FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread II: Let's Speculate the Speculations

[Lucavi]

I'm just hoping that it won't be another system of having to try everything (consumables) before you know what they actually do.

Saying that a certain tea is made with a certain leaf does nothing to tell how effective that particular item is going to be.

[Corrderio]

So still nada on food? Rats.

[Lucavi]

Hopefully someone can make a suggestion. I've grown to enjoy knowing exactly what my food does before I purchase/craft it. I mean seriously, did anyone even drink the teas in FFXI?

[Kirb]

I don't mind that the food doesn't state the stat boosts too much, for some reason. Although it'd be good that if the items don't state the stats and keep just the flavor text, (preferable), that the stat changes are displayed in the help bar or somewhere else on screen.

At least with more transparent stats, it will be 100% easier to find out what they do once you eat them.

[Newber]

So what's up with greatswords being in the .dats, but not a greatsword class? They're not gonna pigeonhole them into gladiator's territory, are they?

[Corrderio]

So what's up with greatswords being in the .dats, but not a greatsword class? They're not gonna pigeonhole them into gladiator's territory, are they?

Upcoming class maybe?

Anyway for food. I'm sure SE will give us info on stats soon. This game is still far from being released.

[arus2001]

Maybe I'm weird, but I'd kinda like a system that monitors your diet or activities and in turn varies the effectiveness of foods. Main goal being to just curb all cooks from cooking the best mage, tank, or melee food and forgetting the rest of the menu exists.

Even if it's something as simple as logging in and getting a message like, "Hmm, today some grilled chicken would hit the spot!" and the food itself doing more than it usually would would be nice.

[Jinko]

GreatSword will no doubt go to Marauder if its not a new class.

Maybe I'm weird, but I'd kinda like a system that monitors your diet or activities and in turn varies the effectiveness of foods. Main goal being to just curb all cooks from cooking the best mage, tank, or melee food and forgetting the rest of the menu exists.

Even if it's something as simple as logging in and getting a message like, "Hmm, today some grilled chicken would hit the spot!" and the food itself doing more than it usually would would be nice.

That would be quite a cool idea.

[Agito]

I do sure hope that the stats and duration on food are integrated onto the food itself for the sole reason that people would have to extensively test each and every food via a parser just to know how much accuracy or if it gives any at all for a melee damage dealer food. I don't mind going through a wiki but i'd prefer accurate food stats from the launch of the game.

[Loaar]

I do sure hope that the stats and duration on food are integrated onto the food itself for the sole reason that people would have to extensively test each and every food via a parser just to know how much accuracy or if it gives any at all for a melee damage dealer food. I don't mind going through a wiki but i'd prefer accurate food stats from the launch of the game.

Not really. Things like accuracy, attack, magic attack and magic accuracy are all stats visible on your character screen. If you ate a certain food, you would just have to take a look at your character screen to see what effect it has had. Unless there are hidden stats, which seems unlikely at this stage, there wouldn't be any other investigation required.

[Kiarax]

Keeping the mystery of having to discover what everything does is a good thing imo. Maybe have a system where each time you use the food it shows one of the bonuses. If the Meat kabob was STR+5, Attack +5% you could have it show STR+5 after one use, then Attack +5% for a second use. Not gonna happen, but oh well.

[Charismatic]

I dunno, I don't like the idea of not being able to see the stats on a consumable before I use it.
Having mystery in the game is fine and good but on foods..? nah.

[Metafox]

Keeping the mystery of having to discover what everything does is a good thing imo. Maybe have a system where each time you use the food it shows one of the bonuses. If the Meat kabob was STR+5, Attack +5% you could have it show STR+5 after one use, then Attack +5% for a second use. Not gonna happen, but oh well.

This made me think, perhaps they could give cooks an ability that allows them to know the exact stat bonuses of food. I doubt it will ever happen, but it sounds easy to implement.

[Hyan]

Having mystery in the game is what I'd prefer as well, but it's hard to find a middleground that everyone would agree on.

Like now we have food where we can't see them stats, but once we use it we'll be able to see what it does. So they're probably aiming for a middleground there, but can't please everyone.

I've noticed it's the same thing with skill descriptions so far. Some of them actually tell us exactly what they do and there's no descriptions like with Berserk for example "Enhances attacks but weakens defense".. but some of them still don't go into precise specifics.

[Eaglestrike]

There's good mystery and there's bad mystery. Does not knowing the answer have consequences in-game? Then it's a bad mystery. Is it something you think about and debate with others but otherwise has no effect? Good mystery.

Or to put it another way: Gameplay mechanics = don't make it mystery. Storyline/lore = mystery.

[Hyan]

I don't think it's so black and white.

Or are you saying the devs should tell us how each and every battle need to be dealt with and just lay out the perfect strategy for us to use?

I certainly wouldn't like that.

[Eaglestrike]

The information should be there. And not through extensive testing done by the very few people with the patience to do so.

I shouldn't consume some item and go "Hmm, I wonder if this does anything or if I just spent 2k gil on nothing."

[Lucavi]

Goblin Drink = bad mystery.
Cheese Sammich = bad mystery.
Who is the Shadow Lord? = Good mystery.
Who is gonna be the last boss of this next expansion? Good mystery.

[Hyan]

Mysteries we can not solve are indeed bad mysteries.

But having hints in-game and making the community solve these mysteries is what gives the game some depth. Everything is not just clear as a day the moment you log in.

But the important thing is that these mysteries should be solvable with some thought, which is something XI failed at most of the time.

I remember people making theories years ago about Odin giving Shaddy his powers based on hints we got during CoP.. and it was indeed the case.

I also liked when the community got together and started figuring out Salvage years ago, and aside from the frogs (which when you look back didn't have that complicated popping process after all) things were figured out without too much of a headache, but the event remained "mysterical" long after it was released, and wasn't figured out in a matter of few days.

[Lucavi]

Different strokes for different folks. I'd rather have the option to have it in and turn it off for "purists" such as yourself, than not have it at all, especially when SE has said that they've learned about not throwing in too many needless frustrations in their MMO.