Crafting Feedback - Time for another thread

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Elrond, Apr 1, 2020.

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  1. Elrond

    Elrond Avatar

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    Hi @Chris

    In anticipation of your announcement , to start work on crafting ....
    • Masteries show no improvement in description ( Increases chance to revise effects by how much ?? )
    • Gemmed Weapons enchants power - Do not increase at all ..same at lvl 50-100 or 150 . ( scale their power with enchant level ?)
    • Item durability needs a rework - let us craft our items ...us coming to you to increase durability for something every week...not good..just put durability through the skill system.
    • Backslot items - No bonuses from components used .
    • Socketed Jewlery name fix - Ex. Ring of sorcery + 9 shows on vendor as Ring + 9 .
    • Ability to enchant taming necklace
    • Quiver of Jealousy and Tricorn hat cant be enchanted or mw...Troll Belt only uncommon can be ench/mw , when turned into rare or higher ench/mw no longer available ... done
    • Craftable gear for crafters - hoods, legs, chests so on that give bonuses to enchant/mw or gathering skills when ench/mw.
    • Recipe book in alphabetical order or recipe book search feature....done
    • Ingot Molds sold by NPC increased from 100 to 1000 .. done
    • Recipes - salvaged for craft xp ? ( only drop recipes)
    • Failure when masterworking 1h is the same as with 2h should be half durability loss for 1h or for items with 100 or less durability .
    • Salvage skill needs to have better results - its pretty useless right now.
    • Perk skill for crafting - would totally add some depth to the current system - pick this perk to get more/better at something ..every 50 levels you get 3 choices ( pick one of 3 ).
    • Food needs more skills and a scaling system - a combine system like artifacts or a masterwork system . The channel system is nice also ... but will only encourage people to buy more food types ... wont actually incentivise players to be a dedicated cook ....or level theyre cooking skill beyond 150 (hope youll find a solution for this also)... done
    • Whisky needs Buffs - 365 real life days to wait on something that gives nothing ...done
    • Daily/repetable quests for crafting that reward random amounts of craft xp or random components .( Ex. Turn in + 15 armor to get 20k craft xp + a chance at a rare component found only from quest rewards )...if its limited to just turn in 1/day will just encourage people to make alts to overcome the system ...let resources used to craft the items be the limit . The better the item turned in the higher chance to get something good in return . Add those crafted items to the loot pool .
    • Crafting needs a better leveling progression - some masterwork show 0 improvement even after 16 levels or 400 mil xp used , some only give 0.1 after 400 mil xp used...
    • Ability to place Buy Orders for rare components savage handle or mossy , and simple components boards, poles, etc ..
      [*]Meticulous collection fix ... more xp and or more second tier res ( like tin, nickel so on) , right now we have way too much copper ore and not enough tin/nickel to turn it into a tier 2 ingot (bronze constantan so on ) done
    • An obsidian chain set would be great.
    • Faster crafting, enchanting ,refining time ... done
      [*]Increase batch size for all production skills - 20 its just too little ...at least 40 would be great . done
    • Crafting Components Stats increase based on crafter skill level ....this one would probably be alot of work.
    • Furniture Salvage - Lets get back some precious wood.
    • Modifiers for already crafted weapons and armors in the loot drops...Instead of making a weapon with mossy handle ...allow mossy handle type modifier to be attached to an already crafted weapon .
    • More enchants and masterworks - We desperatly need more variety in enchants and masterworks since persistance crafted gear its been all about stats ..if it aint got max str or max int or max dex its not effective ... hoping to move away a bit from min maxing a stat to be efficient to different play styles ... like gear that adds through enchants or masterworks more survivability , or some cool new effects that players would choose instead of ''i want my 37 int chest ''.
    • More Craft Skills - Bzus did a great job with the new refine skills we need more stuff like that .
    • Mentoring - I can mentor people only until they are lvl 100 ? If im 150 and want to mentor someone who is lvl 120 should be allowed .
    • Crafting Xp - Best/Only viable solutions to get crafting xp are through making potions , we need more options to get craft xp through crafting in other craft schools also. Balance is need it when gaining craft xp via crafting and getting craft xp via gathering . Right now you can probably get 500k craft xp/h making potions ...you cant get it via gathering ...so an increase to gained xp when gathering is need it also. done
    Looking forward to Chromatic Canyon ... Dont make it too rough ...

    18 July
    • New World has legendary loot drops and legendary crafted gear - I see no reason why we shouldnt be able to craft legendary gear in shroud as well...maybe when we extract components/modifiers from artifacts they can retain the rarity level of the artifact and pass it on to the piece of crafted gear were crafting/attaching to.
    • Do something about the 95%/92% failure rates ...even if the math is correct...
    • The exceptional chance for items only works correctly if a minimum of 100 items are crafted , scale that down to 10 ....with 28% if i craft 10 items i should get 3 exceptionals ...not 0 or 1...same applies for mw/ench they work correctly if we do 100 ench ...scale it down to 10 ...if i do 10 mw with 54%... 5 should be a success in random order ...done
    • Consumables for crafters would be nice ( food potions that help with fishing crafting , gathering or farming )...partially done
    • Furniture that provides passive buffs to combat and crafting.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2021
  2. Vladamir Begemot

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    Buy orders for boards, poles, etc components.
     
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  3. Elrond

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    Added

    Thx Vlad.
     
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  4. Vladamir Begemot

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    In general we seem to have given up on any significant changes to the (entire) UI but it might be worth considering the entire Crafting Experience and Crafting Interface, and seeing if there are options that are more fun.

    Speeding up the bars is a no brainer at this point, but that's just a bandage IMO.

    I'm finding crafting in other games to be NOT boring, which is the opposite of Shroud crafting.

    Shroud has nice results, but getting there is a major drag.

    If crafting is getting an actual, for reals, major pass, then devs need to discuss the essence of it, whether large jobs can be conducted while the player is offline, by an NPC standing at the crafting table instead of the player being locked in, etc.

    Sketch out some new ideas for the UI, maybe throw out the entire current window. Think about what the purpose of making it so slow and boring is, is it a GOOD reason?

    Make it fun, I dare you.
     
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  5. Bedawyn

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    Don't agree with this entire list, but as a low-level crafter I can definitely get behind these:
    • Item durability being skill-based
    • Rework of the recipe book
    • Repeatable crafted-item turn in quests (it only makes sense that in NPC cities constantly under siege, they're going to need help keeping their guards supplied)
    • Placing buy orders for components
    I'm not a fan of ideas to make mass production quick and easy -- it shouldn't be. But it should be possible to still require the player attention and player work AND make them enjoy that time. Even just having more results be skill-based would help with that. And please, please, please, don't have recipes be rewards for adventurers! If a recipe "drops," it should be dropping as a result of an exceptional roll while crafting, not while fighting. Make it so that any time you roll an exceptional, you have a small chance of discovering a rare pattern or a related recipe that's under or just above your current skill level. (I.e., someone at level 30 might be able to visualize-while-tinkering a level 35 recipe, but not a level 80 recipe.)
     
  6. Rowell

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    Agree with Bedawyn...crafting recipes should *NEVER* solely be found as something you have to fight in order to obtain. Horribly bad. Completing a quest to gain a recipe from a supreme master (ie "Bring my 10 Leather Leggings, 10 Leather Chest Armor and 5 Leather Gloves...and I will teach you the Recipe 'Fung-Ku Leather Armor'.") is fine. But having to kill a Twill Dragon to get a recipe....not cool.
     
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  7. Vladamir Begemot

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    It was a kneejerk "lets put stuff in loot so it's good!" idea.

    They really need a single lead designer.
     
  8. Cora Cuz'avich

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    You sorta mentioned salvage, I think that needs to be more specific. It often seems that if you say "fix X" and don't say what you want fixed, the "fix" ends up being something nobody wants, or overly "fixed". (Like when we asked for an increase in pattern drops, and now they drop so often they have no value, or cut severely into your attempts to gain 3rd tier materials or scrap from salvage.)
     
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  9. Vladamir Begemot

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    That's because they have no frame of reference due to not playing the game.
     
  10. Elrond

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    I didnt , because i think this might be more complicated then it might seem at first glance . We have to take into account existing ingame systems , and make sure theyre not in conflict ...

    The way i see it right now we have the 2 non rewarding features that when fixed will collide with each other

    1 .''sell crafted gear to vendors so it may end up in the loot system ''
    2. ''salvage crafted gear to get resources back or some new stuff''

    The question is ..which of these systems do you push ?

    Do you want players to sell their gear to NPC to improve the loot system or do you want them to salvage crafted gear ... I think its important to achieve a balance here ... maybe turn in crafted items to npc that are superior for a chance at a great reward while at the same time incentivising players to salvage ''failures'' in exchange for some mats back or some new stuff .
     
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  11. majoria70

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    Thanks @Elrond for your list. I think it's very important to give player feedback on a very important system of Sota. The Devs need to hear us on this imo.

    Also to reiterate some things that you did touch upon being cooking and alcohol see below.

    Get the basic crafting recipes and most of the crafting out of the loot table for heaven's sake. Instead put them into the actual crafting progression as earned as you progress.

    Also give us finally a series of crafting quests to earn special crafting items such as tools, crafting clothing, crafting resources etc. (and not just crafting but pvp quests and much more. (don't be stingy with quests in this game). Have most NPCs and merchants offer some type of questing. Bring back our questing players who left.

    It's ridiculous how few quests and tasks we have. Crafters should have craft quests. Pvpers should have pvp quests and so should all other tasks in the game have their own quest lines. It's not all about combat devs. (even fishing)

    Also to mention along with cooking needing enhance food ideas, combining food, etc to make cooking more fun and viable is to create more recipes needing alcohol to make brewing viable.

    Right now as I see it brewing is mostly for role play. It needs to be useful to recipes as well. It could be used in potions as well. I'm sure it needs more than that as well but as a 1st thing give it something more to necessitate even doing it.

    We had a good start on crafting but lack of manpower and funding imo most likely left out so much we could have done. Short cuts and cheap quick fixes have been devastating to this game. Now here we are even shorter on manpower and funding and so what is there to do?

    Imo get our head out of combat balancing except for extreme fixes here and there and more into the other systems of the game. Such as crafting, achievements, progression rewards and alerts, and task related things. Fill our scenes with stories and lore to connect the world.

    This does not mean we don't need content and new it means take a few weeks, a couple of months whatever and fix our complaints about incomplete unsatisfying systems once and for all.

    Give us interesting and rewarding experiences while exploring, crafting, and whatever else we choose to do.

    Such as earning titles that give buffs, cotos, resources, from doing everyday things such as crafting, adventuring, combat, music, taming etc. Achievement system is so important.

    One step at a time.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
  12. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Well, this sort of proves my point, indirectly. I wasn't even thinking of those issues. When I read "salvage skill" my mind went to the frequency of pattern drops, and how that cuts into material harvesting.

    Either way, I wasn't saying you needed to offer a specific solution. Just to more accurately describe the problem instead of assuming Chris will see "Salvage skill needs to have better results - its pretty useless right now" and know what you mean.
     
  13. Malimn

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    Well here is one BIG problem that no one has brought up yet as well. Currently we can gain a lot of exp making Potion of Restoration Imbued and if you remove the combined skills for crafters, you take away the ability to make points evenly for all types of producers. Example... You can make good exp making dyes, potions and Grand Piano's... What is the comparable item you can make for blacksmithing, food, etc where you make a lot of exp for a recent amount of resources?
     
  14. Lace

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    Here is what I had turned in so far. I haven't finished writing up completely the rest.


    MW and enchant disparity
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...e-disparity-in-enchant-and-masterwork.109020/

    Missing Recipe
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ing-recipe-for-tool-kits.158703/#post-1255581
    ALso boar surprise and obsidian boar ribs recipe are no where to be found in game, and are reteachable discoverable, but only from the wiki, they need to be put on cooking merchants.
    Player Made fishing poles with bonuses from mw/enchant (wish list cause its different rolls entierly from what we have)

    Gathering
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s-an-opinion-piece.147277/page-3#post-1184478
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...rity-between-suet-and-beetle-carapace.105475/
    I couldn't find the post, but besides meticulous giving xp there should be roll checks perhaps on T2 items from nodes for each successive hit so that you can 'strike it rich chance', that and the survey skill should me made to affect the T2 mat chance or something useful. Making the nodes glow is not really relevant at all to skinning as I have said for years and many echo.


    Crafting Changes Idea threads
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ing-reward-system-not-punishment-idea.150821/
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...upcoming-specializations.149320/#post-1194863
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?search/7518204/&page=3

    Loot
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/heraldry-signs-as-trophies.146836/

    Durability on Player Vendors Like on Deco Merchants,you promised this on Oct 30 2018 stil waiting. (not lawering you)
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-shout-out-to-atos-chris.145810/#post-1175291

    Patterns for Housing
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/modular-home-building.148342/#post-1188815
    Have to pay to get eternal pattern back from heraldry banners but not other herladry items that can be salvaged
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...get-eternal-pattern-back.153870/#post-1226555

    Deco
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ther-wishlist-water-deco.141274/#post-1226398
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...eon-deco-wishlist-thread.153070/#post-1226392
    Used to work, as darkstarr personally had this put in, now it doesnt . and cricket on bug ticket. Because they were in pots they shoudl work.
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-trees-no-longer-allowed-inside-homes.153866/

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...eon-deco-wishlist-thread.153070/#post-1246974

    Missing Crown store item from removal of art vendor in ardoris
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...lf-shop-in-ardoris-not-in-crown-store.157878/

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-unable-to-place-deco-on-castle-walls.157897/
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...d-to-be-mentioned-to-be-fixed-but-not.157879/

    Lace's Super Long list mostly crafting related
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/laces-2020-vision.161279/

    Character Models not exactly crafting but ..
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...more-choices-in-character-appearances.159573/

    Crafted Item stacking
    Wine, whiskey Beer ingredients do not stack, this is a pain for serious brewers. I get the casks not stacking due to maturity but the crafted ingredients are like components for filling the cask, just like butter dough etc, they have no solitary value, are not consumable and should stack.

    I had a forum post on all things that do not stack but it must of have been older. I am sure this could be crowd sourced for expediency. This is not only important for inventory management and storage but also for npc vendors.

    Recipe Component Numbers/Quantity Polish
    You had mentioned looking at recipes, I suggest crowd sourcing a listing to focus on. Your crafters know which ones seem out of whack. For instance to make one pole for one part of a table you need 3 pieces of raw wood 16 wood scrap or something similar to get to 2 timbers, from the 2 timbers this makes one chair leg or table leg. (from a timber you get 2 boards so same math nets 4 boards) Wood because of the nerf to the quantity dropped in sieges has doubled and tripled in prices and also due to the lack of a tree farming scene like a mine. So the poles for chairs and tables is really off and super costly.

    Emote Trading QOL somewhat out of scope but see recipes below
    Currently emotes appear when hitting O, and you can sor them by teachable/not teachable etc. Hoover you have to drag one at a time to the trade window to the player you are trying to teach, this is super time consuming and makes the game less sociable by punishing those trying to share. So please make the emote list box multi select.

    Recipe Book QOL
    Currently the sort order for the recipe book is the order of when you learned the recipe. Change the sort order by category to be alphabetical, this has been repeatedly requested

    Add a search function the recipe book

    For trading recipes consider the ability to have a list box window like emotes where they can be drug to trade window in bulk. (emotes are one at time currently as noted above) Multi select for both.

    NPC Rugs and other odd items on decorations merchant.
    We have a few rug recipes which cost way less than 1000 gold to make, but like 15 or so that were put on the decorations merchants NPC and are 2k or more each. These are some gorgeous assets but infrequently used because of the high gold cost. The original discussion was they would be on the NPC until the recipes were added. Lets get some of that stock deco merchant stuff into craftable recipes.

    Alcohol Effects
    Alcohol effects besides the spinning--many have suggested pugilism buff and fishing, almost feel it could give some DR cause ya feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof when drinking and that's been in song

    NPC Gear buyback
    Buyback prices should not be based on their plus of the item nor should the tier loot drops. Right now if many plus it only goes to the high tiers, this gear should be going to the lower tiers where it is actually useful. The other issue with thinking about gear in terms of plus is some take more mats and get extra pluses whit little benefit, when you fail you lose a plus, which took the durability away too, but it can stlil be a good item. You seem to have what mw and enchants that pop in the reroll window weighted, the buy back prices should perhaps be weighted similarly, but on masterworks different builds value different mw differently. IF you are deadest on a simple numeric value multiplier for buy back then it should consider if has t2 mats and some multiplier and then the number of successful masterwork and enchants .. not the plusses.

    Salvaging Enchanted and Masterworked items
    The math just feels so wrong for salvaging in general. I can have a 3 mw and 3 enchant on and item (success for fail) and get 15 metal scrap. For things that just roll poorly even with reroll opportunity this is a huge cost to the crafter because of the cost. This especially hits new crafters hard. They just blew on that one item 60 silver ore and 60 gold ore and got 15 metal scrap back (or fabric, leather etc) and on a super super super rare occasion a copper ingot or something else less dramatic. Mentioned in other pots, the issue with the shoddy bow , lesser wand, lesser staff, the rusty stuff giving pattern or scrap but not both, so many patterns from these folks have-when skinning a bear I might get carcass and suet or both, when butchering a deer I might get meat or animal bone or both, why this code is different makes no sense and should be refactored.

    Diminishing returns on producer xp
    On first 9 or so there is a steep downward curve on producer xp gain till it goes flat. The flat xp limits on level 50 items is a measly 300 xp , maybe 250 and most cooking falls into this range. In general there are far too few higher level recipes that can be made in any kind of grind situation to gain producer xp and tons of low level ones.
    In cooking making the sub components like dough, cooking oil, flour , butter end up all being only worth 50 xp and you need to make all these to make most dishes and can only make 20 at a time. There are no sub skills for cooking to speed this up or increase batch size.

    In general it is about 1/8 to 1/16? the xp gain in producer for most players compared to hunting but the same millions needed to advance skills levels. While some will say oh you can do 10million xp a day, some people have jobs, and some people don't have bank to buy all their materials and they have to actually gather them, sell things to be able to buy mats to be able to do this 10million a day and that is putting in a 16 hour day.

    Crafting Base Success Chances for Exceptional
    Basically if gear is not exceptional even with the durability boosts recently given to individual base pieces, making high stat gear requires no fails (maybe 1) , good luck and only about a 25-28% chance to even craft the base piece as exceptional. There is no way to increase your exceptional % other than overloading your base crafting school for the tree. Even I believe at 140 which is gobs of xp after 100 you can only get it to 30%. What this means is that for every pieces of gear you make 1/4 to 1/3 of it is useless and all those materials went to waste (this is pre enchant/mw) There should be a way to get better odds at exceptional, and please not another artifact.

    Artifacts and Loot Drop Gear and the Economy
    Many artifacts when combined and the new sige boss mob hoods,taming gear, acara, bandity items have created best in slot items that take away from the crafting economy. Many sad crafters for this. The converse argument is well you can enchant it and masterwork it. And lets face it, that is a crap shoot because of RNG, and most will only go to crater they specifically know have the coveted 140 skills. This cat is out of the bag already, but more care needs to taken with this. Component drops to make final gear would slow that down, but what will end up happening they will farm the components and make it themselves and we are back to square one, with no love for the dedicated crafters and all economic love to the farmers.


    Missing common recipes from crown shop versions--aka the crappy versions craftable in game--might want to crowd source I may have missed some
    Outhouses
    Bathroom Toilet, Sink etc the new ones
    Gothic Bed--we have tables and chairs
    Conversationalist Craftable
    Hanging Cage with or without skeleton
    campfire/bonfire (we have ground brazier and the brazier stand)
    colored lights (the new red.blue,green, white, purple,red,orange, multi color) how about light pink?
    bird cage
    gold piles/chests
    long great hall lighting have 2 sizes now but not super long
    nautical deco-crab trap lobster pot, buoy
    perfume bottles
    leather furniture (store has multi colored leather chesterfield)
    globe cabinet
    display tables
    canopy bed
    housing lights
    disco ball
    crafted gustball (npc vendor brown leather only)
    paper lamps
    bookcase with books
    non yule door wreaths
    cannons and balls
    shogun furniture
    telescope
    fishnets---there is a tiny wall mount one in the fishing npc buildings that could suffice
    gallows
    gazebo
    obsidian order (dais, etc, should have one craftable of some type)
    boulders --we do have standing stone out prior to boulders but it is very smooth
    no craftable water home
     
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  15. Wilfred

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    Good point. I added this to my stacking wishlist post.
     
  16. Black Tortoise

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    I backed this game in 2014 so I could be a cook.

    I AM STILL WAITING TO BE AN ACTUAL COOK IN THIS GAME! o_O

    ...mumbles something unintelligible while crafting thousands of pie doughs...
     
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  17. Wilfred

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    Asuna's pro cooking skills


    Asuna Cooks the Ragout rabbit
     
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  18. Vladamir Begemot

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    So I used to run a town dedicated to selling crafted furniture, have thousands of hours in doing so, made plenty of gold (furniture sells). I was also buying basic parts from newbies so they could get some cash, and even at one point buying basic gear from newbies and reselling it for about 200 gold more in Aerie. Basically charity on that last part, but I have had many thank me in the past.

    Every time I think about jumping in the game to do a crafting round and restock my furniture, which keeps selling but has probably gotten pretty low on inventory by now, I just can't bring myself to do it.

    Because I'm not making gear we can start eleminate any of those reasons as something that drove me off. This may be useful to know, as it is therefore a more all encompassing reason(s). While gear crafting certainly drove many away, it is still a subset.

    Also, it is worth bearing in mind that @Elrond is the last man standing when it comes to gear. So his improvements are going to be great for fixing gear problems, but that also means he probably isn't mentioning some of the things that were the last straw for other crafters.

    I've spent weeks designing a solid merchant UI for you, with very specific items. I have complained with many others about the crafting system. This is none of that, this is what specificially goes through me when I think about stepping in for crafting.

    So, when I think about getting into the game and restocking, what thoughts and feels turn me away?

    From the crafting side:
    • The time committment.
    • The time committment while being locked to a table.
    • The insanely slow crafting bar
    • The huge quantity of things that will need to be crafted while locked to a table watching the insanely slow crafting bar.
    • Doing the same job multiple times because I burned through all those metal straps again.
    • Slow walking back and forth because I burned through those metal straps
    • Trying to get maximum XP just in case the first craft bonus has been reset, on a complex item with 3 or more variences. If you don't know what I mean go play your game.
    • Searching through the recipe book.
    • Paging through the recipe book.
    Ok so it's going to take me hours just to get everything made, I'll play Satisfactory instead. I knock out items super fast on that, can find them in the book, and when it gets crazy I automate, particularly the basic items.

    From the merchant side:
    • Figuring out what is missing from my vendor. This will take an hour or so, I'll not get it correct even then, or I just spam build stuff.
    • I didn't get it correct, so I'm walking back and forth a bunch of times.
    • The number of clicks that every item takes to add.
    • The memory of the physical pain the game causes from all the clicks it takes to add items.
    • The possibility that the value a resource has shifted and I will have to reprice everything. Full stop, that will never happen again.
    • Edit addition: The anger that you guys haven't done anything with it in years.
    So that's it, what killed crafting for me. Not the specifics, which you are working on now, but the experience. I get that the specifics are easier for you to address, and maybe with enough time and effort you can make Elrond happy (which I do hope for), but don't forget he puts up with the experience, making him happy with specifics isn't going to make everyone else happy unless they also have the patience of Job, as he does.

    Some day you're going to have to improve the experience. For real, not just increasing a few batch sizes.
     
  19. Rook Strife

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    I started reading some of these good ideas

    Then I looked back at the Op

    Will be lucky if like 5 of these get done lol
     
  20. Oakenhammer

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    The core problem with the crafting system and its impact on the economy is that the foundation of randomness is fundamentally flawed. The more randomness in the crafting of items, the less predictability in the result, and the more materials required to achieve the desired item. On the economic side, the price that a crafter needs to charge for the final item needs to cover not only the costs of the materials used in the final item, but also a sizable portion of the cost of all the failures in order to turn an overall profit.

    As the price of desirable items increases, the more players will push for mitigation to item destruction through increased base durability, lower durability loss, and more effective repairs. After spending so much, we want to protect our investment, else the items become cost prohibitive and economy collapses. Adventurers need to be able to make enough money using gear to at least afford new armor and weapons when they break, so it is worth buying gear.

    To fix this problem, I think we need to completely reverse course and begin a redesign with the core principle that gear is disposable. By that I mean:
    • Crafters can make items with the exact modifiers desired by incorporating additional special materials into the masterworking and enchanting processes
      • Special materials are obtained through adventuring and salvaging artifacts--greater the risk, greater the reward (e.g. dragon heartstring provides an exceptional strength bonus, but obtaining it requires killing the dragon and having a minimum field dressing skill)
    • The accumulated power of an item (i.e. +X) establishes a minimum adventure level required to equip it, so that a market exists for lower level gear and the power curve can be better managed
    • Strength of item modifiers are defined ranges based on the special materials used
      • Materials have minimum masterworking and enchanting skill level requirements
      • Skill level influences the minimum value of the material bonus range (i.e. high level crafters will get maximum results when working with low grade materials)
    • Repairs have a larger impact to maximum durability than currently (with COTO major repairs having a lesser impact)
    • Items wear faster such that replacing gear becomes a recurring activity
    • Broken items have value through salving some of the base and special materials used in its creation
      • Materials have minimum salvaging skill level requirements to have the chance to recover
    Gear needs to become cheap and consumable so that the crafters experience economic success through greater inventory turnover rather than higher prices. Once this occurs, the value that NPCs pay for crafted gear needs to increase so that there is incentive to vendor decent gear (i.e. high level crafters need to be able to buy materials from low level players, craft gear, and sell to NPC merchants at a profit). This cycle should flood the loot tables with better quality gear at most levels.
     
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