Presently there are an awful lot of materials in the various systems that are unused. I realize several of these materials have plans for future systems but a lot of them are really just subpar stuff that ends up getting trashed.

A nice use for those might be gathering "tasks" that require you collect a reasonably large volume of common or uncommon materials to turn in at the relevant crafting societies. You can do up to a set number of tasks per week and in return you get a kind of currency from them that you can spend on rare to very rare materials. Either you could allow people to stockpile, or you can require that the materials in question be "fresh" and harvested within a particular period of time, or even require them to be specifically gathered by the character doing the task.

The goal would be that over the course of a few months of diligent tasks, a person could save up to buy enough of a rare or very rare material to actually make something with. Properly paced I don't think this would lead to any kind of "glut" in the system or even significantly imbalance the present markets, but would give people who are unlucky, broke, or don't have the time or the scripting chops to cycle through tons of areas on an hourly basis a shot at eventually saving up for items made from rarer materials.

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Thayet
Twitter: @thayelf
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