers not DPSing, without food, etc. Mechanics will still be the biggest priority and knowing your rotation would still be the biggest boon to any Job. All this would be is an additional piece of food for those who obsess over such things to obsess over. It would perhaps require some additional balancing, but if they keep the bonuses small enough it wouldn't be anything serious, there shouldn't be a case where you're required to have "Enhances Ballads", for example.

Just like food and optimal gear, it would just be something to speed encounters along, rather than a requirement.

Okay, I read that post and honestly that's a great idea. Not specifically for us as players but for SE's wallets. Force players to grind equipment XYZ = sub fee's. If people enjoy it it's a bonus.

I imagine it would only force those of us with some form of OCD who'll have to unlock every single trait, though personally I'd probably enjoy that so obvious bias is obvious. Final Fantasy IXs AP system had a limit to how much you could even set, so they out right have a cap on how much of a benefit such a system could provide, meaning they can make it just as marginal as food and other stuff. I'd like to think it would just be something there for those of us who'd enjoy obsessing over some tiny percentage bonus by looking at an encounter and adjusting accordingly.

There is also the fact that, for some of the more "important" ones, you can perhaps remove the actual need to go out and grind; If you're a Bard, chances are you'll be getting the AF2 gear in a few weeks. If that had Enhances Ballads on it to unlock, like the suggestion... suggests.... You've already got that then.

[Marcux]

Gear that i am absolutely forced to acquire in order to do my Job properly is not something I want to see in XIV.
And don't even pretend such things would not be a requirement in PF and DF or even something as simple as FC recruitment.

I still believe the Materia system can be modified to provide the "interesting stuff" we can do with gear. Generic enhancements aren't the way to go.

But, your already required to get the higest ilevel for raid? Why not make that highest ilevel stuff interesting gear stats.. your still going to have to get something..
You know. I have a pair of boots that work on every job from getting them in 1.0. they give you a increase in running time bonus in cities, and i still use them to this day, I throw them on and i can sprint longer in town. luckly, se didn't remove the bonus.

http://xivdb.com/?item/3744/Hermes%27-Shoes

This just proves that SE CAN do it, it just they refuse to..

[Zabuza]

Unfortunately, the majority of people would just consider needless complexity along with extra work they have to do to get the gear. Probably the same reason no mobs have any elemental resistances like they did in XI...

Accessibility sometimes acts in the direct opposite interest of complexity and making you actually think. This is one of those times. Most people don't wanna think that hard about their gear, the vertical progression gear treadmill is what they are accustomed to, again a product of WoW. Casuals pay the bills, so most of the time, devs need to cater to them.

[ckc22]

I didn't even see your link there, light red on cream background made it kinda blend in.

That being said, even with your small explanation in this post, I'm still against it. Its just one more thing that the encounters have to be tuned around. Gear that i am absolutely forced to acquire in order to do my Job properly is not something I want to see in XIV.
And don't even pretend such things would not be a requirement in PF and DF or even something as simple as FC recruitment.

I still believe the Materia system can be modified to provide the "interesting stuff" we can do with gear. Generic enhancements aren't the way to go.

Except they've stacked the system so hard against crafted gear and materia and made materia unusable in gear from other content that this is never going to happen.