Create an NPC that can craft items in guilds.

[draconus]

I've been a somewhat avid crafter, but haven't had the time to fully max out a craft yet (although I'm working on it). But while doing some levelling on a particular job class, I realized I had absolutely NO armor to carry me through a certain section of levelling that job class... because there was no level 50~60 artifact armor nor level 75 relic, or Emperyan armor!.... And there were no Sparks armor to purchase past levels 50 through 90! Sad thing is that I also had the necessary items to create some of the armor to bridge the gap... but absolutely nobody (including me) had that particular crafting skill level to do it.

So the thought has occurred to me.

Create an NPC for each guild that can craft all item recipes. But the requirements for the NPC to craft for a player is that the player must come up with ALL the materials needed for a crafting recipe including the crystal! As long as all those requirements are met, the NPC can craft that item.

For example lets say I would like a Scorpion Mask made... I have all the items needed to make it but do not have a high enough Bonecraft skill, nor can I find someone capable of doing it on the server.... So I could take all the materials I'd gathered to an NPC at the Bonecrafter's guild, trade all the necessary items, and they'd make it. Since some recipes can call for up to 8 total items, it would be best to have the player trade the crystal first to the NPC and it would open up the "crafting" menu, except the NPC would do it instead of the player.

Depending on how effective this could be, you may allow the NPC to create High Quality items or not depending on how it would affect the game economy. If you don't allow the NPC to create HQ items, such as armor/ weapons, then it would still make players who do craft items to keep crafting as a viable opportunity to create and auction HQ goods.

[Sirmarki]

That's a ridiculous suggestion..

Might as well just give everyone 110 crafting skill on all crafts..

That and it would completely destroy the markets and crafting all together.

[Vae]

Meh. It's not really that dramatic. Gil has extremely devalued, and when people are charging/paying 500m for stuff, yeah, it's time to reign it back in and lower some values.

[Urthdigger]

Level 50 sparks armor can take you to 78, and just change into bayld armor from the original Abyssea areas after that.

Or just, ya know, make your trusts do all the heavy lifting as you level. That works too.

[draconus]

Level 50 sparks armor can take you to 78, and just change into bayld armor from the original Abyssea areas after that.

Or just, ya know, make your trusts do all the heavy lifting as you level. That works too.

Unlike some folks, I don't like to rush level something if it's a job class I'm unfamiliar with and/or don't have high enough skills to effectively bring close to cap for that job class. Being a vet for over 12 years, I've seen some folks out level their skill caps and then wonder why they can't hit stuff or have low damage/def effectiveness due to drastically under leveled skills. The most I've let my skills be left behind is maybe about 3.0-6.0 levels behind their cap. I'm one of those "Enjoy the journey until you reach the destination" instead of "Get there ASAP!!!" I will stop and smell the roses! I will be fighting VT-IT mobs over EM or lower any day because it feels more old school for me.

The problem I've been having is that RUN a tankish job. A little weird, but still tankish. I like working on a job class to LEARN the job class, not have Trusts do everything while I just sit and watch. Before Trusts I was soloing with my Adventuring Fellow, and learned how to work with or be effectively assisted by NPCs which is how I use my Trusts. Before that... well, you know what it was like waiting for parties to form to level up!

I could just have PLD trust sit out there and take the majority of the hits while my parry/evasion/divine magic skills languish behind drastically. But I wouldn't want that to happen. Some jobs require players to take hits to level up skills. It's much faster than spark skilling everything especially if one out levels the skill cap for certain things (guard, shield, parry, evasion). Spark manuals help in spurts, but shouldn't be the end all to getting skill caps especially if one is lagging by 10+ levels behind.

Me playing as PLD isn't much of a concern since I can get PLD 50-60 AF and 70~90 Relic/Empy equipment. I've even "tanked" hits on MNK by not using PLD/tank trusts to get guard skill ups fast (and it works spectacularly). Having the Far East Hearth moghancement also makes hitting skill caps much easier as well which allowed me to level up faster in a way without feeling like I should pace myself more than necessary.

But RUN and GEO have a serious level gap because there is absolutely no JSE gear for them until 99 since they are post Abyssea! GEO isn't much of a concern as it's not tanky so I can get away with lacking decent armor, but the RUN does not really have that option as I'm learning how to hold hate with it and utilize it's skills properly.

Sparks armor (except shields) has been offering some that were craft only, but stops at 50. And then restarts at 99. I've been trying to mash together pieces of stuff for my RUN that I've had laying around or came across on the field/gobbie box. It would be helpful if they started putting in stuff to cover that level range. Like the Beak Jerkin set, Coral Scale mail /Scorpion Harness set/ Hydra&Gavial scale mail sets, etc. Today I spent 2 hours in Dynamis Tav getting at least some armor that RUN can wear at 70 (Hydra harness set)... and will also make a nice vanity for my male DNC.

I've even been able to make use of the abjuration armor I've been collecting for vanity which holds up as lvl 70ish "AF" gear for RUN (Crimson Scale Mail). Still busting my butt off to get 2 final abjuration parts that refuse to drop because of the high handed requirements to even attempt to get to fight the mobs that drop the items I need. Honestly some days I wonder how the hell we put up with this back in the old days. Is there an Abj Kupon that allows me to pick a particular abjuration seal I want? Fought Fafnir 5 times already with login purchased spawn items and a few lost attempts.



@Simarki, well if you're panties are that much in a bunch about it how about restricting the max level the NPC can craft at to 90~95ish max? Honestly get bent out of shape much instead of thinking about a work around compromise? It also helps to stock AH with rarely crafted items that some people have a hard time getting as well and forcing price reductions on the game economy since everyone lives on the "greed rules" gil ideology. I"ve looked up some stuff in AH and see that the last time an item was sold was back in 2015 or even worse 2011.... And it's either because it's doesn't sell often enough for crafters to want to make it, materials are too difficult to get, or it's beyond any skill/craft level that the server has. When was the last time you seen a max level crafter for Alchemy, Clothcraft, Leather, Bonecraft? It's been well over a year for my server. We've got masters in WW, Cooking, Blacksmith and Goldsmith. Haven't seen many with Synergy mastered. These are all hard to get synthesis help for.

[Sirmarki]

When was the last time you seen a max level crafter for Alchemy, Clothcraft, Leather, Bonecraft?.

Today...

So far this week I have read people wanting pimped up trusts which can be used in ALL battle content and NPC's that craft. This is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer) not a single player game.

[Albel-Nokbel]

I've never done much crafting but i have noticed that when i level up i have to throw away/sell alot of materials or else all my inventory and storage gets filled up. If i want to come back to crafting i don't have any materials and will have to go out of my way to farm mats or search the vendors. Maybe SE could implement a kill counting vendor who you can retrieve mats from or they could allow many of said mats to stack to 99 to lessen the burden. I've always chosen to find other ways to make gil and buy the items i want.

[draconus]

Today...

So far this week I have read people wanting pimped up trusts which can be used in ALL battle content and NPC's that craft. This is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer) not a single player game.

What crawled into your intestinal tract and died? This is an MMORPG but if you haven't noticed most multiplayer activity is 99% Endgame High level content for iLvl 119. If one is trying to work stuff out for lower levels then they're SoL. Get over your elitist self.

I'm just trying to get some armor for RUN 60-90. As in it doesn't exist unless it's crafted by leather or bonecraft 90+ which we have no master crafters in those catagories on our server. What does that have to do with multiplayer?

[draconus]

I've never done much crafting but i have noticed that when i level up i have to throw away/sell alot of materials or else all my inventory and storage gets filled up. If i want to come back to crafting i don't have any materials and will have to go out of my way to farm mats or search the vendors. Maybe SE could implement a kill counting vendor who you can retrieve mats from or they could allow many of said mats to stack to 99 to lessen the burden. I've always chosen to find other ways to make gil and buy the items i want.


Yeah, getting too much mats with the only way to sell them off except NPC only sucks. At least we can store crystals now. It's ridiculous how much stuff one can get and have no place to store it. For example... I have a ton of Abjuration items to un-curse stuff and no place to put them. Can't be put up for sale on AH because they're Rare/ex and the one's I've even gotten multiples of ones I've already used but someone else could use... but once again, can't sell them, and can't store them at an NPC.

[kylani]

What crawled into your intestinal tract and died? This is an MMORPG but if you haven't noticed most multiplayer activity is 99% Endgame High level content for iLvl 119. If one is trying to work stuff out for lower levels then they're SoL. Get over your elitist self.

I'm just trying to get some armor for RUN 60-90. As in it doesn't exist unless it's crafted by leather or bonecraft 90+ which we have no master crafters in those catagories on our server. What does that have to do with multiplayer?

You want some armor for your RUN, so you want to destroy crafting that many people have worked 13 years to level, and you think he's on a high horse? Couldn't you simply ask for some additional gear on the armor NPCs instead of asking that they destroy crafting?

How would you feel if someone suggested they take ALL gear and just have an NPC give it to you?

[Gannon]

Maybe, instead of crystal synthesis, these npcs craft the old fashion way and force you to wait certain amount of time depending on the synth level, like maybe up to a week for the high level synths. Probably should charge a fee in gil depending on skill level, and require larger quantities of materials, too. Probably shouldn't be able to get HQs too.

[Diavolo]

I"ve looked up some stuff in AH and see that the last time an item was sold was back in 2015 or even worse 2011.... And it's either because it's doesn't sell often enough for crafters to want to make it, materials are too difficult to get, or it's beyond any skill/craft level that the server has. When was the last time you seen a max level crafter for Alchemy, Clothcraft, Leather, Bonecraft? It's been well over a year for my server. We've got masters in WW, Cooking, Blacksmith and Goldsmith. Haven't seen many with Synergy mastered. These are all hard to get synthesis help for.

Final Fantasy XI's population is in dire need of a reality check because a great deal of its problems, such as this one, can be addressed by simply merging servers and returning its communities to healthy numbers. You're achieving everything you want on your server with 300 accounts online at peak hours? That's great, but what about everyone else on your server? We need to go back to large, diverse populations where the hardcore players with 40+ hours/week under their belts and the more casual players who only log a fraction of that time can coexist together, like they used to.

[Olor]

I don't really think it's fair to say that it would destroy crafting when crafters aren't really making these items. If he wanted items that are overflowing on the AH to come from an NPC folks would have a point, but even on busier servers it's not always easy to find decent gear to level in.

I don't really think this is the right solution, but we don't need to be hyperbolic about it.

[draconus]

You want some armor for your RUN, so you want to destroy crafting that many people have worked 13 years to level, and you think he's on a high horse? Couldn't you simply ask for some additional gear on the armor NPCs instead of asking that they destroy crafting?

How would you feel if someone suggested they take ALL gear and just have an NPC give it to you?

You also need to take a deep breath and learn to think about how to COMPROMISE. It would be helpful if they did put armor for that level range in RoE sparks... but they didn't. Why? Because they expect people to move over to AF1/Relic then to Empy until they hit 99.... but SE forgot that GEO and RUN doesn't get any of that so they left it out of Sparks equipment. Check RoE and notice when armor sets stop appearing after 40-50. All that shows up is weapons and shields. Until 99.

How to compromise? Easy, some synths for level 60-70ish gear requires skill 90-100... which is ridiculous since one practically has to master a craft to make lower level armor/weapons. The compromise would be the NPC can only make equipment that falls between the 50-80ish range and leave the 90+armor/weapons to master crafters... which still doesn't solve the problem that the server I'm on is still missing master crafters in particular fields. And check your local AH to see when some things were last sold. There are a few armor pieces that people would still buy for lower level jobs, if only they were being made.

Here is a list of equipment I've been trying to use to bridge my RUN gap. Check your AH and find out when the last time that the items were made and sold.

Beak Jerkin (can find the other pieces via Brown Casket drops, but not the body piece)
Carapace Breastplate set (3 pieces only)
Scorpion Breastplate set (3 Pieces)
Coral Scale Mail set
Gavial Scale Mail set/Hydra Scale Mail set (not to be confused with Hydra Corps armor in Dynamis-Tavnazia)
Cardinal Vest

And that's just the ones I was intentionally searching for... and even then I only came across them because I got a few parts from the Goblin daily tally chest and had them sitting in my inventory.

[kylani]

I don't really think it's fair to say that it would destroy crafting when crafters aren't really making these items. If he wanted items that are overflowing on the AH to come from an NPC folks would have a point, but even on busier servers it's not always easy to find decent gear to level in.

I don't really think this is the right solution, but we don't need to be hyperbolic about it.

He asked for an NPC to craft gear for anyone who brings the NPC a mat. So what does that do to people who enjoy crafting and have leveled it for years? I've got 8 crafters, only one capped, but most at various stages along the way, with sub-crafts. I literally save tons of mats on my mules so they are near capacity so that when I get to a level, I'll have mats to skill up. It's been a major part of my FFXI enjoyment. I fondly remember crafting parties where friends took my goldsmith to Davoi so I could de-synth gold orc masks while they stole gold beastcoins to help me get past the terrible gold level. I've spent years on guild points to get the guild point items, and still my GS is only 94 but getting up there.

And someone basically wants to say, lets give everyone all craft ability by having an NPC who will craft any item for someone if they just bring the mat? It's not hyperbolic at all. This idea literally takes away a whole segment of the game.

It's hyperbolic to say, I can't get the gear I want because I don't want to take the time to craft, please hand it to me. To me, this is exactly the same as saying, I don't want to take the time to work on gear to get gear, so please put an NPC in Adoulin who will give out Vagary gear or I hate doing missions, please put out an NPC to hand me SR gear of my choice, etc.

SE has added gear to the ROE gear over the years, so adding some more gear if there is a true gap is one thing. Trivializing years of work because you don't like crafting or appreciate the work that has gone into it is totally different. To add a craft NPC for a few levels of gear is ridiculous.

One of the reasons I love FFXI is there is so much to do. I like leveling, questing, and crafting. Like the OP, I don't auto level jobs, I enjoy playing each one. If I can't get the gear for it, I either work for it or use the best I can get. Literally, what is the point of playing a game if everything is handed to you? Part of the game, is accomplishing goals.

[kylani]

You also need to take a deep breath and learn to think about how to COMPROMISE. It would be helpful if they did put armor for that level range in RoE sparks... but they didn't. Why? Because they expect people to move over to AF1/Relic then to Empy until they hit 99.... but SE forgot that GEO and RUN doesn't get any of that so they left it out of Sparks equipment. Check RoE and notice when armor sets stop appearing after 40-50. All that shows up is weapons and shields. Until 99.

How to compromise? Easy, some synths for level 60-70ish gear requires skill 90-100... which is ridiculous since one practically has to master a craft to make lower level armor/weapons. The compromise would be the NPC can only make equipment that falls between the 50-80ish range and leave the 90+armor/weapons to master crafters... which still doesn't solve the problem that the server I'm on is still missing master crafters in particular fields. And check your local AH to see when some things were last sold. There are a few armor pieces that people would still buy for lower level jobs, if only they were being made.

Here is a list of equipment I've been trying to use to bridge my RUN gap. Check your AH and find out when the last time that the items were made and sold.

Beak Jerkin (can find the other pieces via Brown Casket drops, but not the body piece)
Carapace Breastplate set (3 pieces only)
Scorpion Breastplate set (3 Pieces)
Coral Scale Mail set
Gavial Scale Mail set/Hydra Scale Mail set (not to be confused with Hydra Corps armor in Dynamis-Tavnazia)
Cardinal Vest

And that's just the ones I was intentionally searching for... and even then I only came across them because I got a few parts from the Goblin daily tally chest and had them sitting in my inventory.

I'm not arguing whether that gear is must have gear for you or not. I'm saying crafting is just as important to some of us as other areas of the game. An NPC who trivializes years of work is not the way to go. If you were on my server and I could make it for you, I would, for free. I always answer shouts if I can help out.

There are other solutions for this that are much better, imo. It could be added to ROE or even add it to the gear salesmen in Upper Jeuno. I have no problem with you asking for this older gear to be available, but I do have an issue with a craft NPC.

[draconus]

I'm not arguing whether that gear is must have gear for you or not. I'm saying crafting is just as important to some of us as other areas of the game. An NPC who trivializes years of work is not the way to go. If you were on my server and I could make it for you, I would, for free. I always answer shouts if I can help out.

There are other solutions for this that are much better, imo. It could be added to ROE or even add it to the gear salesmen in Upper Jeuno. I have no problem with you asking for this older gear to be available, but I do have an issue with a craft NPC.

Unfortunately you're not on my server. And I've been shouting for over a week and even offering a reward. Got the mats, but nobody to craft them. Just restrict the NPC's abilities, don't allow it to HQ items. Restrict the type of items it can craft so it doesn't go beyond certain levels. Regardless, if nobody has a craft up to master, we still can't get iLevel 119 for that particular craft on AH ever!

I agree that crafting is important, as I said I'm also a crafter. Even for my main crafting (I do both smithing and goldsmithing at 54/55 respectively and all sub crafts at around 50ish) I have to make EVERYTHING from scratch because for certain materials I can't find available on the AH or guild. I intend to start crafting in other fields on my 3 alt/mules, but that is going to take a very long time depending on how easily available mats are through either farming or AH.

Another solution I've been contemplating is to fix the levels required for synthing certain armor /weapons to no more than 10 levels above the actual equipment's level. For example, To make a Claymore level 10 weapon from scratch one has to have level 32ish blacksmithing skill. That's 22 levels difference instead of having blacksmithing skill 20 which eases up the option to make it starting at blacksmithing 15 and skill up to 20.

The Carapace breastplate is a level 61 piece of armor... but requires bonecraft skill 95. Instead of bonecraft 71 which once again allows crafters to start creating that piece of armor at around 65ish or so instead of seeing "This item is beyond you current skill level" because your not quite close enough to being a master crafter yet for some intermediate equipment. Instead of taking who knows how long to reach 95 which is well over 34 levels from the actual equipment's level! Some of the crafting level requirements far exceed the actual equipment's level. For iLevel items which are still 100+ it makes sense. But those lower level items? It's madness!

Also gathering materials one's self is a challenge in itself. A speculative turn out of having a crafting NPC that doesn't make HQ items and is only restricted to making weapons and armor (so no worries for cooking/fishing guilds/ and furnishings in woodworking), is that crafters can make gil from selling stacks of almost ALL materials again as well as HQ versions of equipment items. It can still be a win/win. Prices for NQ items will not be inflated beyond reason and can be easier to come across (although HQ will be making a lot of gil still as crafters start using more rusks for HQ synths).

People will still want to craft to make materials and HQ items, or just enjoy crafting. Believe it or not when I first started this game I wanted to be a Jack of all trades crafter. Be able to make anything I needed for myself... while I still haven't mastered the crafts I'm maining yet, I've got nearly all my crafts to 50ish (excluding fishing/synergy) and can accomplish just that to a reasonable degree. Sometimes when I see things that are too expensive in my opinion, I can make it myself.

[Diavolo]

You'll be better off getting with the times and just rushing to 99 like most everyone else then skilling up quickly once you get there. Those changes to crafting would be a massive undertaking for a dev team of this size to tackle right now as it's a huge balancing act and adding NPCs that craft for us would just come across as an admission that both the server populations and the crafting system aren't working out. You're better off finding ways into making crafting itself more appealing to the masses.

[Sirmarki]

What crawled into your intestinal tract and died? This is an MMORPG but if you haven't noticed most multiplayer activity is 99% Endgame High level content for iLvl 119. If one is trying to work stuff out for lower levels then they're SoL. Get over your elitist self.

I'm just trying to get some armor for RUN 60-90. As in it doesn't exist unless it's crafted by leather or bonecraft 90+ which we have no master crafters in those catagories on our server. What does that have to do with multiplayer?

Elitist(?) because I'm defending something a lot of us put time and effort into... Something you simply want replaced by an NPC!?

I find it hard to believe that there are no crafting persons in those fields on your server...
I checked the items you listed as so call 'impossible to get' and there has been/is stock of said items.

As kylani mentioned, crafting is a large part of the game for a lot of people. It's something to do on the side if waiting for something else to happen. Don't kill that off too....

I noticed that SE are doing something to the crafting system in September's update. Interesting..

[Nyarlko]

Draconus: Something to note about your idea regardless of whether I like it or not... It's most likely impossible. ^^ I am 99.9997% certain that the system itself can not support a single npc that "knows" every single crafting recipe in the game. There's just way too many recipes for the toaster code to handle. The size and complexity of the task would probably be on par, man-hours-wise, w/ creating a new escha zone in it's entirety. The cleaner solution would be to add a couple extra sets for sale on an existing npc. They did this somewhat recently w/ the Arasy weapons, so it's definitely possible. Honestly though, anything beyond that would be a waste of dev resources to improve the QoL for a niche grouping of players who declare that they want to do things the hard way when they don't have to, but want it made easy for them to do so.

RUN and GEO are in the same boat since their JSE sets are all 109 and not accessible till after you ding 99, and I have leveled both myself and noticed the lack of available gear as well, so I can agree that it might be nice if there were 2-3 somewhat basic armor sets made available for the 40-70 range. I should also note that I leveled RUN soloing with trusts while wearing Mumor event gear and a lvl1 GS until ~60.. and took ~2hrs to do so. If you just simply grind, w/ no ring buffs, you can pretty easily do 1-99 in less than 10hrs of playtime. After the 4th time leveling 1-99, I realized it was a functional waste of time to bother w/ equipment until I reached something like Scorpion Harness or O.Hat, and by the 22nd time I had my grind down to ~7hrs (including the slowdown from doing weaponskill trials along the way.)

^^ Given the ease and speed of leveling these days, what supporting arguments can you provide as to the actual "need" for the system you are asking for?
(Since it doesn't seem to be a problem to the rest of us who don't really see wearing the same gear for 30lvls as a "problem" because it only takes a few hours to grind out?)