Craft skill masteries: revival of crafting in UO

King_Greg

Bilbo said:

@ King_Greg I never said make better but compared to what drops as loot crafters cant even come close to anything the DEVs do, even crappy loot is better than crafters gear.

I wasn't trying to imply you thought crafted gear should be better. I just wanted to be clear on the goal to the devs and other readers.

Rock

Bilbo said:

@ King_Greg I never said make better but compared to what drops as loot crafters cant even come close to anything the DEVs do, even crappy loot is better than crafters gear.

@Bilbo, while I agree with the sentiment that crafters need to be able to make better stuff to be competitive with loot, your wording may not be the best.  As far as extra enhances go, you are correct.  Loot is perceived as better, and often is better, than crafted goods.  But comparing the primary parameters, crafted loot is still pretty darn good.  Excellent quality armor tends to have better resists than loot, just as excellent quality weapons tend to have better damage increases than loot.  Whoever designed the current system may have thought that was enough, since crafted items can be imbued (or made runicly) further than the excellent quality boosts.  In practice, though, it has not been enough to attract players to seek out crafted weapons and armor.

For those who care about fashion, crafted sets often match excellently, as opposed to the random mishmash one might be wearing if dependent on loot. For example, here is a leaf armor set that IMO looks better than most loot:

(Well, her spikey hair is leaking out her leather cap, but otherwise I really like it.)

Bilbo

Rock said:

Bilbo said:

@ King_Greg I never said make better but compared to what drops as loot crafters cant even come close to anything the DEVs do, even crappy loot is better than crafters gear.

@ Bilbo, while I agree with the sentiment that crafters need to be able to make better stuff to be competitive with loot, your wording may not be the best.  As far as extra enhances go, you are correct.  Loot is perceived as better, and often is better, than crafted goods.  But comparing the primary parameters, crafted loot is still pretty darn good.  Excellent quality armor tends to have better resists than loot, just as excellent quality weapons tend to have better damage increases than loot.  Whoever designed the current system may have thought that was enough, since crafted items can be imbued (or made runicly) further than the excellent quality boosts.  In practice, though, it has not been enough to attract players to seek out crafted weapons and armor.

For those who care about fashion, crafted sets often match excellently, as opposed to the random mishmash one might be wearing if dependent on loot. For example, here is a leaf armor set that IMO looks better than most loot:

(Well, her spikey hair is leaking out her leather cap, but otherwise I really like it.)

What perception are you thinking about.  The loot being dropped is far superior to what any crafter using all the methods available to them can ever make.  If crafted equipment is so great than why are all the top players using looted equipment?

Rock

@Bilbo, You misunderstood. I'm not saying that "crafted equipment is so great".  My point is that it has good, reproducible qualities, and we need to recognize this in a discussion on how to improve crafting.  You said, "even crappy loot is better than crafters gear".  Have you seen the resists on crappy looted armor, or the damage increase on the weapons?  Sure there are artifacts and greater magic pieces that have extremely nice properties in addition to a crafter's resists and damage increase. But most low end stuff is low end not just because the extra properties aren't very high -- neither are the resists or damage increase.

Petra_Fyde

I may be weird, but my character's weapons, and some of their suits are all crafted and imbued. I rarely come across loot that has the combination of properties that I want, and while I may wear one or two looted pieces of armour, the only real way to create a balanced suit I've found is to craft the rest.
Additionally my crafters, and those of a significant number of other players, recently are fully occupied producing beginner suits and weapons for the returners and new players that EJ has brought in.

jaytin

That leaf armour set looks really nice, is that screenie from the EC? Weird I never saw a pic of that before! You have to lose the leather cap though, feathered hat is the one for that suit! 

Rock

@jaytin, Yes, it is from the EC.  I can't take credit for how good it looks; all I did was craft the whole set.

I'll give you credit for the hat, though: 

jaytin

Nice!! That would look so good on my bard! Now if only the artist can do something with those leather caps so they don't look like we are going swimming...

Tim

Petra_Fyde said:

I may be weird, but my character's weapons, and some of their suits are all crafted and imbued. I rarely come across loot that has the combination of properties that I want, and while I may wear one or two looted pieces of armour, the only real way to create a balanced suit I've found is to craft the rest.
Additionally my crafters, and those of a significant number of other players, recently are fully occupied producing beginner suits and weapons for the returners and new players that EJ has brought in.

Me too most of my armor and weapons are crafted to get the balance/totals I want.
Legendary Artifact loot is better then I can make but most would require me to retool the rest of my equipment or give up some thing I want (100% LRC as example). 
Also more the one or two Legendaries often would give me unless totals like 95 physical resits with a cost else were.

That being said I would like to see some improvements 
My thought is more along the line of an incentive to make complete sets. May be when wearing a full set of plate resists cap go up to 75. This would make the mix and match from loot less useful then a well crafted custom set. (look better too)

Petra_Fyde

Tim said:

That being said I would like to see some improvements 
My thought is more along the line of an incentive to make complete sets. May be when wearing a full set of plate resists cap go up to 75. This would make the mix and match from loot less useful then a well crafted custom set. (look better too)

There kind of is.  There's a stamina loss reduction from wearing metal armour and  LMC bonus when wearing studded/hide/stone/bone  It's explained here: https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/items/base-properties/

Tim

I was thinking more along the lines of "Sorcerer Armor Set"   http://www.uoguide.com/Sorcerer%27s_Female_Armor 
with the bonus based on type of armor not material.

Garth_Grey

Every movie , every book, at least that I've seen and read, regarding a UO type setting, the absolute best wpns/armor etc, were hand crafted, they didn't just fall down from Mt Olympus....well, not all of them did. 

Drakelord

Look I was ok with 120 skill for blacksmith, imbuing and tailor but let's not fall overboard with power scrolls for all the crafting skills.  I really do not think it is necessary for any other skills to be 120.  IMO the only reason we have 120 skills for those three above is they needed a bone to toss to all.  And I worked my clicking to the max to reach those goals set upon us with the 120 scrolls.  So lets not go there, but look at the items made, rewards, tools etc..

Bilbo

Look at all the skills that have 120 scrolls, why is it that crafters should be left behind.  If you are going to allow skills to go to 120 then all play styles should be afforded the same opportunity not just some.  IMHO Power Scrolls should have never been introduce but all UO players should be treated equally not just certain play styles.

popps

Definitively, Crafting needs a good overhaul, to my viewing....

The Gap in between what items can be obtained as Loot and what items can be crafted is quite too large and needs to be closed with an overhaul to crafting....

But there is something else which carfting needs, especially towards new players or those players who have never practised Crafting in Ultima Online, a good, solid, comprehensive Guide which covers in details any and all aspects related to crafting.

Sure, on the internet there is bits and pieces of informations scattered here and there in various places but it takes a lot of effort and the gathering of all these pieces from various sources in order to get well knowledged in crafting and catch up with changes over the years.

It would be nice, instead, to have one place and one source which could give any and all informations needed, in details, about anything related to crafting in Ultima Online.

Plus, what I think is a much is a well done and solid Crafting Simulator Interface which players trying to assemble a suit could mess around with before actually doing it in the game.

Sure, it could be done on the Test Server somehow yet, I think that the availability of a Crafting Simulator could be enormously beneficial to learning and getting more experienced in Crafting in Ultima Online....