Regarding the removal of HQ items from gathering...

[Jojoya]

"RNG" or chance is a good and important part of RPG and most other game design. However it is misused to the point where is becomes abusive and so much like gambling it addicts people. This is not that sort of case. The player has a lot of control and the distribution is fair and reasonable. This is the type of RNG that adds a small dash of realism.

But it's also adding inventory bloat, and lack of inventory space is one of the most common player complaints. It's something SE needed to address and gathering was an obvious target. It's harder for them to remove gathered materials in general because gatherers want new items to gather just as players interested in combat want new mobs to fight. Removing what's essentially a duplicate material becomes an easy choice. Most crafters are already reducing any HQ they get to NQ because they don't need HQ and it saves space. SE is adding QoL by removing the need to players to manually engage that extra step.

I think it's a change that players will rapidly settle into easily enough though it would help if SE were to add in back in some RNG element. Rare hidden items would be an example of something that could make a comeback. Instead of being mostly useless seeds, they could be items needed to craft minions/housing items/glamours. Luck of the Pioneer/Mountaineer could be retooled to have a GP cost and offer a x% chance for the node's rare hidden item to appear after the next gathering attempt. Being rare and hidden, the item would not be affected by any active yield bonuses and would disappear after being gathered once. That would keep supply low and value high, giving gatherers a reason to keep trying to obtain the item.

[Meganox]

I'm with you on this confusion. I know they said it was to help free up inventory space. But does anybody actually keep the NQ items they gather for use in crafting? I had just sold those and kept the HQ. So for me this doesn't even touch the inventory space issue much less solve it.

[Jojoya]

I'm with you on this confusion. I know they said it was to help free up inventory space. But does anybody actually keep the NQ items they gather for use in crafting? I had just sold those and kept the HQ. So for me this doesn't even touch the inventory space issue much less solve it.

Why would you keep HQ instead of NQ? That makes no sense. HQ isn't needed to craft unless you're undergeared for the recipe level.

Even if the change doesn't help you, it will help others who are gathering multiple items or storing HQ materials.

[Momo_Kozuki]

I don't know how NQ-only gathered items will affect end-game crafting, or how some HQ-related achievements/mechanics will have to be reworked.


I can only say this: Good riddance.


I always hate that the fact that HQ gathered items don't feel necessary at all. Gathering items that yield HQ, either by myself or via retainers, feels like a punishment cuz you don't need HQ materials to craft most of HQ items in this game. To save slots, every time HQ pop-up, I have to lower the quality and drag the new batch of NQ items into the existing NQ batch, cuz they don't auto-stack for some reasons. I loathe doing these extra steps and always wish to have some kind of functions that force NQ on retainers/gathering so I don't have to deal with extra useless HQ stacks.



So I think I can feel happy with the change.

[SillyCrow]

Personally I think they should just commit and remove HQ altogether. That includes crafting.

[Meganox]

Why would you keep HQ instead of NQ? That makes no sense. HQ isn't needed to craft unless you're undergeared for the recipe level.

Even if the change doesn't help you, it will help others who are gathering multiple items or storing HQ materials.

Considering that response I would say it is because I suck at the crafting system. Time to do a more through review of it.

Personally I think they should just commit and remove HQ altogether. That includes crafting.

Where is the challenge in that?

[Jojoya]

Personally I think they should just commit and remove HQ altogether. That includes crafting.

They would need to up the NQ items to the HQ stat budget in that case. The stat budget for NQ items sucks to be blunt. It's less than that stat budget on gear from instanced duties of a lower ilvl (compare 500 Edenchoir to 510 NQ Exarchic then 510 HQ Exarchic, the difference is noticeable).

Considering that response I would say it is because I suck at the crafting system. Time to do a more through review of it.

Caimie's been working on an updated crafting guide and has a link posted in the Disciple of the Hand forum. It's worth a look.

[Canadane]

Personally I think they should just commit and remove HQ altogether. That includes crafting.

They did at one point get rid of +2 and +3 tier of HQ items.
Leaving just +1 which was eventually made into the HQ we have now.

And with how they keep making it simpler and simpler to play with ever expansion, just give it a few years.

[SillyCrow]

Where is the challenge in that?

Up to SE really. They could make it so HQ is the baseline for crafting an item. Or they could keep NQ difficulty for anything that isn't a master recipe and make HQ the norm for master recipes.

[KikiyoD]

Why would you keep HQ instead of NQ? That makes no sense. HQ isn't needed to craft unless you're undergeared for the recipe level.

Even if the change doesn't help you, it will help others who are gathering multiple items or storing HQ materials.

Yes you can HQ items off NQ mats, with the correct (HQ/expensive equipment) easily, which most dont have, the HQ items help those with lower/merchant bought equipment make HQ items/equipment for themselves. I understand your point, but my point is the equipment you say should be sufficient, is normally expensive equipment made by others, sold the (supply and demand) way, sometimes making them out of reach for the common/new player.