4.05 crafting disappointment

[QT_Melon]

The skill only comes in for the initial problem. After that, there won't be a real variable unless there's some RNG involved afterwards (not meeting stats to HQ it). Keeping RNG doesn't add to the skill if you know the problem and solutions. That's the bottom problem. It is what Drivana has said. Doesn't mean I hate the system, but it is what it is and I'm fine with it. I don't want to be crafting tokens that can only be HQ, and need some arbitrary # of them and the non NQ ones take up space until some arbitrary # of them can be turned in for a stupid food leaving me in a spot to hoard them since I can't use them for anything else. Thank you devs for making the system much more flexible HW on, HW was like the first experiment to see how to improve the crafting system and after all the complaints SB made it more accessible.

The only way to keep crafting "skill based" is if you had a PoTD type crafting zone where moving can cause certain abilities to be disabled, max CP decreased, off hand unavailable, someone falls into a trap and turns into a gatherer etc.. Then limit an amount of party members to go in there and try to build items to get them out within an allotted amount of time. You can get rewards like tier 6 materia. But I feel like even then someone will start up a post and complain about how SE can't design things go in some tirade and not be constructive on how to improve the gameplay and that they hate the RNG Gods. :P

[Waring]

The state of crafting now is pretty sad. We have this massive tool set of abilities, but about half of them are completely irrelevant because all you need is a simple macro to get HQ on anything. Leveling up I was looking forward to using initial prep and figuring out the best time to use it up for the bonus skills, and looking at specialist actions again to see if they might be worthwhile now, but I haven't even bothered to put them on my hotbar.

SB crafting right now is more like if you played a dragoon and instead of figuring out how all your abilities work together, all you needed to do was hit heavy thrust for the damage bonus then just auto-attack because your auto-attacks do more damage than any skill combo you have.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

snip

Macro-ing has always been a thing. Mithrie has videos on 3* macro crafting from ARR days. You are severely overstating the difficulty of ARR crafts. Granted, Stormblood is considerably easier due to all the overpowered abilities, but let's not pretend macro-ing rotations hasn't been a thing. You're simply seeing more experienced crafters now who are posting more videos, which inevitably makes things easier. Slapping a bunch of RNG onto crafting wouldn't do anything more than make it infuriating, especially to the vast majority of players. The devs want crafting more accessible, not less. Are there better ways they could have gone about it than tossing us overtuned abilities? Absolutely. But I'd rather RNG not be a deciding factor.

[MN_14]

The skill only comes in for the initial problem. After that, there won't be a real variable unless there's some RNG involved afterwards (not meeting stats to HQ it). Keeping RNG doesn't add to the skill if you know the problem and solutions. That's the bottom problem. It is what Drivana has said. Doesn't mean I hate the system, but it is what it is and I'm fine with it. I don't want to be crafting tokens that can only be HQ, and need some arbitrary # of them and the non NQ ones take up space until some arbitrary # of them can be turned in for a stupid food leaving me in a spot to hoard them since I can't use them for anything else.

RNG at least provided a mechanism for you to learn and master. Yes, you'll do far better once you've figured out an ideal method, but it isn't as simple as looking at your starting cp and then coming up with a combination of memorized button presses. It provides differentiation in player effectiveness and speed, giving someone a reason to study and master it. Raids also become a lot easier once the problem and solution is figured out.

In terms of tokens, you won't end up with a lot of useless NQ ones if they design it properly. For the ARR master 2 tokens, i had 0 wasted NQ tokens because those could be traded for the supra. Master 2 tokens are an example of where you really benefited if you learned how to craft properly and had minimal wastage.

I'm not in favor of making all crafts difficult, but there should be some kind of balance. Standard easy difficult crafts and tough ones where you actually have to consider probabilities, design strategies, and make decisions mid craft.

Macros also aren't likely to go away and have always been around. But in ARR, they often gave hilarious results where you ran out of CP mid macro and had to reclaim, or didn't build enough IQ stacks and had to reclaim. Using a macro was detrimental in terms of material loss from failed reclaims and outright slow speed. In ARR and HW, any crafter who took the freehand approach and waltz right past a macro/rotation user.

[ChameleonMS]

... and to top it off, using ToT to prevent getting Byregot on a poor condition.

Actually, that has been available since ARR. We the community just did not figure it out until SB.
Just remembered, ToT proc on Excellent was not added until HW. Please, ignore.

[tymora]

I think the "real" challenge disappeared the day the lokyst crafting tool came into existence.
Now you can simulate any and all rotations without fear of loss.

Once someone come up with one and publicize it, that's about it until the following patch.
The fun now is coming up with viable rotations that have different features.
- Fastest synths (least steps)
- Least CP synths
*Combinations of various features*...etc
Although, this has been the case since the beginning.
I bet that if people kept all their rotations quiet, no one here will "complain" crafting is too easy.
But I doubt even the OP will want that.

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You still need a fair amount of melds to be able to macro the 70** recipes.

[QT_Melon]

RNG at least provided a mechanism for you to learn and master.

Eh, the formula was the recipe difficulty level going against your stats, and figuring how many steps to finish the craft.
The next was how many stacks with buffs would land at a percentage.
Then with how much CP can you spend to achieve this step.

Trying to say RNG made you master it is like saying the 1.0 "Finer Miner" and "Out on a Limb" made you a master gatherer. It was where the dice rolled.

The real way to master is learning how to deal with certain skills/CP disabled because you'd have to work out the math with what was leftover. If it happened to you randomly where skill sets were disabled, there's your challenge. We all know we wouldn't want that to happen because the game would be frustrating and unplayable. Sadly, the Ixali Beast tribe quests were actually on the right track of making it challenging at certain levels.

In ARR and HW, any crafter who took the freehand approach and waltz right past a macro/rotation user.

This is an artist mindset (being one myself) we care about the journey and progress. However, the end of this, everyone else cares about the results. Can X person HQ this or not. Does the NPC care about whether or not you used a macro, or do they care your craft met the standard. In the end that's pretty much all that matters.

[Kaurhz]

Actually, that has been available since ARR. We the community just did not figure it out until SB.
Just remembered, ToT proc on Excellent was not added until HW. Please, ignore.

Mhmm, the only reason we never even saw it was because brow gave the 2 for 1 special, being that it could only trigger on a good, and on a good guaranteed 100% with enough stacks.

[Ziggyzapps]

Crafting seems well balanced until prudent touch or specialists come into play. I don't use either (except a prudent sometimes at the end) and with nearly maxed melds I hq from nq about 85% of the time, would be close to 100% if I used teas or hq food. Prudent touch a.k.a. basic touch 4 is a really cool situational ability but obviously its op as hell considering the current macro situation. Specialist being easy mode faceroll crafting wouldn't be that big of a problem if people weren't allowed to spec 3 different classes and change them for hardly any cost. Cul and alchemy are pointless to spec, so people can spec into half of the profitable classes, and also change into the other half all in one day. As it is you are better off grinding spec stones rather than farming for materia, much cheaper, at least let us quick synth the verity mats at 1500 craftsmanship or something, we gotta have some reason to meld.

[Princess_Momoka]

As an alchemist main as far as crafting is concerned (no other crafter is even 50), I'm disappointed by the lack of new orchestrion rolls and housing items in the new Master Book. Not even a single one... Five reagents (which are only materials for other things, really) and two pieces of gear. That's underwhelming. I don't know how other crafting classes compare, but they typically have more stuff to craft than this.

3.4 was pretty much the same thing =/