Maker Skill Proposal (Discussing Pros and Cons)

I was talking in game with an administrator, and she said the Maker Skill is completely off the table with regards to implementing it into the game. Personally, I loved the Maker Skill - it revolutionized the game's market economy. I, nonetheless, noticed a few things I didn't like that it brought with it. So I'd like to propose a compromise to the Maker system so the Maker Skill can stay in game, while keeping the bad elements out...

Advantages:
The Maker Skill allowed players to forge their own armor and weapons that couldn't be done anywhere else in the game. Yes, there are NPCs in El Nath and Leafre that could make equivalent weapons, but I don't know who would honestly use them. These NPCs asked for some serious plates and jewels that were so difficult to obtain that by the time you collected everything you needed, either (1) you would have leveled to the point where those equips are obsolete for your character, or (2) [the smarter thing to do] you could have grinded on monsters that drop the equips to get what you want much faster. Yes, the stimulator could give you an equip that is awesome, but more often than not it would ensure an average equip. Besides, grinding for the stimulator only furthers my first point. The Maker Skill gave players a real reason to collect ores, make plates and jewels, grade the jewels, and it created a thriving supply-and-demand economy. Players had a reason to forge equips with this system because you had to put in a lot of work to create awesome equips. It's not pay-to-win, it's not easy, and the payoff is definitely worth the effort. There were also the two side quests that allowed players to put spikes on their shoes and warmth on their capes so that El Nath could be traversed without injury. (Now if only that stupid air tank cape that Hughes the Fuse gives you worked in Aqua Road...)

Disadvantages:
The Maker Skill required Monster Crystals, which came from disassembling equips. At first, this was incredibly expensive...very expensive...like gouging. Neckson did the stupid thing and increased the drop rate for all equips - which caused the economy to spiral up with inflation before they realized they needed to turn the NPC sell prices down by 90%. Overall, this really sucked because new players could still gather enough equips to sell and "roll in the mesos" much earlier than original players. Equip drops are rare, and should be rare. When they are more prolific, it causes players to go back to town before they're done grinding, leveling, or questing in order to NPC their equips - which took away from the gaming experience. It also kills the Equip market between players because good equips are too easy to find on your own. Personally, I found the whole Monster Crystal aspect to be completely annoying and downright unnecessary. Though it is unlikely the Maker System could be easily tampered such that Monster Crystals are not used, I think there is an easier work around. I have two possible alternatives:

1. It wouldn't take much to create an NPC in the Free Market selling all variety of Monster Crystals for a relatively moderate price. It might be one way to fight inflation. Also, disassembling equips might still be a viable option for players if the following is true: the value of the Monster Crystals produced by an equip being disassembled is greater than or equal to the NPC sell price of the equip. This would make players feel like they aren't just throwing mesos away from poor disassembling, and it would give players a viable way to gain access to Monster Crystals.
2. If the first way is too cost-prohibitive, then have the NPC in Free Market sell Monster Crystals for much less. Players will simply NPC their equips (or post them for sale in Free Market) as they have always done, while this NPC does its minor part in staving off inflation.

The other disadvantage were the powders. It was hard enough to keep a collection of ores and plates, but now Monster Crystals and powders? Neckson fixed this by doubling the number of slots for all characters. This was a welcome addition for me, but I know others feel it takes away from the original feel of the game and working through the struggle of not being able to pick-up everything you want or need. It prevented people from trying to do too many quests at once - but I'm not at all certain that was necessarily a bad thing. The powder market was somewhat viable, but not as volatile as the Monster Crystal market. The White Powders were only necessary to further your Maker ability. Their original value was incredibly high because the demand was so high, but eventually they became worthless once everyone had their skill maxed. The only expensive powders due to demand were Black, Red, Purple, and Blue (Green had some demand, and Brown had little demand). This parallels the same complaint about the equip drop rates being increased - these powders tended to clog people's inventories so fast people were regularly interrupted with their gaming experience to deal with all of the garbage they'd collected. So, too, could powders be sold by the Free Market NPC at a nominal cost.

Conclusion:
If the Maker Skill was brought into the game with an NPC selling Powders and Monster Crystals, the game can keep the same number of slots and keep the equip drop rates low, all while giving players access to forging their own equips. These equips are not easy to make and the hard work in acquiring all the necessary ingredients should make these equips better than anything you could find by grinding. This would also allow for the Temple of Time to be introduced - which gives a reason for those Pieces of Time dropping. But please...whatever you do... DO NOT INTRODUCE POTENTIAL!