Economy of FFXIV

[Enfarious]

That's a nice workaround, thanks.

It is certainly a huge can of worms, and of course would take some serious balancing considerations to ensure that it didn't defeat the purpose of EG content. Sadly, at least as it is, even with new/more content for crafters there's no really effective way to tie into battle classes, other than food/pots. There is no gear worth paying for at this point, since folk level too quickly (this is true even for crafting classes) to 'waste' gil on mid-game and everything EG is from drops/chests/special currency trade (except for crafting gear).

So aside from bringing back Hamlet Defense style content, where crafting really did mean the difference between winning and losing, which was fun; I just can't see crafting getting back to being 'useful' again without A: slowing leveling and making gear count during leveling, this would mean alot of content (FATE/Solo content) related changes; and/or B: making mid-grade or side-grade EG gear that is crafted, even if it has insane recipes and materials that can't be bought/sold/traded, this would necessitate a 'crafting request' mechanic, so that a person could obtain all of the hard to get mats (not purchasable) and post the 'request to craft' for the recipe. This 'request to craft' mechanic could also potentially be added to the market boards, under a 'requests' section.

[Kaliban]

snip

Well, I can understand your desire for open world events. I would love to see those too but I think the reality is that this would be difficult to "Get Right". For one, all of the crafting guilds are in different cities, this would limit the versitility of the group part I would think. For two, the event would likely have a cap so not everyone would be able to participate (in a scenario like market day). As I said before, it would be great if the crafting capability and relevance was like pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxy (that was the only game where crafting was actually a viable and useful aspect and not like a second cousin that every deals with on Christmas because they have to). The problem with the game is in its design. In FFXI, the vast majority of gear was crafted. In this game it is a reward or available from NPCs. This is a fundamental flaw to my eyes. Add to that the inability to craft epic blues/pinks/tourqouises/etc and you exacerbate this and trivialize crafting. As it stands, crafting is largely useless.

I would love to see the genre go back/transition to a form in which you were a blacksmith. That is what you did and could set up a store or something (tie it into housing) in which you sold your items (if you were off adventuring you NPC Retainer would do so for you) and could take commissions/negotiate prices, etc. Unfortunately the reality seems that the industry is more about creating a game where you get essentially instant gratification and small levels of immersion. At some point I hope this will change, if it does, the first game that can get it right should succeed if it doesnt screw something else up. Anyway, I hope they do SOMETHING for crafting, hopefully making it viable and actually relevant to the game in general.

[Anderian]

Anyway, I hope they do SOMETHING for crafting, hopefully making it viable and actually relevant to the game in general.

There is no gear worth paying for at this point

Both of your points actually reminded me that making crafting more relevant truly is somewhat of a lost cause at this point. I don't mean that in depressing way, just that it would actually require bigger system reforms, and I'm not sure Yoshi is willing to do those, as he seems to have a pretty clear vision of what he wants the game to be.
Crafting and gathering as major content in an MMO truly requires a more "sandpark-ish" enviroment to truly work. As long as there are alternative means to get equipment (quests, vendors, low level dungeons) and high level equipment is used as a motivator to grind endgame content, there really is no place for crafting classes in the game. This is best exemplified by WoW, where professions where relegated to just another alternative means of gearing your own personal character (by giving crafter-only enchancements and such).
For there to be actual synergy, crafters need to be the only source of equipment, or at least the only source of SPECIFIC equipment, like it is with crafters and crafting AF right now. And, equipment decay wouldn't hurt, but pretty much everyone who isn't a crafter hates the concept these days.

[Kaliban]

This is true. It is weird, considering how involved and time consuming crafting was in FFXI I would have thought it would have been more useful in this game. Perhaps the original plan for the game in 1.0 had it being similar? Either way, Yoshi P. should step back from the table and re-evaluate the manner of gear progression and put in something that brings the other half of the spectrum, that is crafting, back into the fold. The game is new enough where you can start incorporating sandbox-like elements into it. I would take the ability craft blues/greens/etc as a bone for the time being. However, I do not want to see the "recipe only drops in the dungeon" crap. That really doesn't benefit crafters, unless that is the special version that is a little bit but noticeably better than the non dungeon recipe version. Crafting specialization to unlock blue/green/etc would make sense to me from a player stand point. "You can make HQ normal stuff, but if you want to be making the good stuff you need to specialize" however I would hope this allowed for switching to a different specialty (after a longish questline perhaps).

My personal outlook is that the best gear in the game should come from Crafted recipes. I think this builds community and also, gives someone something to strive for. Hopefully Yoshi P brings this to the table in the future.

[Anderian]

Perhaps the original plan for the game in 1.0 had it being similar?

Yeah, as I understand it (I only played 1.0 very briefly) crafting was actually a more integral part of the game. Not perfect by any stretch of imagination, but it had it's place and it had a lot more potential than most of the other aspects of the game. When 2.0 was conceived, Yoshi basically put everything that was in the works into backburner, and the whole core of ARR was based around the combat classes and a more traditional MMO experience (that's a nice way of saying that they decided to rip-off WoW wholesale).

However, I do not want to see the "recipe only drops in the dungeon" crap. That really doesn't benefit crafters

Agreed. This comes back to the problem that I mentioned earlier, the fact that equipment is being considered the end goal of everything, and that combat classes are supposed to be tied to all form of progression. You notice that there's no gear progression for crafters or gatherers? Just get your AF and put some materia on it. Crafters weren't that prominent even in the 1.0, but now they are basically an afterthought.

[Wulfies]

1) Yeah that sounds good, but iirc in 1.0, if I used my primary hand item and got an HQ it would be the HQ version, but if I used my off-hand item when I HQed I would receive more quantity. So setup a quality vs quantity main/off-hand. my 2 gil

See Below Quote regarding the Potions (link to post also included): LINK

Hello,

We don't currently have any plans of changing the re-use timer for items.

As boss battles within instanced dungeons and primal battles can last longer than five minutes, the game has been balanced so that an item can be used once every five minutes and using any more than this would off-set the necessity for certain roles. The system was designed to ensure that the convenience of items isn't placed above other functions.

Very Pie-in-the-eye



2) I totally am with you on the rare equipment recipes. I wish they would have trash items in some of the dungeons drop stuff like Coke/Animal Fat/etc/etc. Also, if i might add. have the ability to upgrade the loot items from dungeons. Example, would be you receive a "Darklight Robe Pattern" and you can either hand it to some NPC for the basic item, or trade it to a crafter for him to make a "Shiny Darklight Robe" which would have better stats and/or have sockets for materia.

3) +1 to this. The way I take your comment is that you wanted to skill tree the disciplines out and have only certain abilities/recipes avail depending on the branch of the tree you were using?

4) There have been other posts for having a Hamlet style event for Crafters/Gatherers which would be awesome.

[Anderian]

See Below Quote regarding the Potions (link to post also included): LINK

Yeah, I'm still hoping they change their stance. I understand that balancing content is incredibly difficult, and even minor changes can have consequences that the dev team didn't even consider, but the medicine in their current form aren't viable in any way.

And yes, my proposition for soul crystals for crafting classes is that we would be able to specialize, much in the way DoW/DoM classes can. You could still use your classes to to take full potential of cross-class skills for one star and two star recipes, but the new recipes should be even more difficult and limit cross-skill choices so that you can't HQ 100% of the time.

[Ksenia]

I've said it before, we aren't playing FF14 ARR we are playing FF14 anti-1.00

So much heavy handed throttle mechanics from a 1 gil wonder vendor system to the sadistic shard grind to pointless materia. I've never seen such paranoia from a development crew. And I mean that whole heartedly.

[Anderian]

I've said it before, we aren't playing FF14 ARR we are playing FF14 anti-1.00

So much heavy handed throttle mechanics from a 1 gil wonder vendor system to the sadistic shard grind to pointless materia. I've never seen such paranoia from a development crew. And I mean that whole heartedly.

To be completely fair to the development team, they were probably under ruthless time constraints, not to mention the fact that the new direction of the game was designed to bring in more casual players (also known as "the money"). Now, while I'm not saying people should let things slide, obviously everybody should demand better than we got, the dev team didn't make the decisions out of spite or short-sightedness (at least I hope they didn't), but rather out of necessity.