Reduce cost of Soul of the Crafter

[StouterTaru]

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2.x had an increasing large barrier to surpass to be able to craft anything, that by itself drove several people away from crafting

3.0 had a much smaller barrier, but unless red scrip gear/mats become more easily attainable in the next few months, the barrier will be just as bad or worse than 2.x come the end of 3.x

Crafting has always been a much better tool for retention than recruiting, so it's a poor comparison. One could argue that crafting has kept more people subbed than Gold Saucer, so Gold Saucer is the real sub-killer

[Mindy_Macready]

3.0 had a much smaller barrier, but unless red scrip gear/mats become more easily attainable in the next few months, the barrier will be just as bad or worse than 2.x come the end of 3.x

3.x has a much higher barrier to entry to get into what is considered "end game" crafting than 2.x, and it's not even close. Not even including specialist recipes. The fact that you need Favor mats from gatherers to buy stuff to craft makes it way less accessible than even when the Ehcatl Sealants were needed in 2.x. Or you spend 10+ weeks to gear out one crafter using only red scrips, and still not reach the 3 star requirements without using food that leaves you with little to no CP.

[StouterTaru]

3.x has a much higher barrier to entry to get into what is considered "end game" crafting than 2.x, and it's not even close. Not even including specialist recipes. The fact that you need Favor mats from gatherers to buy stuff to craft makes it way less accessible than even when the Ehcatl Sealants were needed in 2.x. Or you spend 10+ weeks to gear out one crafter using only red scrips, and still not reach the 3 star requirements without using food that leaves you with little to no CP.

3.2 still isn't as bad as the end of 2.x, and 3.0 had a pretty small barrier to hit 2-star. You don't need a full set of red scrip gear to attempt 3 stars, and you don't need 470 CP to HQ them.

[Mindy_Macready]

3.2 still isn't as bad as the end of 2.x, and 3.0 had a pretty small barrier to hit 2-star. You don't need a full set of red scrip gear to attempt 3 stars, and you don't need 470 CP to HQ them.

I disagree. The barrier to entry at the end of 2.x was "craft these tokens and get your tools, do these quests and get sealants." You could farm master demimateria and fieldcraft materia with more crafting; you didn't need a DoL with favors to gear out quickly, or weeks and weeks of red scrip farming to get there. Why do you think people hate the red scrip system so much compared to 2.x? It wasn't fun for a long time, especially when you got less items for the mats at the start of 3.0.

10 weeks isn't even full red scrip gear. It's just enough to get there if you don't have access to favors. And while you don't need 470 CP to HQ them, you're arguing for the sake of arguing if you believe 380 CP isn't a serious handicap.

[StouterTaru]

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The barrier for 2.x was you can throw tons of time and money at it, while the barrier in 3.2 is you can throw tons of time and money at it or use red scrips.

Even if you want to try 3 stars without access to favors, main/off/body and minor melds gets you there for less than 8 weeks worth of scrips. I just did 120+ 3-star synths this last weekend, most of them with 419 CP, and hit HQ on ~95% of them, including all 35 pieces of gear. The stuff isn't that hard.

[Mindy_Macready]

The barrier for 2.x was you can throw tons of time and money at it, while the barrier in 3.2 is you can throw tons of time and money at it or use red scrips.

Even if you want to try 3 stars without access to favors, main/off/body and minor melds gets you there for less than 8 weeks worth of scrips. I just did 120+ 3-star synths this last weekend, most of them with 419 CP, and hit HQ on ~95% of them, including all 35 pieces of gear. The stuff isn't that hard.

Sorry, 2.x was not as bad. Eight weeks to gear up one crafter for 3-stars in 3.x? Funny, in 2.x you'd have maxed EVERY crafting class easily by that time. Just re-read that last sentence.

Look at the cost of favor mats required to get red scrip items, or the red scrip items themselves. Buying ehcatl sealants was way more viable, mainly because the entire server was getting it.

You're over-generalizing the differences between 2.x and 3.x for the sake of arguing, it seems.

[StouterTaru]

Sorry, 2.x was not as bad. Eight weeks to gear up one crafter for 3-stars in 3.x? Funny, in 2.x you'd have maxed EVERY crafting class easily by that time. Just re-read that last sentence.

You can just as "easily" max every 3.x class in far fewer than 8 weeks, you just can't do specialist recipes for them.

You're either misremembering what 2.x was, or you didn't do top level crafting back then.

• Demimateria was a long grind between leveling desynth and making hundreds of tokens to turn in
• Masterbook II required HQ of recipes harder than anything we have now
• Lucis required difficult recipes locked behind a mountain GC seals

Sure you could have thrown tons of money at those to "easily" max each class, just like you can now in 3.x