Required rank on all gear

[MariyaShidou]

I agree, i strongly dislike the optimal rank system, much more rewarding to feel you earned wearing something by working for it, like AF gear, each piece needed some extra effort to be able to wear it, when leveled high enough to wear it all, felt great and a nice accomplishment indeed. This system further kills the incentive of ranking up besides the other incentive killers in the game like mundane and redundant abilities.

SE needs to focus on incentive, progressive and goal oriented gameplay, this optimal rank system just like Armoury system is just way too free and loose that it kills any real sense of joy. Just really lame seeing any class rank 1 being able equip any class rank 50 gear. Put some restrictions for the love of Final Fantasy..

I vote make all gear rank required and less generic gear, more class/job based.

Grind grind grind to level up and wear gear is not sophisticated/accomplished at all. Try Anarchy Online system, you can wear most equipment/use most nanos any time, provide you meet the requirement (and if you don't meet the requirement but somehow still got it on beforehand, it won't be unequipped). Lvl restricted vs AO system is like comparing WoW to EVE.

[Stockapotapoulos]

Sorry guys, it seems there was some miscommunication earlier on this, and it took awhile to clarify the situation. I've updated my original post in the thread and will copy it here for viability. This was speaking specifically to NM and other content-related gear, and not a blanket removal of the Optimal Rank system. I really apologize for the confusion my post caused!



I also added in details about the recipe changes, too (which can be seen in the dev1016 thread).

Wow, that was communication missed, alright! While we are appreciative of your communications with us, I really think you should really get your facts straight before posting (and despite the way that sounded, I truly genuinely mean that in a nice way).

There was a lot of hurt feelings in here earlier, and it would have saved a lot of people from heartache. And headache.

[Gennosuke]

Grind grind grind to level up and wear gear is not sophisticated/accomplished at all. Try Anarchy Online system, you can wear most equipment/use most nanos any time, provide you meet the requirement (and if you don't meet the requirement but somehow still got it on beforehand, it won't be unequipped). Lvl restricted vs AO system is like comparing WoW to EVE.

Hmm, so what are you proposing exactly? I'm not familiar with Anarchy online but even in your example of AO, you say you can wear most gear/equip provided you meet requirements. That is precisely what i am talking about, in FFXIV, there are no requirements for wearing gear (save the new stuff coming through). Level based requirement is a logical and common used approach. How exactly is it not accomplished when the primary general focus of the game is ranking up? Is it not accomplished when you have to rank up to earn an ability? how is this any different? Personally i can't think of many other ways to restrict gear besides level and job based requirements, what other requirements do you speak of?
Enlighten me otherwise

[MariyaShidou]

Hmm, so what are you proposing exactly? I'm not familiar with Anarchy online but even in your example of AO, you say you can wear most gear/equip provided you meet requirements. That is precisely what i am talking about, in FFXIV, there are no requirements for wearing gear (save the new stuff coming through). Level based requirement is a logical and common used approach. How exactly is it not accomplished when the primary general focus of the game is ranking up? Is it not accomplished when you have to rank up to earn an ability? how is this any different? Personally i can't think of many other ways to restrict gear besides level and job based requirements, what other requirements do you speak of?
Enlighten me otherwise

Level requirement is a lazy and overly used concept. Old FFs never had it, not until FFXI.

Anarchy Online has a complex requirement. On the surface, it's the basic attribute/skill point requirement. For example Generic Body Armour quality 300 require 350 Strength and 350 Endurance to wear. A normal character is capped at 300 STR/END at say lvl 149 with slight variable between race, and can only reach 350 STR/END after they level up to 150+ (Limit break). On the other hand, there are many ways to get around base stat such as buff, implants, equipment, perk etc. and the result is that, a character as low as lvl 80 can wear that piece of gear. It's a very complex process to go through, because for instance buff has requirement (Nano Controlling Unit), if your NCU is not enough (not enough RAM!) for the buff, you can not take the buff, in addition that buff are mostly professional locked (Agent can get around that) and highest buff can also be only crafted from rare drop, not generic buy-in-shop. Implants that boost stat also has their stat/Treatment requirement to wear.

The concept of gear requirement in AO is too mind-blowing though to be explained by words >_>

[Oscillate_Wildly]

A lot of new looted gear will have the requirements. These pieces of gear will likely be the ones most coveted. Can't you be excited by that?
Optimal Rank, when not adhered to, can destroy your gear faster. D: But whether it's here, or not, it cannot help or hurt the system.
It benefits the system due to the need to change gear so often for repairs. By not blinking out of every piece of gear, you're saving the grief caused by changing classes quickly.
It can be WORKED ON.

The thing that bugs me most about this is no one is willing to discuss what could be done with the optimized rank system to make it shine.

If destruction of the system was not an option, how would you adjust it to benefit the game?

-I would make the harsh penalties a lot more clear in a visual manner through the UI while the gear is equipped. Much like how the stats on equipment while in Level Sync mode in XI were shown through red text.
-I would introduce benefits for wearing the gear as according to optimized rank in a set. This mainly to make gear sets like Harlequin have more value as a set, rather than piece by piece alone.
-Introduce a leeway system up to 2-3 ranks below optimized rank, increasing in stat benefits as you grow closer to the rank. This allows characters to wear their gear a small time before it's optimized, without having to carry around an unnecessary amount of gear. I would say 2 being ideal.


Since someone mentioned before during the alpha phase that inventory space was a problem, I don't see them removing the system as it stands. But there is room for improvement for it to work with the game. :/

[weeble]

i suggest a cap on all mobs/battles even rank 1, after u attack a rank one mob it auto drop to that level and u'r gears appropriately drop to correspond to the rank u just dropped. this will give the game some challenge, also it's kinda its own version of level sync.

[Arlekiel]

D: I dont agree with this


That means that what... now we have to be carryng our WHOLE wardrobe just because a bunch of ppl are QQing and whining about seeing a low ranked character wearing a high ranked items???

Get over it....

FFXIV spirit is to have this "free" system... thats the spirit of the game... Where is the realism in "I cant equip this because I dont have enough rank"... Thats soooooo generic.....

I do agree on increasing the "penality for not fullfilling the OPTIMAL rank" but a different thing is to make gear to not give u full stats when ur below the optimal rank, and another thing is to forbid player to wear whatever the hell they want.

If you want a generic MMO with required rank on gear go play WoW.....

The thing that bugs me most about this is no one is willing to discuss what could be done with the optimized rank system to make it shine.

If destruction of the system was not an option, how would you adjust it to benefit the game?

-I would make the harsh penalties a lot more clear in a visual manner through the UI while the gear is equipped. Much like how the stats on equipment while in Level Sync mode in XI were shown through red text.
-I would introduce benefits for wearing the gear as according to optimized rank in a set. This mainly to make gear sets like Harlequin have more value as a set, rather than piece by piece alone.
-Introduce a leeway system up to 2-3 ranks below optimized rank, increasing in stat benefits as you grow closer to the rank. This allows characters to wear their gear a small time before it's optimized, without having to carry around an unnecessary amount of gear. I would say 2 being ideal.

YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!!!

[Rubicon]

Well now I am hurt because I liked what was said earlier. I now have to eat a lot of crow.

My concern is why did Yoshida's post have two completely separate thoughts separated by only a period. Those two sentences had NOTHING to do with each other, yet in the same paragraph. What does NM drops have to do with new crafting recipes?

Moving forward, gear that is introduced from notorious monsters and other such content will have requirements placed on them as we will be phasing out the "Optimal Rank" system for that loot. With new recipes being introduced in 1.19, the old recipes will be lost and it will not be possible to make that specific piece of gear anymore going forward.

Can someone explain, just using what is said in italics, what those two sentences have to do with one another? I understand that NMs drop gear which will now be Required Rank. I understand new recipes will phase out old ones. Why is that put in the same thought?

OK, even Bay admits the paragraph structure was confusing. Still butt hurt.

[Halvaard_Vidan]

I am not a fan of this idea, as it stands it's hard enough to find low-mid level gear at a decent price, often I have to buy a piece whose optimal rank is abit higher in order to get a good deal.
I hope this new crafting system makes lower level gear significantly easier to obtain, because I'm having trouble making basic bows that are only 4 ranks above my CRP rank. Additionally, newcomers to the LS I'm in (usualy newcomers to the game) always comment on the scarcity of affordable low level gear.

[Mihana]

All I can say is I'm totally for this... 100% on the keeping crafted gear as optimal/favors while making looted drops for specific classes/ranks. While I'd prefer if it were all gear as optimal/favors, this is a change I can live with. I already have a couple pieces of gear that are specific to one class (Venerer's Bracers anyone?) so having it on some gear doesn't affect me. Yet it makes it easier for me if I plan to do a quick repair of swapping classes isn't gonna drop me to my underwear. This means wasted time I now have to go re-equip everything that was just removed so I could do like, 1 repair. What if you're against time and you need to just swap to a high leveled class to finish a leve real quick? Swap from Lancer to Ar-Oh there went all my gear, now I gotta reequip it so I can finish that leve with like 10 seconds left on the timer.

Rare instances but happens nonetheless. Obviously craft-made gear will be considered as common gear whereas looted stuff will be more special either in appearance or by stats. So having restrictions on the looted gear makes far more sense as again, something I can accept and stand behind.