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

[chrome69]

This patch may be intended as a Remedy to a percieved Economic problem in the game. Specifically foragers getting to many mats and making to many dappers. Or it may be intended to slow leveling of all classes.

While I can only guess at your reasons, I can speak definitively about the outcome.

Short Term:

High level players killed in newb areas by low level monsters. Foragers getting one mat at a time, leveling so slowing it will take a year to reach 200. Crafters with no materials to craft. Players with no gear wear and to wear to go.


Long Term:

WoW gets released in 3 weeks and Ryzom with an already shaky player base becomes a virtual ghost town.

Comment:

You have the beginnings of a great game. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE of making crafting and foraging the focal point of CONTENT. Making crafting and Foraging miserable experience is NOT CONTENT. PLEASE focus on CONTENT.


Chop merchant Material buy back prices if necessary, increase mats used per item, increase experience needed at higher levels if you need economic solutions BUT GET BACK TO REAL CONTENT.


Minx

[korin77]

The main problem as I see it now is that after the patch, it will no longer be possible to get 3k xp per harvest action. In both fighting and crafting that is still possible as long as you are either fighting a mob of the appropriate level, or using a mat of appropriate level.

Without mat spec, it is impossible to pull a mat high enough level to get 3k XP on your main harvest line all the time. The way the ql level is capped, you may start out getting 3k xp, but eventually as you near the ql level of the extraction you are forced to use, you end up with 1k xp per pull. At higher levels it takes at least an hour of constant harvesting to get 1 level. After the patch, expect this time to double. Is it fair to ask harvesters to spend 2 hours for 1 level?

[tleilaxu]

It would appear that foraging has changed more for higher lvls than lower lvls. I spent 4-5 hours on ATS with my lvl 63 foraging toon and I found that I was pulling close to the number of mats that I do on Windemeer. Granted it does take longer because I use more Focus and need to rest more, but soloing isn't bad because the Care Plans are actually useful when solo. Also using the same skill set between Windemeer and ATS, I found that it was possible to pull 3 mats on ATS where the same skills on Windemeer would only get me 2 mats. I will say that since I'm a Tryker, I was only working on q50 mats.

Leaving aside the argument that there are easily reachable Q250 sources in Aeden Aqueous, would you be happy to be pullinq 3 Q50 mats when at your level you have the Q100 extraction skill & could easily be pulling 4-5 mats? Is the number of mats worth it? Is the XP worth it? Is there a good balance between the quality level, number of mats pulled & XP? Doubt it.

wow, from what I *heard* from this patch I didn't think it was too bad... then I've been on the ATS today and realized this patch could very well kill this game.

[tleilaxu]

In the current system, I have two choices: Run a 4x100 action with the -32 brick and harvest non stop (my focus drains away, but at a rate I can handle with Focus Self Heal). Or jump to a 6x100 action with -64 that I can perform TWICE. And then sit for 5 minutes. This is a no-brainer. I go with the -32. I would like to see MORE Extraction Counterparts. I would have loved something in the upper mid 20s. I would like a -40 right now. I CANNOT drive a -64, so I am stuck using the -32 until when, level 200? I have no idea.

AND THEY ARE TAKING THE -32 AWAY!?!?

Yes on ATS as I previously stated the credit jumps from -24 to -64. A crock if you ask me.

[lyrah68]

I know with armor, you don't level using boots (the LOWEST number of mats required), you level using VEST/pants(highest number of mats required). The ODD and wonderful thing that happens is...you actually take FEWER mats to level with vest than with boots. I know doesn't sound possilbe, but it works.

I tried out jewel crafting and got sick of it, mostly since I was only level 21 in it, and ONLY had the earring. I heard the Diadem is the way to go. "very like the vest as far as xp goes" but I didn't want to throw away another TEN levels to get that form. And would FULLY understand if you didn't want to either.

Ill go ahead and weigh in on this as well, if only to attempt to increase the "community" of oppinions.

Currently, I am a lvl 105 harvester and crafter of weapons, armor, and jewlery at around Q70. I do not want to level harvest anymore, with the exception oof increasing my focus pool and regen. What I *want* is to be able to gather enough materials to advance my crafting at a decent rate.

My two major gripes with the system as it stands: The QUANTiTY of mats produced is too low. Try harvesting enough mats to level earrings. Its INSANE. The *most* XP you can ever expect to get for an earring is about 300. Granted, its only two mats per, but we are talking THOUSANDS of comibines. Yeck.

Gripe two (even spoke with a GM on this one): The BAFFLING selection of "Extraction Counterparts". The *STRENGTH* of this game is that you can customize all of your actions. In the world of magic and melee there are numerous "credit" bricks to let you tweak things. There is only one in Harvesting: Focus consumption.

In the current system, I have two choices: Run a 4x100 action with the -32 brick and harvest non stop (my focus drains away, but at a rate I can handle with Focus Self Heal). Or jump to a 6x100 action with -64 that I can perform TWICE. And then sit for 5 minutes. This is a no-brainer. I go with the -32. I would like to see MORE Extraction Counterparts. I would have loved something in the upper mid 20s. I would like a -40 right now. I CANNOT drive a -64, so I am stuck using the -32 until when, level 200? I have no idea.

AND THEY ARE TAKING THE -32 AWAY!?!?

This *FLOORS* me. Completely baffled. The only message I can glean from this: "We want you to sit down". I am not interested in sitting down. Thanks, done that enough in other games. Why cripple the system that defines your game as unique and different?

I didnt log in last night for the first time in weeks. I figure: Why bother? I will wait patiently for the patch. I will respec my character. I will evaluate the changes. I am 90% confident I will find the new system unplayable and that will be about the end of it. I see how fast Nevrax moves. The changes made in Patch 1 will not be "tweaked" for weeks, perhaps a month.

I am not interested in sitting down.

[tleilaxu]

Chop merchant Material buy back prices if necessary, increase mats used per item, increase experience needed at higher levels if you need economic solutions BUT GET BACK TO REAL CONTENT.

INCREASE the mats used per item? For the love of God & all that is mighty how will that help out with mats available for crafters?

[tleilaxu]

I know with armor, you don't level using boots (the LOWEST number of mats required), you level using VEST/pants(highest number of mats required). The ODD and wonderful thing that happens is...you actually take FEWER mats to level with vest than with boots. I know doesn't sound possilbe, but it works.

I tried out jewel crafting and got sick of it, mostly since I was only level 21 in it, and ONLY had the earring. I heard the Diadem is the way to go. "very like the vest as far as xp goes" but I didn't want to throw away another TEN levels to get that form. And would FULLY understand if you didn't want to either.

Obviously you didn't know that the skill tree splits into 6 separate jewel lines after level 50 and to get to 100 you need to be levelling all those trees. Including the earring.

[frostbit]

Yes, thank you tleilaxu, I should have mentioned that myself.

My current Jewlery levels are:

Earring 56, Ring 56, Anklet 56, Bracelet 60, Pendant 63, Diadem 71.

Obviously, it is MUCH easier to level the larger items, but after level 50 for jewlery and level 100 for armor, that is no longer an option. I refuse to grind store mats to make 175xp a combine for earrings, so I HAVE to forage for them. Increasing Diadem does NOTHING to aid earring. Sure, I can try to make a Q80 and when succesful, the XP is decent (400+ WOOT) but I fail so often it is more efficient to grind at 70s.

I believe at Q70 I have like a 62% success rate and make 373xp a combine. It will still take FOREVER.

Two solutions I could live with:

Increase Quantity (my gut instinct is that this figure should be about TEN TIMES current rate, but that might be too much),

Bring back WONDERMAT to Q250! At least I could put these piles of dapper to some use then. And it would greatly simplify the grind process. Doing heavy pants? Just by WM in groups of 26 and have at. No need to manage shells, linings, stuffings, etc.

[moriant]

Bring back WONDERMAT to Q250! At least I could put these piles of dapper to some use then. And it would greatly simplify the grind process. Doing heavy pants? Just by WM in groups of 26 and have at. No need to manage shells, linings, stuffings, etc.

Wondermats are definitely NOT the answer. Even adding up to q50 was a mistake. Rich crafters (most any crafter with 100+ in a crafting skill) could easily power their way to 250. It also just serves to dumb down the game requiring less teamwork (no more need for harvesters to collect skill mats, just buy the skill up with wondermats!)

Example: Going from 50 armor craft to 75 heavy armor, 70 medium armor, 60 light armor, and 60 shield crafting without vendor mats would take several days of harvesting and skilling. That 65 total levels and would be quite a bit of materials to level up. Instead, with q50 vendor mats it just takes about 4 million dapper (net loss) and about an hour of clicking.

Which one is better for the game in the long run?

--Moriant

[elfmatic]

Interesting how there have been as many posts to this thread as to the wishlist and yet we aren't getting any official response from Nevvy on the issues with patch 1. If there reasons for the changes and vision for the game are so sound and logical, why not tell their customers these things?

~Elf