What is exactly is the point of crafting?

[Sotek]

I must say, I find the RMT defense pretty funny. More so when coupled with "Crafters have housing!". Do the developers seriously think RMT wont take advantage of housing as well?

[Freakiie]

I must say, I find the RMT defense pretty funny. More so when coupled with "Crafters have housing!". Do the developers seriously think RMT wont take advantage of housing as well?

If I'm not mistaken the plots for houses are sold in an auction. Hmm, that's not going to encourage RMT or anything!

[Djeserit]

If I'm not mistaken the plots for houses are sold in an auction. Hmm, that's not going to encourage RMT or anything!

It's going to be dutch auction, so it probably won't. Anyone who can't afford it now just has to wait for the price to drop. Of course there will be some crazies who can't wait a week, but a fool and his money are easily parted.

[Thunderz]

It's going to be dutch auction, so it probably won't. Anyone who can't afford it now just has to wait for the price to drop. Of course there will be some crazies who can't wait a week, but a fool and his money are easily parted.

Bots farm gil and sell it to players...

What encourages player to buy gil...very expensive stuff...

what will be expensive... plots

the more you know

[Djeserit]

Bots farm gil and sell it to players...

What encourages player to buy gil...very expensive stuff...

what will be expensive... plots

the more you know

Yes, plots will be expensive....

at first.

They will get cheaper over time. The only reason to buy gil to buy a plot would be if you have to have it NOW. Which only fools would.

The more you know.

Post-Patch-note edit: Welp, Guess I was wrong on this one, though you would still have to be insane to buy gil just for FC housing

[Wolfhammer]

Yes, plots will be expensive....

at first.

They will get cheaper over time. The only reason to buy gil to buy a plot would be if you have to have it NOW. Which only fools would.The more you know.

And we all know game is full of those fools. C'mon RMT for gil is rife as are the bots supplying the stuff...

[Gamemako]

The following actually have some use:

LTW: Gryphonskin accessories are great -- arguably BiS for some jobs, only replaced by ilvl90 in any case. Unlikely to be challenged by ilvl80.
GSM: Rose Gold accessories are fine too
WVR: Vanya is good stuff -- will probably be comparable to ilvl80 gear with no loot limitation
CUL: Food. Food? Food.

The following need work beyond their tiny niche:

ARM: HDS chest/legs takes fewer tomes than HDL, can be better. Mainly just costs fewer tomes. Will be cheaper for other pieces in 2.1 as well. Will not be better than ilvl80 in any case.
CRP: Presently useless crap, will soon make furniture... which is kinda silly when there's no market for it (unless your FC has a house and no CRP, which is hard to do)

The following are utterly useless:

BSM: Useless for endgame except to supply other crafters and meld pre-relics. Ilvl70 weapons are handily bested by ilvl80 and take much longer to get than just farming Garuda for ilvl70 weapon. Will be made exceedingly useless in 2.1 with easier ilvl80 weapons unless it finds some ilvl80 recipes.
ALC: I don't even know what the point of this job is at present. Junk weapons, junk potions.

How would I address the problems? Add equipment reforging and dedicated equipment crafting through leves. For ALC, rebalance potions.

1) Reforge equipment to add materia slots. Require expensive materials to attempt, cap at 20-30% from max quality. Failure to meet progress results in loss of base item.
2) Use leve allowances to do party-only challenge content to acquire materials for high-level items. These are innately time-limited and would make leves that much less useless.
3) Potions in general need to be rebalanced. You want a larger effect (why the hell do healing potions cap so damn low in the first place?), shorter cooldown, and remove some of the silly cooldown timer groupings. A Fire Warding potion might be useful for Ifrit if it were 30s and 1m cooldown. It's not a large reduction and doesn't apply to all attacks, but it has value. You know how many people make Fire Ward Mega-Potions right now? I mean, seriously, who the hell thought it was a good idea to have these at all?

I must say, I find the RMT defense pretty funny.

The RMT defense is funny because they created a crafting system which requires absurd numbers of shards, and shards are acquired pretty well solely by RMTs.