Comments from the Devs

[Eagleheart]

In XI, we never had the oversupply of materials such as exists in XIV. There needed to be a variety of methods for reducing the quantity of any given item in circulation, or we'd have a flooded and crashed market in very short order. Materia, double-meld fails, and GC supplying are there now, though, and this "blow it up if you try too hard to HQ" thing does feel like a bit of a slap to crafters.

However as Shidobu said, there's nothing particularly difficult to get material-wise in XIV (yet), so it isn't really a big deal. Overall, I think it's a fine system, particularly with quality going up across the board. Now I have an idea of what to aim for; up to now, I've been bluffing my way through every craft. ^^;

[Vuitton]

Yeah, I was about to say... getting HQ items is really easy in XIV. They're not expensive and they're around in quantity. In re the "mah inventories nooo" argument, they already removed 2/3 of HQ items from the game when they eliminated +2/+3 items, in addition to increasing inventory to 200. What the fuck are you carrying around that is taking up all your inventory? Whatever it is (and I bet it's you carrying around a full set of gear for every job in the damn game), that is probably the problem and not HQ materials.

[shidobu]

Yeah, I was about to say... getting HQ items is really easy in XIV. They're not expensive and they're around in quantity. In re the "mah inventories nooo" argument, they already removed 2/3 of HQ items from the game when they eliminated +2/+3 items, in addition to increasing inventory to 200. What the fuck are you carrying around that is taking up all your inventory? Whatever it is (and I bet it's you carrying around a full set of gear for every job in the damn game), that is probably the problem and not HQ materials.

i think FF players are hoarders... i still have buffalo leather dye.. sitting on my retainer JUST INCASE. actually ima go npc all that junk right now ~.~

[Eagleheart]

i think FF players are hoarders... i still have buffalo leather dye.. sitting on my retainer JUST INCASE. actually ima go npc all that junk right now ~.~

I just sold my old materials stash last week. Leather straps, nuggets, fletchings, hooks, the whole kit 'n kaboodle. I was sure I'd need them for something, eventually. (>.> ) But 'eventually' never materialized and so I went ahead and awarded myself an extra 60 inventory slots.

Raccoonesque in our hoarding, no?

[TacoTaru]

Yeah, I was about to say... getting HQ items is really easy in XIV. They're not expensive and they're around in quantity. In re the "mah inventories nooo" argument, they already removed 2/3 of HQ items from the game when they eliminated +2/+3 items, in addition to increasing inventory to 200. What the fuck are you carrying around that is taking up all your inventory? Whatever it is (and I bet it's you carrying around a full set of gear for every job in the damn game), that is probably the problem and not HQ materials.

Granted I'm not sure what is causing people to have inventory problems atm, but the 200 is only temporary. It's going back to 100 at which point, inventory will be a probably be an issue at that point.

[Eagleheart]

Granted I'm not sure what is causing people to have inventory problems atm, but the 200 is only temporary. It's going back to 100 at which point, inventory will be a probably be an issue at that point.

o.O Wait, really?

Why the bloody hell would they do that? ._.

[Spider-Dan]

So wait... using all HQ mats results in a "50-100%" chance of HQ? No more guaranteed HQ?

I am very sad to see Touch Up spamming go the way of Sacrifice.

[Raldo]

Granted I'm not sure what is causing people to have inventory problems atm, but the 200 is only temporary. It's going back to 100 at which point, inventory will be a probably be an issue at that point.

I thought it was only going to get scaled back to 150, but if I had to guess, it's probably because personal housing will provide storage.

[TacoTaru]

From the second Live Letter:

The other thing I'd like to mention is the inventory. Inventory space was expanded in 1.19. However, in 2.0 we will be introducing the mannequin system where players can store their equipment, so we are thinking about reverting to the 100-slot inventory in the future. We won't be deleting the items—they'll instead be stored with NPCs, and players will have to retrieve them once Version 2.0 arrives. We'll announce details as they're ironed out, so please don't worry.

That's just the spot I knew I could retrieve the answer quick, but I'm pretty sure they've mentioned it in other places at going back to 100 as well.

[Lucavi]

i think FF players are hoarders... i still have buffalo leather dye.. sitting on my retainer JUST INCASE. actually ima go npc all that junk right now ~.~

Given that there's no real "color" system in FF games (ala: Grey in WoW = sell this shit for money as does absolutely nothing", people hold onto things expecting that somewhere out there, someone needs it.

I can't fault the player-base for that with such an outdated system.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Well the only real downside to "HQ or blowup" is that the NQ isn't being used for spiritbonding I guess. Personally I'll say it sucks to blow up Felt/Wool, but that's just a time/gil factor.

Side note, the "no shit" award goes to:

Currently, the conditions for producing HQ results during synthesis are not clear

[Jamison]

o.O Wait, really?

Why the bloody hell would they do that? ._.

It's presumed in the future that gear you have equipped on a class/job won't be counted against your inventory.

No more guaranteed HQ?

Looks like they changed their mind on that one, however it does seem like all-HQ mats plus having good gear is very near to 100%... which I'm OK with.

[miokomioko]

Yeah, it's a bummer they took that HQ-materials=HQ-result thing out... although I understand why as it would have negated the purpose of the crafting minigame entirely if all your materials were HQ.

At least it looks like if you hit the 1,000 Quality threshold, you're guaranteed a HQ. Which is how it should have worked from the get-go. They seem really hesitant to ever guarantee anything, but at least there's a way to do it now.

[Spider-Dan]

Yeah, it's a bummer they took that HQ-materials=HQ-result thing out... although I understand why as it would have negated the purpose of the crafting minigame entirely if all your materials were HQ.

My understanding is that the minigame would have been for creating HQ materials, while finished items were simply HQ-in-HQ-out.

There is one bonus to this revamp, though: you won't see ridiculously priced bottleneck HQ mats (e.g. green megalocrab shell for crab bow).

[Ropeydonkey]

Mannequins etc. should help with inv space - I vaguely remember 100 items being mentioned as the ultimate default but with plenty of alternative storage options. Scrolling lists of ~200 items is never going to be a good UI...

[TacoTaru]

Another bit of an update on crafting in 2.0

Regarding Crafting Changes in 2.0

Greetings! We wanted to pass along some information regarding the time gauge that appears when selecting crafting commands.

We are planning to remove the crafting time gauge around 2.0 timing. Currently the idea is that the time gauge maintains progression through crafting as you select crafting commands, but since the time gauge will be eliminated, it’ll be possible to halt crafting between commands.

Also, in regards to feeling like there’s not much meaning behind commands and the time gauge, in 2.0 we will be changing the current four command system into a two command system and each will have more weight behind them.

We will announce more specifics on the crafting system in 2.0 in the future.

[Raldo]

We are planning to remove the crafting time gauge around 2.0 timing.

Shucks, there goes my excuse for not immediately tending to the wife when she yells at me.

In 2.0 we will be changing the current four command system into a two command system and each will have more weight behind them.

I really wish they wouldn't say vague things like this at all... What does that even mean? I use all four of the options regularly -- which ones am I losing?

[Niiro]

The crafting interface will be simplified to:

>Craft
>Don't Craft

[Seravi Edalborez]

I would guess Progress Craft and Quality Craft (aka standard/careful with tweaks). But like any vagueness SE spouts, gotta see the concept behind it all to make heads or tails of it.

[miokomioko]

It might just be "low risk/low quality" and "high risk/high quality" since Durability is no longer relevant for touching up. Additionally, they were talking a while ago about having a forgo-exp-for-instantaneous-craft option, there might be little need for "Rapid Synthesis."