Crafting Specialization

The other games don't have a real economy either though, they have people who use alts to craft everything and people who don't craft at all. There isn't going to be someone who is happy to only craft bows. Crafting Specialization isn't limiting crafting to one or two specialties, it's requiring x amount of alt characters to play a crafter.

 

My opinion about specialisation is to simply count how many times you use each recipe and use that number as a bonus for creating items using that recipe
So someone that made 100 would make better items than one that made 10

I realise that's probably more specialisation than many wants.

Guess the most popular specialisation would be the 2nd in this list.

• Blacksmith
• Blacksmith - Armour
• Blacksmith - Armour - Plate

 

I'd love to see crafting Specializations. Being that I spend a great deal of time doing Crafting I want more paths and ability to expand the skills I GM further. Less resources, more options, ability to customize gear etc... are just a few things that come to mind for possibilities that would be fantastic.

 

I'm seeing this kinda late. This is a REALLY good point. I really do not think most people would create alternate characters strictly for THIS alone. Completely agree that it can only HELP the economy, and I am really for it. I hope it happens soon. I thought it was a sure thing to happen sometime in a couple of months. That's not the case, but perhaps someday in the next year... Here's hoping.

 

The problem here is that "most people" gave up on SOTA when they determined it to be a grinding penny pincher with graphics with look 10 years old. What's left are hardcore players, the 1%, folks that picked up the game last week, and those of us killing time until that game they are waiting for is released on their platform of choice.
So, of that subset, the hardcore players will grind up Alts if given half a reason, the 1% might, the folks that bought the game last week will be gone next so they don't really factor in and the casual crowd are eventually going to wander off.
Compared to a more broadly popular title, a much larger percent of the playerbase will create alts.

 

I'm not sure which category of player I fit into in the above, but yeah, if crafting specialization is added, I will absolutely use my alt to fill in necessary gaps to maintain self sufficiency. My husband and I have already more or less specialized splitting the tradeskills but we've each got alts that could shoulder burden(s).

The main appeal of Sota (for me, anyway) is and has always been the ability to do everything on one character without arbitrary limitations. We've already seen adventuring take a push toward a class system rather than classless with specialization, but these are not absolutes; if significant benefit to crafting particularly gear crafting is added for specialization, its a different matter: Its an economic problem in which making sub-optimal non-specialized goods becomes a non-starter. So yes, absolutely, Rise of the Alts will happen. Maybe this means more game sales for Port but that's really the only plus I see here, its just going to make it more annoying to juggle resources/producer xp gain over two accounts.

 

I already have 3 alts gaining producer started as soon as crafting specialization was mentioned. Depending on what it effects and how many we can have, I might even make more.

 

This is perhaps the first time I have ever read something that you have written, and I find myself disagreeing with it. hahah... I do not think it would be rise of the alts. I think you're a "much more dedicated than the average joe" crafter, and as such, it makes perfect sense that you would do this. I do not think most people are like you and your husband, however. I think a vast majority would simply specialize in a thing or two in crafting, and then buy the other items they need, if they really feel that the specialization makes that much difference.

 

Yeah. But you're not normal. lol

 

If specialisation restricts my abilities to craft whatever i want i will probably have to make alts. If not ... i will pick one or 2 trees and go deep in those assuming the bonuses are worth it. I dont like the alt route and i hope we wont be forced into it.

The way i see it they can go full sails ahead and give decent bonuses the higher you go in a crafting level (will encourage people to specialise in a single profession to get to a certain level and be able to get that one amazing masterwork or access to a recipe or...) or they can maintain the current system with little to no benefits on higher crafting levels and have everyone spread theyre xp everywhere ,craft everything, craft the same stuff . In either options presented there will always be people who will craft better stuff then others thus monopolising the market in certain areas .

Should be a matter of choice - do i specialise in everything and craft everything ..mediocre quality or do i specialise in one single profession take it to lvl 150 or more and get access to that amazing stuff that i couldnt afford if id specialised in everything. The Big Problem right now is theres nothing waiting on a crafter after level 120 but a big fat 0.1 every 10-20 levels ... so i hope we dont get a system where im being told i can only craft spears ...but not to worry because if i pick spears i can go really high in it and get 0.3 added to something for 45 mil xp.

 

Right now I really don't have any reason to ever buy crafted items from another player. Why buy it from someone else when I can make it myself and earn exp/gold while I gather the materials I need? This works fine for me but it's not good if you want a player based trading economy.

If they add specialization a certain percent of the player base will just make alts. I don't know how large a percentage will make alts, but I feel pretty confident that it is less than 100%. That means that some percent (greater than 1%) wont make alts and will actually have a reason to buy crafted goods from other people. Having some number of potential consumers is a required first step to having an actual player based trading economy.

Bring on specialization! I for one will NOT try to cover every crafting skill. I would rather spend my time adventuring and then buying the things I cant easily make.

 

I am part of the "greater than 1%"

Nicely stated.

 

I've been rolling with some mid to high level folks in the Rise lately and I'd say the vast majority were using entry level gear at best. No masterworking, or enchantments, they had maple and iron instead of hard maple or white iron. I'm a self-sufficient style crafter and I scrap or sell to NPC merchant far better than these folks were using. The reason is obvious, go look at some vendors, all they sell is crap that has mismatched bonuses for >10k with items with decently aligned stats going for 20k and up. If you think adding specializations that add even more uncertainty to the market is going to make it more likely for folks to open their wallets, you are sadly mistaken.

 

What crafting needs is to remove the randomness of the bonuses. It's stupid that I have essentially no control over what masterworks or enchants I put on an item.

 

That's what I was suggesting for Specialization. Bonus' that are more closely aligned with a type of build; Mage, Melee, Ranged, Healer. With this type of specialization you could avoid getting Melee types of Bonus options if you are specializing in Mage gear.

 

I don't want it. I didn't even want to craft in this game. So why did I? Simply because a lot of you mofos when I came to the game did the following:

1) Took advantage of new players and priced stuff at absurd prices to fatten your bank accounts.
2) Continuously over priced gear that degrades, to the point I didn't want to buy it.

If the crafting community was an honest community, I would all be for specialization. I was forced to learn to craft, because many starters felt the right/need to overcharge for their wares at the expense of new players.

 

Thats the best part of the crafting system...you never know what you gonna get ..you start going after one thing and you end up getting something better ...take that out and whats left ? Mindless crafting .

 

That's the name of the game. Take crafting recipes for example. Early starters got all of these recipes for free, now new players have to buy them for thousands of gold from players getting them as drops in top level areas who don't even need them.

 

Well you can accept that, but that's why I price everything I sell fairly. Allowing specialization at this point is just going to make all the early jumps richer... and force players to have to buy from them at absurd prices. To hell with that.

 

The number of hours one must put into the game to become THAT good at all of the crafting skills is mind numbing. Making that a "big deal" choice doesn't add anything, Producer XP is nowhere near as easy to acquire as Adventure XP.