How would you feel about end-game gear only being useful for 3 months?

[Misha]

Alot of people are acting like they want to reach the END of gear or the game with a class/job... always find this hilarious, mmo's and progression go hand in hand. Sure they can do more than gear for endgame, but to whine and say you don't want your gear to become obsolete is ...well pathetic. I don't ever wanna hit a wall in a mmo... even in gear xD. Besides it's not like that old gear becomes obsolete or useless lmao If you don't wanna feel like you've "wasted time" by gathering gear that will eventually become obsolete then your playing the wrong genre >.<

I wanna progress my character in every way, especially strength... it's only natural that your character progresses the further you get into the events of the game/a rpg. It's the same exact issue with raising level cap... new expansion = new series of events in which you must grow stronger to overcome them, awesome rpg'ness right there :P Just thank god all the people that cry about this stuff won't ever touch a mmo! Hit a permanent wall in gear and/or levels? LoL ya that's just swell and would work awesome for a mmo especially... *facepalm* ... Heck even stuck at the same progression for 3 months is a wait! ... that's a quarter of a year o.O

Done with threads like this lol... logic is not in alot of peoples reach... Misha out!

[MeowyWowie]

I think a prime example of what this does to a game is evident in FFXI with the release of Abyssea.

Prior to Abyssea's release, FFXI had TONS of content, all of it worth doing no matter if you were a newbie or a veteran. When I say it had TONS of content, I mean content that's actually worth doing.

Once Abyssea released, the gear that came with it completely overshadowed 90% of what was in the game already. So now, while the game still has TONS of content, only a very small percentage is actually worth doing, outside of story lines. So in reality, it has less content now than it did before Abyssea.

So the illusion that they're giving us "more" content, faster, is really not true, they're just replacing content. When a new player joins 3 years from now, all the content we have from now to 2 years from now will still be in the game, but it won't be worth doing at all. It might seem like the game is loaded with content, but story lines aside, this is not true at all.

[Nilheim]

Imo it's really hard to find the proper balance, and I'm not in favor of this system. The best way to implement it, I think, is to make many sets of equipment for endgame, and there should be one very hard (not very long because of drop rates, there's a big difference) raid/fight/whatever that gives the best gear option for a long time (defining "long" is the problem, of course).

The other activities, while not as hard, would at least make you feel like you accomplished something, and using the gear you get from those activities would eventually make it easier to complete the harder fight. The harder activity would then be replaced every so often with another hard activity together with a myriad of easier activies (say every one to two years).

For example:

Square Enix releases a super hard raid/instance/... called A. It gives the best gear in the game. At the same time, they release say 4 or 5 raids/instances/... called Aa, Ab, Ac, Ad and Ae. Completing these and getting the gear from them will make it easier to complete A. All those raids/instances/... will last you anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending how good you are, and then Square Enix can release another set called B with Ba, Bb, Bc, Bd and Be, maybe together with a level cap increase.

What do you think? I'm not sure what I'm saying is clear lol

[Jynx]

What do you think? I'm not sure what I'm saying is clear lol

By placing all focus on skill you are promoting a massive air of elitism within the community. Those who can clear dungeon A withing wasting time with the others will be compromised by the "best" and by "Best" I mean a select few with a wagon of people not "Good" enough to join them.

I remember phrases like Loldrg or Lolthf when I played XI and I really want to steer away from that, but still provide gear that is challenging to get, obviously job balance would be the key to this but no game is perfect and even perfectly good and powerfull jobs can carry stupid stigmas and be treated as if they were terrible.

Theif had a terrible rep for parties because of how hard it was (lol) to line up a proper SATA order in the earlier levels. You can't just focus on making stuff "Hard" to do it does need to be time consuming to be lasting content. You can make things damn near impossible but as long as it's possible someones going to be standing there fully decked out in a few days if you don't want the gear also have a portion of luck involved.

[Neptune]

Tanaka had it right by making weapons hold their value and using the Magian Trials system to upgrade legendary weapons. The downside of that though was every new piece of gear other than AF versions was destined for the scrapyard or perhaps at best a macro'd in piece for 1 out of 30 spells. In other words, that system was crap other than that you could hold on to your good gear forever.

The WoW system is also crap although it is awesome for however many weeks you have the best stuff. The plus side of the WoW system is that you can start from any point and there are clear upgrades and clear satisfaction along the way to the top. The downside is the huge scrap pile of obsolete gear.

Whenever you have 2 extremes that are both crap, it tells me there is something missing... We need something that preserves the hard work the artists put into each model, but isn't so extreme to the point that every new piece of gear has to be crap to stay under the stats of the last piece of awesome gear. That's like Napoleon killing everybody that was a fraction of an inch taller than him. There has to be a better way.

[User201109011315]

Revolution needs to happen in the industry if gear-grind has proven that it is not stable.

Why not give players a different method of progression and incentive other than gear grind?

Also, new content every 3 months that rewards players with all the best gear makes economy redundant. Only thing that matters now will be materia.

A materia economy and a gear grind are two systems that will remove a lot of the depth of FFXIV as an MMO. They spent so many years deepening this world only to deconstruct it at the last minute?

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Revolution needs to happen in the industry if gear-grind has proven that it is not stable.

Why not give players a different method of progression and incentive other than gear grind?

Also, new content every 3 months that rewards players with all the best gear makes economy redundant. Only thing that matters now will be materia.

A materia economy and a gear grind are two systems that will remove a lot of the depth of FFXIV as an MMO. They spent so many years deepening this world only to deconstruct it at the last minute?

Before you start flattering, i'll write it very clearly: as we know now, they're not making gear working like that.
Now i've said, since you're the one of this game, tell us this "different method of progression". "Isn't my work" isn't allowed, since it's too easy telling what people should do without any idea on your own

[weeble]

what do you get when u try to cram as many types of gameplayers together in one mmo? then make it so easy everyone can get everything in it?

you get people who don't get your paying 16bucks a month for your gear and weapons like u bought gils from a rmt. yaaay.

[ChiefCurrahee]

It not necessarily gear becomes irrelevant every 3 months.

It's every 3 months new endgame gear is issued with unique styles and stats that complement certain jobs.

GEAR WILL NOT BECOME IRRELEVANT UNTIL THE LEVEL CAP IS RAISED!

lets take this for instance. in 1.19 you do a r50 raid and get a sword. it has 150 attack. +5 acc +5 vit.
in 1.21 you do a raid a sword drops it has 148 att +5str +5 dex and is a completely different style.
in 1.23 another sword drops off a boss that has 150 att ,+5 vit +5 mnd. Has a different look that the past two.

Now which sword is better, and which has become obsolete?
The point is uniqueness comes from being one of the few to wear that weapon first. Not because it's the best weapon.

Its NOT going to be:
1.19 sword has 150 att +5 str +5vit (best)
1.21 sword has 160 att +10 str +10 vit (new best)
1.23 sword has 170 att +15 str +15 vit. (new new best)
AKA tiered gear.

Endgame gear like in FFXI will be similarly balanced between each other. Other wise you create a world of haves and have-nots. And in this world the haves keep on getting more powerful and pull ahead of the rest of the crowd, while other are left in the dust.

By creating a system where every 3 months the difficulty of obtaining old endgame gear is reduced but issuing new content at higher difficulty allows for the guys with the E-PEEN to be content and allow the stragglers to have a piece of the pie too.

Now I'm sure they will have gear that clearly is the creme de la creme which EVERY player will want but only few will get like relic weapons or gear. and those will always be top dog until the level cap is raised and more POWERFUL gear is need to take on more powerful monsters.

[Fouluryu]

Question is in the topic. Please -STAY- on topic. Post how -YOU- would feel and nothing more

Put another way, just answer the following:
How would you feel about "end-game" gear being replaced every 3 months or so via new raid/s or other end-game activities?

And to mods: if you think this thread is going off topic please just delete the posts of those who did anything but answer the question rather than closing or deleting the thread.

My Feelings:
I feel that if gear were to become outdated so quickly FFXIV would have to drastically increase the quality of end game content to become competitive. At the moment I strongly feel that FFXIV's raids, while great, can not compare to the raids of other games (due to lacking interactiveness, voice acting, and deeper stories). If end game content became based on the current quick-spawn HNM system and the current style of raids, I feel like people would only come back for a week after each patch, eventually find another game that involves them more and that they feel like they can "invest time" into, and leave FFXIV completely.

What you "feel" can only mean you & and your pearl holders have done all that you can in this game that has more free time than anyone else. You've gotten unique/rare R50, most crafts to 50, and most jobs to 50. Here's a thought: help other people gain the same achievement and the prior goals.

And for the love of RPG, the correct term is cap gear, not end game gear. There is no competitiveness of any kind and it's getting ridiculous confusing young RPG generations with new terms being used and misinformed.