Artisan Archive

Well I guess you've all heard the news about the crafting system changes - going in with publish 7 on Tuesday to be hotfixed out on Wednesday or as soon as possible.

Now I don't think there's anybody who will argue that this is a bad move (the hotfixing out that is - but on that note, do try out the new system for the short while it's in) but it does leave the question: does the crafting system need to change, and if so how?

If it does need to change and for the reasons listed by SOE (making available items more variable in statistics, rather than having everything virtually identical) then I would suggest the following (I'll give an example at the end of how this would work out in practice):

Complicate the relationships between resource attributes and final results, and do not document all the relationships. This makes crafting more of an art as players will have to experiment with different types of resources in order to gain the best results. Good products will still be made with the normal high quality resources, but experimenting may lead to something better. This gives an advantage to the newer crafter, who is presumably hand crafting all his items, over the more advanced crafter, who presumably runs factories to make his items.

Make this relationship much more influential on the resulting attributes. Currently good resources will often get you to about 30% on the experimentation line (in my experience). This should be higher.

Modify the experimentation system so that instead of each experimentation point having the same effect, the effect is larger for bars that are less experimented. So if you have one experimentation point left, putting into a bar with 30% might raise it to 45% but putting it in a bar with 95% will only raise it to 96%. This results in crafters having to make much harder decisions about where to spend their experimentation points. At what point do the diminishing returns mean it's better to experiment on something else.

An example:
The power conditioner currently has two attributes that may be experimented on: Unit Integrity and Quality. Unit Integrity relies 100% on the Unit Toughness of the resources. Quality relies 100% on the Overall Quality of the resources.

Under this proposed system it might work something like this (numbers are made up and should be used only as a guide):
The Unit Integrity of the power conditioner is strongly related to the Unit Toughness of the resources, however both the Conductivity and the Malleability also have an effect. The Unit Integrity will be higher if the average Malleability of the resources is between 100 and 150 and if the Conductivity is close to half of the Unit Toughness. The Quality of the power conditioner is still heavily dependant on the Overall Quality of the resources, but is also affected by the Malleability and the Shock Resistance of the resources. The Quality will be higher if the Shock Resistance is higher than the Overall Quality of the resource and the Malleability is around 500. To turn these into mathematical formulae:

Malleability Factor 1 = 0 for Malleability < 100 or Malleability > 150
Malleability Factor 1 = 3 - (0.0048 × (Malleability - 125)²) for 100 <= Malleability <= 150
Conductivity Factor = 0 for Conductivity < (Unit Toughness / 2) - 50 or Conductivity > (Unit Toughness / 2) + 50
COnductivity Factor = 2 - (0.0008 × (Conductivity - (Unit Toughness / 2))²) for (Unit Toughness / 2) - 50 <= Conductivity <= (Unit Toughness / 2) + 50
Unit Integrity = (0.045 × Average Unit Toughness) + (Malleability Factor 1) + (Conductivity Factor)

Shock Resistance Factor = 0 for Shock Resistance < Overall Quality
Shock Resistance Factor = 5 for Shock Resistance > Overall Quality + 50
Shock Resistance Factor = 0.1 × (Shock Resistance - Overall Quality) for Overall Quality <= Shock Resistance <= Overall Quality + 50
Malleability Factor 2 = 0 for Malleability < 400 or Malleability > 600
Malleability Factor 2 = 2.5 - (0.00025 × (Malleability - 500)²) for 400 <= Malleability <= 600
Quality = (0.0425 * Overall Quality) + (Shock Resistance Factor) + (Malleability Factor 2)

So with a perfect resource with statistics:
Conductivity: 1000
Malleability: 1000
Unit Toughness: 1000
Shock Resistance: 1000
Overall Quality: 1000
Before experimentation you would get:
Unit Integrity = 45%
Overall Quality = 42.5%

But with a resource with statistics:
Conductivity: 475
Malleability: 500
Unit Toughness: 950
Shock Resistance: 980
Overall Quality: 900
Before experimentation you would get:
Unit Integrity: 44.75%
Overall Quality: 45.75%

So the resource with lower statistics actually produces a better product overall.

Now we turn to experimentation. If each experimentation point is worth 20% of the remaining points available, i.e. if the bar is at 50% then an experimentation point is worth 10%, if the bar is at 90% then an experimentation point is worth 2%, the advanced crafter may choose to spend all of their experimentation points to try and max out the Unit Integrity. Lets assume they have 6 experimentation points:
Point #1 raises the Unit Integrity from 45% to 56%
Point #2 raises the Unit Integrity from 56% to 64%
Point #3 raises the Unit Integrity from 64% to 71%
Point #4 raises the Unit Integrity from 71% to 77%
Point #5 raises the Unit Integrity from 77% to 81%
Point #6 raises the Unit Integrity from 81% to 85%

So the advanced crafter ends up with a power conditioner with:
Unit Integrity: 85%
Overall Quality: 42.5%

Lets assume that the novice crafter has 2 experimentation points and decides to put one of them into Unit Integrity and one into Overall Quality:
Point #1 raises Unit Integrity from 44.75% to 55%
Point #2 raises Overall Quality from 45.75% to 56%

So the novice crafter ends up with a power conditioner with:
Unit Integrity: 55%
Overall Quality: 56%

As you can see, even with numbers that were plucked out of thin air, the novice crafter fairs better under this system, but the advanced crafter still has the advantage. Add to this the fact that a novice crafter may be able to sell a good 'recipie' to a more advanced crafter and I think this would add a great deal to the crafting side of the game. There are still issues, such as how this would mesh with items crafted under the old system. I think it would be workable, certainly more than the system the devs came up with (which we will only see for 24 hours), since the difference between old-system and new-system items would be small. What are your thoughts as crafters. Would this fix the crafting system without breaking it more? Can it be improved? Is it workable? Does the crafting system even need fixing? Should I shut up and go away?

EnigmaBSc

Personally I think there are many many more problems that should addressed before they even consider changing crafting again. The vehicle disappearing problem, the warping when getting off, the melee centricity of a game set in a universe of gun toting people, the shat shifting bug on PSG's, the armor hole, the worthlessness that is RIS armor, the critical fail rate (I'm an armorsmith, can you tell), the suck graphics performence in towns even on high end machines. I could go on for a while. I think the crafting system does need some work, but there are so many many things that are don't work correctly or are completely broken that should be fixed first.

In my humble opinion, which Sony neither asks for or cares about, I think the entire crafting paradigm is completely stupid. It is already entirely too complex, and too variable, in its machinations. If it needs to change at all, it needs to be made simpler. The idea of people trying to guess what it is the devs had in mind about how to craft things is ludicrous.

The way resources are set up leads to people being required to hoard items for months, to put together "perfect" items. But then we have extremely limited storage capability, to discourage people from hoarding their resources. Infinitely changing resources necessitates large storage ability. Infinitely changing rules of crafting necessitates large storage ability.

If I make something requiring experimentation, and it doesn't come out perfect, it is worthless to me. Nobody will buy it, even at a discounted price, because they know that "perfect" items exist.

Crafters require real game content. Critical failures are not the same as game content. Resources changing every week are not game content. Constantly changing rules are not game content. Adding chef's hats is definitely not game content.

in reply to lady gray:

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