[Corrderio]

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.

Read on for the details!

[Corrderio]

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!

[pathwriter]

So, yeah, this is what the augment system should have been. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[Corrderio]

I'm curious as to what gear can/can't be used. I'll assume anything w/ a Rare and/or Ex tag can't be used. However I'm curious what gear they'll leave out. I'm assuming gear like a Hauby/Sh/etc. are out of the question.

They also make it sound like you can fail doing this. If so what happens? Do you lose the stone? The gear? What?

[SolAcension]

the augment system was probably a test to see player reactions and commentary in an effort to make this system better. *haha yeah right*

[Amargosasun]

I wonder if acquiring evolith is only available via this NM hunting stuff.
That would be a huge let down.

[Animekitty9]

... "As early as late november.."

Yay three part update! But seiously~ This is the pot everyone was confused about? Lol

[Boldfinger]

Shit should have been like the materia system to start with. You have to be a pretty inept bunch of fucks before you're unable to rip-off your own ideas in a timely and effective manner

[Saeunn]

Hmm im interested, sounds like a pretty nice update but im not getting my hopes up.

Corrderio, on 04 November 2009 - 12:07 PM, said:

They also make it sound like you can fail doing this. If so what happens? Do you lose the stone? The gear? What?

Yeah it does sound like that. I hope its just the stone you loose if you fail and loose the gear. That would kind of suck a bit.

[Velhart]

Corrderio, on 04 November 2009 - 01:07 PM, said:

They also make it sound like you can fail doing this. If so what happens? Do you lose the stone? The gear? What?

I am going to stay positive and say you just lose your stone instead of the piece of gear itself. But I am not putting my hopes up about it.

This looks promising. If they make a "Store TP" stone, I will shit a golden brick.

[1]

I get the impression from the wording of if "successful" is in regard to the evolith being compatible with the item you wish to have the rock attached too and not a failure/success that is the norm with the synthing. I get this notion cause the final piece of literature on it is :

"- 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."


which indicates you can remove the evolith, lose the evolith in the process, and revert the item/equipment/weapon back to its original state... which would indicate that success/failure in creation of the item is compatibility and will not result in loss of items... . but i guess you could say that is hopeful speculation/interpretation after the last 6yrs

[Kleiner]

Quote

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.

if they cant cover an acceptable amount of gear, then the system is already fail.

[Arkley]

I'm not terribly enthusiastic about this. Considering that when SE announced FoV Augments they showed us (IIRC) a piece of level 30ish equipment with STR +3 DEX +5, and what we ended up getting was augments like STR -2 CHR +1 Earth Res +1, and this time they've started out by showing us such wonderful enhancements as Axe WS Att +6, and a high level Axe with no other stat bonuses that can hold only one Evolith, I'm not too hopeful.

That being said, I would like to see this turn out well 'cause it is a nice idea, and if it does I certainly won't be complaining.

[Phlow]

pathwriter, on 04 November 2009 - 05:52 AM, said:

So, yeah, this is what the augment system should have been. I'm not holding my breath, though.

^ This is the first thing I thought of when I read the update.

Corrderio, on 04 November 2009 - 06:07 AM, said:

They also make it sound like you can fail doing this. If so what happens? Do you lose the stone? The gear? What?

Anyone got the JP translated site? Shit is way better explained there.

Boldfinger, on 04 November 2009 - 06:54 AM, said:

Shit should have been like the materia system to start with.

gfd, it's not materia and the last thing we need is the sound of 1000 fapping ff7 fans. This is a STANDARD item + socket equip, this methodology goes back to D&D and is a staple in a shit load of RPGs. Stop calling it materia.

[spira]

has promise..

i assume the 'if u succeed' thing is the equivalent of synth success..
partly to maintain barriers to entry/obtaining.. and probably so that you need a certain skill level before you can synth

I'd love to see the evolith list

[Garota]

I'm sorry Summoners... Guess it wasn't a Stove Avatar after all...

[Cruxus]

Hmmm, that "Mighty Strikes: Ability Delay -1" has me wondering what exactly it does and if you can stack/obtain others similar 2hr evolith. Other than that this system sounds like the augment system we should have had set in place, where you choose the augments you want...now to see the list of incompatible gear. Also, what's with the great sword in the picture? They showed a dagger in the first update note and haven't said anything about it, now they show a great sword in similar fashion...

[Arcimpulse]

Quote

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.

I'd assume they're some of the new pieces available with the update. There's new shiny weapons like that for each class set to be released for the next update. Some of the dat mining threads have pics.

edit: http://wilddragoncha...dat-mining.html

New weapons at the bottom.

[Silvra]

This has potential for being great. On the other hand the current random augment system is complete shit. Don't fuck this up SE. We want useful augments we can choose, and we dont want to have to use a crappy weapon just to get a good augment. Hundreds of items or compatible? I doubt it. Anywho lets hope this turns out well, otherwise just add it too the list of SE fuck ups on good ideas. And yeh where are these avatars at?

[Zombuh]

I really hope this isn't like last time where they show these stones with awesome augments on them but when it releases all we'll find are stones with shit like HP + 2 MP -2 Earth Resistance +3. Then again, this is SE we're talking about. *crosses fingers* don't fuck this up, please don't fuck this up lol