Specialist Compromise

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I think the situation we had during the 3.5star recipes (ironworks) was the best balance.

Materials were all non-specialist and only the final synth was locked behind specialist. I'm fine with this, but when I have to ask my friend to craft me 9 HQ ingots and oh btw can you please also craft me 5 more final synth items, it's just too much of a hassle and as a 4 star crafter myself I wouldn't want that burden placed me and so I wouldn't want to do it to someone else either.

[Fife_Muggins]

^This! It's too much! Between ingots, disolvents, etc. and then to need 4-5 specialists to gear 1 class. I completely agree.

[Silverbane]

but when I have to ask my friend to craft me 9 HQ ingots and oh btw can you please also craft me 5 more final synth items

You don't have to do that, you never did. Just buy the stuff off the marketboard, using the money you made selling your own stuff there.

[OoglieBooglie]

You don't have to do that, you never did. Just buy the stuff off the marketboard, using the money you made selling your own stuff there.

Oh sure, let me just sell these things that NOBODY'S BUYING FROM ME ON MY SERVER. Not enough demand for the competition to sell at a speed faster than molasses, and it all sells super slowly. So if I want to make a full set of something for myself, I'd have to spend millions on mats that would literally take weeks to sell enough mats to recoup the costs of, or pester a friend to make me a bunch of mats. I hate pestering friends, especially when they're already being pestered by 20 other people to make the same mat.

In addition, there are literally only TWO recipes outside of bsm/arm that require heavy metal ingots, both weapons. I gave up on making any money on the few heavy metal ingots I made. Obviously, I can make different things, but it's the principle (and bsm is my favorite crafting class). Very little of the crafted gear has a full page in the selling history.

[Silverbane]

Oh sure, let me just sell these things that NOBODY'S BUYING FROM ME ON MY SERVER.

Clearly, you're doing something wrong then.

[OoglieBooglie]

Clearly, you're doing something wrong then.

To be fair, it does sell, but at an extremely slow rate. Slow enough that I gave up bothering with it. I have no desire to sit in front of the marketboard all day long and constantly adjust my prices to match/undercut other people. It's not "I can sell item A for X amount of gil and then buy item B with that X amount of gil" (a rough equivalent to a trade). The primary problem is when you get to multiples. Let's say I want to buy 15 item A. For a rough exchange, I could make 15 item B and sell them for the same amount of gil (As this is simply an example, I'm assuming all the crafting classes are balanced to the point where the mats cost roughly the same amount) and be back approximately where I was before, with the equivalent of having crafted the mats. But I just CAN'T sell 15 item B to make up that gil. There's no way it'll sell in any reasonable amount of time. The entire history page for the mats goes back over a few days to a week or so. For me to make that back in a few days (a fairly reasonable amount of time), I WOULD LITERALLY HAVE TO HAVE NO COMPETITION TO HAVE THOSE SALES, OR ADJUST MY PRICES AS SOON AS SOMEONE ELSE PUT UP AN ITEM OR ADJUSTED THEIR PRICES TO ENSURE NOBODY ELSE CAN GET A SALE.

This is, of course, assuming I even have the gil to start the process with, because it requires gil on hand to begin with (spending the gil first then making that same gil back later). So if I were to do this, then that means nobody else can sell any of that item B. Since they can't sell anything because I'm controlling the marketboard (in this example) for that item at this point, they're unable to do the effective trade for the other item. So what do they do then? What happens if they also want to buy 15 of item A and make item B to recoup their gil? Since they're unable to use the marketboard, they are then forced to find other people. If they don't know another person? Then they have to sit in the party finder or run around shouting, and hope someone is nice enough to make them 15 of that item A and that they either don't want a fee or want 15 of item B in return. That's not fun. That's frustration. I tend to keep to myself in game mostly, so I don't really have a large list of friends that are willing to make me some mats at the drop of a hat. I can understand how the system would ideally work as you make me item X and I make you item Y. But the problem is that it breaks down when you get into multiples of the mats. You shouldn't have to go around making 20 different items in an attempt to diversify just to buy the mats you want.

[Gemina]

You don't have to do that, you never did. Just buy the stuff off the marketboard, using the money you made selling your own stuff there.

This^

I can't even begin to tell you how many maps I have bought using the money I make from the stuff I sell. So I literally pay nothing for rare mats other than time and prayers to RNJesus.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Materials were all non-specialist and only the final synth was locked behind specialist.

Every single piece of Ironworks gear took Luminous Fiber. And that WAS Specialist-Only.

To be honest. I think the specialist system is a joke. Should be able to specialise in everything. Or at least make it easier to change specialisations. Rather than require a full weeks red scripts. Just make it a thousand blue or something.

The point of the game is you can be everything. The specialist system is kinda contrary to that

The Specialist System FAILED at its stated purpose : to let people leveling only one crafting class compete with people who leveled them all. To salvage something out of their FAILURE they came up with the idea of temporarily locking most new recipes behind the Specialist stone.

The entire thing needs to be scrapped. Or, failing that, they need to remove the recipe restrictions and give the Specailists every single cross class crafting skill not conferred them by their base class. That would permit a Specialist to compete effectively with their omnicraft competitors, though not all classes would benefit equally. Omnicrafters would still benefit from being able to craft every refined material, rather than having to seek a supply.

[Aniforani]

Even with the specialist system you don't need to rely on other characters. Just swap specialist using your soul of the crafter. Right now if you're geared for 4 star there isn't anything worth spending red scrips on anyways. When 3 star recipes hit I switched to alchemist till I had a few stacks of luminous fibers then rotated till I had large supplies of ingots/leather/cloths. This patch I did the same and still have enough souls to do another full cycle though my DoHs.
Having said that, I still hate the specialist system. I think there is nothing wrong with one person being able to craft everything themselves so long as there are measures in place limiting how much can be produced. Timed gathering nodes and the items bought with seals/tomes are doing a decent job of that. As someone who spends my time crafting rather than running dungeons for tomes I've given plenty of gil to fellow adventurers. Although I gather a lot it's still not enough to feed my needs so I spend my gil on DoL mats too. Once it comes time to craft, that's my joy and I rarely buy crafted goods unless I'm in a rush to get an item to market asap.