Legitimate reasons why many of you do NOT like Gear Swapping

[ClearEnd]

One problem with party stacking and certain class only setups is that everyone can be that class. If everyone could only be one class and not have access to tank healer dps on 1 char, do you think things would be the same? You would spend all night trying to get that group stack

[StateAlchemist]

so what your saying is your for gear swapping, Got it. devs said it wont happen /thread closed

They said they wouldn't add in an Auction House. It's slated for version 2.0... they said Gladiator was gonna be a better tank...I still see Warrior tanks for everything.

If the devs said they were sending you a check for $10,000 in the mail as an apology for the inconvenience over the last year and a half you'd probably be sitting out by your mailbox for a few weeks huh? /desk

One problem with party stacking and certain class only setups is that everyone can be that class. If everyone could only be one class and not have access to tank healer dps on 1 char, do you think things would be the same? You would spend all night trying to get that group stack

I am very glad this is not the case. I have literally not played some games just because I was restricted to 1 class per character. I like having one character name for whatever I want to do. Not having to log off and back on to swap characters all the time, not having to do the same non-repeatable content for each character...would be such a pain.

[ClearEnd]

I am very glad this is not the case. I have literally not played some games just because I was restricted to 1 class per character. I like having one character name for whatever I want to do. Not having to log off and back on to swap characters all the time, not having to do the same non-repeatable content for each character...would be such a pain.

Yes it is nice not having to level multiple classes, but one thing people complain about is having to change the class they want to play just for groups. This is the reason why. SO double edged sword

[Kiroh]

They said they wouldn't add in an Auction House. It's slated for version 2.0... they said Gladiator was gonna be a better tank...I still see Warrior tanks for everything.

If the devs said they were sending you a check for $10,000 in the mail as an apology for the inconvenience over the last year and a half you'd probably be sitting out by your mailbox for a few weeks huh? /desk

'Kay, well when they release news saying they're adding gear swapping mid-battle let us know.

(You seriously think that if they're not adding this kind of base mechanic by 2.0, which they have said is going to set the tone for the future of the entire game, that they're ever going to add it?)

[StateAlchemist]

'Kay, well when they release news saying they're adding gear swapping mid-battle let us know.

(You seriously think that if they're not adding this kind of base mechanic by 2.0, which they have said is going to set the tone for the future of the entire game, that they're ever going to add it?)

They have said that they are overhauling the graphics engine didn't they? Wouldn't that make rendering characters more efficient? I realize it's speculation, but one thing they could do to improve graphics is to not render the character over and over with individual gear pieces being changed. They DID say they are going to add in an ability to save a "gear-set" for each class/job. You think they would leave it at taking 1 second~ish per piece of gear for that? What if you changed jobs rapidly with that system? Say I switched to CNJ and it loaded my pre-saved CNJ load out... do I have to wait 15 seconds for all the stuff to load before I can change again if I clicked on the wrong weapon to equip?

It's speculation I KNOW but with an automated gear swapping system for saved gear sets kind of implies that swapping gear would be made faster. Also Having a character rendered ONCE verses 10+ times would ease the strain on lower end PCs and console (which they did say the game would run better on lower end PCs...)

I am just thinking more open-mindedly about things they HAVE said.

[Arcell]

They said they wouldn't add in an Auction House. It's slated for version 2.0... they said Gladiator was gonna be a better tank...I still see Warrior tanks for everything.

If the devs said they were sending you a check for $10,000 in the mail as an apology for the inconvenience over the last year and a half you'd probably be sitting out by your mailbox for a few weeks huh? /desk

Actually they did say they were going to add an auction house, the older statement from the current team was that they were considering the risks and whatnot involved in adding one. The original team said no AH, hate to be the one to tell you but management switched hands well over a year ago.

They never said Gladiator will be a better tank. It is implied by the fact that the abilities for Gladiator and Paladin are suited to tanking. The issue with Warrior tanking everything is a current balance issue, one they are currently trying to resolve. They've publicly stated that.

The current team has openly said that they are not taking the game in the direction of gear swapping currently. There are no plans with how they are designing the game that would make them want to add it.

[StateAlchemist]

Actually they did say they were going to add an auction house, the older statement from the current team was that they were considering the risks and whatnot involved in adding one. The original team said no AH, hate to be the one to tell you but management switched hands well over a year ago.

They never said Gladiator will be a better tank. It is implied by the fact that the abilities for Gladiator and Paladin are suited to tanking. The issue with Warrior tanking everything is a current balance issue, one they are currently trying to resolve. They've publicly stated that.

The current team has openly said that they are not taking the game in the direction of gear swapping currently. There are no plans with how they are designing the game that would make them want to add it.

So in other words they have changed directions before and they can do it again. Hence: This thread. /endofdiscussionaboutwhetherthisthreadshouldevenexist

[Kiroh]

So in other words they have changed directions before and they can do it again. Hence: This thread. /endofdiscussionaboutwhetherthisthreadshouldevenexist

In other words, they've change game directors before. If and when Yoshi is ever ousted as lead on this project your argument may hold the tiniest bit of relevance/validity.

[Vhailor]

Gear Swapping is common in RPGs.

I need a logically sound argument as to why you do not want gear swapping.

Someone said, "it promotes elitism".

I say gear swapping is beneficial for SE, the worlds' economies, and game play.


BTW Mages can gear swap, melee can't. You have a flaw SE. Fix it and give us gear swapping in ACTIVE mode.

Obviously I didn't read all 11 pages, so I'm just throwing in my two cents. I dislike FFXI-style gear swapping because it removes a strategic aspect from combat. Player approaches to a fight center less on understanding the specific fight mechanics and designing a clever setup to maximize potential, and center more on simply having every piece of gear known to man and spamming macros. This removes a huge element of RPGs, at least as far as I play them.

Also, in direct response to the OP's comments:

Where is gear swapping in most RPGs? I haven't seen many that allow for full gear swaps the way FFXI does. Can you switch weapons on occasion, like Diablo II? Sure. But in my (admittedly limited) exposure to RPGs lately, I haven't seen anything approaching FFXI's "swap gear for TP setup, swap gear for WS setup, swap different gear for this JA, swap this other gear for a different WS, repeat." In short, gear swapping in and of itself isn't an awful idea, but it needs to be restricted so that it adds an element of strategy rather than turning into a macro-fest.

Gear swapping is beneficial for SE in terms of not having to create as much content, because they can create very specialized items that people will fight for, while not having to create anything overpowering. This means they don't have to add new tiers of increasingly difficult combat as much. Personally, though, I think the players lose out when this happens. After all, what is more fun - obtaining a new item set, and promptly going back and tearing the face off your old nemesis? Or obtaining a new item set, going back to an old nemesis, and doing about 20 more damage on a specific WS while under the effect of a certain JA?

Gear swapping also doesn't impact world economies overmuch, at least it didn't in FFXI, because almost nobody swapped items that were even available on the AH. Typically the swaps were between different Exclusive items.

Gear swapping most certainly didn't impact play in a beneficial manner, because all it did was force us to spam macros constantly. Highly interactive combat is great, but the way to implement it is how FFXIV has done, with shorter timers and more ability use. Spamming buttons (or downloading a plugin to do it automatically) most certainly added nothing to the game play, it just reduced your amount of available inventory.

So, TL;DR - Gear swapping I think can be theoretically beneficial, but only when managed carefully so that it doesn't turn into a pseudo-required part of combat. If it is implemented as a strategic component of combat, great. If it's like FFXI's, though, in that it's a poorly disguised exercise in button-mashing whose main result was to give "1337" players something else to have a pissing match over, I think it's a terrible idea.

[StateAlchemist]

After all, what is more fun - obtaining a new item set, and promptly going back and tearing the face off your old nemesis? Or obtaining a new item set, going back to an old nemesis, and doing about 20 more damage on a specific WS while under the effect of a certain JA?

To be honest I wouldn't care either way...however I know I do NOT want to have to go after a whole new gear set every six fing months because the only way to make your character perform better is to get all brand new gear every single time SE releases any form of content. The one thing Gear-swapping does allow for is an occasionally epic item to be released and for that item to remain useful and viable for a longer period of time. This allows the content to be released with more focus on story/challenge rather then just the repetive annoying spamfest of cookie-cutter events for the weapon/gear/item-of-the-month. Mean while I end up NPCing all the old crap I have cause it is magically useless.