DoH Bonecraft

[fusional]

Come to think of it, "crafter specialization" could actually make things worse. Currently, since anyone can make anything (if they invest the time), if a certain item isn't turning enough profit, they can seek to make a different item and try to find some kind of equilibrium. With "crafter specialization", they'd have to level their alts as well in order to do this. Assuming the high ticket items are the ones that require "crafter specialization", you could be in for a world of hurt if you decided to specialize in a craft a lot of other people specialized in. You could fool yourself into think the "less popular" crafts would then turn a way higher profit... and you'd even be right... for a very short period before enough people joined the club to flood the hell out of the market, which is the inevitable conclusion to that little drama.

it's like you guys are knee-jerk reacting so hard that you don't want to actually read and process what's being talked about here.

you don't
specialize
in
a
craft

you specialize
in
one
craft's
specialization

you keep all your precious level 50 DOHs (i have them too, captain) and DOLs, you keep all your recipes, you keep your ability to make ANYTHING... except for a very small subset of special items only one craft's specialization can make. IE: you can make everything in the damn game that you can already make now- but choosing one specialization would add another few items you can make. and only that specialization can make it.

if you think this will somehow miraculously change the game economy and that you'd be FORCED to level alts to have every specialization, you're out of your god damned mind and you understand econ even less than i'd anticipated. unless you're just OCD and OMGOMGNEEDTOHAVEITALL- you can still make sarngas and mailbreakers and rampagers and obelisks and felt cavalier hats and ringbands of storms and mahogany pattens and lightning brands and meld them up and sell them for ENORMOUS profit, just like you've ALWAYS been able to do with very little effort. but then you'd also get a few new items only people who choose that specialization would make.

no matter how you try to spin it, allowing everyone to have every craft at max level lowers demand for crafting services. why would i need to commission you to make anything for me? i can make it my damn self, and for much less. but if you have a specialization i don't, and i need something made- hey, look, a new market. i pay you to make something i can't. one of the five items in the entire game that i can't make.

so not only can you sell these (maybe? unless they make them U/U which would also be fine) for profit, making extra money you wouldn't have been able to make otherwise, but you can sell the service of making them for people who chose different specializations.

if you're worried about an imbalance of one thing being more in demand than another, then i guess we have to nerf EVERY SINGLE DOH every time a new patch introduces new goods that end up being more in demand than others, right? to make it fair? because, get this- even though you have the ABILITY to level all crafts to 50... that doesn't necessarily mean that you *have* all crafts to 50. so if you chose the wrong craft to level... i guess you're screwed, eh? until the economy shifts again with a new patch and new recipes and your craft becomes more profitable.

no, ffxi didn't have this. this is nothing like ffxi. the examples aren't equivalent. ridiculous comparison. ffxi let you level everything halfway and then you could only choose one to take to 100. this isn't the same thing at all. maybe you're knee-jerk reacting based on your experience with this. is this the only crafting system you've ever experienced? is it all you know? is that why you run back to that every time you need a frame of reference, in spite of the two things not being comparable?

though even with ffxi, every craft had the ability to make tons of money. alchemy and cooking seemed to be on the short end of the stick (and alchemy kind of was), but they did it differently. that was about a constant influx of consumable items with little to no personal risk. the other crafts made money through HQing big ticket items, and running the risk of breaking them and losing the mats.

crafting in this game gives you both options already, with every/all classes. you can take the easy safe route to make money, just selling materials or finished products (which are in effect consumable since you can SB them or break them with melding attempts), or you can accept the risks and go for HQs and melds for greater profit (and sometimes pure loss)

it's homogenized. nothing stands out from anything else. there's no demand for anyone else's services unless you're simply feeling lazy. there's *no impetus to interact with the player base or the game economy* because you can do it all yourself. and people wonder why the game's community feels so less tight-knit than in XI...

so specialization would offer all the perks that came with XI's system without any of the major downfalls. you lose no recipes, but gain a few new ones. you benefit immediately from higher demand on simple principle of there being less suppliers. you lose nothing. literally. nothing. all you could possibly make an argument for losing is potential earnings by choosing a specialization with items that end up selling for slightly less than another.

and you know what? get over it. if the point of an MMORPG was to equalize everything so everyone has the same shot to do every single thing and make every single thing and acquire every single thing, what's the point of hard mode fights? what's the point of relic? what's the point of anything?

and don't even start with this "oh well then i guess we should only allow people to choose one battle class" antilogic. if having every battle class at 50 is even remotely comparable i should be seeing far more of you parading around in relic and white ravens. except those are plenty exclusive in spite of everyone having all 50 battle classes. weird, right?

and one last thing for emphasis:

Bottom line, the way to fix it would be a wide variety of highly desirable craftable items, so folks don't just focus on a small subset.

so your logic is that having a few new unique recipes for each specialization would render everything else undesirable and suddenly everyone only makes the specialized things. wrong again.

people will still need SB gear
people will still need class weapons for relic
people will still need HQ crafting gear and HQ tools
people will still need darksteel haubs and vanya sashes
people will still need fingerless raptorskin gloves (in bulk)
etc etc

introducing a couple new, more exclusive items doesn't eliminate need for others. it doesn't impact them in any way. class weapons spiked in popularity for relic, but that's been the only change in market for over a year. everything else has pretty much remained steady.

people don't stop buying milk and eggs because a few stores carry new, exclusive espresso machines.