Unveiling the New Synergy System! (05/11/2009)

[Onorgul]

Cell phone games are also very popular in Japan and, until recently, they couldn't be much more complicated than something that could be programmed in BASIC in 1988. Squaresoft and Enix has made a lot of money catering to the obsessive weirdos who spend all their time number-crunching and doing everything but playing the game. I suppose it pays off because at least 1 in 10 people who still post on these forums has an active account. Maybe less, but still.

[Baelorn]

Indeed, because bitching and moaning about every aspect of FFXI is the cool thing to do instead of just sit back and see how things go.

This system sucks unless they made horrible translation errors when posting it. Finding someone with one of the rarer 100 crafts who will synth something for people without charging an arm and a leg is bad enough without adding multiple other crafters into the mix.

[willriker]

lol make a maze of these furnace summons, potbellies, to kite AV in. It could be the item they were thinking about releasing to help kill AV!!

My thoughts on the general panic of finding level 100 crafters
No seriously, there is nothing in this update note that states that you will need to find 5 crafters for your items.

i dont think your going to need to gather 5 other crafters for every synth you want to make with this. As required synergy levels increase, i think it would not be out of line to guesstimate that it would become more difficult to produce items. Hence more crafters would be required to keep all the elements in line, a watch on the impurites, and an eye on the temperature.

I highly doubt that an item equipable by a level 10 character would take 5 crafters to produces sockets for. Personaly i think itll work a bit diferantly. I think lower level items will require less crafters to make, but the epic peices will require more crafters to make.

My thoughts on how this could work, in practice
So, which crafter would you need for your item? Id point towards a hint in the Evolith notes from yesterday. Each Evolith Socket requires a differant element. Not only that, but it requires a specific shaped socket. And finaly there is a number associated with how strong the element is with the socket. You need to line up all of these with the Evolith you need to socket.

Every socket has an element attatched to it. You have 8 main crafts that use crystals to produce a result, including cooking, and 8 elements, including light and dark. Would you guys think its safe to assume that each craft will be associated with an element? Therefore, to make a fire based socket, you would need... lets say.. a smither. But, if you wanted one fire based socket and a dark based socket, you would need a smither and a leathercrafter.

Perhaps the level of the crafter will help to asign how strong of an Evolith Socket they can make. If you have an Evolith that has a fire rating of 1. Then it would not require a smith at level 100 to make it. Heck it could be possible for anyone to make a socket for an Evolith with an elemental ranking of 1 solo. But, if you had an Evolith that had a fire rating of 10 then you would need to seek out a smithi of level 100.

As for what shape socket that the crafters can make, perhaps this is the limiting agent. This could be want they use to decide which types of gear can be socketed with one type of Evolith, but not a differant type of Evolith. For example, Shields can be socketed with square Evoliths, but they cannot be socketed with triangle Evoliths.

I really dont think the system will be so boldface as to not have a certain amount of depth to it. I truely do not think that you will need 5 level 100 crafters to produce most of the results associated with this system. Sure you might need 4-5 crafters to produce the best of the best items. but certainly not for level 10 items.

[Destinye]

This system sucks unless they made horrible translation errors when posting it. Finding someone with one of the rarer 100 crafts who will synth something for people without charging an arm and a leg is bad enough without adding multiple other crafters into the mix.

Exactly why we have to wait and see before calling it a failure. Throughout the years people automatically written off shit before even touching it and when they finally got to use it, it wasn't the utter failure they said it would be. Like Capped Missions and Augmenting and Level Sync(in terms of system additions) people worldwide said would be failures, but it wasn't THAT horrible with level sync (unless you cap your way to 75), and capped missions you just had to have the right gear. People said Augmenting would be a failure, while it's painfully random it still produces good results so it's not a complete failure of a system.

So as usual SE is just extremely vague, it's clear enough it will require people, but since it says you don't HAVE to have someone with the appropriate skills there's no reason to automatically assume we'll have to find level 100 crafters only, since between now and implementation it can change like how a lot of systems since 2002 have.

[Seraph]

Every socket has an element attatched to it. You have 8 main crafts that use crystals to produce a result, including cooking, and 8 elements, including light and dark. Would you guys think its safe to assume that each craft will be associated with an element? Therefore, to make a fire based socket, you would need... lets say.. a smither. But, if you wanted one fire based socket and a dark based socket, you would need a smither and a leathercrafter.

Perhaps the level of the crafter will help to asign how strong of an Evolith Socket they can make. If you have an Evolith that has a fire rating of 1. Then it would not require a smith at level 100 to make it. Heck it could be possible for anyone to make a socket for an Evolith with an elemental ranking of 1 solo. But, if you had an Evolith that had a fire rating of 10 then you would need to seek out a smithi of level 100.

Yeah, that makes some sense. It's possible I won't get completely shafted, plus this gives me something to do once I finish fishing... :-þ

[Doink]

I'm not sure why everyone is assuming that our current crafting skills are the required "skills" for this. The OP states that "synergy skill" is needed. So, I got the impression that my level 100 leathercraft will probably do next to shit for this system. But hey, I hope I'm wrong.

[Drakath]

I'm a bit confused about this double update.

I thought there was one this upcoming Monday... And if so, what will it contain?. Apparently not this...

[Xanthe]

I think it's too much of a stretch to associate a single craft with a single element. All crafts use multiple crystal elements in synthesis. Smithing uses not only fire, but earth, wind, and thunder. Leathercrafting uses not only dark, but earth, wind, and ice.

[ronin sparthos]

Poor Seraph!

I am reserving judgment on this one. The description is far too vague to get a good sense of what we are looking at for sure. I want to see how it works in action and not in speculation.

There is some much doom-saying and preemptive QQ-ing in this thread it's hilarious. I know I must be an SE apologist because I actually want to see how this works before I say it sucks.

Could someone please describe how the MMM 04 works so the rest of us can get an idea of what we are looking at here? Does MMM 04 have crafting level requirements? Does it even have any crafting requirements? How does the process work?

MMM V04 works like this:

There is a central furnace in the zone and you are tasked to make 2 items within the 30min time limit. The Moblin will ask which level synth you'd like to attempt (Amateur to Veteran rank) and then you'll get your request.

(It's always MMM: *Insert something related to the craft you picked here*)

There are no synth requirements in MMM, simply whatever rank you pick means the item becomes more complex to create. Obviously if you pick a rank below your craft rank then you will get no skillups when you or the party synths the items later on. If you pick something way above your head then the synth becomes complex (obviously SE designed higher synths for full parties) that you will time out unless you have a full PT.

For instance, an MMM Ingot (Amateur item) might only require 3 items to make but if you pick something in the higher ranks then you need perhaps 3 of those MMM Ingots and then something else on top of that to create the final item to win the maze.

You get all these items from killing monsters inside the maze or using HELM skills and everything gets ported back to the furnace anyway.

Once you are ready to synth, everyone gathers around the furnace, the person operating the synth confirms to party synth (you can solo synth but only you would get skillup) then everyone goes into a cutscene where you synth the item or fail and you'll also get your skillups at this point as well.

At the end, you get a bunch of items related to the craft you picked (Silver Ores, elemental rocks for Goldsmith for instance) with the higher the rank you picked to do, the more valuable the items get.

The main problem with V04 is the sheer lack of skillups you get for the amount of fetching you have to do and breaks during a time limit can really be a kick in the nuts feeling.

I toyed around with mainly the first 3 ranks of crafting but beyond that the synths become so complex that it is nigh impossible for 3 people to do in 30mins.

[Rocl]

Also, JP has a different playstyle while NA generally like "Hand me everything" type of gameplay JP seem to like the more complex type of gameplay, hence Romancing SaGa being mostly popular in Japan than it is in America even among importers.

Japan kawaii desu~ne

[Baelorn]

I'm not sure why everyone is assuming that our current crafting skills are the required "skills" for this. The OP states that "synergy skill" is needed. So, I got the impression that my level 100 leathercraft will probably do next to shit for this system. But hey, I hope I'm wrong.

Because...

Synergy is an advanced form of synthesis wherein up to six players, each with unique skills, cooperate to create a single item via an apparatus called the "synergy furnace."

If only Synergy skill was required the bolded part wouldn't make sense.

[Destinye]

I'm a bit confused about this double update.

I thought there was one this upcoming Monday... And if so, what will it contain?. Apparently not this...

Update last week or so

Update next week

Update either late Nov or sometime in December, it's broken up into 3 parts so people won't complain about "OMFG CANT GET UPDATE SE YOUR SERVERS SUX!! etc", so they broke the load of the update into multiple parts.

[willriker]

Synergy Skill
Synergy skill determines your ability to safely handle synergy furnaces, and can be raised by applying synergy techniques used to manipulate elemental concentration levels inside the furnace. Proficiency in these techniques, too, can be raised to a degree corresponding to your synergy skill level. We recommend all players prioritize improving their skill, because when it comes to synergy, experience is synonymous with safety.

[b]Certain synergy recipes demand expertise in specific synthesis disciplines, but synergy will be possible so long as a participating party member possesses the requisite skill in question. No single character needs to have all skill sets, and the supplier of ingredients is not required to possess any whatsoever. Each participant in synergy plays an equally significant role in the process. [b]

This is why people think you need crafters to create results in synergy. In addition they mention, somewhere, that some crafters might need to have access to making a certain recipy to work on the corrosponding item. I took it to mean that if you cannot make a haubergeon, you cannot socket one without at least one person inparty that can make it.

[Drakath]

Update last week or so

Update next week

Update either late Nov or sometime in December, it's broken up into 3 parts so people won't complain about "OMFG CANT GET UPDATE SE YOUR SERVERS SUX!! etc", so they broke the load of the update into multiple parts.

So is the update next week going to be like last weeks where none of the content is playable/ingame? Or will we at least get access to the new expansion?

[Destinye]

So is the update next week going to be like last weeks where none of the content is playable/ingame? Or will we at least get access to the new expansion?

Depends if they say it will have an in-game change or not, but chances are it will be like last week's with no change.

[dejet]

attack +6x3 on a hand to hand wep would be nice no? so This has a shot at being something good, just need to hope that we can get other things like str+ or delay -(1 hand weps I guess maybe)

It looks like a lot of work, till we see it though its just guessing. I hope its easyer then it seems tho. getting crafters and stuff sorta blows(even tho im a 80 crafter and a 100 fisher ~_~)

[Ropeydonkey]

Cell phone games are also very popular in Japan and, until recently, they couldn't be much more complicated than something that could be programmed in BASIC in 1988. Squaresoft and Enix has made a lot of money catering to the obsessive weirdos who spend all their time number-crunching and doing everything but playing the game. I suppose it pays off because at least 1 in 10 people who still post on these forums has an active account. Maybe less, but still.

OK so um, why would 9/10 people post here if they DONT EVEN PLAY THE GAME?! How much free time must you have? How empty must your life be?!

I find it amazing that so many people who post on forums give the impression they hate the game they are posting about and apparently play...

PEOPLE - If you quit, SE wont come and break your legs... let it go

[Destinye]

This is why people think you need crafters to create results in synergy. In addition they mention, somewhere, that some crafters might need to have access to making a certain recipy to work on the corrosponding item. I took it to mean that if you cannot make a haubergeon, you cannot socket one without at least one person inparty that can make it.

This is why it's a 'wait and see', because again remember when the aern like weapons and segmented armors were introduced and people were screaming "WALK OF ECHOS IS COME!" then it turns out it was tied to this item system they previewed in the first notes?

There's no way to say, because it again can mean so many things.

[Ninjiz]

...but will this be TRULLY Trully Trully outrageous?!?!

Synergy!! Shows over!!

http://static.thefrisky.com/images/u..._g5_070609.jpg

[ringthree]

I have re-read the notes and there is absolutely nothing about having to have any kind of prerequisite crafting skill to do this. I don't know who made that up, but they definitely didn't read the notes. The only thing that is mentioned is that Alchemists can make some kind of item that can help the synergy process that you can get other ways too.

Baelorn, you are bitching about something that isn't even in the update notes. Stop jumping to conclusions and actually read the update notes.