Endless Item Circulation: Solved

[RogueAgent]

Few additions;
Desynthing makes sense to me.. but I again believe it should be class specific... weavers can desynth cloth, goldsmiths jewelery, etc. Again.. to keep things somewhat balanced. (I highly agree that the outcome of desynthing should be less than the input materials also :-) )

Desynth makes me think of a new DoH class to be added:

Salvager
*Breaks down finished equipment
*Weilds a wrench MH, screwdriver OH
*Ignores class requirement when repairing gear
*Can attempt repairs 5 ranks sooner than other classes

Breaking down equipment would not give shards. If desynthing yielded basic mats that wouldn't help the bigger problem since items are not exiting the market. Only thing I can suggest would be that desynthing gives a new material called Salvage. There could be various types and rarities depending on the optimal rank and base components of the item being broken down. Just have to find a use for Salvage then (besides being a universal repair material).

Reminds me of Cid from FFIV ^^

Salvager.... being able to repair any item would reduce the usefulness/uniqueness of every other class. I litterally ranked up classes that I can use to repair my gear... if I had the option for the salvager class to repair all... I would only rank up that one class and buy all my gear for cheap... I cant make gear for my rank as it is anyway lol

For the "Salvage" item idea... Just another Material to hold onto when there are already TONS in my bags lol... may as well just get lower grade mats of what was initially used.

Back to the OP... I like the idea, but like stated there are already SOOO many items in circulation atm... I would like to not only see a cap on max trade ins but also a cap for points for physical lvl/rank. That way a "newer" player cant just buy a ton of lvl 50 items for cheap and trade them all in for all their new skills haha..

So more thoughts on uses for "points":
•As mentioned above - guild marks.
•Trade for Anima
•Trade for Guardian's Favor.
•Trade for "vouchers" (Chocobo Ride, Airship Ride, ...).
•Trade for special vanity gear?
•Trade to purchase rare materials.
•Trade for items used in some sort of Magian upgrade quests?
•Trade to Wardens in camps related to companies controlling areas. Maybe if your company controls the Camp it's cheaper to teleport there or something?

Love the ideas!

Another idea I had back in the day was to allow "upgrading" of gear. Giving us more gear in the long run. Maybe being able to desynth 2 armors into one new one? upgrading your weapon to have elemental properties like the wands for conj. changing colors for gear and/or making sets by using the same mats for different pieces. Would be nice to see more "Set" items and more diversity.

[Amineri]

Few additions;

Another idea I had back in the day was to allow "upgrading" of gear. Giving us more gear in the long run. Maybe being able to desynth 2 armors into one new one? upgrading your weapon to have elemental properties like the wands for conj. changing colors for gear and/or making sets by using the same mats for different pieces. Would be nice to see more "Set" items and more diversity.

This quote inspired an idea in my own little head, bringing together the idea of item breakage, problems with HQ, and generally cool idea of item upgrading.

What if items could be upgraded, but that the upgrading would decay over time, thus requiring periodic recharging?

For example, an enhancement recipe could upgrade a piece of gear to +2 or +3 (likely still bowing to the vagaries of the HQ gods), but every time such a piece of gear is repaired, there is a chance for the enhancement to decay by one. This provides for a level of item decay, without the gear actually breaking, but provides a mechanism for crafters and gathers to remain useful. Essentially this makes gear enhancement a "consumable item".

Further, in addition to the existing enhancements which only affect defensive stats, thus leading to the situation where HQ gear is useless for crafters and gatherers (with the exception of tools), further enhancement recipes to add to crafting / gathering stats could be introduced.

The above does not really address the imbalance between item supply / demand, and so an item sink is still required, but I think it could still be a workable idea to prevent the ever-increasing number of HQ items in the game.

[Amineri]

Few additions;

Salvager.... being able to repair any item would reduce the usefulness/uniqueness of every other class. I litterally ranked up classes that I can use to repair my gear... if I had the option for the salvager class to repair all... I would only rank up that one class and buy all my gear for cheap... I cant make gear for my rank as it is anyway lol

For the "Salvage" item idea... Just another Material to hold onto when there are already TONS in my bags lol... may as well just get lower grade mats of what was initially used.

Back to the OP... I like the idea, but like stated there are already SOOO many items in circulation atm... I would like to not only see a cap on max trade ins but also a cap for points for physical lvl/rank. That way a "newer" player cant just buy a ton of lvl 50 items for cheap and trade them all in for all their new skills haha..

Perhaps one way to address this concept of a salvager class is to make the salvager less effective then the more specialized classes. Sort of a "jack of all trades, master of none" deal.

So, perhaps a salvager/mechanic could repair items to 90% instead of 100% (better than the NPC repair people, but not as good as the "correct" crafting class).

Regarding item de-synthing, a salvager could salvage any item, but would receive fewer materials on average than the "correct" class, but could perhaps be compensated by having a chance to receive rare materials that the correct class would not.

Just my $0.02.