Economy SpeculationFollow

I see it becoming more adaptable and long lasting than FFXI's that's for damned sure. For one, the gathering isn't as onerous as it was for FFXI so there will be a higher supply of goods at any given time and the inventory management will erase a lot of issues that farming/gathering had in FFXI (and in other MMOs really because 99 a stack is nice).

Plus, gear will always be needed for materia melding and crafters will supply that aspect. Just think about it like this: for gear on your 2nd/3rd/4th class you're leveling you're more than likely going to be using materia. On average you'll have 2 slots and you'll *want* to push double or triple melding just to make the leveling easier (and personally more fun to me). Take a chest piece with 2 materia slots and just double melding that's four pieces of gear.... assuming you're trying yourself, you get the materia you want AND you don't fail the double meld. If you go triple melding that's five minimum and you're talking astronomical odds.....and this is all for one piece of gear.

Now count up all the gear that's nuked into materia that you don't want at that time. Up on the market it goes because they're all stats someone is going to use. With the way crafting is set up to support the materia system (and vice versa) I really don't see the market for a set level ever really disappear. You can only add so much of a stat to a piece of gear so just slapping in the highest level materia won't work (and is a massive waste), thus the actual level materia of the gear is better.

The plus side is because gear is always needed to be spiritbound and nuked the items needed to craft them will be needed as well. Sure, two or three years down the line the demand will level off to a comfortable level but with such a system being built in from the ground up it's definitely set up for long term stability.



Don't go too crazy trying to stamp out RMT that you abuse and frustrate your playerbase. Considering anything NQ vendors for 1 gil and anything HQ vendors for 2 gil they've already established the concept of "You won't be vendoring anything easily for free cash." and RMT thrives on those types of gil making processes.



That's answer the first time you fight with a piece of gear that's crafted or bought. The second you get experience it binds it to you. And it's a way I'd prefer it.

Yeah I really don't understand the retainer situation at all. I don't know why that even exists.

I think its more of.. saving a failed experiment.. than anything. I mean i understand it saved space.. Dont need to have Bank NPCs but I would rather have 100 bank spots per char than 100 bank spots per account per server.

Well since you put it that way... How can anyone argue against that.

Unless gear is removed by vendors, the only tradeskill items you will be looking for in the market outside of food are going to fall into at least one of the following:

• Not being sold by a vendor
• Is a HQ version
• Is cheaper than vendor price

Unless I'm forgetting something, we already know gear with spiritbond is unsellable once you wear it. It binds to you to start the spiritbond process. What you do with the resulting materia is a different story though. However, as far as I could tell in Phase 3, you can't go above 5 materia slots per item, even with the ability to socket extras at a higher risk.

Ignoring food, HQ Consumables MAY have a market because the HQ result has a shorter cooldown -- I think it was either 10% or 20%.

The retainer situation exists because FFXI had a bazaar option where you'd sell stuff from your own inventory while (usually) AFK. They took that in XIV 1.0 and made an NPC who would do that for you, and created retainer wards to put them in for selling. Since back then, you had to physically go to the retainer who had the goods you wanted, this caused other issues that end with the net result of the wards crashing every day and people having to set up retainers again after each crash.

Fast forward to now, where picking the retainer simply designates which city you are technically selling from (assuming you remembered to send them to different cities) in order to take advantage of the rotating tax rate. (And remember that you can choose to put items up from sale from your own inventory -- don't need to move it to the retainer for that.)

I'm pretty sure you get to pick your retainer's appearance by open beta/launch. They were automatically chosen for you in phase 3.

HQ Crafting gear has a higher potential because of the materia slots and equivalent stats to dungeon gear (at least at lower level) before slotting that materia in, yes. (I passed on a dungeon scepter for my THM at 15 because my HQ one had near-identical stats -- only the 4th stat was different, and it wasn't a higher or lower stat either.) However, if you try melding in materia, you have to see what the prompts say about the effectiveness. It looks like there's another counter or something keeping track of what you slot with materia, because you will get diminished returns (to the point where it might be worthless) if you put in materia that's considered too good for the gear. For example, it's possible for you to meld +1 Ice in an armor with full benefits, and then when you try to meld another one, it tells you that you won't get anything out of melding it.

Wow thanks for the great replies... I guess I will need to learn a craft that will be able to attach materia... it looks like that will be a main part of the economy as a whole.

Basically i see this money cycle on the legacy servers "the same as of the end of FF14" craft 30k or way less worth of materials to make rank 45 to 50 items for spirit bond party items, sell each piece to them for 60 to 90k = profit. They grind for the good materia to get a friend to attach all else they sell,cheap.Buy the cheap materia put it on lower level items they sell faster than normal items.It was a good racket in FF14 till the low levels dried up and the last catalyst gatherers sold their pieces higher. If the making, selling and attaching materia is the same as 14 the want +1 and extra stat ppl will run the economy.

That sounds about right to me. The +1 and extra stat people are going to be the ones who push the limits on the price of higher level items.

I remember when I got my first Scorpion Harness in FFXI around 2004... I spent a million gil on it and, as ugly as that thing was, it looked sexy because it was the best item in the game I could afford at the time.

Those same Scorpion Harnesses were still a staple in the game 5 years later for people in Aht Urghan as they were in Jeuno way back when...

I can't wait to see it in action....

What crafting class would you guys recommend for a DRG or LNC who wants to get materia in his armor? Armorer or Blacksmith?

Awesome thanks! Maybe I will focus on Leatherworking then as a crafting class. That seems to make sense for my own armor/materia.

I had the same issue in P3 - with accuracy and all! (not sure if it was a ring though). I remember reading somewhere else (can't for the life of me think where atm) that it was theorized that the item level requirement dictated the "max" amount of each stat the item could contain. So, you level 15 ring can only have +3 to either a) each stat, or b) accuracy only. If a), it would prevent single stat stacking, especially on endgame gear. If b) each stat would have it's own limit (probably related to level), which would require a whole lot more research, and would make stat allocation/BiS towards endgame even more complex!

I hope so lol