Request for better challenges and better rewards (Formal Letter/Megathread)

[Jojoya]

Personally I believe it is too soon to comment about a need for more challenges since Expert recipes have not been released yet so all we have to go by is vague information and speculation.

The topic of better rewards is very subjective. What is desirable to one player isn't necessarily desirable to another player.

Personally I find gil to be a poor reward since it's so easily obtained from other content and there is very little to spend it on that can't be obtained through other means. If it comes from gathering or mob kills, I can farm it myself instead of spending gil at the marketboard. If it's crafted, I can make it myself instead of spending gil at the marketboard. If it's from treasure maps, I can join map parties to get it instead of spending gil at the marketboard. Hunts provide me with Aetheryte tickets to pay teleportation fees. What's left for me to spend gil on? Dark Matter to repair gear. Dyes that are purchased from vendors instead of being crafted.

If I do need more gil for some reason, how do I get it? By crafting items to sell to others. Gil is nearly useless to the self-sufficient crafter so it makes little sense as a special reward from special content.

For me a more desirable reward would be items that can only be obtained by successfully completing an Expert recipe and are bound to the crafter. When you see another player with these items, you'll know they made it themselves instead of buying it from the marketboard with gil earned from other content.

As a comment on the crafting system in general, I feel that lowering the overall difficulty of many Master recipes was a poor and unnecessary decision. They are no longer Master recipes. They are now Journeyman recipes that can be crafted by anyone with level appropriate tools/gear that took the time to look up a macro online. HQ is so easy to achieve that NQ items are totally undesirable. There's no point in having a 2 quality system if the highest quality can easily created on demand.

I feel a better approach would have been to retain the old craftsmanship requirements but raise the quality requirements so HQ was much harder to achieve on Master recipes. With HQ having a much smaller representation on the market, demand for NQ gear would have increased as a more affordable supplement to or replacement for gear obtained through other content. That would have still opened the market doors for the less skilled crafters who could produce the NQ gear without difficulty while creating a more lucrative market for the much rarer HQ items primarily produced by skilled crafters.

Regardless, I still enjoy crafting and making items for friends. It will continue to be content that occupies a significant amount of my game time.

[KageTokage]

It feels like they're intending for the Ishgard Restoration rankings to be something significant, with them claiming expert recipes would be important for getting a good score along with having exclusive rewards and what not..

Which is stupid because they're inherently going to be dominated by cheaters unless they change something with how they go about doing investigations.

[NanaWiloh]

I heard Lala's sell very good on the Limsa Blackmarket

[Rath]

The only extra thing I would like to add is about making use of NQ crafts IF the stats are not made desirable enough and recipes are made difficult enough that HQ becomes out of reach for casual players

*Of recipes are designed to limit HQ again, with having 100% HQ being non-existent, then add in a second recipe.

Let the second recipe require a NQ version in addition to a few more materials. Let this second recipe have a much higher base quality allowing for a better chance to HQ. Like a "Touch Up" recipe. These recipes can be purchased with scrips and limited to 1 purchase a week. Let the recipe given be RANDOM, but never a duplicate.

This would let NQ items have a use, allow a slight gating effect on HQ versions being made by people with less stats, and offer an alternative to overmelding to obtain HQ.

[Nandrolone]

I have to drop in and say, I am absolutely impressed but mostly shocked at how much support this thread has, wow. That’s a really good sign. Especially for a section that’s mostly not active. Maybe we’ll see a response to this in an upcoming live letter?

[LalafellDown]

They should make crafting fun if it’s going to be difficult. What I hated about crafting in 2.0-3.0 was that everything was timed. The problem wasn’t the requirements, but the timing. Everything had a gate attached to it and for what? 3.0 was the worst for crafting. Too many steps just to unlock a nod to gather that was only open at a specific time. Then the requirements needed to just craft an item. If you’re going to make it difficult to craft then don’t use gates and time. Nothing fun about that. Once I realized the system why bother with it. It’s better to wait until the next expansion when all the pervious stuff gets nerffed.

I don’t mind challenging requirements, but when you gate it with time and weekly locks, no thank you

[Shadygrove]

HW crafting wasn't hard, just tedious. It was either Rath's rotation, I forget how many steps, or whistle infinite CPs, even more steps.

Caimie has the concept of what hard should be down pat. A challenge, requiring HQ materials and good luck on procs.

[oblivion7]

I totally agree with the need for greater challenges and love the idea of minions/mounts for crafters! However, since I don't use macros much of what you've suggested may be beyond my craft ability...I'd still give it a try regardless because of the pleasure of success. And you're spot on about use of HQ mats; I've been asked why bother making them since it doesn't seem to matter, plus as a DoL no one wants to buy them on the MB. I hope this changes in the future, and especially the shiny tools with sound effects!!!

[Cleanse]

I totally agree with the need for greater challenges and love the idea of minions/mounts for crafters! However, since I don't use macros much of what you've suggested may be beyond my craft ability...I'd still give it a try regardless because of the pleasure of success. And you're spot on about use of HQ mats; I've been asked why bother making them since it doesn't seem to matter, plus as a DoL no one wants to buy them on the MB. I hope this changes in the future, and especially the shiny tools with sound effects!!!

You are more than capable of crafting high end items without a macro. A little research (such as reading through this forum) to get an initial understanding is all it should take.

[Ryaz]

I once posted on reddit asking what people thought of crafting specific mounts that require time and effort to get (like the old motorcycle mount from WoW, but possible BoP to give them something unique). The post was downvoted into oblivion. Seems most of the people who play this game don't want crafters to have rewards like that.