It's pretty standard. One nice thing is you can do work orders to up your skill so you don't necessarily have to gather things just so you can up your crafting skill. Although you'll probably want to do gathering anyways because there are quite a few quests that use it and it is a skill like anything else so you gotta level that up as well. Outside of that, you pretty much select what you want to make and then watch your dude try to make the item. There are a lot of items to be had though so I think those into crafting will enjoy it. However, it isn't very intricate like some games such as EQ2 or VG have.
Gathering can be a real nuisance because it has a fail and complete bar that goes every time (forgot to say, so does crafting and works basically the same way). So it can be time consuming. You also have to wait a few seconds before gathering from the same node again or you will automatically fail. Personally, I find it annoying as hell but thanks to assholes that like to bot I guess this is how it has to be.
Oh, and gathering aether can be amazingly annoying because you have to fly to the nodes so you want to be careful you don't end up going splat while trying to obtain it. Which makes it even more time consuming because then you have to wait for the timer expires so you can fly again. What really is irritating about it is whether you're gathering lvl 1 aether or lvl 75 skill lvl aether they're all the same. So if you do decide to gather it just realize it's for the greater good of being able to gather different aether deposits at higher levels.
...or you could just purchase the gather items from others although I would imagine that will get very pricey.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Im not a fan of the gather/trade/crafting skills, but i have to say i found Aion's interesting and had some fun in cb, ob crafting. Found myself spending large chunks of time crafting items out of pure enjoyment.
I only tried armorsmithing in beta, but I can say that I liked it.
The armor flux is sortof a pain, but I didn't know you could do work orders to raise your skill until the beta was almost over.
One thing I really like is you have a chance to create an even better item than what shows on your recipe. I'm not sure what triggers this, maybe someone else could explain?
And the items I created, near lvl 20, were usually way better than the item drops I had gotten from leveling and questing. I can't speak for above lvl 20 though. Also the plate armor I made looked very cool, I was impressed.
I did quite a bit of crafting in the Chinese release, plus some in the beta. I've done everything but handicrafting. I enjoyed it and gathering as well. Crafting is very useful all around with items definitely being as good as or better than many drops.
People above have explained the basics. There is a chance to "crit" when you're making items. My understanding is that the higher your skill is in relation to the recipe, the greater the chance is to create a better version of the item. Some said that having your DP maxed while crafting increased the crit percentage as well. However, I did not see any conclusive evidence of that.
The work orders offered by the craft trainers do help quite a bit, both to raise your skill level and to mitigate some of the costs of raising it. Accepting workorders gives you the materials to use, but you will still need to buy the fuel, spices, thread, etc. Rewards for workorder completion are random based on skill level, including fuel and recipes. Recipes/designs can be purchased from vendors and drop from mobs too. After a certain level, your craft master may give a quest starter piece as a reward. This usually involves taking the item to an NPC in the Abyss for experience and Abyss points.
For each tier a crafter raises their skill, you will be required to pay the trainer to step up. The first is to begin your training, then at 99, 199, etc. The amount paid to progtress increases for each tier. A crafter is able to train in all skills and raise their level to 399. At this time, only one craft can be mastered. Mastering a craft requires completion of a quest series and is rather expensive. I was trying to master sewing and weapon smithing on two different characters. It involved making high level items and praying for crits to make the better versions. Be warned it can take a LOT of gold (kinah) and rare materials to do so. From what I saw, expert (master) level items were excellent and have a chance to crit to gold (very rare) items.
I hope this gives you all a general idea of what to expect with crafting. I found watching tv as I crafted or listening to music really made the time fly by. Have fun and I'll see you all in game!
Comments
It's pretty standard. One nice thing is you can do work orders to up your skill so you don't necessarily have to gather things just so you can up your crafting skill. Although you'll probably want to do gathering anyways because there are quite a few quests that use it and it is a skill like anything else so you gotta level that up as well. Outside of that, you pretty much select what you want to make and then watch your dude try to make the item. There are a lot of items to be had though so I think those into crafting will enjoy it. However, it isn't very intricate like some games such as EQ2 or VG have.
Gathering can be a real nuisance because it has a fail and complete bar that goes every time (forgot to say, so does crafting and works basically the same way). So it can be time consuming. You also have to wait a few seconds before gathering from the same node again or you will automatically fail. Personally, I find it annoying as hell but thanks to assholes that like to bot I guess this is how it has to be.
Oh, and gathering aether can be amazingly annoying because you have to fly to the nodes so you want to be careful you don't end up going splat while trying to obtain it. Which makes it even more time consuming because then you have to wait for the timer expires so you can fly again. What really is irritating about it is whether you're gathering lvl 1 aether or lvl 75 skill lvl aether they're all the same. So if you do decide to gather it just realize it's for the greater good of being able to gather different aether deposits at higher levels.
...or you could just purchase the gather items from others although I would imagine that will get very pricey.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Im not a fan of the gather/trade/crafting skills, but i have to say i found Aion's interesting and had some fun in cb, ob crafting. Found myself spending large chunks of time crafting items out of pure enjoyment.
I only tried armorsmithing in beta, but I can say that I liked it.
The armor flux is sortof a pain, but I didn't know you could do work orders to raise your skill until the beta was almost over.
One thing I really like is you have a chance to create an even better item than what shows on your recipe. I'm not sure what triggers this, maybe someone else could explain?
And the items I created, near lvl 20, were usually way better than the item drops I had gotten from leveling and questing. I can't speak for above lvl 20 though. Also the plate armor I made looked very cool, I was impressed.
I did quite a bit of crafting in the Chinese release, plus some in the beta. I've done everything but handicrafting. I enjoyed it and gathering as well. Crafting is very useful all around with items definitely being as good as or better than many drops.
People above have explained the basics. There is a chance to "crit" when you're making items. My understanding is that the higher your skill is in relation to the recipe, the greater the chance is to create a better version of the item. Some said that having your DP maxed while crafting increased the crit percentage as well. However, I did not see any conclusive evidence of that.
The work orders offered by the craft trainers do help quite a bit, both to raise your skill level and to mitigate some of the costs of raising it. Accepting workorders gives you the materials to use, but you will still need to buy the fuel, spices, thread, etc. Rewards for workorder completion are random based on skill level, including fuel and recipes. Recipes/designs can be purchased from vendors and drop from mobs too. After a certain level, your craft master may give a quest starter piece as a reward. This usually involves taking the item to an NPC in the Abyss for experience and Abyss points.
For each tier a crafter raises their skill, you will be required to pay the trainer to step up. The first is to begin your training, then at 99, 199, etc. The amount paid to progtress increases for each tier. A crafter is able to train in all skills and raise their level to 399. At this time, only one craft can be mastered. Mastering a craft requires completion of a quest series and is rather expensive. I was trying to master sewing and weapon smithing on two different characters. It involved making high level items and praying for crits to make the better versions. Be warned it can take a LOT of gold (kinah) and rare materials to do so. From what I saw, expert (master) level items were excellent and have a chance to crit to gold (very rare) items.
I hope this gives you all a general idea of what to expect with crafting. I found watching tv as I crafted or listening to music really made the time fly by. Have fun and I'll see you all in game!
Mirrim
Chanter, Spatalos Server