Problem: Items are Worthless

[Grit]

Oi.. I think the OP has some tangible ideas to toss around. So let's get back to that.

You make very valid points about the economy. It's a system where almost every piece of gear goes straight back into the economy after it has been used, and almost everyone will eventually be a high level crafter. It just doesn't add up.

[Nephera]

Good lord this thread has some of the most condescending posts I have ever seen in my life.

[Scarface]

Fail thread, lol.

[Solipse]

Oi.. I think the OP has some tangible ideas to toss around. So let's get back to that.

You make very valid points about the economy. It's a system where almost every piece of gear goes straight back into the economy after it has been used, and almost everyone will eventually be a high level crafter. It just doesn't add up.

I dont think the current system rewards, well, anyone aside from the first few people to hit r50. There is literally no incentive to do much at all. I get the feeling they never got around to doing any economic modelling (wow certainly does). The economy is just as big a part of any mmo a content.

I'm not saying my idea is foolproof (it's not). But it does address the main issues:

Low quality gear and mats need to leave the economy.
Combat/Gatherers need a constant income stream.
Let people make progress and not have to play roulette to get ahead.

[Aldarin]

In ffxi you could trade in crafted items for guild points, why not add something like that to remove equipment from circulation. There was also the fact you could donate equipment for conquest points. Such a system would reward players for crafting even when their items don't sell.

[origamikitsune]

In ffxi you could trade in crafted items for guild points, why not add something like that to remove equipment from circulation. There was also the fact you could donate equipment for conquest points. Such a system would reward players for crafting even when their items don't sell.

While I generally disagree with "it was in 11..." type suggestions, I think these ideas are spot on. I'm sure if they really put their minds to it, they could come up with ways to do similar things in uniquely FF14 ways.

One thing that might work is allowing crafted items to work as local leve turn in items. As it is now, that could be easily abused (go out and buy some thing, turn it in) but if they allowed signing of items, that means they have to keep track of which objects were made by whom. No reason they could use that to make sure that you have in fact made the item. Just a random thought the occurred to me.

[Fieros]

In ffxi you could trade in crafted items for guild points, why not add something like that to remove equipment from circulation. There was also the fact you could donate equipment for conquest points. Such a system would reward players for crafting even when their items don't sell.

Now this I agree with 100%

Maybe Grand Companies will encompass a barter system as you suggest from XI.

[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.