
Originally Posted by
Zantitrach
Maintenance and upkeep are a far cry different from repairing. Can the Dragoon use a whetstone to sharpen his spear? Extremely likely. Can he gather ore from an area and makeshift some rivets to put his armor back together? No. Not likely at all.
OP is an adventurer is he not?........
OP is an adventurer who has chosen not to persue being a desciple of Hand/Land. This should be just as valid a choice as saying that an NPC would choose not to follow it, just as it should be just as much a valid choice as saying an NPC DID choose to persue it.
To suggest only Player Characters are capable of multiple professions is just silly. Especially when we have proof that, people like Tataru, who knew nothing of mining, could just put on an outfit and go mining in Mor Dhona. And yes, that was a level 50 outfit, so she must've been worth something at it. Levels are arbitrary when stacked up before Lore, so I don't use them as a meaning of defining what the PC's and NPC's are capable of doing.
Not levels in the sense of levels, no. Levels in the sense of CRAFTING experience (lore wise) yes. If you pay attention to the dialogue in the crafting quests, it hits this concept wonderfully. i.e. I trust you to fix these level 5 leather boots, but not this level 38 jerkin because of your lack of experience (levels). They all talk about your “quality” of work, yadda yadda, etc.
They also consistently refer to your quality as being "Exception" and constantly going above and beyond their expectations, even when there is an NQ vs. HQ. Simply put, their dialogue is not proof of anything - other than that your character in terms of the lore (Story) is a 'master tradesmen proving him/herself as they go through the ranks.' It's more of a coming of age story than it is a story of progression. This is why even a level 50 craftsman doing a level 5 quest will still make sense.
And let's not forget the potential disconnect of "You made this?!" after you could buy it from the MB or have a friend make it for you.
This goes back to my counterpoint, you’re asking for THOUSANDS of lines of dialogue that need to be ret conned and re worked. This is not something SE needs to invest in to fix such a marginal issue (And yes, it IS marginal. Threads of this exact nature crop up less, and have fewer supporters than the “Bring back 1.0 booty, booty slider” threads)
I'm not asking for thousands of dialogue lines. There's definitely not thousands of dungouns (Man it'd be interesting if there was, but no, SE had too much of a harder time maintaining 3 per update patch, not to mention 'thousands.'
At most, it would need, what, 50, maybe 60 lines? And even then, if you just re-use the same NPC model without the dialogue, it can be inferred that the same NPC that met you outside the dungoun came inside to see you off from the entrance of the actual dungoun. So, in theory, you could just make it an NPC that pops the dialogue box like anyone else.
The Dialogue can be used to Enrich the world, or to give continuity if you do not want to use text from the NPC. These are things that are beneficial to the game. Choosing to abstain from it, however, because it's "Too hard" or "Too much work" is a poor reason not to do something, because there is literally no benefit to it - save the fact that the publishers get it easier. And personally, I hold SE in high regard, and want to see them add more - not less.
But this ISN’T a benefit if there’s an NPC in every instance who can repair! I will 100% not carry dark matter around if I can just queue in and repair from the NPC. As you mention Inventory space is PRECIOUS, and I say that as a guy with 5 total retainers. As SOON as EVERY instance starts, I’ll just click the NPC and repair.
You won't, but I and many of my crafter friends will. The reason being? Because it IS a benefit. It costs me less (And let's face it, I don't have millions on hand from runnign around spending more when I can spend less.)
So, this comes down to a subjective opinion about which one we find more valuable. I personally, as someone who can repair my own armor without relying on the off chance of running into someone, will keep dark matter on me because it will always be useful to you. You, however, would find that use to be invalidated if they added it to the dungoun. That does not make either of us wrong, however - let me ask you this:
Wouldn't you rather have the choice, than no choice at all? Wouldn't you prefer to say, "You know what? I don't want to keep that one extra slot filled with Dark Matter. I'd rather pay for the luxury of the space being free by using the vendor."
Again, this is only a positive. You choosing to make that choice is good. Just as the addition of NPC's to the dungouns wouldn't take away someone's choice to level their Crafters. This is why the percieved threat of 'losing' something is false. The choice remains, but it creates a situation in which there is a failsafe to protect players from a mistake. That is good for everyone.
Thank goodness you had SE’s implemented FAILSAFE for this type of situation……
Except it's only a failsafe if you level those jobs. If you never level them, then there is no failsafe. This is why that is such a faulty reasoning - suggesting that the failsafe exists for those who do not currently* have it, means it is coming up short as a failsafe.
If the person cared about that in this argument at all, then they would level the crafter anyway to save repair costs.
No, this is an effective arguement because someone with all crafts at 60 (Such as myself) does not want to use the NPC at the start, whcih is what you are trying to suggest they would do - because it would become 'useless' by your definition.
Someone else, however, may prefer to pay the premium of an NPC to repair their gear (and clearly already do) but want more ready access to said NPC because of the limitations created by the Duty system of FFXIV.
If this were like any other MMO on the market, where you could exit the dungoun but maintain the party, repair your gear, and re-enter and resume your progress - this would not be a discussion. But because SE has opted for a system of "In the duty until you win it or quit it", they have created a situation that would benefit greatly from the addition of NPC's.
They are not wealthy due to crafting, but from selling materials. They were all able to afford the MATS for 220 gear, and surprise I was able to craft BSM/LTW/WVR 220 gear, someone else was able to craft ARM/GSM/CRP gear.
Aye, as I said, They are not wealthy due to crafting. To use this as a basis of the arguement is flawed.
I too had a few million, from gathering. Although just by leveling my crafts I tripled that.
It IS all about effort. And if they don’t want to put EFFORT into the ONE thing they do, fighting (which requires REPAIRED gear) then they don’t deserve it.
Everyone works to earn gil differently, and prioritizes putting it into different things. Many people do not WANT to level crafters. Leveling crafters is boring and monotonous to me, but for me, it was worth it to do it. To someone else, it may not be worthwhile to do it, and that is fair for them. But again, this is about failsafes for those people who - in a game that says you can CHOOSE to do everything, should not be forcing you to do everything for basic quality of life changes.
Way too much work for SE developers to implement both solutions. One being far easier to manage (hint, its not the one adding NPC’s to every instance)
Who are you to say which is easier to manage? Let me give you a few examples of why I, personally, feel adding NPC's is easier.
1) The NPC's already exist in the game world, thus the programming already exists.
2) The system already exists, thus the programming already exists.
3) NPC's exist in dungouns currently (Or rather, interactable objects), and thus programming already exists to have such things in dungouns (IIRC, we also have seen some interactable NPC's so it's not completely unlikely that it'd be hard to add the NPC's)
Now, let's compare this to your suggestion, and see why it is a bad idea:
1) The programming DOES NOT currently exist to repair other people's gear. This is BRAND NEW PROGRAMMING square enix has to add (back) into the game, that has been REMOVED since 1.0.
2) The programming DOES NOT currently exist that allows players to make exchanges within a duty, thus requiring you to ADD IN THE ABILITY TO TRADE WITH ONE ANOTHER within a duty, thus creating an even greater programming nightmare.
3) The concern that players will be capable of moving money BETWEEN SERVERS exist, as I am sure SE would add in the option to pay for repairs as it is a premium service.
4) The concern that players will not carry Dark Matter into duty to request a repair from someone, or likewise that they will even MEET someone who can repair the gear.
As far as I am concerned, it is FAR EASIER to add NPC's and a line of dialogue, or just straight up copy-pasting NPC's from the dungeon's very entrance than it is to create a whole new system within the game to give you what you want.
JUST like crafters! How fair is that! They get the BENEFIT and PERK of mid fight repairs, mid dungeon repairs WITHOUT having to level the crafting classes! All for the price of dark matter!
Except they DON'T Get that benefit if the crafter isn't there, thus the system fails on the fundamental level that the very situation it seeks to prevent, can still exist. Not only that, but the ease of access to request a repair midfight would likely be a lot harder than a player repairing their own gear mid fight (As I believe both of us have admitted to.)
Meanwhile, an NPC at the very start of the dungoun, is only accessible while outside of combat, comes at a premium cost, repairs it to a max of 100% and likewise can not be accessed from anywhere else but that one spot.
Why on earth would there be payment. There’s no payment for melding. Don’t arbitrarily add it to the system.
What? Yes there is. The whole "Request Meld" system in the game involves having the OPTION of adding payment via the Meld interface, and true to form - some people expect "Tips" for their work. There are also people who do it for free, but it does not change that the Melding system (Whcih is our parallel in this case) inherantly has that feature built in, and it should be expected that the feature would be added to a Reapir rquest system as well.
No, its still great in practice. It helps instill responsibility, thought, and care into people. The same reason in the real world employers prefer it if you have a good work history, or have attended college. It means you have to put in EFFORT in a TEAM (game in this case).
It's actualyl terrible in practice, because you are STILL neglecting all the factors that have to line up that allow you to use it. Teamwork doesn't matter if not a single member of the team has the requisite skillset. Again, this accountability does not work, because there is no way to garuntee crafters, and there is no way to garuntee that someone will have dark matter. And saying "Be responsible" is a poor excuse when it's something that could be prevented with a better system.
The failsafe IS to level a crafter and the ability to repair. No one is advocating to take it away. The failsafe is already there. We’ve advocating adding an addendum to that failsafe which is to carry dark matter.
Here's the thing:
Leveling a crafter, is purely a luxury. It is NOT a failsafe, because by the very definition of the word failsafe :
a system or plan that comes into operation in the event of something going wrong or that is there to prevent such an occurrence.
Now, your idea doesn't fit this definition, because it does not come into operation in the event that something goes wrong. Rather, your system falls more accurately and more succinctly into the definition of a pre-emptive measure, than a failsafe. Which is, again, great and all well and good, but does not resolve any issues that may come up from what the OP was originally trying to resolve.
This happens once, maybe twice. Its been, what 8 months since HW launched and crafter’s were finally able to contribute to the raid scene with something besides potions/food?
"Since HW launched." vs. "Since ARR launched.
Since HW Launched:
3.2+ : Crafters are very useful to the end-game raiding scene, and some people like it, some people hate it. I won't discredit either side on this, it's all opinion.
3.0+: Crafters are only somewhat useful to the endgame raiding scene, particularly in the fact that they could make accessories that were BiS for tanks until they started getting better pieces.
Since ARR launched, both of the above (obviously) as well as:
Gear in many cases was BiS for many classes from Crafters for the end-game raiding scene. This meant to be the best at your job (See: Bard) you had to get these items crafted.
Even without these listed items, Crafted accessories are still the only way for non-tank classes to raise their Vitality without sacrificing a primary stat, so it still had its use for initial progression raiding.
And fighters could have millions from running content (Your aforementioned selling raids for instance *though this is not guaranteed, it is a potential benefit of it)
It's less likely that a fighter will sit on millions of gil in my personal opinion. Runselling is particularly only capable on more hardcore groups, and isnt' something the common midcore player can do. The ease of access to this is harder to reach, to say the least - so much so that even I've fallen out of the end-game selling scene (And, for the reference, I've been selling since arouind T9, I wasn't able to for T5, and also sold for T13. I did Thordan-EX sells, but I didn't make much off it.)
A crafter requires an investment, but if you're willing to apply effort after the investment, you can definitely turn a profit. It's less garunteed and harder to pull off because the Battlecrafters have to have 6 other competent people to sell content. And the very same materials they can turn a profit by farming, can be bought by Crafters that then turn a profit off what they bought (if the crafters don't just farm the mats themselves like I do.)
Agreed, the only perk. Although I still say it’s a marginal one if you’re a crafter.
Will have to agree to disagree on this one, sorry. But I think that's subjective, let's leave it at that.
Fighter’s have equal “first access”. The big name crafters on Diabolos for instance, Dev, Rahl’s, Grabbyhands, Sino (people who craft and not fight 90% of the time) don’t have time to do things that require large time sinks. Take for example(yours), Thavnarian gear, which required drops from maps. Take for example bardings, or house furnishings that require primal drops and etc. If we’re talking casuals, take for example the Coffin Lid (Mhachi Coffin) from Void Ark. Real crafters do not have the time to run hundreds of void arks for the off chance it drops and the off chance they’re able to roll on it.
Hmmm. It's hard to say in this case who truly has access, then, because there IS A good dynamic on these items that require an equal measure of combat and an equal measure of crafting. I guess we should say, the ones who are most likely to have access then - are neither crafters nor fighters, but rather, those with the most money - so my revised list would shift them up a single slot.
However, when you talk about a pure DoW/M, vs. a pure DoH/L, which one has the stereotype of being "Rich" and haivng more access to money?
Yes, it would. However it also taxes the SE development team for stuff the MAJORITY of players would rather have them work on, new content and etc.
To argue Majority from either of us would be flawed. Instead, stick to the merits of the discussion at hand - don't try to strawman it and say "My side is the majority so it's right." and I'll pay you the same respect by not countering that "My side is the majority because most casual players don't craft."
While yes, there’s no clear cut “I use/don’t use dark matter” there is actual a huge amount of evidence to suggest they do not. The multiple broken items/gear throughout the storyline for plot purposes that can never be fixed with a simple dark matter (broken ships/items/relics/gear/parts). FFXIV says this about dark matter
It has recently been discovered that this substance of unknown origin has the faculty to assimilate with other forms of matter, effectively restoring them to their original condition.
It then varies an addendum of “common materials” to “This specific grade of dark matter has been shown to bond best precisely crafted items made from high-quality materials.” If it was as simple as using dark matter (which does not specify weapons/armor/rings/etc) then Mor Dhona should have been rebuilt in days, same for Idyllshire and etc.
This could be acounted for, however, in the fact that the ships, items, relics, etc. are far too broken to be able to properly use. Think of it more like this - your armor is constantly taking hits, but it's holding up. It's sound. At 10%, it's in danger, but it's still held together. Its' effectiveness at blocking an attack, is always at 100% all the way down to 1%.
At 0%, it breaks in such a way that it becomes useless, but can be repaired. This can be something as simple as the straps being broken, to the armor having been cleaved in two and needs to be welded back together. In the end, it doesn't matter - what matters is, "I can't use this shield" because it can't be held to block anymore.
The fact that our armor is fully effective until 0% suggets to me that we at 0% are not reaching the same dilapidated state of the very stuff you suggest is being fixed in the world at large.