So Thursday's maintenance is supposed to bring crafting/gardening adjustments...

[Gilthas]

Have any of you considered that maybe it has nothing to do with MB prices and almost entirely with making crafting/gathering more time consuming so that you stay subscribed longer on account of it taking more time to get anything done?

Oh, I understand that angle, but in my case it's more likely to make me leave than stay. That's the whole problem with all the changes they've made to crafting since release, these changes don't make people play longer when they actually push them away from crafting.

It'd be really interesting to see how many players at the end of 2.5 with level 50 DoH and DoL had their corresponding Lucis or even Supra.

The thing that's scaring *me* isn't the materials requirements, but rather the gear.

Seriously need to overmeld *everything*? FC mate of mine just dumped *millions* into his set just in melds.

I ain't got that shit...

That's another serious problem with crafting and gathering. DoM and DoW classes can be functional without a single meld. To keep supply low and prices up, DoH and DoL are forced to spend millions on melds or spiritbond for days (most likely weeks).

You know, I've heard there are games out there where a single character has the ability to level all crafts and gathering professions, essentially making them completely self-sufficient. I sure wish this game was like that... oh wait...

Oh wait indeed. Read the opening post again. This game used to be like that when ARR was released. Since then SE has been adding more and more punishing mechanics to hurt players that want to be self-sufficient and force the MB down their throats.

If SE is so obsessed with keeping MB prices up I want them to give players like me a parallel system where we can gather and craft untradable versions of the same items while bypassing all the grindy mechanics that are solely in place to keep MB prices up and to push players out of crafting and gathering.

[Felis]

It'd be really interesting to see how many players at the end of 2.5 with level 50 DoH and DoL had their corresponding Lucis or even Supra.

Like with the relic and zodiac weapons, those tools are now only usefull for glamour.

No, I think what I'm reading is "ease up on the requirements so it's more accessible to more people thus driving up the supply and crashing the prices".

Getting rid of overmelds is a good start. No one should ever have to cough up millions for gear. The only reason it costs that much is because you have to buy dozens of materia because of failed melds.

Go to the shop NPC at the moogle village, buy some (maybe 2) ilevel 100 crafting gear, spiritbound it in the open world (western Coerthas, not northern Thanalan), in the last 3 2.5 dungeons, in World of Darkness or in Dusk Vigil.
It is easy to get crafting materia without buying it.

You can also send your DoL retainer to a 18 hour field exploration X to get a chance on a gathering/crafting materia III without the need to get crafting gear for spiritbounding.