Please no items binding to players....

[DoctorMog]

MMO =| RL.... The mmo world wont fall into any recessions or depressions, people wont start being layed off, etc etc in an mmo. Its just not the same.

I don't want to pick fights, but do you recall the crash that happened in 11 because gil sellers unloaded billions of gil around Christmas of 2004?

With so much gil in the economy, there was no profit in farming materials or crafting items.
Because there was no profit in crafting/farming, people stopped doing them.
The reduced amount of items in the economy created a crazy demand shortly thereafter.
Driving prices back up, but with so much money in the economy (RMT) the economy bottomed out.

Much like real life.

So, I'm not saying it's identical to real life, but game economys and real life, have the same driving forces behind them.

[Duelle]

There is absolutely no need for this. I hear people saying that it will keep the crafters going but that is what the materia system is for. With the materia system people will still constantly be blowing through gear to try and get materia, so there will always be a need for crafters.

Uncontrolled resale leads to market saturation, which does screw over crafters. Soulbinding means that equipment is effectively removed from the game sans vendoring said equipment when you're done using it. It does more good than you realize.

[Reika]

Oh well I guess theres really no way to prevent an MMO economy from crashing violently. More inevitibility. BoE or not, its all doomed.

[Mjollnir]

Firstly, as mentioned earlier, I'm not against this system because I have no idea about how the related game systems are going to work, as they haven't been revealed yet.

However, I think an answer to most of the posters in this thread who are against the system may be keyed into the functionality of Spiritbond and Materia.

If Spiritbond occurs at a proportionally faster rate for lower level gear (ie when a suitable upgrade becomes available after 3-4 levels, the old item has completed Spiritbond), then it assures that all old gear can be converted. Not sure on the exact figures, but I felt it always took about 5-6 levels to max out Spiritbond when levelling between 1-30. Obviously Spiritbond at level 50 is a different kettle of fish altogether.

So then, if you're converting all used gear into Materia, it's having some use (rather than a nominal NPC gil value). Understandably, a lot of the Materia gained at this point will be weak. One of the many things I pray to The Twelve for is that there is a process at an NPC to combine, say, four Tier One Materia into one (random-ish) Tier Two (or lower) Materia. This would ensure AH/MW/Retainer demand for crap Materia obtained through the increased amount of Spiritbonding by the playerbase (that is still levelling). At 50, you could still grind Spiritbond to create Materia, but at least after every four duds, you'd have a free 5th chance at the one you wanted through this combine system.

This idea isn't something I came up with entirely; a similar system (without Spiritbonding) is used in LotRO for refining Relics that bind to your Legendary Weapons.

[Destain]

There is absolutely no need for this. I hear people saying that it will keep the crafters going but that is what the materia system is for. With the materia system people will still constantly be blowing through gear to try and get materia, so there will always be a need for crafters.

Making it to where you cannot sell your used gear is just plain retarded. I really hope SE changes it because in my opinion there is no point. Crafting was very essential in 1.0 and it would be the same in 2.0 without this stupid binding feature. If anything this will make the market or AH pretty lame imho.

LOL, just kind lit the fuse and walked away there huh?

[Linkurrra]

Good post! I wasn't aware Relic/dungeon BoE equipment would still have BoE Materia though. But it does make sense, where it stays in the possession of the owner until it is bound to craftable equipment that can be sold on the market!
While that equipment still has an edge, it's not so unique to warrant a huge profit skewing the economy!

They can try, but the increase in effectiveness will be so moderate that nobody will pay for it! I know it's theory, but it's a good one.

[Zezlar]

I’ve been tinkering around with some ideas lately that I personally feel could help find a middle ground with this soul bound system. I don’t believe that implementing it in that traditional way used in other MMOs will be anything more than a Band-Aid, and an annoyance for certain players. Here are some things I personally feel they should do:

• Make low level gear have a purpose. If I’m out leveling the need for gear, then the items have no use and people will not create them. This race to the end game mentality will destroy the need for lower ended gear.

• Power leveling needs to be absolutely crushed. It can’t be allowed in the fashion that it was in XIV.

• All quest reward items that involve equipment need to be soul bound. These are items given for free through a quest. In XIV all the important gear pieces like the “White Ravens” were rare/ex anyways. These items will not be eligible to be put back into the economy.

• Create better incentives to remove gear from the economy through the Grand Company system. Perhaps the Grand Company could give rewards like skills through points traded.

Route 1.) Soul bound through conversion.

• After creating/melding an item. Give players an option to convert the item to that soul bound system themselves for a bonus. Tie this option through the Spirit bond system. Once Spirit bond has reached 100% give players an option to convert the equipment into the Soul bound Equivalent with a 10-15% bonus on stats. Let’s use the Cobalt Winglet as an example.

Normal Item -----------------------> Converted Soul bound item
Item: Cobalt Winglet -----> Cobalt Winglet (S)
Level: 49 (required) ----> 49 (required)
Type: Gladiator's Arm ----> Gladiator’s Arm
Class: GLA/PLD ----> GLA/PLD
Damage: 90 ----> 99 (10% bonus)
Delay: 2.6 ----> 2.34 (10% bonus)
DPS: 34.62 ----> 38.08 (10% bonus)
Damage Type: Slashing ----> Slashing
Other Abilities: ATP+ 5 ACC+5 ----> ATP+6 ACC+6

This system could co-exist along with Materia conversion. Allow a choice to obtain a Materia or upgrade the item. So instead of forcing Soul bound on a player, give them the option to create an even better version but at a cost of being able to sell it/trade it. This system will not remove every piece of gear, but it will remove a portion especially in the higher level gear portion.

Route 2.) Conversion of multi-melded gear into a single Materia.

• For example: A Triple Melded pair of Felt Gloves has three +20STR IV Materias on them. Through conversion a single +60 Materia would be the result. The 100% rule would still apply for melding this onto another item however when trying to add another Materia it would fall under the normal 4th Materia meld chance. It would not fall under the 2nd Materia meld chance.

• This system would need some sort of limit, and tinkering.

• This system could be used along with route one through the conversion of Gear (S) with multi melds on them.

These are merely ideas. I do believe that if they truly want to save the market for crafters then they will need to do multiple improvements and additions rather than implement a very limiting mechanic that is not always 100% effective. These are merely ideas they could look into, or even come up with something new altogether. Once we all get into beta and do some thorough testing. I may repost this on the Beta forums if the system is too limiting.

What types of additions or changes do you think Square should consider for this soul bound system?

[JillyBean]

I have been so on the fence on this, feeling posts on both sides of the argument are valid, literally flip-flopping as I read. In general it tends to worry me. I want it to be good for the game and I'm not sure it is. I don't mind it if somehow it really is good for the (future of) the game.

Here's something I recently thought about that I don't like at all...

In ARR our signature will appear on every item we create. So I want special items to be re-made so that they will be signed. But, this will be at a total loss because we cannot repair and sell or give away the old item. Well, I guess we can make materia from it...

[Nix]

In ARR our signature will appear on every item we create. So I want special items to be re-made so that they will be signed. But, this will be at a total loss because we cannot repair and sell or give away the old item. Well, I guess we can make materia from it...

I see what you mean, though your signature will be on what I call 'gift items' - Items you make specifically to trade to a player. Since they only bind to you once you've gained 1 point of spiritbond you can still trade unused gubbins to others

[JillyBean]

I see what you mean, though your signature will be on what I call 'gift items' - Items you make specifically to trade to a player. Since they only bind to you once you've gained 1 point of spiritbond you can still trade unused gubbins to others

Well, what I mean is that items that are currently on my 1.0 char, I will want to have some special things re-made so they will be signed by the maker (or me). I will then have duplicates of these items (one signed, one old unsigned). So the old items cannot be traded or sold (to absorb some of the cost of re-making them), they will just have to be used to make materia.

I suppose I can also use them in other item/job sets.