Final Fantasy XIV crafting system to be modified, 'Materia System' discussed

Final Fantasy XIV Online producer Naoki Yoshida has taken to the game's official forum to post an update about the future of the MMO's crafting system. Seems Materia could be making a comeback.

The update, posted by community rep 'Gildrein', discussed the current crafting system and the direction that Yoshida and team are looking to take it.

Top priority is to be a revamping of existing crafting recipes. Yoshida acknowledged that the current system contains "too many recipes requiring too many materials," and that the ranking requirements for obtaining materials and crafting some of the items is currently "unbalanced".

The life of the 'Discipline of the Hand' character class looks about to get a little less bumpy, with the "ease of solo crafting activities up to rank 20" being made relatively easier - rumours that solo crafting can make you go blind are unsubstantiated.

The focus of the potential introduction of a Materia system, Yoshida writes, is to "breathe new life into the game's economy by improving gilflow and the distribution of items." Yoshida warns that the new system may undergo a name change before it's finalised, but that the intended consequences for each character class are thus:

• 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.

The full post, outlining the proposed changes to the crafting system can be found on the official FFXIV forum.

Elsewhere, a patch planned for today, April 14, will cap the maximum party size at eight. Patch maintenance is planned for 9-11.00pm BST. Full patch details can be found here, around a third of the way down the page.

FFXIV was released on PC September 2010. A PS3 version is planned but there's no release date as yet.

Thanks, Siliconera.