(3.1) Balancing Rental Airships vs Player Crafted Airships

[Nalien]

To top it off, SE specifically excluded 180 combat jewelry because they knew it would be flexible enough to be useful in raids.

Isn't this exactly what they've been doing with crafted accessories for a while now? Heck, I just checked 2.4 and 2.5 to be sure, it is. Patch 2.4 added Wootz/etc. gear as crafted i110. Patch 2.5 added the Platinum series of i110 accessories... Seem to remember a similar deal with 2.2 and 2.3... This really is nothing new...

Rarity of materials and utility of gear are really the only issues I see with crafting at this point, though I really do not think that is going to be enough to create some "crafting armageddon", and certainly not if they continue to make adjustments to it. The only way this would have a negative impact on Airships is if everyone just stops caring about gathering/crafting, in which case SE would absolutely have to make serious adjustments, otherwise they'd be throwing resources to develop a system everyone nobody uses.

What I see right now though, is the same staggered recipe release we've always had, which means every patch should be bringing in new demand. I see Blue/Red Scrips as a carbon copy of Law/Esoterics, which makes me think 3.2 will be phasing out Blue Scrips and removing the cap on Red. At which point I imagine all that hard melded gathering/crafting AF2 might get replaced for another Forager's/Artisan's set, which will again need melding. If people have given up on crafting by that point, we'd have a problem, but considering all of my Airships have already paid for themselves and then some, I'm not sure what the point of all this is... I'll still be able to sell Materia the same way I always have been able to... Perhaps I wont be bringing in millions, but everything my Airships bring in has simply be gravy for a while now. An issue perhaps for newer FCs, but for those of us who've already abused the heck out of all these new items... It's a laughable complaint at best, more so when this entire argument is built off "maybes". They literally just need to give us Sphere Scrolls II, and the concept of Materia becoming valueless just becomes completely vapid, as does "My Airship which has already made me 10m" along with it.

Also, regarding rarity of materials... It's perhaps worth remembering exactly what they've spoken of for rewards for these upcoming islands... I don't think they've ever mentioned tomestones or gear, the only thing I've seen is "Once you've cleared out the enemies, gathers can come along to harvest nodes", perhaps its nothing, perhaps its something. I expect a new source of Darksteel/etc., but the new stuff would certainly be a welcome addition.

Finally, it takes three days to spin up a Tier III FC buff. Three days for twenty-four hours. These won't be a huge benefit unless they allow us to install three aetherial wheel tables in our homes. And even then, consider how many FC credits we'll be burning on fuel to reach the far islands necessary to produce these buffs.

Grade 3 Actions can only be acquired using the Aetherial Wheel. This isn't like the Grade 1 or 2 Actions, where you can reasonably just spend FC Credits to get them instantly, if you want Grade 3 Actions (and why wouldn't you?) you're going to have to spin them on the Aetherial Wheel and either use materials from your Voyages, or buy the materials from another FC, who'll presumably be very happy to continue to be getting even more profit out of their Airships.

It's 10+ units of fuel on these trips. I'd be surprised if it wasn't a net loss in terms of credits.

At 100 Credits per? No. Not by a long shot. Grade 1~2 Actions currently cost me 1,000~6,000 Credits, mostly 3,000 and 6,000. I'd imagine Grade 3 Actions would cost 9,000 Credits if they get added in such a way. Just looking at what it would take me to farm the right Clusters for Grade 3 Actions, the Credits spent of fuel should be less than buying a Grade 1 Heat of Battle...