Impressions of Chapter 1 from ATS: of special interest to those who forage.

[shrike]

You don't need mats which stack to make items. It certainly looks more tidy and is easier to trade, but that doesn't stops you being able to craft with them

Also, harvesting isn't the only thing which gives you items. A good amount can be taken from mobs, especially for training porpuses.

And while you need quite a lot of mats to lvl crafting from 100+ it doesn't changes one thing that this 1500 focus/5 mats estimate is somewhat overblown. Won't say that this won't may be the case when you are using the max quality & rates you are able to, but what do you expect? When a fighter or mage is killing the stongest mob he is able to with the max abilities he has he will be quite drained as well. Key is not to use what is strongest, but what is most effective.

[pandorae]

I almost can't help but wonder if the leveling requirements were simply too low early on. Should we be in a position to worry about providing weapons and amps to lvl 150 -200 warriors and mages several weeks after release?

That said, the cat is out of the bag now. I do not see any graceful way for Nevrax's dev team to extricate themselves from this mess without the immediate introduction of story content and quests. Even at that point, I am not sure that this situation will be able to right itself.

I enjoy this game and the community immensely. Nevrax, the ball is in your court on whether or not you wish to make this game work. Listen to your players or take top honors in the 'could have been great' section of online entertainment history. Time is running short, I fear...

[shrike]

I think the main problem rather is that crafting takes a extreme amount of mats to lvl, especially armor & jewelcrafting crafting, than that harvesting gives too few items.
The splitting of the armor & jeweltrees is IMO a thing which should be removed, especially if you consider that the price players pay per mat used for armor is around 2-3 times lower than the one they pay for mats used for weapons. Armor is less important (resulting in less lucrative) than weapons, but takes more mats to make and more time/dappers to lvl. It doesn't fits.

Another thing is that many people want to be totally independant as crafter. But the game isn't designed that way - a crafter simply isn't meant to make everything on his own - you either have to have a guild supporting you and/or sell your items with a good profit so you are able to buy training mats from other players.
If you forage all your crafting & training mats yourself and sell items for the price you would get from their mats at shop you won't succeed.

Also, something which has been conveniently overlooked so far is that there are some improvements in foraging as well. Being able to prospect for choice/excellent/supreme only will reduce the amount you have to prospect for the mats you want by a good amount. And the focus selfheal now gives you 100 instead of 50 per lvl, which will reduce downtime as well.

[tleilaxu]

I think the main problem rather is that crafting takes a extreme amount of mats to lvl, especially armor & jewelcrafting crafting, than that harvesting gives too few items.
The splitting of the armor & jeweltrees is IMO a thing which should be removed, especially if you consider that the price players pay per mat used for armor is around 2-3 times lower than the one they pay for mats used for weapons. Armor is less important (resulting in less lucrative) than weapons, but takes more mats to make and more time/dappers to lvl. It doesn't fits.

Another thing is that many people want to be totally independant as crafter. But the game isn't designed that way - a crafter simply isn't meant to make everything on his own - you either have to have a guild supporting you and/or sell your items with a good profit so you are able to buy training mats from other players.
If you forage all your crafting & training mats yourself and sell items for the price you would get from their mats at shop you won't succeed.

Also, something which has been conveniently overlooked so far is that there are some improvements in foraging as well. Being able to prospect for choice/excellent/supreme only will reduce the amount you have to prospect for the mats you want by a good amount. And the focus selfheal now gives you 100 instead of 50 per lvl, which will reduce downtime as well.

This is a problem for our guild which has guild crafters SPECIALISED in specific items. So no, it doesn't simply affect those wanting to be jack of all trades.

[shrike]

This is a problem for our guild which has guild crafters SPECIALISED in specific items. So no, it doesn't simply affect those wanting to be jack of all trades.

You obviously have a lvl 150 weapon crafter - so where is the problem?

[tleilaxu]

You obviously have a lvl 150 weapon crafter - so where is the problem?

Hmm let me think.... THE ENTIRE NEW CLOSE COMBAT WEAPONS LINE which has to be levelled from 51 to 150 for magic amps.

Anyway, believe what you will.

[tleilaxu]

I almost can't help but wonder if the leveling requirements were simply too low early on. Should we be in a position to worry about providing weapons and amps to lvl 150 -200 warriors and mages several weeks after release?

That said, the cat is out of the bag now. I do not see any graceful way for Nevrax's dev team to extricate themselves from this mess without the immediate introduction of story content and quests. Even at that point, I am not sure that this situation will be able to right itself.

I enjoy this game and the community immensely. Nevrax, the ball is in your court on whether or not you wish to make this game work. Listen to your players or take top honors in the 'could have been great' section of online entertainment history. Time is running short, I fear...

As always Pandorae, you're insights are spot on. Although I have to say, it seems they are swinging the pendulum totally to the other side.

[shrike]

Hmm let me think.... THE ENTIRE NEW CLOSE COMBAT WEAPONS LINE which has to be levelled from 51 to 150 for magic amps.

That is indeed a problem. But, tell me, has this to do *anything* with foraging?

This is a screwup from nevrax in the crafting tree and has nothing to do with foragers not pulling enough mats. It's an artificial change which has nothing to do with game mechanics.
You could as well have a jobtree where everyone could get to lvl 250 in one week get reduced to lvl 50 at all players and then complain that it "obviously" doesn't lvls fast enough because everyone is only at lvl 50.

[tetra]

While there are a lot of changes that sound good in general, when it comes to the harvesting changes... they... don't generally sound more positive than negative. I really do feel that this is one of those times where certain folks like shrike are being a bit too optimistic when it comes to their support on these changes.

[shrike]

Not saying that there are more negative (negative in the sense of it getting harder) changes than positive changes. But there *are* positive changes as well.

And there certainly isn't a real cause for the "the end is near" postings. It will become very difficult to supply oneself as crafter with trainingmats, yes. But with the NPC vendors there will be a HUGE new source of mats for crafters. And as shown the focus use is getting exaggerated.