grinninglemon
Dalayan Beginner
I think trade skills should be made less boring and monotonous. That is as blunt as I can say it.
I am referring to skills such as Fletching and Alchemy (and others) that require you to move each item into the container you wish to combine it in. I understand that most 'veterans' would say this game isn't supposed to be easy, or at least something to the extent of 'if you want everything handed to you go play WoW'. When in fact there is nothing hard or difficult about simply clicking one item then clicking an empty space in the container (repeat 2+ times) then click combine.
I believe one of the better Ideas that SOE came up with was using the recipes window which cut out most of the clicking, to get your recipes on this list you first had to successfully assemble it (or for some recipes simply get close enough to the trivial level and it would show up). I am not sure which expansion this came out on, but perhaps something similar could be implemented into SoD.
This idea doesn't make anything easier or harder, all it does is make it more efficient so those doing trade skills can actually play the game and not spend most of their time staring at their inventory screen and moving items around.
To show you how much time it takes to master a trade skill I timed myself completing 20 combines of 4 components(arrows). I took my fastest time(NOT my average) and figured how long it would take to reach level 234 in fletching. I am assuming that the required # of combines it takes to skill up 1 level scales the same as alchemy (http://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Alchemy)
I found that it would take about 26 hours to master fletching, which does not include the time it takes to restock on components. This also means that in order to complete it in about 26 hours you have to CONSTANTLY be clicking, not able to talk, fight, or do anything but move inventory around. This is especially bad for new players who would want to advance in trade skills only to find that this game offers them horrifically boring options and perhaps driving some away from the game.
The current method for doing trade skills is in no way good and does not succeed in making trade skills more difficult, it only makes them more boring and less appealing. It is simply bad design.
As a solution my first suggestion would be something similar to what SOE did for EQ (as I mentioned earlier)
This would take some of the monotony out of doing trade skills and would allow players to socialize more while they are leveling up their trade skills. If the fact that it would allow players to master trades much faster is why you wouldn't want to implement something like that then perhaps putting a timer on it so you cant spam it. This would give the person doing the trade skill time to talk or do something while they wait and it would be A LOT better then constantly clicking. You could even use my Data to figure out how long the timer should be
.
I am not sure what client limitations the developers deal with would effect this idea and so it may not be possible, but there has to be some sort of solution to this that would make doing trade skills a little more enjoyable.
Perhaps if anyone has another Idea they can post it here.
(I apologize for the long post)
Here is my math :
My fastest time was 2min 34sec(ill use 2:30 just to make it simple) and that was to complete 20 stacks of Arrows which require four components each. Now, using the scaling guide for required combines per skill up on the alchemy wiki, the total number of combines required to reach the skill of 234 would be 12,518. Take that number and divide it by 20 (how many combines I completed) and you get 625.9. Then you take the time it took to complete the set of 20 combines(2min and 30 sec, or 2.5 min) and multiply it with 625.9 to get 1,564.75 min. divide your minutes by 60 ( 60 min in an hour) and you will get 26.07, which is the amount of hours it would take to reach a skill level of 234.
I am referring to skills such as Fletching and Alchemy (and others) that require you to move each item into the container you wish to combine it in. I understand that most 'veterans' would say this game isn't supposed to be easy, or at least something to the extent of 'if you want everything handed to you go play WoW'. When in fact there is nothing hard or difficult about simply clicking one item then clicking an empty space in the container (repeat 2+ times) then click combine.
I believe one of the better Ideas that SOE came up with was using the recipes window which cut out most of the clicking, to get your recipes on this list you first had to successfully assemble it (or for some recipes simply get close enough to the trivial level and it would show up). I am not sure which expansion this came out on, but perhaps something similar could be implemented into SoD.
This idea doesn't make anything easier or harder, all it does is make it more efficient so those doing trade skills can actually play the game and not spend most of their time staring at their inventory screen and moving items around.
To show you how much time it takes to master a trade skill I timed myself completing 20 combines of 4 components(arrows). I took my fastest time(NOT my average) and figured how long it would take to reach level 234 in fletching. I am assuming that the required # of combines it takes to skill up 1 level scales the same as alchemy (http://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Alchemy)
I found that it would take about 26 hours to master fletching, which does not include the time it takes to restock on components. This also means that in order to complete it in about 26 hours you have to CONSTANTLY be clicking, not able to talk, fight, or do anything but move inventory around. This is especially bad for new players who would want to advance in trade skills only to find that this game offers them horrifically boring options and perhaps driving some away from the game.
The current method for doing trade skills is in no way good and does not succeed in making trade skills more difficult, it only makes them more boring and less appealing. It is simply bad design.
As a solution my first suggestion would be something similar to what SOE did for EQ (as I mentioned earlier)
This would take some of the monotony out of doing trade skills and would allow players to socialize more while they are leveling up their trade skills. If the fact that it would allow players to master trades much faster is why you wouldn't want to implement something like that then perhaps putting a timer on it so you cant spam it. This would give the person doing the trade skill time to talk or do something while they wait and it would be A LOT better then constantly clicking. You could even use my Data to figure out how long the timer should be
. I am not sure what client limitations the developers deal with would effect this idea and so it may not be possible, but there has to be some sort of solution to this that would make doing trade skills a little more enjoyable.
Perhaps if anyone has another Idea they can post it here.
(I apologize for the long post)
Here is my math :
My fastest time was 2min 34sec(ill use 2:30 just to make it simple) and that was to complete 20 stacks of Arrows which require four components each. Now, using the scaling guide for required combines per skill up on the alchemy wiki, the total number of combines required to reach the skill of 234 would be 12,518. Take that number and divide it by 20 (how many combines I completed) and you get 625.9. Then you take the time it took to complete the set of 20 combines(2min and 30 sec, or 2.5 min) and multiply it with 625.9 to get 1,564.75 min. divide your minutes by 60 ( 60 min in an hour) and you will get 26.07, which is the amount of hours it would take to reach a skill level of 234.
