Some thoughts on our crafting system.

Hi Everyone, I have been crafting for some time and have spent a great deal of time and effort on my skills. I make a very good product and I am receiving a fair price point for said goods. I have probably seen more +10 bows burst into flames on the masterwork/enchanting tables than the average player has crafted. So then I heard that the new patch was going to make it so crafted items no longer become destroyed, but instead take a hit to durability after a failure. Please forgive me if I am inaccurate in regards to the facts, because I do not play on the test server.
I think this is one of those mistakes that can possibly destroy the crafting system and the associated crafting economy in its infancy. I understand that a lot of people may be upset by the items being destroyed on a failed attempt and their voices howling for justice in unison may echo through out the halls of the gods to the point where the squeakiest of wheels are about to receive some divine grease. It feels to me , like this is simply going to make everything just a bit more mediocre and let everyone make overpowered gear with out sacrificing their blood and tears on the altar of crafting. What you are going to do, is take players who were previously unwilling to risk what they had ( a mediocre/ better than average item ) and give them a consequence free shot at epic greatness. You are rounding down the sharp edges of a system that NEEDS to be dangerous and possibly catastrophically costly. I have reduced hundreds of exceptional bows made from specialty woods and Imbued elven bowstrings into cinders , because my customers want something truly exceptional . You may have heard curses and howls of sadness, but you never heard me say the system was broken. It isn't broken, its just appropriately difficult.
I implore you to rethink this folly.

BUT, if you have your hearts set on changing the crafting system... How about some changes that would actually make sense. Instead of watering down one of the things you really got right, let us correct some of the glaring errors that exist within the crafting system.

1. Master craftsman make exceptional items. In real life, a master carpenter does not turn out 7 ordinary tables and every once in a while create a beautiful table. They are master craftsman because they KNOW how to make beautiful/highly effective items, not because they had a lucky accident. This needs to be changed. You can make it so the items take more materials or special reagents that are hard to find, limit the amount of items a master can make per day or something to that effect. It always sat funny with me that I am a Grand master carpenter who makes an exceptional item 1 in 5 attempts. Ok enough on that subject,

2. Skills received from Masterworking/enchanting are just too random. Again , If I am a GRAND MASTER Enchanter / Masterworker, I can't channel the forces to give the skills I desire? Or at least get closer to the types of things I want? Again adding another reagent or component to ensure a Dexterity enchantment or critical hit chance bonus would make a lot of sense. When you are a novice or journeyman, your enchants are going to be unpredictable and uncontrollable, but at the higher end of the spectrum, its just too random.

I would ask, as one man with a vision of what the crafting system can be, DONT ruin it. Push off that part of the patch until it can be thought through a little more.

Thank you for reading and I would appreciate your opinions on this topic, either for or against.

Kid Twist

 

After having tested this on QA, I feel that that is not going to be the case. People aren't going to be churning out any more overpowered gear than they already are. And the "overpowered" gear that they produce will have the appropriate durability (those -25 durability hits add up). We aren't going to be seeing 4/4 bows running amok (15% chance is still 15% chance...your more likely to end up with a < 30 durability item that you can't do anything with). I think we will see far more mediocre equipment with weird and useless masterworks/enchants and low durability than we will see overpowered gear, since we have the same rate of failure. So, there may be more useless junk on vendors (personally, I'll just sell the junk instead of salvaging it) to sort through. It just gives you an extra chance to try for something on a nice item that could be extraordinary if you got the appropriate masterwork or enchant. You lose a little durability but you can still sell that item for something, rather than nothing, if you fail.

Just my opinion though You should go over to QA and test it yourself, it's really easy to do.

 

YEAH -

first the change will not really make more overpowered items just give a chance to save the item you already have. reasoning is you can at least sell that item to "get back something" other then just lose it. So in the end all we are going to see if a huge influx of mediocre items thrown into the loot tables making more and more junk appear in loot. If we could at least salvage these items and get silver scrap from enchanted stuff Gold scrap from master worked stuff and possibly a better resource or two it would make saving these items from destruction more viable but as it is I see it as a waste for other reasons than you. Still I like that I could save them - at least I would not have lost my primal bear headdress, on the first attempt 98% - sure I would not be able to enchant anymore but I would still have it.

Now as for your #1 this has been brought up before if you are a GM crafter your item should be exceptional more than not. but so be it.

your #2 is something I have asked for many times. As one gets more and more choices you actually are getting less better results as you have more chances at getting properties you do not want, hell you have player specifically not training so high so they do not lose a slot to durability boost.

What needs to happens is as one get stronger, you should be able to choose a "school" of properties you are aiming for and the choice list gets bigger to give you a better chance at getting something you want not possibly three properties that are counter to the other two you already have on a piece you are making. I mean how pissed do you get when you make a piece of armor wanted to add for spell casting and get a +10 focus, +5 Intel, then on 3rd attempt get >5% Damage Resistance? ((just example #)) Or Strength It just does not fit and makes the item much less worthy for something you specifically want for focus and spell casting.

You should be able to more and more direct choices or dictate result, the more proficient one gets, not a larger choice pool which = greater possibility of unwanted results.

There are so many issues with crafting the should be addressed but just sit and fester.

but you base desires and concerns are very valid just also very old

 

I really appreciate your feedback Robyn, but my understanding is a failed attempt takes away 25 pts of durability, correct? I have made 3/3 and even a couple 4/3 bows with 95 durability left on them. So I think people with that scenario are going to definitely be tempted to push the envelope in that situation and even a 15% chance has to pay off sometimes.
My point is that if you know that your bow is still a bow or your hat is still a hat, you take the shot, if you know the odds are that you are going to be adding scrap to the pile, you stand pat with your +12 . I just feel like they are putting a big fluffy air bag at the bottom of the cliff.. Kind of WoW like.

I suppose at this point, its what it is, so we will see. I guess I just figured with so many parts of crafting so un aligned with logic, that these issues would have been addressed before tinkering with something that logically works.

 

So, yeah we will see. Sure, people will take the shot...but more often than not I think they will find them losing durability and occasionally making the cut. But, I guess time will tell