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

[Griselda]

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

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...17/detail.html

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.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...017/5017_3.jpg

*Development screenshot—subject to change.


Evolith 101
Adventurers may enhance their equipment with evolith through the following procedure:

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...017/5017_9.jpg

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.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...17/5017_10.jpg

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.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...17/5017_12.jpg

*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:

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...17/5017_16.jpg

*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!

[Curzori]

So they changed update schedule from "early november" to late november?

Happy now that I didn't go FoV all my expensive non-ra/ex gear. Not expecting INT+6 weskits from this.

[GreenKnux]

Well uh...

Hmm... I'm suddenly reminded of the socket system from Diablo II. Again, like the previous augment system, this stands to either be good or bad, depending on how these 'Evolith's pan out.

Also... does this mean the augment system was the beta-test for this?

Wouldn't it be hilarious if the slots themselves were random in 'shape and size'? IE, you get a bitchin Evolith, but it takes 50 item attempts to actually get the proper slot for it. $5 says this is how SE did it.

Also I like the line 'Should your synergy be successful, congratulations!' This probably means the synth can fail. Granted, this isn't much different from crafting, but it could still be a bitch.

Before someone comes in and says "lol BG bitching about something else that could be good', let it be said that I am neither for not against this with so little information. I am simply listing off some possibilities that would make me laugh very hard.

[The Stig]

YAY A (slightly random) MATERIA SYSTEM LOL

[Darte]

...is that a 2hour ability recast down evolith stone i see there!?

[ClarkSammich]

I think this is going to be fairly restrictive, and is only being implemented as a means to usher people into using the shit gear that nobody uses (and with good reason).
i.e. No evolith slots on more popular armor like haubergeon, specific evoliths can only go on specific armor/weapons due to elemental affinity/shape/size, etc.

Also, I think the information in the bottom right corner of the item box denotes the values like element|shape|size. If that wasn't obvious.

Pessimism aside, this could be cool. Maybe they'll add rarer stats like song casting time reduction, pet stats, or great katana TP bonus. (Fuck you, hagun.)

Also, materia. I mean, really.

EDIT:
Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! Incoming crit fail.

[BrayenMidgard]

I have never been upset by update but if im reading this right i just fucking wasted a lot of time and money with fov and augmenting stuff...
/sigh

so...how does recovering a bunch of "accidentally" tossed items work >.>?

seriously this is fucked up! sounds like a nerf to our pockets by leaving FoV augments out and bringing this out now ; ;

here is to hoping that im wrong !! ><

EDIT: if it turns out to only use "junk" items ill be happy!
also if this will use the "new" items that was .dat mined a few days ago, i wonder if those items will be designed for maximizing/unique evowhatever for some good armor or something?

[Septimus]

So they changed update schedule from "early november" to late november?

Happy now that I didn't go FoV all my expensive non-ra/ex gear. Not expecting INT+6 weskits from this.

There are going to be two updates.

FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site

Also, this system sounds vaguely familiar:

Exactly, this is why rampant speculation is silly. Let me take five seconds to make up a way to do augmentations. Maybe you need items for augmentation that an NPC attaches to sockets in your armor. We could call those items "Materia" for the lack of a better term. You get this mystical "Materia" from fighting mobs or by doing quests or by trading the same or another NPC ingredients like crystal clusters and animas and drops from NMs. This "Materia" all has weight, so lower-level armors cannot handle the heavier ones that have better stats, so there is a level-cap involved with the different items. Or it could come from FoV or from Fellow Points or any of a billion other things they could do.

Don't like that word? How about "Schmeteria"?

And let me add that I am kicking myself for not adding "Axe Weapon Skills:Attack" and "Mighty Strikes:Ability Delay" to the Augment-O-Matic. (Mind you, they would only go on two handed weapons and equipment not able to be worn by Warriors respectively.)

[Kaylia]

Septimus ate my post apparently.


I'm curious to see what two hour recast piece are. My guess is something similar to merit ( 2 sec per minute), but it will be interesting to see.

[GreenKnux]

Also, this system sounds vaguely familiar

+1 internet for you good sir.

Also I totally didn't see the lolmateria possibility with this one. Again, I am at a loss for words.

Then again, I liked materia. Still, this has the potential to be more hilarious that augments ever were.

I'm curious to see what two hour recast piece are. My guess is something similar to merit ( 2 sec per minute), but it will be interesting to see.

If they did it like that, it would be all but useless. As things stand now, people aren't going to care much if your 2 hour comes back in 2 hours or 1 hour and 50 minutes. At least, I don't care about it. Then again, I rarely use my 2 hour anyway, because I'm constantly thinking I need to save it for a situation that never occurs...

[Kaylia]

Useless stats! That would be new.

Well, if it goes up to +5, it wouldnt be bad in salvage, since you could use it on first floor right away, and again later. I agree anything less than 1h wouldnt be worth it, except a few specific situation.

[ClarkSammich]

I actually read the "Mighty Strikes: Ability Delay -1" as "Hey dude, your provoke now has a 29 second recast when mighty strikes is active!" Who knows, though.

[GreenKnux]

I actually read the "Mighty Strikes: Ability Delay -1" as "Hey dude, your provoke now has a 29 second recast when mighty strikes is active!" Who knows, though.

That would be even more hilarious.

[EdgeMoragan]

I think we just fucked with the econ in a major way for 1 month, starting from here on in. @_@

[The Stig]

This is your UPDATE BLMs!!!!! (and SMNs)

They'll probably throw in:

Black Magic: Stone V
or
Summoning Magic: Chaos Elemental

or some shit like that.




Then again, wishful thinking really.

Probably more realistic would be: INT+1 . . .

[Corrderio]

This could have some potential, sucks we can't see how many slots a piece of equipment has. Though one line makes me worry....

Should your synergy be successful, congratulations! The help window for your newly evolith-enhanced equipment will appear like this:

SHOULD it be successfu,l huh? Does that mean it can fail? If so what happens? Do I love the rock? My armor? What? Hopefully when SE says they'll go into more detail they will instead of a 3 paragraph page on the history of these furnaces.

Oh well, if I can augment some shit onto my gear that I was too chicken to do it'll be worth it. R.Acc/Atk on a Martial Gun prz!

[arus2001]

Guessing you'll just lose stones on fails, kinda like manastone socketing in Aion.

[Amok]

I love the rock and my armor.

Does "The etching process will require the use of dedicated items" just refer to the gear being etchable or something else?

[Corrderio]

Guessing you'll just lose stones on fails, kinda like manastone socketing in Aion.

Hopefully that's it. Curious if all weapons will have these slots on them or if you have to earn them the same way you do Evoliths.

[Argettio]

I want to know more about what defines the slots size and 'shape' on the item you want to socket.

Are all haubys going to be something like 5Wind with a square shaped hole? or is going to be random when you trade it to the NPC.

I will take a guess that this system will be more predicable than FoV (as long as you can get the stone with the right stats), but FoV will give you higher stats/bonuses.

So FoV = rare chance of 6INT weskit
Stones = a decent chance of a 3INT weskit.

The realy big question is how hard are these stones going to be to get; solo, party, alliance?