Materia System

[Kestiel]

Been skimming, since some of the talk has devolved in recent posts from the materia system but I don't see the problems people seem to be up in arms about. Provided that this isn't implemented bass-ackwards then we SHOULD get better materia simply by turning HQ gear into materia, said HQ of that gear would also be better. And while there are many people who wouldn't want to turn their precious HQ gear into materia, there will be many people who WILL want to gamble it all in the hopes of a HQ materia from a HQ gear (this is assuming that the system rewards turning HQ gear to materia).

These people will be the ones who want to be the best they can be and are willing to buy (it's not like there's anything to spend gil on it seems, not in the quantities that it's been so easy to amass) the HQ gear again or make it. Even then, you'll have crafters who will no doubt turn their HQ pieces to materia and sell that. People need to think long-game here and not the short of "oh my equipment is gone, i'll need to equip NQ gear to attach materia to my HQ gear" thought.

People are already grinding out on a game that has terrible grind mechanics as it is, crafting is terrible, combat is just as bad and in many cases worse, and gathering is just about the bottom of the barrel with its double fatigue and the lack of anything above grade 5 for BTN and MIN. Yet, many have several classes at 50 and more on the way, at least this will hopefully provide a grind that is at least nominally worth doing.

Either way I applaud the dev team for coming up with something that is a more interesting system that can (I hope) be expanded upon after the infrastructure is set. What I hope people realize is that this allows for those who wish to work hard (ie grind and take risks to get HQ materia of HQ gear / slot another materia) to definitively distinguish themselves from the other players who are more than satisfied with their NQ materia from NQ gear. I see nothing wrong with this as there has been a severe issue w/ differentiation in XIV as of late, most players seem to melt together with very little to distinguish. HQ materia and multiple slotted materias will not be required from most LS/Companies, perhaps the more "hardcore" ones but otherwise people will realize the difficulty in doing so.

Aside from rare raid gear or artifact gear (which may or may not be able to be converted) most gear is fairly easy to obtain and relatively cheap, so I'm not quite clear why people seem against it. Besides, they can and will be sold en masse, many crafters simply don't bother making gear anymore because of the large amount of Crafters to Player ratio, gear simply stagnates, nobody buys then there's a massive undercutting war and gear that used to be over a hundred thousand drops to 20-30% of it's supposed value. This will give crafters who also have jobs that can wear the gear the ability to turn them into materia and help boost the economy.

We need consumables to help drive the economy back into stability, and we need to get rid of excess items, this does both. Gear will begin to stabilize some time after this lands and materia will provide a nice consumable that cannot simply be put back up on the wards.

One thing I would really like to ask though of the devs; please either make the AP rate very very slow for unoptimized equipment, or introduce a solid set of gear rank requirements for all gear. This will help to make materia from higher rank gear less flooded, and it also prevents RMT (for when the game actually becomes live enough for said RMT to start trying to make mass gil) from donning R50 gear at R1 and botting/grinding away just to undercut people who have gotten to R50 and wish to make the materia to sell. At the same time, I hope this doesn't go for crafters - I'd prefer a fixed crafting system intead of needing to grind out hundreds of synths to get AP for my gear. It should be only for DOM/DOW to allow them much needed flexibility.

[Crevox]

This is just one of those annoying game features we do not need. It sounded interesting at first, but converting our current weapons and armor into them is bad, and then there's a risk of failure to add two to one item?

It's just going to be a pain.

[Malakhim]

This is just one of those annoying game features we do not need. It sounded interesting at first, but converting our current weapons and armor into them is bad, and then there's a risk of failure to add two to one item?

It's just going to be a pain.

How exactly?

[Teknoman]

This is just one of those annoying game features we do not need. It sounded interesting at first, but converting our current weapons and armor into them is bad, and then there's a risk of failure to add two to one item?

It's just going to be a pain.

Didnt they say there was no risk of failure?

[Cairdeas]

I think people are forgetting that the Materia system DID do stats not just skills and traits.

Every materia orb gave stats except a select few (I believe command and underwater?)

The Materia name fits for a few reasons. If the lore is really how I think it is where "Every equipment item retains latent energy from the crystals that craft it, and using the equipment feeds energy into that latent crystal energy. with use "AP Points" Then the whole "Growth" of materia is there. Materia was the name of FF7's Crystals. We already have a unique Crystal name for XIV (Aetheryte) the Original crystal name "Crystal" is present as well. I'm sure Magicites somewhere in the lore coming soon as well but its always a heavily story based name. Materia is the only crystal name left. And as these will be crystals its better to base it off the system closest to it which is VII's Materia.

Didnt they say there was no risk of failure?

There is if its your second materia to infuse.

[AuctionGirl]

Again this is an optional system that most are going to enjoy, if you don't like it, don't do it.

[Crevox]

Again this is an optional system that most are going to enjoy, if you don't like it, don't do it.

You're going to have to if you want to improve your character. It's not a choice.

I don't like the idea of having to wear equipment I don't like just to build attachment points to convert it to a rock.

[Betelgeuzah]

You're going to have to if you want to improve your character. It's not a choice.

I don't like the idea of having to wear equipment I don't like just to build attachment points to convert it to a rock.

So you automatically like every equipment with good stats?

In that case there shouldn't be a problem. You wear said equipment to get good stats on equipment you like to wear, making this system better than anything else.

Or, as was mentiooned, you can simply buy the materia.

[Chrees]

You're going to have to if you want to improve your character. It's not a choice.

I don't like the idea of having to wear equipment I don't like just to build attachment points to convert it to a rock.

I don't see the problem here. As someone mentioned quite a few pages back, the Materia system will happen parallel to you doing leves, dungeons, etc. as you rank up. When you want a new weapon or piece of gear, you can break down your old ones into materia and fuse them to the new gear. It's not like you really have to do any extra grinding to gain Attachment Points.

I understand your frustration that current players are getting the short end of the stick, particularly those who already have a lot of high-ranked classes, but that's the small price we're going to have to pay. You have to look at this from the perspective of a new player, or someone starting out in a new class. As I mentioned earlier, it should be a fairly fluid process. Plus we don't even know how long it will take to even get enough Attachment Points to be able to convert into materia, and I'm sure you'll be able to buy materia as well.

[Cairdeas]

you wont have to crevox others will do it for you as well.