new melding system. more casual? no thanks!

[Colvin]

My issue is with melding. It really shouldn't be easier to stick it in there multiple times than it is now...why should it be? So everyone can get great melded gear a whole lot easier? I just find no accomplishment in that.

Currently, It is the same level of accomplishment I would get playing yahzee... none. It is random.... random is inherantly not skill-based so I "achieve" nothing but wasted money and patience.

[Reika]

I also want to know if they plan on expanding the slots a materia type can be attatched to too. Sucks not being able to attatch STR materia to my Dodore doublet.

[strallaalaa]

personally this is reason i wasn't going all out trying to meld at all ...they been simplefying everything and this was obvious one coming too. i don't mind the change only cause i think gear should mostly be gotten threw endgame events and not bots spirit bonding and selling them on wards to gil buyers and rich people. if it's gonna be easier and they still make this gear better then actual content gear i'd be pissed as hell cause that is just making a mmo you don't need to even do anything in but aol chat in. no thanks.

[Colvin]

What I would like to see is gear that requires more skill to get, and not just luck. I would like to see instances that are more punishing and difficult than our current raids, with a better drop rate on gear.

I agree. I'd rather have hard to do but easy to get, than easy to do but hard to get. "Reward with accomplishment over repetition with eventuality" <--- might make that my new sig

[Tigercub]

Personally I don't have a problem with things costing a huge amount of money or taking a very long time to obtain. I also don't feel I should be equal to a player who has a lot more time to play than I do. The only thing I'm looking for is more consistency and fairness. A random system is fine until you become an outlier statistic on the wrong side of the chart, and then your game is kind of ruined. I haven't experienced this in FFXIV myself, but I know from past experience that it really blows to be that absurdly unlucky person and it does completely ruin an experience.

So, should melding be made more casual friendly? Sure, I think so, but only in the sense that casuals can feel like they are capable of working towards it without having to win a lottery. It should still be, all things considered, just as hard to get a triple meld in 2.0 as it was before, I just don't think it should be up to chance. Just make it require progressively more expensive special catalysts, or something.

[Rhomagus]

Why? Like, I genuinely want to hear that. From this thread I've gathered that too many think it's too much of gambling thing and less of a skill thing (since apparently, everything has to be about skill). The solution is the just make it easier to accomplish? I fail to see how handing us stuff on a platter is good for us in the long run.

Even if they offset content in ARR to balance this out, it's still an unnecessary move to me.

In general most people don't like the RNG. People don't mind wasting their lives away as long as the randomness is taken out of the equation. If you could create a system (like totems or GC seals) that give you a definite positive feedback towards progression people seem to like that much more than the RNG.

People feel like if they spend all night without getting a drop or that specific meld they were hoping for that they had wasted their time. For people that have rl jobs, families, and responsibilities outside of the game their in-game time is precious to them. To have it wasted is incredibly frustrating.

It's even more frustrating when a friend of yours is successful on their first try. If your a person with limited game time and you spent all four hours you had in your week while your wife and kids were at your in laws for the weekend and before you had to get that paper done for your college night class it's going to miff you.

Now if you used that four hours and were able to say "I'll get this far this week with my four hours then next week I'll be this much closer to that goal." You'll be much more inclined to attempt the activity.

Some activities will always be out of your reach but you'd be okay with that. You pay just as much a month as all these other people who can play the game at their work or don't have jobs. You're not asking for more progress just more predictable progress. We know they have more time and that they'll get things first. The tease game begins to lose it's charm when your an adult with real life responsibilities.

Eventually most gamers just opt for more casual games. They still identify themselves as gamers. Just as a film buff will still identify themselves as a movie fan even though they might not be a professional critic, or a person who likes fiction will still identify themselves as a writer or reader when they write poetry or read fiction novels in their off time. They don't want to throw away the hobby they've grown to love since they were three were kids and quite frankly they shouldn't have to.

If I'm a reader I can still read Infinite Jest. Ya, it's a huge book that has pages upon pages of footnotes, but that doesn't deter me from reading it nor am I jealous that my freelance writer friend read it from cover to cover in a week or two.

If I'm an MMO player where the game focuses on group only content or RNG, that's a different story. Group content doesn't effect time as much as the RNG could potentially but as the MMO dies down, forming groups becomes more difficult. Forming competent groups based on the current activity adds another layer that the time sensitive gamer has to take into account. {Garuda} {Veteran Class} 1/8 {Please} {/tell} Rhomagus Asclepiot for an hour and a half after work isn't really my idea of a good time... at all. Nor do I think it's anyone else's. You're not even playing the game at that point, your just waiting for a different RNG, and that is who's in Ul'dah during my server's primetime.

It's the equivalent of looking at the book Infinite Jest, flipping through the pages, and reading a random page here and there.

Quite frankly that's ridiculous.

Now I'm not one of these people but I can totally relate to their perspective. There was a time where I had school, work, friends and a girlfriend (that didn't like video games). I noticed that friends and gaming (which I heavily identified with) was the first to go (which after awhile, most of my friends were people I'd met through gaming). Then real life friends, then the girlfriend, as stress began to take it's toll.

School eventually fell by the wayside and here I am picking up the pieces. The game never really got in the way, as it was the first to go but I don't think it ever needs to. Developers shouldn't create games that purposefully consume your life. Lessening the RNG and putting more predictable, measureable goals (such a different currencies/ point systems) can just as easily prolong content as the RNG, and open up the game for all types of players. Those with more and less time.

[indira]

i hope its easier no point blowing up everything 99% of the time. its not even a skill you just meld and then you win or lose. i'm happy its getting easier, materia would come down in price after people meld there hearts out and actually earn something other then having to make more equip and materia constantly after the random thing kills your equip.

broken as hell system in 1.0

[Colvin]

...Those with more and less time.

And statistics show that casual is where it's at. You wanna see a popular MMO? try Facebook. It is pretty much an MMO and it is ALL casual.

[Riv]

Sounds like the framework for melded gear not being best in slot and drops having more significance. I'm sure quad and quint melds will still be awesome though.

[Antanias]

RNG =/= skill

Removing luck as a factor is important. It's the same reason nobody used the aptant system in XI.

Evolith in general blew the big one and the system had never been expanded on past level 75. I ever see an evolith, I turned it in towards an outpost guard and let them deal with it xD.