[Palom_FF]

One thing I really liked was that Square changed the color of charged items to make them easier to read. Is it possible to expand this to other items, such as those with latent effects?

Illustration 1:

When unequipped, an item would display as normal.

Illustration 2:

When equipped and latent effect has been triggered, the text description of the latent effect turns blue, signalling that it is indeed working.

Illustration 3:

When equipped and latent effect has not been triggered, the text description of the latent effect turns yellow, signaling that the effect is not working.

Is something like this feasable? The actual condition of the latent effect can still remain a mystery, so I don't really see it as something game-breaking. All this would do is set players at ease for certain items that are difficult to tell if the latent effect is working.

(Edit to add response below to main topic)
Take the Lv30 earrings. Magician's Earring: "Latent Effect: MP+30" When I equip the item, I can physically see my max MP go up by 30 points. Beater's Earring: "Latent Effect: Ranged Accuracy+3." How are you supposed to be able to tell if it's working, then? We, as a playerbase, know how to activate them, yes. They are nearly identical pieces of gear. The only difference being one I can physically see affect me, and the other I cannot. Why does the latter need to "remain a mystery" when compared to the former?

Nowhere did I say "put what activates the latent in the description." That part can still be the mystery. Honestly, even with a colored description it can still remain a mystery. "OMG my latent is working! How the hell did I do that?!" I just don't see why latent effects that affect "hidden" stats (such as accuracy, crit rate, etc) need to be made so difficult to tell when they're working when compared to items that affect a visable stat.

[kuu]

Where's the fun in that?

It's suppose to be kept hidden.

[Caspian]

Yeah, as handy as that would be, it would make the effect more noticable (some latents are virtually impossible to know if they're working), but like kuu said, SE isnt known for making things easier for us. (How many times have they done something to make Besieged harder?)
Besides, we get so many great threads of peoople arguing about them, why would we want to ruin that?

[Tirrock]

I don't care if they make it easier to know if the latent is active or not... I'm more annoyed by the formatting of some of the latents.

I never knew the latent on Trollbane also included the enchantment until I actually tried to use it and it wouldn't let me.

Edit: Actually, I take back my first sentence. I guess the latents aren't too hard to read if you just assume everything past "Latent effect" is part of the latent. I personally think making latent's easier to know when they're active would be awesome. Saves some guesswork on the 500 WS point weapons and would help solve some of those really strange mystery items that not everybody knows offhand.

[Legal Fish]

What a stupid arguement. "But SE isn't known to make things easier for us", well gee, that's a problem. Oh wai- this area in the forum is to suggest things to SE to make their game better, like solve problems.

Someone outside myself says something very, very smart and even includes pictures and it gets shut down. How completely moronic.

Anyway, I'm going to borrow those pictures...

[Caspian]

Where was I arguing that it shouldn't be done? I merely stated how SE is intentionally vague with those kinds of things. I have no problem with this being asked. And if it does get changed then thats fewer things that have to be intensively tested. It could even be combined with Tirrock's idea. When its not equipped, like when you're looking at it in a bazaar or AH thinking about buying it, all stats that are only applicable when latent is active could red or something.

[csBahamut]

I think that idea kind of defeats the point of Latent Effects. It's supposed to be a mystery. But making it easier to tell what in the description is part of the latent effect isn't a bad idea for those who have troubling figuring it out.

[Balodoth]

I don't see why that's such a horrible idea. I vote yes.

[kuu]

The point is to make it diffcult for the "msytery" that comes with all RPGs.

if everyone goes "my latent is working" in 3 seconds, it's pretty much a defeats the purpose of going out and finding how latent works.

I don't give you every spawn point for a ??? now do I? sure you can find it, but it defeats much of the purpose.

I'm already quite surpised that some of the harder latents have been discovered. who knew you had to do 500WS, and believes it.

But yet it gets discovered, and the glory, and oohs and ahs behind it.

I think the different types of latent is confusing yet, works. Some are all but obvious. Like jse's, sj latent.

Others are super secretive, which is what the point was.

I think you should be asking for more latents (thus having more easier to find out latents). Instead of more transparent latents.

[TenchiHawkwing]

I disagree. I like to know what my equipment is doing and when it'll do it. Why should I spend time/money on something and not even know how it works...

I don't really know anyone who uses latent gear without even knowing how to trigger the latent, so it wouldn't even make a difference most of the time.

[Taskmage]

I'm totally behind this. Entirely too much stuff is a mystery in the game. Say I have a latent that increases accuracy. How do I know if it's on? Can't tell, accuracy is a hidden stat. I think I was hitting more consistently when I was playing with my foot behind my head, but that might have just been my perception, altered by the discomfort of my contortion. I could use a parser and collect large samples of data in various conditions to reach a reasonably solid conclusion, but not only is that incredibly un-fun for probably the vast majority of the player base but oh noes it's also a third party program.

Furthermore, it makes no sense in the context of the fantasy that a character could tell just by looking at an item that it would increase in base damage and give fire resistance if certain conditions are met, but have no idea what those conditions might be.

So, in summary, I'm all for increasing the clarity on all the effects and abilities in the game. There's more than enough challenge and discovery left in the game without obscuring its basic mechanics. Most good players just turn to online references to look the information up, which makes the use of windower even more appealing, and two of the three commonly used reference sites I can think of are associated with gilsellers in some way. If the information was just available in the game, which it should have been in the first place imo, none of that would be necessary.

[kuu]

Do we all play with FAQs now? We can, but some choose to while others not. Some carry it in their pockets while others look at it casually.

And no one knows something until someone discovers it, someone has to make the faq before other's follow it.

As long as there is ryme or reason it is good enough to know latents. Like all 30 latent rings are same, all 70 ks weapons are same.

Spending time is part of the deal. If everything becomes trivial, the the "hidden" part is gone.

People who know how latent works use it, and newbies who dont, don't.

I gues you've never played .hack before, which dramatizes these exact ideals. Rumor of hidden effects, hidden places, etc etc etc, bbs true, falses, etc.

[Raydeus]

I agree this would help a lot and I'd definetly like seeing this happen.

Originally Posted by kuu

Do we all play with FAQs now? We can, but some choose to while others not. Some carry it in their pockets while others look at it casually.

And no one knows something until someone discovers it, someone has to make the faq before other's follow it.

As long as there is ryme or reason it is good enough to know latents. Like all 30 latent rings are same, all 70 ks weapons are same.

Spending time is part of the deal. If everything becomes trivial, the the "hidden" part is gone.

People who know how latent works use it, and newbies who dont, don't.

I gues you've never played .hack before, which dramatizes these exact ideals. Rumor of hidden effects, hidden places, etc etc etc, bbs true, falses, etc.

Your logic is very flawed because of one little detail.

You'd still have to figure out how to trigger the latent, the only thing that would change is that you would now for certain if the latent is active or not.

You have the right to disagree but to claim the "hidden" part would be gone is completely wrong. I'd rather know if the latent is active for certain instead of having to wait for someone to parse a 1000 fights to know.



Edit > Oh ya btw the superstition part of latents has annoyed me since I started playing.

[Legal Fish]

If they wanted it to be a mystery, why not just make it one of the many "hidden" effects in the game, that do not support text at all? Elemental Staves, Company Sword, ect ect. All this does is make it easier. The reason they didn't do this in the first place might have been because they couldn't, "didn't know how" or "PS2 limitations". But, they've shown with enchantment items that they can do this no problem.

[csBahamut]

Knowing everything ruins the fun. What's the point in playing an RPG if you know how and where to find everything, and what is going to happen next? It's like someone telling you about a movie before you go watch it. For a really good movie, it can completely ruin your first viewing. Discovery is a part of adventure. Why bother calling it an RPG if we're pretty much all going to be doing the exact same thing anyways (same gear, same jobs, same strategies, same paths, etc.).

If you're going to make it easier to tell what's the best weapons and gear, SE might as well just remove the gear people won't every use (or is gimp), and have set upgrades for armor. The make them all easy to obtain with simple soloable quests. That way, everyone is uber. Oh wait, if everyone is uber, then no one is really uber because they're all equal.