MINING IS BROKE?!?!? WHEN will it be fixed?

Maybe at 1 Forestry... get it to 100, and then maybe only 5 trees for a stool?

 

During the AMA it was stated explicitly that refining skill trees will see love before the end of the year.

 

The AMA answer was better, but refining skills alone aren't enough. The entire crafting system is just placeholders.

Gathering:

Survey is basically worthless, and there's a strong argument that meticulous collection is also(for mining, it's definitely not worth it for skinning).
Still the only way to build producer XP​

Refining:

Self explanatory.​

Crafting:

The main skill doesn't matter much. Can easily be raised by salvaging.
Repair needs added value.
Masterworking is a horrible tedious grind with multiple sources of RNG (always bad design) and destruction, pricing decent gear out of normal player's reach and making top end gear ludicrously expensive. The mechanic where masterworking reduces durability is asinine because it effectively raises the price of top end gear(because you have to buy it more often) and because it's not an interesting choice (between having worse gear or putting up with the tedious bullshit of having to repair every 10 minutes).​

Crafting is not even close to ready for launch and the answer in the AMA only barely cleared the already low bar set at the Summer Telethon.

 

The only thing working in this game is mining. I can personally attest to several people in my guild owning homes and GM in a few mining skills. They only have a 45 dollar account.

 

I have a guy in my guild who has a 45 dollar account and is is 3 weeks old. He bought himself a village home with his ore and is working on mastering blacksmithing. From this point on it should take him a week or 2 at most to master blacksmithing. So to answer your question it takes about 5 weeks to do it but you have to spend 3 weeks mining so you have ore and the XP needed. Now he did have the guilds help, we help each other level and with supplies. I highly recommend getting into one of the many advanced guilds who are more than willing to help out the new folks get their feet wet. If he had to do it by himself I think it would take a week or two longer as getting into the higher level mines can be tough. He mined gold and not silver FYI. Gold is way easier to farm.

With that said this game is way to easy if someone in a month and a few weeks can master blacksmithing.

 

I mostly agree, but as long as we are not talking about a complete reboot of crafting, I think it's possible that they fill these gaps before release/launch (or whatever tortured into meaninglessness term we are using for 'completed epi 1') in the next two quarters. The real question is to whether or not the Devs acknowledge that these are issues they need to address.
1. There need to be alternate paths to gaining producer xp equivalent to gathering.
2. I agree that metic collection and survey need better functionality, and that leveling these skills should result in meaningfully higher gathering rates.
3. Refining skills need specialties that reward players with more refined materials per raw material when leveled or lower the cost of refining.
4. Recipes in general need a review to be more appropriately level gated by the main skill, so that there is meaningful advancement in terms of being able to craft new objects every 20 levels or so, all the way up to the mid 100's.
5. GMing repair should begin to replace some total durability (never all, but some) so that a high repair skill has value.
6. The leveling curve for masterworking should be quicker to level 32 where you unlock the major masterworks but remain steep after that. Hopefully, the silver cost for masterworking won't need to be changed if the changes to gathering and refining streamline the flow of silver. But there does need to be a balance between raw goods and finished products, which currently does not exist.

In general, there should be a benefit and reward for leveling all skills, the average player should not expect to level all crafting skills, and there should be unique rewards for achieving exceptionally high levels for all skills. Again, I think they can make all this happen, but only if they believe it should be done.

 

It's difficult to talk about this in 'weeks'. I know a lot of people whose 1 week equals 6 weeks for me.

 

I'm not sure they do is the problem. I mostly agree with your list as general principles. The only specific change I would make is to #5; I think that max durability should be lost on repair (instead of as part of normal loss) and repair should lessen that amount. I also feel very strongly that losing max durability on MW/Enchant is a bad system because it mandates the use of exceptional gear - instead of being better, it becomes necessary.

 

Good idea!

I think it could be balanced better; like it is currently a requirement to get past a certain number of enchants or masterworks. You can make pretty decent equipment that is gemmed and has 2 MW and 2 EN. As long as you can accomplish that with a regular piece of gear, I think it's ok, and that it's ok to require an exceptional piece to go beyond that. But it does suck to make a decent (not fantastic) piece of 2/2 gear that has to be repaired every hour or 2 because of all the durability penalties.

 

2 enchants and 2 masterworks is between 40 and 70 durability. That's a really big hit to make something that's only decent. Maybe you could fix this with balance, but I feel this is a solution without a problem. I'm not convinced this mechanic is at all necessary, especially if you're keeping the current crafting system. It's just irritation and tedium with no corresponding value.

 

William, you threw a caveat in there about with the Guild's help. Now your thesis is good for those that want to be part of a big helpful guild yet I can attest to the fact that it is not "Way too easy" for those that are not in a big helpful guild and want to do things by themselves like I do. Yes I took blacksmithing to 120 and GMd Alchemy, Carpentry and Tailoring just in case but in the long run it is far more profitable in my case and that of many others to just obtain and sell the ores than to waste much of it trying to raise Enchanting and Masterworking. Maybe Port should take a look at this before release as I am sure many will want to do it by themselves without a big guild behind them. The more of those that turn away from this game because of this feature as it is the less money Port makes. Think about it brother from a non big guild player. R/Boris/El Pirata

 

I think we do want people to buy new things after they break and have some variety of durabilities to impact a piece's value, but I agree, that durability hit for a 2/2 is too much.

 

Well if you remove the tips and tricks of the trade we shared and the 3 or 4 trips to the monkeys to get him some XP it would have taken a solo player a 2 weeks more or less. I still think that is decent time. I am not a fan of making a game too easy.

 

Mining isn't broken.
The quantity needed to make things is just too high.

 

William, you are one of my best friends here yet I disagree with how long and how easy you think it takes for someone who is doing it without all the "extra help". I could not help but chuckle at the "If you remove the tips and tricks of the trade and the 3 or 4 trips to the monkeys". I guess we have two different versions of reality but its all good R/Boris/El Pirata

 

That should be controlled by global durability loss, which will be much easier to do if no one is running around in 30 max durability gear. One idea I had was for the base crafting skill to affect max durability in a scaled way. Instead of "exceptional" items with a flat +50 durability, being better at the base skill means items you create have higher max durability, starting much lower than base and hitting current exceptional values at 120 or so. Combined with removing MW durability hits, this removes one of the three random rolls involved in crafting something and adds a value to having a high base skill.

 

Well we found something we don't agree on. When I see something with my own two eyes, I believe it.

 

What about the things that you don't see ?

What surprise me a lot is the importance accorded by many to the Grand Master level (whatever the skill could be). Maybe you can be a not-so-bad blacksmith with a grand master level but you won't be the best. Many of you are reasoning with absolute values whereas all the skill system (and the economy !) is working with relative principles.

The best Blacksmith is not (only) GM in blacksmithing. He/she has the best chances to get exceptional items, then his/her blacksmith skill is waaaaay beyond 100 (and he/she uses the proper tools, the proper station, the proper devotional, the proper ring, etc...) . Also, a good blacksmith can masterwork something many times and get the best bonus for each attempt. And he/she can get good patterns easily. And, seriously, is there any big difference between a level 90 blacksmith and a level 100 one ? No. Because leveling is going wisely : the best can't be a god. The only notable difference with the 100th level is for masterworking and a recent @Mangar post shows that it's a very tiny advantage.

Everyone can be GM because everyone can be mediocre. Grand master doesn't mean anything. This should have been replaced with a good "achievement" system for long in my opinion.

Now this system don't need level cap. Many of you are crying wolf because you didn't get the real dimension of the game, I think. Everyone can do everything, yes. Is it really a bad thing ? No. It's called freedom. And freedom goes with responsibilities. Because when you do everything and put your experience in 100 skills, other one can put the same amount of experience in 10 skills. You can do everything and GM hundreds of skills if you want. Also, you can decide to level 20 skills at 80, 10 at 100 and 5 at 120. It's all up to you. But you won't be the best archer, the best blacksmith, the best earth mage and so on if you try to do everything. And what is great with this system in the end : everyone will become unique.