Thread: In what direction are armor, weapons, and other equipment heading in the future?

I'm wondering what purpose it serves to offer low level gear as Company rewards when most players can simply purchase high level gear and coast with it for the rest of the game. It's never been made clear what reasons there might be to use equipment within your job's rank. Maybe they degrade faster, sure, but that hasn't been an issue for me so far and I've been wearing iron gear since level twenty.

So, my question is, what does the future hold for our gear? Will they ever be rank restricted, rather than rank suggested? Was gear ever meant to be something we upgraded slowly, over time, or something we could skip to the end of if we had that luxury?

How much of a penalty is applied? Enough to make same-rank equipment a better choice?

Honestly, for quite some time wearing an Iron Haubergeon (since level 20) has yielded better boosts to my stats than stuff around my level. :\

Greetings! This thread seems like a good place to drop another major posts from Yoshida, as it deals heavily on the armor and equipment in FFXIV.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Hello! This is Producer/Director Yoshida.

Sorry that this post is late!
Though this is mainly a thread about the recipe edits, since the discussion is largely shifting into gear limitations, I’d like to discuss about my plans for the future of equipment requirements!
This is uber-long, so please feel free to read it when you have some time.

Premise
I touched on this in yesterday’s post on the repair system, but I am planning to write about the basic direction I think about in terms of FFXIV and modern day MMORPGs. Please read that as well once the letter is released.
(Considering the current development situation, it seems like the letter will be released right before patch 1.19 goes live)

Importance of Individuality in MMORPGs
Of all online games, the MMO genre has thrived from everyone playing them for extremely long periods of time. Within MMORPGs, being able to individualize a character is a very important element that makes people continue to play for long periods of time.

Putting on rare equipment that other players don’t have, boasting your style by wearing equipment combinations others hadn’t even thought about, becoming the adventurer you dreamed of drawing a sword engulfed in flames! I am sure the wands that are shining with light that high level character equip will be a strong incentive to level up, clear content, and aim to be a great mage! (We will implement these kinds of weapons sometime soon lol.)

However, individuality is a really difficult theme for developers.
Especially with equipment, the appearance and the stats need to be inextricably linked.

Below I will discuss looking at MMORPGs from an item only standpoint.

Equipment Appearance and Stats
Since an item’s stats increase a characters abilities and make it easier to clear content, for players of course, the higher the stats the better.
Naturally, players will want these types of items and it will become a motivating factor for clearing content.
(Especially for end-game focused MMORPGs)

However, on the other hand, if everyone starts to equip these items placing emphasis on stats, the whole individuality of appearance will die.
On the developer side, they spend a lot of time and effort creating original designs that fit these items because they have such strong stats.
Due to this, the developers adjust the difficulty of obtaining these items so players can equip them.
Item wise, the content difficulty and drop rate are arranged based on this.
(For content difficulty we don’t really think of it based on reward, but it’s pretty complex so I will omit that portion)

When differences in obtainment difficult items are added, time lag will arise before everyone gets through it and it’s in this time period where we can preserve the individuality of appearance.
The development team works hard to make sure that this time lag does not fill up by preparing new content and original items, and also makes sure that the balance between appearance and stats is preserved.

On the flip side, appearance is extremely important, regardless of class, to role play as your own character. In the real world, I am pretty partial to western clothing lol.
If there is anyone who wears the same brand of clothing, I think there comes a time when you say to yourself “Hmm, maybe it’s time to try something new.”
In my case, if someone were to say “Game producers can’t wear these types of clothing!” I would think “at least let me wear what clothes I want!”

This is the same in the world of Eorzea. I believe it is a natural desire to enjoy the equipment coordinating and living life in Eorzea as you wish.

With that said, I would really like to place an importance on two kinds of desires:
I want to equip items with high stats before anyone else!
I want to have fun and look awesome by equipping a lot of things as I please!

This is a fundamental.

Balance between performance, appearance, and classes
When trying to allow freedom for both performance and appearance, it becomes very difficult, because the concept of classes must also be considered for battles.

In order to allow all gear to be equipped freely based on appearance with no worries about performance, every item must have the same stats. The following is an extreme example.

If a mage wearing full-plate armor is able to continue to cast spells with ease while being attacked by numerous monsters, I think there is something wrong. In addition, a third person watching this scene will not be able to distinguish whether the player is a mage or warrior. The individuality of the character itself will increase, but the individuality of warriors is lost. It is even safe to say that this game will not feel like an RPG. As a result it is necessary to implement restrictions such as, "mages cannot wear full-plate armor," or, "if mages wear full-plate armor, the gear will have very little effect."

In the case that we do not “allow mages to equip full-plate armor,” we will not have to consider whether to make the item weaker when mages equip it. Likewise, the problem of visualization can be averted too. The flipside of this is that the individual player’s freedom dies.

In the case that we allow "mages to equip full-plate armor as well but not allow it to exert its maximum potential," we will design the item so that it weakens when equipped by a mage. However, if full-plate armor turns out to be weaker than a robe, not only will players be upset but this will also break the balance of the game itself. The normal thought process would be, "Then I’ll just wear a robe when fighting!” At the same time, if the dev. team decides, "Well, it is a full-plate armor after all, so we might as well make it better than the robe," then Eorzea will be filled with sorcerers fighting in full-plate armor. Robes would go the way of dinosaurs.

If I were a mage wearing a robe because that is my image of a mage and my PT members tell me, “Mages should wear full-plate armor too!” that will be a major turnoff for me.

Let me pose a few examples:
“Uniqueness of an individual character” vs. “uniqueness granted to ‘classes’ such as Disciples of War/Magic” vs “uniqueness in the form of performance”
I understand that these are extreme examples but I believe they illustrate the reason why there are restrictions on equipment because unique characteristics can cancel each other out under certain conditions. We refer to this as the “player’s motivation.” However, we apologize for not making it clear as to which “uniqueness” this motivation was aimed at.

There is no Universal Answer
We want to keep the uniqueness of each characteristic, so there will be no black or white design change such as “We are going to put restrictions on all items!” or “None of the items will have restrictions!” This is because in order to appeal to as many players as possible in today’s world of MMORPGs, we must be able to cover many characteristics. It is easy to choose one universal option, but this will not make us competitive in the long run. As greedy as we may sound we will spare no effort in achieving this goal. We believe that it is best to have both and, in the end, it will come down to the “balance” of the content for each patch.

Allow me to lay down a scenario. A small group of hardcore players will skip sleep or the need to eat and jump into a high level battle right after it is released. These players will then be the first to obtain a shining rod that has devastating powers and can only be equipped by a black mage. Other players will gaze at these hardcore players with aspiration. However, in 3 months time, a solid strategy will be formulated and the difficulty level of the battle content will be adjusted too, allowing players “who cannot put their entire life into gaming” to eventually obtain the shining rod. On the other hand, the next battle content will arrive by that time and hardcore players will be able to continue challenging themselves. This is the ideal cycle for highest level items in end-game MMORPGs. (This is Final Fantasy so we plan on putting in slightly unusual features for items like Excalibur)

We believe that by overcoming content that is extremely difficult, restricted by level and class (job), and have low drop rate, players can achieve a true sense of accomplishment and superiority. This is also a unique characteristic. Please consider high level crafter recipes to fall under this category as well. (Of course, this will not mean that all recipes are going to)

Meanwhile, “basic” items that crafters make are divided by recommended level and since restrictions on class equipment is relaxed, a large number of items can be equipped by all classes. Even if individual effects may differ, the majority of cloth and leather items can be equipped by anybody. Certain restrictions may apply but the primary limitation will only be in the form of “This is for Disciples of War,” “this is for Disciples of Magic,” “this is for Disciples of the Hand,” “this is for Disciples of the Land,” etc. The only exception will be on equipment made out of metal. (Even my favorite Monster Hunter has minimal restrictions like swordsman/gunner. Changing weapons will switch classes. I think this is also the good thing about FFXIV’s armory system)

The restriction mentioned above materializes when a particular equipment is crafted with its “performance geared towards a specific class.” The overhaul on recipes this time is meant to add variety and allow crafters to craft equipment for general purposes or with certain classes in mind. The majority of the basic equipment will now have level recommendations but no class restrictions. However, with the implementation of materia craft and the eventual expansion of its system coupled with the competition over drop items from new battle content, the chances of the ultimate equipment being created are very much real. An item that matches the greatest level of freedom with extraordinary performance just might be born.

Final Thoughts
The number of “Equipment with many restrictions” and “equipment with relaxed restrictions” will both increase with the coming of patch 1.19 and beyond. The increase in new recipes for crafters will create more equipment with relaxed restrictions and the introduction of more difficult content will result in the gradual increase in class-specific equipments with many restrictions. The numbers of each equipment type introduced may differ by patch, but we are working carefully to keep them balanced. In the meantime, keep those opinions and feedback coming!

P.S.
I plan on making a post about material craft on Friday night but please give me some sleep time until then. ^^;
Also, I believe we can update you in the near future regarding the adjustments being made to the capacity of bags and number of retainers that can be owned.

So, at this point I don't think anyone can say that Yoshi-P and his team haven't thought this through or don't know what they are doing. You may not agree with it, but it is there, and it is solid. Personally I completely love the direction he is going.

Edit: Also, after hearing Yochi Wada's Keynote at TGS where he talked crazy talk for an hour, it is good to know there are people with solid vision actually working on the products at square enix.

I don't really know how to react to these posts.

If I were to challenge his mindset, would that be of any use? I wonder if there is absolution in these statements or not. It'd be worthless to even try to ponder these messages from other PoV's if at the end of the day nothing would change. I'll try anyway.

(Especially for end-game focused MMORPGs)

I kinda hope he would discuss endgame too. It's very important to the future of the game and very closely related to the subject here. It's especially important considering the differences in FFXI and WoW, and the fact that Yoshida seems to be much closely related to the endgame of WoW, while this game is still a spiritual sequel to XI, with it's own style of endgame altogether (pre-Abyssea).

Say, when he talks about leveling up he mentions that there should be multiple ways to progress, and lots of activities to do. The thing is, however, that when it comes to modern MMORPG endgame there are no multiple ways to progress. A instance/raid is released, and that is what the playerbase will be clearing until the next set of instances are released. Meanwhile the earlier content becomes inferior, so there is hardly ever a time at which there would be multiple options at any given time (much like in XI at level 75, where there was perhaps even too many events, but thankfully you could choose to do whichever of them you wanted). The problem was that no gear ever became "useless" and sidegrades were introduced instead. But either way, in other MMORPG's gear just becomes inferior in a couple of months, which doesn't sit well with some people either.

Think about this from the perspective of XIV; a game where it is expected that you level multiple classes. If each class receives an upgrade every patch in the form of new encounters, and you have not just "main" character to cap but all of your classes, it is simply overwhelming for the casuals and perhaps even some hardcore, especially if you're a completionist. If there is no breathing room and gear becomes inferior so fast, burnout is inevitable.

Allow me to lay down a scenario. A small group of hardcore players will skip sleep or the need to eat and jump into a high level battle right after it is released. These players will then be the first to obtain a shining rod that has devastating powers and can only be equipped by a black mage. Other players will gaze at these hardcore players with aspiration. However, in 3 months time, a solid strategy will be formulated and the difficulty level of the battle content will be adjusted too, allowing players “who cannot put their entire life into gaming” to eventually obtain the shining rod. On the other hand, the next battle content will arrive by that time and hardcore players will be able to continue challenging themselves. This is the ideal cycle for highest level items in end-game MMORPGs.

This is exactly what I mean. Will the shining rod be inferior by the time the casuals get it? It is a squirrel wheel where you're never content with what you've accomplished, since every patch the developers keep adding carrots. That would be fine if the carrots weren't better than the shining rod you just got your hands on, but is this really what he means here?

In my opinion, a perfect scenario would be to create a "pool of events" during an expansion of the game when few items only are made inferior in regards to the rest of the content. That gives every player some breathing room, since the items you obtain in few months will not be inferior until perhaps a year and a half down the line. Expansion packs would basically slowly reset the situation when new, better gear would be introduced. And this way, there is never just a one event to do at any given time.

All I sincerely hope for is that Yoshida doesn't use the "I'm no genius" excuse here. The foundation for absolutely fantastic endgame scenario is already laid out in front of you in the form of a prequel to the game you are making, when combined with some of the aspects from the modern day MMORPG endgame to create a much healthier and enjoyable environment. There is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel.

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The rest of the post is completely solid. But that's not the constructive criticism that helps the game in the long run, so I'll just say to keep on doing what you're doing in that regard.

I'm a little surprised that there was no mention of the possibility of a system like Aion's, where you can change the look of a piece of equipment without changing it's stats. For example, say you liked the look of the iron plate armor, but want the stats of the Revolutionary's Bliaud. Bring both items to an NPC, the "looks" item (in this case, the iron plate armor) would be lost, but your Bliaud's model is now that of the iron plate armor (this service would cost a small fee as well). The same NPC can restore the Bliaud's original model for a fee.

Now, obviously something like this would require a tremendous amount of time and resources to implement, but given the ideals laid out by Yoshi-P's post, it seems like something that would be ideal, and might be a possibility for the dev team to consider.