Would you want the Firmament to be a feature for future expansions?

[Kiurai]

Bozja seems much improved over Eureka though. I'm fine having one less if it is actually fun. Taking pieces of Pyros and Hydatid if the map leaks are to be believed we might get a BA style content early.

[Rokke]

I've loved the concept of a server coming together to help rebuild a broken zone, and hanging out inside the instance between gathering runs this past ranking was fun. I would like it more if they allowed different means of contribution in addition to craft X/gather Y 3729832839 times. Some means of personal progression a la Doman restoration would be nice too, the focus can stay server wide but more little 1 to 1 quests where you can help fix this little spot over there would help keep it more personal with your wol.

[Hazama999]

I don't craft/gather regularly, but eh... Certainly wouldn't mind it. I like seeing the progression as things are built.

[Morningstar1337]

That said, I don't feel the devs are being lazy, they seem to work flat out. There's just some sort of problem with budget or resource management which I hope they can overcome or be honest with us on.

the fact that its implied that stuff like the primal weapons were made off the record already implies that resource management issues are the case

[Edax]

What worries me is that by making crafting easier, of which the Firmament played a part, has slowly rotted the in-game economy with hyperdeflation. Ultimately there's no point in crafting content if crafting is useless.

[Amnmaat]

What worries me is that by making crafting easier, of which the Firmament played a part, has slowly rotted the in-game economy with hyperdeflation. Ultimately there's no point in crafting content if crafting is useless.

But everyone can't craft everything all the the time though.
This is true free market, you choose your niche. Hyper-deflation is always better than hyper-inflation.
I approve of making crafting more accessible, the HQ end game crafting is still not an easy feat. It just allows the "ok" crafters to make some money as well.

[Edax]

But everyone can't craft everything all the the time though.
This is true free market, you choose your niche. Hyper-deflation is always better than hyper-inflation.
I approve of making crafting more accessible, the HQ end game crafting is still not an easy feat. It just allows the "ok" crafters to make some money as well.

What does it matter if the endgame market is flooded with goods? If endgame goods are as accessible as buying from a NPC vendor, then there's no point in crafting. What makes crafting profitable is because the endgame consumer goods *aren't* supposed to be extremely accessible. I myself used to craft all the time, now I almost never craft because it isn't worth my time. When supply vastly overwhelms demand, there's no profit to be made.

[Amnmaat]

When supply vastly overwhelms demand, there's no profit to be made.

Not true, you're acting as if the market is not growing? The more and more patches we get the more unique things there are to craft. Sure, you might not be making as much as before but that's balanced out with the lower expense of "living" that comes with deflation.
Furthermore, you can still make a healthy amount by finding your niche. You just want to be the grandmaster crafter whom the peasants sell their kidney to buy from. When you could be making similar money or a little bit less by adapting and finding your niche. It's ok to adapt, you don't need a system rigged in your favor.

[ZattanaWen]

What worries me is that by making crafting easier, of which the Firmament played a part, has slowly rotted the in-game economy with hyperdeflation. Ultimately there's no point in crafting content if crafting is useless.

This is certainly true, and it has noticeably damaged the in-game economies, and opened the floodgates for bots and bot-users to control most corners of the economy.

I mean yes, stuff is cheaper. But crafting is no longer a reliable way to make money.

I think the way to fix crafting and justify having made it easier is to just implement some Market Prohibited craftable items. Nothing outlandish or OP, just some items here and there that you can only have if you craft them yourself. Meaning you can't then sell them. And maybe to head off the inevitable rebuttal, make the mats either gatherable-only (again, MP), or available from in-game vendors (and again MP). Maybe these items are just glam, or housing items, or minions, or even a mount or two. Things people would want to have, but wouldn't be at a disadvantage without.

That might get more people crafting and gathering for other reasons. To this point there's been little reason to do either other than to make money.

[ZattanaWen]

Not true, you're acting as if the market is not growing? The more and more patches we get the more unique things there are to craft. Sure, you might not be making as much as before but that's balanced out with the lower expense of "living" that comes with deflation.
Furthermore, you can still make a healthy amount by finding your niche. You just want to be the grandmaster crafter whom the peasants sell their kidney to buy from. When you could be making similar money or a little bit less by adapting and finding your niche. It's ok to adapt, you don't need a system rigged in your favor.

I think she's referring to the fact that there's now like 20-30 listings for something like the Aesthete gear where in the past you might have expected to see 5 tops. And their prices are laughably low because now you have a dozen people all undercutting each other because there aren't 20-30 people buying the gear on the MB. Impossible to profit from if you don't gather at least most of the materials yourself, which can be beyond tedious. A lot of the people crafting and selling that gear, if they aren't bots themselves, they absolutely employ gathering bots at the very least.