SE enough of the treadmill, please make the game more interesting!

[Delily]

Classes and levels are artifacts from pen and paper RPG's that were created to simplify the real world mechanics. In reality, a person using a sword go from wildly swinging it around to more deliberate strokes, he would learn to parry, and when to thrust, slash, jab, etc. He'd learn how to handle different swords, etc. Also the more one is in combat, the greater one's pain threshold becomes. But all of this is too complicated of a system to model using calculators and die. So the designers developed levels as a way to mock out how humans over time can get stronger, smarter, more agile, etc. The classes system is meant to reflect the fact that we all have strengths and weaknesses. I am bad at poetry, but good at programming computers. But again too nuanced for PnP games. Computers could do all those calculations, but it would be expensive and people are accustomed to levels and classes.
My problem with the gear grind is that gear is the end, and not the means. Gear is really nothing but a soft leveling mechanism, that lets the developers build tougher bosses and gate content. I understand why they did it, but that doesn't mean I like it.

[Delily]

Also, Bartle is definitely someone you should know if you're at all interested in MMO design and development. He takes a more academic approach to the genre than either Yoshi-p or Greg Street (ghostcrawler), but that approach definitely gets one to think more critically about the games.

[MageBlack]

They have already said they are looking at unique and specific stats for armor come 3.0... leave the poor horse alone.

Reddit: Yesterday you went over how you reworked the 1.0 stat system for ARR and you cut out a lot of stats in terms of game balance to make balance easier. Now that the team has had a little more experience and you have more data is there any plans on bringing back unique stats such as 'enhances skills' and things like that on gear?

Yoshida: There is a chance we'll be doing that in the future. The reason being now that we have that simple base rather than a complex base, if you have a simple base then adding things on top of that is easy because that base is solid. It doesn't effect that base that much and you're not breaking balance by adding new things on top of that. Things we've heard a lot are that players want set bonuses for their gears and that would be one thing we would definitely think of doing. Or another type of armor where if you're wearing a certain piece armor your Spirits Within cool down timer cools down faster. Things like that. Definitely thinking of adding things like that and we know players want them. But when deciding whether to put something like that in or not it's about balance and whether this will break that balance or not. So we're very careful about adding parameters like that.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...naoki_yoshida/

[BigPapaSmurf]

Amen to this!

[Akiza]

SE should replace the Class System with an Ability Sphere Grid where players can gain ability points which they can spend on a Job specialization or a combination of different abilities in areas such as Melee, Ranger, Caster, Pet, Healing and Tank.

[MageBlack]

SE should replace the Class System with an Ability Sphere Grid where players can gain ability points which they can spend on a Job specialization or a combination of different abilities in areas such as Melee, Ranger, Caster, Pet, Healing and Tank.

I'm sorry, but a Sphere Grid would be the WORST decision this team could ever make. I despise it in every game that has it. I would rather the skill system from FFT:WotL, that would suit this game much better!

[Akiza]

I'm sorry, but a Sphere Grid would be the WORST decision this team could ever make. I despise it in every game that has it. I would rather the skill system from FFT:WotL, that would suit this game much better!

Aren't you the same person saying grinding for gear would be fun as well. Grinding for gear with different stats isn't any better.

[MageBlack]

Aren't you the same person saying grinding for gear would be fun as well. Grinding for gear with different stats isn't any better.

I do not understand what you mean by this...

I was responding to the sphere grid system for levelling (like the one in FFX and Path of Exile) I greatly dislike this style of system, personal opinion. If there were to be a re-vamp of the skill system, I would like it if they crossed the 1.0 skill system with the Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions skill system. This would work much better within the confines of this game.

Now, I may have misunderstood what you were talking about. Were you meaning have a sphere grid style system for your gear and have your gear level up? Sounds interesting and odd at the same time. If you have read somewhere that I said the gear grind is fun or adding extra stats makes it better, I don't think I have ever used that term. I know I have said I was ok with the current system knowing the changes they have in store and realizing this is the base framework that can, and will, be built upon. At least grinding for gear with different stats would give you a reason to grind other gear aside from looks.

[Dyvid]

Fine, so what do you want to grind? Levels? Gear?

[Akiza]

The problem with locking the highest ilvl gear behind raiding coils was all it did was ensure hard core players have shiny high level gear to lord over the casuals. What SE did from 2.2 onward was an MMORPG No. Without a variety of ways to obtain the same high level gear a divide was created between casual and hard core players. Hardcore Gamer are able to progress through Coils and get all their BIS and ilvl 110 coil gear in 6 weeks. Mid Core players get screwed over because by the time they get their BIS and ilvl 110 gear a new set of gear is out in a week and Casuals are simply left to play Coils just to see the story and unlock the next Coils.