Some of the RNG is nuts...we need to get rid of it

[Shurrikhan]

Seriously, if you do not want RNG then do not play roleplaying games. And FF14 is not really full of RNG. I know games, which are far more worse in terms of RNG.

A game being an RPG does not necessitate its having RNG (especially beyond combat staples like Crit or debuff resist chances), nor has "others are worse" ever been a sign of decent quality.

[Larirawiel]

A game being an RPG does not necessitate its having RNG (especially beyond combat staples like Crit or debuff resist chances), nor has "others are worse" ever been a sign of decent quality.

True. But RNG is typical for role playing games. I do not know one role playing game without it. And a RNG is not necessarily bad. It can increase the immersion because it is usual, that nothing will work for 100%. And i doubt, that removing the RNG from the game will make the game better. And there are other games, which are far worse than FF14, especially some asian F2P games.


Cheers

[AnotherPerson]

I do think it's bs how you can farm dungeon gear for leveling ones but not for level cap. What's the point ? It's not like dungeon stuff is ever useful in any other content than ultimates (after a few patches so you get the perfect ilvl in dungeons) for perfect minmaxing...

The rest of the RNG is fine, but That...

It's more for bumping up your ILVL. When you're behind in an expansion, that dungeon gear is going to be useful because you wouldn't have enough tomes to afford the next level cap gear when running MSQ dungeons with a minimum level cap, but are not forced to go buy (supposing there's still stock available) the highest ilvl gear at that level cap from the marketplace to be able to continue.

[LianaThorne]

*cackles in Atma and book fate farming*

[Poporito_Popoto]

*cackles in Atma and book fate farming*

Having just done it...it wasn't that bad. Fates were the first things I did when I got a new book. I either farmed other fates to spawn the one I wanted, or jumped servers. The only bad fate was was Surrender. NPCs died way too quickly. I had to wait a few minutes at the spawn site to quickly protect the NPCs.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Having just done it...it wasn't that bad. Fates were the first things I did when I got a new book. I either farmed other fates to spawn the one I wanted, or jumped servers. The only bad fate was was Surrender. NPCs died way too quickly. I had to wait a few minutes at the spawn site to quickly protect the NPCs.

It's been heavily nerfed.

[dspguy]

They've made melding easier and easier over time.

• It used to be you'd lose the gear if you failed to meld.
• It used to be that materia only came from spiritbonding in which you'd lose the gear in exchange for materia
• Then they added a multitude of ways to earn materia, even some where you pick exactly which materia you want (scrips, for example)
• Then they removed the loss of gear from spiritbonding. You can have your cake and eat it too.
• Then they removed the time investment necessary to meld when you have dozens or hundreds of unsuccessful melds

The RNG is fine the way it is. That's the whole point. Even with the RNG they do have, they made it more palatable by making the cost (time, gil, whatever) less than it used to be. Since you no longer lose gear when spiritbonding, materia prices have plummeted. Going through 50 Tier IX materia still hurts less than going through 50 Tier III materia in ARR.

[SeverianLyonesse]

RNG is a staple in most games because it is a damn easy way to force replayability. Go through a dungeon have a chance to get an item, yadda yadda. Fine, not to huge, but....RNG on crafting to a point where you could fail 100 times is too much.

I am talking about pentamelding. It is a bit out of hand, and really feels punitive. I get that it is totally optional and all that but it feels tuned wrong.

I would suggest an opposite version of RNG for things like this. Have an RNG chance, that is quite low of getting it early, and then just tell us how many materia it takes to put it on there. So say first slot top tier materia, costs 15, but you have a 5% chance of getting it instantly with every attempt. Just something to make it not feel like a bottomless pit of screw you.

I agree with this, assuming I understand you. There are other RNG things in FFXIV that I think horribly waste players' time, like Bozja field notes. And it hurts because so many other things in FFXIV at least have "pity drops." Leveling dungeons will drop one piece of equipment for your job every run. Totem and tokens let you purchase gear that wasn't dropped from trials and raids.

I'll be honest: melding is a huge reason why I don't want to get into current tier raiding. It's unnecessarily slow and expensive enough as it is, and the RNG on top of that just sounds too frustrating to be worth it. Not to mention, conceptually the idea of "overmelding" is utter nonsense to me.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I agree with this, assuming I understand you. There are other RNG things in FFXIV that I think horribly waste players' time, like Bozja field notes. And it hurts because so many other things in FFXIV at least have "pity drops." Leveling dungeons will drop one piece of equipment for your job every run. Totem and tokens let you purchase gear that wasn't dropped from trials and raids.

I'll be honest: melding is a huge reason why I don't want to get into current tier raiding. It's unnecessarily slow and expensive enough as it is, and the RNG on top of that just sounds too frustrating to be worth it. Not to mention, conceptually the idea of "overmelding" is utter nonsense to me.

But... Pentamelding is only required for people pushing week 1 clears (or world first clears).

You don't need it to raid, at all.

[SeverianLyonesse]

But... Pentamelding is only required for people pushing week 1 clears (or world first clears).

You don't need it to raid, at all.

You still need to meld generally though, correct? I dislike the melding system as a whole, and even if it's not required, I imagine there is a lot of shaming in current tier raiding if people don't have melded materia slots.

Also, there are other reasons why I don't raid independent of the melding system. Not enough time to practice, not enough availability for a static, etc. etc. But that doesn't change the fact that I really don't like the way the melding system is designed.