I'm confused by the game's crafting items

[Platinumstorm]

I was looking to update my carpenter gear thanks to the patch and I kept getting confused as to why Square made the gear this way.

Most of the items have crafting/control/ or magic craftsmanship on them. These all seem to add to a certain point value total.

A generic crafting attire piece for a rank 48 has the following statistics:

Felt Gown [rank 48]:
Craftsmanship +11, Mg. Craftsmanship +21 [total of 31 points]
Different colors have different stats on them, up to +7 stats [I hate this so much since it takes away color options in favor of statistics].
Your options are +7 of Intellect, Vitality, and Mind.

This next option favors Carpenters, as well as a few other classes, and has gathering options as well.
A Woolen Doublet [rank 47]: has +31 magic craftsmanship, +18 perception [useless for crafting, I think] and then + 6 dexterity, strength, or stamina

I'm kinda lost as to the point of these item statistics.

First, I guess I don't know what has more value to a crafter - base stats or the substats. I'd have to guess stats because the customization and rarity of the stats on the items suggest base stats, but it has never seemed that way in the past. My carpenter, which is rank 45 has the following stats:
Vit 180, Dex 168, Stre 153, Int 153, Mnd 155, Pie 155. This suggests that Vit and Dex are the only stats that matter [this instantly eliminates a color choice]

I also don't understand the point of the "class specific" gear. Yes, the base stats may be more aligned, but is "class specific" gear designed in this manner because the developers assume that players are keeping their crafting class and gathering class at equal levels?

Likewise, how do the base stats for carpentry align with botany? I don't know which ones are the most important for either. Furthermore, I don't know if crafting something like a bow vs a lance vs a wand has any sort of advantage to having strength/vita/dex - I sure hope not.

Perception ratings on these class specific items for the chest appear to be higher than on any of the generic items.

I have to think most players don't have balanced crafting/gathering levels, and more importantly I know that doesn't apply to me, and with the significant stat reductions for being just a level or two off, I can't see how designing items with this in mind would be a good idea.


Also, from what I've turned into materia so far seems to have random results. Items with dexterity statistics on them have generated Intelligence and Magic Attack Power materia for me.

Would appreciate clarification on any mistakes I have made, or input as to how the statistics work.

Also, once more I want to stress how much I dislike color being associated with base statistics:

Now as I move from an attire piece to a hat item, I see that the woolen items are of lower rank compared to the felt items, and provide less statistics. This pushes players into buying felt. Next problem: the color schemes don't match up with the woolen items. - Red is now intellect, brown is now vitality, and blue is dexterity, whereas before black was vitality and red was dexterity. This means to be statistically relevant one cannot color scheme their character any longer.

Even if I took the stat reduction and went with a woolen hat, the colors don't match up any longer. Purple, which used to represent strength on the woolen doublet now represents Intelligence.

Aligning colors with statistics isn't:

Intuitive:
Changing colors and statistics confuses the player base.
If one color isn't on the market wards, then it's impossible to know what color you need without using an outside source of information.
If the statistics were uniform per color then everyone would get sick of their gear.

Those are two major mistakes and one mistake that was averted.

Fun:
You can no longer customize your character's outfit without taking a performance hit.
Statistical customization should be reflected only in the materia.

I have made one error: I haven't correctly compared items relevant to my class level, and actually compared for a little higher forgetting about items having a "required" level now. This doesn't change any aspect of my argument.

[Frein]

My information is based on 1.18, but here goes.

Main attributes have a very minor effect on synthesis, which means Craftsmanship, Mg. Craftsmanship and Control are the important stats. What main attribute you want depends on your class and whether you're using the main or secondary tool. You can check the ZAM database for information about main attributes for crafters.

Craftsmanship and Mg. Craftsmanship presumably function identically, only some recipes need one and some the other. They influence the effectiveness of your synthesis actions. This means with high stats you get more progress and lose less durability each attempt. I guess it also affects success rate but I'm not completely sure about this. Control on the other hand helps keep the synthesis calm, preventing Atherial Sparks, and presumably, chaotic elements from appearing.

As is usual for SE games, nobody really knows how exactly things work because the game tells you nothing.

[Estellios]

Frein is pretty much on the ball. I just wanted to add that STR/DEX etc only help boost your chances of HQ'ing very slightly so it's up to you if its worth it or not. Carpenter main hand crafting is boosted by VIT, offhand is boosted by DEX

[Platinumstorm]

then what's the point of having the items nearly identical to each other in statistics, which was my main argument?

[Frein]

How are the items you mentioned nearly identical?