shermantank - 8/15/2006 6:12 AM Hello all, although I am saying that it does in some ways, and I don't think that's in dispute, it does nobody any good to moan if you can't offer an alternative, so here goes - ACQUIRING CNR ITEMS Have only a single attempt at an any CNR after which it is lost, allow the usual chain of 'aargh this is difficult to dig' and chance of tools breaking, but at the end instead of a random success for 1 or 2 items have a guaranteed success of a random number of items depending on the nature of the CNR, eg. 3-6 for gems, 5-10 sand (after all, how hard is it to fill bags from a pile of loose sand?). Should be a reasonably practical code change although setting the range for each CNR needs care.
CRAFTING ITEMS I'd like to see percentage chances removed and have the recipes adjusted according to level ie. if Trivial requires 1 CNR, 1 level below requires 2 CNR, 2 below requires 4, 3 below requires 8, 4 or more below is impossible, but that's a huge code rewrite!
Have some reward for a failed craft attempt, based on percentage chance of success just as the current system rewards success based on percentage chance of failure. At least then there's a small benefit while you're working on raising you're craft skill and also some compensation for failing to craft an item you needed that wasn't quite trivial for you. Should be a very simple code change.
MARKETS FOR ITEMS Pawnbrokers should buy items (all items, not just craftable ones) at a price based on their 'lens' value eg. 40% in large towns, 20% in small towns. The pawnbroker should then retain the items until the next server reset and offer them for sale at the 'lens' value. This creates a more liquid market and stabilises prices at the 'lens' value which is under GM control and adds interest to the world by wanting to visit pawnbrokers. How easy that is to write I suppose depends on the pawnbroker retaining stock.
SO . . . Three ideas, what do you think?
shermantank - 8/16/2006 7:12 AM Hello again, there seems to be some confusion about the point(s) I raised. I am NOT claiming that crafting should be easy. It should be difficult but it should be difficult because the CNR are hard to reach, well guarded. The current system makes it difficult by being deliberately obstructive at the crafting stage, making Layonara tedious and frustrating to the point where it as painful and objectionable to play sometimes. It's fine by me that I cannot acquire diamonds or adamantium, and so cannot make anything requiring them, not yet anyway, that gives me something to work towards. I can even accept having to make a hundred attempts to craft a useless and unwanted lesser version of an item that I do want even though it has the same ingredients on the grounds of 'skill level'. What really grates is when those hundred attempts mean doing nothing for two weeks online except clicking on the same pile of sand over and over again and reading 'hope my shovel doen't break' which just isn't amusing for the millionth time.
My point about CNR wasn't the quantity returned it was the pointless monotony of acquiring it, why shouldn't the same yield be available from a single click?
As for XP changes in crafting making it easier to level, well yes it would, it would exactly halve the number of attempts between levels.
I now think that's actually a good idea, and that craft levelling should be easier because it damps down the economy - here's why - (A true story) I wanted platinum armour for my character. There are two ways to do that - either buy it - or learn to make it. My smelting was already reasonable because I make my own arrows, so I spent half my online time for about a month learning to make armour, mining copper, tin, iron, getting into groups for platinum, making shields, bronze armour, helms, iron armour, and eventually, at the second attempt, the platinum armour that I wanted. All the time that I spent doing this I enjoyed because I was making steady progress towards my goal. Or I could have spent the same time hacking my way around the world to gain another xp level and fill my pockets with coin. In the crafting version I lost money on ingredients, a small decrease in the money supply in Layonara, in the buying version I wouuld easily have made twice the price of the armour, all of which money would be added into circulation now. So if the economy of Layonara is overheating then I accept that the idea about pawnbrokers paying more for items is bad, but I also point out that restricting the availability of desirable items to being by purchase only is bad too because it creates a higher demand for coin to be generated in-game when characters can't make something for themselves or even make something of a useful level that can be bartered with.
(Another true story) My current crafting attempts have been towards level 3 crystal rods to try to trade with an enchanter for a level 3 enhancement that I want. Frankly it's just far too much trouble to bother making the one extra craft level in tinkering that I need to do it. There's no adventuring work or bartering that I could possibly do that's of interest to any character in the game that's capable of making level 3 ehancement rods, so that means I'll be buying one. That means I have to go out and get the money to pay for it, and more money added into the economy.
I do understand that there's a complex balance between crafting and the economy, so if the economy is perfect as it is now then it's probably too risky to change crafting. It looks like I'll be buying almost everything from now on, but at least I won't have to read 'sheesh how deep must I go' again. I'll do better for XP too, I haven't levelled for a while, been too busy crafting :-).