Comments from the Devs

[miokomioko]

Iirc he said they'd be upgradeable but not "best in slot forever".

They would never say such a thing in the first place.

[Gokulo]

Here's the subtitled 25th event:

[xopher]

The only thing I got from that, is Gear Score is confirmed for FFXIV.

[Patriarch]

A friend on facebook mentioned something about NIN and SAM being "mentioned", is there any info on this?

Or should I take my tinfoil hat off?

[Gokulo]

A friend on facebook mentioned something about NIN and SAM being "mentioned", is there any info on this?

Or should I take my tinfoil hat off?

It's in the video I just posted @47:40

@xopher We don't even know what that means yet, I hope it's a different concept than what everyone thinks ._.;

[LD]

I don't mind really, people could always judge you by your gear without a number attached to it. If anything it makes it easier for nubs to see where they stand while giving the devs a metric to measure. It'll be difficult to argue the accessibility of items if the average gear score is less than expected (or less than necessary for certain content).

[Jamison]

Here's the subtitled 25th event:

This video, to me, starts to show some of the areas where 2.0 doesn't yet shine. It's not as polished a demonstration designed to hit only the highlights. The two things that jumped out at me where that one point the camera gets stuck, zoomed far out, right behind a tree branch, and you see that the detail is pretty abysmal on those things. Also, the "!" above one of the NPCs pops in and out repeatedly and distractedly as the camera moves.

Before anyone slams me, I know this is pre-alpha, etc etc, I'm just saying this is a slightly more realistic look at how the game will play that isn't sugar coated.

A friend on facebook mentioned something about NIN and SAM being "mentioned", is there any info on this?

If I remember correctly someone translated that roughly as a question being asked about a weapon type (curved swords, perhaps? not sure) and his response was something like "if we do that someday, it'd be reserved for sam/nin.

[Gokulo]

This video, to me, starts to show some of the areas where 2.0 doesn't yet shine. It's not as polished a demonstration designed to hit only the highlights. The two things that jumped out at me where that one point the camera gets stuck, zoomed far out, right behind a tree branch, and you see that the detail is pretty abysmal on those things. Also, the "!" above one of the NPCs pops in and out repeatedly and distractedly as the camera moves.

Before anyone slams me, I know this is pre-alpha, etc etc, I'm just saying this is a slightly more realistic look at how the game will play that isn't sugar coated.

That's why one of them said he didn't feel too comfortable with showing this build to the public, but they had finally to show something.

[Jamison]

That's why one of them said he didn't feel too comfortable with showing this build to the public, but they had finally to show something.

Yeah.. I'm not complaining. I keep throwing my money the screen but so far that hasn't worked.

[Alkar]

The official translation seems less vague regarding NIN and SAM. Basically Yoshi-P says that Masamune will be added when those jobs show up, sounds like they're already planned but obviously won't be ready before other content.

[Gokulo]

Long time ago he also said he doesn't want to add more DoW until there's more DoM so I guess these jobs weren't a priority, and this might be changed after SMN is released (or they will surprise us with 1 more job like Musketeer, but I doubt it)

[TacoTaru]

Can someone enlighten me to what gear score means in the context of other games and what people are assuming it means for this game?

[Gokulo]

It came from WoW (dun dun)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Gear_score

[Ambrosia]

http://www.wowwiki.com/Gear_score


Gear score is a numerical value based on the statistics of a player's gear. It is (supposedly) the maximum potential of a player's performance. However, it is up to the player to perform that well. In addition to item level (ilvl), the item's actual statistics or abilities may or may not be included for calculation, as determined by specific formulas or addons.


Most commonly, gear scores are a metric used to evaluate the relative strength of a player's equipment as a way of determining if that player meets a given threshold to join in certain raids or groups going through an instance. It should be noted that a given gear score, no matter which formula is used, does not necessarily mean that other players can not demand higher scores from others before joining a raid or group.


Despite the possible flaws in the system, gear score can be a useful tool in determining an individual player's readiness for certain content. Rather than risking the waste of time and money on wipes and repair bills, gear score can provide a basic indication that a player is likely to possess gear sufficient to run (or even trivialize) the content in question. There is no substitute for checking a player's choice of gems, enchants, glyphs, and spec, plus knowledge of appropriate caps (hit, haste, and/or crit), all of which reveal far more about a player than for what gear he or she has managed to win rolls or purchased by running heroics.


That said, when used as an initial assessment of a player, followed by inspections of their Armory profile (which does display things like item enhancements and achievements), gear score can allow the quick and efficient assembling of groups and raids intending to take on difficult content. Be warned: reliance on gear score, without following up the initial assessment with the armory or inspecting, is in fact counterproductive. It degrades the community by encouraging less knowledgeable players to "upgrade" based strictly on item levels, as well as decreasing the motivation of some players to improve (as they receive raid invites and rolls on loot without needing to do so).

[xopher]

I never played WoW but I heard horror stories of people not being able to go on a content finder based dungeon run specifically because their gear score was a few points too low.

[miokomioko]

Sounds like a horrible horrible idea.

[Lucavi]

Gearfinder wasn't hard to raise, though. You had a lot of people who didn't want to invest in decent gear for the next instance because they knew they'd easily gear up for free after a few runs with vets as soon as they got in. There were only one or two specific times in the history of the dungeon-finder where it was a legitmate problem, but never to anyone who would qualify as a BG-worthy player, because most in BG are typically playing the end-game scene.

[miokomioko]

The problem is that knowing what to do, where to stand, what to cast, etc. is far more important in any XIV content than stats right now.

You could have amazing gear, but standing in a stupid place or reacting slowly means you and/or others will die. A public gear score will only hurt this game at the moment, further enlarging the gap between the perfectly capable casuals and the elitist assholes.

[TacoTaru]

I actually like the idea of it, but it seems horrific to balance and impractical if it isn't. Materia seems like it would complicate this even more since it would seemingly always bump up your gear score, but I've seen some astoundingly dumb melds that wouldn't have made that person any better than someone without melded gear. If it took into consideration appropriate stats, stat caps, and scored it against certain events that would be handy, but I'm not that naive to believe that's actually how it's going to work.

[xopher]

Currently in XIV you could go naked into Ifrit/moogle/dungeons and still win. Only thing that gear really matters for is speed runs and Garuda.

But I'm sure if gear score was implemented, people would be elitist even about the prior.