It is what it is... The simple truth

[Thebob89]

Only the vey top tier gear should be crafted. Having most gear being only obtainable through crafting will create monopolies and only players who have the gil could afford it

That would really just be a patch for the major issue here. See with the current set up once the end game players have that equipment why would they bother farming for more. If anything making equipment breakable would do far more for the demand of materials. Of course give the equipment duribility, make them reparable, but for each repare cut the total duribility by half. That would cause a constant need for new equipment which in turn causing the need for a flow of currency and materals. As it stands right now there isn't a need for currency to obtain or re obtain end game items in turn removing the need for crafters. The only profitable selling points at the moment are materials for craftng and the few items needed for trade craft leves(sp) which also proc my seconed point the target of economic repair. If the leve items were regulated more adamantly by players the increase in the flow of funds would only bost the economy even if just slightly and would be at the least a step in the right direction.

[Feilina]

[...]SE has no controle of the economy, they CAN NOT fix it.[...]

SE IS in control of the economy! They can adjust drop rates, they create items and they created/designed the market. As long as they adjust the item drop rates by adding a 9-times-drop which former was a single drop, the will shutter the ground they built.

To be clear.
My oppinion is that the econimy is still good, decreasing but good. The only thing missing is demand! Crafters have nearly no demand so do gatherers.

Radical changes: (short term)
- Kill materia system as it is
- insert iLvl 90 gear craftable with other stat mixtures
- lower the HQ rate to around 50-75% with all X-skills available

Changes (long term):
- materia system as it has been in 1.x
- dungeon drops rare/ultra rare
- dungeon chests have optional loot, (good green stuff but not BiS)

Consider rare materials drop in dungeons or from NM's. We have a incapacitation skill system somewhere in the cellar which could be dug out again.

[Thebob89]

Honestly the current system leaves little to no controle of the economic structure in the hands of the development team. While it is true that they have to power to influence various points in the system, the current structure is placed in the hands of the players. I beleave that it was designe with that intention, but... Most players are not interested in market manipulation. It is after all only a game, more people are interested in dungeon grinding as opposed to grinding for days on end to level trade classes.

Now, I'm not disputing the fact that SE can do things that would make the market more influential, they can't make people spend money without a grand over haul of the entire marketing system. Don't get me wrong tho, there are ways to make the current system more desirable, they to be quite honest would do more to piss off the majority of the target consumers than to actualy add substance to the game, or is there something I'm missing?

I feel like I should clear someting up here. When I said that SE could not fix the economy it was not ment as they lack the means to do so. It was ment that as a business they would suffer a Loss in income if they were to take many actions tword the stabilization of the market. While there are several plates that see the issues and see ways that could potentially relieve them, if SE were to take actions to appease thr small percent it would no doubt put more consumers off. They would risk losing more potential paying players by "fixing" the economy as opposed to the few who see need for change. No facts, just a simple observation.