Job Leveling / Separate Idenity

[Shougun]

Sorry, I really hated the all of those systems you mentioned. I found them really pointless and annoying. Just my personal opinion. I would much prefer if they did it the FF:tactics WotL style. I have not liked the leveling up systems in the FF games from 10 and up (excluding FFXI, I liked the subjob).

They did a sphere grid thing with Path of Exile (a diablo ripoff) I really liked the gameplay and how it felt over Diablo III but once I realized they used the sphere grid I dropped the game like a bad habit. Honestly, and I know it doesn't matter in the long run, I would drop ARR if they did the sphere grid.

I like what they have and the concepts they had in 1.0 as long as they carry over the basic system where you borrow skills from other classes then are restricted once you have a job, I think it works great. Then have the merit system to purchase high level skills. Why does it need to be more than that?

You can not like a particular gameplay element thats cool - but the reason these systems are suggested are more then just "oh I loved the grids" (which I did).

Its because there needs to be a logical way to say what skills do and more importantly DO NOT cross over. They can just start listing on each ability THM only, THM and BLM only, DoM only. And that can help seperate skills out to create a more distinct job.

You may also do that to passives though thats less of a logical leap, I think people can still get that.

Also weapons being added to jobs would take benifit through this system as it would explain oh you have level 15 CNJ well you can use a staff as a BLM now and you get that it was because you had a level 15 CNJ because it was a requirement for the sphere / grid unlock.

You can do this through merits too but I think you would have to allow merits earlier in the jobs life time then, else you'd only get to become distinct once you hit max level.


(My suggest is not the only solution I just felt that it solved many things at once, but as you are saying some people just dont like that leveling system - so thats fine)

I'm not a fan of merit systems just because I like pretty picture element of grids and trees (but I would think they could do that to a merit system).

[ZakarnRosewood]

It sounds like what you want is just a more visual system. That I would be ok with. I wouldnt want them to do the talent trees like in WoW, or the sphere grid. Maybe I would be more accepting of the sphere grid if they removed all the pointless parts (health +5, Str+2, Luck +1) and just had the skills. The problem i had with the license board was near the end everyone had the same skills except for the summons.

I think what i would like more for this FF is to have a combination of the way you learned skills and such from FFIX and the materia/magicite systems in FFVII and FFVI. You learn the skill or spell through "bonding" then it gains levels according to usage. Sure you might have to use a crappy weapon or materia to get a particular skill, but once you learn it, you have it for good. Once this system is in, just do with the skill what they did with the weapons, Fire - THM, BLM, RDM / Cure - DoW, DoM / Jump - DRG

Display it all in a tree of avaliable skill slots. jump is a level 30 skill and costs 4 points. Work within the restrictions of the level 30 tier and how many allotment points are avaliable. But I'm getting off on a tangent.

TL;DR: If all you are looking for is better visual representation, I hope it will be at least streamlined so its not so messy and overwhelming. Build on better foundations than FFX and up, or create a new way that would integrate better with the armory system. I still think they have so much opportunity with the materia that is not being fully utilized.

[Shougun]

It sounds like what you want is just a more visual system. That I would be ok with. I wouldnt want them to do the talent trees like in WoW, or the sphere grid. Maybe I would be more accepting of the sphere grid if they removed all the pointless parts (health +5, Str+2, Luck +1) and just had the skills. The problem i had with the license board was near the end everyone had the same skills except for the summons.

I think what i would like more for this FF is to have a combination of the way you learned skills and such from FFIX and the materia/magicite systems in FFVII and FFVI. You learn the skill or spell through "bonding" then it gains levels according to usage. Sure you might have to use a crappy weapon or materia to get a particular skill, but once you learn it, you have it for good. Once this system is in, just do with the skill what they did with the weapons, Fire - THM, BLM, RDM / Cure - DoW, DoM / Jump - DRG

Display it all in a tree of avaliable skill slots. jump is a level 30 skill and costs 4 points. Work within the restrictions of the level 30 tier and how many allotment points are avaliable. But I'm getting off on a tangent.

TL;DR: If all you are looking for is better visual representation, I hope it will be at least streamlined so its not so messy and overwhelming. Build on better foundations than FFX and up, or create a new way that would integrate better with the armory system. I still think they have so much opportunity with the materia that is not being fully utilized.

Learning from materia and equipment could be fun. If there are a lot of abilities added you can go back to a slot system where you add abilities out of combat / remove and you can have a lot of different play style but balanced that it cant be at the same time (like WHM equiping a bunch of holy damage spells and some elementals of CNJ and going all battle cleric - but lost - a lot - of his healing potency). Like in FFIX system right?

But yes I'm a very visual person - if its organized out visually you can (I at least) can just take 2 second glances to get what I want. I'll also learn the system exponentially faster if it is logically constructed (obviously you can run the risk of making it really confusing too though... so have to test your designs lol).