Hi,

I do like the crafting system over all.
The loss of material, well im not that high but i feel there should be atleast a little punishment for trying to craft something 4 levels higher and not suceeding. Loosing it all ... well not even FF11 made you loose them all most times.

I dont think the progress is too slow on standart syntesis since it gets quite fast if you make stuff you outlevel by a certain ammount. The 3 syntesys types are nice even tho i never ever use rapid, it seemes not to work well anyways. They could make it suceed more the quality loss on it already is makeing it totaly not viable for me.

The thing i agree with you is all the tons of stuff i need to craft a gear piece...i just started to buy stuff like rivets and so on since they are usually realy cheap but the fact that i need shoulder guards from leatherworker for so many of the gears i can make as Weaver. I dont want to level Leatherworker i dont wanna play a class which wears Leather but those are rarely available.
The Leather Straps are ok or Leather at all thats quite available. Same with Rivets etc, not so with Bronze Plates.

I kind of gave up on Carpenter since i found out to make my own Weapons completely i need Carpenter and high level of Alchemie...
So if i want to make my own gear for my Magics i need:
Weaver
Leatherworker
Carpenter
Alchemist
Goldsmithing

Bummer....

On the other hand there wouldnt be much of a trade if everyone could craft everything themselfe.
Maybe the problem is that too many people wanna make it all themselfe and dont sell the parts needed for other crafts. hehe

Also annoying, were i have to agree again, is the running arround to gather the stuff needed:

Hm ok i need X lets check my current Market Wards in Gridania.
Hm ok there is none what do i do now? Ok i have some anima left i will try Uld'ah.
Hm ok its not up there either, damn, will i apwend another 3 anima to check Limsa? Eh no im already below 50.
Tabs out checks FF14 Zam, reads up.Ok X is not so hard to make i can make it myself. But shoot it Material Y i need for X and cant do myself cos im 12 levels below that Skill in Craft Z is also not available here.
Checks Uld'ah Market Wards again. Oh no Y is not available.
Hm ok lets Teleport to Gridania maybe im lucky.
Running to Gridania Market Wards again.
Ok its not available here too.
Will i spend another 3 anima to check my very low chances that it is available in Limsa? And another 3 to get back to Gridania again...
No.
Result: 15 min time gone, nothing achieved 6 anima gone for nothing. *sigh*

Thats a little sad since i realy do like that quality/durability/progress crafting its fun to me. Watching out for that glow glow on ur syntesis board, biting on the table plate if im at 8 durability and 95% progress... if the loss wouldnt hurt so much cos i made a world journey to get the materials...;-)

Wall of Text end. Sorry for mistakes english is a foreign language to me. :3