Bot's on Market Board...? Really?

[KapraGoatmog]

As someone who crafts end-game gear, mainly Aesthete and Exarch, I can verify that on numerous occasions that I have severely undercut others selling the same thing. Something that takes less than 5 minutes to make and is necessary for players hoping to go further than what they can manage to scrounge from repeated clears of dungeons or buying with white scrip, should not cost 100k+. Holding players back, especially ones who don't feel comfortable with begging others for a handout, by charging stupidly high prices for gear is toxic as hell. Naturally, the only way to combat price gouging on the MB is to mass produce HQ products and sell them for far less than the standard price. The worst part is that crafters who engage is toxic behavior like this will lie to admin about the presence of bots to try and get their competition removed. Talk about greed.

[Jojoya]

Something that takes less than 5 minutes to make and is necessary for players hoping to go further than what they can manage to scrounge from repeated clears of dungeons or buying with white scrip, should not cost 100k+.

You didn't walk into a guild, unlock the needed class then make the item 5 minutes later. There was still considerable effort to level, gear, meld, etc. before you could attempt to craft the item.

Don't undersell the value of the personal effort you put in to get the to the point you're able to craft an item.

And of course it should cost 100k+ when you're comparing to the value of the effort the other player would have to put into farming the equivalent items in the intended gear progression path. The value set needs to be high enough for the player to weigh the decision whether they are better off buying or doing the content. Buying off the MB should never be seen as the cheaper option.

Nor does logic apply to people who need a full Exarchic set the moment they hit 80 because stepping foot into any sort of content and farming gear in what is possibly the least grindy MMO out there to obtain gear, is somehow too much work.

I'd stretch your second point a bit and say logic doesn't apply to the marketboard in general because it's just a convenience system with optional items of subjective value. Those who provide the convenience are going to value their time differently based on their own needs and wants.

The problem is the bots out there that take that convenience to a whole new level, upsetting the markets for those who can't AFK to do other things while crafts continue to spit out.

[Shialan]

100-150k for one exarchic gear item is not holding players back. You can make this daily through roulette.

[Liam_Harper]

Logic doesn't apply to people who can level multiple crafters and gatherers to 80, gear them, meld them, acquire food, gather from timed nodes, scrip farm for sublimes, start craft and make Exarchic items in under 5 minutes total. I wish I knew their secret.

Nor does logic apply to people who need a full Exarchic set the moment they hit 80 because stepping foot into any sort of content and farming gear in what is possibly the least grindy MMO out there to obtain gear, is somehow too much work.

[Sqwall]

Logic doesn't apply to people who can level multiple crafters and gatherers to 80, gear them, meld them, acquire food, gather from timed nodes, scrip farm for sublimes, start craft and make Exarchic items in under 5 minutes total. I wish I knew their secret.

Nor does logic apply to people who need a full Exarchic set the moment they hit 80 because stepping foot into any sort of content and farming gear in what is possibly the least grindy MMO out there to obtain gear, is somehow too much work.

When you have infinite GIL....you don't farm....you buy VAST amounts of mats. I do this with sublime solution to keep me away from the time sink of collectibles. Before I had my wealth...yeah I would scrip all day for maybe a little sand or sublimes. Now those days are behind me where I just buy sand. I crafted my whole Ashesthes (spelling) gear and Penta melded it. They only way I got ahead was I had a FC mate make my HQ Facet crafting. I purchased ALL the mats needed and had my FC mate craft it. Cost me around 8 mil (1 million gil tip for their time), and I was off to the races. I turned that 8mil investment into 20 mil in about a month.

Then I spent 9 million on Materia. 1. to horde 2. to pentameld my new gear.

Then I worked on my gathering set, but I made my own HQ Facet gathering set. Didn't meld that. This fueled my crafting even further as I was able to get HQ mats for free.

Eventually my crafting didn't need HQ mats anymore and just sold all my HQ mats for free gil. I was making around 4-5 mil per week, then 8, then 10.

Now. I don't own an ingame house. Nor do I want to. I have postioned myself to gather less....and less....and less. As I buy more...and more...and more mats to feed my crafting.

This is where I hold the idea up that if SE fixes gathering then the bots will simply vanish. Here's how...Make gathering RNG style like collectibles is now. Gathering Thunder Rocks for ethereal reduction is simple, yet requires actual thought process. Not to mention you need GP to actually interact with the node. I'm not saying duplicate the collectible gathering completely, but make it along those lines rather then just using "Pick Clean" which guarantees HIGH volumes of mats while you don't even need to use any GP to gather also.

If SE fixes gathering....they subsequently fix these crafting bots from having they're gathering bots go out and just auto-farm an areas node over and over until their inventory is full of 1 type of mat. It's a lot harder to have a bot go out and interact with RNG, while also being forced to use GP.

Once the gathering markets are more stable and high volumes are down to normal amounts, then crafting will follow suit. It will take time for the crafting market to stabilize until all the bot farmed mat's dry up, then the crafting bot's will be forced to use non-bot farmed mats to supply their endeavors. Crafted gear/materials supplies will diminish, and prices will go up. The crafting bot's will still be there, but at much more reduced amount. That is why I hope SE implements Expert style crafting for all "Star" items. This will GREATLY reduce the bot's HQ success rate as they try to deal with expert RNG. Crafters get the complexity back, and gathering becomes lucrative again.

Will this all happen....I doubt it.

[Seleni]

There’s always the officially sanctioned “bots”, aka retainers, doing the gathering.

Personally as gatherer I like not having to compete for nodes, and as crafter I love being able to send retainers out to gather stuff for me. But the virtually unlimited supply of mats is probably one of the reasons why inflation in this game seems out of control.

[Illmaeran]

There’s always the officially sanctioned “bots”, aka retainers, doing the gathering.

Personally as gatherer I like not having to compete for nodes, and as crafter I love being able to send retainers out to gather stuff for me. But the virtually unlimited supply of mats is probably one of the reasons why inflation in this game seems out of control.

Imagine being able to turn raw materials in for mounts etc that are better than the current scrip stuff. If there was something that ended up being more appealing than the Gil I could earn selling ore/logs or ingots/lumber/gems that I could earn by turning in large amounts of materials (not finished goods like rings), I'd be all about that. Until then, I'm going to be making as much money as I can on the off chance I'm actually able to procure a house plot. It's good to dream, right?