This red scrip system doesn't seem very casual-friendly..

[Fenral]

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Not having a Market Board at all was one of 1.0's biggest problems, especially since buying gear from other players was the only way to gear after level 20. When you get right down to it, it's really just another way for players to interact.

While it may not appeal to you, omnicrafting made it too easy for players to profit by selling items below what it cost non-omnicrafters to make them in the first place, creating an artificial barrier to entry that more or less turned crafting into "omni or nothing," which further lessened the appeal of crafting, which further reduced the number of players doing it, allowing a small number of players to dominate the market. You'd see the same names on everything being sold.

I believe the intent of the current system is to make it easier for more players to produce fewer items, instead of allowing a few players producing in bulk to dominate the economy. This increases the appeal of crafting to players who only have time to specialize in one or two classes, ultimately increasing the overall accessibility of the economy, making things cheaper for everyone. You will, eventually, be able to craft everything yourself again, but being able to at launch with 2.0 was a problem that's had two years to escalate.

They misstepped in one or three places at 3.0 launch, but if the upcoming adjustments to red scrips make it easier for specialists instead of punishing them, I believe it will be a step in the right direction.

So, not only are crafters gated behind the things I already mentioned but crafters are ALSO gated behind combat classes gearing up in order to get mats for the crafters. Yet another gate. How many gates do the combat classes have which rely on crafters currently?

Unlike 1.0, which made you a bystander and gave you a proxy character to fight for you in Main Scenario quests, crafting in 2.0 was only ever intended as a supplement to combat classes. Wait for the new relic. If it's anything like the first one, there will be plenty of crafting requirements involved.

And I realize I said a lot in my earlier post, but it will probably only take about a month or two for omnicrafter gearing to be possible, not an entire year, and even then that's assuming you still feel the need to buy all eight sets of crafted AF2 and perfectly meld them, which isn't actually necessary for the master recipes, just makes them much less reliant on RNG. Red scrips will also be uncapped at some point, allowing you to get the rest without buying the crafted versions, but obviously they can't uncap from the get-go.

They're still trying to find a balance that will let "casual" (your word) players feel like they can keep up while also keeping the truly frightening players from accomplishing everything immediately and cornering the market. They've also pretty much acknowledged that the current system is hampering the former more than intended, which is why adjustments are happening.