Evolith System!

The Latest Evolution in Equipment—Announcing the Evolith System! (11/04/2009)

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!


Source: http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/5017/detail.html

Seems overly complexed and involved to me. Looks like we have an answer for where all that new ***comes from thought. /sigh

Looks like another interesting way to ruin items, see also augments.

TDLR: Hay gaiz have sum materia.

*** yeah ***looks great.

At least we know what we're putting on the item this time at least. I think this is a not so lolrandom solution to augments.

I'm really worried about what happens when Synergy is failed since the post cites "if successful" clause. Is item lost or what?

Well this is at least way better that normal augments.
#1 you get to choose which item to add slots to
#2 you decide what you want to add to it (sort of)
#3 if it doesn't suit you, you can still remove the Evoliths AND the slots to make it tradeable again (if I understand them correctly)

Seems good enough to me =^.^=

Can't they implement SIMPLE stuff. This looks rather complicated AGAIN.

As if understanding how on hell MMM works, Pankatrion, Cameras for ZNM, Chocobo races and the bet system, Chocobo racing, etc... wasn't complicated enough.

I kinda miss the old days sometimes.

Except you get the evolith's themselves from NM's, which are going to be random just like augments, just that you can choose not to put them on your weapon, then you have the whole element/shape/size limitation as well.

This is fail <_<

Mighty strikes: ability delay -1?
Meaning recast? :o
hmm

It looks like they mean, some equipment can't take certain Evolith's. And it will not be successful if its not a good match. More like being declined to augment I assume.

SE has always been High Risk, Low Reward for FFXI. So I'm more inclinded to beleive the gear explodes and is lost in a ball of magical fire.

Seriously. Next thing you know, the servers are all going to accidentally a whole Mijin Gakure during the update.

^ This

lol man... this update should be intersting

Looks good to me. Loving all the negativity when people don't even know how it works. The glass is half full, people.

its half empty guy. just like half this updates about to be big waste of suspense and hype >.>

Wooot

FFVII materia ;D

Wow at the people whining about this.

wtf my avatar

I hope dont happen this :
you want to merge your hagun with evolith stone? YES !
Well, syntesys failed.. you've lost an hagun.. noooooooo T_T
:P

Shh you! :P

I think this sounds very interesting. I'm reading it as, instead of augmenting speed belt and praying for some +acc or w/e, you wait till you get a materia with +acc or w/e and slot it into your expensive gear.

Only prob i have is So we might not actually even see it this update =/

Two things im wondering:

1. How many Evoliths does these NMs drop? Probably 6-12 ppl needed to kill them and only drops 1 evolith? Hmm I can see that happening....

2. Are all the evoliths going to be along the same lines as the ones posted and have weird stats? Or is there gonna be haste/acc/fastcast somewhere in there? I'm guessing that would unbalance gear too much and can't see it... hauby+1 with haste? More like hauby+1 with "On Lights day: Attack+5" lol

I'm guessing restrictions on what items can be upgraded with this are probably going to be similar to what things can be done via augment fights.

NM system will probably be similar as elite training regimes, with NMs of different level based on zone dropping varying stones with better stats according to level of NM.

Most likely a restriction of 1 NM hunting regime either every vana day or real life day.

All in all, another system for casual players to get decent gear, and more hardcore players to spend tons of time trying to super upgrade specific pieces. Feel sorta bad now for the people who kept trying over and over on augments though.

ill save my actual bitching for after ive actually been able to form an opinion on it. purely speculating on that tiny preview though, i cant help but feel like its going to be VERY complex and time involving for minuscule *** rewards..
mmm failed.. augments failed worse...
this doesnt sound or look like a promising new "evolution" in equipment/game playing to me either.


dear se,
can we get more stuff with less *** pls ? kthxbye.
-blurr

1: i would bet 3~6 just like the weapon augments they added, difficulty determines number of stones dropped. Also probably 24hr cooldown before you can initiate a new battle. I see it similar to assaults / MMM getting Evoliths instead of Runes.

2: I would bet you'll see conditional equipment crop up on X day, during nights, when doing X, gain benefit Y.
for melee WS accuracy, WS atk/dmg, HP < X% bonus etc.
for mages skill+ / Matk+ / potency+ / Enmity-
for "tanks" conditioned under JA or spell effects (Protect spell : defense +10?, Shell : Fire resist +5?)

Useful but not game breaking really similar to all the augmented weapons, although you can get "the best" it would take dedication, usually you get acceptable side grades or situational pieces. This system looks like it will be able to make good gear better more reliably than the augment system.

As far as "If successful" i would hope it doesn't break the equipment, but i wouldn't be surprised if you lost your augment stones.

Can someone post screen shots of the pictures on that post? Work blocks all POL content. Thank you in advanced.

They aren't worksafe!