Required Class/Rank failed - Can we have Optimal Rank and Favoured Class back?

[ellohwell]

While I think these sorts of restrictions are silly, I would be mostly okay with it if we had some sort of appearance system to counteract the loss of character appearance customizability (is that a word?).

But then that's basically just the Optimal system without any of the intelligent design involved... lol

But, yeah, I agree, at least it satisfies the RP community, which solves one of the numerous problems with restrictive rank and level system.

[Answa]

We do! You still have your dated gear, amirite?

[mysterytaru]

Here's another point for the whiners like gifthorse to ponder. Why has thread, or the last thread on this, managed to last as long as it has? It's a null point because the system as it was is not coming back. Period. It has already been declared and decided as a fixed point by Yoshi. Crying about it won't change it now. He's stated his position on this. I'm done with this thread because you're never gonna get it through your QQing brains that Tanaka's game is dead and the remnants are carefully being cut away with every update. The game is better for it. Either suck it up, or quit. Good day.

[Alerith]

Elohwell is just butthurt he can't wear red cobalt on his level 1 woodworking class.

[Tiraelina]

I've never seen this as a main argument against it -- What I have seen as an argument against it is because it is actually silly being able to wear absolutely anything at anytime, the main people who were absolutely for this system are RPers because they could make their character look how they wanted, stats aside -- On a game level, Yoshida even agreed it would be too hard to balance that and content, especially dropped gear.

Required Level - Easier to balance.

Optimal Level - You need to create an algorithm to scale every single stat accordingly, including make it give "zero" stats, which makes it more complicated than it needs to be, which is also why they did the color change system the way they did for now. Remember, he took over a mess of a game and has to fix it, he even stated the calculations for Protect and Shell for example were needlessly complex.

In order to fix things in game development, it's not a crime to simplify the foundation.

You sound like Blizzard making everything out to be way more overcomplicated than it is in reality. All new gear is already following a scale that has already been established to make it in the first place.

Elohwell is just butthurt he can't wear red cobalt on his level 1 woodworking class.

If you took a moment to stop trolling you would see the problems with lower level gear and the gaps if you want to keep using the same type. There's absolutely nothing to fill in the 10 level gaps without using an entirely different type of gear which is really bad game design.

The entire system feels like we only have a small fraction of items that should be there.

[Dreamer]

It doesn't have to be complicated.

More than three levels below, you receive 0 stat benefit from the item.
3 levels below: 25% stat benefit.
2 levels below: 50% stat benefit.
1 level below: 75% stat benefit.
At level and above: 100% stat benefit.

If an item doesn't favor your class, there's an additional 25% penalty added on top of the above. I can't imagine this would be that hard to implement, and it shouldn't mess up balance. If the itemization is done right, At three levels below you're better off wearing another item, while at one level below the new item is better.

[Answa]

It doesn't have to be complicated.

More than three levels below, you receive 0 stat benefit from the item.
3 levels below: 25% stat benefit.
2 levels below: 50% stat benefit.
1 level below: 75% stat benefit.
At level and above: 100% stat benefit.

If an item doesn't favor your class, there's an additional 25% penalty added on top of the above. I can't imagine this would be that hard to implement, and it shouldn't mess up balance. If the itemization is done right, At three levels below you're better off wearing another item, while at one level below the new item is better.

Or, current option, no algorithm and just straight-up play your game.

[Schubalts]

Or, current option, no algorithm and just straight-up play your game.

Do you realize that optimal rank/class gear still exists? Do you realize that a similar algorithm is exactly what optimal rank/class gear already did and currently does? The only difference is that the game now tells you how much the attack/defense is lowered.

I can wear optimal rank-39 steel armor right now, but due to the level difference, it would actually be worse than what I have on now. The stat-dropping algorithm is alive and well in the game.

[Jennestia]

Do you realize that optimal rank/class gear still exists? Do you realize that a similar algorithm is exactly what optimal rank/class gear already did and currently does? The only difference is that the game now tells you how much the attack/defense is lowered.

I can wear optimal rank-39 steel armor right now, but due to the level difference, it would actually be worse than what I have on now. The stat-dropping algorithm is alive and well in the game.

Yep, they're just trying to move us to Materia slotted gear, which can't be done on older gear (which is where the majority of the optimal gear lie) which is why they mentioned balancing, since they'd have to rebalance pretty much everything with the inclusion of Materia which would also have to be balance on optimal gear.

The thing is, it's just much easier to balance a set value and add to it (materia for example) than it is to augment scaling gear, which is why other MMOs haven't really done it in mass and used what works in terms of gear systems, not because they didn't think of doing something new, but because it's actually a lot of hassle to get proper balance on it, even though Unreal and Havok can do it 'out of the box', but for MMOs it's always a finicky beast.

[Answa]

Do you realize that optimal rank/class gear still exists? Do you realize that a similar algorithm is exactly what optimal rank/class gear already did and currently does? The only difference is that the game now tells you how much the attack/defense is lowered.

I can wear optimal rank-39 steel armor right now, but due to the level difference, it would actually be worse than what I have on now. The stat-dropping algorithm is alive and well in the game.

Do you realize that my post before what you just quoted says that there's still the dated gear out there? Wear that. Stop QQing.

BTW, get with the times. It's level, not rank. ALSO, the gear doesn't tell you how it's affected by using it below the optimal level/favored class. It tells you the difference between what you're wearing now and that piece you want to wear.