whats the point of crafting...

[Feilina]

Most of em are the quest reward for the new story quest.
May it be possible the SE is trying to show that they have a materia system?

[DarkDedede]

At this rate, the most viable way to earn gil will be doing levequests.

[YuriRamona]

The problem is not simply that crafted gear is only worn for a short time, it's that for most people it is never even considered as a possible option. As the prices drop for philosophy tome items the cost of materia has stayed the same or in many cases gone up. So while an item might only cost 300,000 gil to make now it still costs well over 600,000 to make one and properly meld it.

Now assuming that the average player earns roughly 400,000 gil in total by completing the main quest line and getting their first class to 50 this means he/she will be unable to buy and meld a SINGLE piece of crafted 70 gear, let alone all 13 slots. The only players with the amount of gil necessary to purchase crafted gear are other crafters and Titan win sellers. This is a doubly weak market because other rich crafters can usually make the gear themselves and Titan win sellers need better gear than crafted gear to sell wins in the first place. This only leaves rich crafters with a new 50 battle class who do not already have all eight crafts at 50. I suppose you could also count people who do lots of WP speed runs but they share the problem of Titan sellers of already having significantly better gear.

That's like refusing to teach your child how to drive because you're afraid they might someday have an accident. They're going to have an accident regardless, but giving them the tools to be successful drivers will give them the ability to handle the accident better than not knowing anything at all. Right now you're saying that combating RMT takes priority over everything (ironic, given how much spam there still is, how many mining bots I still see, and how many RMTs I report every day that seem to go ignored). RMT will always try to take advantage of the game in any way they can. But by creating an environment where combating them takes priority over game play, you're depriving a large part of your player base of a huge part of what is for them the most enjoyable aspect of the game.

I just think it's funny they say they don't want to encourage RMT.

And then they go and add housing that cost millions and millions of gil.

Trying to bring this discussion back to the response given by Yoshi-P, in which he highlighted the crafting of high-level gear, the concerns about RMT, and solutions offered through PvP gear and housing.

As Dale alludes to, housing prices were devised partly as a countermeasure to the wealth of some players across the servers.

There are a few problems. As Nenin mentioned, one of the primary ways that wealthy players spent gil was by buying and melding 2-star ilvl70 gear. Not only does this only transfer/distribute gil, but it also makes the geared player richer by enhancing their ability to farm and produce gil in the game.

The critical consideration is that there are little to no viable means for these very rich, very well-equipped players to spend their money. Housing, for many reasons, is not an effective gil sink (predominantly because the wealthy tend to be dedicated/hardcore progression players and not the casual type targeted by housing).

And so we have the paradox of an existence of a wealthy elite with no reason to spend, a design philosophy centered away from the practicality and desirability of gil (well-intentioned but hopelessly idealistic), and a blind, at-all-costs mentality of fighting RMT. (did we forget that they just picked hundreds of people and divided their gil by one hundred a few months ago?)

It's an incredibly dangerous situation when the wealthy elite are not offered legitimate means to spend their gil, and eager RMT who are ready to buy from them and re-distribute to the less wealthy.

I don't have the numbers and stats, obviously, but having RMT be the only active means of not only circulating, but re-distributing wealth is a highly toxic economic environment. And this is exactly what we have, and will not go away until we solve the problem of gil's usefulness in the game.

[Xystic]

It's an incredibly dangerous situation when the wealthy elite are not offered legitimate means to spend their gil, and eager RMT who are ready to buy from them and re-distribute to the less wealthy.

I did not have the time to reply to this the other day but I saw it today and will point out some major flaws in your logic.

You are missing the logical point that the RMT obtain the gil from the wealthy thru selling them goods. In order for the wealthy in any MMO to get wealthier they must consume goods as well. In this case, they are buying "Goods" which were botted for by RMTs. If you remove the RMT, the player population now can get the gil from the wealthy players without having to pay gil-hostage/real money to get gil thru RMTs.

The RMTs are not Robin Hoods.

In order for the wealthy to get wealthier they will consume goods and they will do so as long as they have a profit margin. So even if RMTs are removed they will buy from players if even if the raw materials are slightly higher in price as long as a profit margin exists. RMTs do not redistribute the gil. They are taking the gil that should be redistributed and hold it hostage.

The idea that RMT's help redistribute the wealthy player's gil is false when in fact, that is the same gil that would go to players if RMT's did not take it hostage.

Please look in to the logic of your idea.

[Katchii]

I honestly enjoy crafting, but admit that it's not the super money maker I thought it would be, but a smart crafter can still make more money than a DoW/ DoM for the same amount of time spent (unless you're selling mercenary runs on content like HM Titan and stuff).

I make a tidy profit per day to keep myself even when leveling other crafts and buying new gear and such so I can't complain. If I wasn't crafting and selling my goods I'd be dead broke by now, instead of having a pretty comfortable amount of gil for what I use it for.

[tou]

I feel crafting is becoming less and less valuable as time goes on. I find that SE's vision for crafting is only for vanity gear and furniture. Both of which aren't what most crafters leveled up for. I think that SE is going down the wrong path by not constantly making crafting viable, I just hope they figure it out before it is too late.

[Scamperoo]

l crafting is becoming less valuable as time goes on. I find that SE's vision for crafting is only for vanity gear and furniture. Both of which aren't what most crafters leveled up for. I think that SE is going down the wrong path by not making crafting viable.

This is why you may as well pack up and go home, there was never any intention for crafting to be mainstream, it is just another mini game built specifically not to impact the game to a worthwhile degree.

Confirmed with Disciple of the Hand lead

Currently there are no plans to add any new low/mid level crafting recipes.
We designed FFXIV so that gear obtained from dungeons is more effective than crafted items.

For their first class, players can gain equipment from the main quests so we don't think they should face any problems. But we believe there are other chances to use low-level gear, such as creating materia or equipping them when leveling a second class.

[Kallera]

This is why you may as well pack up and go home, there was never any intention for crafting to be mainstream, it is just another mini game built specifically not to impact the game to a worthwhile degree.

Confirmed with Disciple of the Hand lead

Currently there are no plans to add any new low/mid level crafting recipes.
We designed FFXIV so that gear obtained from dungeons is more effective than crafted items.

For their first class, players can gain equipment from the main quests so we don't think they should face any problems. But we believe there are other chances to use low-level gear, such as creating materia or equipping them when leveling a second class.

Honestly, they're throwing out 2/3s of this game for the sake of themepark dungeoneering! This is practically Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, and at least THAT game isn't a monthly subscription! The hell kind of economy can we expect from this, other than "Primal Clear"s filling up the Party Finder and RMTs filling our tells?

[Vortok]

Gonna say, my enjoyment of FF14 went down after 2.1. Before there was an interesting crafting system that's fairly unique, compared to what's available in most other MMOs, to go along with the combat system.

Now it's basically just another tab target MMO with very little else. Been there, done that. Repeatedly. My friends aren't hugely into crafting though, so if we're still around for 2.2 maybe I'll get to see something interesting again.

Not holding my breath, though. I highly doubt there'll be any payoff for people that are willing to invest any amount of effort into their crafting classes beyond dinging 50 to be able to meld materia and wear unmelded crafting gear that can easily make 99% of the recipes in the game. The unchecked bots for all the gathering (mob killing and BTN/MNR nodes) isn't helping matters either. It feels like SE just doesn't care about all the bots.

[WhiteGarden]

Gonna say, my enjoyment of FF14 went down after 2.1. Before there was an interesting crafting system that's fairly unique, compared to what's available in most other MMOs, to go along with the combat system.

Now it's basically just another tab target MMO with very little else. Been there, done that. Repeatedly. My friends aren't hugely into crafting though, so if we're still around for 2.2 maybe I'll get to see something interesting again.

This is so true. The crafting system in FFXIV is very unique and has a lot going for it. It could be built up to be a major focus of the game. Instead its increasingly becoming irrelevant. Earlier in this thread there is a post from Yoshi that said Furniture would reinvigorate crafting!!! I thought that was funny because people will only buy furniture if they can buy houses -- and as we all know, that is not happening. Even if it was, I don't want DoH to be furniture focused. I want to make cool gear!!