Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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 III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
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.
Rebalancing Crafting, Loot, and Node Progression
Nabuuu
Member, Alpha Two
Greetings, glorious adventurers and game designers,
My understanding of the economic overhaul in Phase 3 was to position crafting as a cornerstone of PvX activities, creating a meaningful and interconnected progression system. Early quest design reflected this ambition, allowing players to gear up appropriately in the initial levels, keeping some places for crafting for the vacant gear slots.
However, I feel that recent updates—particularly the sharp increase in equipment drop rates, combined with multiple bugs affecting crafting recipes— have disrupted this vision and diluted the role of crafting in the game’s core loop.
* Loot Saturation:
The current drop rates are so generous that players can fully gear themselves through casual exploration, bypassing crafting entirely. This undermines the value of artisan professions and reduces the need for player-driven economies.
* Lack of Gear Gates:
Higher-level zones fail to act as meaningful "gear gates." Instead, they continue to supply high-quality equipment with minor effort, removing any incentive to seek out crafted gear or engage with node-based progression.
* Misalignment Between Node and Player Progression:
The disconnect between node development and player gearing creates a vicious cycle: since PvE content lacks barriers that would naturally push players toward nodes for resources or crafted gear, nodes themselves struggle to grow.
* Crafting Cost vs. Perceived Value:
The cost of crafting equipment feels disproportionate to its perceived value, especially when loot provides comparable (or better) alternatives with minimal investment.
Suggested Adjustments:
Beyond fixing the bugs in artisan processing/crafting, I believe the following variables need to be adjusted to restore depth and balance to progression:
1- Reduce Drop Rates and Quality:
Limit drops to common-quality items, reserving higher tiers for crafting or challenging content.
This would reinstate crafting as a viable and necessary path for gear progression.
2- Reinforce Gear Gates in POIs:
Ensure that Points of Interest (POIs) in higher-level zones enforce gear requirements, encouraging players to seek out crafted or node-specific equipment to progress.
3- Integrate Node Progression into Player Journey:
Design content that naturally funnels players toward nodes—whether through resource collection, node-exclusive recipes, or commisions related to POIs that thruly scale with node development. This would create a more dynamic and interdependent world, where nodes thrive as hubs of activity and crafting.
These adjustments would not only make progression more engaging but also align the economy with (my understanding of) the original vision of a crafting-centric PvX experience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and insights on this !
My understanding of the economic overhaul in Phase 3 was to position crafting as a cornerstone of PvX activities, creating a meaningful and interconnected progression system. Early quest design reflected this ambition, allowing players to gear up appropriately in the initial levels, keeping some places for crafting for the vacant gear slots.
However, I feel that recent updates—particularly the sharp increase in equipment drop rates, combined with multiple bugs affecting crafting recipes— have disrupted this vision and diluted the role of crafting in the game’s core loop.
* Loot Saturation:
The current drop rates are so generous that players can fully gear themselves through casual exploration, bypassing crafting entirely. This undermines the value of artisan professions and reduces the need for player-driven economies.
* Lack of Gear Gates:
Higher-level zones fail to act as meaningful "gear gates." Instead, they continue to supply high-quality equipment with minor effort, removing any incentive to seek out crafted gear or engage with node-based progression.
* Misalignment Between Node and Player Progression:
The disconnect between node development and player gearing creates a vicious cycle: since PvE content lacks barriers that would naturally push players toward nodes for resources or crafted gear, nodes themselves struggle to grow.
* Crafting Cost vs. Perceived Value:
The cost of crafting equipment feels disproportionate to its perceived value, especially when loot provides comparable (or better) alternatives with minimal investment.
Suggested Adjustments:
Beyond fixing the bugs in artisan processing/crafting, I believe the following variables need to be adjusted to restore depth and balance to progression:
1- Reduce Drop Rates and Quality:
Limit drops to common-quality items, reserving higher tiers for crafting or challenging content.
This would reinstate crafting as a viable and necessary path for gear progression.
2- Reinforce Gear Gates in POIs:
Ensure that Points of Interest (POIs) in higher-level zones enforce gear requirements, encouraging players to seek out crafted or node-specific equipment to progress.
3- Integrate Node Progression into Player Journey:
Design content that naturally funnels players toward nodes—whether through resource collection, node-exclusive recipes, or commisions related to POIs that thruly scale with node development. This would create a more dynamic and interdependent world, where nodes thrive as hubs of activity and crafting.
These adjustments would not only make progression more engaging but also align the economy with (my understanding of) the original vision of a crafting-centric PvX experience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and insights on this !
Nabu
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linktr.ee
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