Loot drop and Early game crafting

Hello, hopefully this message is constructive and doesn't just come across as a complaint, because i am enjoying the game, but I have some opinions and questions I would like to share.

So if i a remember correctly in Phase 1 or 2, there was an increase to loot drop from enemies, glint, gear and so-on, and I remember it being an improvement and enjoying the grind a lot more and then also using the NEED/GREED function more often which adds a social aspect to it.

In phase 3 it seems like the drop rate has decreased significantly and so trying to earn early game gear is pretty tough (grinding for it), I am level 10 and the only gear drops I have seen are 2 rings, a pair of boots and gloves (which i only earned a ring and boots).

And now for crafting your first set of gear you need to collect say, Daffodils, Grem skin and pay for another mat at the vendor. Because of only having 2 servers (EU and USA), Getting Grem skins takes quite awhile because everyone's fighting for the same spots, and then getting Daffodils seems to spawn in areas further from the starting area, which i am way under level for and any mob I agro will kill me in 1 hit.. So I'm a low level char going into high level area for beginner mats.. Just doesn't make sense to me.

So what I'm going to mention is that if you are going to reduce the loot drop from mobs and try get players to focus on crafting, I think that the first set (Initiate) gear should be easily crafted and materials gathered.

100% of the player base who will play this game will experience the beginning and I think to retain people you should make it rewarding and fluid.

I did the quests have now added a Chest as a reward - So I started doing quests thinking that they drop gear.. Maybe they do? But none of them did for me and I did about 15 quests.

An example of how you could make it a bit more enjoyable while combining all these aspects would be to have say a Questline for the Smithy, you go collect resources, kill enemies protecting said resource, bring back to smithy, they then reward you with the blueprints and then allows you to use the anvil to make your first weapon.. something along those lines.

I have chatted to people in-game about this, some people are annoyed about the drop-rate for being reduced and some people prefer it that way.

So what do you all think?

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Ludullu

SillyScarecrow wrote: »

And now for crafting your first set of gear you need to collect say, Daffodils, Grem skin and pay for another mat at the vendor. Because of only having 2 servers (EU and USA), Getting Grem skins takes quite awhile because everyone's fighting for the same spots, and then getting Daffodils seems to spawn in areas further from the starting area, which i am way under level for and any mob I agro will kill me in 1 hit.. So I'm a low level char going into high level area for beginner mats.. Just doesn't make sense to me.

So what I'm going to mention is that if you are going to reduce the loot drop from mobs and try get players to focus on crafting, I think that the first set (Initiate) gear should be easily crafted and materials gathered.

This is the main issue.

I love that mobs barely drop anything. I dislike that Intrepid almsot IMMEDIATELY caved into complaints and increased the drop rates. But I HATE that the crafting system is still in the shitter, across the board.

But Steven doesn't want suggestions, so the only thing left to say is that there's problems with all the things listed in that quote.

nanfoodle

I dont agree. The change is needed. BIS needs to be crafted but there should be options to earn gear in game if you dont care about BIS for a time. When there are lots of crafters and markets players access this also becomes a problem. Crafters start making gear for trinkers and price them that makes it hard for new players to gear up. I used to make gear in ESO when I recognized new players because of this. If you dont have a proper gear drop, you will kill the game for new players. Crafters will be fine if they are always the option for BIS.

Ludullu

nanfoodle wrote: »

Crafters start making gear for trinkers and price them that makes it hard for new players to gear up.

This is only true if the availability of crafting mats and the cost of crafting is insanely high.

It's about supply and demand. If the game does not support high supply flow (as is the case in Ashes rn) - of course no crafter will be able to match the early demand of a new server.

The crafting system change to "low tiers require basic mats, while higher ones need rare shit" was supposed to address this. And yet we still have problems with mass crafting. T1 items should be craftable by the hundreds imo (going down in quantity with each grade of course). But when dropping gear is simply way easier than crafting - of course not a single person will give a shit about crafting their stuff or buying it from someone else, cause "why waste money, when you can just drop it".

THAT is what makes economy shitty. Self-sustainability of everyone in the game directly leads to weaker market flow. And, of course, the absence of trading tools before lvl3 nodes, shitty craft stations placement and all the other issues - all also impact people's willingness to craft at scale.

Volgaris

I stand on the side of very few gear drops from mobs. Generally the 'life skills' are an after thought for MMOs. They turn into a max level or end game activity. P3 is a test met to address that issue. To have crafting viable from level 1 to max level. Should there be 0 gear drops from mobs? No, but you should be gearing 90% or more from crafted gear. Why? Because the entirety of the game is based off a player ran economy. If you can skip the artisanship system completely (as it was pre P3) until max level or 'end game' rather very few things matter for the economy. Doing that means there is not level 1-49 economy, there'll only be a level 50 economy. The meta becomes, group, grind, gear the bare minimum until you're 50. Nodes affect this too since their level affects the mobs that are around.

I do agree with what was said about the lack of materials in the starting areas. New characters have a hell of time trying to gather, which slows or stops their progression. The game needs to spawn more resources, not a dummy switch like decrease respawn times. But a value per area that ensures X number of resource nodes will be available. Never should a zone be stripped bare, at least for the starting zones. This value could then be adjust based on the number of players in the zone dynamically. It's how I'd do it and it's the 1 good thing I see out of New World. Secondly the speed at which you level crafting is slow, maybe it feels this way because you have to travel between storage, crafting area A, and crafting area B, on top of the low available resource nodes.

@SillyScarecrow
An example of how you could make it a bit more enjoyable while combining all these aspects would be to have say a Questline for the Smithy, you go collect resources, kill enemies protecting said resource, bring back to smithy, they then reward you with the blueprints and then allows you to use the anvil to make your first weapon.. something along those lines.
This is a quest. At least in Anvils. You get a quest from the Master Blacksmith to make a weapon. You still need to gather the resources. There are other quests as well. They don't reward recipes though.

Jori

The problem I have is that if i wanted to process the 460 pieces of raw wood to timber it would cost me almost 3 gold if my math is right. For novice processing that seems a bit much. Someone else stated they spent 8 gold refining 250 timber 250 copper and 250 daffodil and they estimate they will need 2000 copper fragments for lvl 10 weaponsmithing. If that is true its too much. I have been crafting in games since EQ so I understand having to work for an item and I LIKE a challenge. I have also played since P1. but i dunno this doesnt seem fun to me

Asotos

Please fix the number of items when you are buying from a vendor...it must be on 1 quantity automatically from the start...i forgot it and spent 17 silver and bought 48 materials by accident,when i needed only 1...and the re-sell is a joke....so i lost 17 silver for nothing...

nanfoodle

Ludullu wrote: »

nanfoodle wrote: »

Crafters start making gear for trinkers and price them that makes it hard for new players to gear up.

This is only true if the availability of crafting mats and the cost of crafting is insanely high.

It's about supply and demand. If the game does not support high supply flow (as is the case in Ashes rn) - of course no crafter will be able to match the early demand of a new server.

The crafting system change to "low tiers require basic mats, while higher ones need rare shit" was supposed to address this. And yet we still have problems with mass crafting. T1 items should be craftable by the hundreds imo (going down in quantity with each grade of course). But when dropping gear is simply way easier than crafting - of course not a single person will give a shit about crafting their stuff or buying it from someone else, cause "why waste money, when you can just drop it".

THAT is what makes economy shitty. Self-sustainability of everyone in the game directly leads to weaker market flow. And, of course, the absence of trading tools before lvl3 nodes, shitty craft stations placement and all the other issues - all also impact people's willingness to craft at scale.

Been MMOing for a very long time and that's not experience ever.

Doakland

My take on it is that if crafting is going to be the penultimate way to get the very best in the game, the introduction from the early game needs to be easier. The constrains of T1 reagents to process/craft are steep for players 1-10. It's particularly punishing for players that farm to then only get put over the barrel for crafting costs and reagents. While crafting costs can be toned down based on citizenship level(?), that's not easily performed in the early game. And is a separate topic for getting new players acquainted with the crate/transport systems. Currently am close to lvl 20 and still have to to pack a crate or deliver it anywhere.

I do agree with deaths dropping resources/mats, but from levels 1-5 this is particularly punishing. 50% on death and only able to recover 25% , is rough. For the super early levels would like to see the drop rate be less and recovery rate stay static. The 50% drop on death feels fine for the mid game (lvl 10+).
I don't think this would be an issue since you can't really craft anything beyond initiate level sub level 10, and don't see any immediate ways to exploit that type of grace.

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