Changes to Synthesis

[SuzakuCMX]

Right now they rely mostly on RNG and not skill...you can even easily fail recipes 10 ranks below you. Standard Synthesis is the only kind necessary as Rapid is only worth it on a Great Success and Bold Synthesis is useless because of RNG determining HQ items. Furthermore the synthesis mini-game becomes tedious after about R10 and the same mini-game is used for each and every crafting class. These are my proposed changes.

General Changes
- Reduced the amount of materials required for recipes
- Overall reduced amount of time required to finish synthesis
- Increased SP gained from recipes
- Recipes more than 10 ranks below you gain the option of being instantly synthesized; if synthesizing in this way, however, items cannot be made "high quality."
- Recipe book added for each Discipline
- Recipe vendor added for each Discipline: recipes acquired from these vendors is automatically stored in the recipe book for that Discipline
- Instead of random recipes being awarded from leves, each leve randomly selects a recipe of that rank of leve: after completing the leve, the Disciple of the Hand can pay a small fee to add that recipe to their Recipe Book (such as half the market price)
- Notorious Monsters now, rarely, drop high-rank recipes.
- Quality now increases the stats the item gives AND the durability rather than just the durability

Alchemist and Culinarian Mini-Game
You begin by selecting your recipe. You then gather all the ingredients in the recipe together and start heating up a relevant cooking utensil (skillet, pot, etc) over the stove. There are two bars for this type of crafting: One for temperature and one for time until finished cooking. Temperature rises as the cooking goes on, and each ingredient in the recipe has a prime temperature for when it is supposed to be added...being closer to the prime temperature gives an increase in quality. Remove durability entirely. HQ items from cooking now give larger stat bonuses. How RNG is involved: random quality gain (so it's a range of quality gain for how close you are to the prime temperature rather than an exact number -- larger quality gain depending on how much over the recipe rank your class is, and lower gains if you are higher). Adding too many ingredients in too early/too late causes recipe failure.

Armorer, Goldsmith, and Blacksmith Mini-Game
When synthesis begins, you first heat up the metals on the forge. You must take the metal out of the forge at the right moment (each item has a different color for when it must be taken out; gold would glow yellow, bronze would glow red, and something high ranked would glow white). They would slowly turn colors after a certain amount of time; selecting the right color increases the overall quality of the item. After this, you begin to hammer the metal; you must stop a strength slider (like the one in the Mining mini-game) to determine the strike. Soft metals would require lighter strikes while heavier metals would require stronger strikes. RNG determines quality gains based on how close to the desired strike you are. You repeat this 2 or 3 times. You can fail the synthesis by taking it out at completely the wrong temperature (IE: Taking a hard metal out when it turns yellow [barely heated]) or by using too many of the wrong strikes (such as using too many heavy strikes on soft metals). The entire process should take no more than a minute and a half, however.

Carpenter Mini-Game
You begin by selecting the wood. Next the wood appears on a slider and you must select the correct area to chop it to make the piece you need (must be done once per piece of wood in the recipe). Afterwards, you use the movement keys/stick to move around the piece(s) of wood and place nails in vital spots. Quality is determined by how close to the vital spot you placed the nails and how well you chopped the wood.

Leatherworker and Weaver Mini-Game
You position the cloth in a square in the shape of whatever you are making (EX: for yarn/cloth, you just make a square or a line, the shape of pants for pants, etc). Depending on how exact you placed each piece, you gain a random amount of quality. Next, you click-and-drag to add stitches along the edges of each piece to sew them together. Depending on how well you aligned the pieces and how straight (vertically) you placed the stitches, quality is awarded.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

These are just my ideas for changes to the mini-games...what are YOUR ideas?

[RisaCooper]

good ideas. This would be a lot more fun then the current random standard synthesis over and over again. I was thinking that maybe every 10 levels or so the mini game could change in some way to make it more fun. That way it wouldn't be the same mini game for the whole time that you are leveling that one craft.

To add to your idea, maybe the way something is made can change depending on what item is being made. Like if you are making armor rather then a weapon. Or you are making a part of something rather then the whole thing. (exp. Like you are creating cloth for clothing would be done differently then if you were making the actual clothing.) It would give a lot more realism and variety to the game.

[Reika]

Well I like all that, cept i dont think goldsmiths can be in the same mini-game as blacksmith and armorer. GSM still works on a wooden table or a grinding wheel, while blacksmith and armorer both work on a forge. Unless they put GSM on a forge to fix that (always thot it was weird to smelt nuggets on a wooden table. hazardous!)

[SuzakuCMX]

Well I like all that, cept i dont think goldsmiths can be in the same mini-game as blacksmith and armorer. GSM still works on a wooden table or a grinding wheel, while blacksmith and armorer both work on a forge. Unless they put GSM on a forge to fix that (always thot it was weird to smelt nuggets on a wooden table. hazardous!)

I was thinking of Sauron smelting metal in a volcano and pouring it into a mold when I put Goldsmith in the same category xD

[Rentahamster]

Good ideas. The normal crafting "mini-game' is mind-numbingly boring.

[Jinko]

Good idea's but when you said you can click and drag in the weaver/tanner suggestion, a red flag was thrown up.

How will PS3 players click and drag ?, Using the analogues sticks to do this would be a nightmare I would imagine.

Besides that good post, I would love to see SE put this much effort into the crafting mechanics, somehow I can't see that happening though.

[Radaghast]

I'd rather they just make materials/nq items instant synth and have an actual mini game for HQ items like someone mentioned elsewhere. Put a 4/5 level cap on how high you can craft over your level and be done with it. Doesn't matter how you present it, when you gotta do the same thing over and over thousands of times, it's going to suck.

P.S. Broken record here but if you're failing stuff 10 levels below you AT ALL, you don't have any idea what you're doing. Check if it either requires a book or support. Even then you shouldn't be failing...

[RabidSquirrel]

Trust me. Any mini-game that is the same everytime you do play it, gets boring after a while. Unless it follows rules similar to tetris, bejeweled, etc. This implies a certain amount of randomness to keep you on your toes, as well as increasing difficulty, and longevity.

For the time being, I just want the timer to go away, more success/failure consistency based on rank, and less delay (internet delay) in between which type of synthesis you select.

Edit: Although now that I think about it, I'd go freaking insane for a good bejeweled clone for a crafting mini-game.

[SuzakuCMX]

Good idea's but when you said you can click and drag in the weaver/tanner suggestion, a red flag was thrown up.

How will PS3 players click and drag ?, Using the analogues sticks to do this would be a nightmare I would imagine.

Besides that good post, I would love to see SE put this much effort into the crafting mechanics, somehow I can't see that happening though.

X to select a piece, analog stick to drag, X again to place the piece.

@Rabid: It's exasperated by the fact that you play the same mini-game between 8 classes.

@Radaghast: Perhaps I am, but I'm certain it's happening to many more people than just me. The RNG in this game is broken and how stats affect crafting exactly are unknown, so it's not entirely my fault if I am failing.