Relic Items Easily Obtained?

[Defmetal]

As long as it's not currency based.

You can still make it hard and difficult to obtain, taking multiple raids, many tough bosses, Progression-Based areas, and all around knowledge and travel of the game so that even with a walkthrough it still takes months to obtain.

A good example were the Epics in Everquest I.
They were rare, only raiders really had them, and it took many quests across multiple expansions to obtain.
Currency stuff is just a grind fest, it doesn't make you a better player because you did Dynamis 40 times and convinced your LS to give you all the currency each time.

WoW has it's own ultimate weapons for each expansion, and then better ones come out next expansion. I think that's the best way to do this, rather than have one overarching ultimate weapon for all time. That's just stupid because then you never have anything to look forward to.
In WoW you had to spend weeks at least, questing and doing raids to obtain all the required drops, and then combine them. You'd even get a serverwide message when you obtained it (Use this idea SE). It worked, and about a year later the weapon was meaningless with a new level cap, but there was a new type of quest.


Basically, like FFXIs Empyrean Weapons now, but with more depth to them - right now they require many small soloable NMs, and a few group ones, with 3 raid bosses at the end, which unfortunately can be completed with 3 adventurers. Had those monsters required 15 players instead of 4, it would have been the right balance. It's a healthy balance, and I don't think the weapons should be upgradable so you have to start over each level cap increase. That way players won't remain "the best" forever if they stop playing - it encourages you to stay on your toes every update, as opposed to FFXI where once you obtained your relic you were done until Abyssea came out.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I think it would be ok if relic weapons became obsolete quickly, but only if you need the old weapon to get the new weapon. Basically every expansion, your weapon evolves into a newer better one, but you can only get the newer weapon if you already had the older one. So if you never had a relic in the first place, you'd first have to get the old one in order to get the newest one. That way people who spent tons of time getting a relic won't feel pissed that now there is something better than that weapon they spent so long to get.

[weeble]

turning old ones into a materia that is top types to add to the newer ones that replace it i think could fix this. that way not killing the content as much and making getting them worth it even for other classes for at least the materia.

[Konachibi]

Yeah I believe this is the PS2 version., DC version I liked a bit better.

I thought everything was better on the Dreamcast.

But thast's because I'm a die-hard Sega fan XD

Ah just checked, Dreamcast battle music was the same as the PS2 version, but with slightly better quality 'cos sega are good like that (b'.')b

And just for the sake of sheer eye-watering nostalgia:
Justin - Alright, we won! *raises sword in the air with a big cheesy grin*

[Kam]

Make it to rank 50 in under 11 hours for your excalibur II. yes.

[MeowyWowie]

Make it to rank 50 in under 11 hours for your excalibur II. yes.

I actually did this with the lv1 challenge, and stopped playing the file shortly after lol

[Kiote]

I'm all for the long grueling process, but I don't think we need to take ti to FFXI levels. I mean, XI literally required you to have 30+ people working multiple times a week for over a year for ONE person to get it. Thats too far. I think a similar process to XI would be a good idea we just need to ditch the currency part or at least cut back on the amount needed. I think requiring rare drop items from multiple very difficult tasks should be sufficient. I would even settle for a required wait time or kill count requirement. Just not 14,000,000 Byne Bills 9,000,000 T. Shells and 4,000,000 whatever the hell dan d'oria had..

If you play this game daily for ten years, you should have your relic. That was not the case in XI

[Defmetal]

FFXIs just went overboard with the time. It wasn't the difficulty just the time involved.

I think the Empyrean and Trial weapons are a great balance, except that it would be nice if the final stages couldn't be single-group killed. I'm hoping the 95-99 versions require 18 players for the bosses and challenges, then those are the perfect weapons.

Something that a solo player can reach to a certain point, and then his progression stops until he groups. Then his progression continues until he reaches the "group version" of the relic, which is close but not as good as the final. Lacking in power and not as cool of a graphic, but leaving you in the playing field. Then, you progress to the raid version which takes many raids, I'd say killing every NM of that expansion tier, and lotting an item off each one, along with some quests, and crafted pieces to make the final version. And repeat the process each expansion.
If you can kill the NM once, and obtain loot from it, it's NOTHING BUT A TIME SINK TO MAKE YOU DO IT A HUNDRED MORE TIMES.

Everquest I and II also had a good balance with regard to future relics (epics):
If you had the previous epic, when the new one came out, you could skip a few stages on the progression (the quests the would be soloable now at the new level cap).
Example- If you had the Paladin weapon it went through this progression:
Soulfire (Group) -> Fiery Avenger (Raid) -> Fiery Defender (Epic #1 final level 60) - > Nightbane (Epic #2, level 70) - > Nightbane Upgrades (extra stats with expansions)
If you never did the epic, and it was level 75 expansion time, there was now a speedy quest that allowed you to skip the first 3 epics, by doing a long alternative quest to get a placeholder item to progress to Nightbane, thus keeping you in the loop but you got to miss the epic flaming sword.


That kind of progression works, because you have your signature staple items, players who are badass and raiders will have it at the appropriate time, and eventually unlock their whole LSs relics, but when new content comes out it's not a total barrier to entry for new members to get caught up by having to repeat 4 years of previous content to stay in the game. It allows everyone to enjoy the game, at their own pace. This is not E-Peen Fantasy, it's a final fantasy game. The hardcore players remain on the top, and have the coolest looking armor and weapons, and most powerful, at all times, as long as they keep at it. It doesn't make the game casual with that approach either.

Remember: FFXIV is going to raise its level cap every 2 years, the above post is made with that in mind. If the relic takes a year to complete ..... that's stupid with that pace.

[indira]

things like that should be hard to get not droped after a leve, otherwise no point of calling it a relic.

[HoolieWho]

I would like to see systems like the FFXI Mythics and Empyreans. Beat a substantial portion of content (like the entire ToAU expansion) and have a Holy Grail at the end. One nice thing about the Empyrean model is the fact that your weapon is upgraded in stages, so you have something to show for your progress.

I also dislike a heavy reliance on currency. It may well be the only way to control how many relics get into the game, but it takes away from their appeal if they essentially have to be bought.