Quote Originally Posted by LineageRazor View Post
While it's not a perfect comparison (undergeared players CAN complete difficult content if they are skillful enough, whereas non-specialists can't even attempt the specialist recipes), but this, I'm sure, is what SE was aiming for, to make crafting a more cooperative endeavor, just as battle classes are. (And it's worth noting that, just as you did with crafting, some battle class players "cheat" this limitation by using alt characters to bypass the gearing restrictions.)

Again, I want to emphasize that I am not defending the Specialist system. I am merely trying to explain why SE did what they did - and why they may do similar things in the future. I hope, instead, that they bolster the abilities of solo-class crafters to bring them up to or near the capabilities of omnicrafters, rather than to stymie the abilities of omnicrafters to try to force dependencies on other crafters.
It's not what SE was initially aiming for. The point of the specialist system, and its abilities, was to make it easier for players with just a few DoH leveled to max level to be able to HQ things without requiring all other DoH jobs at max level. Something which was the case for 2.x, where you needed most of the cross-class abilities to HQ 3/4-star recipes. This is especially shown in how crafting was handled in 3.0, as there were absolutely no specialist recipes at the release of the expansion. The Soul of the Crafter didn't have the extra stats, and it only gave access to specialist abilities.

They messed up with those abilities, as players looked at the RNG involved in most of the abilities, decided that it wasn't worth the hassle, and kept on making rotations with most of the 2.x abilities (and the few 51+ cross-class abilities that were introduced in 3.0). The whole "forced cooperation" thing didn't come into place until 3.1, when they added specialist recipes. It was really just a bandaid fix to get people to use the specialist system.

I don't think forced cooperation among crafters has a place in XIV, especially since it wasn't around at the very start of the game. When I started crafting in 2.0, I liked the fact that I could just relaxingly work on everything, and given enough time and effort, be able to craft anything, without relying on someone else. It was something to progress on whenever I wasn't doing group content. Encouraged cooperation, on the other hand, is just fine. Something along the lines of what I suggested earlier, with specialists requiring less mats to craft (specialist) recipes. Players will be encouraged to find a specialist, so they don't have to gather as many materials, while crafters who want to be self-sufficient will still be able to do so.