Forbidden Materia, meant for the hardcore or just the lucky?

[Celtodeno]

By the time I finally finish the gloves, the cap will be raised, there will be better gloves, and there will likely also be higher tier / different materia.

As a hardcore player, I feel that the work I'd be putting into this personal quest of mine would simply be made obsolete as the time I invest into it passes. It all seems to contradict itself.

This. At some point Square is going to realize that crafting gear can't out rank instance gear and still have instances be interesting to the MMO public at large. This will eventually be 'reworked' the same way they have reworked all the other 'novel but faulty' game mechanics. This coupled with a cap raise or two will put all of your time and effort to waste.

But in reality this all a 'waste of time' so if you enjoy the process, that's all the counts.

[Vanguard319]

Did you actually read the post? None of the materia he's trying to meld it tier IV. . .

Yes I did, he also said that there is a shortage of materia. I disagree, and forbidden melding is supposed to be hi-risk.

[MeowyWowie]

Yes I did, he also said that there is a shortage of materia. I disagree, and forbidden melding is supposed to be hi-risk.

Well, to be fair, you also suggested that I do lower tier melds instead of Tier IVs. That's probably why Viridiana asked if you read the OP, because in it I clearly stated that I'm only using T2 and T3 materia to make these. The vast majority of them are T2 STR materia.

And trust me, there is a very short supply of these, partially because most people who make them just toss or npc them, and partially because nobody SBs lower lv gear really, so they're not as common as higher tier materia.

[Alise]

Surely, they need and will raise the success rate at some point. (possible v2) But for now, they just make real-hardcore goal to keep you guys playing.

[Celtodeno]

Surely, they need and will raise the success rate at some point. (possible v2) But for now, they just make real-hardcore goal to keep you guys playing.

Once HQ material = HQ gear (I believe that's 1.21), the flood of HQ gear will increase the success rate by default. At that point 2x and 3x melded gear will become common place, further making gear earned though instances and bosses battles useless.

It's strange how the focus on crafters has been reduced in importance while the efforts of battle and mage classes have been made irrelevant.

[Alise]

Once HQ material = HQ gear (I believe that's 1.21), the flood of HQ gear will increase the success rate by default. At that point 2x and 3x melded gear will become common place, further making gear earned though instances and bosses battles useless.

It's strange how the focus on crafters has been reduced in importance while the efforts of battle and mage classes have been made irrelevant.

Your are wrong tho, I can confirm you that Ifrit battleaxe (which take only little effort to get for free.) is stronger than Buffalo NM Axe +2 plus 2x of +30 attack power materia (+60 extra att). My server have less than 10x of NM axe (+2) or (+3) and this is only one axe so far that got 2x IV materia addition. So the rarest axe in my server got beaten by Ifrit battleaxe that around 100+ people have them.

[Buuul]

You're basically not supposed to get 5 materia on an item, as you say - the probabilities are too low.

The system is fine. Everyone can get 1 materia on. Those who are willing to gather 5-6 items and 5-6 more materia should be able to get a second one on.

The more hardcore will be willing to try for 3 materia.

Aim for 3 materia on all of your items.

[KumaAkuma]

This only proves atleast one thing: WE NEED MORE PLAYABLE CONTENT!

[Alcide]

The issue is not the success rate, it's the fact that it's completely random and not controllable in any way.
I'm ok with failing 100 times, but I want to blame myself when it happens, for makin wrong choices or using wrong skills.

It's not like adding an extremely low success rate to something makes it hardcore, it has to be more. Aiming for 3 materia right now is not for hardcore players, it's for bored players.

[Raagnar]

Honestly I think this whole materia thing is really awfully implemented. I get that they're meant to be for "hardcore players", but imho in order to be considered a "hardcore content" it should involve some kind of skill, right now it's just too random.

For instance, the reward from an extremely hard dungeon, with hard bosses and low drop rate is random, but still it's the fact that it takes effort to complete it multiple times that makes it hardcore. It doesn't take any effort to meld materias.

I might be wrong, but to me it seems like the system is built just to be gil consuming untill the game is done, so that at the release we won't have the awful economy we had before it was implemented.
It needs much more depth in order to be considered a "content".

I agree with all the things the OP suggested and I would add that it would be nice if the percentage could be controllable in some ways, like an affinity system where different types of materia of the same tier have different percentage to success, or different percentage for different gears, or even a minigame involving some skills from the crafter when melding.

This has been argued before. You cant say it takes more effort to run a mindless dungeon 50 times then to get the required crafts and materia needed to make this stuff. In fact its taken me more time and effort to lvl crafts then to run a raid over and over. Difficulty has nothing to do with it because both are arguably easy tasks.