Dev Diary: Crafting in Free-to-Play (Volume 3.2)

One of the things that I personally glossed over some are the changes coming up to Crafting in the upcoming release of Free-to-Play; which is ironic since I have a ton of crafters.  For those of you who may or may not remember, Jewelers and Cooks had quite a few changes with the release of Volume 3, Book 1.  With Volume 3.2 Weaponsmiths and Woodworkers are having some revisions which “…introduces an arsenal of new crafted weapons…” that target not only their stats but their damage types as well.  However, it’s important to note that no existing crafted weapons will be changed.

Also, many existing Weaponsmith and Woodworker recipes will now be multi-output (meaning they can create different versions of the same item as can be seen in a previous post) as well, allowing players to better adjust the weapons to have stats that would be more relevant to their playing style.  I’m vastly in favor of multi-output recipes and I am very much looking forward to these options.  Mostly because it’s fairly frustrating to want to create a weapon for a character and the type that I want is meant for a different playing style.

Also being revised are many of the reputation recipes.  If you’re not familiar with these, these are items that can be created by certain professions that can be bartered with particular reputations.  For example:  Cooks can create items that can be bartered for increased Mathom Society reputation; Weaponsmiths can craft items that can be bartered for increased Wardens of Annúminas reputation; and so forth. in Volume 3.2 the recipes have been changed “…to improve experience rewards, better balance the required ingredients used, and to allow use of optional ingredients to aid in critical successes!”  The following are listed as being updated:

I hope that these work out because honestly I think they’re a pain currently.  Granted, the only one I really have tried are the cook’s and I didn’t think it worth the resources.  It was much easier just to send Mathoms his way as I leveled alts and not bother with the cooking and farming required to create these.  Since the items are bound there’s no reason to make them for other characters, so all-in-all they are (currently) a decent option if you want to spend money and gather resources rather than kill mobs.  Me?  Unless they’re a lot better I’ll stick with killing mobs.

As we’ve mentioned before, Captains are obtaining new armaments and standards with this release, and in turn recipes for Master and Supreme Tailors for these items have been added “…to treasure”.  (Note that the Standard recipe is multi-output!) I assume this means the recipes will be dropping in their corresponding level-appropriate areas from mobs instead of being sold on vendors.  So for those of you that stumble upon them, check with your friends, kinships or the auction house before selling them off to a vendor.  Most likely quite a few people will be after these items during the first couple of months.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Athelas Essence and Celebrant Salve potions have been updated to increase the amount of morale/power received when crafting a potion!  Could this be in response to the controversial “super draught” that will be purchasable in the store?  Possibly.  Although I personally think that the draughts are incredibly cost prohibitive to use on a regular basis, I’m happy to see that Altheas and Celebrant potions are being increased in their effectiveness because I use those all the time!

I think a lot of the changes are really good, and I’m excited for them.  I noticed one thing that either wasn’t mentioned or that I missed is that you do not have to master the second tier of crafting in order to have a critical result.  I know that there are some other changes to crafting that weren’t discussed either.  What changes that you’ve seen or heard about that you’re excited about?  Or are there any that you’re upset or not too thrilled with?

EDIT: Sapience posted the following changes were made to the dairy today:

Changes to Mastery & Critical Success
We’ve changed the way crafting mastery works, allowing Apprentice crafters to use optional ingredients and to experience critical success upon completing proficiency (previously, both proficiency and mastery needed to be completed). With the benefits of critical success and mastery options made available while working towards completing mastery, we hope players will find the crafting experience to be more exciting and rewarding than before!

All craft professions and tiers have been updated to allow use of optional ingredients and the chance for critical successes once proficiency for a given tier has been completed. Remember though, in order to unlock mastery for your current tier, you must complete proficiency for that tier as well as mastery for all previous tiers.

Farmer, Forester, and Prospector Profession Quests
We’ve added new profession quests for the Farmer, Forester, and Prospector professions. Adding these quests brings more consistency amongst all craft professions. It allows us more opportunities to provide important information to crafters, such as new resources and facility locations.