Poll: Gear progression, horizontal or vertical?

[Caraway]

Why do you wanna slow down stat inflation?

Because the exact same stats +5 is... Kind of boring.

I've already voted (Horizontal is something I prefer in general) but I should point out that horizontal wouldn't really work with this game as it's designed. As someone else pointed out, we don't have the stats to be able to handle horizontal without it being pointless. You need different kinds of stats with different affects to combat to really get horizontal progression. Or have equipted/activated effects.

To those people pointing to FFXI as an example of bad horizontal progression, I suspect a lot of that is because of the whole in-combat gear switching thing. If you couldn't swap your gear in-combat than the whole 'hoarder' thing would be less of a point. And let's get real here; who's going to change their pants in battle? That system never made sense to me... Swapping weapons I can understand, but changing out of your actually clothes while fighting an enemy just doesn't compute in my head.

[Sapphic]

In an ideal world, HORIZONTAL.

But given the WoW influence and compromises, I think HYBRID (some Horizontal Gear Sets (same iLevel) w/ Unique Stats spread across 2 patches), and then item Level Increase) is fine. Example of Hybrid:

Instead of the current:

* Patch 1: i90
* Patch 3: i110
* Patch 5: i130

Hybrid would be:

* Patch 1: i90 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 3: i90 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)
* Patch 5: i110 (2 Sets of Gear)
* Patch 7: i110 (Alternate Set of Gear w/ Unique Stats)


It at least slows down the Gear / Stat Inflation in this game, and gives SOME feeling of your gear meaning something for a period of time.

Patch 1. ilvl 90 Tomestone gear and Blinding coil.
Patch 3: Vertical progression otherwise there is no reason to do the content with the gear.

I'll stop there as 5 and 7 are just a repeat.

So Patch 1 we already had at launch and has been like that every other patch when we got new tomestones Second part, if the gear is needed to progress in the content it is put in, it's already Vertical progression as you are increasing effectiveness. If it's not needed, then whats the point of running the content more than once? If the unique stat gear is needed for the following content for progression, it is still vertical progression.

We update our gear once every 6 months. That is only twice a year. Which is exactly the same as the "idea" you put forward.

How long do you expect gear to last before replacing? 1 year, 2 years? 10 years? a 6 month turn around is perfectly acceptable.

[Arkenne]

Would say Horizontal, but Im not sure how that would work for a game such as this were every class have a specific gear and one character can use all classes. :/
I mean, inventory is pretty cramped as it is...

[Nepenthe]

Hybrid ideally. I honestly lean more towards horizontal; most games I enjoyed playing were that. Even if it boils down to an "illusion of choice," it still adds variety and things fun to play around with. Not *everyone* and every group has to have the flat out best min-maxed stats, some just like having fun with what they have. Whether it be challenge, RPing, or whatever.

A hybrid between the two at least allows people who want flat out stat increases to get them while not being stagnated for a very long time.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

If your needing to constantly switch out gear. Then that isn't horizontal. That ... is pretty much just vertical with needing different sets of gear.

Horizontal Progression means you can do content with any of the gear available, you just pick which one suits your play-style, trade-offs.

If you have to carry a set of gear for each content you do then its already just vertical progression with more sets of gear needed to do the job, for example gear that is better against skeletons. Now to take on the skeleton raid you need skeleton armor. That isn't horizontal. That is still vertical.

[SDaemon]

snip

Saying Horizontal is when you can equip any gear-set and face-roll on skill alone is a ridiculous method of progression because in that situation every piece of gear will have the exact same stats and nothing else; no bonuses, no variation, no anything, just flat basic stats. You would never upgrade that gear or change your gear or progress your character beyond max level.

At least with the system we have now we have what is called "character growth". You can noticeably see your charterer become stronger as you get progressively better gear. Is it ideal? Nah, but it is far better than that idea of "horizontal".

If you added any variation to the gear, any unique bonuses or procs or resistances, anything that makes one piece of gear different than another piece than you end up with the situation I have described in previous pages.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Stuff.

Not really. You can have horizontal vertical progression where gets gets better. However there are different pieces and skillsets on said gear that is better. You can have ilevels of gear, but with just different stats/effects. ilevel only determining how many stats can be on said item.

[SDaemon]

You can have horizontal vertical progression

So now you're wanting to talk about a hybrid of horizontal and vertical. Switching things but ok.

However there are different pieces and skillsets on said gear that is better. You can have ilevels of gear, but with just different stats/effects. ilevel only determining how many stats can be on said item.

This still leads to one gear piece being more ideal for one situation over another, hence swapping horizontally across the spectrum. All you are adding to the equation is when another tier of gear comes out you are upgrading to the next version up.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

So now you're wanting to talk about a hybrid of horizontal and vertical. Switching things but ok.



This still leads to one gear piece being more ideal for one situation over another, hence swapping horizontally across the spectrum. All you are adding to the equation is when another tier of gear comes out you are upgrading to the next version up.

No, here is a good example of how it works.



Some gear is better in certain situations but it depends on what your doing. However gear always has a % chance. Its more based on your play-style then anything else. The effects are just bonuses to the stats. Sure you can make your character specialized, however what if you need a faster burn? You have to adjust your raid to the playstyles of the players.

That doesn't mean you will need to carry 5 bags of gear. You will do fine using sets you like and you enjoy. Even maybe mixing it up.

[odintius]

Both, Honestly I thought materia system would have been an excellent option were crafters attach and detach materia and have some kind of progression and not just what we currently have stuff like ability modifiers, trait enhancement ect. They should have two materia systems the original for status like str, int, ect, but for future content after expansion they should introduce materia 3.0 adding traits,ability enhancement were it 2 slot for status effect and one or two depending on gear for traits/ability boost.