Crafted Items Vs Dropped items

[Matsume]

What about Bonus Stats for complete sets of event gears that mkae event gears on par with multi melds?

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I believe one of the two things should start to happen.

Dropped gear has attributes not found on crafted gear or materia. Such as a trait-like effect that could reduce cooldown of an ability, increase the effect, reduced MP or TP costs, the like.

Where HQ quality multi-melded gear may be statistically superior without the unique effects.

Unless.the reverse becomes.true. Boss drops are statistically superior to multi melded HQ gear, but materia adds the.unique effects. Allowing crafted gear to be of a tactical improvement versus increased overall power with uncustomizable effects.

The compromise: bosses drop an untradeable token. Crafters make some type of base item. Adventurer has the token, buys the needed crafted item, and turns both in for a superior item.

Example: Crafter makes Adamantium Sword. Boss drops Soul of Odin. Some esper blacksmith fuses the two and creates the superior Excaliber.

[Physic]

I believe one of the two things should start to happen.

Dropped gear has attributes not found on crafted gear or materia. Such as a trait-like effect that could reduce cooldown of an ability, increase the effect, reduced MP or TP costs, the like.

Where HQ quality multi-melded gear may be statistically superior without the unique effects.

Unless.the reverse becomes.true. Boss drops are statistically superior to multi melded HQ gear, but materia adds the.unique effects. Allowing crafted gear to be of a tactical improvement versus increased overall power with uncustomizable effects.

The compromise: bosses drop an untradeable token. Crafters make some type of base item. Adventurer has the token, buys the needed crafted item, and turns both in for a superior item.

Example: Crafter makes Adamantium Sword. Boss drops Soul of Odin. Some esper blacksmith fuses the two and creates the superior Excaliber.

The problem is, in truth the people who craft in this game are the ones who have dedicated their time and efforts into item creation. If they make dropped gear better than their gear, it would be equivalent to making the best classes for high end content be the crafting classes.

It may be a hard pill to swallow, but those who have dedicated 50 levels of leveling towards item creation, should be able to create items that matter, or in some other way be at the forefront of the best itemisation in the game.

Of course i understand that hard content needs to have rewards that make it worthwhile to go through all the hassle. I have pondered this dilemna for some time before this thread.

the best solution i can come up with.

The best gear should not come from battle content, especially in this game, that requires an extremely large time and money investment into leveling a craft.

I) Raids/battles/hard should offer events, or key items that unlock a couple of things.

a) rare skins. (lets say you can change the look of any weapon to ifrit)

b) and charachter growth options not found anywhere else.
this could take a number of forms. such as,

1.special abilities

2.added modifiers to base stats

3 modifiers to equipment stats or abilities (the added fire dmg trait on ifrit for example)

c) this growth could be linked to tokens, a special raiding exp, or just for clearing certain content, or any combination.


So in my imagined setup, it would be somewhat similar to now. There would be gear drops in raids/dungeons/events but they would be inferior to a highly crafted item, such as a triple melded +1 item.
however, those that raid could make any weapon look like an ifrit equivalent weapon, and the ability to add special fire damage trait to their attacks. They would also be able to unlock a level of expertise, that, for example unlocks a 1% damage bonus with great axe for thier charachters.


In this way both crafting and raiding are most relevant towards progression. The best raider makes better use of any weapon. The best crafter can make both the least expensive items, and the best items in game, with raiders being able to obtain fairly mid/high range gears on their own. but best of the best comes out of the hands of a master craftsman.

I think the key is, if you want to make a game with a viable crafting element, take the item control out of the hands of battle focused people, however, give battle focused people a method of improving thier charachter that only comes from doing the best battles.

[Jinko]

100000000% agree with the OP, materia ruined this games replay value.

It's sadly too late to remove the crappy system and I doubt they will even try to change it.

Materia should have been a simple socketing system that could be used on all items, each item would have had different slots similar to how FF7 did it.

That being said because I doubt there is any way they will change the materia system now, it would make more sense that dungeons and NM's now drop rare crafting items.

They really need to make dunegon rewards relevent again otherwise the game is going to fail massively in 2.0

Not that I'm disagreeing with you, but I'm not really holding out much hope for these guys to ever get a clue in regards to making gear. . .

This !

There has to be a balance.

If dropped gear is better than crafted, then everyone will complain that crafting classes are useless because all anyone wants is event gear.

SE is screwed either way. Can't please everyone.

Yoshi already retracted the statement that crafting would be a main class in game (as far as content was considered), I think he would be wise to try and phase the importance of crafting out over the next year or so, try and do it in a way where crafters don't notice lol -.-

Because it's fun?

Maybe the 1st, 2nd and 3rd time its fun then its just becomes boring like Darkhold and nobody bothers anymore.

I do think the dev team are aware of the issue though, I'm curious what they plan to do about it, someone needs to ask this question in the next live letter.

[Shosasosa]

Yea there are like 5 thread on the same topic but none of them have any devs posts on it so i dont know if they are ignoring the issue or if they are just going to ninja change things but i hope something happens.

[Ithil]

I agree with Physic, the way is for EG content ( primals, dungeons) and Craft content not to overlap each other but rather complement each other. Meaning no more equipment drop for EG, leave that to crafters/materia, because as Jinko said, we are stuck with the materia system, they wont change/remove it anytime soon.

The dev should really consider the post about this problem, as imo I do not see any reason to hunt EG gear if I can get better with craft.

Agreed with jinko, Moogle is fun the first time, but do it 70 time to end up with 2 weapons and like 5 nuts, not funny (but that is another topic).

[Finalfreak]

I agree with most of the comments here.
When I saw '2 new raids' in the dev post of 1.21, I was like 'yay more useless stuff, because melded gear will pwn it!'.
I always loved raids, and new events, to get cooler looking & better gear. Now I'm just disappointed that even the 'best' gear of raids is even worse then a lot of unmelded gear.
This is not how an MMO should work.

If the new items of the 2 new raids aren't better then at least a double melded piece of equipment, I'll probably won't even botter getting the items. I'll just want the achievements for that raid, then never do it again.
Same thing with JSE. If they aren't at least better or equal to a double melded piece of gear, no one will wear it.

*Remebers the good days of WHOAAA Relic +1 gear! You are crazy!*

[Matsume]

When I saw '2 new raids' in the dev post of 1.21, I was like 'yay more useless stuff, because melded gear will pwn it!'.

How do you know the two new raid's gear wont be as good if not better than 2x Materia IV melded crafted gear?

[Finalfreak]

How do you know the two new raid's gear wont be as good if not better than 2x Materia IV melded crafted gear?

If the new items of the 2 new raids aren't better then at least a double melded piece of equipment, I'll probably won't even botter getting the items.

It was just my first thought

[ARytheart]

This thread hits it right on the head! After the initial implementation of materia I seldom play. And the core problem is the same thing that is at the heart of the failure of this game Imo. Crafting classes never should have been considered as important as battle classes. PERIOD. WOW had a great idea imo for, and example of how to fuel player crafting by adding battle related bonuses or abilites generated by lvln certain crafts. Ex.- skinners got +crit bonus from lvln it up. Hell that woulda worked well with the old trait system pre 1.20 wouldn't it. +crit bonus trait BAMM!
I agree with jinkos idea. Materia shoulda been slotted just like ff7. And even where Shosa explained certain amounts of slots per item type. Say one for U/U etc. I personally would have liked to see the process of the number of materia on a piece and the materia placed in it seperated into two process'. Have the same system we have with high risk when tryn to add extra slot to weapon and gear. BUT make adding materia after the fact 100% As long at the materia grade matches the slot grade. Its one thing to lose the gear. Its another thing to blow up the materia and all. So keep materia in circulation. When you remove materia it is lost. I mean look what SE tryed with accesory points. Can they apply a materia point system per peice of gear. I for one am sorely disappointed to see a guy running around with a peice of gear with 241+ hp. Thats two tier 3 and two tier 4. thats completely OP. I can see several tier 1 2 and 3 on a single peice but two tier 3 and two tier 4! How can you possibly balance anything content wise around such a system.
Crafting classes should have never been considered mains! Yes its cool to be famous cause your one of the best crafters on the server but Devs, you keep taking all the things that showed real crafting excellence out. I think most of the community understands the need to remove +2 and +3 items. Again i cant wait to see 2.0.
I personally can't wait to see what Af gear stats look like not to mention their "hotness" effect.
What are the Jp forums saying about materia? And how about a dev responce on this. Seem to be several topics about it. Whats materia gona look like 2.0?