Expand the Materia System! (ideas welcome)

[Lux_Rayna]

I really am not one to start threads on lodestone, but I think the materia system is a great idea that should greatly be expanded upon. Currently you only get materia from spiritbonded gear, which isn't a bad idea but there should be other, more engaging, methods. Also the variety of materia should definitely be increased. So here is my general idea for materia, or at least the expansion of materia.

1) Unique/Rare powerful materia from special bosses

I'm not talking about the same lame att/matt/acc stuff. I'm talking things like Haste/att speed, TP generation increase, special WS's for each job, or special add-on effects to existing WS's, etc. These should be stupidly hard and time-consuming to get, of course. But this would add a sort of "treasure-hunting" aspect to the materia system..which i'll get to in point 2.

2) Reward exploration with materia

I think the great thing about Final Fantasy x-2 was the whole "treasure-hunting" thing. I'd say of those that actually played it, having to search for things was a strong draw..that and the win combat. I see materia as waht separates beastly from good, and as such it should be a bit more prevalent. Hide materia in dungeons, add materia for certain quests, add materia fragments spread throughout eorzea and combined into one strong materia..lots of potential here. It adds both a market (for tradeable ones) and a storyline (materia hunters anyone?). I just find it weird that materia isn't more talked about in eorzea.

3) Materia should be something like a specialty. This is a hail mary idea, and admittedly not a very good one in its current form. But imo socketing materia should be a bit more involved than rolling the dice. Seems kinda, tacked on to me. Of course adding a crafting class specifically designed around materia would anger a lot of ppl. I understand that. The socketing process, imo, needs depth..either through a new class or as additions to existing crafting classes. Maybe even salvage materia? Combine materia to make new materia? Hiding different combinations could give ppl a lot to do and discover. In any case I digress.

I'd like to hear other players' thoughts on the materia system. I think it should more or less be the basis of the combat system/balance, and as such should be given more depth and importance. I doubt a dev will read this, but it'd be interesting to see how players look at materia and what it could be.

[tymora]

I like the idea of hidden bonuses. (though it will be unhidden in a matter of weeks)
For lack of a better term..."Synergy Bonus"

E.g. Put STR and DEX on a glove for an additional small bonus of VIT

Combination of materia sounds good too. Turn 2 low level materia into a higher level one at a chance of failure. That will use up a lot of low level materia.

[Viritess]

I had this idea in an Alchemy thread. Since the idea deals with an alternate use of materia plus potion use, I'll rehash it here!

There was discussion about the potency and duration of potions. and how adding rare materials could change potions. My idea was to make materia the item used to boost the potions power/duration.

Example: Str potion
Base potion +x str for Y seconds.
Base potion with Strength Materia +x+n str for y seconds.
Base potion with (Non combat materia) +x str for Y+z Seconds

Higher grade Materia makes the added effect stronger or longer.
Possability to add both strength and duration effect with multiple materia? Higher failure chance.

This has multiple effects:
More uses for many stacks of materia sitting on retainers.
Removal of materia by using it in consumable recipies. And by failure of difficult recipies/multiple effects.
Increase of marketability for Materia.
More reason to soulbonding items, increasing sales of all other market items (armor and weapons)
Stronger longer lasting potions for people to use/sell revitalizing potion sales.

All in all something like this can improve the market for many/most crafted items since by using materia in a consumable items, not only will materia get used more then stacked, but the items used to produce materia are consumed more also.

[Jinko]

I don't like the idea of hidden bonuses, even the JP players complained about the hidden bonuses on AF gear.

Why would you use a materia that has hidden bonuses - if you don't know the results then why would you use it ?

I would like to see the materia system streamlined before expanding it.

• Make materia 1 type per Tier (remove the tier's within tier's) -- possibly make HQ materia ?
• Remove multi-melding
• Allow U/U gear to be melded
• Allow U/U to be converted to rare materia
• Add materia fusion (alchemy??) combine 2 or more materia into one.
• Allow any craft to meld materia as long as they meet the item level requirements (As asked in the players poll 3)

I would rather materia be based on socketing than luck based multi-melding, something like FF7 where armour and weapons have a set amount of sockets.

Something like all crafted items are made with one socket and additional sockets can be added after the item is completed.

Maybe +1 items have 2 sockets and NQ have 1 socket ?

[syntaxlies]

I don't like the idea of hidden bonuses, even the JP players complained about the hidden bonuses on AF gear.

Why would you use a materia that has hidden bonuses - if you don't know the results then why would you use it ?

I would like to see the materia system streamlined before expanding it.

• Make materia 1 type per Tier (remove the tier's within tier's) -- possibly make HQ materia ?
• Remove multi-melding
• Allow U/U gear to be melded
• Allow U/U to be converted to rare materia
• Add materia fusion (alchemy??) combine 2 or more materia into one.
• Allow any craft to meld materia as long as they meet the item level requirements (As asked in the players poll 3)

I would rather materia be based on socketing than luck based multi-melding, something like FF7 where armour and weapons have a set amount of sockets.

Something like all crafted items are made with one socket and additional sockets can be added after the item is completed.

Maybe +1 items have 2 sockets and NQ have 1 socket ?

i dont like hidden bonus's either, hidden stat caps were bad enough. Stats and effects shouldn't be something the players have to test to figure out.

[carlosx]

materia sistem was made improve the use and need of high lv cratf skills improving game ecconomy and also was a nice way to spend some time. but a full revamp on the sistem is need.... made armor have the materia slots also materia ben able to exp and grown like ff7 just like sb bar on a item with materia give you the menu option ("evolution" tentative) and give a risk factor to gain lvup or broke on the prosses like 20% lvup from lv4 to 5 if fail materia broke also give a lower suses rate by lvl remember materia extracted from a gear is lost

soo this prevent people trying evolve materia on lower lv class gear and if materia fail it broke but you still kepp the gear

[Viritess]

Well the Idea of Using materia in a consumable would hopefully accelerate the aim of having turnover of Crafted items. Since with every Gulp what was once a weapon or armor goes poof. With the added benifit of some Potion customization, plus failure risk.

Materia out of circulation from:
Failed Potion Enchancement - Materia Gone
Potion Use - Materia Gone
Failed Meldingand attachment - Materia Gone

The problem with Having materia as an Armor/weapon only item is that most people aren't going to take the high risk of losing the materia and item on a fail for high benefits. A glance at the attached items in Uldah markets gives a snapshot. almost all have 1 materia attached.

If you place materia "into" a potion you can actually even up the sucsess rate because once it is in a potion, you KNOW at some point someone will sip it, and materia gone! Since its a consumable it won't be re-sold forever.

More stable materia use that then leaves the system making room for more materia to be made. so more potions can be sipped, etc will add extra value to potion crafters but all other crafts aswell.

Edit: Also may add some Value to materia itself besides the top level versions. Which measn even new players and vets can perhaps make some change, since at 18 you could convert and start selling some Materia.

[Enfarious]

Don't think hidden means hidden so much as only comes into effect when the right materia grouping is melded.
So having Dex + Dex gives just the +Dex from them but
Str + Dex would give +Str +Dex and +Vit to the melded gear

[Lux_Rayna]

Don't think hidden means hidden so much as only comes into effect when the right materia grouping is melded.
So having Dex + Dex gives just the +Dex from them but
Str + Dex would give +Str +Dex and +Vit to the melded gear

Exactly! The idea of hidden bonuses is about combinations, not bonuses on individual materia. It would encourage more experimentation with materia combinations, and less of stacking the same materia on the same item. For instance, instead of having dbl meld attack on one piece, and double mld str on another piece, you meld STR+ATT on both pieces to get the bonus (we'll say crit power in this case).

[Jinko]

Ahh ok so a bonus system, yea that sounds good to me.

I remember someone having an idea that different materia could be different shape and that each socket would be difference shape meaning you would have to choose a variety of materia types depending on the gear sockets and shape of them.

You could add such a bonus system on to that.

I do think the materia system needs a serious revamp, I'm not sure this is going to happen any time before 2.0 though.

Even then I doubt any changes would be more than fine tuning and not fundamentally changing the way the system works. (I guess we can live in hope though lol)