Specialist System in 3.0

[Shadygrove]

We don't know that it is restrictive.

We know nothing but a word. One word. Everything else is speculation. Some of the speculation so far:

We will only be able to hit 60 in X many crafts

We will specialize within a craft. Example somewhere in the thread was fish for cooking. Another would be gem cutting for Goldsmith.

I don't remember any other ideas on how specialization might work.

How about coming up with a few more?

[Gillionaire]

snip

Regardless of how accurate people's speculations may be, specialist means specialist. I don't think there's any ambiguity there.
Unless SE either scraps the idea altogether or decides to give us a specialization regarding increased yields (i.e. Alchemy potion specialist will have x5 potions instead of x3 per craft etc.) any "specialization" will be restrictive.

Something as harmless as above example will still push you out of the potion market because you won't be able to compete in price.
But, to be frank, that kind of specialization isn't something I'm completely against, as long as I can make the stuff albeit at a slight handicap. That's the key word "slight" handicap is acceptable imo, it will be a hard thing to balance though.

[StouterTaru]

Regardless of how accurate people's speculations may be, specialist means specialist. I don't think there's any ambiguity there.

You could call the current crafting system a specialist system, with 8 different specialties. The ambiguity is whether or not the new specialist system requires you to choose an exclusive path or not.

[Gillionaire]

You could call the current crafting system a specialist system, with 8 different specialties. The ambiguity is whether or not the new specialist system requires you to choose an exclusive path or not.

Awwww come on, you know CLEARLY that they were not referring to the current system as a "specialist" system.. when they said the S word, they know it means something significant. We just have to wait and see what that holds for us, but many of us feel strongly that it will be some sort of lockout.

I think that multicraft restriction will benefit market speculants. I myself prefer to sell final products, such products often needs crafted components from other classes. If i will become unable to prduce such components, i will need to buy it on the market - so, the role of such components will grow. Most of components are stackable and this makes them more useful for market speculations - this requires 99 times less storage space. So - it will come to the game (.

That sounds good for you, but what about people who specialize in refined mats? (rose gold nuggets, dark steel nuggets, ingots, twinthread, hippo leather etc.)
If they introduce a system which will simply add a chain of distribution along the way, all it'll do is increase the price of finished product.

Now the system is in such a way that you profit from both the cost of the raw materials AND the refining it takes to get the finished product. i.e. when people make accessories for example, they calculate the material cost in terms of gold ore, not rose gold nuggets and add the shard prices etc. that's how some people sell a finished product for less than the price of its components because there's still profit to be made.
Imagine, however; that you were force to buy rose gold nuggets, hard hippo leathers, etc. sure it would circulate a lot more gil around the market, but the finished product will end up costing more.

[Nyalia]

Imagine, however; that you were force to buy rose gold nuggets, hard hippo leathers, etc. sure it would circulate a lot more gil around the market, but the finished product will end up costing more.

Prices are set by the person who is selling it for the cheapest. There would still be someone with an alt who can make the mats they can't make on their main, and that person would have even more control over the market. A specialization system does not just benefit the casual crafter over the "hardcore" crafter. The "hardcore" crafters (top 1%) will benefit from that sort of system the most.

[Gillionaire]

Prices are set by the person who is selling it for the cheapest. There would still be someone with an alt who can make the mats they can't make on their main, and that person would have even more control over the market. A specialization system does not just benefit the casual crafter over the "hardcore" crafter. The "hardcore" crafters (top 1%) will benefit from that sort of system the most.

I agree, that's certainly what I would do.. I already have alts for desynths so it's not a huge stretch.. and I'm sure you probably do too, you wrote the book on desynthing :P

[Squand]

Prices are set by the person who is selling it for the cheapest. There would still be someone with an alt who can make the mats they can't make on their main, and that person would have even more control over the market. A specialization system does not just benefit the casual crafter over the "hardcore" crafter. The "hardcore" crafters (top 1%) will benefit from that sort of system the most.

Nyla, Do you consider yourself a hardcore crafter? Are you part of Eorzea's 1%? Do you have a guess as to how much gil it takes?

[Gillionaire]

Nyla, Do you consider yourself a hardcore crafter? Are you part of Eorzea's 1%? Do you have a guess as to how much gil it takes?

lol do you not know who Nyalia is?? She's certainly top of the ranks.

If you are simply asking her opinion on what kind of gil 1% is.. I'd say it depends on the server but 100million+ sounds about right from what I've seen on Jenova.

[Alx789]

That sounds good for you, but what about people who specialize in refined mats? (rose gold nuggets, dark steel nuggets, ingots, twinthread, hippo leather etc.)

These items HQ are not needed to HQ 2 star finals. They may be needed for 3 star products but in a very limited amounts. And there is no need of any specialization to nq such items - some shots with enough crship... "Specialize" sounds to loud for such activity. And prices ... You may find a lot of before lvl 50 items at 10-40K price diapason and get more profit.

With 3 star maths i don't understand such activity too. Wolfram ingot is harder to HQ than Wolfram Cuirass and can be sold in my world at 60K price and 25 for NQ (scheelite costs 5K, ferberite hq 20K nq 2k) i have a tonnes of terminus putty hq and can easilly use nq ingots for cuirass and try to sell it for 200-250k. And all maths exept putty will cost for me less than 2 ferberite hq i will need to hq 2 ingots. I checked sales - nobody buys hq ingots...

[Gillionaire]

snip

HQ mats still hold a place on the MB as a commodity because it gives people a peace of mind. Kind of an insurance policy if you will.. Not saying it's necessary, but if it's 20-30k extra most people will pay the premium to ensure they are protected from horrible RNG.

Also, reason wolfram ingots don't really sell is because people who need them can already make wolfram ingots. What they should've done to encourage cross class material trades was to diversify the materials for crafts instead of having GSM use gold and platinum for 99% of things, and BSM/ARM use darksteel/wolfram for 99% of things etc.

All that aside, there are people that make most of their gil by gathering and selling mats. Gathering is their main game, and they refine the mats to give it a little more value etc.. It's a lucrative portion of the market.

Besides, we're not discussing the viability of hq mats for 2-3 star crafts, we're discussing the value of the craft if one were limited to one or two of them.
To somebody who makes their gil by the means I described above, if they were forced to specialize in one or two of the classes, their market basically shrinks by more than half. Can you imagine trying to make gil by only selling rose gold nugget only? then move on to rose gold ingot then gold ingot into platinum ingot? That would be a very slow progression, if even possible with all the competition to come with it. Of course, you can say to diversify into gear, etc. But that argument just brings us back full circle..

This will apply even to people who sell gears. Of the people who sell artisan's gear on the MB, who only sells artisan's sandals/grinding wheel/spinning wheel? (taking CRP as example) nobody, if someone sells one artisan gear, they usually make and sell the rest of them too.

Such a change will affect everybody, think about how many types of final product you deal in.. It's usually 3-4 classes or more. Now, eliminate them by classes until one or two remain. Think about how profitable that'll be for you to all of a sudden cut your wares by 1/4th.