So.. where will we get equipment crafting materials???? Is this the end of crafting?

cyberjanet · September 2016

Now that everything scales to your level, how is a CP510 going to get iron ore?

I've just taken a run around Stonefalls with my EP crafter. She gets ancestor silk, rubedite ore, ruby ash.

I took a run around the same area with an absolute non-crafter, also EP, he has no points in anything. He gets ancestor silk, rubedite ore, ruby ash. He goes to an equipment writ board, he gets a writ that wants him to make IRON equipment. Where will this come from? How will he ever be able to start a crafting career?

I have three characters crafting to hand stuff in at Craglorn. Do I just give up on writs, as they will never get nightwood, voidstone and voidbloom again? (I took my non-crafter to Craglorn, and all he got was ancestor silk, rubedite ore and ruby ash.)

I can't do the equipment writs on my main crafter, as they want ancestor silk, rubedite leather and rubedite ingots, and I can't get enough materials for my own armour, never mind writs.

This change means that unless you start crafting as soon as you start playing the game, you can never craft equipment. That's a helluva kick in the teeth for new players, who will mostly take time to get around to crafting.

I make a lot of equipment - at no charge - for new players and low level players even in my trading guilds. I can see that going out the window unless I can find a source for gathering materials. I understand some people are happy to just buy everything they need, I am not one of them. I gather my materials where possible. And I am not going to make a series of characters called Gathers-Iron, Gathers-Steel, Gathers-Orichalcum etc. Over and above the number of character slots needed, I have more interesting things to do than level gathering characters to the appropriate level.

Yeah, I could ask them to go gather enough materials for a set of armour. I'm sure they'd just love to run around gathering rather than exploring the game and levelling.

This crafting materials issue is ill thought-out. Well, it hasn't been thought out at all. It means you can only craft at your own level, and if you didn't start early you can never start at all unless you want crafting to be a money sink, where you spend fantastic amounts of kinah, er gold, to level it. Equipment crafting is not exactly profitable at the best of times, so it will be very difficult to recover the money spent.

I understand that Zenimax has spent a great deal of money changing everything to a system that scales to your level, and cannot unspend that money. But really, you're going to need some iron / high iron/ orichalcum etc mines, and jute/ cotton/ spidersilk etc plantations, and maple/ birch/yew forests that don't scale, somewhere in the game.

JKorr · September 2016

STEVIL will be here shortly to explain his view of the issue again, I'm sure. Until then https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/292242/crafting-nodes

is the latest thread about this. There's an official started by Gina thread somewhere about as well.

jakeedmundson · September 2016

It's not really about where you can find them... there is system to find the mats for your character level/crafting level.

The issue is that we will no longer need to craft anything. dropped sets are going to be BiS for most things. Crafting is going to be fairly worthless for end game.

Ghost-Shot · September 2016

I think the crafting writs that don't give you a survey will give you an assortment of low level mats.

STEVIL · September 2016

JKorr wrote: »

STEVIL will be here shortly to explain his view of the issue again, I'm sure. Until then https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/292242/crafting-nodes

is the latest thread about this. There's an official started by Gina thread somewhere about as well.

thanks JKorr for the intro

but really... when i saw this thread earlier i sighed and thought "later on i will just post in and give them a link to one of the many threads about it. too many times already to start from scratch again."

but then i saw something new being proffered... and so...

@cyberjanet

as JKorr points out there are plenty of detailed explanations of the ins and outs of how the new system will work, is working and the various changes one can expect. its not as simple as your original post may make it seem to be so i encourage you to look around at the various threads.

but just to draw on one specific point you make for reasons which will become obvious:
"But really, you're going to need some iron / high iron/ orichalcum etc mines, and jute/ cotton/ spidersilk etc plantations, and maple/ birch/yew forests that don't scale, somewhere in the game."

Writ completions will provide surveys half the time as they do now, so surveys become more rare (but double the yield.)

Every time a writ completion fails to give a survey (now most of the time) it will provide a 25pc pak of lower level mats (refined already iirc but dont quote me on that.) So, master crafters and everyone else doing writs keep a steady supply of lower level mats flowing into the system.
Also, nodes scale with skill rank of the harvester AND level of the character, at about 50/50, so however many non-crafters just grab materials during regular play or pick up hides off of kills at a given level of character or given skill for crafting directly drives the flow of levels of mats into the game.

So key is... they already have plans for ways that mats of any level will flow into the game built into the new system. they are keyed to and driven by the numbers of crafter characters doing writs as well as the number of character of any given level playing actively and gathering materials during even casual play (even just hide drops.)

the reason i chose to comment on this point of yours is...

i REALLY LIKE your idea of adding in "mines" (mines/farms) to various areas assuming two things are both true:

the mine produces mats of a given level or maybe a few levels near each other randomly, available for harvest/acquisition at some mechanism... this could even be the equivalent of the purchase potencies from npc vendors thing they did for enchanting.
The scaling of all nodes/drops to character level as planned is kept and not reduced or eliminated (so that everyone else always finds nodes/drops giving them mats keyed to their character.)

the latter point is crucial. most of the complaints and alternatives proposals have been centered around stripping the scaled to character nodes and keeping the average player from getting scaled nodes/drops everywhere, anywhere whatever the content they are playing in whatever order.

Your mine idea just leaves that wonderful feature of scaled nodes for everyone in place but adds a new way (in addition to writs) for anyone to go and get specific mats. It ADDS and does not take away from others. nice thinking!

now, for my druthers, honestly, I would rather see something even simpler than mines to address your concern.
Remove the lower limit on gear levels for materials.

This would mean your character wouldn't need to go to the mine/farm and harvest kresh and silver weed but could just use your gathered everywhere ancestral silk (if thats your level/skill) to make gear at that level. Why make you keep 10 different mats per craft going as separate inventories? thats just clutter, IMO.

But whether its the writs flow mats into system (ZOS current), the lower limit removal (me) or the mines/farms (you) the key difference between these suggestions or implementations and the "keep zone locked nodes" proposals is all three ADD capability without restricting the general flow in gameplay to everyone else. these all increase supply but dont prop up or increase demand by making casual gameplay result in useless mats for many players.

But for more robust discussion of lots of the ins and outs, there are several threads already plus coverage in some of the itemization official and the misc systems official threads as well.

Enjoy.

hope this helps.

cyberjanet · September 2016

Thanks for the input Stevil. I will take a look around the other threads, I did try and find some before posting but nothing seemed relevant to my problem.

I will try a couple of writs on the PTS, I should have enough materials to complete some, and see what I get as a reward. When all goes live though, I am not going to buy materials to complete a writ, as they typically cost more than the quest reward.

I find the idea of crafting level 3 armour in ancestor silk interesting and will give it some though. I am not entirely happy with crafted armour becoming useless for end game, as jakeedmundson suggests, because then there is no reason to have crafting at all. If you can only craft for yourself at your own level while levelling, it is seriously pointless.

cyberjanet · September 2016

Woodworker box (from Belkarth) gave me:
- carnelian
- grand repair kit
- ruby ash shield
- glass style motif fragment
- shipment of mahogany, which gave me 25 sanded mahogany. I am crafting in nightwood.

Clothier box gave
- diamond
- ornate ancestor silk robe
- glass style motif fragment
- shipment of silverweave cloth. I am crafting in voidcloth.

I can't remember how to re-unlock Craglorn from Wayrest, so will leave that till I have more time and inclination. That girl does blacksmithing.

I am curious about getting glass style motif fragments in both boxes. I normally get one every couple of weeks.

Essiaga · September 2016

I level crafting while leveling characters, by deconing drops, or I craft on one character and deconing on another. You don't need cp 140 mats for crafting writs once you max out crafting and spend that last skill point.

I don't want lower level mats. I want mats I can use. For me to have to get lower level crap, while getting fewer surveys, I dread having to actively harvest mats to have enough cp 160 mats for my writs. Lower level mats are going to be out leveled, and therefore won't have much value, just like gear.

Bag space is annoying enough as it is with out all these mats when my character can use those mats for all of about 3 hours before I'm leveled beyond the gear the mats make. Then I have not only refined, but raw mats in 3 different crafting lines just taking up space. Life doesn't allow me to spend money on crafting bags.

I'd love for all CP mats to go away, with only Rubidite and Ancestor remaining as the single mat for all level 50 gear. The need for 110-150 mats at cp 160 creates a gap you have to over come to craft gear, but dropped gear is going to be easy enough to obtain that crafted gear will be less valuable.

In other games crafted gear is starter gear gets allows you to earn dropped gear. ESO is practically eliminating the need for crafted gear. Especially when jewelry crafting doesn't exist. Can't wait to see how all this crap shakes out. One Tamriel looks like 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. I anticipate ZOS reverting, or reworking many of the things they'll be changing.

They could save themselves a lot of issues if they just reached out to the community, instead of creating complicated systems that turn off large populations of the game. I hate poisons. I hated crafting after IC. I hate RNG with 8 traits (when only 1 or 2 are useful), 100 sets, 5 weapon types (SO, Viper, Skirmisher staves), 1000s of pieces of junk, etc. I hate when the raise the gear cap and I have to start the grind all over again, rather then just playing the aspects of the game I enjoy. Since IC I've have yet to put together a full set of dropped gear in the traits I want, aside from those bought with TV or gold.

altemriel · September 2016

This change is indeed pretty weird and will make many people angry