Repairing Repairs

[Chione]

Overall I think I'm more disappointed than pleased by this change because I liked the fents and spetches. :3 But even so, it is no tragedy.

I don't understand the reason for the multiple grades of the material though. If it is some magical, mystical substance of legend and myth that can fix anything, it is sort of silly to say "this piece of wonder-stuff can't fix that r38 iron falchion, but it will fix that r26 iron gladius, even though they are both made of iron." More importantly - if the whole idea behind this change was to save inventory space and streamline repairs, wouldn't it be better to have only this material itself without the grades?

Unless they are hoping people will spend lots of gil at the vendors for the high grade version and drain some clink clink out of the economy. But, even if that were the case, I don't think that's gonna happen. Whatever gathering class can pull this up is going to charge as much as they can for it without overpricing the npc.

To me it would have made more sense to have one single grade of this stuff and have it pop out of grade 1 nodes. This way, most anyone can get it, and no one can make much of a profit out of it so it won't damage our gil-flooded economy more. Instead of grades, I would have suggested that the higher items require multiple pieces.

[InuraBera]

I don't understand the reason for the multiple grades of the material though.

I'd assume that it is so that lower level gatherers don't get completely shut out of a possible market, and gives them an item that is more likely to sell than some of the other stuff you can get. This at the same time prevents new characters being totally priced out of repairs to some extent as well, as I'm assuming the NPC prices (for the Dark Matter) will be 'ok' but not something you'd want to spend if you can afford it.

I'm definitely looking forward to it as a Botanist, as it means I finally have some kind of item that I know will shift, rather than having to do a lot of guesswork (and legwork!) I'm guessing the crafting recipes will be streamlined in much the same fashion (instead of needing x,y and z, you will only need x) and so people will be able to sell more as Gatherers, and Craft more easily as Crafters.

I'd also expect the number of items gathered (or at least the types) to drop quite dramatically - perhaps removing branches for only Logs etc. Also, I love the fact that the Materia system is quite widely accepted, and all it seems to be is some kind of 'magic goo' as well.

[Chione]

I'd assume that it is so that lower level gatherers don't get completely shut out of a possible market, and gives them an item that is more likely to sell than some of the other stuff you can get. This at the same time prevents new characters being totally priced out of repairs to some extent as well, as I'm assuming the NPC prices (for the Dark Matter) will be 'ok' but not something you'd want to spend if you can afford it.hey

That's why I was suggesting the item only shows up in g1 nodes. Lower gatherers would get the most benefit, but all gatherers could get it if they wanted to. The way our markets work now is only the higher grade stuff is easily found in the wards. That applies to armor and everything else. Having started several characters recently, one of the most difficult things is finding gear or weapons or anything below r20. I could see this happening with this dark matter too if they stick with the differing grades. Only grades 4 and 5 will be easily found in wards, with grade 2 being the most rare, and far more pricer than most r20s are willing or capable of paying for.

I think if you take away the different grades, and just have higher rank gear require more of it, that would alleviate all those issues and be least damaging to our already messed-up economy as well as save even more space.

But, I guess its too late for suggestions on it.