Problem: Items are Worthless

[moatcarp]

Please explain, in detail, why you think this system makes HQ materials worthless, exactly?

Because most NQ mats are next to worthless. All the DoL I know regularly NPC stacks and stacks and stacks of materials (even after giving away stacks and stacks for free to friends / ls-mates). Crab Bow is a weird example because I don't think you can harvest all the materials. LW is another example that doesn't fit the norm.

For most crafts NQ mats are completely free in huge quantities if you have anything resembling a social network in the game.

So your example doesn't hold for most the items in the game (maybe it does for crab bow because you have to farm some of the mats).

[Solipse]

Because most NQ mats are next to worthless. All the DoL I know regularly NPC stacks and stacks and stacks of materials (even after giving away stacks and stacks for free to friends / ls-mates). Crab Bow is a weird example because I don't think you can harvest all the materials. LW is another example that doesn't fit the norm.

For most crafts NQ mats are completely free in huge quantities if you have anything resembling a social network in the game.

So your example doesn't hold for most the items in the game (maybe it does for crab bow because you have to farm some of the mats).

That's not an objection to the point I made, though.

Right now you can buy a non HQ oak log for 2k. You can usually buy a +3 oak log for 20k. Right now HQ items are only 10, maybe 20x as much as a non HQ item. The balance point in the system that I proposed, costwise, was 50x. IE, HQ items will be worth between 2 and 5x as much compared to non HQ items as they are right now.

How is making them worth more compared to non HQ items making them worthless? :P

[moatcarp]

That's not an objection to the point I made, though...

1 - right now you need HQ materials to create HQ+3 item (assuming rank 50 DoH & rank 50ish synth), correct?

2 - with your proposal a rank 50 DoH would be able to generate a HQ+3 rank 50ish synth by grinding out NQ mats into NQ end goods and then combining the NQ end goods into HQ end goods, correct?

3 - NQ materials are largely worthless (caveat: materials you need to farm for, NM drops, etc).

Therefore your proposal reduces the need to obtain HQ materials in order to obtain top-end gear.

In some cases that point you are making holds (NM drops for example). Even a NQ NM drop is worth quite a bit right now and a HQ is worth quite a bit more (the last I looked anyway). In this case then you could reasonably make a trade off between buying HQ components or NQ components.

For many other cases though your proposal undermines the value of HQ goods even more than they are undermined in the current system. At least in the current system people trying to obtain HQ gear (meaning +3) are seeking out HQ materials.

Aside from that - I could get hundreds of NQ oak logs or anything NQ DoL-able for free (or for whatever the NPC would pay if you want to be more even or even a bit more - so like 200g / item?). So can any crafter with any sort of social circle. That completely undermines your argument because the NQ can be had for 0g (or ~200g) rather than 2k. The trade off becomes "sit around for hours synthing NQ junk that cost me next to nothing or pay a bunch of gil to save some time".

EDIT: I didn't say it because I figured everyone here is smart enough to fill in the blanks but the trade off of spending a lot of time grinding out items that are basically free vs. spending a bunch of gil to save some time totally favors people who will bot crafting and thus runs against some important premises at the heart of how this game has been designed and balanced.

[Solipse]

1 - right now you need HQ materials to create HQ+3 item (assuming rank 50 DoH & rank 50ish synth), correct?

2 - with your proposal a rank 50 DoH would be able to generate a HQ+3 rank 50ish synth by grinding out NQ mats into NQ end goods and then combining the NQ end goods into HQ end goods, correct?

3 - NQ materials are largely worthless (caveat: materials you need to farm for, NM drops, etc).

Therefore your proposal reduces the need to obtain HQ materials in order to obtain top-end gear.

These are all covered by my explanation, though.

You are essentially saying that people would rather spend more money and more time synthing from NQ than they would from HQ.

In this system, I would pay 100k for a +3 log before I would pay 120k for 64 NQ logs. Why? Because it would take 64 NQ logs to get the equivalent of a +3 log. I can save myself many, many hours of time and frustration by just buying the +3 log at the inflated price, which, you will notice, is more than the +3 is worth now.

Seriously, I already covered this a couple times over in my responses to you. HQ materials will go up in this system. They will be just as in demand as they are now, except they'll most likely be worth even more since they become a better alternative than endlessly grinding materials.

[moatcarp]

These are all covered by my explanation, though.

You are essentially saying that people would rather spend more money and more time synthing from NQ than they would from HQ...

Spending more money? You keep saying the same thing and failing to respond to my answer to it. NQ mats are largely free. I'm not going to continue if you're going to be selectively blind while reading my replies. Have fun.