[Dev] Repair system problems

[Fouluryu]

There are too many loop holes with the repair system to begin with. The dark matter is nice, and being a melee player as we speak, I got my smithing to 28 which is probably the greatest success for me as a crafter. I remember and thought to myself if I leveled gold smithing I would achieve making money and repairing my weapons, wrong. The reason is that the materials are logically too expensive, thus the dark matter saved the day from expensive of items.

However, this leads another array of problems: Getting it fixed. Retainers are slow, I'm sorry but it just doesn't work for me and it took two days waiting to get my entire junk getting fixed. Retainer market halls are primarily just to sell and seek junk there. People don't charge by the dark matter, they charge by the level required to be fixed. What else is there... The npc. Ah yes the npc... let's lower the price but get things fixed at 75%. Really? Why get paid to do a half lazy taru's work?

Also, multiple jobs means multiple craft jobs needed to cover all aspects of equipment and weaponry. The cost for gil investment in getting it all to 50 (except fishing of course) is roughly 20-40million gil, and the most I ever had was just 2 million gil selling fresh equipment from quests and crystals. Not to mention is takes non stop daily (one month) to get to 50 per craft. This kills the idea of being a casual player and forcing me to be a full time crafter on every other job just to play other jobs, I just can't do that.

High crafters, especially the rich ones, sometimes they don't bother to stop and help you even if you asked. Ask another player you say? Well, sure only when they're on at a different time 5 hours latter while I'm trying to get some sleep.

In short

Repairs are costly even if a player wanted to self invest in crafting.
Most players may or may not want to do it unless offered large forks of cash.
Level difference demand in price.
Npc total failure to fulfilling adventure's needs of repairs.
Time consuming even if dedicated.
Prevention of performance & a time sink of wanting to do other activities but cant.

Solution: Get rid of it.
http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/29745.../page__st__120

A huge voting poll was made and several others want it gone too.

[Colt47]

There are too many loop holes with the repair system to begin with. The dark matter is nice, and being a melee player as we speak, I got my smithing to 28 which is probably the greatest success for me as a crafter. I remember and thought to myself if I leveled gold smithing I would achieve making money and repairing my weapons, wrong. The reason is that the materials are logically too expensive, thus the dark matter saved the day from expensive of items.

However, this leads another array of problems: Getting it fixed. Retainers are slow, I'm sorry but it just doesn't work for me and it took two days waiting to get my entire junk getting fixed. Retainer market halls are primarily just to sell and seek junk there. People don't charge by the dark matter, they charge by the level required to be fixed. What else is there... The npc. Ah yes the npc... let's lower the price but get things fixed at 75%. Really? Why get paid to do a half lazy taru's work?

Also, multiple jobs means multiple craft jobs needed to cover all aspects of equipment and weaponry. The cost for gil investment in getting it all to 50 (except fishing of course) is roughly 20-40million gil, and the most I ever had was just 2 million gil selling fresh equipment from quests and crystals. Not to mention is takes non stop daily (one month) to get to 50 per craft. This kills the idea of being a casual player and forcing me to be a full time crafter on every other job just to play other jobs, I just can't do that.

High crafters, especially the rich ones, sometimes they don't bother to stop and help you even if you asked. Ask another player you say? Well, sure only when they're on at a different time 5 hours latter while I'm trying to get some sleep.

In short

Repairs are costly even if a player wanted to self invest in crafting.
Most players may or may not want to do it unless offered large forks of cash.
Level difference demand in price.
Npc total failure to fulfilling adventure's needs of repairs.
Time consuming even if dedicated.
Prevention of performance & a time sink of wanting to do other activities but cant.

Solution: Get rid of it.
http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/29745.../page__st__120

A huge voting poll was made and several others want it gone too.

You also left out that seeking repairs doesn't actually add much to the gameplay for the seeker. The individual giving repairs does get a benefit out of the act in the form of money and maybe some SP, but the only thing the person seeking the repairs out gets is the right to continue whatever activity he was previously interested in engaging in. It's not the same as seeking out a crafter to get an item produced, where gathering the components can be an adventure in it's own right along with the benefit of receiving a more powerful item.

It's pretty clear that SE has to do more than just change the cost of the NPC repairs: They probably have to change the role player driven repairs serve from being a mundane maintenance task to something higher up on the food chain. There are better ways to show that people playing DoH's are superior to the common fodder of the land than to make the common NPCs utterly incompetent at what they do. That is, unless the repair NPCs are really a part of an entire racketeering enterprise meant to rip off travelers, in which case: Adventure plot point!

[Kobushi]

There are too many loop holes with the repair system to begin with. The dark matter is nice, and being a melee player as we speak, I got my smithing to 28 which is probably the greatest success for me as a crafter. I remember and thought to myself if I leveled gold smithing I would achieve making money and repairing my weapons, wrong. The reason is that the materials are logically too expensive, thus the dark matter saved the day from expensive of items.

However, this leads another array of problems: Getting it fixed. Retainers are slow, I'm sorry but it just doesn't work for me and it took two days waiting to get my entire junk getting fixed. Retainer market halls are primarily just to sell and seek junk there. People don't charge by the dark matter, they charge by the level required to be fixed. What else is there... The npc. Ah yes the npc... let's lower the price but get things fixed at 75%. Really? Why get paid to do a half lazy taru's work?

Also, multiple jobs means multiple craft jobs needed to cover all aspects of equipment and weaponry. The cost for gil investment in getting it all to 50 (except fishing of course) is roughly 20-40million gil, and the most I ever had was just 2 million gil selling fresh equipment from quests and crystals. Not to mention is takes non stop daily (one month) to get to 50 per craft. This kills the idea of being a casual player and forcing me to be a full time crafter on every other job just to play other jobs, I just can't do that.

High crafters, especially the rich ones, sometimes they don't bother to stop and help you even if you asked. Ask another player you say? Well, sure only when they're on at a different time 5 hours latter while I'm trying to get some sleep.

In short

Repairs are costly even if a player wanted to self invest in crafting.
Most players may or may not want to do it unless offered large forks of cash.
Level difference demand in price.
Npc total failure to fulfilling adventure's needs of repairs.
Time consuming even if dedicated.
Prevention of performance & a time sink of wanting to do other activities but cant.

Solution: Get rid of it.
http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/29745.../page__st__120

A huge voting poll was made and several others want it gone too.

Yes a thousand times yes, listen to this guy please ! xD

And to people that like the repair system because they don't want a simple mmo, repair system doesn't had anything to the game in terms of complexity, it's just unecessary, it's time you don't spend progressing but rather wasted time just to get to the point u were yesterday... it's a system only good if you have alot of time on your hands to level all your crafters, to people like me that have 1 - 2 hours to play a day, and sometimes none, do you think it's fair i'm forced to eaither level many crafters to repair all my gear or waste my precious time shouting for repairs?

I know there's alot of players who love it cause they have the time but i thought this game was fair for casual players too lol... anyway to all protesting about simplifying this system and therefore the game remenber it was Leonardo da Vinci who said:

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

[Mikita]

If you don't have time to spend on crafting or you don't like to wait long for someone to repair your stuff, here is some advice that works for me 100% of the time:

1. Go to the Repair NPC in Ul'dah, near the Aetheryte, or anywhere you see a lot of people gathering.

2. Offer 4000x the grade of Dark Matter -- i.e. Grade 1, offer 4000 gil. Grade 5, offer 20,000 gil.

3. Say this (substitute your actual item rank and reward):
"Could someone please help me with repairs?"
"Armorer. Rank 36 item. Grade 4 Dark Matter. 16000 gil reward."

See how quickly your gear gets fixed.

Simple!

[Colt47]

If you don't have time to spend on crafting or you don't like to wait long for someone to repair your stuff, here is some advice that works for me 100% of the time:

1. Go to the Repair NPC in Ul'dah, near the Aetheryte, or anywhere you see a lot of people gathering.

2. Offer 4000x the grade of Dark Matter -- i.e. Grade 1, offer 4000 gil. Grade 5, offer 20,000 gil.

3. Say this (substitute your actual item rank and reward):
"Could someone please help me with repairs?"
"Armorer. Rank 36 item. Grade 4 Dark Matter. 16000 gil reward."

See how quickly your gear gets fixed.

Simple!

Yes, how quickly the gear gets fixed is highly variable given the number of different people commenting on the very same subject of offering money for the service, which is part of the issue. The deal is that they can't just make npc repairs 100% and dirt cheap because it will make player repairs useless, which is exactly what every crafter and person supporting the system is saying. That's why if any changes are to happen to the npc repairs, they have to do something to make the player repairs that much more worth it, such as adding in bonuses from having them done. That is the kind of proactive change the repair system in this game needs.

[tymora]

Which primary 3 are affected?
I've never really paid attention to what effect damaged gear has since I repair things as soon as (or before) they go yellow... including all my DoH and DoL gear. ^^

The same stats HQ gear affects - The ones that would be marked with a star. (Basically the first 3 you see, top-down)
Side-tracking, there is no benefit to get any HQ crafting gear other than tools.

[Eruantien]

The same stats HQ gear affects - The ones that would be marked with a star. (Basically the first 3 you see, top-down)
Side-tracking, there is no benefit to get any HQ crafting gear other than tools.

defence, magic defence, attack, accuracy etc. Not the extras like +dex +pie etc.

[Colt47]

Has there been any mention of changing the way repairs work further? I know there's been some translated interviews, but I don't think anything was said on the whole repair issue.

[MariyaShidou]

Most likely none, it's working as intended. The most they would do is reduce NPC repair price a bit further.

Though if they are clever, they would scrap the repair system. Instead, reduce all effectiveness of equipments to that of red gear damaged, add an "enchantment" from crafters that last for about as long as 100% durability to 33% durability which make gear back to current normal status. And then people would praise this game like it's some kinda innovations.

It's all about psychology aspect, people don't like to be "penalised", they like to think of being "rewarded".

[Atoli]

I'm not a high rank crafter yet, but I repair everything I see and am able to repair, because I remember how I hated waiting for someone who repairs my stuff before I found a nice LS who helps me out on that.
But obviously I only repair it if the reward is the same amount of Gil (or more) the dark matter costs at the NPC, because I don't want to pay ADDITIONALLY for someones stuff to be repaired. It would be different if crafters got a lot of SP for repairing stuff, but we don't, so repairing is not really useful in any way but making others happy.