Quote:
Originally Posted by Naiya
My problem is, I don't like what's been introduced, but I cannot offer an intelligent alternative. I mean, exactly how to you handle the glutting of the market in such a way that the crafters don't feel like they are worked like dogs to create every time they log in and still make it worth while to be a crafter?
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That's the $64k question, isn't it. I've debated it for hours with people I know and we sure haven't come up with a magic bullet. My comparisons with SWG only hold until you remember SWG had factories which, given the almost 100% player-made nature of gear, was essential. They don't really fit in to Vanguard's paradigm though, which means if I wanted to make 20 sets of armor to sell, I'd have to refine 20 stacks of [insert material], another 20 stacks of secondary material, and then spend 20 iterations x 9 armor pieces of time to make them. I love, love crafting but... GAH! I think that would drive me nuts.
And as Riss pointed out above, that would still only be 20 sets I'd worked myself to the bone for (not even counting the harvesting time). With crafters still well outnumbered by adventurers of equal level (I'm assuming here but I think that's a pretty safe assumption) you'd end up with weary crafters, pissed-off adventurers, or both.
I also think there are several issues at play here. One, for me, is the insane amount of looted stuff on the market. If there were no crafters, this would be a good thing. Since there *are* crafters, and our stuff just about competes, it's like telling people to buy at Gucci when they can get a knockoff elsewhere for a third of the price - most people won't.
Decay is another issue. Currently I think it's pretty half-assed -- either give us a system with teeth, where stuff *really* ends up breaking and leaving the world, or take it out. Right now it's nothing more than a pocket-money sink and an irritation, for the most part.
Course it's easy for me to sit here and be an armchair dev. Not so easy to balance the dozens of small, medium and large systems all of whom hook into each other in various ways. Nudge here, and a tornado hits Lomshir - or something.
