[dev1016] Synthesis Recipe Revisions - comments
Ok, Just read the proposed changes. I think they are going a little too far in simplifying things but hey it's Square's game. The only thing I really had against the existing system are:
1. Level requirements for material and intermediary steps grossly higher than the final product in a lot of cases.
2. Not enough storage due to the incredibly diverse materials requirements when crafting across all crafts.
Side note: the shortage of intermediary steps on the market is a reflection on the lack of slots per character (30) in the current market system NOT a reflection of the lack of desire of crafters to pre-manufacture and market these parts. Had the market system been less restrictive, there would probably have been the development of niche manufacturers for these items (especially the frequently used higher rank part items). By restricting the number of sales/storage slots, SE effectively killed these markets before they could be born. This is due to the profit/slot becoming the driving factor for merchandising decisions as opposed to volume/diversification being a possible operating paradigm. (i.e. Devs - don't blame the lack of market, blame the bad market design for the failure of parts to hit the market in volume - you created the shortage in the design phase - admit it, you killed that market in the design phase instead of blaming the players for not developing those markets).
Now by over simplifying the crafting you will pander to the WoW crowd, that's for sure but you de-value the crafting and gathering jobs enormously in doing so. I suspect in the end it will simplify things and make the game more attractive to the masses (which the game will need to survive) and this simplification should remove some of the storage requirements of the old system (which let's face it were there as an income generating mechanism - since any major crafter/market dude would want MANY more retainers than is currently possible and the plans had been to charge for those).
On the flip side doing away with the book grind and the need to be located in one of the 3 cities for crafting support (guild and master level), I can't complain too much about except for all the books I currently have/am in the process of acquiring...
But I still think you're OVER-simplifying from the looks of it. A better solution would have been:
- make sure all parts/materials are sourced/manufactured in the same grade as the final item (i.e. don't require ariman wings in an intermediary material that goes into a rank 9 optimal item). This could have been fixed by simple appropriate material substitutions to make the new recipes.
- Increase the number of bazaar slots per retainer to 50-ish per retainer (which would have allowed the crafters PLACE to market the parts.
- Double the number of retainers available explaining however that all past your first one would be eventually charged by once subscription was re-introduced.
Now admittedly your hardware for the market system is probably not up to snuff to handle the increase in volume on the market such changes would take (if the market interface lag is anything to go by) but there are solutions there too
Also don't forget to adjust the SP/EXP gain from each synths since you are replacing 4-10 synths with 1-3 synths to get a final product (unless you really WANT an even greater flood of +2 and +3 gear on the market - always a possibility) Also if a material /part is no longer needed in game, please REMOVE IT, don't just leave it lying around in the inventory system gathering dust...
Actually just though of a brand new class you could add to the game: Merchant (where the number of slots per retainer on bazaar and the number of retainers allowed goes up per level or per grade sort of 10 slots per retainer - 1 retainer at grade 1 and 50 slots per retainer - 5 retainers at level 41 for example) - levels up by making sales to NPC wholesalers that buy bulk shipments (which would act as a material sink for all the extra material that gets vendored currently)