Square Enix, please think about both Casual AND Hardcore crafters..

[Zfz]

What about something like this?

Expand on the concept of crafting conditions. Turn them into crafting events that require the use of a combination of actions appropriate to the events to resolve. Ignoring these crafting events will actually decrease your Quality. While they are still RNG events, they can all be resolved 100% as long as you are not using a macro.

Casual crafters using macros can still complete the crafts, but because macros cannot respond appropriately to crafting events, it is almost guaranteed to produce NQ only.

The challenge will lie in how the events are designed, and whether they actually make people think and plan out their actions. If the events are simple "if event A then use action B" events, then there is no challenge. Events that provide a challenge, i.e. require the player to use their full understanding of crafting actions and the recipe, could be:

• Events that causes certain actions to be modified such that after the event, the player will need a different rotation to push for Quality/Progress.
• Events that require a certain combination of actions be performed within N turns, and the player will need to plan out the response taking into account the Quality/Progress goal at that time. The required actions can consume 0 CP/Durability during the N turns to avoid situations where the crafter is unable to resolve the event simply because he's already nearing the end of his craft and have little CP left.
• Events that buff certain actions while nerfing certain other actions, that are designed to make regular macros produce 0 Quality.

With this kind of design, though, the gap between NQ and HQ items will need to be widened, or else people will just get used to NQ consumables and NQ gear. Furniture and gear items can be configured such that only HQ items can be dyed. NQ pets can be made to bind upon completion (so only HQ pets can be sold on the market board).

Or simply make it so that only HQ items can be traded. Casual crafters can still enjoy all their items for personal use, but only serious crafters get to make a buck out of crafting. It would also mean that there are no fixed rotations to give away, making every idiot and his dog master crafters, churning out HQ items as long as they have the time.

I'm sure there are ways to improve crafting for the serious crafter without making everyone experience the 99% NQ again. It just isn't fun that way.