Temporary Materia and other timed Enchantments

[Aniforani]

I was looking at ways to make crafted gear more interesting while also giving it ways to compete with raid gear. Back in ff11 there was some gear that had a limited number of charges built into them that could be activated for a temporary boost to stats or added effects. What if the same could be done to crafted gear, where the item was crafted to be whatever ilvl, but had a limited number of charges that could boost it be closer to raid ilvl, but only for 5 minutes followed by a cooldown? So someone could run a dungeon normally, and then pop a charge right before a boss fight. Another idea I was thinking of would be to give some gear a few temporary materia slots. These slots could be filled with materia to push them beyond the normal limit, but then after a set amount of time it would dissolve the materia. The other great thing about a system like this that there would always be a market for the items since they are being consumed. The gear would eventually be replaced with raid gear, since that has no upkeep, but it would still be useful to people that have other jobs at 60 that they may not have geared through raids and would like to try their hand at that class in endgame content.

[Caimie_Tsukino]

Interesting ideas. I actually like the stats boost idea. It would be very cool and fun. 5 min boost would be game breaking though. But i think a 15 sec boost won't hurt, and would do well to serve a DPS check phase of a fight.

On the other hand, i dislike the materia idea. Materia are not like potions. They are much more precious, and takes a long time to acquire. No one would be willing keep buying expensive materia just to have them dissolved after awhile. Cheap materia is affordable, but then the stats are tiny, so the impact won't be noticeable.

Anyway, although these ideas are fun, they can change the game quite a bit. Seeing how they don't seem to directly solve any immediate problems, and there are always dangers of creating problems, I doubt SE would consider them.

[PotatoWafflez]

On the other hand, i dislike the materia idea. Materia are not like potions. They are much more precious, and takes a long time to acquire. No one would be willing keep buying expensive materia just to have them dissolved after awhile. Cheap materia is affordable, but then the stats are tiny, so the impact won't be noticeable.

I think it would work if grade only effected the duration and you got a bonus solely off the type. You could use lower grades but you'd have to top it up more often

[Caimie_Tsukino]

I think it would work if grade only effected the duration and you got a bonus solely off the type. You could use lower grades but you'd have to top it up more often

Let's see... Tier IV materia adds an effect for 3 hours. Tier III 30 min. Tier II 15 min. Tier I 5 min. It sounds ok. But now what about the amount of benefit it gives? If it's a set amount, then when the gear ilvl goes up, the effect will become smaller. If it's a percentage, then the effect will become stronger when ilvl goes up. Unless each ilvl has a set number of its own that the materia would add, it's rather difficult to control the outcome on gear of different ilvls. I am just worried that it's gonna be too complicated to implement.

[PotatoWafflez]

Let's see... Tier IV materia adds an effect for 3 hours. Tier III 30 min. Tier II 15 min. Tier I 5 min. It sounds ok. But now what about the amount of benefit it gives? If it's a set amount, then when the gear ilvl goes up, the effect will become smaller. If it's a percentage, then the effect will become stronger when ilvl goes up. Unless each ilvl has a set number of its own that the materia would add, it's rather difficult to control the outcome on gear of different ilvls. I am just worried that it's gonna be too complicated to implement.

I was thinking under the assumption that it would be like sanctions but where you could say put in heavens eye for accuracy points or savage might for det but that's just the very basic concept.
So each gear that this is applicable has these stats already calculated as it wouldn't be something you have on every piece of gear by the sounds of it and you'd just meld in the materia you need for the bonus you want and the duration.
Alternatively you could add an extra step and use a sphere scroll type thing so that you couldn't just spam tier I every time the duration ended and you'd need an amount = to 1 tier IV and that removes the whole balancing aspect between the tiers in theory and also consumes more materia in the process.
Ideally the duration would only be active in combat as well otherwise it feels a bit of a waste.

You could probably just take the first idea though and just have materia be the catalyst to top the charges up similar to how we use dark matter for repairs probably the simpler concept of the two.