Bizarre burnout

[Anodic]

Did it at least 4 times, pre and post, from scratch , so yes I do know.

You're not a new player. You're already used to the system. And yes, crafting takes patience. No one is arguing that it isn't. This whole thing isn't about how easy or hard it is to gain crafting levels or how easy it is to obtain materials. I don't know why you keep hyperfocusing on the whole ingots thing either. It's an example about how weird the marketboard is when it comes to buying materials. You can't buy 1 of a player's 99 ingots. You can't buy 1 of a players 99 gyuki leather. You can't buy 1 of a player's 99 horn glue. That's what it's about, not 'well you can craft ingots at lvl 15 so the marketboard's functionality isnt weird'. Also, let's take a look at the 'functional system' bit. There are MMOs out there where you can enchant items, but if you do, there's a chance that the item you're trying to enchant will be destroyed. And the only way to prevent that is to buy several protection items that can go for a huge chunk of change on the player market. That system does what it says it'll do: it enchants items. It's functional. But that doesn't automatically make it fun. In fact, I know that most players that deal with those types of systems absolutely despise them because it sure feels bad to lose the item them spent a week grinding for because RNG said so. And to new players in this game, having to constantly be told that to do their next quest, they have to pick up a new, different class can get frustrating. The only way someone would be able to predict what classes they'd need for their future quests would be if they looked them up, and once again I say not every player is going to do that. There are a lot of players who take the whole 'throw things at the wall and see what sticks' approach. They peek at their crafting log and go checkmark by checkmark, because the game doesn't say "Hey player! You just picked up LVL 1 Weaver. You should look into Beast Tribes and Ishgardian Restoration and Leves and GC turn ins!". And if you want to talk about guides, let's talk about how the #1 result for ffxiv crafting guide on google is a website that's publicly advertising illicit services. That's not something that a new player should EVER have to see.

The game itself doesn't tell a new player that they're going to have to need multiple crafting classes to complete these quests until they look at the crafting log to craft the quest items. In fact, the official ffxiv crafting guide website says: "Becoming proficient in one of these disciplines will help you acquire or create new items to aid you on your journeys." It doesn't say that you'll need a level 43 fisher to obtain coral for free to craft a level 50 longbow. And why would a new player even expect that they'd need FSH for Carpenter? This is my problem with low level crafting. More often than not a person new to the system isn't going to know what exact classes they need for their quests, so once they hit the point where the game says, "I know you're level 45 in X profession, but for this quest, I need an item only x class can make that hasn't been introduced in your questline yet", they will be far more likely to go "ugh I don't feel like leveling that right now, I'm going to buy the materials instead" instead of "darn, well, time to go pick up this class and level it". And that introduces them to the marketboard problem being forced to buy in bulk because of the way listings work, which in itself can be another point of frustration. And sometimes, there might not even be the material they need on the marketboard. Looking up Red Coral on Mateus right now, there are only 4 listed on it being sold by one person. If someone bought those 4 up? Someone who looks at the marketboard at that unfortunate time might think they're going to HAVE to pick up FSH and level it 43 times to finish that quest. A new person might not know that they can visit other worlds to use their marketboards. The Active Help window doesn't tell them that. F2P players probably have it even worse. They can't use the marketboards. So when they hit that crafting wall of needing a new class? They will 100% have to go and pick up another one. And that new class's quests will tell them to pick up another one. And again and again. And having to craft it all HQ is a whole another monster to tackle.

There are many many online guides and many many mentors but once again I say that not every new player is going to be looking for guides and reaching out to people. The vast majority of new players to MMOs dive into systems headfirst for a trial by fire, and constantly being told that you have to backtrack and do something else to finish what you were already doing can and will get frustrating. You can find many posts online where people have expressed frustration about it before. You know what would be nice? If when you pick up your crafting job for the first time, there was a dedicated tab in the crafting log that told you what exact items you'd need to craft for that job's questline and what other jobs you'd need to obtain them. Because right now, if you don't have a crafting class unlocked, it doesn't even tell you what class crafts the material or show you what the recipe for said material even is. My alt character cannot see the recipe for Bronze Rivets on a level 1 carpenter in game despite needing it for a level 5 shield because she does not have a class unlocked that can make it.