Square Enix, please think about both Casual AND Hardcore crafters..

[CookiesNCreams]

They don't actually care about difficulty. They care about having too many people on the mountain with them.

You shouldn’t be assuming things like this, lol. Why are you so negative? I’m being honest here, not even being rude. Did a hardcore crafter put a bad taste in your mouth in the past or something? There’s really no need to demonize people who enjoy challenges. Plus, what would you suggest since you apparently seem to know all the answers?

[Vidu]

You shouldn’t be assuming things like this, lol. Why are you so negative? I’m being honest here, not even being rude. Did a hardcore crafter put a bad taste in your mouth in the past or something? There’s really no need to demonize people who enjoy challenges. Plus, what would you suggest since you apparently seem to know all the answers?

I mean, if all you care about is a challenge, you can always set one for yourself in the way you suggested SE does it - by slef-imposing certain limitations, like not using certain skills at all or maybe never letting your IQ-stacks reach more than 5, not using any food or melded gear etc.
If its the challenge and the puzzle you care about, I'm sure you can come up with all sorts of those!
...but thats not the impression I've gotten so far - you seem to care much more about being rewarded for a challenge and having this reward be exclusive and locked behind hardcord-crafting (which seems to translate to "I want crafting to be an RNG-base time-sink").

Maybe I'm a bit special and nitpicky here, but as someone who has always been raiding because I enjoy the challenge first and dont care much about the rewards (aka: I would still be raiding without them just for the sake of testing myself) I have to say that Kabooa seems to be closer to the truth about your motivation than you are yourself. Many of your posts mention how you want the attention of being a mastercrafter back and how there need to be special rewards for crafters as there are for raiders etc. and I need to ask: Why - if the only thing you care about is a challenge that you can set yourself? Is it maybe because at the end of the day you dont enjoy the challenge for itself, but only for the potential attention you can get from beating it?

[Kabooa]

You shouldn’t be assuming things like this, lol. Why are you so negative? I’m being honest here, not even being rude. Did a hardcore crafter put a bad taste in your mouth in the past or something? There’s really no need to demonize people who enjoy challenges. Plus, what would you suggest since you apparently seem to know all the answers?

That's fair. I apologize.

As for what I would do, without revamping the crafting system, I'd just add special glamours to specialist recipes that had absurd number requirements. NQ grants you a model, HQ grants you a glowy effect unique to said model. Fancy as our outfits can be, sometimes a little bit more sparkle would be appreciated.

The system is too two dimensional to ever have any real difficulty to it, and needs additional facets to actually be challenging.

[CookiesNCreams]

That's fair. I apologize.

As for what I would do, without revamping the crafting system, I'd just add special glamours to specialist recipes that had absurd number requirements. NQ grants you a model, HQ grants you a glowy effect unique to said model. Fancy as our outfits can be, sometimes a little bit more sparkle would be appreciated.

The system is too two dimensional to ever have any real difficulty to it, and needs additional facets to actually be challenging.

Well, at least we are on the same page now, haha. I’m sure they can come up with a way to make crafting harder. But not only apply it to glam, but end game gear as well. (Notice I said gear, not mats) It is SO rewarding to know you HQ’d a craft after spending so many hours grinding crafting, and learning rotation moves. Especially when the craft is super difficult.

*How dare people who don't want to invest time or effort be allowed to obtain every bit as much as I do, ruining what I enjoy in the process.

It’s sad that I have to agree with this statement. Yoshida should really be notified of this thread, come the next live letter. And I personally will not stop until it is answered in a live letter.