Cannot start Carpentry

[smtips]

I have no idea why my character just kneels at the cutting table and never starts crafting a simple piece of lumber. It never has worked, I've tried many times, I have the mats. I actually bought one to complete the initial quest, because my carpenter refuses to start the cutting after kneeling. The only thing that happens is the Step 1 window comes up, with a a Progress and Quality bar that never starts moving. I have stayed in that position for up to 15 minutes and nothing happens.
In the chat it does say "You remove the following from your bag: 1 Wind shard, 2 maple logs" so everything seems to be correct but it won't start.

I've tried to talk to support about it and these guys are far worse than WoW support used to be. They basically told me "sorry can't help you with game play issues." Well WTF are they there to do if they aren't willing to troubleshoot something that is clearly not working as intended?? I'm so pissed at these people. I paid 60 bucks for this and doubt I will renew because of the horrible support, they've never even TRIED to help or ask any questions after contacting them 4 times about it.

[Rongway]

Use your crafter actions. Our crafting system is not the click-and-wait system you're used to from every other game. You have to do a specialized combat with the thing you're making. Your goal is to use Touch actions to raise the quality bar to increase the chance of HQ and Synthesis actions to raise the progress bar to finish the item. The craft does not end until you reach 0 durability (the synth breaks) or you fill the progress bar (the synth completes).

[smtips]

Use your crafter actions. Our crafting system is not the click-and-wait system you're used to from every other game. You have to do a specialized combat with the thing you're making. Your goal is to use Touch actions to raise the quality bar to increase the chance of HQ and Synthesis actions to raise the progress bar to finish the item. The craft does not end until you reach 0 durability (the synth breaks) or you fill the progress bar (the synth completes).

I'm sorry, I have no idea what "crafter actions" are. I click Synthesize, nothing happens. I don't know what you mean when you say "specialized combat." How? With what? What are "Touch actions?" Please, you're welcome to treat me like a noob because I am, and I've only ever played one other game. The progress bar never just fills. So then, if anybody feels like taking the time to explain it in layman's terms, how exactly does this work?

[Eclipse12187]

Alright so unlike crafting in other games where you just click to craft and it does it automatically you have actions tailored to crafting items when on a crafting job and learn new ones when you level up just like any other job.

“Synthesis” type actions increase your progress and when the progress bar is filled you finish the craft.

“Touch” actions fill a quality bar and the more full that bar is the better your odds of the item becoming “High Quality”. High Quality items typically have better stats if equipment, provide more stats if it’s food or a potion, or are used to help make it easier to reach 100% quality when crafting other items.

When in your crafter class you can press P by default to open up your action menu and see what actions you have access to.

[Alien_Gamer]

here is a basic overview of crafting. https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Crafting

when you switch to the crafting class the skills on your hotbars will change to the basic crafting skills. At first you'll only have access to synthesis skills and you can only use these skills while crafting. so after clicking begin, you'll kneel then you need to use basic synthesis to actually make the item. you'll probably need to use the skill 2 or 3 times to finish the craft. when it's done you'll get a message stating the craft has finished.

[Jeeqbit]

So you'd quit over crafting of all things. You do have to actually craft, you don't just go afk. Crafters are confusing to figure out, but you can read the tool tips of the actions or look up some guides.

[Rongway]

I'm sorry, I have no idea what "crafter actions" are. I click Synthesize, nothing happens. I don't know what you mean when you say "specialized combat." How? With what? What are "Touch actions?" Please, you're welcome to treat me like a noob because I am, and I've only ever played one other game. The progress bar never just fills. So then, if anybody feels like taking the time to explain it in layman's terms, how exactly does this work?

But have you even opened your Actions window? Press P.

Also, another big difference between this game and others is you have to read. All this is explained in the Active Help that pops up when you first become a crafter. If you have Active Help disabled, turn it back on in /characterconfig > UI Settings

[smtips]

I'd like to thank you guys who responded, much appreciated. I was able to figure it out last night, after reading between the lines on your posts. And I just wrote my own rant, that maybe a search engine will pick up on it and anyone else having the issue will actually get a hit on what to do. We're not all that experienced at playing these things, and some of us are just...well...OLD, and have jobs and stuff and play casually

Soooo here's my big rant

Not one single crafting guide I found online actually tells a brand new player who never played how to start crafting. They all say like "Click Synthesize and you're done!" This is not true. Crafting in the game is like fighting. When you are BRAND NEW and trying to learn, and you click Synthesize, NOTHING HAPPENS. A NEW ITEM APPEARS ON THE ACTION BAR AT THE BOTTOM, AND YOU HAVE TO THEN CLICK ON THE BUTTON ON THE BAR BELOW TO START. It astounds me that no guide has this listed for newbies. I'm brand new.

I'm not a guru gamer like a lot of you people writing so-called beginner guides with terminology no newbie would have a clue what it means, because well, we're NEW right?

It took me a long time to figure out this vital step to just BEGIN CRAFTING, because I wasn't expecting crafting to be like...fighting, where you use an item to just get it started, because everyone on the web says Click Synthesize and you're all set!

I’ve only played a few different games and only one other MMO really, and when you click the main button, the crafting actually starts. Not like that in FFXIV, you have to “act” like you’re fighting an enemy by using skills on the action bars at the bottom to even get started.

Oh, did I mention that Crafting in Final Fantasy doesn’t just work when you click Synthesize like everyone on the internet says? You have to click the action that appears in the action bar AFTER clicking Synthesize, or it won’t work. And astoundingly, not even FFXIV's own newbie guides state this.

[smtips]

But have you even opened your Actions window? Press P.

Also, another big difference between this game and others is you have to read. All this is explained in the Active Help that pops up when you first become a crafter. If you have Active Help disabled, turn it back on in /characterconfig > UI Settings

Actually, it isn't explained in tool tips, or anywhere else, on what to click to actually get started, everything just says click on Synthesize and nothing else, and that's what my rant is about at the end of the thread. Thanks Now that I know how to start, no issue at all.