Something I think would benefit the economy is if there were more mobs that needed heavier armors. The durability on plates and armor would need to be tweaked to make them last a lot longer based on the damage taken, but adding some really fast and fairly hard hitting mobs along with stronger plates and armor could give a nice boost to the economy. Something like mobs that do 200 max damage of one type, but hit 3 times per second.
I feel this is the direction in which the game is going already. Subject SH-30 and the new Tezla wave event are good examples of this. Most people who want to hunt Subject SH-30 would have to get AP-54 Acid to deal with the swamp gas. And I think for the new Tezlas, most people have to get AP-42 or above Electric to deal with it.
So I think it's pretty clear that there will be more such mobs going forward. with like you say, very high damage of one type.
Also I think that the design of many new armors recently promotes the use of high level AP plates, for example Titan has no Cut, DSEC armor is practically unusable without any plates on it, etc...
Then with this have armor and plates that go up to 90 protections, but only limited versions that would use multi-tier sub components that would burn a lot of hunting loot in the process of crafting them, opening up some markup windows for hunters. I think a lot of hunters are getting to the point where there are fewer and fewer limited armor items needed...
Well I think we have Life-Steal mostly to thank for that, as well as Restoration chips, not to mention all the crazy dps buffs that are all over the place now, I'm talking about faster reload, crit chance and increased crit damage buffs. All these things combine to making armor much less important today then it was just 3 years ago...
But you assume that better/bigger armor plates would be crafted and I have to say, based on recent game developments, I doubt that. It suddenly became very clear to me recently that MA considers Crafting to be a "support" profession, not it's own full-fledged profession with it's own path and end-game. I think MA looks at Crafting as something that Professional Hunters can "access" in addition to their main path, in order to fully utilize the fruits of their labor (their loot and mission rewards), in order to generate more revenue for themselves, and support their Hunting activities.
If you just look at skill requirements for example for crafting the new Perfected 6A/5B, it makes you wonder doesn't it? Why so low? Probably so that anyone can do it or easily get to the point that they can do it (with Armor Gizmos) if they really want to do it. 5B Perfected could/should have been something that only a high-end Crafter can do, but instead they put it within reach of practically anyone. It's clear that it's a release for Hunters, not Crafters.
All the best stuff that has been released lately has been given directly to Hunters either as a drop or mission reward. There hasn't been anything of any real significance released for Pro Crafters since AP Plates and ArMatrix, which is about 5-6 years ago now. Yes there was Aegis and Apocalypse from NI but these are not really "game-changing" items; there are merely NI versions of Calypso's Hermes and Angel, and since those are looted, it would be impossible for a Crafted armor such as Aegis to compete with other looted options in the current Crafting system.
So now we're starting to see veteran Crafters such as Auktuma and Buzz just focus on hunting to the point of not even bothering with Crafting at all anymore (except for Gold Rush, I know Auk participated in that, but only for the prizes).
The other reason I say Crafting is now just a "support" profession in MA's mind is because of the new Spina Armor BPs; #1. they are given straight to the Hunters now as a reward for killing the Queen, #2. practically all of the ingredients are hunting loot... (there is Basic Sheet Metal, which is easy for anyone to do, and there is Fused Bioplating which is Crafted, but again, using mostly just hunting loot).
So the "circular" economy we used to have is becoming more and more lopsided. Actually the design of this new stuff is more like: something for the Hunter to craft for him/herself and his hunting buddies, leaving Crafters and Miners pretty much completely out of it.
The only hope I have left for Crafting at this point is that MA will release Crafted ArMatrix MindForce chips soon, aside from that, I don't really see anything of major interest coming for Crafters in the short-to-medium term.
One final note is that I think making armor and plates last longer would even bolster the economy by its self without any other changes. Many people are driven away from using limited plates and armor because they're too expensive for how little of cycle they last for, but in many cases crafted plates and armors can't go much lower due to the markup required and tt loss from making them. If they lasted longer, then they would be more appealing to hard grinders and more often be a justifiable purchase where the markup cost matches the benefits.
I see your point about the re-balancing and I do somewhat agree, although I don't think it really would make that much of a difference. The mu that people have to pay for as part of their input costs just becomes part of the mu generated through their gaming activity. If they really need the plate and need to buy it, and it's expensive, then they will just be less wasteful with it and make the most profitable use they can of it.
The biggest problem with getting people to use limited is breaking the obsession that some people have about not using it; it borders on the psychotic sometimes. I have shown the math before and it's baffling how some people are willing to lock up thousands of dollars just to save 2 pec/hour. In many cases they risk losing a lot more then that when they sell the items if the value has gone down over time, but most people are just refusing to consider it, they say things like "I will never use limited gear..."
And since we're on the topic of re-balancing, I think the biggest problem with crafting now is the compounded effects of crafted components going into crafting more components, especially with non-SIB blueprints that eat up 10% with each step (not counting mu of mats)... This is what adds a lot of cost to making things right now. And the only solution I could ever come up with that would solve that, and other issues, is better Crafting machines such as the
Omegaton Craftmeister Mk.1 which can use multiple QR 100 BPs to make more efficient use of high-mu mats. With a machine like that, ArMatrix and AP plates could be made for quite a bit cheaper.
And on the re-blancing, I'm starting to think that Gizmo crafting is dropping too many BPs, many of which are fast becoming worthless. But Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it will encourage more hunters to make their own stuff, which is kind of why I opened up a Blueprint shop recently, but this will again hurt crafters even more...
Anyway, I think what you're saying is "make plates bigger/better, and cheaper, and make mobs that deal higher damage, so we can craft and sell more plates". I think that view is too simplistic and doesn't take into consideration how MA is developing the game atm.
If there is going to be some bigger AP plates, like for example AP-75, AP-85 and AP-95, I bet you these would just be given directly to the hunters, one way or another, for them to make and use or sell. P.S. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, I'm just disappointed a bit after having invested so much time and effort into skilling the crafting profession...
