2nd Impressions R26

So I've been reminded of a few things I forgot in my first post and there are a few other things I wanted to comment on.

Combat & Levels
Advancement overall feels faster. I'm already level 30 and mining in Graff 2 days after launch. I am playing a bit more lately but normally this would've taken me awhile longer.

Combat does feel a lot faster.. the pace has definitely quickened somewhat. PvE at least keeps me more engaged with faster cool downs The caveat here is that I'm spending even more time looking at my combat bar and stats than I am the actually combat. More so than before. Part of this is I just haven't become accustomed to the pace yet but also that part of my deck is random. If I'm not watching the which glyphs I have it's rather like button mashing or whack-a-mole. Just keep hitting glyphs.

Crafting
So some numbers have changed.. some good.. some what the hell?

6 LOGS.. logs mind you.. to produce ONE.. that's the number 1.. the loneliest number.. 1 timber.

Don't you normally get at least 1 timber from a log? What do we do here? Chop them up and then glue them together?? This makes even less sense than before.

more exotic bindings and catalysts are MUCH cheaper.. not going to complain about this per say but those were my best means of making enough money to actually do something. I guess it's back to selling loot.. but what happens when NPCs won't buy 20 rusty swords anymore?

And part of the point here is that with a bit less income and some steeper requirements, crafting isn't getting any easier or profitable. Ok, ok.. we want crafters to sell to players.. Problem is.. all those fuels aren't harvestable yet. So it's a little expensive right now. And did I say some of the new numbers are even more ridiculous than the old ones?

Increasing the amount of wood requirements 30in recipes is not.. in my opinion.. the best way to balance supply. There is no 'nice' way to do it so just reduce the supply if that's what needs to happen. I'd rather spend 30 minutes getting 1 wood.. than 40 minutes getting 6 for the same result.

Also the white iron and meteoric iron recipes seemed to have their catalysts reversed from before.. but less fuel usage is nice.

 

I agree on everything, and most especially on the updated crafting recipies which don't make much sense - if any at all.

 

Totally agree. The 1 timber to make 1 handle makes sense now. Good. The 6 logs to make 1 timber ... uh ... no.

And before anyone gets silly about how we need to keep timber out of the hands of crafters or every dolt who can make a shelf will be a billionaire and screw up the economy ... please keep in mind that at level 15 it takes as long to harvest one level 1 tree as it does to kill a low level skeleton. The skeleton will yield upward of 100 gold total. Six trees, that's 600 gold worth of skeletons, can make one timber. One timber is like 2 boards or 1 shelf. So, I am selling all the $600 shelves anyone wants to buy. If you think $600 for a shelf is out of line, please understand why we think 6 trees for 1 timber is out of line.

 

Oh yes! Con system.. like it.. BUT.. the color coding should also appear on a selected target's stat bar..

 

Yup I'm kinda hating on the milling changes. But at least we have the 3 wood + wood scraps option. Wood scraps are pretty easy to come by if you're killing archers.

Edit: Also I think its 2 timber? Not logging again for a bit but still, not too bad. Personally I think its kinda silly to get the same amount of wood from more challenging trees. I know there are other drops like bark and borers in the harder areas but still... you'd think a tree that takes 3x longer to cut down would be bigger... produce more wood perhaps?

 

Wish I could just walk into a forest and start chopping tree's like UO! ah well.

 

Pretty sure it's 1 timber.. either way.. but wood scraps make just as little sense. I could see wood scraps for making bindings or arrows, torches etc but scrap is scrap.. how do you reverse engineer scrap wood to timber? At least metal scrap can be melted down.

 

I'm not suggesting it makes sense... just that it lessens the current pain.

 

Advancement feels faster because they put a 4x multiplier in. I'm assuming that's just to ease the pain of the Wipe (could make joke here but won't)

It won't be like that normally I assume. Although maybe they should make advancement faster in general and then uncap extra levels of power later on WOW style.

 

I've had the x4 multiplier for ages.. that's not it. It's probably the faster combat.

 

Why can't we do this? Does anyone know?

 

Well for starters each harvestable tree has to have a mesh that's designed to be chopped down.. no mesh.. no chop. How hard would be to convert speed trees to be choppable? No idea. But there's also the matter of being able to tweak resource availability.. if you could chop them all down that would be much harder to do. 1 out of 50 trees harvestable.. suddenly becomes 50 of 50.. you can't really control that.

 

Aye, I think that's it. I lost my 4x multipliers late last night. I can say leveling skills without the 4x multiplier it is so slow now.

 

I can understand from a real-world standpoint that not every tree is going to wield prime lumber, but I also think that resource nodes are way too few and far between as it stands.

Even with the what, ~100 concurrent users we usually have, I find myself running in circles in certain zones finding that all the harvestable trees have already been cut down. There's usually someone mining any node that I come across. It's a little ridiculous that crafters opt to play in FO or SPO just so they don't have to waste all their time looking for trees.

 

ok.. here's what I want to know.. who's idea was it to use corpse wax for healing potions??? That's just wrong!

 

@RichardGarriott REALLY likes corpse wax.

 

So on the face of it 6 wood->1 timber->2 boards seems out of whack. But I believe that most refining skills aren't in-game yet. So an average refiner (40 skill) may eventually have more of a 6 wood ->3 timber->9 boards refining chain. A grand master refiner could be 6 wood->6 timber->24 boards. Numbers are made up but you get the idea. The explanation could be that a novice ruins too much of the wood to yield only 1 timber but after some practice (s)he can yield good timber more often. And after a lifetime of milling wood could create a perfect timber from each piece of wood.

 

Cycle of life and death!

 

I for one will be boycotting health potions. Bowen being the sort that knows what goes into things.. would be just a bit revolted.. talk about out of character to drink something like that.. yech

 

Ok Ok.. We'll go with that.. I guess I'm just too used to pre-alpha recipes just being so out of whack and suddenly.. what the.. 6 now?? Was a bit of a shock to my system. Assuming refining skill produces a believable balance then it's all good.