Shards, RMT bots, and you. Suggestions for a broken system.

Crafting, in it's current state, requires a mass quantity of low level mats(shards) for each and every recipe. This is GREAT for RMTs as we all have seen the Auction Boards and know exactly who is profiting from this system. What are my current options?

1. I can spend an hours and hours grinding nodes.....it becomes VERY time consuming for those of us that want to stay legit.

2. I can buy shards, knowing that I am helping to feed a RMT's family for the week.

So I have two suggestions that could help reduce the price of shards, and therefore reduce the appeal to those taking advantage of the system.

1. Give all DoL and DoH a skill at level 50 which allows them to break apart or combine crystals. An example would be 1 Cluster -> 3 Crystals. 1 Crystal -> 5 Shards. The same would apply to the reverse order when combining shards.

2. Give all DoL and DoH a skill at level 50 which allows them to convert any shard/crystal/cluster to that of a different type.

I always thought this game needed a "gem system" of converting Shards and Materia.

this system needs a "loss rate" though, otherwise I see it being abused and inflating prices worse.
5 shards combine to make 1 crystal.
5 crystals combine to make 1 cluster
1 cluster breaks down into 4 crystals
1 crystal breaks down into 4 shards

This means a level 50 could mind Clusters, break down into 4 crystals and then each of those into 4 shards so 1 cluster = 16 shards, but to make a cluster you'd need 25 shards, which is still a decent rate with GP in mind.


If this idea ISN'T done, then at least INCREASE THE RATE THAT GP REPLENISHES - because that could also help us tremendously to avoid "buying from RMT sellers accounts"

I feel this would be a great way to counter RMTs main source of income, whilst still benefiting legit gatherers. I've just knocked out my 3rd 50 DoH tonight and aside from the occasional jump to mine some nodes when prices sometimes spiked I just bought my shards off the market, a couple of times I've derped a touch and typed in crystal rather than shard - the prices were so similar per unit that I almost ended up buying 1-3k crystals instead of shards! I feel that if a system such as the above isn't adopted, then perhaps change lvl 40+ recipes that use 4-5 shards to use a single crystal, that way you bring some value to crystals whilst also driving demand for shards down.