Occupation Logic

[sidusar]

It doesn't cost hardly any time at all. Maybe half an hour, stretched out over those 10 days. It did not take you 10 days of work to find that recipe.

The component gathering and other things that cost time, we'd have to do anyways even if there weren't recipes, if we wanted occupation XP and/or occupation goodies, which we still get while looking for a recipe. Finding a recipe costs a few extra seconds every day on bookkeeping, that's it.

[sidusar]

I admit, the encouragement in altism that the occupations cause is not something I'm happy with either.

But now we're steering towards likes/dislikes again. Come on, people, faster ways to get that first 30%+ recipe, anyone found one yet?

One thing I suspected for a bit, that perhaps the ingame recipe book listed the 30% recipes in the high-to-low order of their true yield, turned out to be not so. It regards them all as 30% recipes and lists them in random order.

[jared96]

1 - It's WAY too hard to get the components necessary SOLO. The amount of time spent gathering components + collecting death penalty so far has not proved to be worth the time spent on these things.

Night....lemme give you the benefit of your little group's experience. When I say "group" we don't generally collect mats as a group....just the recipe breaking. My 1st two trips down to KL resulted in max DP. First time down I was a KL n00b. 2nd time down, season changed and all the rules changed. Since then it's been cake....well cake when I'm solo....or in an experienced two person team. Going down when less experienced players are there is suicide. Couple of tips:

a) I guess just about everyone's figured out the "drag pestas to the guards" thing. Not a bad idea to take out the Terminator puka and the herder kinch if ya get the opportunity.

b) It's not necessary to "dig the requested level" only be in a room that gives at least the needed level and adjust your stanza accordingly. The "reception room" as I call the room with the pestas, is a PITA as the pestas continually respawn....so I dig the cattle room at level 60 when I only needed 30.

c) Cattle Room has several rules. Normally, when KP are in their cubby holes, the north and south sides of the room are completely safe. The west side is patrolled by the herder kincher. The east side is patrolled by the kizzies. Watch your compass and orient your toon properly (and stay outta chat boxes) and you should be fine. It gets a little dicier when KP go to the floor of the cattle room but not very once you realize that the "livestock" area is no longer a safe spot. Other tips....if attacked, don't hit back....this releases KP. If someone is killing livestock, just leave and dig somewhere else, otherwise DP is inevitable. Finally gas explosions that mobs walk into can result in attacks....took few deaths via kiban for me to figure that one out.

d) It gets real dicey once other players get down there who can't adjust from "solo mode" to multiple player mode. MPA + Speed is the normal aggro response but if there's more than 1 person in the room or surrounding tunnels, if players would resist the urge to run and just drop when attacked, it becomes "piece of pie, easy as cake"[2010 movie reference]. Mob goes boink boink on head, lay down, ask for rez ....simple. Run and drag the mobs over your potential rescuer and you're both dead.

e) Tunnels to old mines present a new challenge but two steps make this easy too. 1st, if there are two peeps there, simply don't dig in the same spot. Kizzies can't be in two places at once so they can't kill you both unless you (see d) above). While I recommend setting your compass to 125 "going down" as the pestas have a 75m or so aggro range, switch to 50m in the tunnels / cattle room. 1st easy top pick up approaching band of mobs on the compass and again 2nd orienting your tune to face possible approaches will cut off 50% of the attack opportunities.

f) It helps to know that mobs have limits on how far they will chase you. Coming down, pestas will chase you into the cattle room but not into tunnels to the old mines. You can literally stop just past the entrance and stare at each other for a minute or so before they head back upstairs. Returning the favor I guess, kizzies will not go much past the entrance to the "reception room:.

g) The egg room is where I go regardless of the QL needed when their are new peeps in cattle room. I mastered this room in much shorter time than the others as the rules are simpler....1st don't hit eggs, 2nd watch compass for pukas and 3 , be careful of wondering pestas and terminator when at south end as their aggro range extends from the tunnel outside thru the walls.

h) Use region chat to announce your arrival in KL. If you get half way thru the reception room when pesta band spawns, players will appreciate the heads up when you drag them thru cattle room on your way to safety in the tunnels beyond.

2 - I've yet to see any logic in the recipes.. We had these things thrown at us from the blue.. do I want to use Thick Larva and Flambe it with Shooki Liquor after soaking for 10 hours? I dunno.. I guess?

Our small group has been working out the logic. Forget the names of what's in the recipe. As in crafting don't expect logic (personally, I gave up on that after searching all thru the original desert noobie island looking only under trees for bark and wood). Think of recipes as a series of numbers 17467 .... once you come up with a > 30% recipe, there's only 30 possibilities left to a 100% recipe. In the example above, there's only 6 other choices (2 thru 7) for slot one...there's only 6 other choices (1 thru 6) for slot 2. 6 choices x 5 slots = 30. Working with a group of 5 peeps, you can nail any 100% recipe in 6 days after the original base.

Kaly's put together a nice little article which hits most of the relevant points right on the head:


http://www.adcguild.info/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=63

3 - You can either USE the items you spent so much work making, or you can get XP. Personally I haven't taken a SINGLE item from my occupation because I was wanting XP (thinking that obviously with a higher level it would be easier to make things.. right? WRONG) Why can't the master look at my tasty flambe'd larvae and let me have em back after?

My guess is that rarity equates with value. Getting to 150 in Ech 3 for example would leave you with 168 whatevers. At least I am guessing that was the intent. Seems off though that after reaching Ech 5 say, you can not go back and get stuff for Ech 1 thru 4 stuff....meybe the devs wanted to be bringing a constant stream of new layers up the ranks and wanted to shut out the more high level players from flooding their market.

One thing that was not addressed, intentionally or unintentionally, is that peeps w/ a lot of alts will have an extreme advantage. I find it odd that you can't exchange mission mats but that you can exchange lucky flowers, amber and stimulating waters. Having 2 accounts and 9 alts each working 3 professions can result in a lotta goodies. Not saying it's a good or bad thing, just noting the impact.

And for Marelli, The chapter IS called "basic occupations" .. I assume that means we'll have "advanced occupations" at some point (or are supposed to anyway).

Yes, I had planned to mention that too but I wanted to add .... I'm thinking, perhaps wistfully, that the advanced occupations will have something to do with their names and a toolmaker will actually make a tool and we can stop "eating" hammers.

[jared96]

I understand the frustration of Freddy, but I have to admit, despite in the past I was very critics with the devs, that Occupations are well done as a concept.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much enjoying the occupations just a bit frustrated by the lack of any change in the routine as we progress. Perhaps I'm a bit optimistic but as a n00b in the various open and closed betas back in 2004, I had made suggestions like "putting red x's on worn out equipment" so peeps would know that they broken, adding dashed lines to maps at region borderlines so players be warned that they heading into higher level mob areas, "magic gloves" for mages and "greaves of power" for melee peeps which could be crafted to various strengths by players (still think greaves of power would be kinda cool), eliminating "Heal Focus and "Self Heal Spells", etc .... so the history from the very beginning has been that devs do listen to player suggestions.

The concept is interesting and enjoyable but to my mind could use minor tweaking.

[jared96]

P

• The other 6 options all take a number of % off. How much varies per option, could be 3%, could be 20%..

I have had changes as high as 30%. On Esch3 scrollmaker, I hit a 70% on 1st try, one of or little group's members made one change and hit 100% on next try. On Ech 4, I have also had an 87 go to 57 w/ one change. Starting at 30, you can have a 33 and a 37 ....x0, x3, x7 right up to 100.

I agree on the recipes....which is apparently a touchy subject. My recipe policy has always been that if I come up w/ a recipe for anything, I will share it openly with anyone except anyone on my ignore list . However, I will not share any recipe which was given to me in confidence by another player w/o first asking them for permission.

Our little occupation recipe group goes by the same policy however we openly share the 60% recipes to save peeps the frustration of 20 tries w/ no progress. But it's touchy enough that when I was asked to share a 100% recipe with 2 guild members, I asked the person who developed it permission to share and they quit before I got the person's response 12 hours later.

[jared96]

I'd be more than willing to participate in an occupation commune of this sort. You can count me in for a protect along those lines.

Also, I think Larvesters and Scrollmakers (not sure about the other Lair occupations because I don't do them) will probably need to start teaming for harvesting sessions at E4 and higher. At least those of us who don't have alts. I'll start E4 this week and the Egg Room can be a tad more complicated than the other parts of the Lair. So anyone willing to schedule joint harvesting sessions feel free to contact me.

Rik I'm just about done with Ech 4. I found the Egg Room a bit easier to master because, while dangerous the rules are fewer and consistent. I think I have enough improved certs to make it to Ech 5 but that's only a few days away. I'll be starting on the 150 mats which I have all located.....however the only other plain I have found is up in "Kipuka Central) between the pillars ...and I haven't been able to stay there long enough to see if it's 150.

[jared96]

That's why it costs much time. If you can get 1 recipe attempt per day, and take 10 attempts to get a decent recipe, that's 10 days.
Of course there's also the time needed to gether the components for the recipes, which for some occupations can be time consuming (and/or heavily dp inducing).

Our little group went 0 for 20 on the 1st attempts at SM4. While hoping at least for a 33%, I got an 80 %.....21 mods later, we have had just 1 boost to 87% .... good news is ....only 8 possibilities left....so 2 days tops.

Also important to note that even if you finish a Ech w/o solving the riddle, the info is useful to those who come behind. On Florist 3 for example, I'll likely graduate out before I see 100%, but by the time I do, I will have eliminated all the bad choices in step nos 4 and 5.

[jared96]

It doesn't cost hardly any time at all. Maybe half an hour, stretched out over those 10 days. It did not take you 10 days of work to find that recipe.

I think it's kinda like those peeps that camp out in front of Apple Stores for days to get a new iPhone when it comes out. Are you investing 30 minutes (the time you spent at the counter) or 30 hours, the time you camped oustide ?

I usually spend the weekend gathering and improving the components for the entire level and then blow the weekdays recipe hunting