The (im)balance of the trade skill systems

Tearl Stoneheart

I'm coming from a place where I like both adventuring and crafting. In light of Steven's "Crafters make the best [stuff]" comment, I'm really stoked about crafting. In games like this, I tend to focus on a path to armor smithing and/or weapon smithing. So, this is the perspective I'm coming from. This reflects only my opinion of my chosen crafting progression. I also understand this is A2 and all systems are WIP. But I hope to be able to have a discussion that helps influence crafters.

Gathering:
Working up mining is super simple and I enjoy the mechanics in the A2 state, knowing it will improve. I like being able to improve your tools at the different tiers, though I haven't really noticed any actual buffs working. In Pre-A2, I was able to make a heroic pick with great stats, but they didn't seem to actually improve the gather.

My biggest issue in A2 so far with mining is the lack of metals (rubies too). I do gathering commissions for resources, glint, and experience. I was able to complete at least 4 granite (mine 20 nodes) and 4 basalt (mine 20 nodes) in the time it took to find and complete 1 zinc (mine 10 nodes) and 1 copper (mine 10 nodes) commissions. I could have easily done more granite and basalt nodes, but had to go empty my bags often. I don't mind granite and basalt mining because my mining skill continues to go up and I get rare stones for molds.

Processing:
This leads to Processing. My biggest issue is the lack of metals. The imbalance stifles the ability to increase metalworking. I can easily get to journeyman in any gathering skill (slower on hunting) and processing in stone working, lumbermill, and even textiles. But metalworking is super slow due to a lack of metals.
*Intrepid, please add a way to do jobs up to 25 in increments of 1*

Crafting:
Metals are used in so many crafting professions. They're needed in tool improvements, armor, weapons, arcane engineering, carpentry, and jewelry. Armor, Weapons, and Jewelry in particular suffer the most since there is no other path to level up to apprentice. Weapons may have it worse since the easiest path is making shields to apprentice and those take 8 copper frags.
So crafting is really slow to apprentice...that's my point.
So slow that by the time I make it to apprentice armoring, there will be no market for any novice gear. I will certainly be 10+ by then just doing commissions and trying to get enough metal to level up.

The Nodes:
The last issue is the progression to journeyman. I have not personally looked into how the node progressions work here, but as I understand it, there is no way to get all crafting professions to journeyman with only 5 nodes. I think that will be fine on a larger scale, but on the A2 map, that will severely cripple crafters who are supposed to be able to "make the best [stuff]."

Veeshan

Ill add to this

Resources should be a bit more regionalized
1 node gets more ore nodes another gets more stone 3rd gets more gems, 4th get more plants and 5th get more animals this creates a node specilisation when it comes to building like the metal node may want to be building smelters/blacksmiths for example

Balance changes to hunting nodes

- hunting resource need a slight buff i think aswell there much rarer i find than the other nodes and provide the same amount of XP it seems per harvest i would double the XP per hit to make it level closer to the same rate as other gathering skills
- the vendor value on hunting node need a slight buff aswell since all nodes sell for 5c a stack is 1s the difference is hunting you get 1 carcass compared to 2-5 for every other node so you make more money off other gathering if ur just vendoring the mats. I personaly would buff the sale price on the rarer non carcase harvest (so the mount items) to be worth somewhere between 50-100 copper pieces per

For processing
- Can we get a quality of life update where u have a UI box you can open up and it show you what nodes and how long left on current processes setting thing to go for 25 minutes and forgetting where u left it is a real issue having a window u can open to keep track of all your processing and wlocation of the bench you used will be a huge help

Tearl Stoneheart

Not sure if having resources spawn in specific nodes is a good idea. It would just drive the town builds to all be the same across all realms. What if the spawn locations were actually more closely tied with certain locations within the landscape? Maybe lower hill regions have more stone and higher mountains have metals? Gems can be found perhaps in more nooks and crannies? But there is still a chance for any T1 mining node to be anything...just weighted differently. Like a stone node could spawn metal, but only at a 10% chance or something like that. A node that's normally metal can respawn as a gem at 10%. That sort of thing. I just wrote the blueprint for that (UE blueprint) in my head

Savic Prosperity

this post sums up kinda what i was thinking, especially at the beginning because the amount of time it takes to level the professions to even be somewhat even with character level some people will already hit the level cap kind of thing.

I know some people are like 'well just funnel the crafter' but how many people are really going to be scouring the world for the off chance they can actually gather what the crafter/refiner needs in a timely fashion that they could even craft gear someone could use. Whose to say after all this that what is the incentive for a gatherer/refiner in these cases since the person who would get the gear isnt them. Mind you I am of the mind that professions tend to be more of a solo thing where you could get attacked for your stuff rather than a group thing

i spent around 12hrs wandering around trying to find copper/ruby/zinc and only found zinc twice
and didnt find any cotton (assume thats not in the game) and barely any flax

also longer term the UI needs to give more information on how to go up the tiers in what you can gather/craft since i specifically went in semi blind and i was like where do you even find this information

Hutchy1989

Droppings need to be more plentiful, its horrible farming these. Personally I hope once we get a proper animal husbandry system these become more of a passive farm.

Tearl Stoneheart

Hutchy1989 wrote: »

Droppings need to be more plentiful, its horrible farming these. Personally I hope once we get a proper animal husbandry system these become more of a passive farm.

I think a good solution for mulch is to have 1 dropping yield 5 mulch. I mean, 1 grem carcass yields 5 skins. Even if you have the secondary product (snow drop, daffodil, wood chips) require more, that'd still make it easier. Like 1 dropping, 5 daffodil = 5 mulch.

Veeshan

Hutchy1989 wrote: »

Droppings need to be more plentiful, its horrible farming these. Personally I hope once we get a proper animal husbandry system these become more of a passive farm.

You get alot of them just aoeing low level garns down, like 100 to 150 in an hour. Got alot more dropping than it took to process the leather i got

Bhelue

Hutchy1989 wrote: »

Droppings need to be more plentiful, its horrible farming these. Personally I hope once we get a proper animal husbandry system these become more of a passive farm.

An alternative is to allow fish fillets as an alternative to droppings. At least you can gather fish.

Taiisien

Bhelue wrote: »

An alternative is to allow fish fillets as an alternative to droppings. At least you can gather fish.

I really like this idea. Fits in with real world, gives us a use for bluegill, and alleviates the strain on trying to collect droppings.