[REPOSTED FROM GENERAL DISCUSSION]

I think most players have found that there is a bit of a disconnect between the crafting community and the rest of the classes.

There are large linkshells where members can get crafting done by others, but casual players are resigned to /shouting for help from strangers in Ul'dah, asking for help with crafting and hoping the crafter is trustworthy.

What follows is an idea to make crafting work better for both crafters and general adventurers (*I apologize for stealing parts of this idea from another posters, but the concept is fantastic and deserves more discussion and recognition)

In each crafting guild there should be an NPC who players can visit and create submit their own crafting leve and all materials and rewards that correspond to it.

For instance:

Player A just fought Leviathan and received as a reward a U/U "Leviathan Spine". He then heads off to the Carpenter's Guild to have a lance crafted from it.

He researches the recipe and gives all the required materials and crystals to the Carpenter's Guild Player Leve NPC who creates a custom Leve for him. He decides to offer a 24k gil reward for NQ result and a 40k gil reward for HQ (if applicable) result. He sets a minimum level for the Leve at 48 to ensure that only high level carpenters will attempt this leve. The Leve NPC asks how much insurance he wants on his materials @ 10k gil per attempt. The insurance means that if the crafter fails, the guild will replace all the mats for him up to the allotted attempts. Since the mats are very rare and expensive, the Insurance is well worth the cost in this instance. Player A spends 30k gil to insure 3 attempts.

Player B has just hit 49 as a Carpenter and she wants to make some gil. She goes to the Player Leve NPC at the carpenter's guild and sees that there is an order for a Leviathan Lance. She accepts the leve and begins to craft the item. The first craft fails. She checks the list and sees that the Leve is still available. She tries again and gets a NQ result. this nets her a reward of 24k and a guild experience bonus.

Later that day, Player A checks his mailbox and sees that the craft was successful and he now has a shiny new Leviathan Lance as well as a 20k refund on his unused insurance. In addition, when he checks the lance, he sees that Player B's name is mentioned as the one who crafted it. He will have to look her up when he needs other work done. Not HQ, but maybe if he offered a bigger reward more for a HQ version he might have a different result... but he has the Lance now with not much out of pocket and he is off to adventure more.
This scenario would be ideal for all parties involved and has many benefits:
  • It connects crafters with adventurers,
  • It allows U/U items to become part of crafting.
  • It incorporates crafting into endgame content like Primal battles,
  • It is a gil sink (the insurance part).
  • It disperses population of players throughout the City-states making the crafting guilds a hub of activity for all gear and item creation.

TL : DR version: Put NPCs in each DoH guild where adventurers create crafting Leves by submitting materials and rewards. Crafters can then accept and fulfill them