Masterwork Professions Nodes Rework

imit8r

I am an avid professions type. I mostly enjoy them, and have finished off all the masterworks to help provide better gear for my guildies. As such, I rely very heavily on the professions nodes and the maps that provide them. That being said, they are currently completely and totally a disaster. For starters, I am not going to mention specifics about the current exploit in hopes of having a productive thread that does not get immediately nuked. The way I see it, the current system relies too heavily on running around in open zones that honestly cause nothing but headaches. I appreciate that the devs felt it would be a fun way to get you back to old zones, as evidenced again by the demonic encounters they send you to all over the place as directed by Bruenor. This running all over the place, in these old zones is all well and good, but if you save up more than a few maps because a 2x profession event is coming it can take hours and hours to finish. This is not fun, and frankly mind numbing. I see no harm in speeding this up a bit. I propose a few solutions:

1) Instead of having these nodes appear on random open maps, how about if they are limited to the Stronghold (or if not there, your own personal instance, much like the Foundry). If you insist on having us run all over the place I would much rather it be on turf that I can trust that random people are not going to interfere.

2) I would much prefer a simpler method, how about if you just buy the resources directly from the SH vendor? You can even price them differently if you really must have it be some resources are worth more than others. As it stands now, there are so many of some resource that are almost worthless, since they are just not used at all.

3) If you are so against directly buying the resources and must add some randomness to it, how about if you buy a "chest of goods" or something that can contain a selection of random resources?

I am sure there are other solutions, some that may even be roleplay related, and may be even a bit fun. As it stands it is not fun at all. I know grinding isn't fun, it is supposed to be that you get some fun at the end with your rewards...

For your consideration.

thefabricant

Agreed. I remember opening 330 nodes in whispering caverns...*shudders* This is really a huge waste of time and its not engaging gameplay.

luks707

Having just done the double professions weekend, it is "rewarding" but certainly not engaging. I would prefer a solution where you have to do a certain quest in those areas per however many purchases, rather than just running around, which of course (imho) seems to be very much encouraging automation and no player interaction.

beckylunatic

There hasn't been a 2xProfession event since I've been able to buy charts, and I only managed to run 40 of an accumulated several hundred because there just wasn't time along with the other things I wanted to do this weekend. The charts will keep, but the problem will be worse next time (unless I manage to spend all my marks on gear and food), though I'll have a better understanding too of just how long this takes. It's boring. It cries out to be run via automation rather than having a tired and frustrated human being at the controls (also slightly nauseous from running in circles). I'm unclear on why a game's rewards should be tied to how well a person manages to overcome their own boredom and lack of desire to do something that is repetitive and not-fun. That doesn't sound like a good game at all.

This also highlights the matter of there being so many "activities" in the game that aren't worth doing until there's a 2x event running. Doing them outside their corresponding event is counterproductive because you're getting half as much out of [opening your enchant boxes, refining items, opening masterwork nodes, etc.] as possible. Maybe only a minority of players actually save everything for 2x events (everyone saves refining though), but it's fatiguing to go through this all the time. And we do it because getting 2xWhatever means circumventing some of the game's grind in some way. But. It. Never. Stops. And trading dispiriting grind for exhausting binge... neither option ultimately feels good. The only thing that ever feels good about any of these things is being done with them.

@rgutscheradev @asterdahl systems designer shoutouts

oldbaldyone

Remove 2X events entirely and then assess the cost of things. Right now, I have a feeling the dev team looks at every cost in terms of what the cost is during a double event, and balances accordingly. Remove 2X events, make a promise to never have them again (and try to keep it), and then take a hard look at costs.

Course, that won't help them sell bags and storage either.

There is just some major concept issues that need to be resolved in the game and this is one of them. People don't mind hard if there is some element of fun in it. Running around zones that you were tired of the first time isn't fun. Crafting and hoping the RNG gods shine on you isn't real fun...and the results are not such a significant upgrade that they really make a big difference in most cases. Risk (failing a craft, not being able to benefit from it) versus reward (benefits from success) are out of whack.

For the game in general, we are suffering from a casual game that is now trying to accomodate hard core players. I've said it before: You either develop for casual and accept that hardcores will take over, or you code for hardcores and lose the casuals.

scathias

I spent 95% of my play time this weekend farming charts. over 27 hours of time game time running back and forth in hotenow, caverns, skyhold and vellosk. I can run them in my sleep, and do it blindfolded too.

and i still have like 18 hours of charts left to use because i couldn't get to them in time.

And like others have said, there is no way i am touching these charts until the next 2x professions event unless i really really need the resources because without the event it is simply twice as much work for the same gain. do you really think i want to spend 50 hours grinding this stuff to get what i got in 27? the next 2x professions is going to be just as bad as this one because i'll have more charts saved up again in addition to what i didn't use this time.

You wanted masterworks as an endgame for crafting. well it very nearly is game ending. more so because actually crafting masterwork items is out of reach of 90% of the player base, and since the items cost a huge amount to make, and are barely better (and generally worse) than items you can get through normal play most people have elected to just ignore masterworks all together