Comments from the Devs

[Draylo]

No explanation as to why its lame?

[Vuitton]

Just what I want to do! Make a detailed macro for switching out gear catered to every fucking skill for every job.

Nothx!

[Grey Jorildyn]

You don't have to hate FFXI to dislike gear swapping. Present the idea to any seasoned mmo player and they would tell you how ridiculous a concept it is.

I will say this about the above statement--different games utilize different systems. A big reason those players would say it's dumb is because it's never been apart of the design of a game they have played (assuming they have not played FFXI seriously--and that is most people). From my perspective, it's a lame way to extend the shelf life of old content. Sure, it makes us all want to go back to X event to get Y gear that enhance Z ability because in XI that is what the norm was. All your gear in XI was a hodgepodge from all the events in the game and as they added more and more events, the number of days in the week did not exactly increase, making it difficult to schedule and pursue that gear for newer players (who essentially joined a guild for each event they wanted to do--I also find this lame, but it's human nature to gravitate towards those who have similar goals). Personally I'd rather work towards a set of gear that enhances all my job's talents as I build the set. That gives me a long-term goal in a digestible amount of time.

Perhaps I just like how other games run their shit, but I also played XI for many years and enjoyed my time there. Once it was over and I moved onto greener pastures, I realized how archaic a game it really is and wondered how I ever played it for so long (and so did just about everyone I ran into). It really blew my mind. But I never once liked gear swapping, even while I played XI

[Draylo]

So laziness, you act like its hard to create a macro once and then go to it to change gear in and out occasionally.

[Grey Jorildyn]

You call it laziness, others might call it poor game design. Six of one, half dozen of another, right?

[Charismatic]

Eh, some might call it poor but I doubt they'd have any solid reasoning behind it.

Either way, it ain't gonna happen in XIV so I don't think it matters too much but I really didn't mind it at all, actually enjoyed collecting the various pieces from all the various events over the years and not feeling like all of my time went down the drain every time new content came out.

[miokomioko]

Eh, some might call it poor but I doubt they'd have any solid reasoning behind it.

I would call it poor design because, based on many existing pieces of equipment, they obviously didn't initially plan on mid-battle gear-swapping to be such a heavily relied upon mechanic. I would put my money on them not even considering it was something people would eventually take advantage of.

[Seravi Edalborez]

I gear swap a little in moogle fight on CON, INT stuff in phase 1, MND stuff in phase 2. But in-combat with this system? No thanks. It somehow has to be instant or not at all.
(Also STR/VIT ring swaps on GLA but ehh).

edit: In this game I don't see it being used in such a micro-managed scale IMO. Every job has a much clearer defined stat distribution.

[Charismatic]

I would put my money on them not even considering it was something people would eventually take advantage of.

But we'll never know, it could have been right in their original plans as unlikely as that may be. If that was the intended design, nothing you've said makes it 'poor'. This is what I meant when I said I doubt they'd have any solid reasoning behind it.

I gear swap a little in moogle fight on CON, INT stuff in phase 1, MND stuff in phase 2. But in-combat with this system? No thanks. It somehow has to be instant or not at all.
(Also STR/VIT ring swaps on GLA but ehh).

edit: In this game I don't see it being used in such a micro-managed scale IMO. Every job has a much clearer defined stat distribution.

It won't be micro managed to that scale, they have measures in place that don't even allow you to switch gear in battle like we did in XI. So it isn't even a minor concern. (And it is the reason this discussion is nearing pointlessness. I initially just wanted to say I enjoyed it in XI and it was cool but it won't be seeing the light of day in XIV (and I am just fine with that too) and I figured that would have been it but nope.

[Patriarch]

I miss my gear swaps.

mDR set
pDR set
OhShi Set
Haste
WS
TP
Town

If they brought it back, without the blinking. I'd be happy. Haters gonna hate.

[Seravi Edalborez]

You can gear swap in battle (at least, now) I'm almost positive. Just can't class change. Unless Ifrit/Moogle don't follow the rules.

[Lucavi]

So laziness, you act like its hard to create a macro once and then go to it to change gear in and out occasionally.

Auction houses? So lazy, just shout your item with your suggested price, and wait for people to shout their prices until there's a winner, then have that person run to you and make the exchange.

Mailboxes? So lazy, just run to wherever it is that your item is coming from, including quest items from NPCs!

A competent LFG system? So lazy, just shout in town before you go to the area you want to fight in, then shout in that exact area! Easily done!

@FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFF: That's just it: they can't bring it back without the blinking. This is the same company that released a shittier attempted clone of XI. You really think they can fix XI's problems? Pretty sure if they could have, they already would have, unless they don't like making money.

[Charismatic]

You can gear swap in battle (at least, now) I'm almost positive. Just can't class change. Unless Ifrit/Moogle don't follow the rules.

There's a penalty for it(or was, if this has changed... I missed it); it isn't practical... for me that is pretty much the same thing as not being able to do it.

[Lordender]

Lol if windower didn't exist none of you fuckers would have liked Gear Swapping on XI because it would have been so limited and shitty using standard macros. I personally hated it, I don't mind situational pieces for a fight like an item that gives you massive fire resist or some shit but needing to constantly lug around 4 diff gear sets at all times made me want to puke.

[Niiro]

You can change gear while having hate but only in passive mode, there used to be a penalty for it but they got rid of it at some point.

You can change weapons too but only weapons of the same job (ie. you can swap wand of gales to wand of tremors/jade crook/etc).

So basically DoM are free to gear swap as they please but with the delay between swaps it's not feasible to practice it to the extent XI did.

Unfortunately, the curse of the ele staves seems to be looming in the distance for BLMs, have fun with 6+ weapons for 1 job.....again. And with how weapons work relative to XI they truly will be for ONE job.

(hoping they don't continue with the 1 weapon 1 element bullshit but this is SE)

[Elcura]

There's a penalty for it(or was, if this has changed... I missed it); it isn't practical... for me that is pretty much the same thing as not being able to do it.

I haven't noticed a penalty, and I switch gear (hat/weapon mostly) quite often during fights. I tried XI style macros for it, but XIV just can't handle it properly.

And this is on THM so all passive mode.

edit: bleh, Niiro covered it.

[Raldo]

Lol if windower didn't exist none of you fuckers would have liked Gear Swapping on XI because it would have been so limited and shitty using standard macros.

Just chiming in here to say that I never used windower, played until Abyssea came out, and I enjoyed gear swapping.

I'm probably a very very small minority though, so I guess your point still stands.

[Charismatic]

Lol if windower didn't exist none of you fuckers would have liked Gear Swapping on XI because it would have been so limited and shitty using standard macros. I personally hated it, I don't mind situational pieces for a fight like an item that gives you massive fire resist or some shit but needing to constantly lug around 4 diff gear sets at all times made me want to puke.

...nope

[Thiefami]

I agree that gear swapping kept a lot of content relevant. Whether or not people agree if that was a good thing or not is a totally different discussion. I personally did not see it as such a bad thing outside the inventory issue. It seems inventory will become a problem in this game too. Mainly because SE chooses to make it a factor. If they will not accommodate the system of gear swapping through inventory I rather them not bring it back at all.

[Spider-Dan]

fuck the haters, I actually enjoyed gear swapping and all the carrying around of 30000 sets of gear... also kept several pieces of gear relevant for far longer than they would have been otherwise which kept some content alive longer than it woulda lasted.

This.

Without gear swapping, R/EX gear is heavily stratified into categories of "the best" or "useless". Think of how useless AF/Relic would have been without gear swapping*.

*I expect the upcoming AF gear to make this point in spades.