Adjusting number of collectibles and purified shards

[mikarddo]

Overall, I think the new system looks great. Easy to understand and use - but some of the costs need to be adjusted or the system will see limited use imho.

The cost in essences looks great - costly, but not excessively so, and there is a clear way to earn more essences. This goes across all shards.

ML shards:
Looks great, dont change anything.

Unbound effects:
The cost for unbound shards is high, very high, but I think thats cool. If the cost was lower everyone would just have a friend craft for them rather than craft themselves or use random loot. The one issue that needs solving though wrt. unbound loot is that Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments need to be tradeable. If they are not noone is going to craft for others as it means the crafter has to supply those PEDFs.

Bounds shards:
Level 1/50/100 "normal" shards each cost 15+5 collectibles which in my opinion is way too much.
You actually want people to use this system but with such a cost new players will be hard pressed to craft a few shards at all and even many vets will be pressed crafting more than 20 shards using their stash collected over several years. The cost here seems to be setting the system up for very little use - even on normal, bound shards.
I suggest lowering the costs across the board on these from 15+5 to 3+1 to give the system significant use. Yes, 3+1, this should be cheap and allow constant use to make the system interesting.

Level 175/225/275 insightful shards each cost 15+5 collectibles + 5 PEDFs.
Here I dont mind the collectible cost so much. Crafting insightful effects should not be a given so some cost is quite alright. I might question the 5 PEDFs though and suggest lowering that to 2 or 3.

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

If you do that I think you have an excellent system. I you dont I think you have a very dead system as most people wont be able to craft enough shards to bother.

[slarden]

/signed

As it stands I will use for level cap gear only due to ingredient cost. It's prohibitive for casual players.

Unbound is where the true grinders will go, but people should be able to craft their own gear more cheaply since it has minimal market impact.

[mikarddo]

/signed

As it stands I will use for level cap gear only due to ingredient cost. It's prohibitive for casual players.

Unbound is where the true grinders will go, but people should be able to craft their own gear more cheaply since it has minimal market impact.

Exactly. I would like to craft for several alts, builds and levels - but if the preview costs stand I will be crafting only for my two main chars and only ml 34 items. I simply wont have the collectibles for anything else.

[Alaryth_KD]

I agree with Mik. As it stands the collectables cost is much too high. I play about 15 hours a week and have been playing for 5 years. My better half, who also plays has been giving me all her collectables over that same time period. The only use my collectables have gone to is the current crafting system, and the odd SoC ritual. As it stands, I only have high double digits of most of the rarer collectables (drowshood, l-split soarwood, sf hymnals, pedfs, etc). My ability to craft, then, would be severely crippled compared to the current system and given past crafting behavior, I'd probably be out of relevant collectables for most of the shards I'd want within a few months - 6 at max. While I could just stockpile stuff so I only rarely need to craft, in the past I've just recycled an item when I've finished with it unless it required a quest end reward ingredient. So, if the goal is to get people crafting, then lowering the collectables cost seems to be the obvious way to do it. Either that or massively increase the drop rate of the rarer collectables.

[Saekee]

/signed

[cdbd3rd]

...

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

If you do that I think you have an excellent system. I you dont I think you have a very dead system as most people wont be able to craft enough shards to bother.

I think this is heading the right direction.

/Concur.

[searcher15]

Collectible & purified eberron shard cost needs to be lower.

/Signed.

[dunklezhan]

Unbound effects:
The cost for unbound shards is high, very high, but I think thats cool. If the cost was lower everyone would just have a friend craft for them rather than craft themselves or use random loot. The one issue that needs solving though wrt. unbound loot is that Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments need to be tradeable. If they are not noone is going to craft for others as it means the crafter has to supply those PEDFs.

There's a balance somewhere between 'everyone would just have a friend craft for them' and 'sacrificing a tome or spending astral shards to get a single effect'. I think the current CC system struck this balance well. I think the new one makes it clear Turbine does not in fact want you to make unbound shards at all. With the PEDF requirements as they are I get the feeling unbound has only been included at all so as to head off outcry.

PEDF restrictions definitely need lightening up.

[Wipey]

Perfect or even the best items should have really high costs.
That pic of 15/7 60 amp gloves ...for some plat and twelve tokens ? Bloody insane, noone will ever loot that.

You can farm thousands of high level chests for months and never get anything.
Items not even close to "perfect" or what will we be able to craft are still super rare.

Or farm 20 tokens in few hours ( and if you play a bit you prolly have lot of those already ) and craft the dream item.

Would be nice if purified shards were unbound tho.

[azrael4h]

There's a balance somewhere between 'everyone would just have a friend craft for them' and 'sacrificing a tome or spending astral shards to get a single effect'. I think the current CC system struck this balance well. I think the new one makes it clear Turbine does not in fact want you to make unbound shards at all. With the PEDF requirements as they are I get the feeling unbound has only been included at all so as to head off outcry.

PEDF restrictions definitely need lightening up.

More that they think people will spend real money to craft for their friends. I don't have near about enough PEDs to even start crafting unbound. If I did, I would be charging real money to craft them. Come on Amazon gift cards. I want to buy the updated book on Vulcan API programming.

[Ziindarax]

Despite not getting to play with this round of Lamannia, I have researched the matter, and find that I agree with Mikarddo. The collectible cost i much too high, especially if the collectible stations aren't giving more than 1 collectible item per visit.

In addition to Mikar's suggestion, I think it would be nice if end-chain and end-saga rewards offered collectibles and essences in the form of a generic "Bag of crafting mats" type deal where you get collectibles relevant to the realms you're in and a random amount of crafting essences. Wilderness areas should ALSO offer these items for rare kills (as well as completing slayer and explorer objectives).

Overall, I think the new system looks great. Easy to understand and use - but some of the costs need to be adjusted or the system will see limited use imho.

The cost in essences looks great - costly, but not excessively so, and there is a clear way to earn more essences. This goes across all shards.

ML shards:
Looks great, dont change anything.

Unbound effects:
The cost for unbound shards is high, very high, but I think thats cool. If the cost was lower everyone would just have a friend craft for them rather than craft themselves or use random loot. The one issue that needs solving though wrt. unbound loot is that Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments need to be tradeable. If they are not noone is going to craft for others as it means the crafter has to supply those PEDFs.

Bounds shards:
Level 1/50/100 "normal" shards each cost 15+5 collectibles which in my opinion is way too much.
You actually want people to use this system but with such a cost new players will be hard pressed to craft a few shards at all and even many vets will be pressed crafting more than 20 shards using their stash collected over several years. The cost here seems to be setting the system up for very little use - even on normal, bound shards.
I suggest lowering the costs across the board on these from 15+5 to 3+1 to give the system significant use. Yes, 3+1, this should be cheap and allow constant use to make the system interesting.

Level 175/225/275 insightful shards each cost 15+5 collectibles + 5 PEDFs.
Here I dont mind the collectible cost so much. Crafting insightful effects should not be a given so some cost is quite alright. I might question the 5 PEDFs though and suggest lowering that to 2 or 3.

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

If you do that I think you have an excellent system. I you dont I think you have a very dead system as most people wont be able to craft enough shards to bother.

[RD2play]

I two feel that the collectible cost for regular BOUND prefix/suffix shards should be lowered. But I think the costs for UNBOUND are fine since they directly compete with the RGL market. 3/1 might be low, I'dd say 9/3 would be fine and keep it 15/5 for the insightful.
Also I feel 5 PEDS for one BOUND item that has 3 effects is not much different from the current need of 4 if you make 2 high level shards for one item. I sure seems excessive but they now have added ways to obtain PEDS so IMO it is not nearly as bad. That said UNBOUND does feel a little excessive on the PEDS front, so I have to agree they should maybe be tradable (which they kinda are if you don't turn in your fragments, they could be traded) But we are now talking 14 PEDS for an Item I would lower these to 1/1/8 which makes UNBOUND still twice the price of BOUND concerning PEDS.

[changelingamuck]

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

/signed

[Axeyu]

No.
You can craft crazy good items, better than anything you will find in 1000 hours of play time. That you cant craft these powerful items willy nilly is not a bad thing, it's the only thing that keeps it even remotely balanced. It will not be a dead system, but buffing it further will only kill other systems.
The Purified shards are very easy to get, all the whining about them shows that these people either are not informed about the the system or simply want everything for minimal effort. The reality is that we need more to do, not less. That a new player cant instantly craft everything is a very good thing for both new and old players.

[Gremmlynn]

Despite not getting to play with this round of Lamannia, I have researched the matter, and find that I agree with Mikarddo. The collectible cost i much too high, especially if the collectible stations aren't giving more than 1 collectible item per visit.

In addition to Mikar's suggestion, I think it would be nice if end-chain and end-saga rewards offered collectibles and essences in the form of a generic "Bag of crafting mats" type deal where you get collectibles relevant to the realms you're in and a random amount of crafting essences. Wilderness areas should ALSO offer these items for rare kills (as well as completing slayer and explorer objectives).

While the amounts seem a bit high to me too. I think it would be better to simply lower them than add a bunch of new crafting only loot options to the game.

Wilderness areas already offer them in the form of collectable nodes and purple bags. They just need to match the cost to what the game gives out.

[KanzidStonebreath]

Despite not getting to play with this round of Lamannia, I have researched the matter, and find that I agree with Mikarddo. The collectible cost i much too high, especially if the collectible stations aren't giving more than 1 collectible item per visit.

In addition to Mikar's suggestion, I think it would be nice if end-chain and end-saga rewards offered collectibles and essences in the form of a generic "Bag of crafting mats" type deal where you get collectibles relevant to the realms you're in and a random amount of crafting essences. Wilderness areas should ALSO offer these items for rare kills (as well as completing slayer and explorer objectives).

Having crafting mats available directly from the end rewards list sounds great.

I'd have to agree with Axeyu though that being able to cheaply craft the current items would make it to easy to craft overpowered items. On the other hand at the current collectable prices you won't see may items being made at all.

Personally I'd balance it as follows

1, Reduce the cost of the various bound shards
2, Lowering the power level of the current shards of potential. Either by raising the level req for the items produced by them or by reducing their stats to the bottom of the range for their level.
3, Introduce a new set of "master crafted shards of potential" which would take over the role of being the expensive part of the creation and would restore the crafted item to it's current level of power.

That way if you are level 10 and still wearing a ring form Korthos you can put together a cheap replacement that will still be better to fill the slot with something relevant. While still having the option of making a powerful item if it's something you will use through multiple lives. It could also give a reason to craft a level 30 item and not a 34 if the prices for the higher level shards of potential scale up enough.

[slithyjubjub]

Top end stuff should be expensive, most of us know the almost orgasmic feel of finding +13 CON with +6 insightful CON. We should try to preserve that. My issues have been with sub level 20 stuff, but BtA has allayed that as of now. I reserve my rants, and they will rain, when I can't put TS on a ring.

[Skeald]

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

If you do that I think you have an excellent system. I you dont I think you have a very dead system as most people wont be able to craft enough shards to bother.

/signed

what an excellent idea

[haulindonkey]

...

Level 175/225/275 insightful shards each cost 15+5 collectibles + 5 PEDFs.
Here I dont mind the collectible cost so much. Crafting insightful effects should not be a given so some cost is quite alright. I might question the 5 PEDFs though and suggest lowering that to 2 or 3.

Conclusion:
a) Lower the collectible cost for normal bound shards to 3+1. You want people to make those in large numbers so the system is attractive for many players to use.
b) Make Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments tradeable so "buyers" can supply those to "crafters" for the making of unbound shards.
c) Consider lowering the PEDF cost for insightful bound items from 5 to 2 or 3.

If you do that I think you have an excellent system. I you dont I think you have a very dead system as most people wont be able to craft enough shards to bother.

/signed

[gravisrs]

/signed


You have to give something to newbies leaving korthos. Make crafting an attractive part of the game even for fresh accounts!