Possibly Largest Problem Facing The Game (Crafting)

[Vuen]

Just some thoughts.

I play a crafter. That is all I do. I found very early on that I did not enjoy combat in this game as much as in 11 (though that is changing with each patch), but that I really digged the crafting mechanics.

As a crafter/gatherer, I really enjoy the fact that I have an actual job class. I really like that I have abilities and the like to use, just like the combat characters. I think it is awesome that the crafting system is so layered. It's especially cool that I can do leves for my jobs instead of combat stuff if I want to.

Unfortunately, there isn't much to do. My combat oriented friends can go out every hour and do behest. How come I can't? A hybrid craft/combat behest would be nice; build X number of item Y within the time limit... oh yeah, and have some attacking mobs, too.

A crafter only behest would be nice as well. 15 people scurrying to gather all the mats and craft the given item (chocobo carriage, war-machine, even a wooden crate would be worth it just for something to do)

Leves that were a little more interesting than go-here, make this. I'm not saying I want to chase a yarzon halfway across the zone only to have it ambush me with three more, but at least the combat classes have a little variety.

I understand that in real life, sewing the various individual components of an item may be harder than actually assembling the pre-made components into a final form, but it is really frustrating to try and craft a "simple" item just to find out that the sub-components require skills ten levels higher than the actual item. IMO, it really limits the flexibility of crafters, especially since those items are very frequently never for sale.

Kudos, btw, on limiting the number of "multi-skill" recipes. It is one thing to craft an item that requires several individual skills, however 11's recipes that required two, or sometimes three skills to make a single item was over used and annoying.

The base materials are easy to come by (I am fighting a constant battle to free inventory space, which is much more preferable to never having the right mats) but some times it is hard to get rid of them. Having only 10 sale slots is frustrating at best. Could we see a solution like 10 slots on character, 20 on retainers? 30 if you rent a booth?

I certainly don't want crafters to become combat oriented; but some interaction with the world beyond run, gather, run. Or teleport, craft, turn in would be welcome. The ability to gather from non-aggressive mobs, for example. Or sneak/invis abilities so that we can navigate those trickier spots. Personally, I would rather have to use skills/abilities to deal with mobs passively than watch mob distribution change, or leves be made higher level because something might agro you.

Biggest "small" fix to crafting: please, for the love of god, make it stop erasing the chat text I am typing when the windows change, and let me talk in each linkshell channel without changing pearls!. So much boredom can be alleviated by simply talking to LS mates... which is very hard to do when entire paragraphs get aggro'd by a new window appearing, or you have to keep entering a menu to change pearls!

So yeah. My 2cents, as it were.

I agree with absolutely everything you said sir.

The crafting behest type events especially sound fun, where you work with a group to build a large project. /thumbs up

Edit: Forgot to mention that I am also a crafter, I have no War/Magic classes, nor do I plan on ever ranking any.

[Girlie]

Biggest "small" fix to crafting: please, for the love of god, make it stop erasing the chat text I am typing when the windows change, and let me talk in each linkshell channel without changing pearls!. So much boredom can be alleviated by simply talking to LS mates... which is very hard to do when entire paragraphs get aggro'd by a new window appearing, or you have to keep entering a menu to change pearls!

Just about the lost paragraphs, as long as you catch it before you continue typing the rest of the sentence, you can hit the up arrow on your keyboard to retrieve everything you'd already typed.

Of course, the fact that we even have to worry about this is idiotic...

[MariyaShidou]

I suggest you better be careful in asking for a balance of recipe level, the consequence can be much worse than you think it is. Goldsmith already has their career nerfed into oblivion in November patch until Silver Francisca was discovered. What happened is that before the Nov patch, Goldsmith can level well into r50 on an affordable recipe (Silver Needle), but people like you (no offence) claim it is unreasonable for a r32 tool to be r44 recipe, so it became r34 recipe and stripped high level Goldsmith of a cheap mean to level up. The alternative for that time was something that almost nobody can afford (Electrum Ring) unless they also have a high rank MIN.

Same thing happened for Alchemist, their Lanolin become low level synth and they were stuck for quite sometimes with no reasonably affordable alternative (even as of now you will find that it's very hard to grind Alchemist to r50 because the r44+ recipe require a lot more components and fish/frogs synth is only r40 max). You may not realise it yet, but that supposedly unreasonableness actually is more beneficial to you, as you can grind off that higher rank parts later.

[CanteJondo]

I strongly disagree with the OP stating that crafting is the largest problem facing the game. It is one of the few systems in 14 that was very strong from word go IMO.

As for wanting to make it less grindy, I disagree again. In an MMO I feel you need a variety of playing styles and speeds. I can login for NM camps/guildleve parties that are engaging and require my full attention, and I can also then switch the radio on, browse some websites and watch TV whilst crafting. It gives a GREAT change of pace to playing. A game should be relaxing as well as engaging and that is the strength of MMOs. You shouldn't have to give your full attention every second of ingame time.

I definitely agree that there needs to be more aspects to crafting, I'd love quests and leves that make DoH team up with DoW/DoM. Either crafting an item with a time limit whilst your party protects you from mobs, or an event where you rush to make/repair stationery battlements before an onslaught of mobs... something along those lines.

[Mort]

A solution would be to make crafts faster to level, but more expensive. Of course this would require SE to balance the economy first. And I also like the idea of having the procedure alittle faster aswell.

[TempestReve]

3. Give crafters (and gatherers) more interesting things to do with their job besides sit in town. They could have their own form of behests via hamlets; i.e. help the hamlets rebuild a workshop, chop down some trees, whatever.

ok this suggestion made me happy when i read it ^o^ I don't mind the mindless mass synthesis of the same item over and over to rank.. its kinda soothing in its own right, and if youve actually ever done any kind of weaving of any type in real life.. after a little bit, YES it will get tedious, but you work hard and endure because of the beautiful end result. However, it would be nice, if perhaps there were more quests we could do to make the crafting more interesting. Something to be all "i did this for 3 hours but look at how BAMF this is" instead of.. i did this for 3 hours and NPC'd it all and made about 100k after all that time when money really is in abundance anyways in game.

[MANTASTIC]

ITT: People who think mashing enter is fun. Seriously, what is so engaging or fun about Standard Synthesis: The Game? The entire crafting process is frustrating, boring and tedious. Anytime you're not mashing on standard, you either A) got dicked over by RNG and an "element destabilized," B) decided to pay attention just long enough to hit one of those fantastically uninteresting crafting abilities, or C) are in the process of mashing bold instead, because that's oh so much more exciting. Consider: they put in Hasty Hand, knowing people would want to use it. If the crafting process is so goddamn fun, as many you seem to think, why is this even here? And should being able to successfully complete a recipe in a timely manner really be reserved for people who outrank said recipe?

While I certainly don't think shortening the crafting process is all it needs, it would be a great step in the right direction at least.

[TirionCrey]

My biggest concern for the future is...since SE wants crafting and gathering classes to be on par with the Battle Classes, when it comes to experience Main Story and stuff...I'm afraid there will be NEVER EVER an expansion like CoP, with an awesome story plus a very challenging series of fights...cause if Crafters have to be able to get them done...how can they be challenging?

[Wynn]

My biggest concern for the future is...since SE wants crafting and gathering classes to be on par with the Battle Classes, when it comes to experience Main Story and stuff...I'm afraid there will be NEVER EVER an expansion like CoP, with an awesome story plus a very challenging series of fights...cause if Crafters have to be able to get them done...how can they be challenging?

The only way I could see it working is if they create completely different scenarios for battle classes vs. crafter/harvesters. They could all intertwine of course, but the classes are involved in different aspects of the story. Like what we have now in the job quests. So that would mean that the story from here on out will have to be told through the specific jobs instead of one big main story line in future expansions. It is either that or leave out one side in favor of the other (battle/non-battle), which will be stinky no matter which side is picked.

[SirEdeonX]

I like crafting, and the system is as tedious as to battle countless mobs and hitting standard attack <<
But I just like to do some local leves and if I get bored, I'll do some regional leves or something else.

From my point of view, yes they should fix the chat while crafting, and they should add missions like behests for crafters.
More content is needed.

FFXIV's crafting system and economy is one of the best among other games. Its one that creates bonds and dependencies between crafters and warriors. It is actually one of the biggest qualities in this game.