DEV PLEASE LOOK: Crafting Overhaul

[RAIST]

Good stuff, support it for the most part, with a few tweaks maybe. /like

1. By far probly the best part of this thread. Nothing more needs to be said....THIS should be implemented, hands down. To get breaks on an item that fails because the system decides to HQ an item that has no HQ synth when you are grossly over the synth cap for it and loosing the mats on it (ie: yagudo drinks) is just plain maddening. Thankfully, I started up synergy so I have the option to make them there in advance (still can't use porta-furnace in a lot of areas), but that's just a bit of a work-around for some synths. That leads me to #2:

2. This sounds more like a tweak for Synergy. The whole dumping mats to an NPC or a device and then doing nothing and coming back for them is going a bit too far. Easing the Synergy system so it isn't so frustrating could be a solution towards this end. Make ALL normal craft synths doable by synergy (or at least consumables), but don't jack up the elemental target for making them--they need to be more inline with what you spend to make them with crafting. One crystal will make from 3-12 fewell--having a recipe that requires 50+ for one element and 30+ of another for a highly consumable item that will only HQ to 2, 3, or at best 4 on top tier results that uses up potentially a stacks worth or more of 2 different crystal elements is a bit out of whack. let's not forget that some synths will actually require a third elemnt via synergy as well. And while they're at it, lower the elemental requirements on some of the more consumable items already made by synergy.

3. More good stuff. Best point I like about this is with the hours of operation. I don't mind so much limitations on stock and pricing--but having the NPC's there telling you they are closed for holiday is really annoying. hours of operation don't bother me as much, since many are only closed for about 8 game hours. Being out of stock and having to return the next day could still be an effective way at curbing supply/demand. Would be nice if the price didn't get jacked up during low supply too. Some items will wind up going for twice as much (or more) from an NPC then they do at the AH at times (looking at you Elm log). Just make them go for one base price, than adjust that by rank and such like all the other NPC's--but don't bind it to supply so much. We see this gouching effect on the AH too much as is already.

4. While the example of the gun and marksmanship may not have been the best one to use (many jobs can use a crossbow to skilllup to a reasonable level, then job change once you can pick up a more reasonable gun to use)--don't let this distract from the bigger point. There are a lot of items where the crafting requirements get out of whack for the level to use the items. Up to about level 20-ish gear, crafting recipes aren't too far-fetched. With caps being in the 15-25 range, you stand a decent chance of getting within crafting range to try to skill up on a lot of these items yourself as you are leveling your characters and synthing drops from mobs and such. But after about level 20-ish gear, the availability of mats and skillups just start to bog down considerably for a lot of crafts. This contributed to some heavy debates on the availability of crafted items a while back, and one such item came up: Bone Knife +1. A very popular level 46 item that has a synth cap of 41 Bonecraft. That's just to make the NQ. To make your own HQ requires a concerted effort to get high enough to have a decent shot at making the HQ. Even though the mats are fairly easy to come by at a moderate level, these simply aren't crafted much because either people aren't in a decent range to attempt the synth, or they are so high that it's just not worth it--60+ crafters have much better synths to make and sell, getting skillups along the way if they still need them.

Despite the low cost/effort to buy/farm the mats for a lot of this types of items, they just simply stopped being crafted often simply because it sells for a low price--level 60+ crafters have far more profitable synths to work on that provide chance for skillups. Only reason we are seeing a lot dumped on the AH now is because people have found better gears and they are pawning off those items they've been hanging on to forever until something better came along. Once that supply runs their course, we will be back to virtually no supply again until those who bought those used ones decide to pawn them off and the price will be driven down even further during that cycle, further reducing the incentive to craft them...it's a vicious cycle. Just look at that bone knife history...atm, on my server there are 2 NQ and 17 HQ up for sell. Those NQ's have been driven down to almost at cost (3k average) and the HQ has plummeted 6k from it's norm of 20k in roughly 2 or 3 days. That's an additional drop of 30% after it has already dropped almost 50% from where it sold at for years.

Ease the synth caps on these level 30-60 equipable items so people will have a greater incentive to craft them on their own, since they stand a better chance of skilling up the crafts more casually without having to power level it with a boat load of gil (aiding the few remaining gil sellers, by the way). At the very least, it might make them more attractive to those who already have the higher skill--if the tweaks make them move up an HQ tier, they may be more inclined to make more if they have better chances to HQ them.

Wow.. sorry for the wall of text...it's the Damn Yankee in me....stream of thought coupled with my tendency to talk too much... lol.