Crystals & Shards No more

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I'm not sure whether removing crystals would help anything on that front. The bots used to farm them would still exist, so wouldn't they just move onto selling something else?

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Those are just hard working players.

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Originally Posted by Shadygrove

They can be grown in flowerpots as well. The various grades of Shroud topsoil increase yeild. G1 = 65, G2 = 75, G 3 =100.

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True, I forgot flowerpots were a thing. I think you can only put one pot in an apartment though? So it's not a very fast way without access to a garden. I think the shroud topsoils are not worth it for growing shards though, given the prices of soil and shards on the MB.

Mining retainers will bring 10 G1 soils or 3 G2.

On the MB G1s are often as cheap as potting soil.

Private chambers and apartments can hold 2 flowerpots.

Fair enough, I guess I was only thinking of G3 soil, which is the grade usually employed with crossing plants. And for some reason I thought apartment would be one less than a cottage, but it appears to be the same.

Since crafting and other in-world things require crystals lore-wise, why not simply do away with shards and clusters? Keeps it simple since we need a plethora of crystals for crafting as it is.

If you have a garden, it is a potential massive source of shards. They grow in a day. You can even send your retainer for the seeds and soil (I think more efficient than sending for shards).

Did you need them in FFXI to craft items? It's been so long I don't remember.

Yeah. Crystals for crafting was a thing in XI.

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Originally Posted by AbelArchaniEA

Disagree because it fits with the plot of the game. You craft magical items with crystals made from Aether. GG

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While I generally enjoy lore-based explanations for in-game mechanics (and Enkidoh's elaboration on your post was fascinating for me to read, as I'd never considered FF14's crafting from that angle), do note that the lore of the game HAS changed in regards to similar systems. The lv.20 MIN and BTN quests have you gather 99 units of grade 1 carbonized matter; the MIN version, which I did early on in my time here, explained that carbonized matter was used as a catalyst for affixing materia to gear. In a later patch, however, this requirement was removed; I did the BTN quest AFTER this patch, and the dialogue explained that carbonized matter HAD ONCE been used to meld materia but that other methods had been found that no longer required it.

Similarly, the quests revolving around converting gear to materia mention (if memory serves) that materia conversion destroys the gear being converted, and that you need to have the appropriate crafter at the right level to affix it yourself. However, the devs have already stated that this will simply reset the spiritbond rating on gear being "converted" in 5.2, and that having ANY crafter at the right level will let you affix materia to any gear at that level. No doubt the quest dialogue will be adjusted to accomodate this change as well.

If the devs decided to at least REDUCE the crystal catalyst requirements for crafting across the board--say, 1 of any given shard/crystal/cluster per craft instead of multiple--it could easily be explained in-game, if necessary, as having "refined the relevant crafting techniques to require less aether," or something to that effect.

Tl;dr: don't hide behind the game's lore if you don't like someone's idea. The lore can be adjusted as needed if the devs decide to simplify any given process that has a lore-based explanation.

I don't think many people would be upset if they were removed. Maybe purging it would free up some character data headroom for something else like adding more things to the currency window or armory chest.