Shard/Crystal Ceiling Price

[HakuroDK]

Hey folks!

So... interesting idea. Have a merchant or merchants sell shards and crystals for a flat rate. Could be tied into the Beast Tribes (Amal'jaa sell Fire, Sylphs sell Lightning, Kobolds sell Earth, Sahagin sell Water, Ixali sell Wind, and an NPC in Coerthas could sell Ice.

This would help crafters in two ways:

1.) It would make shards and crystals much more accessible by being purchased in whatever quantities they wish.

2.) It would cause shard/crystal prices on the market boards to plummet down to around the price range they are sold for by the beast tribes. That way, RMT wouldn't be able to take nearly as much advantage of the shard/crystal market as they do now.

[Cynthis]

I am completely against this. There are too few ways for gatherers to make serious money as it is.

[HakuroDK]

I am completely against this. There are too few ways for gatherers to make serious money as it is.

Miners can make serious money with clusters. I'm just talking shards and crystals. Plus, there's always the raw mats from unspoiled nodes.

Gatherers have Crafters by the balls, especially considering how many shards and crystals they need just to be able to craft at all. Gatherers don't have that problem of needing shards or crystals to craft.

[Nashred]

I am completely against this. There are too few ways for gatherers to make serious money as it is.

I agree.. As a crafter I could see how one would want this but as a gatherer I would be against it..
Shards are like level 5 and super easy to get for anyone.
Gatherers dont have to many options to make money and there is a lot of competition too..
Also it gives low level gatherers s0mehting to make money on...
Honestly I hate farming shards and crystals too. But let the economy work the way it should with supply and demand... If prices get too high more people will farm them pushing them lower..

[chrillix]

Also against this. There are already way too many crafting materials/gear/weapons that can be bought from vendors, not to mention the stuff handed out as quest rewards.

[ChameleonMS]

Also against this. Crafter's have many, many ways to recoup the cost of the shards from the items crafted. I drop 200K on shards without thinking about it because I know I can recover that cost in 20 minutes of crafting; while it took the gather a couple of hours to collect those shards I purchased.

[Xystic]

I'm not sure why we would want some of the hottest selling items to be dirt cheap...

[Urthdigger]

I am completely against this. There are too few ways for gatherers to make serious money as it is.

Yes, because the #1 source of money for gatherers should be possible at level 1 and get no better with higher levels.

[tocsin]

Yes, because the #1 source of money for gatherers should be possible at level 1 and get no better with higher levels.

Far from it. shards already aren't a good enough money maker as it is, even on Jenova, where shards are 150 gil per. it gets better with crystals and clusters, but shards themselves need a higher price floor, not a price ceiling.

100% against this.

[HakuroDK]

Far from it. shards already aren't a good enough money maker as it is, even on Jenova, where shards are 150 gil per. it gets better with crystals and clusters, but shards themselves need a higher price floor, not a price ceiling.

100% against this.

100% against a price floor. Do you know how many shards it takes for Armorer to craft anything sellable? At least four at the lowest possible level, and closer to 40-50 at the highest sub-50. At your server's rates, that's charging a 600 gil fee to craft something that'll likely only sell for half that (without price of other materials taken into consideration), and a 7500 gil fee to craft something that may only sell for less than a quarter of that (without price of other materials taken into consideration.) If materials are taken into consideration, the percentages are significantly worse.

I'm lucky that I'm on Balmung where shards usually sell for 45-ish gil, but still. 150 per shard is unreasonable when it's a mandatory catalyst for every crafter. Why can't gatherers gather up metals or logs? AFAIK, as far as mining goes, only Copper, Tin, and Zinc Ore sell from NPC vendors. Every other ore is purely controlled by the market board, with a soft ceiling as far up as mythril due to ingots being sold from Amal'jaa, with cobalt and electrum having free reign over the markets. Hell, as someone who has CUL as one of their three major crafting classes, I prefer to buy ingredients over the market boards rather than gather them up myself because there are so many different ingredients needed and in such high quantities, that I need to keep a stockpile of every ingredient I can find, preferably in HQ.

There's also stuff like Darksteel and Spruce which is always in demand for endgame crafters. Don't talk like shards and crystals are the only feasible means of revenue for a gatherer, because that's complete and utter falsehood and, in fact, those are some of the worst means of revenue compared to many other options out there.