Please no items binding to players....

[Judge_Xero]

Back to FFXIV: ARR...

Is it really hard to grasp, or have none of you naysayers been paying attention to the ups and downs in the FFXIV (and also FFXI) economy? If there is BoE, crafters won't be able to inflate prices because people won't want to eat a huge loss for minimal gain on something they know they won't be able to resell. This will force more reasonable prices. IT BENEFITS YOU! Crafters can have a stable income because equipment will be steadily created and removed. Materia IV for gear, as well as relics, won't be some insane price because of the same reason listed. You can't resell materia bound gear, so the materia prices will stabilize as well. You can make the feeble argument that I have no tangible proof for this, but anyone who paid attention in FFXIV can see that it's an informed educated guess.

As someone who started FFXI on PS2 launch, I can say I understand how hard it was to play catch up to some of the RICH JPs on Alexander server. Now that I played FFXIV on launch, I made it a personal goal to stay on the up and up even if the game sucked so I'd never be at such a huge disadvantage like I was in FFXI. That was the ONLY reason I toughed out the mess that was 1.0. Now that they've introduced this system, I can honestly say that I'm relieved the new comers and late comers won't be so screwed.

Looks like you pretty much covered all aspects that most people actually need to know about. I've been posting over in the Dev created thread on this matter.

I was just unclear about this:

You can't resell materia bound gear, so the materia prices will stabilize as well.

Did you mean gear in the process of Spirit Bonding?

[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.

[GodseijuroHiko]

Did you mean gear in the process of Spirit Bonding?

Nah I meant Materia enhanced gear. The system will not be perfect, but it at least offers us a more stable foundation to build our MMO economics on.

[Exn]

Back to FFXIV: ARR...

While what you predict may occur, and hopefully was the intent behind the system, it won't effect everyone the same way. I, for one, used to predominantly gear myself through purchases in the MW, for leveling and endgame. But, I only did that because I could resell my gear later and get some of that back. With the new system, I don't plan to buy much of anything from the MW.. ever really. Knowing that anything I purchase and use will have little to no value (unless I happen to get lucky materializing it), I'll just wait for drops or the mats to make it (or have it made) myself.

I really don't personally mind the change that much, as I'm pretty used to both styles by now, but I did prefer the older system. As much as ppl complain the economy was messed up because of it, I can honestly say I didn't notice that AT ALL.. No more or less of a messed up economy than literally every other MMO I've played. But I guess that all boils down to whether or not one's able to figure out how to make the game's economy work for them. Though, I must admit, I utilized the AH/MW in XI/XIV for sales/purchases way more than all the other MMOs combined. Most standard MMOs don't even need you to buy/sell goods through other players like you were more or less required to in XI/XIV(1.0 - kinda). We'll start to see how it goes soon enough.

[Judge_Xero]

Nah I meant Materia enhanced gear. The system will not be perfect, but it at least offers us a more stable foundation to build our MMO economics on.

I haven't heard anything about Materia Enhanced gear becoming Bound.

Only Rare gear that comes Bind on Possesion and Gear that gets at least 1% Spirit Bound.

[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?

[indira]

Making rare items easy to get makes them not so rare. Whats the point of having easy drops for everyone? just go play another mainstream mmo for that.

FFXIV is a mainstream MMO. WoW & casual are in the DNA.

[Kryptic]

I don't see why it's a big deal. All the worthwhile gear is going to be from dungeons...so crafters will just make stuff for houses.

That is the worst idea, not everyone cares about decorating their house and we don't even know if that will be a feature. They need to find a good balance between crafted gear which was good and dungeon gear. Or/and have the dungeon gear up gradable through crafting allowing for more customization and player to player interaction.

[Nix]

That is the worst idea, not everyone cares about decorating their house and we don't even know if that will be a feature. They need to find a good balance between crafted gear which was good and dungeon gear. Or/and have the dungeon gear up gradable through crafting allowing for more customization and player to player interaction.

The way I see it is that some melded gear could surpass certain dungeon drops, so in my eyes crafted items came out ahead of dungeon drops.

Dungeon drops = get something good for a bit of work, this is something that most characters can obtain.

Materia melded items = Grind, grind, grind! If the % chances are going to be a bit more forgiving for things like double-melds you'll see a lot more people with that, but then pushing the melds further if they're still allowing like 4x materia, this is where the system will shine. Keep those high tier melds elusive so you really have to work for it.
Whether you're paying out of pocket to buy the materia and the items, or crafting your items and spiritbonding up some materia, you're guaranteed to have to put in some time into perfecting those pieces that will surpass certain dungeon drops.

Now there's 2 paths to play: You could take 'the easy way' and gear solely on dungeon drops (Hello token system!), this would suit casual players who don't have hours and hours and hours right off the bat to devote to craft-slaving, or people that do not wish to risk a lot of gear and materials.

Or, you could go the materia route and try to push your stats as far as you can.

Now when I mention dungeon drops, that doesn't include items like the white ravens. I believe certain drops should be hard to get and not be surpassed by something that is crafted.

Edit: I like the idea of upgradeable dungeon gear, though I'd hate it if they made it so you could place materia in it and then lose it... would suck for people to constantly 'need' higher end drops because they blew up their 4th darklight body or something lol

[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...