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The Crafting system - Reviews, suggestions and the like.
porphyrric
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
First, a disposition.
In the following I will briefly discuss my personal thoughts on the crafting system, including personal likes and dislikes, as well as the reasons behind those.
More importantly, perhaps, a discussion on the merits and demerits of the system will be expunged upon, so as to provide a somewhat detailed view, from a player perspective, on the crafting in Neverwinter.
Before that, however, a brief description of my introduction to the crafting system, as told through a personal review, written by me:
--- Review: Introduction to and explanation of the crafting system ---
I first found out about Neverwinter from a friend of mine, when I saw the 'then' website of the game, which, at the time, had almost nothing on it, except for a few heroes. This was, as you might realize, some time ago.
I followed the website and development of the game sporadically since then, but have only really begun playing the game since the release of the open beta.
Now, the game doesn't provide you with any information on the crafting system before reaching a certain level. As such, the only notion I had on the crafting in Neverwinter, was that I would surely be there.. Somewhere.
I was pleased, then, when I got the 'crafting quest'.
I was not, however, very pleased with the distinct lack of description or detail provided on each of the proffessions. In fact, the only thing I really noticed, was a very basic explanation on how to activate a task with an asset, and then to wait for it to finish.
I was, however, beyond pleased when I noticed how I could, at any given time, start leveling the different proffessions independently from each other, and without a limits as to how many I could have set as active at any given time.
The impression I got while playing around with crafting, then, was that there's a marked distinction in the reward types for the different crafting. This is, of course, obvious, to anyone who looks.
Crafting can, broadly, be divided into 2 categories:
Item crafting: These proffessions are centered around the purpose of crafting an item, useable by players. At the time of this writing, almost all the content released seems to be of the armor type, as opposed to consumeables or weapons. Also, all but one proffession currently in the game belongs in this category.
Gathering: The last proffession, leadership, can be said to revolve around the gathering of different types of currencies and resources (as rewarded through chests). It is fairly straitforward, and, I suppose, a very much needed proffession, if you want to have the resources required in other types of crafting.
Lastly, a few words on assets.
As explained above, all parts of the crafting system are open to all players, who can start up any given proffession without having to deactivate or 'forget' another proffession. The limit, then, to crafting as a whole, must be introduced elsewhere.
In Neverwinter, the limits are three-fold. First: The amount time crafting takes. Waiting, in other words, is a major part of the crafting. A given job can take between 5 seconds, to, from among the ones I know of, 18 hours. This time requirement can be reduced in 2 ways: Either by 'rushing' the production, causing the craft to finish instantly, which requires Astral Diamonds (a currency), or by using higher grade 'assets', as well as assigning, when possible, multiple 'assets', to a single crafting job. The second method reduces the time required for a craft by a given percentage, rather than finishing it instantly. It should be noted, that the timer on a crafting job runs regardless of wether you are logged in or not - so no worries on that account.
The second limit, is the assets. Crafting in Neverwinter can be described as running an industry. You have workers, who do the crafting for you, while you yourself is in a management position. The amount of work done, then, is limited by how many people - 'assets', you have working for you in a given industry (proffession). These people, sadly, have never learned about multitasking, so one person, or asset, equals one job. Or he can help another asset finish a job quicker, as described above.
Lastly, the third limit, is in how many jobs your character can have active, or in progress, at any given time. The number starts at one, and through the gameplay allows you to expand up to having nine possible jobs running at a time.
Crafting in Neverwinter, then, is mainly defined by time.
Throughout this I must admit that I have neglected mention of other, as I see them, perifically connected limitations, such as the resources required to start a crafting job. I am aware of this, but will not be expunging on it, as, so far, these limitations have in no way been really defining for my experience of the crafting system. This might change, of course, in which case I might or might not update this part of the review.
Others are, of course, welcome to supplement in my place.
---- Personal preferences: My likes and dislikes in crafting, as opposed to other MMO's ---
In Neverwinter, the crafting system have obvious parallels to crafting systems seen in other games - most obviously, in my oppinion, as seen in Star Wars: The Old Republic, in that crafting takes time, and that you have other people do it for you.
Obivous differences exist as well, in that the time difference is staggering, and that in SWtOR, your companions do the crafting, rather than a seperate group of people dedicated to it.
I find that I really enjoy this kind of system, though even I must admit I find the sheer time scale of crafting in Neverwinter astounding.
So astounding, in fact, that my crafting have fallen far behind my character's level. This may, of course, be due to a bit of branching out in leadership, as well as a lack in dilligence, or maybe even that the system was designed with this gap as a result of the limits imposed on it.
Whatever the cause, I find that it really does take a large bit of the joy in crafting from me. I rather like the idea of collecting, managing and decision-making inherent in the system, but the rewards should also be useable.
Also, the current content in many of the proffessions are rather limited - mostly, as mentioned above, to armor specific to that type of crafting.
This, I feel, could be vastly improved in a number of different directions:
1) Making the different proffessions more co-dependant, rather than mostly independant (except from from leadership, so far). This could be done by factoring in the fact that, in the making of a set of platemail you would, at least in the real world, need implements such as cloth for the underwear (no clue what the name is in english - in danish its 'Slagkofte' - a translation would be welcome), leather strips and so on, to hold the set together, and chain mail to protect against other types of attacks, than what the platemail is designed to.
Another preference in this direction, in my case, would be to allow different proffessions some leeway in being used to upgrade pieces of armor from other proffessions, again increasing co-dependancy.
I'm not saying to make it entirely realistic, but to add incentives to players to level other proffessions than the one connected to their class, as it is so far (Tailor -> Control wizard, for example).
2) Adding consumeables, or a proffession revolving mainly around consumeables, such as potions. The possibilities in this direction are manyfold, and I will not be further exploring this here.
3) Adding the possibility of crafting 'misc' items. I am aware that bags will probably not be up for much discussion, as I understand that Neverwinter is a product, and as such needs to make money. Adding in the possibility of making, say, 8-12 slot bags, as opposed to the 24-slot bags sold online, would be a welcome addition.
Another possibility would be visuals or dyes - again, cosmetic and sold online, but still worth exploring. Rarities and such could be reserved for payment, while 'common' colors could be crafted.
Misc items, as well, could include a different tier of companion upgrades - which so far is made up of runestones and items placed in their respective slots. I should think that 'buffing' the companions in this way, would not be a game breaking change to the game.
4) Skins for those same companions and the possibility of varying the way an item ends up looking, when crafted, on the character, as is already implemented by the 'change appearence' function on items.
As mentioned above, these are my personal preferences - as such, I haven't put much effort in defending them, but I have attempted to moderate them in ways, so that they would be of use to the developers or, perhaps, other players. I hope I was somewhat succesfull.
--- Merits and demerits ---
Perhaps this is rather inaptly named, as the following will mostly be a short summation of the points listed above, in the form of conrete suggestions. I am aware that they may come across as rather rude or abrupt, and I apologize in advance for that. The point here, is to be concrete. Explanations can be found above.
1) Make proffessions more co-dependant than they are currently.
2) Add in different item types for crafting - weapons, talismans and so forth.
3) Balance the time required in crafting - at least in the lower crafting levels, so that items crafted will still be useable for people playing steadily through the crafting.
4) Add more proffessions, or expand the current ones to include more general item categories, such as 'equip items', 'consumeables' or 'upgrades'.
This concludes my review, and I hope that whoever reads it might find it useful in any way. I might, in the future, expand on some of the points I have made, and reserve the right to be proven wrong in one or more ways.
Regards.
In the following I will briefly discuss my personal thoughts on the crafting system, including personal likes and dislikes, as well as the reasons behind those.
More importantly, perhaps, a discussion on the merits and demerits of the system will be expunged upon, so as to provide a somewhat detailed view, from a player perspective, on the crafting in Neverwinter.
Before that, however, a brief description of my introduction to the crafting system, as told through a personal review, written by me:
--- Review: Introduction to and explanation of the crafting system ---
I first found out about Neverwinter from a friend of mine, when I saw the 'then' website of the game, which, at the time, had almost nothing on it, except for a few heroes. This was, as you might realize, some time ago.
I followed the website and development of the game sporadically since then, but have only really begun playing the game since the release of the open beta.
Now, the game doesn't provide you with any information on the crafting system before reaching a certain level. As such, the only notion I had on the crafting in Neverwinter, was that I would surely be there.. Somewhere.
I was pleased, then, when I got the 'crafting quest'.
I was not, however, very pleased with the distinct lack of description or detail provided on each of the proffessions. In fact, the only thing I really noticed, was a very basic explanation on how to activate a task with an asset, and then to wait for it to finish.
I was, however, beyond pleased when I noticed how I could, at any given time, start leveling the different proffessions independently from each other, and without a limits as to how many I could have set as active at any given time.
The impression I got while playing around with crafting, then, was that there's a marked distinction in the reward types for the different crafting. This is, of course, obvious, to anyone who looks.
Crafting can, broadly, be divided into 2 categories:
Item crafting: These proffessions are centered around the purpose of crafting an item, useable by players. At the time of this writing, almost all the content released seems to be of the armor type, as opposed to consumeables or weapons. Also, all but one proffession currently in the game belongs in this category.
Gathering: The last proffession, leadership, can be said to revolve around the gathering of different types of currencies and resources (as rewarded through chests). It is fairly straitforward, and, I suppose, a very much needed proffession, if you want to have the resources required in other types of crafting.
Lastly, a few words on assets.
As explained above, all parts of the crafting system are open to all players, who can start up any given proffession without having to deactivate or 'forget' another proffession. The limit, then, to crafting as a whole, must be introduced elsewhere.
In Neverwinter, the limits are three-fold. First: The amount time crafting takes. Waiting, in other words, is a major part of the crafting. A given job can take between 5 seconds, to, from among the ones I know of, 18 hours. This time requirement can be reduced in 2 ways: Either by 'rushing' the production, causing the craft to finish instantly, which requires Astral Diamonds (a currency), or by using higher grade 'assets', as well as assigning, when possible, multiple 'assets', to a single crafting job. The second method reduces the time required for a craft by a given percentage, rather than finishing it instantly. It should be noted, that the timer on a crafting job runs regardless of wether you are logged in or not - so no worries on that account.
The second limit, is the assets. Crafting in Neverwinter can be described as running an industry. You have workers, who do the crafting for you, while you yourself is in a management position. The amount of work done, then, is limited by how many people - 'assets', you have working for you in a given industry (proffession). These people, sadly, have never learned about multitasking, so one person, or asset, equals one job. Or he can help another asset finish a job quicker, as described above.
Lastly, the third limit, is in how many jobs your character can have active, or in progress, at any given time. The number starts at one, and through the gameplay allows you to expand up to having nine possible jobs running at a time.
Crafting in Neverwinter, then, is mainly defined by time.
Throughout this I must admit that I have neglected mention of other, as I see them, perifically connected limitations, such as the resources required to start a crafting job. I am aware of this, but will not be expunging on it, as, so far, these limitations have in no way been really defining for my experience of the crafting system. This might change, of course, in which case I might or might not update this part of the review.
Others are, of course, welcome to supplement in my place.
---- Personal preferences: My likes and dislikes in crafting, as opposed to other MMO's ---
In Neverwinter, the crafting system have obvious parallels to crafting systems seen in other games - most obviously, in my oppinion, as seen in Star Wars: The Old Republic, in that crafting takes time, and that you have other people do it for you.
Obivous differences exist as well, in that the time difference is staggering, and that in SWtOR, your companions do the crafting, rather than a seperate group of people dedicated to it.
I find that I really enjoy this kind of system, though even I must admit I find the sheer time scale of crafting in Neverwinter astounding.
So astounding, in fact, that my crafting have fallen far behind my character's level. This may, of course, be due to a bit of branching out in leadership, as well as a lack in dilligence, or maybe even that the system was designed with this gap as a result of the limits imposed on it.
Whatever the cause, I find that it really does take a large bit of the joy in crafting from me. I rather like the idea of collecting, managing and decision-making inherent in the system, but the rewards should also be useable.
Also, the current content in many of the proffessions are rather limited - mostly, as mentioned above, to armor specific to that type of crafting.
This, I feel, could be vastly improved in a number of different directions:
1) Making the different proffessions more co-dependant, rather than mostly independant (except from from leadership, so far). This could be done by factoring in the fact that, in the making of a set of platemail you would, at least in the real world, need implements such as cloth for the underwear (no clue what the name is in english - in danish its 'Slagkofte' - a translation would be welcome), leather strips and so on, to hold the set together, and chain mail to protect against other types of attacks, than what the platemail is designed to.
Another preference in this direction, in my case, would be to allow different proffessions some leeway in being used to upgrade pieces of armor from other proffessions, again increasing co-dependancy.
I'm not saying to make it entirely realistic, but to add incentives to players to level other proffessions than the one connected to their class, as it is so far (Tailor -> Control wizard, for example).
2) Adding consumeables, or a proffession revolving mainly around consumeables, such as potions. The possibilities in this direction are manyfold, and I will not be further exploring this here.
3) Adding the possibility of crafting 'misc' items. I am aware that bags will probably not be up for much discussion, as I understand that Neverwinter is a product, and as such needs to make money. Adding in the possibility of making, say, 8-12 slot bags, as opposed to the 24-slot bags sold online, would be a welcome addition.
Another possibility would be visuals or dyes - again, cosmetic and sold online, but still worth exploring. Rarities and such could be reserved for payment, while 'common' colors could be crafted.
Misc items, as well, could include a different tier of companion upgrades - which so far is made up of runestones and items placed in their respective slots. I should think that 'buffing' the companions in this way, would not be a game breaking change to the game.
4) Skins for those same companions and the possibility of varying the way an item ends up looking, when crafted, on the character, as is already implemented by the 'change appearence' function on items.
As mentioned above, these are my personal preferences - as such, I haven't put much effort in defending them, but I have attempted to moderate them in ways, so that they would be of use to the developers or, perhaps, other players. I hope I was somewhat succesfull.
--- Merits and demerits ---
Perhaps this is rather inaptly named, as the following will mostly be a short summation of the points listed above, in the form of conrete suggestions. I am aware that they may come across as rather rude or abrupt, and I apologize in advance for that. The point here, is to be concrete. Explanations can be found above.
1) Make proffessions more co-dependant than they are currently.
2) Add in different item types for crafting - weapons, talismans and so forth.
3) Balance the time required in crafting - at least in the lower crafting levels, so that items crafted will still be useable for people playing steadily through the crafting.
4) Add more proffessions, or expand the current ones to include more general item categories, such as 'equip items', 'consumeables' or 'upgrades'.
This concludes my review, and I hope that whoever reads it might find it useful in any way. I might, in the future, expand on some of the points I have made, and reserve the right to be proven wrong in one or more ways.
Regards.
Post edited by porphyrric on
0
Comments
This becomes even worse as you tier up. When it starts taking you days to "upgrade" your craftpeople, and that increases exponentially as you level up. For instance, say you want to have 1 rank 4 craftperson. That would take 64 rank 1s converting to rank 2s, then 3s, then one rank 4 person. This would take you, if you did it linearly, 1530 hours. If you are level 60, and have one skill maxxed you would have 6 slots to distribute that. But that still means 255 hours of non stop crafting, not counting all the time it would take you to get to level 20 in a craft.
My suggestion would be to make it simply take 18 hours to hire the higher tier person and not have it consume 4 other people. By the way, how does that work? Are you grinding up three people and feeding them to the 4th? It makes no sense....
Feel free to join us in NWO-Professions channel if you wish to discuss things tradeskill related in game.
Foundry Content:Guide - Custom Channels and List (NW-DHBU9OTOS)
Asset upgrading poll.
It requires a rather large investment of either AD, Zen or both in order to actually craft something worthwhile.
If you're a solo player who does not wish to gamble with Zen market Booster packs, don't bother with crafting, just sell the mats.