Item Binding

[AtryxEtair]

I do not frequently post on these forums due to the nauseating cesspool of ignorance and arrogance. However this topic is most troubling. I have played two MMOs with gear binding in them as a feature, which will remain nameless as not to divert the discussion.

My first, in the initial night of playing, I was very confused when confronted by the Market Place/Auction House/Bid Counter ect. I could not sell the equipment I had used or picked up and tried on. I thought maybe I needed to be a certain level or accomplished a certain quest. I decided to ask the few dozen people around me for insight hoping someone would respond. I asked how I could sell the items in my inventory on the market. Someone responded with another question asking me what items I was trying to sell. After hearing my response they asked if said items were bound to me. "Uhh, what? why would items be bound to me?" (at this point I would have accepted a practical reason or a lore based explanation...I got neither) His response: "Because the developers didn't want to bother with the economy." I had no idea what that meant at the time. But we'll get back to this in a second.

Game number two was not as large of a shock thanks to the services of game number 1. And it did not bother me nearly as much for one reason. I could reasonably craft my own gear without having to spend inordinate amounts of time farming. The mats were things that dropped naturally while progressing through an area and doing quests. Once and a while consecutive boss kills would be in order, but not in excessive amounts so it could not be called grinding. But still, when you devote this much time, energy, and resources into any item in any game it does not feel good to toss it for pocket change or trade it for a free inventory space. I collected all of my gear through the levels that I had upgraded and spent my savings on hoping they could be used for something else in the future. So I ended up basically throwing all of them away and playing for another day before I realized I didn't want to have to deal with that again and never logged back on.

The first story highlights the economical effects that gearbinding has on players and the game as a whole. It does not seem logical, practical, or fair. There are other ways to accomplish equal opportunity relevance for DoL and DoH(a few have been mentioned or suggested in this thread) that don't have negative effects on players mentality when leveling jobs. Which leads us to the second example.

The psychological effects on players when they are left with no option but to basically toss their favorite weapon or armor in the ditch are not unnoticeable. The piece of gear they pour their heart and soul into so they could finally participate in the content they wanted to, in the way they wanted to, and feel like a "hero" for the first time in gets mud slung on it after it's faithful service. I always found comfort when I was done with equipment when I could give it to someone else who would also gain enjoyment from it.

I'm not focusing as much on the economical portion because I think that has been adequately covered. I'm more concerned with players feeling like they're wasting their hard work not because of their mistake(which is acceptable most of the time) but because that is the way the game is designed. There are a lot of people out there that aren't bothered by this, evidenced by all the MMOs out there being played right now. Unfortunately, very few of those people stick around for too long in those games.

I'm all for putting crafters and gatherers on a pedestal. This is a not that. This is a bandaid, this is sweeping it under the rug. This, does not work in the long run.

[Alteiriaa]

I don't know if like. :/

I can see where it's good for the crafters, though I'm thinking it's more of a short term help before the economy goes bust and you couldn't sell anything worthwhile. I'm not totally sure on that though, since I'm hardly a crafter and the only thing I leveled after the game went paid again was my cooking.

What does bother me though, is the not being able to share bit. Like, I brought my boyfriend onboard on the game, but I gave him gear to help him get going. Since it's spiritbound on EXP get (by the sound of it anyway.) I could make him stuff on the spot I guess and hope I don't screw it up. So that could help.
Still though, don't know if like but I don't think it'll really help in the grand scheme of things either. :l

[Dzian]

It's only really the melding that worries me...

If i have a double melded item and try to triple one then i would usually give that double melded item to someone in my shell that maybe only had a single meld or lesser double.

that is pretty much my only concern.

to a lesser degree the lack of opportunity to experiment with items. and see which is better for you.. for example if i went out and bought a wand with high int for a million, only to find the wand i already had with amp was better for me... great just wasted a million...

and sometimes in that situation my logic is that i dont really want to pay a million for this but if it better than my old one i can at least sell the old one to cover some of my losses

[whoopeeragon]

As far as I'm reading it, you can't transfer items between characters bound UNDER THE SAME ACCOUNT. So you can't give your alts gear that has at least 1 point of spiritbind.

However, you can still trade gear to OTHER account holders, given that it is probably 100% and the other requirements present in 1.0. Rukkirii doesn't mention trading to other account holders - I'm presuming that the:

Also, since we are planning to make it so once you accumulate more than 1 point of spirit bond the item will be bound to you, as long as you do not fulfill this criteria it will be possible to transfer it to other characters.

...is still in reference to trading amongst your own characters.

Then again, I don't know how bound items work in MMOs in general (haven't played a great deal of them) so I may be wrong regarding the system itself, but from what I see from the OP, it is directed to characters amongst your own account.

[NoloeTazier]

As far as I'm reading it, you can't transfer items between characters bound UNDER THE SAME ACCOUNT. So you can't give your alts gear that has at least 1 point of spiritbind.

However, you can still trade gear to OTHER account holders, given that it is probably 100% and the other requirements present in 1.0. Rukkirii doesn't mention trading to other account holders - I'm presuming that the:



...is still in reference to trading amongst your own characters.

Then again, I don't know how bound items work in MMOs in general (haven't played a great deal of them) so I may be wrong regarding the system itself, but from what I see from the OP, it is directed to characters amongst your own account.

Basically if you accumulate even 1 xp while wearing the gear, it will be Soulbound to you. You can no longer sell the gear on the AH/Wards nor can you trade it to any player. You can only turn it into Materia or sell it to a NPC, other options are probably giving to Grand Companies but yeah. What we're all worried about is not being able to Sell or Gift melded gear because you used it and upgraded your equipment so it's no longer 'useful' to you.

[stanleyyoung]

i can deal with changes and having to adjust to them but what bugs me most about this item binding is that once i get to a certain spirit-bond level with gear i can't trade it, or sell it so basically im screwed. only thing left to is to either discard it or spirit-bond the gear itself getting a new materia whether that materia will be useful/good is another topic.

If i had lets say sentinels gauntlets with double meld str+40 which then i reached the level of spirit-bond if i was able to spirit-bond it getting back my two str materias then get another random materia for the gear itself that would be okay with me. this way its not like ppl hold on to materia forever eventually materia gets taken out of the game when ppl try to double,triple, quad meld gear.

If we can't rest spirit-bond like you guys say by going to a npc and resetting it that way, then what can we do at that point once the item binds we basically are fucked. only thing we can do is spirit-bond said gear and get some type of materia then we have a whole problem gear being situational to avoid building spirit-bond.

[Judge_Xero]

Buying a piece of gear to see if it's better than the one you have:
- training dummies - No exp accumulated - resell if it's not as good

Sharing gear with close members:
- maybe an option you can unlock for Small Companies?

What if I want to add more melds to my gear, but I can't sell the one I've been using:
- If I remember correctly, melding a piece of gear resets the SB to 0%

The effectiveness of the base stats was being altered (reduced/capped lower) and chance for successful Melding increased:
-This in itself warrants the change to gear being Bound on Spirit Bond - (surplus of circulating Multi-Melds)
-Increased need for old gear to be turned into Materia (More Materia Demand)
-Multi Melded gear wont be worth as much and/or dictated by economy anyways.

It seems like this is a good thing, both to keep the crafters busy and a better way to balance the economy.
(Increased gil rewards through questing can mean people that don't craft/gather might actually afford stuff - SBing for materia and questing ='s gils)

[Valmonte]

Imagine in real life if you spent £10000 on a brand new car and two years later you wanted a better one and had to throw that car on the scrap heap because you can't re-sell it. You would think twice before burning £10k in future. The same will happen in the game, people won't be willing to pay what items are worth when there is no re-sale value.

This,
I really don't think they've considered the human reaction on this. there is no way this is going to help crafters, people will simply stop buying gear and find alternate means of acquiring gear. hell, i wouldn't be surprised too see a guide eventually written on "how to Level without buying gear til cap".

[Zumi]

This,
I really don't think they've considered the human reaction on this. there is no way this is going to help crafters, people will simply stop buying gear and find alternate means of acquiring gear. hell, i wouldn't be surprised too see a guide eventually written on "how to Level without buying gear til cap".

There would be no need for such a guide you will get a bunch of gear from questing.

[Valmonte]

There would be no need for such a guide you will get a bunch of gear from questing.

Sure you could blindly do quests until you find the best gear for your job/class and pray you haven't already leveled past it or you could find guide that tells you what NPC will give you what gear at what level for what Class.