Sadly, as you have discovered, you only get these bland, muted shades of grays, pinks, and browns and at a cost of 1 minor artifact per boring charge, no less! It is very hard to distinguish any of them from each other. While I would agree that some of the old Tokuno dyes were a bit much (the electric blue for example), others were great for both item & furniture/add-on dyeing, such as the shadow, white, purple etc. I wish they'd give them back to us.
Excerpt from the September 29, 2006 FoF, as answered by Darkscribe:
<blockquote><hr>
Q: What happened to the dyes from the Treasures of Tokuno? Ihara Soko isn’t offering any, and there’re new ones on the monsters!
A: Inocard the Mystic Llamaherder, Office Pest:
I asked the very same question! So I went all the way to Zento to ask, and here’s what I’ve learned.
* The Imperial Minister of Trade, Ihara Soko, has no more dyes of extraordinary and vibrant colors to reward anyone with.
* However, apparently a large set of special dyes washed ashore recently with the rest of the treasure. These have been underwater for a very long time, and so have limited charges and rather dull colors. You can see a set of the dye colors for yourself,
here.
[/ QUOTE ]
Heh, look at the pics in that article in the link, and see if YOU can really tell any significant difference in the "31" possible colors of these "special" dyes. I guess we can all display the color code values to show each other how special & unique they are.
Personally, I'd have much preferred to receive a metal enameling tub with a sliding shade range palette, and infinite uses.
-Skylark