Materia melding question

[Tiramu]

I'm melding materia onto my crafters and have been for a while, but recently - like post lv70 I've noticed that materia stats start to cap red.

For example:

On a pair of Swallowskin Shoes I have 2 Craftsmans Command VI materia. The first is red capped at +11 and the second at +0.

But on my Dwarven Cotton Jacket I have 2 VIII's and they arent capped, which seems inconsistent.

Is there some kind of overall stat cap going on? Basically, is anyone able to explain whats going on with this?

[Azuri]

Look at the bottom of the menu while melding. Every piece can only have so much of a given substat, determined by its item level.

[Frizze]

Yeah, there are stat limits based on slot and ilvl for each piece. For combat gear, each substat has the same caps accross the board. But with crafting and gathering gear, there are certain pieces with high craftsmanship/gathering, and others with high control/perception. If youre using a tool like ariyala(i say tool - its a website and not at all against ToS) to plan out melds in advance/outside of the game, it will have these stat caps pre-loaded. If youre looking at them in game, then as Azuri points out you can see the limit per-piece at the bottom of the melding window.

[Tiramu]

Thanks both, that makes sense. I'll check that website out too, it sounds like it'll help.