The Joy of Crafting

SO what I've gathered from this thread is:

Synth time:xp ratio is Way Off

Synths Feel like random luck

Leveling is not engaging

Cost is to high

and my input,

There are not enough viable recipes

and

There are not enough ways to gain XP outside of the grind (DoW get Quests, AG Leves, GC Leves, Behests, Raids, and Parties)

Standardizing the number of leves to 4 every 5 levels for EVERY craft will make me very happy.

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Originally Posted by tymora

Standardizing the number of leves to 4 every 5 levels for EVERY craft will make me very happy.

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I'd be thrilled if this were the only change. As long as said leves are handed in around town. This would eliminate the four hours of gathering I need to do before I can actually grind DOHs.

Where can we find a guide for what different coloured orbs mean and how to manage that and element destabilisation?

Personal anecdote.
Undyed Velveteen. Level 25(?) synth attempted as L22 weaver.

Orb starts white. Standard synthesis. Fail.
Orb turns red. Wait. Orb turns flashing. Wait. Orb stays flashing. Preserve.
Standard synthesis. Fail.
(Stays white from preserve)
Standard synthesis. Fail. Lightning unstable.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Still unstable, pop brand of wind to reset wait counter (I don't have Brand of Lightning). Wait. Wait... still unstable, but it's at least white. Tender Touch and chance a standard synthesis. Fail. Chaotic. Boom. 20 durability left and at 35% progress.
Orb's yellow. Wait. It turns white.
Standard Synthesis. Success.
Orb stays white.
Standard Synthesis again. Fail. 0 Durability.

Try it again. Same synth, same gear, same facing direction, same phase of the moon/whatever.
Orb starts white. Standard Synthesis. Success.
Orb stays white. Standard Synthesis. Success.
Orb turns flashing. Wait. It turns white.
Standard synthesis. Success.
Orb turns yellow. Standard Synthesis anyway. Success.
Orb turns flashing. Wait. Red. Wait. Flashing. Wait. Still flashing. Preserve
Standard Synthesis. Success. Complete.

...And you tell me luck is a small factor?

Yes, I'm aware that my highest two DoH classes are 22 and 20. If I have to get to 50 (and not just in one class, but in several, to get all the abilities I need) before the game becomes less random than Cait Sith's first limit break, something is wrong.

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...And you tell me luck is a small factor?

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And you never mentioned what gear you are using.

Initial risk can start out a lot higher than normal. Sucks to have those synths but you'll get used to it - Not like the materials are expensive anyway.

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Originally Posted by tymora

If you waited more than 2-3x, you are just wasting your durability.
1. Wait 2x, hit Standard, wait again. You'll lose less on average.
2. Sometimes chancing an explode stabilizes faster than waiting too.

Doesn't save all synths but should make life easier.

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This is a good base for learning how to stablize unstable element, one of the points you make is somthing i do if i'm going for completion over HQ and that's to blow it up, this stablizes the element and if you can get it to blow right away you don't lose too much dura but the quality is halfed so it's not good for HQ'n. As you said in your 1st point spamming "wait" isn't the way to go knowing when to wait and when Standard has the higest chance of succeding comes with practice.

To all the others who say this is a don't change crafting thread or i'm dissmissing randomness neither of these are correct, I still fail synths to the randoness of crafting and some things in the system do need to be changed.
Most are saying you randomly fail synths and i agree with this what i'm saying is it's easy to predict when this is going to happen and with some work you can somtimes turn almost certain failure into success other times you are not able to, but this is nothing new for SE they did this in XI too just here you have a slim chance to save it.
If what's going to happen next is (for the most part) predictable it's not 100% random. If you know when the elelement is going to blow and destablize you can more often then not prevent it and reduce your destablized element. Spamming standard is an almost certain way to get destablized elements often or have every action fail.

To make it clear on what i'm trying to say is if your calling for changes cos you beleive crafting to be a Mash the Enter Key system you're wrong (that's the sowest and most boaring way to do it), and it may be worth learning the system so you understand what needs to changed before calling for changes.


Edit:

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Originally Posted by tymora

And you never mentioned what gear you are using.

Initial risk can start out a lot higher than normal. Sucks to have those synths but you'll get used to it - Not like the materials are expensive anyway.

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could it be somone else found the pattern to this random system ^^

i agree this initial risk sucks but you do get use to it, these are the best synths when they catch you off guard and you have to work to finish it :). the veriance of this initial risk may need to be more subtal for lower lvl synths to ease ppl in but this is one of those tweeks i'd say the system needs. it's nice to see someone else who understands the current system.

And a quick note to the comment above on skills, almost evey skill you need are obtainable at lvl 10 the're others that help also some of the L30's but these are nice to have and not essential.

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Originally Posted by tymora

And you never mentioned what gear you are using.

Initial risk can start out a lot higher than normal. Sucks to have those synths but you'll get used to it - Not like the materials are expensive anyway.

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It doesn't matter what gear I'm using (my gear is crap, but I guess it's "good enough" because I still succeed about 7/8 of the time). I used the same gear between the two events. I (arguably) played worse the second time but got better results for it. That's where the problem is. The difference between dramatic success and crushing failure was purely randomness. If my gear wasn't good enough to complete the synthesis, it shouldn't have succeeded the second time either.

That never happens in combat. If a monster is high enough level that a fight with it will end in crushing failure no matter how hard I try, it's going to kill me 100% of the time. If a monster is low enough level that I can kill it, then any deaths to it are by my own mistakes. And any monster that I can kill just by spamming one button has no chance of killing me if I bother to play.

That is what I want to see in Synthesis - a game where failures are caused by mistakes, and success is caused by good play. Not a game where good play increases chance of success a bit, but you can just spam enter and succeed half the time anyway.

The current minigame is entirely to simple to support that. If I hand my character over to my little brother (who's never played the game) for combat, I'm going to come back dead party no matter how much instructions I give him. If I hand my character over to my little brother for Synthesis and took half a minute to explain orb colors, Wait, Standard Synthesis, Preserve, and Instability... he'd probably do almost as well as I do, because the game simply isn't complex enough to take more explanation.

Yes, gear matters, and has plenty of subtleties to it, but "wearing the right gear" isn't gameplay. Acquiring it might be, but you don't re-acquire your gear for every synthesis.

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That never happens in combat.

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Maybe you can think of synths as equi-level "Imps" with their random one-shot kills? They can misfire it, they can miss it or you can interrupt it but it hits like a truck when it does...

Would combat be fun if every monster does the same thing every fight? (Well I suppose most mobs actually do until they improve the AI)
E.g 1st attack swing, 2nd attack kick, 3rd attack tail...repeat until dead.

While the variation of initial risk may be too dramatic, I don't think it should be done away completely with because 100% predictability is boring. If they scale the variation according to level difference, it should be good enough.

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Originally Posted by Savasana

Where can we find a guide for what different coloured orbs mean and how to manage that and element destabilisation?

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White = High Success/Normal Chance of Perfect Synth if Successful

Red = Medium-Low(one word not a range) Success/Moderate Chance of Perfect Synth if Successful

Yellow = Very Low Success/High Chance of Perfect Synth if Successful

Slow Flicker = Random Chance of White/Red/Yellow leaning toward White

Fast Flicker = Random Chance of White/Red/Yellow leaning toward Yellow

Sparking = High Risk of Destabilization

Fixing Destabilization is quite literally pure luck. A Player of remote skill can mitigate deterioration by swapping between Wait, Skills and Standard synth.

Preventing Destabilization is based on Elemental Alignment

Control effects Success rates

Craftsmanship effect progress on physical based items

Mag Craftsmanship effects progress on magic based items

All Moon and Compass theories are as yet unproven and have little evidence.