Why Craft?

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 3:05 am

Well, I had achieved level 10 in weaponsmithing and god knows what in smelting. I accomplished this a few months ago.

I go to learn a new skill in Carpentry over the week-end so i can start making some nice hafted weapons as gifts for low-levels, and notice my other tradeskills are back to zero. So, I couldn't do what I set out to do. Is it possible to restore those levels?

I suppose I'm just now coming to the realization that many other players have already attained: Why bother crafting?

I enjoyed the process of crafting, but considering the items I can make cannot compete with items I can adventure for, and the time it takes to suddenly not be able to use it, well...blah.

Mon-Da-Oth · Post by **Mon-Da-Oth** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:59 am

and notice my other tradeskills are back to zero

I hope that is not the case.

I have Myles spending lots of time in the craft halls and I use the crafts as part of his RP. It is nice to hand someone a quiver of arrows and say "Try these out I just finished making them." and for the them to reply "I don't know anyone one who makes their own arrows." I know that is much easier to simply buy them but the crafted ones have a special place in Myles inventory.

Mon da Oth.

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:20 am

Yes, I feel the same way about being able to create weapons, and made it part of the weaponmaster training that potential weaponmasters had to be able to make the weapon in which they intended to focus, even if they were going to toss it in lieu of something from Peribo's after I tapped them with the wand.

whiteguyinblues · Post by **whiteguyinblues** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:58 am

I hope this isnt true? I takes a lot of time to get good at crafting malar bags.

What is the deal with crafting? Are we ever going to see items that are required for crafting added to dasaria? I know a long time ago there was a new system in the works.

If there is a new system to be implimented, how long till we see it?

If not then please add the needed materials for the system already in place. I'm sure we could get a nice list of the missing items together in just a few days.

Peregrinus · Post by **Peregrinus** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:34 am

My biggest gripe is that is so different from the actual DnD craft system in certain reguards... and that in order to do one thing, you need to be able to do seven...

And then you make inferior items.

I took Falson around the other day trying to get started on scribing scrolls (which is difficult in and of itself because Falson's a Sorcerer and therefor his physical stats are only suited to gemcrafting). I did manage to scribe scrolls, Magic Missile in this case, but they are only lvl 3 scrolls... completely worthless in my book. According to DnD crafting a mage makes a scroll that is at their level... in other words, I should have created a lvl 20 magic missile scroll... now that's a gift worth giving.

The time it took to scribe four scrolls? Something like 40 minutes of running around getting all the pieces together and do the work... and the resultant items... pretty much worthless...

Yeah, basically I'm at the same point...

Post by **jhr4n** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:36 am

Considering the items I can make cannot compete with items I can adventure for, why bother crafting?

I suppose I should ask the reverse question as a thought experiment:

If the the items I adventure for cannot compete with the items I can craft, why bother adventuring?

I'm not sure I have an answer for you, at least not one that doesn't border on the philosophical.

Peregrinus · Post by **Peregrinus** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:40 am

With weapons and armor and all, that does play out... However the main reason why adventure before crafting? Well, frankly, Adventuring is more fun... Dasaria is a game after all, we play to have fun... its not really fun to spend hours trying to make good weapons in the tradeskills and then have the result be something that we can go out to a random dungeon and pick up something equivalent. If we're gonna spend time not playing the game and crafting, it be nice if the results are better than what we find when we have fun... gives incentive to work on it.

'Ling Niles · Post by **'Ling Niles** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:11 am

I was a bit sad about this too, most good items can be found adventuring instead of crafting, personally I think it should be the other way around...then again I don't craft nothin'. 'Cept Alchemist's Fire.

Trinny · Post by **Trinny** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:50 am

I feel the same way..

When the new system came in, I spent aages learning enchanting completely. This involved learning Gemcrafting completely too. And a healthy side-dose of tailoring.

It took many hours of play to achieve it. I actually really loved doing it, all the mining and stuff. Taking people on mining trips 'cause Trin can carry an awful lot of stuff. etc...

But, the initial glow soon wore off. I stuck it out, thinking, threes bound to be something quite nice at the end...

but there never was. Items that took Trin over what feels like at least 25-30 hours of playing time to achieve were sadly just not what you hoped for after putting so much effort in.

Still, she tends to make the odd thing nowadays for low level peeps, but there lifespan is limited. (The item, not the low-lev char ;P)

Lets put a bit of elbow grease into the trades and get them up to scratch. It's work as always, but I would vote for them to become a higher priority and not mind other things not being such a focus for a while, 'cause I *used* to love doin' the trades.

Matt.

Depheant · Post by **Depheant** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:58 am

*Skeleton comes out of closet*

When we initially implemented the system, the weapons that you could craft at the higher echelons would have been, and were better than what you could get regularly.

That's why we had the wipe remember, to get rid of all the "great loot".

Now, certain people then decided to add a lot of high(er) powered stuff back in; I wasn't one of them for several reasons, this being one of them.

Naturally the items that could be crafted never got adjusted; I could go on and on here, but that would just piss off people and bring back some good ole memories...

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:52 pm

J4...From you, I'll take the philosophical: It's usually worth it.

Depheant...I like that more powerful equipment was added to the mixture, as the bestowing of custom/unique equipment has lessened. I'm so so so in favor of more "stuff". Not necessarily more powerful items, just more.

Is it possible to restore levels lost in this sort of unexplained bug? Would I have to go through the whole crafting process again?

I know this is a big headache, as the crafting system has got to be a very, very complex issue to balance, impliment, and troubleshoot.

I don't want to sound like a jerk, either. An over-inflated sense of entitlement amongst players can burn a DM right out in a matter of seconds from reading a bitchy post. Not my intent at all.

I suppose I am mostly trying to get my levels restored, and to see if there is any thought on completing the Dasarian Craft System that was begun so long ago, and seems like it was never finished.

Depheant?

Depheant · Post by **Depheant** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:03 pm

Not sure how you actually lost the skills; they're stored in the database. J4? But yes, there's a way to get them back; DMs can give skill points as they could with the old ATS.

The crafting system J4 and I were working on is actually quite close to completion, about 80% done I reckon. 'Course it was like that when we stopped working on it last year. Blame J4; his fault. Entirely!

On a more serious note, we sorta got burned out on it and started work on other things, as it so often happens. I personally don't have any (might have -some- on a disc somewhere) of the work anymore. New HD and all.

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:11 pm

Just a thought for J4:

Why bother adventuring if crafted items were as powerful as found items? The recipricol can't really be used there, as the crafting of items is usually in preparation for and to improve adventuring.

Adventuring isn't really the term I would use to describe the scavenging for materials to be able to craft.

I admit, I am also a novice crafter in only a couple of areas, so my knowledge here isn't as extensive as yours.

Boon · Post by **Boon** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:54 pm

I used to love crafting. It was always fun mining, smelting, etc and trying to out due your crafting friends by finding the necessary and unigue items to make a specific item. And I think that is why I stopped doing it when the next craftting came out. Now it was still fun, but there was never an option to make something ordinary. Or maybe I didn't get good enough at weaponcrafting to see such things.

As for doing several things to make one magical item, I hope that is kept when the new system, if it does, arrives.. It only makes sense.

Loki · Post by **Loki** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:25 pm

jhr4n wrote:Considering the items I can make cannot compete with items I can adventure for, why bother crafting?

I suppose I should ask the reverse question as a thought experiment:

If the the items I adventure for cannot compete with the items I can craft, why bother adventuring?

I'm not sure I have an answer for you, at least not one that doesn't border on the philosophical.

Hmmmm... well i'd say make it so that some items have to be crafted.. bags... scolls... potions (at least all but healing pots) - also there where some nice extras - like caltrops ect that could be made in the crafts.. what about magic wands? Or maybe you could get the ability to recharge them.. I can't thing of anything else at the moment but I'm sure there are more than enough items in the game that could be craftable only to maintain that balance without falling foul of the why should I bother crafting/adventuring question.