[dev1152] Item Levels / Equipment Help Text

More of an outside perspective, but to me it looks like a horribly convenient way to marginalize people.

That's also compounded by the fact that the Item-Level system might make it less necessary to learn proper equipment building and making critical choices through careful theory and practice, though certainly no less relevant to success in the game.

I don't understand how it is a way to marginalize people?

Think about it for a while, I'll answer you in a few minutes, but I'd rather you understand why yourself.

If the mentalities stay how they are, it won't impact FFXI in the slightest, as it shouldn't.

Now, if some people start to use the mentality "It's Abyssea time? Full AF3+2 is pimp, everything else is ***" and apply it to nowadays, you get:

"You're not 5/5 Mikinak, you're not worth inviting". Why? Because the rest of the stuff either has no ilvl, meaning it's (following their logic) absolutely 100% irrelevant or, it has lower ilvl. And other HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE stuff like that.

Of course it won't impact some of the people posting here and it is absolutely stupid to follow such logic, but believing that the players going through pick ups won't be facing this when you see the stupid stuff that has been happening since VW is a bit of an utopia.

Okay, let me rephrase, how is it a way to marginalize people that's any "worse" than how people already marginalize people?

Because the way it is right now, people who marginalize based on stupid logic always say "I think/feel that". Now, they'll have a value to base their argumentation on.

They'll still be wrong, but it gives them the feeling that they are right, it gives them credit, in a way. From there, new players or some people who didn't dare before can rise and create a bigger move of idiocy.

I don't think it will make people shout for minimal power level, rather it might just cause noobs to fulltime even more random stuff than before.

That's a much better question actually.

The only reason I can think of, is that this "Gearscore" doesn't necessitate an intimate understanding of how gear really works and the situations in which certain sets are better than others.

For example, maybe a Hybrid Haste-DT-% set would have a lower "Gearscore" than a more specialized set, but those sets are applicable in certain situations that others aren't.


This is probably true, but I don't think it's wise to "Wait and see" if the worst-case happens, it's better to make people aware of it before ***goes full retard.

The number is pretty pointless unless they plan on adding a system that forcibly gates you out of content (Hands of darkness prevent you from going any further. You have party members that do not meet the minimum item level requirement.) or unless they plan to tell us what item level is recommended or required to clear new tiers of content, which I doubt they'll do.

I'm sure this will change over time, but there still exists a lot of gear pre-ilvl 110+ that you'd want to wear over ilvl 110+ armor, it will be difficult to have ilvl requirements for shout groups that aren't asking for specific slot ilvls. Gear of a higher/the highest tier ilvl is not always going to necessarily be the best choice in every slot, for every situation, for every set.

The way i see it is people are going to judge others by there gear score its just going to cause drama. AkA not allowed in my shell or event because of a low gear score.

I mean, people shout for Delve DD for Salvage.

Why is everyone throwing a hissy fit about being excluded from events because your gear isn't great? Leaders don't want to take a chance on a RANDOM person who doesn't even have delve weapon (or w/e the case may be). I took a break and came back, guy was shouting for delve DDs, I /tell him I have amano99 but I guaranteed I would parse in top 2 (suprise, i 2x'd or more almost all the 'delve dds'). He let me in because he knew I was skilled and would do well with or without the weapon. Maybe get a reputation as a good DD and people will let you slide without stuff?

OR.....

You are free to shout yourself and have no requirements to get in. I, personally, judge people based on parses and past experiences. If you suck as a DD (most do), i'll put you on a support job. If you suck on that too, i'll ignore you. These events are points/time and the better people are, the more points everyone gets. Shout yourself if you don't like someone else's system. Tiring to see leeches who want to suck and get points while doing it.

This is all pointless now because all the 'elitist' people (myself included) won't be shouting to farm plasm. We will be doing 70-80k/hour farming 5NM+bosses and after a couple weeks cap out.

The update is pointless to anyone with half a brain. We know how to gear our jobs based off stats, xhits, acc needs, hybrid sets, etc. I personally think all it will accomplish is showing how dumb SE is and how they 'think' gear is ranked.

I don't think SE realizes you can swap gear during battle.

Let the.. you been examined fest begin :)

Didn't they at one point admit "Gear Swapping" was not part of their original design concept?

I kinda think they might try to change that soon.

Wow, the thought of the ballista gear swap penalty being instated across the board makes my brain bleed.

You can't beat anything remotely difficult with an alliance of people that don't change gear accordingly to the flow of battle...

I just find gear score is insulting to my intelligence.

Good thing it's not a gear score.

Maybe not by design, but when have the players been subject to the constraints of FFXI's design?

If players want to force the concept of a gear score using this new item info, obviously they're welcome to. They're also welcome to continuously wipe to T1 NMs since these numbers, in the current game environment, are quite meaningless.

but then proceeded to introduce numerous side grades and magic/ja/ws specific gears. afaik, they have also said they originally wanted war to be "the" tank rather than pld and nin to be an enfeebling front line job rather than a tank in most cases.

they dont really seem to know what they are doing with their original designs. i don't remember any job that didn't get drastic changes in playability at some point over the years, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. but that is also what makes some people think so deeply over different strategies and situational gear sets and the whole community benefits from their research.

on topic; this game already has too many "you can't tell me how to play, this is my money" or "you don't have X item by now? you suck" people around and i share the feeling that this item level thing will encourage the ignorant and the jerk even further to judge people by their gear score. discrimination is the last thing this game needs considering the active population and the average skill level.

it is already pretty hard on most servers to set up an alliance that works at all for something like delve NMs, not even mentioning wildskeeper or delve boss... maybe this won't make the current situation any worse but there mustn't be anyone thinking this will make it any better, either. they keep saying they don't have enough manpower to introduce this or update that but then wasting their times with arbitrary stuff... /sigh

tl,dr; dear SE, we can already judge the power and usability of a piece of gear in a given situation pretty well so how about using your manpower on things that really matters?

i havent seen anyone really losing their mind yet just people making very accurate predictions as to what the playerbase will do people have too many cow instincts in this game

Its just a number. There is nothing to think about here...

... like I said, people losing their mind and assuming the world is going to end over a number. I tend to over exaggerate for dramatic effect.

Let's be honest, it's much more than just a number.

The ID of an item, now that's just a number. They are adding a label that has the potential of having a very heavy impact on how players view other players.

That doesn't mean it will happen, but there is a chance people will be complete *** about it, and that isn't how this game should be run.

To me I don't care either way, but if it has the potential of excluding someone from a group just because they don't have a certain item level then I would prefer to not have it at all.

it's not just a chance Kali it's an absolute fact that people will be *** about it lol thus my comment about cow instincts

Numbers in general have a huge impact on everything in life.

From deciding/telling you/making you believe that you are a *** up in school to whatever else.

There is a good explanation of this in Hunter X Hunter, I believe (Kirua/Nobunaga).

This is why this number, even if for you and me it means nothing, even if you and me won't even look at it and just see it as "oh, they put something in the corner", the average player, which is a much bigger number than you and me can represent, will see something else. They'll see a number telling them that they are badass, or whatever else their brain reads.