Haven't been around in a while. I have to apologize that I just couldn't find the motivation to write for a couple of weeks because the format change was a bit draining on my writing and after several years of pretty consistent writing, what do you want from me? :)
Anyway, this post isn't to explain why I haven't been writing, it's to write about Evolith, Synergy and all this stuff I still haven't figured out. Now, I am usually on top of things like this but for a while I have just been so busy that it's hard to keep up. The other problem is trying to find a comprehensive collection of real facts about the system that doesn't included 5 random uninformative posts in between every useful post, e.g.
The real problem though is not the information or how the community is dealing with the system, it is with the complexity of the system and superfluous nature of that complexity. I don't know what the minds at SE were thinking but it couldn't have been anyone that plays the game that came up with this. A new crafting system that is dependent on more open-world NM drops. A new point system based on those same NMs, to get items to get the new crafting system to work. Drops from those NM's to make the gear in the new crafting system. Drops from those same NM's to get the Evoliths to put in to the slots (that are added using the new crafting system) using the new crafting system.
The word that comes to my mind is convoluted. Convoluted wouldn't be too bad if it also didn't follow another SE tradition: 99% uselessness. I thought we had finally gotten away from this for the most part. I thought that SE had finally understood that player's will quickly figure out what sucks and ignore it. The initial round of augments had such wonder additions as "Vs. Vermin, Light Magic Enmity -1" and other such nonsense. Ok, so I made that one up but they were in that vein. The best so far have been on individual weapon types, slight increases on their weapon skills.
Don't think I am counting the system out just yet, I think that once people figure out what is best it should be pretty good. I just don't get why it is so complicated for no reasons. You could have done this whole thing without the point system, or you could have had new items with slots built in, or you could have made synergy more focused or you could have had evolith purchasable with these new points or well, you get the point.
Expect more on Synergy, Evoliths and other such things soon.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Morning in Vana'diel: What's going on here.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
POL News: Synergy! Synthesis enmass.
Further details of how the Evolith system is going to work in terms of the actual nitty gritty on creating the synthesis process to fuse the evo-stones to your weapons, and a hit on how to remove them as well.
No longer will you be able to hide in your moghouse and conceal those horrible critical failures on expensive items, you can now share the joy of it with everyone in your party as well.
Yes, this was my first thought on the whole synergy process when reading about it, sad really isn't it.
A fancy pot-bellied oven in public areas, or a personal one you can summon out into the field via a quest that will most likely come with either a once-summoned it melts, or a recast cooldown of about 3 days allows you to access the new synergy process.
Interestingly enough this new method is something that will promote leveling a crafting skill to effectively manipulate the new synergy process. A great many more elements than the regular synthing process, beyond just the slog of skilling up are required to be successful in just starting the synergy process. Simply heating the oven isn't enough, as with the more familiar crafting process once all the aspects are in place there is no guarantee that you will succeed. At least SE is throwing in the ability to skill up synergy levels to become more proficient at it and reduce the number of breaks.
So what do you need to synergize! Beam me up Scotty!
Each synergy requires a certain skill level before it can be performed, the skill level drawing on two different sources before you can even think about starting.
The first is the basic craft level of the article you want synthing, someone in your party is going to need to have the relevant craft to level X before you can start. In addition you need to fill up your party, to a maximum number of 6 in order to create an elemental balance and fewell, which is the name of the new source of power that fuels the furnaces.
From what I can gather everyone participating needs a fewell crucible, which is a quested item that remains with you till you quit FFXI so you only need to quest it the once and since SE wants this to appeal to everyone, I should imagine that it won't be that hard of a quest to access or complete.
At the moment SE are being kind of vague on who you can invite into your party in order to fill up the maximum amount of fewell needed in order to start the synergy process, merely hinting at certain prerequisits. What these are, are anyone's guess. Could be job type, job level, holding a pumpkin, eating a cheese sandwich, casting a spell or activating a job ability, we don't know. Fortunately the npc guarding the oven will let you know and even give you more fewell for a "nominal fee".
Once you have filled your crucible with fewell, you then need to stake your claim on the oven in public areas, or summon your own private oven if you are out in the field. Depending on how popular this is, I can forsee this being incredibly laggy, just like Moblin Mazemongers was in the first days of it being released with a horde of people trying to click on a single target.
Once you have successfully claimed the oven, now you get the pleasure of claiming inanimate objects as well as that HNM every 24hours, you can shovel all your ingredients in and hope it works... WAIT! Nope, again, SE have taken it a step further.
The implication is that during the process, there will be certain triggers that have to be met in a timely fashion in order to prevent your synergy from just simply detonating. You can't just shove it in the oven and ignore it until it is done, there is more work to be done on top of that. Again, what these conditions are, as of yet are unknown, but it will be interesting to see how complicated they are making this process.
Tada, after all that you either succeed or fail.
Will it be a critical failure every time and all your ingredients are destroyed?
Will it be a little more like conventional crafting and you can retrieve something from the mess of a failed synergy?
How long is the whole process going to take, omitting the actual hunting down of the evo-stones to start with?
There are some fairly big questions overhanging this at the moment, in this modern world of instant gratification, getting 6 strangers to stand around for 30mins while you try and synergy something is going to put people off using the evolith system VERY quickly, unless you can find all the requirements amongst your friends.
They do emphasis leveling up your synergy skill in order to access more complicated recipies and to further ensure you don't ruin the whole synergy in the process. Which sounds suspiciously like a new craft using old tools more than anything else. We will have synergists popping up to specialise in this particular craft.
I really like the overall idea, its combining a lot of different game play elements into something that requires team-work. However, the rewards from the evo-stones has got to be something astoundingly amazing for it to really get off the ground given the level of hassle you have to go through to get anywhere with the evo-stones and synergy. Not everyone comes with a bucket of patience and most people who leveled a craft the first time around know how hard, and how time consuming it is.
I see no reason as to why this would be any less expensive, time consuming and hard work, just even more complicated than crafting on its own. When it comes out in the November update I will definately be taking a gander to see how it pans out in real terms.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
POL News: I play Diablo, no wait I play FFXI... ummm
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!
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
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