Early Level Sync Findings

[Orinna]

You still need +12 skill at 75 to cap Minuet, so you'd, rather logically, need more than +12 skill if you're level syncing yourself lower than 75.

Well it's definitely not a perfect system.. But honestly, if someone is desperate enough to invite a lvl 75 brd to a lower level party.. It's not going to be a big deal to them if the bard isn't hitting tier on songs.

 

[Vilurum]

Oh, I totally agree. Although all in all it seems more like a system for *staying* at a given level range and not levelling out of it (because let's face it, some times you get awesome exp one level and then it goes way downhill the next level and you face a rough patch of a few levels before it's possible to get awesome exp again). With how severely it cripples higher-level gear, it's not nearly as attractive for lowering the level of someone who's already established as a high level.

 

[Euphacent]

It's great for if you aren't 75 already on the job you're leveling.

 

[Sandria]

Thanks for the info. I'm patching now.

 

[Genkaku]

I regretfully logged on last night just to try this lvl synch thing.

21SAM. Put in pt and synced down to 20. Qufim lake.

Spike necklace only gave -6MND.
Those lvl 21 attack earrings gave no att+
Beetle gear (lv 21) only gave half the DEF bonus.

Not that I really cared. Just my observation.

Whoever said No one skillchains anymore: In the pt, We did Enpi > Red Lotus > Shoulder Tackle on worms and there was even a MB in there. Made me remember the good old days lol.

All in all. Who cares about the stats on the gear. Id be happy to just lvl with some lower lvl buddies.

 

[Mishaela]

This sounds like a fairly large disappointment in what could have been a great idea. =/

Super Ribbon below level 51 is fairly good, but any other gear gets totally screwed. Hopefully they'll fix the issue soon.

*edit* I'm curious as to how this kind of change would effect Flawless Ribbon, unfortunately I won't have net access for some time to come before I could actually test it. I'd ask Jamal or Masa to test it for me but I don't think my account is active anymore, so...

 

[Hexx]

I cant say i can complain too much, just the fact that the dunes and qufim arent empty anymore and that i get invites for my lower level jobs is enough to keep me happy and satisfied. yes SE didnt think this update thru completely, but it can always be fixed right? I mean we have been getting some good stuff from the dev team, they may do something decent in the future ^_^

 

[Airou]

I hope it gets fixed, at level 50, having +1 STR/DEX, but of course the -20 Eva still applies, really isnt very appealing. They should atleast nerf negavtie bonuses as well. Im sure theyll look into this carefuly

 

[Hexx]

i seriously hope so, i mean hell, at 45+ ur better off with a luisant haubert set than with a haubergeon

 

[Zaltana]

i seriously hope so, i mean hell, at 45+ ur better off with a luisant haubert set than with a haubergeon

well considering you cant wear a hauby regularly till 59, i cant say i'm shocked. :crazy:

i didn't sell off all my low lvl stuff just for this reason.

 

[Jingizu]

well considering you cant wear a hauby regularly till 59, i cant say i'm shocked. :crazy:

i didn't sell off all my low lvl stuff just for this reason.

That's exactly the point that SE was trying to make. They introduce this level sync feature so that friends and ls mates can fill in slots in an exp party where there are no available appropriately leveled seekers.

They, did in, fact, state that defense ratings would be scaled down, and that most if not all stat BOOSTS would be negated entirely.

SE does not want to put crafters of low level gear out of business, nor, do they want to see a sudden glut of seer's gear sets and rse sets flood the auction house as level 75's dump gear en masse. The gear scaling is more a "convenience" to synced members so they do NOT have to mule for all the appropriate gear for the level at which they will be capped.

In fact, that, they have made negative stats remain untouched, indicates that they really don't even want you to use your high level gear in the first place.

 

[Mishaela]

In fact, that, they have made negative stats remain untouched, indicates that they really don't even want you to use your high level gear in the first place.

Could've sworn they said something along the lines of "Your gear's stats will be adjusted to fit the level but will still be some of the best gear for that level".

Granted thats true for some things, but very very very few things. =\ +/- Enmity gear, for example, isn't available at lower levels so that could be a very very slight plus to get +/- 1 enmity from wearing the proper gear, but still.

Saying SE doesn't want crafters to go out of business is a sick joke of sorts. There's always going to be people leveling jobs that can wear gear above their level, not to mention most cap gear people would typically bring in tow wouldn't be that expensive to begin with - The large majority of gear people wear in level cap range is AF, RSE or little trinkets such as Jaeger/Rajas/Sattva Rings, Voyager Sallet, Emp Hairpin, etc...

...Anything else people bring in tow are typically inexpensive items. =\ Unless someone constantly does a specific capped BCNM, they typically wouldn't hold onto, say, Luisant Gear, unless they have a job at that level that'd use it anyways...in which they wouldn't be selling it regardless of the stats the Synched gear gets since that job is still gaining actual levels.

 

[Xalioniaf]

They said your gear would be adjusted, but those who'd worked to get level-appropriate gear would have the best at that level.

 

[Mishaela]

They said your gear would be adjusted, but those who'd worked to get level-appropriate gear would have the best at that level.

Ah, thanks for the correction.

As I said in my last post though, theres a few items that can be quite useful even if their stats are lowered to a mere +1, so it's not -absolutely- horrible. They should try to fine-tune the way they adjust stats (or at least fix the negative stats on some items) but at least it's not a total fail of an update like some things have been in the past.

And this definitely wouldn't have a remotely large impact on crafters...in retrospect, if the level-appropriate gear is better, some items might actually become higher demand since some people may have enjoyed levelling a job at [x] level much more than they did at 75, you know? I for one loved goofing off on WAR in the ~40s and ~60s range much more than I did at 75.

 

[Vilurum]

I have no problem with level-appropriate gear still being better... I just have a problem with the poor scaling making level-appropriate gear not only being "better" but being "the only remotely reasonable option because the level-restricted gear sucks amazingly horribly".

There are plenty of algorithms and heuristics they could come up with that would make scaling make sense while still maintaining their goal of making level-appropriate gear better. What they came up with was just plain sloppy and lazy - any halfway self-respecting college programming student could come up with something, if not ideal, at least better than *that*.

(Not that I entirely approve of SE's goal in the first place, since it's just one more symptom of SE's "we don't want any single item that you ever put effort into, ever to go to waste and become useless" itemization. This has led to years upon years upon years of stagnation in terms of equipment - endless sidegrades and sidegrades and more sidegrades, with salt rubbed in the wound due to not having the ("legitimate") macro lines or the inventory space to keep up with it.)

 

[Xzerper]

I noticed some items, like Anitivenom Earring, gave me +4MP at lvl 30. Even tho the original earring doesn't have +MP on it.

I haven't tried that since the last maitenance...but it goes to show there were bugs in it.

If not more.

 

[Sharpe]

I noticed some items, like Anitivenom Earring, gave me +4MP at lvl 30. Even tho the original earring doesn't have +MP on it.

Doesn't have MP on it :S

 

[Xzerper]

Doesn't have MP on it :S

So I stand corrected Kind Sir!

Maybe it safe to assume it was another earring and I said the wrong name. =p o.0 /dodge

 

[Daveman]

If item level > capped level
new stat bonus = floor(old stat bonus*(capped level/item level))

The main issue is items with insane bonuses, take a novio earring for example, it would match a moldavite at lvl54. Imagine at lvl54 +10mab on just earrings? Zenith mitts would be another 3mab (or 4 if you own the +1), morrigan body, etc.. Almost all the top pieces at 75, would remain a top piece even at very low levels.

Basically, starting at the 70's, items start popping up that have flat out insane bonuses, just imagine the gear a lvl70 character can wear, and a lvl75 can, the "nerf" using your formula would only be 6.6% yet the gear can be many times better. And quite frankly, almost any formula would have the same drawback that's caused since item's stats don't get better in a linear fashion, and don't get higher at the same rate for all jobs or all slots.

The only reasonable way to do this would be on an item-by-item basis, which I really doubt SE wants to do. Either that or let higher level item be better than normal items and introduce a new powerlevel technique.

 

[Vilurum]

Or for each stat they could have a sort of table of "expected bonus to that stat at that level" - then take the percentage of that expected bonus that you actually have at your real level, and multiply that percentage by the expected bonus of the capped level. So for example, if they expect people to have +50 acc at level 75 and +20 acc at level 50, then if someone has +40 acc at level 75 (80%) they'd get +16 acc (also 80%) at level 50.

Or if someone's super awesome and has +80 acc (160% expected), then they get +32 acc at level 50: still not game-breaking, but in line with their super awesomeness and having gone above and beyond in the first place. Or alternatively if they had more than the expected bonus, they could simply *get* the expected bonus, but not get anything more than that.

It would, of course, require a bit of work and statistical analysis (or, heaven forbid, a rigorous itemization system in general), and it would have to somehow account for differentiating between uncapped gear (which should give its exact stats) and capped gear (which should be scaled), but it's something *one* person could do in a week in their spare time, even counting the time to punch in the item data into some sort of spreadsheet. SE's programmers would have the item data in databases to begin with, and they'd be paid to do that, so I'd imagine it would take even less time.

Again, that's another idea, which would be more effort but be more balanced than linear scaling. It does, of course, require effort - which gets back to my point that regardless of what a good system would be, it's plainly clear that SE was very sloppy and lazy about this, and didn't make anything that even *arguably* makes high-level gear worth using.

EDIT: I should probably add that this system doesn't piss me off as a player who'd intend to use it *points at that big "retired" over to the left* but as a programmer who's rather insulted by "professionals" who spit out shoddy programming. (Long-lasting chip on my shoulder, since of course you see that everywhere - Windows comes notably to mind - but it still bugs me.)