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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Random thoughts for a better game and experience
Rhorden
Member
Just a collection of eclectic thoughts on what could make the game better, more interesting or help to avoid the same old boring crap being peddled by other MMOs. Would love to see what other people think about this and have thoughts on.
ISSUE: Getting the character creator ahead of time is a great idea. Really looking forward to taking my time and making some of my favorite characters from other games or maybe even some controversial political figures to farm some tears. However something that makes all this time a waste is when you make a badass character only to find out a few hours in that you really, really don't like the class you are playing and decide to reroll.
SOLUTION: My idea is that with the prelaunch character creator I would like to see a small arena style setting with a target dummy just so we can try out the different classes with the different races. Practice the attacks and maybe defense if something hits back. I understand we will probably start with only a few abilities but just for this prelaunch arena it would be nice to try several higher abilities to get a better feel for the class. Wasting time on a character that you eventually don't like to play just sucks.
ISSUE: Crafting quality and beginner vs master. All the games I have played are all the same when it comes to crafting. You learn a plan, get mats, craft it, sell it and everyone else does the exact same boring thing. What I'm talking about is the quality of the item and the dedication to make it better. For example I played WoW for a very long time and I loved blacksmithing. At one point I had over 500 recipes and was missing less than 5. I put in the effort to farm mobs, do quests, go to the far ends of the map, organize pugs and purchase them off the auction house. I spent several hundred thousand gold to get them and this wasn't from buying gold with real cash or the token crap.
The problem with this was some guy with very little interest or effort in blacksmithing (they just took that prof for the perks) could make gear that was equal to someone like me that spent months chasing everything down, learning all the farming spots and crafting, literally, thousands of items. Should we be able to make the same gear? If we have the same plan I think so but the person who is willing to go above and beyond, I think, should be able to craft a better version of that item.
SOLUTION: I would like to see profession trees split. You'd have one tree that teaches everything at the base level, nothing left out, this is the standard path. The other tree would be a master path. Once you select the master path you can't turn it off. The only way to get out of it is to drop that profession entirely and lose everything you have learned and put into that path. The standard path is just that, standard. You can make anything the master can make but at the base level. The master would have a different path and wouldn't be able to learn from the standard trainer. The master would go to special trainers, take on hard quests (note I said hard, not boring ass "make me 500 of this useless crap item") and long journeys. You would learn from NPCs all over the map, go to the highest peaks, farthest reaches and the deepest depths. An adventure that would make taking that path worth it. Along the way you would obtain different ranks and those ranks would unlock different plans. Compared to the master path, someone on the standard path could easily level up their profession faster than someone on the master path by an insane amount. To balance this out so not everyone is a master (lets face it, how many true masters in their own profession have you ever met?) the cost of this questline would be soul crushingly high in terms of gold, time and effort to ensure that these types of master crafted items aren't everywhere like you would see in other MMOs.
Take blacksmithing for example: a master could add multiple adjustments to a single piece depending on how far into the master path they were. Filigree could give the armor a special look and make the enchant on it 25% stronger. Double plating could give a beefier profile and increase the armor by 30%. Reinforced could improve the armors durability. Alloys could involve different materials for some other effect and on and on.
Or maybe in the case of a shipwright (dont think this will be a profession) a master would be able to adjust the the number of cannons a ship can carry, the thickness of its hull to increase armor, the size of it's cargo hold, the number of sails for speed, the size of the rudder for steering quickness. All this would give a massive advantage at sea.
I'm just saying there should be a path for people that are extremely dedicated to their profession that will yield massive gains but be extraordinarily hard to achieve so not everyone has it.
I had other thoughts but can't remember them at the moment. If anyone has anything they'd like to add please do.
ISSUE: Getting the character creator ahead of time is a great idea. Really looking forward to taking my time and making some of my favorite characters from other games or maybe even some controversial political figures to farm some tears. However something that makes all this time a waste is when you make a badass character only to find out a few hours in that you really, really don't like the class you are playing and decide to reroll.
SOLUTION: My idea is that with the prelaunch character creator I would like to see a small arena style setting with a target dummy just so we can try out the different classes with the different races. Practice the attacks and maybe defense if something hits back. I understand we will probably start with only a few abilities but just for this prelaunch arena it would be nice to try several higher abilities to get a better feel for the class. Wasting time on a character that you eventually don't like to play just sucks.
ISSUE: Crafting quality and beginner vs master. All the games I have played are all the same when it comes to crafting. You learn a plan, get mats, craft it, sell it and everyone else does the exact same boring thing. What I'm talking about is the quality of the item and the dedication to make it better. For example I played WoW for a very long time and I loved blacksmithing. At one point I had over 500 recipes and was missing less than 5. I put in the effort to farm mobs, do quests, go to the far ends of the map, organize pugs and purchase them off the auction house. I spent several hundred thousand gold to get them and this wasn't from buying gold with real cash or the token crap.
The problem with this was some guy with very little interest or effort in blacksmithing (they just took that prof for the perks) could make gear that was equal to someone like me that spent months chasing everything down, learning all the farming spots and crafting, literally, thousands of items. Should we be able to make the same gear? If we have the same plan I think so but the person who is willing to go above and beyond, I think, should be able to craft a better version of that item.
SOLUTION: I would like to see profession trees split. You'd have one tree that teaches everything at the base level, nothing left out, this is the standard path. The other tree would be a master path. Once you select the master path you can't turn it off. The only way to get out of it is to drop that profession entirely and lose everything you have learned and put into that path. The standard path is just that, standard. You can make anything the master can make but at the base level. The master would have a different path and wouldn't be able to learn from the standard trainer. The master would go to special trainers, take on hard quests (note I said hard, not boring ass "make me 500 of this useless crap item") and long journeys. You would learn from NPCs all over the map, go to the highest peaks, farthest reaches and the deepest depths. An adventure that would make taking that path worth it. Along the way you would obtain different ranks and those ranks would unlock different plans. Compared to the master path, someone on the standard path could easily level up their profession faster than someone on the master path by an insane amount. To balance this out so not everyone is a master (lets face it, how many true masters in their own profession have you ever met?) the cost of this questline would be soul crushingly high in terms of gold, time and effort to ensure that these types of master crafted items aren't everywhere like you would see in other MMOs.
Take blacksmithing for example: a master could add multiple adjustments to a single piece depending on how far into the master path they were. Filigree could give the armor a special look and make the enchant on it 25% stronger. Double plating could give a beefier profile and increase the armor by 30%. Reinforced could improve the armors durability. Alloys could involve different materials for some other effect and on and on.
Or maybe in the case of a shipwright (dont think this will be a profession) a master would be able to adjust the the number of cannons a ship can carry, the thickness of its hull to increase armor, the size of it's cargo hold, the number of sails for speed, the size of the rudder for steering quickness. All this would give a massive advantage at sea.
I'm just saying there should be a path for people that are extremely dedicated to their profession that will yield massive gains but be extraordinarily hard to achieve so not everyone has it.
I had other thoughts but can't remember them at the moment. If anyone has anything they'd like to add please do.
1
Comments
2. We have been promised a deep progression path for Artisanship. I'd wait and look what this entails before making suggestions
Just to remove any possible ambiguity, with the information we have today you'll be able to master two professions from one artisan tree. So master either 2 Gathering professions, 2 Processing professions or 2 Crafting professions.
2. We don't 100% know how the crafting will go, but what you have described does seem mainly what they have decided to do anyway. It can't hurt to voice your opinion as it can affect what the devs might do during development. I do agree that the master crafters should have the very best, but we already knew this.