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PD -> RE: The Position & Equipping of Miscs (8/26/2022 16:11:03)
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We have a Suggestions Sub-Forum, and specifically a thread for quick suggestions like these.
But anyways, part of me wonders though what effect this could possibly have on game balance. IIRC, miscs aren't really a well-considered part of the balance model and this sort of change (if it's even possible) would greatly upheave what's already a state of flux in terms of balance because the staff doesn't have time (seriously, we're still waiting on adjustments to SFP, Essence Orb and other widely-acknowledged problematic items!) to implement more balance features/updates in between what they already put themselves in-schedule between seasonals, rotations, holidays, premiums and yearly quest sagas. Granted as someone who does farm quite a bit (and I'm sure warmongers would love this change even more) this would be a welcome thing to have but even though I'm not a balance expert, something about this kind of idea doesn't sit quite right to me. Sure, it's automating what players would normally do anyways, but then I'd have questions like:
1. Would this activate the initial upkeep on said items at the beginning of every battle? If it wouldn't then this is just asking for more power creep by giving us free power for no resource cost. Would this auto-equip before anyone takes a turn, or after the initiative phase resolves? This sort of resolution phase actually matters a lot in terms of the below question, which is...
2. What's the effect this will have on battles? As I said sure it's automation but this is going to cause a real change in playstyles as sometimes, a small automation is enough to change an entire balance landscape (because convenience is a great factor of whether people do anything regardless of outcomes). I can only imagine that offense will continue to become ever more favored than it already is compared to defense as that small automation. And damage output is already a massive issue (this is why we only ever have up to 4 hits and why all bosses now have damage caps). It's gotten to a point where a lot of things like elemental/blocking modifiers and hinderance statuses are pointless for a vast majority of battles.
On the other side of the spectrum, it might devalue END and LUK even more as auto-equipping a defensive misc at the start of every battle would reduce the need to properly prepare for battles or even invest in initiative-granting stats. as auto-equipping defensive miscs will allow you to offset more risks that genuinely exist to stabilize the game. Part of what balances things like Backlashing for example is that they never go first and are expected to tank the full damage of an enemy's nuke which greatly increases the risk of playing those builds. And for hybrids that use multiple MAINSTATS that there's an opportunity cost of not investing in another secondary stat. With ensured defense the risks of playing hybrid/backlashing is further minimized.
3. Are there going to be other unintended side effects? Perhaps auto-equipping status miscs for example that said auto-function status has the potential to greatly warp balance (Cracked Ornament or SFP or Love Potion for example).
Now with that all being said, I'm not entirely against this kind of thing; I myself generally push for conveniences and the staff has done a lot of QOL updates in recent memory to improve player experience by automating things and streamlining processes. However I have to at least pause a little on this one given that there's a lot of potential for this kind of automation to go south.
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