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Suggestion: A professions "taskmaster"
spoomeister
Member Posts: 105 Arc User
I know it doesn't reflect well on me that I'm yearning for a middle manager / foreman to delegate things to in a game I play. 
But really, it'd be nice to very slowly reap the benefits of professions without all the fussing over them.
Me flipping between menus, and sometimes going back and forth to the auction house to get the materials, really drives home that this part of the game involves neither dungeons nor dragons, and starts to get to the "spreadsheets... in... spaaaace!" model of other games. I'd prefer to aim my grinding at other parts of the game, not things that don't have me even moving my character around onscreen.
I'm sure Cryptic could balance what a Taskmaster could do for you in such a way that opting to go that route lets it slowly churn in the background, yet someone who knows what they're doing could really squeeze a lot more out of it. Like, Taskmaster will only ever assign the highest-ranking worker possible to a task, and only one of them at that... if you want to get bonuses for assigning additional workers you need to do it by hand.
Taskmaster could be set to some really simple directions, like "progress these professions, in this order, with the resources available". So e.g. if you have the resources to do a task that generates more professions XP for that professions it will do that first... if not, it will do whatever it can afford, like the highest-XP resource gathering.
There could also then be an option where Taskmaster can present some options, e.g. "if you let me go to market to get X resources, I can do Y professions tasks for you and progress that much faster", and the cost of X resources would be same as the default market rates that the game presents to you in the auction house. Taskmaster would then go find the auction that has closest to but not over that amount, for exactly that number of resources (no automated purchases of say a stack of 99 or something). If it couldn't find that exact number you'd need to reach in to buy manually.
Taskmaster could be developed out of the Leadership track, and cost some amount of AD to do your professions for you. It'd be a daily thing to check in on, like VIP rewards.
Perhaps a high enough level guild would let Taskmaster draw from guild resources, and/or be paid in guild marks instead of AD.
But really, it'd be nice to very slowly reap the benefits of professions without all the fussing over them. Me flipping between menus, and sometimes going back and forth to the auction house to get the materials, really drives home that this part of the game involves neither dungeons nor dragons, and starts to get to the "spreadsheets... in... spaaaace!" model of other games. I'd prefer to aim my grinding at other parts of the game, not things that don't have me even moving my character around onscreen.
I'm sure Cryptic could balance what a Taskmaster could do for you in such a way that opting to go that route lets it slowly churn in the background, yet someone who knows what they're doing could really squeeze a lot more out of it. Like, Taskmaster will only ever assign the highest-ranking worker possible to a task, and only one of them at that... if you want to get bonuses for assigning additional workers you need to do it by hand.
Taskmaster could be set to some really simple directions, like "progress these professions, in this order, with the resources available". So e.g. if you have the resources to do a task that generates more professions XP for that professions it will do that first... if not, it will do whatever it can afford, like the highest-XP resource gathering.
There could also then be an option where Taskmaster can present some options, e.g. "if you let me go to market to get X resources, I can do Y professions tasks for you and progress that much faster", and the cost of X resources would be same as the default market rates that the game presents to you in the auction house. Taskmaster would then go find the auction that has closest to but not over that amount, for exactly that number of resources (no automated purchases of say a stack of 99 or something). If it couldn't find that exact number you'd need to reach in to buy manually.
Taskmaster could be developed out of the Leadership track, and cost some amount of AD to do your professions for you. It'd be a daily thing to check in on, like VIP rewards.
Perhaps a high enough level guild would let Taskmaster draw from guild resources, and/or be paid in guild marks instead of AD.
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Comments
Professions are not "playing the game" so it should be easier and less tedious to progress?
Streamlining professions is a good idea, but perhaps in a different way. Things like "collect all", repeat task buttons, could be helpful to players, yet not as big a help to botters as they would still require multiple inputs.
Perhaps also, in parallel to this, one could purchase lvl 20 or lvl 25 in a given profession (the "core" professions, not things like max level of Black Ice Shaping or the professions that go with events). You'd buy it with Zen the same way you can purchase campaign completion, at somewhat comparable prices. Heck, even make it so that anyone who sells an item made via a profession bought this way gets an extra % tax taken out of it in the AH, so that there's that much more incentive and reward for people who grinded (ground? grinded?) a profession to 20 instead of P2W approach.
I'm not talking about queue lists for days on end, but something to cover off one tasks worth of time.
The tasks I'm looking at are the "Deep Wilderness Gathering" type where you send them off for four or five hours, maybe overnight. So when you come back the next day, unless you set an alarm clock for 3.00am, they've been idle for hours.
Allowing them to double up (ONLY two... not a full blown 24 hr queue list) during down time would make life easier.
Zeph's suggestion of a repeat button would achieve this easily and would probably be easy to implement. With a repeat button on each task and a "Repeat All" option to tick all 9 at once.
I agree the interface is a bit tedious for console and while a task master would be nice, I understand too that they probably want to minimize the automation of professions for the botting aspect.
I click through my professions manually and diligently on 4 toons twice a day, feels like work instead of fun so maybe there is an option that would get me off the professions screen and into a dungeon!
Maybe there can be a default task where it slowly chips away at something nominal so if your guys go out on a four hour cruise and you don't log for 6 hours, they spend the idle two hours chipping away at a task like making campaign currency or gold or guild marks...idk something that wont break the economy but may be of use to players and the game.
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
At this point, they need to completely overhaul all professions, and make them something that assists gameplay, not dramatically impacts it. They have largely fixed that with their nerfs to AD and the closure of the gateway. What is left is a mind numbingly boring crafting system that makes little sense in the grand scheme of things.
Want to craft some potions? Sweet. Start by scavenging for the ingredients (5m per task). Do this a few times and you now can do another task to refine those ingredients. Do that for half an hour and you can now start crafting a potion (not a batch of them or a stack, a....single...potion). A little while later, you have one potion. WOOT....Click, use, gone. Yay?
Rinse, Repeat for almost every profession. Mastercraft? Good concept, poorly implemented. Now instead of waiting 5 minutes for your resource, you have to run around an area and grab them (hopefully the right ones). Then craft several somethings with a low chance of success, so that you can try to craft a big something with a low chance of success...so that you can craft a super rare something.....so that you can craft a slightly better potion. Yay?
Sea of Moving Ice will require professions...yay? Oh, you just have to collect drops from the area and then put them together. I don't know if I've seen a great, fun, interactive crafting process, but I'm sure this isn't it.
ANYWAYS, a taskmaster would equalize the field a bit against botters. But I doubt they will ever do this without essentially making the professions worthless in themselves.
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies