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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Adjust Crafting Recipe Quantities... For Now
dvoraen
Member, Alpha Two
in Artisanship
Henlo!
TL;DR - Current Crafting recipes and their ingredient quantities should be adjusted down for Alpha or until Gathering and Processing systems (and accompanying recipes) are fully implemented.
IMPORTANT: Everything I say here is intended as a temporary measure, until systems (particularly Gathering) are fully implemented and item acquisition and production is implemented as intended by Intrepid. You could call it a request for a Crafting forbearance, of a sort.
Argument/Discussion
My primary point of feedback is to make the following argument to the dev team:
The current state of Crafting is difficult to test due to the (placeholder) recipe values requiring large quantities of materials that are more difficult to acquire.
To begin, I want to talk about the main point there: it's "difficult to test" right now. What I mean by that is this:
The second major point I want to raise about Artisan skills is that I'm not sure what Intrepid's intention is for autonomy/self-sufficiency when you're starting out. For instance, just on my Cleric character I decided to go for Apprentice in three Gathering skills (Mining, Herbalism, Lumberjacking), Scribing, and something else tbd. Should I not be able to produce what I need for Scribing just on my own, at least for the Novice levels? I can understand reliance on others as we get to the higher tiers of a skill -- to the point it's completely mandatory at Grand Master for Crafting -- but not Novice.
So, with that said, I want to talk about some Artisan skills on a specific basis for what I mean by
inducing reactions for material acquisition.
Arcane Engineering
Scribe
Alchemy
Weapon-/Armor-smithing & Gathering Tools
TL;DR - Current Crafting recipes and their ingredient quantities should be adjusted down for Alpha or until Gathering and Processing systems (and accompanying recipes) are fully implemented.
IMPORTANT: Everything I say here is intended as a temporary measure, until systems (particularly Gathering) are fully implemented and item acquisition and production is implemented as intended by Intrepid. You could call it a request for a Crafting forbearance, of a sort.
Argument/Discussion
My primary point of feedback is to make the following argument to the dev team:
The current state of Crafting is difficult to test due to the (placeholder) recipe values requiring large quantities of materials that are more difficult to acquire.
To begin, I want to talk about the main point there: it's "difficult to test" right now. What I mean by that is this:
- The impact to the item economy cannot be well-examined due to the ingredient acquisition problem. If Gathering is incomplete with respect to how frequently we can acquire some materials (predominantly, metals and gems), then it's really hard to say if the current testing environment is really representative of how much various weapons, armor, consumables, and processed materials enter the market. To use the current Alpha state as an example, and at risk of beating a dead horse, Copper (and Ruby) are in very high demand at the Novice levels, and it comes with the understanding that I will have *stacks* of stone before I reach the amount I need to acquire for my personal use.
- Some Crafting skills are extremely time-demanding to raise out of the Novice levels if you Gather for yourself, because of the very high demand of less-common materials. To use Scribing as my main example here, its recipes require a significantly higher ratio of Ruby acquisition, because the recipes call for *five* Red Ink, but only *one* Magic Powder. This feels extremely backwards, to me, at the lowest skill level, and also counterintuitive since you have White and Yellow Inks available at the Novice level which *aren't even used for that tier*. I realize that we're in a placeholder state of sorts, but this is part of why I'm raising the issue now, because a placeholder should still be *representative* of the final form, and I don't think this is the case because we're using Rubies in droves for Scribing basic stat scrolls. I can understand Red Ink (x1-3) for the XP scrolls at Novice levels, and treasure maps, but not the basic stat giving ones. The stat scrolls are going to be one of the "main" products of Scribing.
- Some items can only be "brute force" tested, because having more players out Gathering alleviates some of the issue in producing those items, which would not be the case if the testing population was significantly less. (This again gets back to the rate of acquisition of less common materials used in droves in recipes.) Because it *is* a brute force test, I don't think it represents the actual state of the game yet, but at the same time I was thinking this might be more a focus as we approach P3 or maybe even Beta. Nonetheless, I want to raise the issue *now* so it can have time to do the proverbial simmering in the pot (+50 Chef experience).
The second major point I want to raise about Artisan skills is that I'm not sure what Intrepid's intention is for autonomy/self-sufficiency when you're starting out. For instance, just on my Cleric character I decided to go for Apprentice in three Gathering skills (Mining, Herbalism, Lumberjacking), Scribing, and something else tbd. Should I not be able to produce what I need for Scribing just on my own, at least for the Novice levels? I can understand reliance on others as we get to the higher tiers of a skill -- to the point it's completely mandatory at Grand Master for Crafting -- but not Novice.
So, with that said, I want to talk about some Artisan skills on a specific basis for what I mean by
inducing reactions for material acquisition.Arcane Engineering
- The primary factor here (for Alpha) would be doing an Uno Reverse on the relative need for metals versus Magic Powder and Timber required. As an example, Copper Wand I would just rebrand to "Oak Wand" and require 20x Oak Timber, 10x Magic Powder, maybe 1x Cut Ruby.
- Alternatively, just put in an Oak Wand and Ash Wand (and equivalents for spellbooks, foci, etc.), similar to how caravan components and their crates can be sourced from multiple woods, animals, and metals.
- Please make Survey Pylons work properly. ;.;
Scribe
- Stat scrolls should not require Red Ink x5, but rather White/Yellow Ink x5 or even x10. Perhaps White Ink/Snowdrop can be for Physical stats, Yellow Ink/Daffodil for Magical stats? I see gem-derived Ink being necessary for the more(?) valuable XP scrolls, for reasons that I think are obvious.
Alchemy
- Why isn't "Magic Ink" a thing for Scribing (for Enchanting scrolls), just Magic Powder? I've always wondered this.
Weapon-/Armor-smithing & Gathering Tools
- For now, please reduce the amount of Copper fragments for weapons down to 5 at most, I'm begging you. Twenty is too high for one combine. Similarly, look at the amount of fragments needed for armor, working under the assumption of "how many are needed to make a full set of this armor?" If that's also 20 (I forgot to do the math before writing this), please lower that accordingly.
- For gathering tools, I'm of two minds, because it's a one(?) time upgrade for the purposes of accessing the Apprentice+ tiers, so it should feel like an accomplishment to get, will occur less per character, and thus need more relative to general Crafting skill production. I'd be curious to know if the current system for gathering tool upgrading is very placeholder in the way Fishing is, which is to say that it will change significantly as we get to Beta.
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