So that's disappointing...

[Shirai]

Haha, yes indeed!
That's the reason I avoided materia melding any of my class-specific crafting gear, I thought, Particians may be ghastly to look at dyed Cactuar Green, but at least it'll save me upgrading soon!
Feel bad for the sods who penta melded all their individual kit if it does mean upgrading completely.

I have melded the individual sets, but only to reach the stats I want to have.
Most of my melding efforts went into the accessoires, of which I expect they won't be outclassed that soon yet.

To be fair, I don't even expect we have to replace my current sets just yet.
As for the new tools, I'd like to see what the stats on those are first.

[KraggyKor]

I remember when Free Companies were for endgame... Really not seeing it so far.

And when was that, pray?

Maybe for elitists FCs are solely for the phat lewt grinds, but back in 1.0 I joined an LS pre-release, for V2 I was still in that LS which became an FC and I started a new character on a new server and joined an FC when I was level 6.

[Nuinn]

Well, at least once we get private housing that's one thing less I'll have to worry about taking up space in my home

[Nayto]

Hey it's not all useless... I can finally use this phrase to my Culinarian friends.

[Sotek]

I mainly said it's disappointing, not worthless. Although everyone (who will) will eventually cap their crafts, so...

Can't believe anyone is arguing this. Not every new player is in a Free Company. Not every Free Company is going to waste time on this. It would have been much better served as the Crafting Guild buff we could get in 1.0. That plus new furniture would have been nice, combining the two is just a waste.

While Free Companies were for endgame (and endgame =/= elitism if anyone else wants to throw that strawman out there), they did want to encourage players to recruit new players. Do this do that? No. It encourages new players to join Free Companies, but does nothing to encourage Free Companies to actually recruit them. It's an extra cost, uses up space in the companies estate, and it offers nothing to the people who'll produce it... Much better would have been;

Crafting Guilds now provide a service to boost CP while leveling up to level 40.
Free Company crafting facilities provide a CP boost for everyone.

That way, everyone gets the leveling bonus, players who join a Free Company with it get it for free, an every crafter in the Free Company gets a bonus out of it.

[TheUltimate3]

New players have a Free Company with a House?

Again, this would have been great as the Crafting guild bonus it practically was in 1.0. Why it's now lumped to Housing I'll never know...

I remember when Free Companies were for endgame... Really not seeing it so far.

Why must I advocate for Lucifer?

A Free Company exists. It invites a new player into the game. New player now has access to the Free Company house and thus the crafting station.

Yay?

[Sotek]

Why must I advocate for Lucifer?

A Free Company exists. It invites a new player into the game. New player now has access to the Free Company house and thus the crafting station.

Yay?

Oh, so all the rich Free Companies that can afford a House and new furniture have a duty to recruit people leveling their crafts? All that Gil they saved up was for the benefit of... Random people?

We both know this isn't the way it works. This is not something everyone who is leveling a craft has access to, please stop pretending it will be.

[Nethermancy]

Devil's Advocate.

Assume one doesn't have the money to to grind to 50 in a single day. How does this effect people like them?

you can trip and fall into 100k gil per day EASY on monday alone chasing after that one item you need in CT while you spiritbond... ive bought FULL Leve Power leveling kits ( all the HQ turnins u need) to get form 1 - 50 in 2 hours for 100k... there is NO excuse (other than waiting on leve regeneration) not to be level 50 on all crafting jobs with how pathetic it is to level them with leves. and with BCoB DF version coming out its even easier to farm the philo mats for i70/rank IV Materia conversion.

[FJerome]

New players have a Free Company with a House?

Again, this would have been great as the Crafting guild bonus it practically was in 1.0. Why it's now lumped to Housing I'll never know...

I remember when Free Companies were for endgame... Really not seeing it so far.

Half of my FC only got into crafting once they hit 50 on their battle class.

That said I really would prefer this to be a guild bonus. It'd serve the dual purpose of being accessible to everyone while encouraging more people to craft away from the market area, which just looks better visually.

ETA:

Oh, so all the rich Free Companies that can afford a House and new furniture have a duty to recruit people leveling their crafts? All that Gil they saved up was for the benefit of... Random people?

We both know this isn't the way it works. This is not something everyone who is leveling a craft has access to, please stop pretending it will be.

This is probably going to end with us locking our FC house to members-only. Right now there's no reason not to be hospitable and keep it open but having random strangers sneak in to use our workshop is going to feel pretty creepy.

[Nayto]

you can trip and fall into 100k gil per day EASY on monday alone chasing after that one item you need in CT while you spiritbond...

Or you can trip and fall into a CT drinking game which seems to happen every other day... and tbh SBing a full CT run only goes to about 40-60% completion. That's not 100k, that's more like 10k of 'potential' profit. And assuming your not doing crafting jewelry there's always the RNG of having elemental filler materia.