Seperate the Grind from Item creation

[darkstarpoet1]

The current crafting system features a white-knuckle battle between durability and progress/quality. Except that you can get away with standarding away on auto-pilot. I suggest improving the current system by making exp gain from a synth depend MUCH more heavily on quality. Furthermore, allow for exp chains as long as you gain 100+ quality on a synth your level or higher. Or alternatively, a chain bonus for making multiple HQ in a row, but probably a bigger bonus since it would be more random.

Current System

exp_gain = (250 + 50 * level_difference) * (1.0 + 0.001 * quality_gain)

Crafting EXP formula link.

Proposed Change

* Cut the base exp of 250, maybe down to 100 or so.
* Increase the quality factor by a factor of as high as 10.
* Allow exp chains for consecutive high quality synths.

These changes would make players at least play the mini-game we have to get best exp while synthing.

Crafting Guild Leves

Guild leves would be more interesting if there were some in-game reinforcement for the efforts. Something like increased NPC effectiveness in hamlet defense battles as a direct result of the armor and weapons crafted for them through leves. Or some kind of crafting reputation and reward for aiding the Ala Mhigoan refuges. As it is, Blackbrush may need an endless supply of boots and food, but there is no in-game reflection of that supply being met or not.

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addition 1.

this i like. there was also an idea that the starting quality of the synth should not change due to hq materials being used. here's a basic example.

now:
hq materials used = @160 durability and 300quality.

changed:
hq materials used = @200 durbaility and 0 quality.

these would require you to actually play the game and use the abilities to get an item as a higher tier item. in other words, no more standard to completion then massive amounts of touch ups. they seem set on using a hq system that has a 100% hq rate so why not let the hq rate be entirely dependent on the quality of the synth.

now:
get 50 quality and touch up touch up and get a +2, but get 300 and after touch ups get nq.

after:
get less than 100 quality and get nq with a small chance at a +1, get to 100 quality and get a sure +1 with a shot at a +2, get to 150 and get a +2 with a shot at a +3, and get over 200 and get +3 gear.

this would actually require someone to make the gear using their abilities for a chance at the higher tier of hq items. this would work well in my eyes with the additional ideas you had for crafting chains and basing the sp off synths off the final quality. these should be level based, of course, and not a r49 weaver mass producing r1 yarn for 300 sp. they would have to be like battle as in within 10 ranks or the sp gained is 0.

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addition 2.

add a spot in the crafting guilds in which people that are looking for a certain item and cannot be found in the wards order it from the npc there. the crafters could come in and pick up orders placed by other players through the guild and create the item for the price the npc sells the item for. they could get guild marks, exp, and gil from supplying those requested items. it would be a nice way for crafters and other players to relay what is needed in the wards as well and keep the other classes from waiting weeks looking for that one piece of gear.

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addition 3.

make materia come in only base stats. there is no reason to have 20 different pieces of Strength IV with different stats that make up their own unique stack. have all materia come with only base stats for each tier of materia. the attaching process would be turned into a synth and not the rehash of the original repair system we have now. the quality would be based exactly like the hq process is, but instead of +1 +2 it would be the different stats they have as a higher level hq. this would allow materia to be stacked and save a tremendous amount of space.

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addition 4.

change the process to dye gear. the way to dye clothes should have been put in place of the way materia is attached.
first, select the piece of gear you want.
second, the color you want to dye the item to.
third add whatever water or whatever they want to add to make it work like a catalyst and hit start.
fourth, the item comes out exactly like it is as far as stats and hq is concerned, but just with a new color.

there's no reason for you to lose your hq status of gear just because you put a color on it nor is there a reason for a horribly made piece of gear to become high quality because you put some paint on it. you should not forget how to put on a pair of gloves just because it went from undyed to red.

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addition 5.

go to around halfway in between the amount of materials you made previously to what they have been changed to. there's no reason materials such as yarn was reduced from 12 to 1. a reduction i can understand, but these just added to the grind people are complaining about. you now have to gather anywhere from 4 to 12 times the same amount of mats and make 20+ more synths just to get the same amount of materials. this is just extra time and effort put in with no sp rewards for your effort.

ok i know this is long and i will get alot of tl:dr, but this post was about giving ideas about how to make the system better and there are some. these don't touch the actual grind itself nor the mini game itself, but it would make the crafting seem more involved and less tedious in the meantime.