Naoki Yoshida on: Crafting and "Materia" System

12 Apr 2011
0

Update or Patch information has seemed somewhat scarce the past couple of weeks. Today however, the information is starting to come in! Details about patch 1.17 that’s landing in a couple of days and now some bits of information via the Official Forums!

A post from Naoki Yoshida was translated and posted on the NA section of the forums today. In it he gives a summary of the direction they have planned for the current crafting system. One thing that might stick out to players of Final Fantasy VII is the addition of a system which has tentatively been giving the name: Materia. For those of you that may have lived in a cave since FFVII’s release, Materia was essentially a socketing system that allowed you to equip certain spells, summons, etc. The idea with bringing a similar system to Final Fantasy XIV is that it would allow personalization of gear and at the same time allow DoH and DoL to get involved with fusing and catalyst gathering. We have yet to see if the Materia name will stick and I’m sure many players will be on the fence as to whether or not they want to see the same name from Final Fantasy VII’s system come to Eorzea. In either case, personalization of equipment is nothing new to MMO’s and would certainly be a welcome addition if done correctly.

However, Materia isn’t the only thing mentioned. There’s also discussion of repairing items, the crafting gauge, and the possibility of introducing some low level “instant” crafting.

Check out the full post from Yoshida-san after the jump!

Hello everyone, this is Yoshi-P! This is the first post on fixes to the game economy that the crafting and gathering teams are working on under the leadership of Komoto. Sorry it’s taken so long to post, and thank you all for the great feedback! In regards to crafting, there have been a number of discussions in a number of threads, but before I actually reply to any of those individually, I’d like to first give you a summary of the current crafting system and the direction we’re taking it.


Among all synthesis-related fixes, our top priority is revamping existing recipes. We currently see the following problems bogging down crafters:

  • Too many recipes requiring too many materials
  • Unbalanced rank requirements for obtaining materials and crafting items

We’re making considerable changes, all aimed at bolstering the role of Disciples of the Hand in Eorzea’s economy. Once the revised recipes are worked out, I’ll be sure to post in this thread again.


We also plan to introduce the below adjustments to the Discipline of the Hand “character arc,” together with the recipe changes mentioned above:

  • Ease of solo crafting activities up to rank 20
  • More focused crafting and economic activity from rank 20 on

To start, we’ll be making progression to rank 20 for Disciples of the Hand and Land relatively easier. Beyond rank 20, we’ll have crafters participating in the market, and playing a more active role in the in-game economy.


We are planning a number of adjustments to the stats on crafted items, aimed at the following two ends:

  • Create a characteristic uniqueness for Disciples of the Hand
  • Allow Disciples of the Hand to craft items in high demand

For any given rank, there are differences between the important stats on pieces of gear suited for different classes. In line with this, we will be making adjustments that let crafters tweak the stats on crafted gear to customize it for certain classes. (Of course, we’ll be balancing Discipline of War and Magic classes at the same time.)


I mentioned this in one of my previous letters. These new concepts are not limited to simply new elements in the synthesis process, but also aim to stimulate the economy as much as possible. Through crafting, we plan to breathe new life into the game’s economy by improving gilflow and the distribution of items, and ultimately improving both the merits of, and motivations for, all classes. Among the devs, we are tentatively calling this the Materia System, though that name may change. This new system will allow Disciples of the Hand to fuse materia to weapons and armor using special catalyst items gathered by Disciples of the Land.

  • Disciples of War and Magic can customize and personalize their gear
  • Disciples of the Hand can answer the materia-fusing needs of others
  • Disciplies of the Land can gather catalyst items to meet the realm’s demands

I’ll be posting more details on the Materia System at a later date.


We’ve received a lot of feedback from players regarding the crafting gauge. So we actually tested the synthesis process without a gauge, and had our quality assurance team do the same. In the end, we thought it would be fairly simple to do away with the gauge altogether. We’ll be checking this out more carefully, however, so that future additions to the system will not negatively impact gameplay. This might take some time, so I have to ask for your patience until I’m in a position to write more about the direction we decide to take. On the other hand, we’re thinking of bringing in some low-level “instant” crafting—quick recipes players can bang out without having to invest too much time.


Last but not least, we have the repair system. While the current repair system serves as a way for crafters to put themselves in demand, it’s also obvious that it’s not very popular among Disciples of War and Magic. But, after the release of the Materia System (see above), I think that the repair system will begin to balance itself out a bit more. It’s going to take some time before that system is ready, though, so in the meantime we’ll be reassessing the required materials for making repairs. We’ve also received feedback on the high costs of repairing items via NPCs, but ask that you give us a little more time to keep an eye on this. Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways to take gil out of the game right now, but once we get a few more in, we’ll look at adjusting repair NPC costs.


By ushering in all of these changes, we’ll be drawing sharp distinctions between quest rewards, loot from battle, and the fruits of gatherer and crafter labors. In addition, it will also help to create more specific demands within the game economy. As always, we’re looking forward to your continued feedback and further discussion! For now, this is just an overview, and I’ll be making more posts in individual threads later. Thanks!