Ok so I will be fair, this is a lot more sophisticated than the gem system in Diablo, but it doesn't change the fact that it is still a new system that encourages you to collect gems and slot them into your equipment for additional bonuses.
As much as there was of getting your gear turned into something pretty dismal with the randomness that came with the augment system in FFXI, there was a degree of thrill that came with the unknown. Will you get something amazing like +6 INT on a Weskit, or are you going to get -3 INT on your snow ring and +3 water resist, there was an air of anticipation.
Needless to say if you suffered the loss of an item due to augmenting without the financial backing to recoop the lottery that it essentially is, it quickly becomes a very expensive risk that has deterred a lot of people from using it at all.
Enter from stage left the augments sexier, more flexible younger brother, with a spring in his step and a gleam in his eye to catch you and ensnare you with a charasmatic smile.
This of course is SE's newest "take it to the players" system they are looking to introduce in the next update. Called Evolith, it essentially breaks down into the augment system with choice. Collect the gems/crystals/evolith from various targets in Vana diel and bake them into your equipment via an oven in town.
The ability to remove these evolith stones offers a very attractive incentive to boost your gear as you can play around with different options and see how it affects your game play, plus it is nice to see that it will actually be available through a whole host of original gear as well as some new items you can beef up
Just from the snippets offered up by SE, the augments seem to be fairly interesting, although to add a pinch of salt here you could quite quickly see a bottleneck at the NM pops of some of the stones that offer the more immediate and obvious stat boosts.
This idea is most certainly following in the footsteps of the recent trend in FFXI by the development team, where they are encouraging the playerbase to take a much more hands on approach to designing their own gear. All the joys of augmentation, without the tears essentially. I can see this being one of those rare updates where SE might potentially just void one of their own systems ingame for something that is a lot more player friendly.
I have to say it is quite an interesting method to get around the continual stream of complaints I have NO doubt SE get about why this, that and the third are not done for mememe. Instead of getting grumpy about it they introduce game mechanics to feed the wolfpack.
This definately looks to have the potential to be a worthwhile system to invest time and effort in for those players dedicated to tweaking their gear to the nth degree for that fraction of more damage, along with appealing to the more casual player base with some more obvious and easy augments for instant gratification. One to keep an eye on for sure.We're pleased to announce a new system that promises to offer adventurers unprecedented customization options for their equipment! Named the "Evolith" system for the curious stones whose powers must be harnessed to reap the benefits, it will be introduced in a version update coming as early as late November.
Introducing Evolith
Little more than nondescript rocks at first glance, the substance known as evolith has long escaped the notice of the inhabitants of Vana'diel. Closer investigation, however, has revealed that these ancient stones harbor elemental power to rival that of crystals. With advances in the emerging discipline of synergy*, the time has come that their latent potential may at long last be tapped...
*Synergy is a new form of synthesis conducted using a "synergy furnace."
This system will be introduced in detail in a future Topics article.
With each piece of evolith possessing unique properties (*see example screenshots), adventurers may mix and match them in various combinations to bolster compatible equipment with the exact combination of attributes they desire.
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
Evolith 101
Adventurers may enhance their equipment with evolith through the following procedure:
1. Acquire evolith
- Evolith can be obtained by completing new NM hunting regimes accessible from "Hunt Registries" that will be introduced to certain areas alongside the Evolith system.
- Note that each piece of evolith is defined by a unique shape, size and elemental affinity.
2. Choose the base equipment you wish to enhance
- A vast assortment of equipment will support evolith, from several hundred existing items spanning a wide range of levels to new equipment slated to be introduced alongside the Evolith system.
- You may check whether or not a particular piece of equipment supports evolith by trading it to one of the "Synergy Engineer" NPCs that will be dispatched to certain cities.
3. Prepare your equipment
- A maximum of three evolith-holding "slots" may be etched into a given piece of equipment via synergy.
Note that each slot will have its own shape, size, and elemental affinity, to correspond with the evolith itself.
- The etching process will require the use of dedicated items.
- Similar to augmented items, etching evolith slots into a piece of equipment will render it untradeable and unauctionable.
4. Confirm compatibility
- Ensure that the slot is of the same shape and elemental affinity, and is large enough to hold the piece of evolith you wish to attach.
5. Attach evolith
- Evolith may be attached to a compatible piece of equipment via synergy.
- It is possible to outfit a piece of equipment with as many pieces of evolith as slots it contains.
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
The Finished Product
Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! The help window for your newly evolith-enhanced equipment will appear like this:
*Development screenshot—subject to change.
- Evolith Replacement and Slot Removal
Should you wish to replace an attached piece of evolith with one offering different benefits, this may be done at time via synergy. It is also possible to remove evolith slots entirely—thereby returning the equipment to its original state—through synergy using a dedicated item. Note that in both cases, the previously attached piece of evolith will be lost.
With countless varieties of evolith in existence, the possibilities are endless. Seek out the combination that best suits your playing style, and the equipment of your dreams can be yours!
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
POL News: I play Diablo, no wait I play FFXI... ummm
Monday, August 10, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: The Most Interesting Man in the World.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Izman doesn't always drink beer, but when he does he prefers Dos Equis.
Izman is the most interesting man in the world. When he talks, people listen. He once augmented a Iqgira Weskit just so that he could have multiple amazingly augmented pieces from FoV. Yes, the man that brought you such hits as Dusk Gloves, +2 STR and Amemet Mantle +1, +5 Accuracy is back again to bring you the next installment of the most awesome augments in the world. Yes, Izman, the man, the myth, the legend got +6 INT on his Weskit. That means basically that Izman rules the world of augments and FoV. If you are a melee, you want to be Iz. If you are a BLM, you want to be Iz.
Now don’t get me wrong, Iz deserves this stuff. After years of frustration with lots and no drops, this is Izman’s true come-uppance. This is karma actually finally coming around again as Iz has been screwed out of some stuff and some stuff has just taken forever to drop for him. Iz is pretty mild mannered about these things, but I know he does like FoV far more than most people especially myself who has gotten nothing but crap from it so far.
Iz is just one of those deserving people that when they get something really nice or get really lucky, you don’t get jealous, you are just pleased that favor shined on them that day. There are not that many people that are truly cool like Izman in the game. If there were there would be a lot less frustration out there in Vana’diel. The most interesting man in the world does not concern himself with the petty nature of scoundrels, for he is the most magnificent bastard in all the world.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Risk vs. Reward.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Is the gamble worth the bet?
Risk vs. Reward has always been something for crafters to me. Most of the things in this game are time sinks, but eventually if you do something long enough you will get the items that you really want. If you camp something long enough you will get the claim. If you kill something often enough you will get the drop. I am fine with that and I accept it as part of the time-sink in the game. I am undecided if I like the new FoV system.
Now, I don't have a problem with it upsetting the balance of the gear universe. People that can't except that there gear is inevitably going to be obsoleted are playing the wrong game. Hell, they are playing the wrong genre of games. I am more concerned with the risk in trading in high-dollar items just to get a crappy or even detrimental Augment. Now, you could be Izman and get the item you see above, or you could be me and get -1 AGI, -1 INT and +2 MND on your Warwolf Belt.
As I have written here in the past, I know that this new system is good for crafters. The items are always consumed irrelevant of the quality of the Augment, and unlike the new Fey weapon Augments you only get one chance. It basically makes items that once were rather saturated on the AH into consumables like food. This is especially true of items that have good NQs and the Augments make it possible to surpass the HQ. So crafters get a more stable source of income while I either get to risk some high value item or just upgrade some cheap stuff.
Do you like gambling with your gear? Or are you more of the conservative type? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Grading the July Update.
Initial reactions are never a good grade of how good anything really is, and this update is no exception. Iceblazek went from hating the update as he was downloading it, to absolutely loving it when it appeared that we may have been killing the first Amphiptere on Odin and maybe even the whole game.
After an enjoyable night testing out new mobs and the new Union system even I have to admit I was much more pleased with this update than I thought I was going to be. To evaluate this update though, we need to look at other updates and juxtapose this one with those to get an idea of just how good it is. The last update was on-balance pretty disappointing, in fact, I didn't really remember what was added in the last update, so I had to check. There were some significant additions, but nothing really said "new" like we have had in the past. There were four significant additions in the April Update. 1) The new WHM JA's (and the RDM and SMN additions), 2) ANNM's and Augmented Items, 3) Gobbiebag expansion. There was definitely more and people will love pointing out the things I missed, I am sure.
Compare that to this update and we can see that this update is probably a little better overall. We got two new zones, which is something we really haven't gotten in almost a year and a half. Included in those zones are three new mobs and several potential melee and BLM XP areas. We got new JA's for NIN, which I believe was sorely in need of some kind of improvement to balance them with PLD. Now, I still believe that those improvements don't fix what is really needed for NIN, which is a bit more survivability.
The Union system is definitely interesting and rewards doing Campaign even if you have to be lucky to get those rewards. It definitely spices up Campaign a bit. We got the long awaited Campaign bodies which were about as good as I expected, the tanking body is great but the rest of them are pretty mediocre. Finally, we have a little bit of a surprise in the large number of Wings missions that were added. There are other things that still need to be determined, like the quality of the Fairy weapon quests and if this FoV stuff is even worth it.
Overall, I would have given the last update about a C- and this update was a little better than the last, that being said, and even considering the positive things I have said so far, this update doesn't really have that much going for it either. New zones are nice, but you need to have a reason to be in those zones besides just doing Campaign. New JA's are good too, but why do they share a recast and have diminishing effects? Union is decent, but the rewards are pretty weak and will soon flood the market and crush the cost of all of the items, except for the ancient currency which don't drop very much at all. One of the Campaign bodies is good, the rest are in line with the "mehness" of the other parts of the set.
I am holding out hope for the Fairy weapons, the packs of mobs you have to fight to get the rewards looks pretty difficult. I am thinking it will take more than a party to handle these and it looks like at least some of them resist sleep. The additional effects for these looked pretty good in the preview, but so did the FoV ones and we all know how they turned out.
So far I am giving this update a C+, but I still have my pen out and I am willing to improve the grade if things turn out to be better with the Fairy weapons. This update still has the problems that I had discussed before. It is tiny, it is uninspiring, it is flawed and it feels like there isn't anyone at SE that is motivating the forward momentum of the game right now. I can't wait until this cycle of crappy scenarios is over, but we still have at least one more coming before we get a regular update without all of this fluff. We can only really judge the direction of the game at that point.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Is Crafting Worth It?
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! This morning Ring reconsiders the crafting benefits of Augments and whether it's worth it at all.
Here is the thing, can you make money on crafting? Yes, you can. Is it worth it to try? That's the real question. I made the argument yesterday that the new Augment system was good because it basically consumed the crafted items that people are going to Augment increasing demand. The problem that I have read about is not with the randomness of the event which I still think is somewhat necessary for it's benefit to crafting, but rather that those that craft will drive down the price, either by those skilling up and trying to sell off the extra items quickly or by those just trying to undercut everyone else. The real benefit will go to the farmers or the middle men, or so the argument goes. I generally agree that there are negative pressures on the pricing of all items, and it is definitely true that a low supply increases prices more than high demand, but I do not think that higher demand is bad for the prices of items. Remember, this is not a situation like after an update where everyone needs an item for a quest. This is a continual demand situation, where people are going to need many of the same item over and over, and this demand may cause an increase in supply too, but over time it should work to increase prices and for crafters, increase profits.
The problem is that is it worth it for the crafter over the farmer? The farmer, if they find the right items to farm will be able to set the prices on the raw materials and get the largest chunk of "pure" profit. Increase demand for them will directly increase profits, and the only risk of will come in the form of undercutting. The crafter is then further at the whim of the farmer for creating these items if they choose not to farm the raw materials. It's a rather complicated scenario, and in the end I still think it will be net beneficial for crafters, but it definitely is not as clear cut as I thought it was yesterday. One can still hope that the market could be more rational this time because of the constant stagnation it has been in since the large majority of RMT were killed off several years ago. But I doubt it. I have seen players do too many strange and silly things to destroy the price of items for no reason for too long to think that we can really predict what is going to happen.
Do you think the new high-level Augments will be good for the economy? Will they be bad? Do you think things will stay pretty much the same? Are you looking forward to this as a crafter? What about as a farmer? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: Augmenting Your Pants.
Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Today, Ring looks at Augments in the July Update and can't stop giggling. I can't even say Titmouse without giggling.
God, Augments have to be the best thing ever created for blog post titles. "That's gold Jerry! Gold!" Alright, so we have the potential to Augment decent gear now. What does that mean for everyone? Well, my first thought is that this is finally the crafting solution SE has been promising for a while. Augmented items can't be resold. They are economic dead-ends if you don't get the Augment that you wanted. This means that there will be increased demand for just about any item that can be used for Augmenting. More demand means more profit for crafters, more profit for crafters means more gil spent on other things. Stagnation in demand is the worst thing for the FFXI economy and this is an artificial boost to demand.
Someone will always complain about improvements, and the complaints this time come in the form of randomness being the evil of all games. I agree with this complaint, at some point randomness becomes annoying when you have to do the same thing over and over just to get a small improvement in gear. I do have two responses that overwhelm this concern though. First, it's the nature of FFXI, all MMO's and even all modern RPG's to have RNGs determine your gear, your strength, your survival, everything. Second, even if it is annoying to have more randomness injected into the game, it is still better to improve the economy and deal with the randomness. I think the effect of this is going to be huge. It is going to effect a large number of crafts, especially smithing, clothcraft and leathercraft because they have viable synths for good end-game gear that can be purchased off of the AH. It will even benefit those items that are in mass supply because of BCNM drops, like Warwolf Belts for example.
Of course it is too early to tell the exact effects of these new Augments, especially the ones that come from the Pixies which are a completely different issue. If you can't look past the system itself to see the benefits to the economy, though, then I think it is more a case of general frustration instead of weighing the pros and the cons.
Do you think this is a boost to crafting? Do you think this is just going to turn into one more time sink? Are you looking to get a sweet augmented item? Or are you unwilling to risk the sweet gear you already have? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
POL News: Augment the Size of Your Weapon!
There are just too many good jokes to be made about the Augment system, but I will leave that for another day. Today the news on POL is that the next update will feature further (final?) expansion of the Augment system to top-level (useful?) gear. I understand the nature of things like this being rolled out over time. SE wants to test it out first, see if it works, if there are problems or whatever, but I don't understand why after they know it works they would still want to piece it out over time. Anyway, there are two different parts of the Augment announcement, the first deals with Fields of Valor. SE is adding new "elite" training regiments to the Zilart-era "high level" areas:
Cape Teriggan / Eastern Altepa Desert / The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah / Ro'Maeve / Yuhtunga Jungle / Yhoator Jungle / Western Altepa Desert / Valley of Sorrows / Ru'Aun Gardens
The only really important thing to note about this is that you will be able to hand in high-level gear. Not only will this let you actually get some gear that you might use out of Fields of Valor, but it might be a huge boon for crafters. I am not into the economics of crafting like some people but my thoughts are that if you take something, make it so that you can't sell it again, you are going to need more of those things. Which is what Fields of Valor should do for some of this gear.
The second thing of note from POL is that there something to do with Augments and Pixies, and it gets kind of convoluted from there. All I know is that I will get to hear Omoikitte squeal like a school-girl about the "fairies" in her best British accent. This is what I can glean from the situation so far: there will be new craftable weapons, that will be commissioned by the Pixies, you will fight a monster with your friends, that will give you a random Augment, that you can change up to five times, and other people can get it too, or they can get another reward. I think I covered everything with that run on sentence.Check below the cut for the full update notes.
Hear ye, mighty champions of Vana'diel!
Have you gazed longingly at the augmented apparel donned by your lower-level peers, wondering when similar equipment would be introduced for those of powers puissant?
Consider your wait over! A host of new augmented items designed especially for high-level characters will be one of the many exciting additions in the upcoming version update.
Further Fields of Valor!
Elite training regimes will be added to the following areas:
Cape Teriggan / Eastern Altepa Desert / The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah / Ro'Maeve / Yuhtunga Jungle / Yhoator Jungle / Western Altepa Desert / Valley of Sorrows / Ru'Aun Gardens
Thus far, Elite training regimes have yielded augmented items intended for players level 50 and below. Those who demonstrate their valor by completing the new regimes in the fields above, however, will be rewarded with a new selection of augmented items suited for levels above 50.
A New Challenge Awaits!
The greatest heroes and heroines of Vana'diel—those who have achieved the pinnacles of their respective professions—can also look forward to a new quest that will test the limits of their prodigious powers, and promise rich rewards in kind.
With hordes of fell beasts threatening their ancestral homelands, the pixies would entreat your aid. By entering into a pact with the fey folk to slay one of their notorious foes, high level players will have the opportunity to obtain an augmented item to add to their arsenal.
While Fields of Valor and the elite training regimes offer quick, straightforward objectives that can be enjoyed by lone wolves, this new quest is intended to provide a significant challenge to full parties of up to six veteran adventurers.
To participate in this quest, players must first craft a suitable weapon via a set of new recipes that will be introduced in the coming version update. Entrust one such weapon to the new quest-giving NPC and successfully complete the assigned task, and your weapon will be retuned, freshly endowed with an augment of impressive potency. Should the initial enchantment not be to your liking, you will also have the opportunity to slay a different foe—up to a maximum of five times—to receive a new augment that may better suit your needs.
This quest will offer something for everyone, as each member of the victorious party who has accepted the quest will be eligible to reap the augmented reward. Even players who have not accepted the augmentation quest will be compensated for assisting fellow adventurers with a bounty of their own.
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
