CB Work Order Frustrations - issue or just bad luck?

[Ysharros]

I'm mostly venting here, because I've been crafting for several hours now and I'm not sure if the trend I'm seeing is purely subjective. Hence my question:

Has anyone else noticed WO rewards being pretty "bleh" in Ca'ial Brael, specifically for outfitters? Or is it that rewards in Leth Nurae are better than elsewhere? Either way, I've noticed a pretty wide discrepancy and I'm trying to work out if it's just bad luck or something that's really there.

I levelled my blacksmith lass from 1 to 8 in Leth Nurae yesterday along the usual work order route, and by the time I'd hit 6 I'd been given several dusts, one or two items of clothing, and a whole bunch of fun sellable items.

Today, in comparison (and doing the same sort of mix of WOs, easys and mods with the occasional difficult thrown in for xp, A-B quality handin depending on the WO), with my outfitter lass, I'm lucky if I get a cruddy deck of marked cards in a supply pack. Most of the time the pack has ONE item in it - sometimes it's 2. Only once did I get 3 items of a batch pack, even for moderate WOs, even when I turn in all As. I have not, in about 10 batch orders done now, received a single dust-type thing, and I've had one item of clothing (not even a particularly good one at that). I'm talking about batches here, both finishing and refining.

I'm not whining as badly as it may sound - but part of the fun of doing these batch work orders, for me, is the "open the box" syndrome. I don't care if I can't use the dusts yet - they're nice to get. Spending time and care on a moderate, 5-item WO for one lousy cookie-shaped 16c item *isn't* that much fun.

What I'm wondering is, is this profession based or location based or have I just been consistently (and irritatingly) unlucky today? Are most people getting better results in Ca'ial, or worse ones in Leth Nurae?

Before I bug this or try to send it in as feedback (since it may actually be some sort of balance issue), I thought I'd find out from others whether my experience is anomalous, in which case I'll just stick that needle in my eye and move on.

[robeph]

After the grueling trip to Leth Nurae I've found YES they do seem to have much better rewards, I've tons of dusts and the lot. Seems though that perhaps given the richness of the city that perhaps they give more loot (anyone care to compare the over all pricing comparison of Cai'L to Leth? I'm not sure though) Either way it does seem the bags contain better drops in leth, I even got a dust off a 3 Set.

Now my problem with Leth...I can't GET RECIPES!? is this due to faction or what. I mean my faction isn't so bad with the Leth crafters...so I'm not sure if this is a bug or what =\...

[kreen]

Something appears to have chanegd since the last few days of beta5 IMHO.

I worked blacksmith from level 1-10 in CB over those last few days and posted quite a bit of data on beta forums with comp frequency and rewards.

I now find that I am leveling the exact same race/adv class through the the same crafting prof at CB and the comp freq and type of comp is very different and the rewards in terms of tools/clothing dust seems a bit worse.

Possibly the rewards side is just random bad luck, but the comp side is very different, freq is higher and comps are just different.

I keep getting this one comp called mangled tool on util progressions that I can't clear in five steps even when I use the rigging tool. At present I just push through it since it doesnt effect quality util, just does some wierd progress bar shuffling.

This comp did not exist at all for me in beta 5. I also see alot of the smoke comp. Again this is new for me

[robeph]

Originally Posted by kreen

Something appears to have chanegd since the last few days of beta5 IMHO.

I worked blacksmith from level 1-10 in CB over those last few days and posted quite a bit of data on beta forums with comp frequency and rewards.

I now find that I am leveling the exact same race/adv class through the the same crafting prof at CB and the comp freq and type of comp is very different and the rewards in terms of tools/clothing dust seems a bit worse.

Possibly the rewards side is just random bad luck, but the comp side is very different, freq is higher and comps are just different.

I keep getting this one comp called mangled tool on util progressions that I can't clear in five steps even when I use the rigging tool. At present I just push through it since it doesnt effect quality util, just does some wierd progress bar shuffling.

This comp did not exist at all for me in beta 5. I also see alot of the smoke comp. Again this is new for me

Same here, the mangled tool one is bugged, report it.


but on another note, out of 10 total 5 batch A Qual work orders in artificing, I recieved 3 dusts, 1 stirring rod, 2 rigging tools. as well as a comp of about 1silver total after sales of sell items from the comp. (leth nurae)

[Ysharros]

Mangled Tool is broken (or rather the remedy is), I think that's known. There's an outfitter comp that uses the Rigging Tool for the remedy that also doesn't react - I guess we'll see a fix for that sooner or later. They're a pain in the backside in the meantime, I agree.

Robeph, what you describe is the experience I had with my blacksmith in Leth Nurae. Now I don't know if it's outfitters getting the shaft or Ca'ial being poor on rewards... or just plain bad luck. I'll do a few more and we'll see.

In any case I vented, I feel better now!

[kreen]

Originally Posted by robeph

Same here, the mangled tool one is bugged, report it.


but on another note, out of 10 total 5 batch A Qual work orders in artificing, I recieved 3 dusts, 1 stirring rod, 2 rigging tools. as well as a comp of about 1silver total after sales of sell items from the comp. (leth nurae)

have bugged it.

Nice rewards. I have done around 15 easy grade A batch WO's and received 2 reliable tools ( same stats as the starter ones ) and 2 sets of 2 dusts. Money was better though, was getting 60cp for each WO which was about 30cp profit so over 10 that would be 3sp.

[kreen]

Originally Posted by Ysharros

In any case I vented, I feel better now!

Same here

[Ysharros]

The money is the same across the board now, and it *is* nice to at least be making a little profit - back in the various betas I sometimes had a hell of a time just breaking even, heh.

It's the "rares" we're supposed to be getting from batch orders that appear to be a little skewed right now - not to mention the vendor trash pack fillings, but those aren't so important now that we're getting better basic pay. My Blacksmith got at least 3 bits of clothing and a tool, not to mention almost a dozen dusts. It just doesn't seem equitable. Anyhow, we'll see - once more unto the jute breach!

[kreen]

Yes money rewards are better now, feel I am actually being paid for my work orders

Nice rewards on your blacksmith, was this in Leth? What sort of WO's were you doing and what grade were you getting for this?

I have now done about 17 easy batch WO's all to grade A and so far have received 2 reliable tools and 2 sets of 2 dust. This was from level 3 to 8.9 blacksmith in CB.
I was taking a mixture of refining and finishing WO's. The rest of the WO's I took for leveling were single item easys and mods.

[Ysharros]

Well, just to see what would happen, I made an artificer in Lomshir last night. I putzed her to level 6 on easy & moderate WOs and, lo and behold, by 6 she'd received 2 or 3 dusts, a tool (not a good one, but still), some utilities and other such shiny goodness.

Which reminds me, the Ca'ial outfitter WO rewards don't even give utilities.

I'm starting to think there *is* an imbalance in the rewards. When the servers come back up I might be forced to make an outfitter elsewhere and see if it's class based or location based.

The thing that bothers me is that we no longer have channels for this feedback. That said, if it's consistent and can be reproduced I'll just consider it a bug and let them know that way. ;-)

EDIT - Now that I'm getting caffeinated and my brain is starting to work, I've remembered that on the last day of beta my little outfitten in Ca'ial was getting rewards as one would expect - bits of jute and leather, utilities, the odd dust or two. The spousal unit hasn't seen any rewards on his outfitter in Leth Nurae either, though his data could be skewed since he's primarily been doing singles (still, the sets and batches he's done have been pretty poorly rewarded). I'm starting to think something may be wrong with outfitter WO rewards. I'd like a few more confirms before I bug it though.