Specialist System in 3.0

[Sibyll]

Gillionaire, as Sibyll points out, there are people doing that already. It is not a stretch, by any means, to see more people doing it as a result of specialization.

Specialization is NOT a good thing overall. It hinders people, they find ways around the hindrance to accomplish on their own what they were going to do anyway.

I'm not saying I think specialization is a good or a bad thing just yet. All I'm saying is they should take precautions on making specialization something that encourages player-player interactions rather than encourage people to level alts as a means of circumventing it.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

You aren't. I am. I'm saying that specialization is NOT a good thing.

[Alx789]

I think that a game where player can train all skills and a game where player can train one skill and needs alts to train others - it's two very different games with different char training strategies. And with different sets of fans. So, some players will leave this game when it happens.

Perspective to train even one alt with at least 1 combat class at higher possible level and *all* craft skils leveled to 60 (to get cross class skills) and then one skill leveled to 100... It looks stupid - you will need to repeat 8 times leveling that gives you NOTHING (your main char already has all these possibilities) and only after it will become able to get something new. Bad perspective. Try to admire what will be needed to train alts for all craft classes. Pfff. I think, such game will be dropped.

[Sibyll]

snip

The other alternative is that specialized crafters could trade with one another via the market board or crafting link shells. What a terrible idea for an MMO where people work together.....

People are quick to point out the advantage of the armory system letting you have everything on one class but seem to ignore that it completely discourages people that like to focus or specialize on something. Why is it so bad to have both?

[Alx789]

The other alternative is that specialized crafters could trade with one another via the market board or crafting link shells. What a terrible idea for an MMO where people work together.....

For combat classes there are ingame mechanisms to play together - pf, df, fc, static groups (very few players in game are a members of static groups). For crafters such mechanisms are absent and i am not sure that they can be created.

[Alx789]

And one more thing - i started playing as drg, then switched to pld, then .... Just now i use summoner for open world and bard for instance raids and pvp. I couldn't choose correct classes to level at start time because i didn't knew my preferences. And i lost nothing when switched to other combat classes - my drg, pld, blm are geared to i100 and i can return to use them at any time.
In craft i see that i should repeat leveling to 60 of 1 combat class and 8 cratf classes if i don't want to lose my efforts by dropping current craft class from 100 to 60 and trying to levelup another one. I think it's bad game.

[Empty-handed]

it seems there will be specialization to gathering too. the contract concept. that you can only gather the region you have contract with. people who dont have this contract wont be able to gather those specific nodes.

so it will get more complex for me as i gather almost everything for my crafts

[Gillionaire]

The other alternative is that specialized crafters could trade with one another via the market board or crafting link shells. What a terrible idea for an MMO where people work together.....

People are quick to point out the advantage of the armory system letting you have everything on one class but seem to ignore that it completely discourages people that like to focus or specialize on something. Why is it so bad to have both?

Because you can't have both.. It's one or the other.
Openness can allow people to choose what to focus on, But narrowing down the choices doesn't allow people to choose everything. Simple as that.
Most people don't go 4 star on everything as it already is. If we introduce a higher barrier to the lucis equivalent in heavensward and perhaps also introduce class specific armor, then I think people will specialize to maximize efficiency on their own. Of course, eventually there will be master crafters that have it all, but that won't be for a while if the gate is set high enough

If people want to specialize, by all means. I know a few people doing exactly that with crafting. But there's no reason to force it upon us.

Also, I think most crafters are of the merchant mindset. We want to sell to the entire server, we want to be self sufficient, not resort to partnerships or work for the big man.

[Bimi]

I hope SE reconsiders this "specialization" concept if it means you can only excel in a couple of crafts. The big attraction in FFXIV's crafting system is that you can level ALL the crafts. You can be self-sufficient if you wish to put in the work and the time, or you can level different crafts as they become necessary to you. Having hard to get crafting gear is already a way to specialize (those with less time or will will make 1-2 lucius while still having the choice of getting all if they wish, those that love crafting will get them all).
Please don't turn FFXIV's awesome crafting system into the same as every MMO out there (I'm having Aion's "what to choose" nightmare flashbacks already). FFXIV is a game designed for not having to level alts. Please don't change that now.

Bimi Bimi

[BobbinT]

Wasn't FF XI like these on it's early days, before "specialization" got introduced on laters patch/expansion? lol