Weaponsmith Archive

Thread: Weaponsmith Bug and Repair Discussion: Crafting CL

Mor-Dan
Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:22 pm
#14

i dunno about any of you guys, but i died just as easily in the old system if i went where i knew the creatures were stronger than me. aside from now actually KNOWING what creature CLs are, i don't see much of a diffrence. no combat, no armour, and no buffs, if i got attacked by an aggressive butterfly, i was going to get incapped, period. this non-sense about being incapped by durni's... if you are dumb enough to attack something 3 or 4 CLs above you that is yellow (passive) and con's this new pink-ish red color, then you deserve your comeupence. crafters were meant to remain in a city, not galavant across the country side. you want to stay alive? keep your factories and houses in city limits, and take clearing forces with you to lay harvesters. if you have harvesting fields, give someone else admin to maintain them for you. there are a million ways to make this work, but few want to accept the idea of leaving it alone and playing it as though it were real life and you have no choice.



Vendor Locations:
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Ferrek
Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:08 pm
#15

First of all, getting attacked by a mob has nothing to do with being dumb or not - aggro doesn't take the player intelligence into account, nor does the lag that lets you drive straight into a camp of mobs before you even see that they're there.

Second, many cities don't want factories inside the city limits, either because it makes things look cluttered, or because the space available for placing structures is limited and needs to be saved for houses, or both.

And third - this isn't the real world, it's a game - a game for which we all pay to play, and even suggesting that those who choose to play it in a certain way shouldn't be allowed to see more than the small percentage of the game world that constitutes the cities, is just plain silly.

But if you insist on bringing any real world comparison into the picture, you should at the least go all the way so you'll avoid hypocrisy. In the real world, anyone can wear a suit of armour as long as it fits them physically, and anyone can pick up any kind of gun, point it away from themselves and pull the trigger, or pick up a sword or a pole and swing it towards someone else. They may not hit anything, but they sure as hell have a chance of hitting something, especially if it's big enough and moving slowly or not at all. Also in the real world, if a crocodile bites a man he'll probably loose a limb or worse, regardless of wether he's a librarian, a jeweler or a battle-hardened war veteran.

But this isn't the real world, and I think we're all thankfull of that. It's a game we play to have fun, and the current situation with crafters getting one hit incapped when they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, seriously takes away from the fun. Just removing the damage-multipliers would help a lot towards eliminating this as a problem, because that's the main difference between pre-CU and current situation in this case. Before the CU, a mob that hit delivered X amount of damage regardless of who he was hitting. That's why it wasn't such a problem before - if someone attacked you, you had a chance to get away before you were incapped/killed. Now you don't.

As for the "you can choose to pick up combat skills" argument - sure, one can do that. The same argument applies to every other profession though, so if we all stick with that, this game has no balance-issues worth mentioning, and any problem the rifleman or BH or commando has isn't relevant - he can always choose to take up a different profession and eliminate his issues that way. It's the exact same thing, but strangely enough nobody uses that argument in those cases. I wonder why.







Arkel Kiran - Elder Weaponsmith (retired from crafting)
Kiran Arms Inc. - Clearance sale at -1291, 451 Temenos, Naboo (Kettemoor galaxy): Excellent resources and Weaponsmithing items

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
JohnAdams
Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:03 pm
#16






Ferrek wrote:

As for the "you can choose to pick up combat skills" argument - sure, one can do that. The same argument applies to every other profession though, so if we all stick with that, this game has no balance-issues worth mentioning, and any problem the rifleman or BH or commando has isn't relevant - he can always choose to take up a different profession and eliminate his issues that way. It's the exact same thing, but strangely enough nobody uses that argument in those cases. I wonder why.




Apples and Oranges. More accurate would be to compare it to an MBH/Master Rifleman Artisan-1000 who complains that thepowerups they make are crappy. You wouldn't argue that a double combat master should get master level experimental points. You get CL ratings by combat experience just as you get experimental points through artisan experience. I see no logic whatsoever in giving crafters CL ratings they have not earned. Therefore, the reasoning stands. If you want a better CL, pick up combat skills. I sacrifice the ability to pick up master Merchant or Shipwright by keeping 0030 Pistoleer. The tradeoff is I get a CL that keeps me alive in most situations on starter planets. We all have choices to make.


There are many things I cannot so post CU that I could before - on both my WS and my combat alt. Before the CU, my WS could solo virtually any creature on Talus with my composite armor, stim B's and food buffs. Now there are tons of MOBs I have to avoid. My Master Commando could waltz through the Warren solo without fear of dying. Now I have to be very selective about what I solo even though he's a level 76 MBH/Smuggler. You can take any profession in the game and find that there is a pretty long list of stuff that they can't do now that they could do pre CU.


I have yet to see any persuasive argument that things should be any different. Bottom line is that there are things people can do to avoid or alleviate the situation they are in. But in many cases, these things are inconvenient. But that's still no reason to change the way CL are used. I may not like the level system (I argued against on the TC forums before the CU was implemented. Fat lot of good that did), but I have learned to adapt to it. But like I stated before, the thing that bothers me most is that there are many professions that want to absorb traits from other profs - just because. Combat types want to craft their own weapons. Crafters want combat skills. I have a bad feeling as to where this will end up.





CrazyBob - grumpy old weaponsmith
Check your global south of Dearic on Bria
Ferrek
Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:30 pm
#17

You're reasoning on the definition that CL = combat-skills. That's not the case - combat skills come through skillmodifiers and weapon specials, the combat level itself does not grant you any combat-skills. So crafters wanting combat levels doesn't equal combatants asking for experimentation-points, because experimentation-points are awarded through the experimentation-skills, which again are awarded through the chosen skillbox.

Levels are artificially added on top of the system proper and currently serve only two purposes: limit people in the choice of weaponry, and allow mobs to deal more damage to lower-level characters and less damage to higher-level characters. The level itself does not grant you any combat-skills. How good are the combat-skills of a medic or a doctor? Not very - they too need some kind of offensive profession to be able to be viable in combat, but they still get combat levels from their choice of skills.

As I've already said - removing the damage multiplier based on CL will go a long way towards fixing the issue. If they did that, crafters wouldn't need combat-levels since they would no longer get one-hit incapped. But if the devs refuse to do this, then the only other thing one can do is to remove "combat level" and re-define it as "level", and let everyone gain them, just like all other level-based systems work.

Before the CU there were still combat levels, but they were invisible and were awarded differently, e.g. your level would increase when you equipped a weapon you were skilled with. The main difference in the combat-system now is the damage multipliers. Those are the core of the problem, and in my opinion (as if it's not obvious by now) they should be removed alltogether.







Arkel Kiran - Elder Weaponsmith (retired from crafting)
Kiran Arms Inc. - Clearance sale at -1291, 451 Temenos, Naboo (Kettemoor galaxy): Excellent resources and Weaponsmithing items

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
Lycantha
Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:42 pm
#18

I would thing CL 12 would be a good maximum.. as the plagues of Demons and low level NPCs that spawn on top of me are around that.

I don't want to win.. just get away. My house is 30m away from my factories and I dont make it. I'm on the outskirts of a Player town on a noob planet, Tatooine. I get wiped up by the crap that spawns in bestine at Level 1, Ive learned to only use the bank Bazaare terms.. its the only safe place.

as far as armor goes I would be ecstatic with 1000 resists. again, I just want to get away.. the three incaps are ruining comps and products like tools and repair kits. Stinks to get spawned on by some group of level 4 NPCs with a pack full of craft tools you just pulled and have a 3 incap decay them all.

whats funnier still is two level 13 Demons can mop the floor with my level "30" -cough- probot. Same npcs can one shot a 98% X-34 too. I try to stay in the car to do harvs and surveying.. lets just say Ive left a pile of burning wrecks and trip incapped anyway.

a small amount of CL would go a long way.. and still not open combat content to us, and thats all I want.



Lasai Bilof
Mercenary
Master Carbineer Since November 03
Ronin


jason67
Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:28 am
#19

I think giving us a higher character level is really all that's needed for the crafters. I don't see many crafters complaining about not being able to PvP or anything like that. The reason crafters are complaining is because mobs tend to spawn around all our harvestors and factories, but anything can pretty much 1hit incap us including starter planet mobs (durni's etc...). it is just rediculous to be incapped by everything and anything that happens to be nearby while trying to put stuff in your factories or pull some equipment out.


I think giving us CL 54 or CL80 (doesn't really matter which) is all that we need, though I think many people would like some form of armor I do not believe it is required to accomplish our goals with this issue. The only thing that most of us are concerned about is being one hit incapped (ultimately triple incapped) because we can't even run before we're dead. As a lvl 80, or even a lvl 54 we can survive long enough to get back into our houses or hop back on our speeder, and that's all we're really looking for. We aren't crying out because we can't clear the mobs away to drop harvestors, we aren't crying because we can't PvP, what we are crying about is that we can't simply add the ingredients in our factories without dying, we can't go gather resources from our harvestors (not drop them but just gather what's already been collected).


I think most of the crafters understand the need and desire for us to have "escorts" when trying to clear out areas in adventure planet, or trying to clear areas to drop harvestors, etc... We all see the purpose behind that, but for basic functions like walking between your houses, or walking to your factories you should be able tolast long enough to at least run and escape against basic mobs. Now I don't expect crafters to last against high level mobs like Rancors but we shouldn't be so week that durni's and butterflies are killing us in a single hit.





HostageH
Master Lightsaber /3003Enhancer /4100Healer /0044Defender
/0044Force Reflexes /Master Force Combat

Arisa
MasterWeaponsmith(125exp/130assembly/25repair/22weapons repair) /MasterArtisan(14pt) /MasterShipwright /4400Force Crafting
Vendor Location 2355, -3922 just outside Coronet
Thraxor
Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:48 am
#20





this non-sense about being incapped by durni's... if you are dumb enough to attack something 3 or 4 CLs above you that is yellow (passive) and con's this new pink-ish red color, then you deserve your comeupence.




Well seeing how you picked that out lets review it. I never said I was attacking them did I? I said getting incapped by them and theres a big difference in attacking versus getting incapped in one shot by a low level mob whiletrying to check on harvs. What is "dumb" as you say is having a low level mob hit me for over 1k because it's a few levels above me with the great damage multiplier. Whats "dumb" is keeping most of your pure crafters at level 1while you know everything is gurantteed to be your level and higher whereveryou go and with the damage multiplier making sure you dont even have a chance to do anything but flop to the ground=incap with one shot.


And no I wasnt getting incapped or killed in the old system because we had a choice on wearing armor and getting buffs before going out to do a drop, maint, or whatever. The difference now is with damage multipliers nobody has a chance anymore, theres no skill or stragey or planning ahead, it's an auto incap from just about everything a level 1 crafter is gonna come up against.


I'm sure nobodyexpected to to solo the DWB as a pure crafter but I also expect they didn't plan on having to worry about getting incapped on their doorstep by a Valarians Thug in one shoteither and know they would neverhave a chance to do even attempt to defend themselves. And "crafters were meant to remain in a city", are you kidding me? Sure I'll be down for that, right after Cities are expanded x10 in size for all my factories/harvsand all the resources that spawn are found in 90% concentrations and it starts raining gumdrops. Untill then like everyone else I'll be travelling the 'starter' planets surveying and stocking my vendors trying to avoid incaps from about anything im gonna come accross. Workarounds for bad game design doesn't = problem solved.


And for the record I have a second account with a lvl 80 character and friends/guildies who like to help out but not everyone has that option. And yes a simple grouping with a lvl 80 friend, for thelvl 80 defenses,I can still do solo drops on Dath, Endor, ect ect but again workarounds for bad game design doesn't = problem solved and not everyone has that option. I have yet to be killed on my crafter, taken some incaps, but there is nothing'fun and exciting' or 'entertaining' about the poorly implemented combat level system for crafters where at best the mobs I meet will be my level and at worst hit me for 5k in one shot.


This may seem a harsh post but for a honestreply to your original post I find my statements taken out of context and called 'dumb' for something I never said, meant, or intended. I said "getting incapped by a durni andother 'savage' creaturesis lame" and it always will be. I thought it would be obvioius thatifI'd getincapped accross the land by everything i could meetI probably wouldn't go out attacking things but then again maybe not. Let me put it this way,


As a full grown humanoid in a online game getting 1-2 hit incapped by a butterfly, rabbit, or similar mobs is lame. I can see getting beat, and not in 1 hit, by other humanoid creatures who are lvl 18-22. I couldagree withbeing 1 hit killed by a rancor, a nightsister, and similar mobs. I can't agree with and never will where game dynamics dictates I might actully have to leave the safety of my house to perform my profession duties but yet through baddesign changes get smoked in one shot by anything I might encounter no matter the location.





Blacksoul Industries
Located just 700m outside Bestine at -1721, -4302

Pheng
Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:12 am
#21

Could give crafters a level system that only effects what mobs con at. They can't use any weapons that require a lvl higher than 1, but when out n about those pesky kreetles won't kill you in one hit. Double crafter = effective lvl 80. Similar to when you are a low level char in a high level group, you look like you are lvl 80 to the mobs, but you are really only 1 or whatever.


I like the idea of giving crafters the ability to use some armor, but not be any good at fighting in it.


I'm nota crafter atm, butI have been in the past, and my alt will be in the future.





Phenglei Karos, Elder Jedi

Marus Timpel, Commando
Ecnirp
Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:48 am
#22


Its a little annoying that they reduced the agro range for low level creatures, to stop Combat characters being attacked by grey-consall the time etc. But that has no benefit to the average CL1 crafter who does not know the meaning of a low level mob.


Why not give crafters a "Crafter Level", that builds up in the same sort of way that Combat Level does, thengive them the same reduced agro range from grey-cons that Combat characters get. The crafter level should give no other benefits apart from this, no increased health, damage reduction etc.


It would just mean that we are not going to get agro'd continually when driving through the wilds or tending harvesters\factories by low level mobs in the nearby vicinity.


For people that would say, just group with a level 80 - this does not affect the agro range of creatures, I have tested this out. I grouped with my alt (a level 80) and stood near todifferent groups of aggressive creatures that con'd grey, every time my CL1 crafter (made CL80 by the group) got attacked and my CL80 alt wasn't touched.
Korom
Tue Jun 21, 2005 6:06 am
#23

As an Aside here, just to be friendly and help out the crafters on the servers I play on.


If you are a WS on either Wanderhome, or Sunrunner please call on me for assistance anytime I'm on...unless I'm in the middle of something very important which I'll explain when you /t me, I'll head on over and clear out mobs for ya.


you can reach me at either of these addresses lol


Jorguus -- Sunrunner


Kelvik -- Wanderhome


If i'm on feel free to page me, i'm cl 80 so nothing is too big for me to handle unless you put your factory next to a gorax or krayt dragon...or maybe one of those cl 120 fambaas lol.


EdOWar
Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:57 am
#24






Mor-Dan wrote:
i dunno about any of you guys, but i died just as easily in the old system if i went where i knew the creatures were stronger than me. aside from now actually KNOWING what creature CLs are, i don't see much of a diffrence. no combat, no armour, and no buffs, if i got attacked by an aggressive butterfly, i was going to get incapped, period. this non-sense about being incapped by durni's... if you are dumb enough to attack something 3 or 4 CLs above you that is yellow (passive) and con's this new pink-ish red color, then you deserve your comeupence. crafters were meant to remain in a city, not galavant across the country side. you want to stay alive? keep your factories and houses in city limits, and take clearing forces with you to lay harvesters. if you have harvesting fields, give someone else admin to maintain them for you. there are a million ways to make this work, but few want to accept the idea of leaving it alone and playing it as though it were real life and you have no choice.





I must disagree here. Pre-CU the only time I was ever one-hit incapped (and DB'd at the same time) was by a Singing Mountain Clan Dragoon (or something like that) on my way back from the village. Every other time I at least had a chance to get away from a creature that aggroed me while checking my factories or harvestors (as long as I stayed on my speeder). But post CU we can easily be incapped by low-level aggro creatures on starter planets, without even having a chance to get away. CombatLevel isn't just a measure of a creature's difficulty...it also acts as a damage modifier, whichmeans even a relatively low-level creature can one-hit incap a crafter toon.


I'm not asking for crafters to be able to galavant across Dathomir or Endor with ease. I'm not talking about being able to attack anything at all. All I would like to see is enough combat levels so that we aren't one-hit incapped by rabid bunny rabbits on starter planets...just so we have enough time to run away.


And bringing escorts to check harvestors and factoriesIS NOT A REALISTIC OPTION! So please drop that sillysuggestion right here and now. There's no way a crafter could pay any escort enough money to make it worth their while (not when the 'escort'could spend the time hunting loot and running missions and earn much, much more, and get XP on top of it). And guildies are usually off doing things of their own...they don't play just to be our personal escorts and bodyguards.


Now, if you're CL 1 and you're trying to plant harvestors on say Dathomir, then all bets are off. I agree that the adventure planets should be extremely dangerous for anyone, but especially for a CL 1 crafter. And being CL 5 or CL 10 won't make much of a difference on planets like Dathomir, or even Lok. But it will make a difference on starter planets. That's all we need, and it's all we should expect.


Slim Vargo, Corbantis
ShugFlurry
Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:14 am
#25

I could solo NS Elders pre-cu, granted my temp has changed but 90% armour + 39% stun +50% stun psg + buffs meant that nothing could touch me. Combine with big hammer + speed cap = bad things die. /mac 2hspin /afk while things die around facs. Granted my temp is now MEnt dancer/musician, but I would've kept Swords if it was still effective in high-end pve. Or that my hammer wasnt nerfed -_-



Shug
12pt Master WeaponSmith Master Force Crafter
-843 2827 Dantooine, Mining Outpost
Mor-Dan
Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:02 am
#26

i have never been attacked by a yellow (passive) dot on my screen, only red ones. i have never had a regular durni as a red dot, always yellow. anything you see that is red you should be striving to avoid, not getting in aggro range. if you get incapped by an aggressive creature, it is your fault for getting their range. if you get incapped by a yellow, then it is either your fault for attacking them, or there is a bug we need to be discussing...


as for starter planets, most of what will be around you should be CL10 or less, and what isn't i am hoping wil be fixed with the refacing of the planets. get a CH to train you a CL10 or CL12 or whatevel level it is you can have as a non-CH and train it to attack, and group with it when you go out. then see a DE and a droid for the same purpose. you are now a 3-man group and have plenty of firepower to handle a CL6 mob, and the others will hold the aggro. there are ways to work around this, but as i have always said, i will support what my community wants, unless of course it is just ridiculous like everyone wants 12 points at master or something like that.

Message Edited by Mor-Dan on 06-21-2005 01:13 PM



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