Problem: Items are Worthless

[TirionCrey]

Well, IMO turning crafters and gatheres classes instead of game features was an awesome idea. And just because a crafter cannot fight right now doesn't mean they will never fight. This game is, pretty much, a skelleton of what its supposed to be...as the content start adding some flesh to this skelleton more challenging stuff will pop. And i bet that there will be DoW/M oriented content hard enough to make CoP lovers wet their pants...only difference might be the fight duration...i doubt we will ever again have endgame with 1hr+ fight...i believe Pandemonium Warden was the last long fight SE will ever add in a MMO since it broght more negative feelings than positive.

And about CoP, this ond did was one of the biggest flaw ever...know why? Because it was no fun. I'm really happy that CoP will never happen again...i really am. If i knew how bad it was i would've just skipped the expansion. I think after completing the CoP missions i only went to Sea to farm gorgets and even this i still regret. No rajas or gorget is worth the stress and frustration that came from that expansion.

Just a simple question. When you reach the final mission of the current Storyline and fight whater final boss it will have. Will you have the feeling the fight is "epic" and you actually safed the world from extinction, when all it takes is you, alone, fighting that "mob" for 1minute max? Will you feel accomplished and like you "achieved" something?

the fact alone that you think CoP was more frustrating then "fun" only shows you prolly did it with pick up groups only, or with "friends" who got no skill, cause seriously. CoP was challenging, but with preperation EACH fight was doable 1/1 easily. I personally formed a static for CoP back when I played FFXI, consisting of RL and In-Game friends. We almost cleared every fight 1/1...yes...even Airship and Tenzen etc...with proper preparation it was easily doable...but with pick up groups, all they want is to start the fight, wipe 2 times and break...of course CoP wasn't fun that way...but it wasn't SEs fault...it was your fault then. CoP was not Zilart, where you could rush through the Missions in a day...and thats something that made it even better. Cause the storyline was epic AND the fights in it were challenging to actually favour that "epic" feel.

When I defeated Promathia, I felt like I really saved the world.

[Lienn]

Just a simple question. When you reach the final mission of the current Storyline and fight whater final boss it will have. Will you have the feeling the fight is "epic" and you actually safed the world from extinction, when all it takes is you, alone, fighting that "mob" for 1minute max? Will you feel accomplished and like you "achieved" something?

Yes i do. And if you don't then i guess you didn't pick a nice class to fight Maat the first time. ^^

And i agree with Amineri. Having crafters and gatherers as class is a brand new idea. Depennding of the way they develop the usage of classes, having a crafter in party might be just as important as having a tank, which wouldn't be possible in games where crafting is just a feature like FFXI.

But another point, moving back to topics' context, would be, instead offusing weapons to make a even higher version would be, if you just want to get rid of NQ stuff, being able to "crystalize" the NQ stuff...

Imagine the current fish recipes...you put a fish and receive a certain amount of crystals...it would work in a similar way...you enter a equipment and turn it into a (just putting a random name) crystal powder. Crystal powers wouldn't be part of any recipe...instead, they would be able to be added in any other recipe that don't use the 8 slots (let's say you will make an ash cane. It only uses a formula alpha and an ash log, leaving 6 open slots. You could just fill these 6 slots with the powder) Powders, which could also be from NQ to +3, would increase starting quality and durability just like if you had a higher tier item at that slot (NQ working as if you had a +1 mat, +1 working as a +2 mat and so on). This would improve the HQ chances, remove unwanted equipments from market and not adding an extra tier item.

Or you could just do like suggested in another thread....make HQ -> HQ conversion proportional. If all mats are at least +1 you get a sure +1 result from the synth. If all mats are at least +2 you get a sure +2 result and if all mats are +3 you get a sure +3 result. This would increase the value of HQ materials but, at same time, protect the value of all equipment tiers since they all would have a closer potential rarity. Would be more like how much a player would be willing to pay in an equipment than really offer/demand.

[Raijin]

Or you could just do like suggested in another thread....make HQ -> HQ conversion proportional. If all mats are at least +1 you get a sure +1 result from the synth. If all mats are at least +2 you get a sure +2 result and if all mats are +3 you get a sure +3 result. This would increase the value of HQ materials but, at same time, protect the value of all equipment tiers since they all would have a closer potential rarity. Would be more like how much a player would be willing to pay in an equipment than really offer/demand.

this is a bad idea. devaluing the HQ items considerably is not an option.

I think either the addition of a desynth for NQ items is a good idea to remove these items from the economy. but instead of having that powdery thing to empower future synths, i think a system such as aions enchanting cwould be a good idea.

If youre not familiar with it, you basically can DE any item to get a stone of certain level, which can be used to enchant your armor and weapons for additional stats. When you fail that enchant, you lose part of that additional bonus and have to try again tho.

This adds a new market that adds consumables worthy enough to buy, risky enough so that you have to spend good money to get your enchanted weapon to max level, and takes care of the excess by destroying the armor/weapons no one wants.

[origamikitsune]

@Leinn & @Rjain

I like the idea of crystal powder or something similar; but Rjain is right, anything that devalues HQ is overall detrimental. That said, if there were some tweaking to the NQ/HQ system (maybe not a complete re-write but serious re-balancing) then something could be done along this lines without overall devaluation. An example would be remove the ability to randomly HQ 1/2/3 with less than 100/200/300 Quality. This would reduce the overall HQ rate a bit. Add in crystal powder to provide a small boost and with proper balancing you can put the overall NQ/HQ ratio back where it is now. From there, just tweak up or down in accordance with the number of players/crafters and current economy as needed.

This is just one idea, and maybe not the best, but its a good example of one way to potentially decrease the NQ market glut without just shifting it to the HQ market. Ideas like the crystal powder should be given some serious debate because, as with everything in the MMO, properly balanced it won't detract from the game.

And Rjain, I whole heatedly agree with some sort of enchantment system. Not only would it be a great opportunity for crafters in general, but also provides a chance to introduce a new crafting class, if SE so desired. I'm sure both of us could come up with a complete set of abilities for such a class and get it relatively balanced in the current system (though I doubt they will add classes until after the new systems are in place).