Game is fine, Crafting is not

Unknown

Been playing for about 3 weeks now.

So far gameplay is OK (though I am keeping my EQ2 subscribtion), but the crafting & tradeskills are pretty badly borked.

Aside from the fact that there is almost nothing you can make that anyone wants to buy, the few classes that might be able to sell things, like cooks, are so priced out of the market by having to buy overpriced vendor only items that they are simply not viable.

Knightblast

True, crafting is a mess at the moment.  A number of professions are really borked now.  I think the reason is that Turbine wants a really hard clamp on the economy for a bit.  Whether that is relaxed or not remains to be seen, but in the near term it means that professions that craft and intend to make some money at all are pretty rare --- scholars can make money, as can explorers (but they are gatherers, not crafters).



IMO, it is a mess atm,

iffymack

are turbine planning on adding more crafting content at any point?

Knightblast

Originally posted by iffymack

are turbine planning on adding more crafting content at any point?

The first changes are coming in the June patch according to Turbine -- significant changes to the farming and cooking trades, which are definitely the most broken ones at the moment.  After that, I expect that the dev focused on crafting may turn to some of the other issues that relate to other professions.

piquet

To OP: Please don't consider this flaming, it's in no way meant to be. But I was wondering why you keep playing this game? I mean, you have made several posts now about how you dislike the game mechanics. You think the servers are down too often, guild system sucks and now you're bashing the crafting system. Wouldn't it make more sense to play EQ2 instead? Sounds to me like you're just wasting your money with this game.

I also play EQ2 and still consider it the best MMORPG out there, better than LotRO is at the moment. But it sounds to me like you didn't play EQ2 at release. If you did, you would know that it certainly was no rosegarden, quite the contrary. It recovered over time with some patches and slowly became what it is today. I think you just need to give LotRO more time. But for now, close your account, keep an eye on the updates and save yourself some money (and frustration) 

Kyleran

Originally posted by piquet


To OP: Please don't consider this flaming, it's in no way meant to be. But I was wondering why you keep playing this game? I mean, you have made several posts now about how you dislike the game mechanics. You think the servers are down too often, guild system sucks and now you're bashing the crafting system. Wouldn't it make more sense to play EQ2 instead? Sounds to me like you're just wasting your money with this game.
I also play EQ2 and still consider it the best MMORPG out there, better than LotRO is at the moment. But it sounds to me like you didn't play EQ2 at release. If you did, you would know that it certainly was no rosegarden, quite the contrary. It recovered over time with some patches and slowly became what it is today. I think you just need to give LotRO more time. But for now, close your account, keep an eye on the updates and save yourself some money (and frustration) 

I play LotRO..but this is some extremely wise advice......



I hate crafting, so it doesn't matter to me if they fix it any time soon. They say they are working on it..and I expect they will get it sorted out soon.  But I don't believe it will ever have the standing in the game like it does in EQ 2, VG and certainly no where close to SWG... so its probably not the right game for those looking for deep crafting....

Elivo

Big thing to remember about this game is its only about 2 weeks old. So alot of things are going to need fixed and tweeked, But all and all for a game just out of launch, very good product.

I like the crafting so far (metalsmith) first time in a long time that i can make stuff that ill actually use, and as far as being able to make money with crafting. Right now the AH prices are really out of wack above and beyond how much stuff costs from NPCs. 

Once all of that calms down and hopefuly a fix for vendor prices come into effect, youll see alot more money comming in from crafting.

Personally for me the crafting is more about the items i can make for myself to use, selling stuff is just an added bonus to it.

Meridion

i think crafting is fun. But I'm not the economy-type of player. I never enjoyed economy; still, for someone who likes to craft just to get stuff for himself, its great fun actually. You can craft nice stuff for all levels...



Meridion

Unknown

Originally posted by piquet


To OP: Please don't consider this flaming, it's in no way meant to be. But I was wondering why you keep playing this game? I mean, you have made several posts now about how you dislike the game mechanics. You think the servers are down too often, guild system sucks and now you're bashing the crafting system. Wouldn't it make more sense to play EQ2 instead? Sounds to me like you're just wasting your money with this game.
I also play EQ2 and still consider it the best MMORPG out there, better than LotRO is at the moment. But it sounds to me like you didn't play EQ2 at release. If you did, you would know that it certainly was no rosegarden, quite the contrary. It recovered over time with some patches and slowly became what it is today. I think you just need to give LotRO more time. But for now, close your account, keep an eye on the updates and save yourself some money (and frustration) 

Well, first of all you should read what I actually wrote.

1. I never complained about the guild system. I asked what, if any benefits there were. I never said anything else either negative or positive.

2. On the servers down, that is a complaint about the EUROPEAN servers and Codemasters, not the game and Turbine.

3. I have never made any comments either way about the game mechanics, with the exception of crafting - which even Tubine admints is broken.

4. I have played EQ2 since early beta. I still play it.  But playing any game for years gets a bit repetitious.

Unknown

Originally posted by Elivo


Big thing to remember about this game is its only about 2 weeks old. So alot of things are going to need fixed and tweeked, But all and all for a game just out of launch, very good product.
I like the crafting so far (metalsmith) first time in a long time that i can make stuff that ill actually use, and as far as being able to make money with crafting. Right now the AH prices are really out of wack above and beyond how much stuff costs from NPCs. 
Once all of that calms down and hopefuly a fix for vendor prices come into effect, youll see alot more money comming in from crafting.
Personally for me the crafting is more about the items i can make for myself to use, selling stuff is just an added bonus to it.

Not all crafting is broken, but the farming and cooking definately is. Turbine is supposed to be fixing it, but I am not sure why it is going to take them 3 months to do so.

Charlizd

Well i agree that the crafting will get better in time (not that i care that much for it) and even tho there are not a lot of ppl that can use (because there all racing to see who can get to lvl cap first imo) you can craft and distribute ya gear to ya kinship folk that may need it and help them with saving some cash because some ppl who post on AH just have no idea (especially when it comes to mats for crafting)

Give it a little more time i thin you will see some changes come the June patch especially the farmer/cooker and besides that you can make some damn good gear if you can explore enough to find the rare items for some of the high end gear.

Kez95

As a Tinker, for Jewelcrafting, my stuff sells quick and for decent profit.  I focus on just the purple stuff and I set a very reasonable buyout price - people don't want to wait 2 days to wear something, they may outlevel it by then.  I bid on all the decently priced trophy stuff, and when I get 20 or so, I go make purples, and end up with about 10 of them.  My stuff is gone in an hour usually, so you can make decent cash doing that.

The crafting process itself is pretty simple for jewelcrafting.  I wish there was more talent required, or some mini-game or something, but not as much as EQ2 because that was a huge time-sink.

mk11232

Actually I don't think crafting was ever supposed to be a big seperate sphere that you could play exclusivly and enjoy yourself.  From my time playing, it seems that the crafting system is designed to be an added bonus to do inbetween quest.  Honesty, LOTR and the adventures within did not hinge on crafting (well the sword but besides that). 

You are right about the prices, but look at any other mmo straight out of launch and you'll find that the most mundane low level stuff was extremely expensive (hell look at eq2 and with the new crafting systems to decon items the low lvl mundane stuff is priced WAY above what it should be).  Give the game time to settle down and mature and you'll see the prices drop.  However, if your looking at the auctioneer to buy your supplies your wasting your time. 

One of the best implemented ideas in-game are kinships and it seems, to me, that kinships are key to obtaining your crafted items for little to no money.  I would explore a good kinship and see what kind of crafters are there and what they are wiling to trade/sell stuff for.  My kinship is great, my alt is an explorer so I simply trade harvested goods fro what I need and it works out.  So I don't think tradeskills/crafting is borked, I truely think its working as intended.

Knightblast

Originally posted by mk11232
One of the best implemented ideas in-game are kinships and it seems, to me, that kinships are key to obtaining your crafted items for little to no money.  I would explore a good kinship and see what kind of crafters are there and what they are wiling to trade/sell stuff for.  My kinship is great, my alt is an explorer so I simply trade harvested goods fro what I need and it works out.  So I don't think tradeskills/crafting is borked, I truely think its working as intended.

I agree that if you are using it as an intra-kinship bartering system it works better than if you are not. 



However, if you are trying to use crafting as a part of the player economy outside of kinships, it's grossly imbalanced.  Explorers make way, way, way more coin from their trade than virtually anyone else does (I know, I have an explorer character as one one my characters and she makes hand over fist more cash than any of the others due to what she picks up and sells on the AH in terms of crafting mats for other players).  Cooking and Farming are admitted by Turbine to be not working as intended, and are getting a revamp in June.  Many people are unhappy about the way scholar works (not so much the trade itself, but the resulting lack of potions and so forth in the game), etc.  So I really don't agree that everything is hunky-dory in craftter land in this game.  The good news is that Turbine is working on things, and the rest of the game works very well at this point.

JonMichael

Originally posted by Laiina


Been playing for about 3 weeks now.
So far gameplay is OK (though I am keeping my EQ2 subscribtion), but the crafting & tradeskills are pretty badly borked.
Aside from the fact that there is almost nothing you can make that anyone wants to buy, the few classes that might be able to sell things, like cooks, are so priced out of the market by having to buy overpriced vendor only items that they are simply not viable.

So far, I've been doing very well with crafting.  I'm the king of alts and have a Scholar, Tailor and an Armorsmith. 

The scholar does very well making potions, but the materials take time to get.  The tailor has done well also.  Both came out of open beta with a couple of gold a piece.

As for the Armorsmith, I've really just started, so I don't know how he'll work out.

Remember, the economy is still very new... so until then, some things will be out of whack.  I'm on Elendilmir, so I don't know how crafting is working out on the other servers, but prices seem to be coming down a bit on our server.

 

Liddokun

I must admit the crafting system still needs some serious tweak. Some trade professions are making oodles of cash while other professions are perpetually broke. I am seriously considering farming and cook but chose to hold off for now until they fixed the professions.

Another issue I can see here is that the ingredients you need for a certain tradeskill level are dropped by mobs much higher level than the intended user of the equipment. Example: Medium hides are dropped by lvl 16-20+ wolves and bears in the lone lands but the armor made from medium hide are only meant for lvl 11-15 users. Turbine needs to seriously fix this and match the ingredients used by the crafter to the intended level of the equipment user.

 

JonMichael

Originally posted by liddokun


I must admit the crafting system still needs some serious tweak. Some trade professions are making oodles of cash while other professions are perpetually broke. I am seriously considering farming and cook but chose to hold off for now until they fixed the professions.
Another issue I can see here is that the ingredients you need for a certain tradeskill level are dropped by mobs much higher level than the intended user of the equipment. Example: Medium hides are dropped by lvl 16-20+ wolves and bears in the lone lands but the armor made from medium hide are only meant for lvl 11-15 users. Turbine needs to seriously fix this and match the ingredients used by the crafter to the intended level of the equipment user.
 

There's another set of armor available to craft in that tier called "Tough Leather".  The recipies are available on the Tailor NPC and cost about 15 silver for each. 

I think it's for level 16 and a few levels higher... has some decent mods on it too.

 

Rattrap

Crafting is more fun than in most MMOs - but curently the economy is broken.



But let see .... The mega god of MMO WOW never managed to pull any resonable crafting economy. Will LOTRO suceed ?



I am not sure. But what i am sure that all the issues will be tweaked, and crafting will become more expense-gain balanced.



The game is only 2 weeks old for crying out loud !

piquet

Originally posted by Laiina

Well, first of all you should read what I actually wrote.

I admit that I haven't read every single line of your posts.

1. I never complained about the guild system. I asked what, if any benefits there were. I never said anything else either negative or positive.

Well, you said you saw no point in joining a guild and that it had no obvious advantages (though I see quite a few). Then you listed guild features from EQ2, and in comparison, you think of a guild in LotRO as simply another chat channel. I apparently misinterpreted that as negative, I'm sorry if that wasn't the case.

2. On the servers down, that is a complaint about the EUROPEAN servers and Codemasters, not the game and Turbine.

Yes, but it's still these servers you keep playing on when you don't actually HAVE to. You could switch to US servers, if they are so superior to the european ones. You said yourself that you wish you had never bothered with this game, so why do you keep doing it!? Like I said, close your account and check up on the game from time to time instead of allowing yourself to get so frustrated. Alternately order a US box from Game Stop or Best Buy and make an account on the superior US servers - it's really that simple.

3. I have never made any comments either way about the game mechanics, with the exception of crafting - which even Tubine admints is broken.

I consider both crafting and the guild system part of the game mechanics, but then again you claim your post about the guild system wasn't a complaint, my bad...

Just seems to me like you're wasting your money with LotRO, but of course that's not my problem. I'm just pointing out that there are alternatives.