Will we ever get an update to the materia system?

[Zumi]

My question is will we ever see more out of the materia system maybe in Heavensward?

For starters I think that unique and untradeable items should have materia slots. The materia is very similar to wow gem system only in wow all gear can have gem slots not just crafted gear.

This would let people be able to customize their gear some. If coil gear and tome gear had materia slots. For example if you wanted to be that pro dragoon who puts all ice resist materia in all gear slots so you can be super pro at fighting Shiva then you could.

[Stihllodeing]

Imo, yes something should be done. I disagree with melding everything. Us crafters have to a little something to call....something!!

*edit

I know you didn't say everything

[coldreactive]

No thanks. Don't want the elitists to be more elite with quad-melded Dreadwyrm.

[Duelle]

No thanks. Don't want the elitists to be more elite with quad-melded Dreadwyrm.

The caveat on unique/untradeable gear could be that it has a set number of slots and cannot be overmelded like craftable goods.

As Fue said, it'd be nice if it didn't cost an arm and a leg, putting your great great grandchildren into debt for what you're trying to do.

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The idea behind how materia is obtained is good on paper but basically relies on people grinding stuff. The reason why people spiritbonding in crystal tower and the like came into being was because it was the quickest way to do so in order to move on to the fun stuff in the game. When design forces people to do that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system's implementation.

The devs reacted to the wrong part of the system's design by nerfing spiritbonding and locking it within specific level ranges; this I guess was done to also help spread people over all levels since if you want to SB a lv37 set chances are you're going to queue for Sunken Temple of Qarn or Cutter's Cry which means people needing those dungeons would have others to play with.

This all said, I'm not sure what can be done. If I had my way spiritbonding would get an ultra-revamp or be outright removed from the game. It was a timesink for obtaining materia in 1.0 but I was never happy with how it fit (or didn't fit, depending on how you look at things) in 2.0.

One thing is clear, though: supply has to drastically increase for the higher level stuff.

[Fue]

No thanks. Don't want the elitists to be more elite with quad-melded Dreadwyrm.

I for one would love to be able to customize stats by melding.. If it didnt cost arm and leg

[coldreactive]

I for one would love to be able to customize stats by melding.. If it didnt cost arm and leg

If you have your own personal house or something, just do Thav. Onions and sell them. That's what I'd do if I had 17+ Million Gil to buy a small house. (Waiting for Coerthas housing anyway, since I like winter.)

[Shougun]

Maybe they can make a materia craft (doesn't need to be a class), take crafted items and combine them to make materia (not to be confused with spirit binding). Results can be determined by item element types, difficulty in crafting, materials, and perhaps catalyst. While not needed it would be a good way to remove some or much of the randomness, and price would likely go down on desirable materia and go up on poopy ones (still not free, but price gouging would be harder when consistency allows do it your self and that the materia would be connected to already priced items). This may be a way to combat supply and demand and maintain the economical cycle it pushes.

Now systems have worked without needing exp spamming (WoW being an example), but they could implement a simpler spirit bonding system along side something like above (materia 'crafting'). Say once an item becomes spirit bound you can extract aether essence as a catalyst item - then the item starts at 1% bound again. So you've made the system a bit more friendly to demand while not removing crafting item consumption or particularly stop dungeon participation (you would see a lot less random gear'd people though.. since they could wear the items they wanted stats from instead, at least in higher level dungeons).

If materia was friendlier and if crafted gear was buffed a little I could see dungeon gear using materia. Crafted gear may need some buffs because you'd be taking away one of the advantages that SE balanced/allowed to only crafted gear. Also adding predictability and allowing unique items slot materia would make unique materia not so much of a terrible idea (balance easier to control, prices being predictable due to 'crafting' requirements - meaning you can reasonably expect players to use the system and plan accordingly).

[Viridiana]

It's pretty much going to have to happen at some point, I think. Gear is largely reaching the point where the primary stat gap between crafted gear and coil gear becomes insurmountable by materia. Materia on leveling gear is meh, because that's going to get replaced every few levels. Relic quest materia is a pretty constant demand, except during periods right after they release a new class, which has happened all of once now (and there's no real guarantee that the next jobs released will even follow the same formula). Overall, the materia system feels like a relic of 1.0. I like the idea of the system, but there's so much wrong with it at the moment that I won't be touching it again unless I become filthy rich somehow. There needs to be a better ratio of supply to demand, and there needs to be better reason and opportunity to use it at endgame.

[Adrian74]

At first....When I was a noob. (Oh, wait, I still) I thought that the materia system was pretty cool and also thought that it was logical it could be applied to everything...

Got a big dissapointment when I noticed that some gear couldn't put materia, thus, being just equal to the others with 0 customization.... Why would be so gamebreak in allowing it? It would be an acceptable way to spend gil or do some spiritbond too...

(Please I'd appreciate if you avoid the comments such as 'Don't feed RMT' and such, if we are going to be fearing RMT whenever we speak of gil for the rest of days then why is gil still existing?)

[Hyunckel]

(Please I'd appreciate if you avoid the comments such as 'Don't feed RMT' and such, if we are going to be fearing RMT whenever we speak of gil for the rest of days then why is gil still existing?)

Well seeing how you can spend DOZENS OF MILLIONS of gil on melding for the relic quest, or just to buy a house, or just to buy materia to customise gear, it's no wonder I get /tells 3,4,5 times per day from RMT sellers.
With those deep gil sinks, and the low supply, I'm not surprised if many people went the lazier, faster route of the rich kid and just bought gil from them to fast forward their gear progression.