Horizontal progression? In MY theme park?!

[Sebazy]

Apologies for a kind of double post, but I thought this was an interesting enough idea that it was worth a thread of it's own rather than getting buried under another topic's rantings:

TLDR: How could we have more gear variety in FFXIV?

Rather than get blinded by how FFXI handled things, let's look a bit further back to the days of Everquest. The game was primarily horizontal progression with mild levels of verticality between expansions and tiers. The overall quality of gear was noticeably better in late tier raids such as Vex Thal when compared to old endgame content such as VP or recent but entry level content such as the first planes in PoP.

However, most endgame zones had a few pieces of 'Halo' gear, items that were unique enough or good enough to stand above other options even 4 or 5 expansions down the line. As a Shaman raiding up until the mid point of PoP, I was still utterly inseparable from my VP Robe and Snare spear and overall wore a variety of bits of gear from a content right across the game ( https://eq.magelo.com/profile/9093 ).

So, how can FFXIV pull this off? I'd go with a variant on Kisa's approach but roll it into a form of set bonuses. Let's say I have a full set of Sigma gear, consider having a set bonus that can be unlocked by wearing 2 pieces of gear depending on where the gear is from. PvP gear could unlock something like a cast time reduction on Stone. Crafted could unlock some extra VIT. Hunt gear could unlock a movement speed bonus. There's plenty of ways to add in flavour to this and it's simple enough to roll extra bonus stats in with the set bonus so that you're not destroying your main stats for the sake of these sorts of bonuses. When odd numbered patches come along with new gear, it's easy enough to bump up the bonuses slightly on the new stuff to give the raiders and min maxers a fresh carrot to chase.

Simple no?

*edit*

To clarify since the original post was a bit rushed and not as clear as it could have been.

My idea is to actually have the set bonus based off the main raiding sets aka Tome and Savage gear.

This would offer a set bonus when used in tandem with other sets within the same tier as well as offering a stat boost to bring the lower ilvl piece up to par with the main set.

So for example:

Lets take the Diamond set of healing.

It could have the following set bonus as a very rough example:

0.5 second cast time reduction on Stone IV when used with 2 pieces of PvP gear.
+100 VIT when used with 2 pieces of crafted gear.
+10% Movement speed when used with Hunt gear.

This could be further played along by adding a slightly juicier bonus with odd numbered patch content (Basically, extra crafted and 24 man stuff).

The idea isn't to make people not want to upgrade their gear, but rather reward players for earning a wider variety of equipment (and thus dabbling in more content that they otherwise might not. The crafted bonus will be king during progression, whereas it'd be easy enough to include interesting perks on other sets to take over as people get geared and don't need the VIT anymore.

Is it a perfect example of horizontal progression? No. But it spices up a recipe that's been getting awfully stale over the last few years.

[Nora_of_Mira]

The same argument will be made every time this comes up: any kind of bonus that grants any significant difference (Vit+, Spell speed, movement speed? that's debatable) will only become the "preferred build" for clearing certain content and people will be gated depending on how significant the bonuses are. As it stands, all normal content has no need for these bonuses so the harm it would potentially cause is debatable (would people care?). But for savage content, the meta is already established that you pump your substats into w/e makes your DPS higher (exception being early progression and VIT).

Overall, I dont see a place in FFxiv for horizontal progression as the gear will be replaced every few months. To me, "horizontal progression" in FFxiv's terms is gearing/leveling alt jobs while your main job has nothing to do until next patch.

edit: meant alt jobs, not alt characters

[Adeacia]

I don't want gear that will last me for years. Then I'd have nothing to work toward, no goal. I don't want a static character that can't grow anymore. I'd have no reason to play the game.

[Ayer2015]

I don't want gear that will last me for years. Then I'd have nothing to work toward, no goal. I don't want a static character that can't grow anymore. I'd have no reason to play the game.

I mean.... I have nothing to work toward as it is currently anyway.

[Dyvid]

I think we need a leveling experience after we reach max level. I've always said they need to add job specific materia. In that way you still have the vertical gear grind but a horizontal xp grind to keep improving.

[Bacent]

I think we need a leveling experience after we reach max level. I've always said they need to add job specific materia. In that way you still have the vertical gear grind but a horizontal xp grind to keep improving.

They used to have materia for everything back in 1.X actually.

Some materia could only be used by certain classes, and materia could only be put on certain pieces of gear

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/M...sy_XIV)/Legacy

If you want to see what it used to look like.

There's also the fact that in anything sync'd in game, we lose materia bonuses.

[Dyvid]

They used to have materia for everything back in 1.X actually.

Some materia could only be used by certain classes, and materia could only be put on certain pieces of gear

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/M...sy_XIV)/Legacy

If you want to see what it used to look like.

There's also the fact that in anything sync'd in game, we lose materia bonuses.

Yea I remember. The key point I"m trying to make though is people do need goals not only to gear up but continue to expand. Since materia was of a similar vein of FFXI Merit system it would be logical to have it as the means to expand our characters job beyond that of just xpac grinding.

[Aylis]

I think we need a leveling experience after we reach max level. I've always said they need to add job specific materia. In that way you still have the vertical gear grind but a horizontal xp grind to keep improving.

I was thinking the same thing too. Using the OP's example of Everquest, that game did have an alternate advancement system which gave ways for players to level up more once they reached the level cap. Its why vertical progression worked so well in that game since it gave players something to do and work on other then gear.

I do love gear sets and clickies but yeah, given how FFXIV's formula for being at end game and the devs idea of rewarding players is to throw more xp at them. An alternate advancement system would be better here.

[Derio]

I dont think so. Horizontal progression like how ESO has it is can be very very boring. Horizontal progression would devalue alot of things in the game. Once you have the top gear what exactly would you be doing in game? You would literally be waiting for the next major expansion or next update that has a gearset that becomes the new meta.

[PyurBlue]

Once you have the top gear what exactly would you be doing in game? You would literally be waiting for the next major expansion or next update that has a gearset that becomes the new meta.

My own opinion of course, but that makes me think there is a problem with the game. I don't see the draw of getting gear for the sake of getting gear. It might be the least desirable thing in the game for me.

If there is a way to keep older gear relevant for longer, I'm all for it. Either that or make it take longer to get the current best gear and make ilvl updates more spread out.