Ask the Devs! (02/04/2011)

[Hyan]

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...12226031f07537

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to...83aea34c3111cf

The development and management teams continue to address the questions and concerns of the community in an ongoing FAQ. The topic addressed this time around is gear condition and damage.

Gear Condition and Damage

Q.

What happens when my gear suffers damage and the condition worsens?
A.

Certain gear stats, such as attack and defense (see chart below), will decrease as an item sustains damage and it's condition worsens, lessening the benefits it provides to the character equipping it.
http://common.allakhazam.com/images/...76c58bfe74.jpg
Q.

What are the Gear Damage and Heavy Gear Damage statuses I sometimes see?
A.

These statuses reflect the current condition of one or more pieces of equipped gear. When an item's condition falls below 50%, a character will be afflicted with the Gear Damage status. Should further damage be sustained without repairing, the Heavy Gear Damage status will appear, indicating that an equipped item's condition has fallen below 20%. As with other statuses, the icons will appear in the upper portion of the screen. Currently, gear stats will decrease at a certain rate up until the Heavy Gear Damage status appears, after which point they will decline much more rapidly.
Q.

My arms always seem to get damaged so quickly. Why?
A.

There are currently changes planned that will balance the rate at which gear condition worsens. This will affect not only arms, but also tools, armor, and accessories.

[Blasta]

Boooooooooring, just remove this stupid repair system.

[Kaylia]

Boooooooooring, just remove this stupid repair system.

But at least, it's not WoW...right?


Repair system is the worst bullshit in this game. You can ignore many shitty mechanics, but you will need this one, and it's a torture everytime.


Retainer repair is fucking retarded (unequip everything, send to your retainer, send money to your retainer, set your retainer somewhere, select every items one by one, logout 6hours later, come back, half of it isnt repaired, remove everything, reequip it)... Why does it have to be so complicated? Why can't i just ring the bell near the adventurer guild, pick "repair items" and send them directly?

Bazaar works as well, and is much faster, but I'm still not getting any repair for hours at time at 5k/repair (when the item cost 10k on AH)

[Hyan]

But at least, it's not WoW...right?

wat

Bazaar works as well, and is much faster, but I'm still not getting any repair for hours at time at 5k/repair (when the item cost 10k on AH)

Buy multiples of the same item, duh.

[CasualPlayer]

^ Level the crafts (Its easy as fuck now) and repair shit yourself.

[sruon]

Remove repair materials, there I fixed your system SE.

[Hyan]

Implement repair toolkits, even better.

[Lucavi]

Implement repair toolkits, even better.

Crossing into other MMO territories if you do that, Hyan. XIV's gotta be unique, yo.

[Hyan]

I've been wondering whether you even realize your trolling yourself. I can't really help but assume that you are quite blind to it.

We are more alike than I would like to admit, indeed.

[Elrina]

I could just see repair toolkits now. A different one for every weapon in the game, since the repair kit for weapon x would require weapon x's repair material as an ingredient. Yay.

Just reduce the deterioration rate significantly (because you should never need to buy multiples of a weapon/piece of armor just to function ffs, just because it helps alleviate the issue currently doesn't mean it should be necessary), and make it so that you can repair gear while it's still equipped with options for specific pieces or all at once. "Repair equipment" and "Repair all equipment" options from an npc for a base fee, and maybe adding an option to the crafting interface while in a party to repair other people's currently equipped gear.

[Kaylia]

wat

Because many fucktard take pride in the fact FFXIV is different than WoW.

^ Level the crafts (Its easy as fuck now) and repair shit yourself.

Leveling craft is so damn fun, right?

[Elcura]

Leveling craft is so damn fun, right?

Only if you want to level them.

[Reapz]

Hope the decay rate adjustment is significant, shit decays too fast. I don't mind repairing once in a while but as it is now, its a huge pita

[Lucavi]

I've been wondering whether you even realize your trolling yourself. I can't really help but assume that you are quite blind to it.

We are more alike than I would like to admit, indeed.

Nah, there's a difference between trolling and speaking in jest. I can't see why you'd want something like repair kits anyway; all that does is take away from the "community aspect" of the game. Instead of seeking out repairs from real people, you're just buying them in bulk and using them yourself. I don't see that being a part of Tanaka's grand vision, or the grand vision of the fans.

If you're going to put forced repairs in a game, you might as well go balls to the wall like SE did and make the system as tedious as possible. the FF-Online series has always been one that lives and dies by its tediousness. There's no reason to make something that'll discourage the wonderful community aspect that the former and current game are so well-known for, any less prominent.

[Corrderio]

Hopefully with the adjustment to how fast weapons (and possibly armor) wears down they'll also adjust the levels required to repair gear. Since needing the craft 10 levels under the optimal rank of the item you're trying to repair is pretty annoying at higher levels.

[Hyan]

Nah, there's a difference between trolling and speaking in jest.

This is some "3rd group" bullshit again. I'm not serious when I troll, otherwise I wouldn't do it.

You can call a kettle anything you want and it's still a kettle.

all that does is take away from the "community aspect" of the game.

I don't think so, since the interaction still happens between players. It does take away some of the direct interaction, but the bazaar/retainer systems already do that. Sure, while I would like the community aspect to be strong in this game, I'm no fan of either extreme- almost complete self-sufficiency nor a complete dependency. They should not go (or shouldn't have went) "balls to the wall" because extreme approach is never a good thing.

I haven't come across a game that didn't go too far in one direction or the other initially, but I see many companies that try to balance their way out, sooner or later.

[Don Katsu]

Armor deterioration is fine. They need to change the way weapons wear, they wear WAY too fast. I have to repair my Sword and Great Axe everyday. It's slowing doing my leveling on MRD and GLA because I need to keep leveling BSM to keep up with the repairs. On top of that, one of the best weapons for MRD requires GLD to repair. I don't want to have to level GLD to repair one weapon.

[Corrderio]

Armor deterioration is fine. They need to change the way weapons wear, they wear WAY too fast. I have to repair my Sword and Great Axe everyday. It's slowing doing my leveling on MRD and GLA because I need to keep leveling BSM to keep up with the repairs. On top of that, one of the best weapons for MRD requires GLD to repair. I don't want to have to level GLD to repair one weapon.

This is pretty much one of the main reasons I'm losing interest in the game. Armor isn't too bad (Sure it sucks when you can't repair what you equip, but it's about 10x slower than a weapon) however with my weapons it feels like when I gain a new one I take one step forward and 2 backwards since I need to grind out on Carpentry just to fix my lance again.

Like I said, if they'd adjust the requirements to repair gear to half of it's optimal rank with how fast weapons break I don't think anyone would mind taking a craft to 25 to repair a piece of gear.

[Spider-Dan]

Instead of seeking out repairs from real people, you're just buying them in bulk and using them yourself. I don't see that being a part of Tanaka's grand vision, or the grand vision of the fans.

Tanaka's "grand vision" was broken and stupid; that's why he was fir... ahem, resigned.

I would have no problem with a repair kit for each discipline. Part of the hassle of getting certain items repaired are the unusual (or expensive) repair materials; if I want to get a Weevil Bow repaired, it does me no good to go farm weevil elytrons because the person repairing the bow needs to have them.

You could bazaar the repair mats with the bow repair request (so, 3 bazaar slots to get one item repaired), but what if it's a fairly valuable repair item? Do I price them really low and have other passers-by buy me out, or do I price them at market value and force the crafter to potentially absorb the cost of a failed repair that requires an expensive mat?

[Lucavi]

I don't disagree at all, SD, I just enjoy the the process of mindset change among players that goes on as this game continues to trundle along.