The "Saving the Economy" Super Thread! (ideas to save economy)

[Axidrain]

Crafting in FFXI was 50% luck, 50% how insanely much you put into the grind.

You could level every craft to 60, then you have 40 levels to distribute among all your crafters, max level of 100 in one craft with 60 in all others, or 80/80/rest 60, etc.

There was no skill behind it, just throw items together, chance of success/HQ depended on level of your craft(s) vs level of recipe.

Leveling up was a random chance at a 0.1-0.5 increase in level for attempting a synth high enough to boost you. Most of the last 20 levels was spent doing 10 useless synths of hard to get items for that 0.1 increase.

that actually makes more sense. at least in terms of limiting the amount of crafting u can get maxed. czu as of right now, i dont even have to buy any mats from the AH since i can get and/or make them all on my own. Therein lies the problem that's causing the economy to stagnate over time.

[Millimidget]

that actually makes more sense. at least in terms of limiting the amount of crafting u can get maxed. czu as of right now, i dont even have to buy any mats from the AH since i can get and/or make them all on my own. Therein lies the problem that's causing the economy to stagnate over time.

I really don't think that's it.

If I had to rely on others as I do in other MMO crafting systems, I probably wouldn't participate in the crafting system at all.

Stop making all this stuff people should be gathering availible for 2 gil from a vendor.

Plenty aren't sold by vendors.

Speaking of which, they just took some off the vendors.

- Make bosses drop unsellable and untradable ingredients. Also avoids RMT.

So I have to farm the dungeon which drops gear of the same level as what I'm trying to craft, to get some of the materials for the item I'm trying to craft.

Why wouldn't I just farm the gear from the dungeon directly at that point?

I've read through this thread, and most of these suggestions might make crafting more engaging for a small niche of the community (devoted crafters and devoted market traders), but would absolutely tank interest in crafting for the general populace, the same as it has in practically every other MMO I've played. Seeing as the gear is quickly eclipsed while leveling, and isn't on par with the current max level gear even as they release another source of gear (PvP) which actually does offer max level pieces, what makes you think the average player would be interested in crafting at all?

[LineageRazor]

Devoted crafters are VERY interested in seeing interest in crafting absolutely tank for the general populace. The less competition the better! However, the best way to make interest tank is to make crafting an obnoxious, boring grind, as it was in FFXI. Crafting is an enjoyable pasttime in FFXIV, and I'd prefer it to stay that way.

That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a limit on the number of crafts that can be taken to cap, as was the case in FFXI. It's sort of silly that every crafter is eventually going to be an EVERYTHING crafter; you can't really identify yourself as a Goldsmith main, for instance, because the very act of being a devoted Goldsmith means that you should have everything else at 50 as well for the cross-class skills. If SE raises job level caps in the future, they may want to consider forcing crafters to choose only one craft to level beyond 50.

[Fenwick]

I've read through this thread, and most of these suggestions might make crafting more engaging for a small niche of the community (devoted crafters and devoted market traders), but would absolutely tank interest in crafting for the general populace, the same as it has in practically every other MMO I've played. Seeing as the gear is quickly eclipsed while leveling, and isn't on par with the current max level gear even as they release another source of gear (PvP) which actually does offer max level pieces, what makes you think the average player would be interested in crafting at all?

Why would you create content for people who have no interest in it? Or worry about tanking interest for those uninterested already. In my mind it makes more sense to develop the future of crafting and gathering specifically for those who want to do it, not for those who don't want to.

[Millimidget]

Why would you create content for people who have no interest in it? Or worry about tanking interest for those uninterested already. In my mind it makes more sense to develop the future of crafting and gathering specifically for those who want to do it, not for those who don't want to.

What are you crafting that you can't make money off of?

[Fenwick]

Snip...

Ignoring the fact that you're completely ignoring my point. I'm not sure what the numbers you're looking at on your server are like, but aside from some choice food, very little is worth crafting here. If you're lucky you'll break even on what the materials themselves are worth.

The only way to make any meaningful gil off of crafting is to break it down into materia, which is less effective now because SE crashed most of that market by giving Materia IV as quest rewards. Essentially they took potentially every character in the entire game, and injected that many Materia IV into the game, times it by four because that is how many you get.

Quicktongue III is worth 22k/p on Excalibur, Quicktongue IV is worth 17k/p.

Steel Ingots went for 600g/p, SE put them available on a vendor in 2.1 and the price is now 120g/p. This is only one example this has happened with every single material added to a vendor in 2.1, they are essentially killing their own economy by putting artificial caps as to how much you can make on certain materials.

The materials that aren't available are farmed so much or given so casually via Treasure Maps, most aren't worth 100g and a large chunk of what gear you can craft is either overshadowed completely by DL/CT or also available on a vendor at the leveling camps.

[Nadrojj]

What are you crafting that you can't make money off of?

On my server as a GSM there is just so much supply and so little demand that you constantly get undercut when you list your items. I sell level 49 rings, selling price for hq's used to be 5500, then as the rest of the masses leveled they dropped that in half. Now you see people selling HQ's for less than NQ's just so their stuff can sell. The saturation of items on the market is one of the reasons no one is able to make a good profit.

[Millimidget]

The only way to make any meaningful gil off of crafting is to break it down into materia

No it's not.

I sell level 49 rings, selling price for hq's used to be 5500, then as the rest of the masses leveled they dropped that in half. Now you see people selling HQ's for less than NQ's just so their stuff can sell.

Is that 5500 number accurate? Or do you mean 55000?

EDIT: Looking at the market boards, I'd say 5500 was correct. You can make as much or more selling practically anything lower level than that.