Crafting = Impossible to Guage

[UltraBlackone]

My biggest problem coming back to the game is that, they are no crafters. While some might disagree crafters are near extinction and I see it clearly through the AH. Here's where my problem kicks in. Back in the days I had no wife, no kids, no bills, no responsiblities so yes I can afford to invest time to craft, level, NM hunting, socalizing, but now it seems that my time is limited and crafting takes way to long to level. I would Like to see Square Enix try to fix the crafting level up system. I'm not asking for them to make it 100% easier either, but something where it takes less materials to level up or less failed attempts when crafting with more skill ups atleast till level 60 in crafts, and then from 61-100 let it be tough or as it is now.

I agree that something should be done about the crafting system. I myself am a third time returning player and I never was into crafting till way late in my first time playing. 1 Because of the time and money you need to sink into it and 2 because normally I could find what I needed for the most part without it. Now that so many have left the game I find that there is a new need for crafting. So much so that I think it would be wise to let players have 80 points to spend between their lvl 60 crafts. Since less people are on it only seems right that remaining players should be able to do more. More skill ups and less failed tries would also be nice though I have to admit I already have noticed a bit of that done from the old days.

[annewandering]

Forced to agree. im lvl 95 wood working and 60 alch, and i have a massive fail rate when makeing certin items such as bast parchemnt. Iv probably made thousands of them and even on my best days, iv never had a fail rate less then 10%. Other times ill fail like 5 in a row. (not synthing on darksday)

You have massive bad luck because I have never had much problem making bast parchment. ww100 alchemy 60. I do have a nice desk in mog and my mog enhancement is ww. I use the apron and the gloves.
what gives me a pain is the elemental staves. Hq'ing them just seems to be a rough road.

[RushLynx]

I apologize if someone has suggested this... And there are several other topics in this forum outlining the tragedies of synergy and how it has utterly destroyed the crafting community... But I suggested a long time ago to the development team for players to be able to advertise their crafting abilities more readily, and I suppose it's time to suggest it again... Why not make a way to search for players with specific crafting abilities? I'm sure both the crafters and non-crafters would greatly appreciate being able to just open a menu and search for someone of the needed skill levels rather than go down their friend list and all their LSs asking over and over if anyone knows anyone that has the skills...

[RAIST]

I apologize if someone has suggested this... And there are several other topics in this forum outlining the tragedies of synergy and how it has utterly destroyed the crafting community... But I suggested a long time ago to the development team for players to be able to advertise their crafting abilities more readily, and I suppose it's time to suggest it again... Why not make a way to search for players with specific crafting abilities? I'm sure both the crafters and non-crafters would greatly appreciate being able to just open a menu and search for someone of the needed skill levels rather than go down their friend list and all their LSs asking over and over if anyone knows anyone that has the skills...

This would have a big impact on the issue. There is another thread on here about the low availablity of items in the AH. Just the mere mentioning of seeking out a crafter or leveling a craft (no matter how easy it is, especially if you follow one of the 15 million guides available on line that walk you through a path to do it fast and expensive, slow and cheap, or steady and break-even--you pick your path) gets you attacked and flamed.

There are a BUNCH of crafters online. As has been stated already here and countless times elswhere--the demand for items just faded out and it became unprofitable to craft. Why blow money (or time farming) on an item that will only sell at best once a day for a loss or paultry profit now? The market has moved to consumables now simply because that is what is in demand. Things that used to sell for more to NPC's than AH have now reversed and become profitable in the AH now, so that is where they are focusing. If enough people start asking for certain items again, they may see a trend and start putting them up again. But as it is now, they KNOW they can turn high end accessories, tools like Shihei and Tsurara, Medicines, and foods like Sushi, meats and MP foods on a steady basis so that is what they are putting up. The supply/demand model has changed, and so went the market. Until a trend towards a different market shows up, the market won't change--the only way to fix that is to communicate with the crafters.

As for the difficulty of crafting, materials are easy to find for the lower level stuff. There are guides that not only walk you through what to craft, but also how to aquire the mats and where to sell the results (or hold onto for future tier of synths). I do agree that it gets tighter as you get higher up, but for the first 30 levels it's pretty easy. You just need to do a little research. For example, the post about the guild only selling so many thundermelons per day. Well, it is a guild in a city half-way across the continent from where they are grown natively. If you look them up, you would see there is a gob in Rabao that sells them all day long. If you can't go there yourself because of your job/level/current location, lack of Outpost warp or Tele-Altep--whatever your limit may be, you might be able to get someone in your friend list or LS to grab some for you. You could also try gardening maybe as well.

There are some very good sites out there with all the information about where and how to get items. Just look them up. FFXIAH has some tools to help you find crafters as well. Having a means to find crafters in-game would be a BIG help for people not inclined to use outside tools to find them or or otherwise ask in LS or shout in a city to find one.

Some sort of bulletin board could be interesting. Go to a guild and they have a list of crafters currently registered with the guild grouped by rank. Check the bulletin, pick your rank, and you get a list of registered players currently on line, pick there name and it opens a tell chatline for you to send them a message. Depending on the congestion in the list, there might need to be another level to filter by region (top level maybe like Jueno, Aht Urghan, etc.). Alternatively, integrate it into the ingame search engine itself. /sea all Leathercraft 40-50 to bring uip a list of current leathercrafters with skill 40-50.

[Emurei]

I generally have a list of high level crafters I've known NA and JP since I started playing, though the list have dwindled since than, I still go to them when I need things made, and I pay them handsomely. Even though they'll do it for me for free.

Think the biggest problem is Lv30-75 items are pretty much non existant on the AH. So why bother crafting items for those level range if you'll be taking a lost anyways. Even foods(with the exception of sushi) is taking a hit since ppl can get away with just using Atmas for leveling.

[Lamer]

I have been playing this game for about a month now. I am entirely new, so excuse me if I offer a perspective that is completely ignorant of the old ways of crafting.
Someone loaned me money and said to level a craft with it all, using the profits to return the payment and create a modest way to survive in the game. So, I spent lots of the money on clothcraft (I am now level 55 and it took about a week of crafting with someone else's money) and made some stuff by following a guide. I made the entire soil-set for mnk/nin/sam and put it in my bazzar for 2500 gil each piece. Nobody bought it. I put them in the AH and nobody bought it, so I ended up selling to the NPC, like I do with most of the things left over from leveling the skill.

I have a ton of materials in my mogsack and when I find someone without a piece of eq I can make I just give it to them for free. Otherwise the materials just go to waste because nobody really buys things. I have had luck making fly lures and sometimes the occasional cape sells, but aside from that nobody wants the clothes I can make. I haven't been to abyssea but I suspect everyone wants the gear from there instead of what a lowly crafter can make. I think SE should keep it hard, but make it so that way it is possible to craft things which have decent stats - stuff that people WANT.

Right now I am questioning if I chose the right craft. I initially started so I could make my own clothes and not have to buy them, but I am learning that even if I get all the way to level 100 clothcraft and make the *best* item, nobody will buy it because something better drops in abyssea. So, what's the point?

There aren't many people who buy low level things either. Chances are someone from their linkshell will just give them old gear they already have. I also notice there are many crafters with high levels but none of them contribute materials to the AH because nobody crafts, so nobody wants them and they will not sell.

I notice that there are certain people who stay at the crafting shop and empty it out. They buy the saratura cotton for 200gil (2400 a stack) and sell in the AH for 10k. That makes it hard for someone to craft things from the guild shop too. If I want that cotton I just hunt it in Tahrongi Canyon. It takes longer but it really beats paying 10K for something that cost 2400, or waiting for 6:00 and hoping that you can get one piece before the people who make a living out of buying it all and reselling at a markup because there is none left. I have watched the people who go into the shop and wait, and I have compared their names against sales of cotton in the auction house and it is clear what they are doing.

You know how you take tests every *8 levels and your rank in the craft guild changes? It would be nice if the prices (starts very high, gets cheaper) and availability (stock increases with progression in craft_rank) scaled with that, so that way those people who are probably not even crafters couldn't rob the resources and exploit it like they do. It's really unfair for an aspiring crafter. I have no problem hunting the materials I need down, but I just don't like how the same players take advantage like that and make leveling the craft significantly more expensive than it should be (if you only want to hunt half-the-time and can spend some money on materials from the guild shop), especially when the resulting item will not likely sell in the AH. I have waited with them and tried to buy right at 6:00 and it's almost instantly sold_out. I'll be lucky to get one or two pieces for 200g.

Also: I have been making money slowly but easily. Those who wait around the guild shop do not buy the crawler caccoons (prolly cuz they do not stack and they lack the necessary skill to make it into silk thread), so I have been buying those and since I have the spinning key item from the guild points it's really cheap for me to make a silk cloth, put it into a wind crystal, make a green ribbon, and sell to npc for 2k. There is slow profit in that and I did it for a few days like a robot would, and made some decent money that way. I just wish it was easier to make money in this game from the players (as an honest crafter - not a free_market exploiter). I like the crafting to be slow and hard - i like it that way because it *could be* rewarding for those who are serious enough to take that leap and not look back. Sadly, it seems like I dump all the money I earn into more materials, so I can level the skill and make something that used to be AWESOME .. something nobody at a high level will buy.

That's just my experience though. I am new to this game and do not really understand how it used to be, just what I encounter now. Sorry for the rant, but I started crafting with dreams and was left with only broken promises, devoid of any hope whatsoever.

Thank *YOU* abyssea. I hate you and I don't even know you.

[Sylvane]

Not sure about your server, but those stacks of silk cloth sell for about 60k on mine. I'd suggest selling a couple stacks on the AH or something. Also, make Shinobi-Tabi and Sanjaku-tenugui. Farm your Cotton from Sylvestre in Buburimu as well, they seem to have a better drop rate from my experience, and you can also steal them from them.

Unfortunately there really is no market for anything mid game any more, and that's pretty much the summation of the problem.

[thefinalrune]

I'm all to familiar with this myself. As a THF I have a fairly constant need for status bolts for my standard play style but since the crafter fallout there has literally been almost no availability of these bolts any more. So, reluctantly I've had to take to crafting myself to skill up to where I can finally make my own bolts. The only sad part is between the limited availability of supplies and other crafters, I need to both farm up 90%+ of my supplies and level various other crafts as well since all the materials I need to craft bolts with are also not being made any more.

Not to mention that on the rare chance someone actually puts a quiver of bolts on sale these days the cost has practically tripled from where it was at this time last year.

Honestly, what I'd love to see is SE offering a vast number of the 10-50 level ranges of weapon and armor items via vendors at more reasonable prices. Not that vendor prices have ever been reasonable after the level 10-11 gear anyway.

[Sylvane]

Honestly, what I'd love to see is SE offering a vast number of the 10-50 level ranges of weapon and armor items via vendors at more reasonable prices. Not that vendor prices have ever been reasonable after the level 10-11 gear anyway.

The only problem with this is that it does very little to solve the problem with crafting. More than anything it would make crafting MORE pointless. What needs to be done is to have materials available at vendors that is more cost efficient for players to craft gear from. A large portion of crafted materials are pointless to make in the first place, and the ones that are worth making, aren't worth the time/effort to put into getting materials to make. Especially when you end up selling them for less than the raw materials are worth. If materials were readily available at a decent price, some things might be worth crafting again. Selling more gear at lower prices only undermines the crafting system more than it already has been.

[annewandering]

Farming is a very nice thing to do alongside of crafting. So is digging. I get frustrated if I want something fast from AH but I know I can go farm it or dig it in most cases.
What I have noticed is there is a lot of crafting. More people are just doing their own crafting instead of buying. Now that might actually be a good thing although frustrating for crafters wanting to make gil.
It seems to be me that to be a good money making crafter you have to be flexible and have made plenty of options available to you. It also seems to me that some crafters make low midlevel things just so they are available to players even though no profits is made.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I do guild points and I sell the leftovers that they always sell. (I generally make a couple extras to recoup my costs) Maybe for 5, 10 or 20k but they do sell. It makes me think that there is a market there that is not being filled.
I used to read all the time that if you want to make gil in crafting you have to study the AH. (preferably not with bots!) You will find niches that havent been filled but are always selling if anything is put up.
It takes time and thought to make gil but it is possible even making nonconsumables.