So Specialist Recipees are in the game.

[Alahra]

For players with a strong interest in crafting that concept is no longer true

You can still do the majority of everything on a single character. A handful of recipes you may not be able to access with ease isn't going to ruin the power and utility of omnicrafting. It'll still be rather advantageous to keep all your crafts mastered. It's likely all this change will do is add a small social aspect to crafting that doesn't currently exist in any strong way, allowing a crafter to distinguish themselves from others in a way that they can't really do now.

Just wait and see, the sky is almost certainly not falling. If, come 3.2, the new, more powerful combat gear is locked behind specialist recipes, then things will change in more significant ways. But we're not getting any major new recipes this go-round, from the looks of it, only glamour/housing items, which are a rather small fraction of all the available recipes.

[Zojha]

Not at all. Whenever I'm convincing friends to try out this game, the concept of being able to do everything on a single character and not waste time building up "alts" is hugely appealing to them, every time, without fail.

And, uhm...silly side question but is the difference in playstyle between a Blacksmith and a Weaver roughly as big as between a Dark Knight and a White Mage?

The way you are equating the two makes it seem as if the loss of gameplay was equal.

[itti18]

i actually like it , in my opinion specialization is more fun

[Quesse]

They already said it was coming ages ago. They want to eliminate omicrafting if at all possible. I get that. Its an MMO. Socialize, help each other, depend on each other. I get that's not ideal for everyone.. but this doesn't upset me either.

Like AskaRay said... ask for help from fellow gamers. We have FCs, Friendlists and Linkshells for a reason right?

The one thing that really drew me to FFXIV originally was that DoH/L were on par with the DoW/M classes. Finally, I thought, a game where crafting and gathering is given as much attention as battle classes. Well... I've only been disappointed. However it was neat to still be able to gear everything equally.

So they finally took away the last bit of happiness for crafters. Sure, I was expecting it but it is frustrating to see SE gut one of the great premises of the game. Its almost like it was too much effort to actually balance DoH/L and keep it useful. So they just gave up.

[Gyson]

You can still do the majority of everything on a single character. A handful of recipes you may not be able to access with ease isn't going to ruin the power and utility of omnicrafting. It'll still be rather advantageous to keep all your crafts mastered. It's likely all this change will do is add a small social aspect to crafting that doesn't currently exist in any strong way, allowing a crafter to distinguish themselves from others in a way that they can't really do now.

Just wait and see, the sky is almost certainly not falling. If, come 3.2, the new, more powerful combat gear is locked behind specialist recipes, then things will change in more significant ways. But we're not getting any major new recipes this go-round, from the looks of it, only glamour/housing items, which are a rather small fraction of all the available recipes.

Why are we suggesting that crafting needed the addition of a "small social aspect" to begin with? If you wanted to add a social aspect into your crafting there was nothing stopping you from reaching out to other crafters and doing it. How is it a good thing when a game forces an unwanted activity onto a player?

When I want to be social with the community, I turn to raids, dungeons, FATES, hunts, guild chat, this forum, etc. When I want to quietly do my own thing, I turned to crafting because it was the union of two things I enjoy: crafting, and quiet-me-time. So, explain to me again why I should be excited that crafting now also requires a level of social interaction? Because I'm really feeling like I lost an option here if I want to continue crafting anything and everything.

Also, why do we keep pretending like interacting with the community is this wildly desirable activity every MMO player wants? Because I'm really not feeling the love for community interaction whenever I look at a majority of threads on the FFXIV forums. Seems more like people want as little to do with each other as possible, yet people in this thread keep talking about community interaction like we've all taken leave of our senses and it's this appealing selling point.

Finally, that argument of "a handful of recipes", "cosmetic items only", etc holds absolutely zero water unless you happen to be a developer on the FFXIV team with control over long term design plans.

And, uhm...silly side question but is the difference in playstyle between a Blacksmith and a Weaver roughly as big as between a Dark Knight and a White Mage?

I agree that it is a silly question. When you put it like that, why have multiple crafting classes at all? Why just not have class: "Crafter" and throw all the effort, equipment, and recipes under one roof?

Meanwhile, your winning suggestion of improving that difference is to create recipes that are only available to specialists? Really? I don't see that improving the difference.

If you really want to get that nuanced, in the end you're just sitting in a chair tapping buttons on an input device regardless of which class you're playing. Congratulations, we've just described nearly every game. Why play more than one of them? Go delete your Steam library.

[Zojha]

When you put it like that, why have multiple crafting classes at all? Why just not have class: "Crafter" and throw all the effort, equipment, and recipes under one roof?

To be honest, as it is that would not really be any loss. Crafting classes do not just have similar, they have largely identical abilities. There's no need to have more than one of a class if they all play the same. Imagine our combat classes were Pugilist, Fistfighter, Knuckleduster, Street Brawler, Hand of Doom, Monk and Martial Arts Fighter. All with the exact same skills, except for a handful of cross-class abilities that are shared among all.

Honestly? I wouldn't mind being locked to only three of that for certain encounters.

That aside, I'd like you to point me where exactly I suggested anything. Because I missed that part.

[Mutemutt]

I like the idea of specialization, honestly. Never been a fan of being able to do everything by yourself.

However, I'm sure if we try hard enough we can come up with a few inane reasons of how it's better for the game. "Why do you need to be a White Mage *and* a Monk, Honinbo? Just rely on friends, or make an alt.. this is an MMO after all.".

Isn't that how it is for the battle classes though? I mean, besides being unable to queue for the endgame stuff alone whatsoever, you've got to have 3 or 7 other people to help you finish the encounter because the game doesn't let you fill every roll at the same time when you're actually doing that content. Having all your healers and dps and tank classes leveled and geared has very little effect when you're running a dungeon or even just fighting a single enemy.

Having every crafter leveled and geared has a much bigger effect on your ability to craft any particular item as well as the market as a whole.

[Ranzan]

But isn't crafting a solo activity? You and you alone is the one crafting said item. You don't need a party to make in ingot. People want to bring in "community" or "social" with an activity that's done solo. I mean come on if somebody put in the time, effort and Gil they should reap the benefits.

[Mutemutt]

But isn't crafting a solo activity? You and you alone is the one crafting said item. You don't need a party to make in ingot. People want to bring in "community" or "social" with an activity that's done solo. I mean come on if somebody put in the time, effort and Gil they should reap the benefits.

Solo to an extent, but I think the idea of an economy ends up linking the crafters and gathers of a server. It's not much of a market if it's made up of one person after all.

[Ranzan]

It's made up of one person. With these specialist recipes wouldn't that mean even less people on the market? Since it's only one person on said market already.