DEVs Stop adding worthless pointless gear to dungeon chests.

[NoctisUmbra]

I agree with this... there are more creative and innovative ways to keep all gear relevant...
Materia is on the right road... unfortunately materia doesn't play well with unique/untradeable

Why they would make 2 competing gear systems is beyond me... and with each patch, it is unclear which one is considered superior

1 Make attaching materia work like repairs.... i.e. in your bazaar
2 More rare materia
3 more diverse materia
4 U/U materia
5 U/U gear becoming Gear specific materia
6 materia that can change the look and/or name of a piece of gear
7 Materia that requires rare and hard to get catalysts

If all that was done... gear swap wouldn't even be in anyone's mind

Pretty much this, for the most part.

They really do need to put in a bazaar system for melding. The whole trading thing got old day one. New materia, both rare and common is needed. Diversity is a great thing. I've said before I disagree with U/U materia, though I wouldn't be against U/U gear having, say, higher chances of producing materia that are otherwise considered rare.

As for the points of changing the look and/or name of certain gear or any form of enhancing U/U gear, I would much prefer an entirely new system. Perhaps what they have in store for upgrading AFs in 1.22 can be extended to work for a broader range of U/U gear.

The way I see it, the materia system was added as a gear-sink to stimulate the in-game economy as well as increase the usability of crafted gear and promote customization. These are all great and it is indeed working as intended. Rather than extend this to fit with U/U as well- and they'd have to re-evaluate the entire system to have it work well and balanced with U/U gear as well and anyone who thinks they can simply say hey gais U/U gear is meldable now is kidding themselves- I suggest they add a new system for U/U gear. Ways to enhance them by adding certain stats- or better yet, effects to them. A name change would be cool as well.

[NoctisUmbra]

You do know immersion is subjective, right? Me equipping a gem takes the immersion out of becoming a different profession in an RPG. You normally train up to become x class, not simply equip a gem and change your weapon to become x or y class.

If you understand the job system, you understand that the jobs themselves are not new classes, and thus a gem toggle is not far-fetched as a design element. Honestly, if you're going to play devil's advocate don't make it so obvious. If you've got no trouble blinking your wardrobe repeatedly during intense battles, you couldn't care less about a gem giving you more abilities.

It's fairly common knowledge that there's memory limitations with MMORPGs, this is why gear (in every MMO) has a certain amount of "slots" for enhancements and why they utilize an enchantment type system. Did you really think every MMO designer just simply don't know how to add more than a couple of stats to a piece of gear? No matter the level or how you acquire it?

I understand this. However, I what I don't understand is what this has to do with coming up with a more innovative design than swapping gear. The solution isn't stacking 20 lines of enhancements to gear.

[Rydin]

The way I see it, the materia system was added as a gear-sink to stimulate the in-game economy as well as increase the usability of crafted gear and promote customization. These are all great and it is indeed working as intended. Rather than extend this to fit with U/U as well- and they'd have to re-evaluate the entire system to have it work well and balanced with U/U gear as well and anyone who thinks they can simply say hey gais U/U gear is meldable now is kidding themselves- I suggest they add a new system for U/U gear. Ways to enhance them by adding certain stats- or better yet, effects to them. A name change would be cool as well.

What about materia that can only be melded to U/U gear... what about NMs dropping materia? Maybe some big bad fire NM drops materia that is made specifically for Ifrit Weapons... or Adamantoise drops a materia that is only for PLD/WAR AF body... Upgrading gear is a good way to keep older content relevant... materia could be the way they do that

[Elexia]

If you understand the job system, you understand that the jobs themselves are not new classes, and thus a gem toggle is not far-fetched as a design element. Honestly, if you're going to play devil's advocate don't make it so obvious. If you've got no trouble blinking

Likewise, the simple fact someone blinks to enhance their abilities shouldn't bother you. I also understand the job system just fine, as it's designed to make the classes more specialized, while classes themselves are still a bit more open ended. That's the overall goal of the job system, to give specialization which as I said you normally trained up to do, not just equip a gem.

So immersion, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You may think huskies are adorable, I find them detestable and you can't necessarily say I'm incorrect for stating that.

[NoctisUmbra]

What about materia that can only be melded to U/U gear... what about NMs dropping materia? Maybe some big bad fire NM drops materia that is made specifically for Ifrit Weapons... or Adamantoise drops a materia that is only for PLD/WAR AF body... Upgrading gear is a good way to keep older content relevant... materia could be the way they do that

Direct materia drops go 100% against the primary design purpose of the materia system- gear sink. Once people are more inclined to seek dropped materia, they are less inclined to spiritbond and assimilate gear.

Materia that can only be melded to U/U gear sounds like a decent loophole that could work, but it also sounds like it could dilute the materia pool further and creating a divide in the system.

The cleanest is a new system. I mean, who wouldn't like more new content instead of stretching of existing content?

[Rydin]

I understand this. However, I what I don't understand is what this has to do with coming up with a more innovative design than swapping gear. The solution isn't stacking 20 lines of enhancements to gear.

Well right now the most I could find that you could theoretically add is 11 enhancements on one piece of gear

[Rydin]

Direct materia drops go 100% against the primary design purpose of the materia system- gear sink. Once people are more inclined to seek dropped materia, they are less inclined to spiritbond and assimilate gear.

Doesn't the new guildmarks for Materia thing also do this?

[NoctisUmbra]

Likewise, the simple fact someone blinks to enhance their abilities shouldn't bother you. I also understand the job system just fine, as it's designed to make the classes more specialized, while classes themselves are still a bit more open ended. That's the overall goal of the job system, to give specialization which as I said you normally trained up to do, not just equip a gem.

So immersion, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You may think huskies are adorable, I find them detestable and you can't necessarily say I'm incorrect for stating that.

Right... you trained and learned the skills of the job. You obtained the gem on the very first quest. Many of the quests have the gems, by a different name, incorporated into their lore. Shatotto's Stone? Eye of the Dragon? You often times, during the questlines have your abilities awakened. When you do, it's often depicted as you resonating with the Soul gem. It's incorporated lore-wise.

I'd like to see them even try to tell me changing my pants mid-battle is sound via lore. Until then, you can continue to to hide behind the tired argument that immersion is subjective. Yes, it is subjective. Some things are straight up immersion breaking no matter how you look at it though. At best they are ok as far as immersion goes to a small crowd. For the most part I can say they appeal to people who couldn't care less about immersion as a whole and just want a gameplay mechanic they can abuse.

However, I digress. Immersion, although it applies as a reason why many people may be against gear-swapping, ultimately isn't a sound argument against it. That's why my primary argument against it is that it is incredibly lazy game design. Why try to get more creative with itemization if you're gonna let people swap em around as much as they wish after all?

The idea here is that you don't have to be good at everything all the time. You can specialize and select your gear to build on that. What matters is that your party as a whole covers everything, not you as a player cover half of it.

[NoctisUmbra]

Doesn't the new guildmarks for Materia thing also do this?

A resource that isn't renewable. It's more of a reward for all our leftover guild marks. A one time hand-out.

[Rydin]

A resource that isn't renewable. It's more of a reward for all our leftover guild marks. A one time hand-out.

yea.. its true that at some point there will be no guild marks left