Dropped Items and Materia

[NoctisUmbra]

A Good System

this same person had a hat with +50 int on it lol

Nicely done. Considering what the % was on that and the hat, he deserves it quite well. Now all the game needs are dropped items that are about as powerful as that, preferably even better, and it needs them for all slots. Also gear sets bonuses for dropped items would be great.

Heck, even some dropped items that are equivalent to a 5 meld that take very, very long to get by means of very tough content would be nice too. So long as the difficulty/drop rate/success rate is balanced then it's all fair game.

The lack of other very rare gear-rewarding content does not mean the materia system is bad. It means the materia system is currently the best means in getting most gear.

[Stufoo]

Now all the game needs are dropped items that are about as powerful as that, preferably even better, and it needs them for all slots. Also gear sets bonuses for dropped items would be great.

If dropped gear is as powerful as, or better than that, then what is the point of the materia system? These two can never coexist in their current states. You can soften the effect of ridiculous forbidden stacking, allow differences in gear, with customization, and retain a bit of crafter's relevance by letting us have a single meld on Rare/ex gear.

Do you have any idea what it would take to replace materia slots, and what that'll do to the items? From now on, every single pair of dropped LNC hands need STR, every single belt and sword needs +enmity just to simply function, to even be considered for use. Hey, warrior is a tank too, so they need enmity on their belts as well; but not all warriors tank, so that'd make them unable to use their artifact belt because a DD would not want +enmity, but hey with materia he could even put -enmity on it, and if they were a solo player, +HP. Isn't the materia system wonderful, you can use it to tailor your gear to your needs. How about letting us fucking use it instead of only allowing it on stupid white-named trash gear made from materials that shoot out of the ground?

How much INT and AMP would it take to beat that weapon? It's pretty clear, the numbers are right on it. You can dance around the issue all you want by adding useless shit like "Occasionally restores MP" but the truth is that you will either have to clone it and beat it with higher numbers, or it will be useless. Period. There are no alternatives. That is a very boring system and actually takes away from the "thematic gear" system you liked. No one will ever be optimal with Ifrit's sword, or Moogle's sword ever. Even if Titan's sword has 30 DEF, it will fall short of a single +enmity meld.

SE, let us use the materia system you added. We don't want to forbidden it, we just want the utility and customization that it adds to items, for the items that we worked for.

How you believe that adding a single materia to any of the current items would make them overpowered is beyond me. What's wrong with an Ifrit's Blade with enmity? You'd finally be able to use it and not be godawful. Do you seriously consider +20 DEX on an Ifrit's Bow gamebreaking? You can get 100 DEX on hands if you really cared, what's the difference? Did you cry when they added in point allotment merits? They broke the game, you can get an extra +23 of a stat boo hoo, ban all archers.

The lack of other very rare gear-rewarding content does not mean the materia system is bad. It means the materia system is currently the best means in getting most gear.

And what you are suggesting will happen will render the materia system useless just like dropped gear is now. At least letting one meld on rare/ex would be best for everyone, crafters included. If dropped gear becomes "as good" people will do that and crafters will be lonely and useless because actually playing a game and doing content fights is better and more fun than craft spamming lv. 40 cloth armor and going to play with the wolves for three hours and hope you don't get screwed over by stupid randomly generated numbers.

Sure materia spamming won't be as popular as it is now but you'll still need really good IVs to place into your armors, and replacements as you get new armors. How is this less appealing than not needing materia at all? A system that SE worked towards going to waste, great.

[NoctisUmbra]

Keep in mind I said very long term goal. A 5 meld item can he considered as such as well, except one can get lucky and get it early.

[Jinko]

If dropped gear is as powerful as, or better than that, then what is the point of the materia system? These two can never coexist in their current states. You can soften the effect of ridiculous forbidden stacking, allow differences in gear, with customizability, and retain a bit of crafter's relavance by letting a single meld on Rare/ex gear.

And the rest of it

Agree with this post 100%

Just make materia socketable and allow it to be used on all gear, crafters will still be fine as you need to convert gear to materia anyway.

[Viridiana]

Y'know what I'm starting to think would've been great? If they'd actually made the forbidden system feel like you're doing something "forbidden." Seriously, they had a chance to be like, "Attempting to take an item already bearing both its own memories and those of another item, and infusing the memories of a third item into it, leaves you physically and mentally drained. Such attempts can only be made every several days, and are not always successful. It is not uncommon for a crafter to find the item he is working with utterly destroyed." I mean, really, does anything feel "forbidden" about gathering an armload of gear and trying to brute force your way into a triple-meld?

Of course, it's far too late for them to change this, but the system I'm picturing is just making me sadder and sadder about the system we did get. . .

[Brannigan]

Agree with this post 100%

Just make materia socketable and allow it to be used on all gear, crafters will still be fine as you need to convert gear to materia anyway.

Yeppppppp. Hell, if they're worried about not taking materia out of the game (due to people not being able to forbidden U/U or whatever) they can add a damn NPC who will grind up materia and give you items or potions or something. You could even have the 'materia dust' or whatever be used as a crafting component! woah!!!!!

[Xatsh]

Make all endgame drops subpar to 3+ stacked crafted items = all endgame is negated more or less. Why do it when you can camp the wards for better items.

Make crafted weapons subpar, crafters still have to make the items to get materia and people still need to materia them so there for there is little impact. Se just needs to make say only X materia drop from X type of item better, so for say Crit + people have to buy weapons and such.

So make endgame weapons meldable... keep all the content alive. Materia as it stands is a very flawed system. Good system idea wise but poorly executed due to it hurting endgame drops.

[Chadwick]

It seems like I remember Yoshi or a dev mentioning eventually adding melding via bazaar. Does anyone else remember this, or know where this was said (if it was said)?

[Brigandier]

Hi,

the materia system is a cool way to get crafted items out of the game and keep crafters making items. The big problem with it, though, is that because Unique/Untradeable items cannot be melded, they are basically (with a few exceptions) worthless.

Some might point to the Ifrit Lancer, Marauder, and Archer weapons for an example of dropped items that are better than their crafted/materia equivalent. Unfortunately under the current system items like these eventually make the materia system useless.

Basically, with the materia system the way it is now, I see two possibilities in the future. Either A) Materia remains king outside of a few pieces of gear, giving a lot less incentive to do actual content when it's easier to just buy cheap crafted gear in town and gamble on forbidden materia or B) Future content drops actual good gear, killing off the materia system.

They're both bad choices, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with B since going and getting items with a group is a lot more interesting than playing the materia slot machine.

There is another way, though! If U/U gear is allowed to meld materia, both situations are avoided. The materia system stays useful since people will need new materia every time they upgrade their gear, and dropped gear is actually worth getting. Crafted gear can remain a cheap, quick option for leveling up and fresh 50s and it can still be converted into materia. If you want good gear, you'll need to go fight some bosses and clear some dungeons and buy/convert some materia.

Of course, a system to meld another person's gear through the bazaar will be needed, but that was going to be needed eventually anyway.

I really hope that the devs take this into consideration for 2.0.

This, a million times this. +1 OP.

If they just make the greens meldable, it will be perfect. Granted you probably wouldn't want to have a chance to break these pieces, so they'll need to come up with something there (like removing base gear breaking altogether, just make the materia disappear, perhaps lower the success rate?).

[Jinko]

Granted you probably wouldn't want to have a chance to break these pieces, so they'll need to come up with something there (like removing base gear breaking altogether, just make the materia disappear, perhaps lower the success rate?).

Agree, I duno why you have to lose the item when you fail anyway, it would make much more sense to lose the materia and the catalyst.