Development Cycle Archive

The new crafting system is a lot more fun to use than the old one. It takes more work actually experimenting and trying to get just the right rolls for a great item, but its addicting. Its like playing Lotto! I still think the end result of keeping this system is going to be that there are some schematics (multi-experimentation-line items)that cannot be made equal to what they were in the past, but reverting back to the old system will now produce the same problem since the new system also allows some items to be made higher than they were before. This system should never have been put in as it is because of the pre-nerf/post-nerf effect it is going to have on the equipment markets, but I must admit thatit isa more fun and rewarding a system than the old one from an entertainment point of view.

About critical failures, was the Assembly skill completely worthless before? I was under the impression that a higher assembly reduced the chance of a critical failure.

I'm sitting at work today cruising the boards and looking to see what's what... After all the doom and gloom about the new crafting system the number of positive responces is quite surprising.

A thought occures why not simply leave the new system in place for a week... That'll give most crafter the opportunity to actually explore the system then hold a referendum on whether to keep it or kill it.

To encourage experementation back up the resource database and re-emburse people for the resourses they burn up.

I hate it...can't wait for it to be hot-"fixed" outa here!

I'm a master armorsmith on Naritus. Yes...you can make 100% tools now...whooptie-doo.

The armor issue is terrible. Enter the l33t armorsmith:Woohoo!!! I can just keep hitting this "Experimental Quality" doo-hickey and make "better" armor than really good masters did pre-patch!!! (Yeah, and so can a monkey!)

I try my darnedest to make a variety of styles of composite armor that meet a variety of play styles. Pre-patch, I have been cycling through 8 very different varieties. Who needs more variation than that? Come look at my display shop on Dantooine (Naritus) (-3203, -5284) if you want to see what I mean.

Personally, I'm getting sick of this thing with people buffing themselves to insane HAM totals, and then putting on what really should be an unwearable set of armor. It's a pure case of min/maxing. There is no depth to this crafting style (duh!...lookie me make 'em high base armor...who cares about HAM...ug!).

So what does an intelligent armorsmith do in this situation? Jump right on the dumb-wagon, because due to the ability to wear "unwearable" armor, that's all anyone wants to buy anymore...never mind the insane amount of experimenting and testing I did before to figure out how to make a 400-500 per HAM category great suit of armor. Who needs it? It's a paper weight now!

1) Who needs exceptional krayt comp segments anymore? Base Layered Comp (base 69-71%) can easily be sliced to 90's. Who cares if the HAM is lower on the krayt stuff? "HAM is for wimps D00d!"

2) Who needs Nightsister Armor pieces anymore?(See above)

3) Who needs RIS?(See above)

4) Who needs an intelligent approach to armorsmithing anymore? ...it used to be interesting and challenging. You think the comp sets people are willing to pay me 500K each for just fell into my lap because I know how to hit an "experimental quality" button? Not even!

Due to this patch, I was able to dumb it up another Base 2-4% on Composite armor using the same ingredients I was using before. Doh!!! The HAM is higher...oh yeah...so what!!!! It's light as a feather on my buffed l33t D00d!

Unfortunately, I'm afraid the number of l33t schematics people are making today (and saving up on their vendors for when the hot-fix comes and sets things back to normal) have done enough damage to really get the armor ball rolling down-hill. So why not just keep the patched-system in? ...too late now.

Honestly, I hate it, but I'd be ok with it if you could just get rid of the 3,000,000 / 3,000,000 / 3,000,000 HAM crap.

Here is my results so far in weaponsmithing -

Ten point Master WS. ABPH came out 1 point lower on max today and .01 slower, and that was all greats and one amazing. Same materials as yesterday.

The ABRB: damage was the same at 11 11, speed was .02 slower, wound was same, ideal range was 11 lower (due to having no points left to experiment on it).

Republic made with prepatch parts: Min was 1 lower, Max was 2 lower, Speed same, HAM 18/48/18 (worse than before patch, which was 16/43/16), ideal was the same.

So the patch would have benefited 12 point MWS and been detrimental to 10 point MWS.

In fact it already has been detrimental, since 12 pointers will have about 1000 each of superior weapons in schematic form ready to make.

Comparing my results to Biggens (who is also on one of my servers) that is how it looks to me.

As another weaponsmith posted on the WS forum, perhaps there needs to be a more rational way to acquire these experimentation bonus tapes.

I always knew the new crafting system would benefit me as a Master Artisan, but now I really see it! Wow! I'm making +15 crafting tools, 100% repair kits, and I'm setting up a factory run right now so I can attempt the ultimate -- +45 crafting stations. Please, I beg of you, do not revert to the old system. I'm pulling an all-nighter to make sure I can get enough schematics and factory runs done of this new stuff as possible before the plug gets pulled.

It's nice that I'm able to make better stuff, but you know the best part? The crafting process has this amazing element of suspense now. Just like when you walk into a new combat situation for the first time -- are you gonna live? are you gonna die? But with crafting now, it's "am I gonna get the four amazings I need to hit the cap?" It took me about a dozen tries to get a good armor repair tool schematic and I was so proud of myself and my persistance at the end when I saw that "100%" come up on my screen. It felt "special" to me, instead of just something that any other double-clicking monkey could have done with the same resources.

Please don't revert!

P.S. Oh, yeah, and I've only had two crits so far. /happy dance

I did some testing on BE today, but logged in frustration after a rather devistating crit fail. I don't have hundreds of combines to base it on, but based on the ~20 I did, there doesn't seem to be much change in crit fail rates on dna/pet crafting - 3/20 combines crit failed. Since I was using new dna for some and generational for others, I don't know if this is really indicative of how the change has (or hasn't) worked on pets. A few of the other BE's I've talked to aren't trying much today because of the experimentation changes, but may be able to provide better feedback tomorrow.

In response to those asking for the changes to experimentation stay, let me explain to you what this change did to BE pets - we now use more experimentation points to get what we had before, only the catch is we don't use resources. It's the equivalent of the devs coming to you and saying your experimentation now depends on resource stats, only we're not going to tell you which stats matter, and they're going to change for each line of experimentation. Before you lobby for a change that helps your own profession, please consider the effect on all professions. There's no such thing as a BE skill tape, so we don't have the luxury of "fixing" our change like others do.