(12-13-2015, 02:28 PM)Tamme Wrote: People don't use what we already give them ;)
There is very little crafting that happens, is recorded and updated in the records. If people actually use the ranks, we would consider it.

[oops sorry Ashamin didn't realize the tag got quoted]

I definitely see what you're saying Tamme, and think that's a fair evaluation, but I do think there's a bit of a catch-22. The crafters are not used often enough because there is not enough demand for them, if we reduced items and put more drive for items to come from crafters rather than prizes, their demand would increase.

Of course, crafters will never fully replace item prizes because crafters cannot make enough materials to meet everyone's needs - metal, stone, glass, cloth, leather, diamond, wood, bone, scale, rubber, plastic. Even some items that can be made from crafters currently aren't (like metal trinkets are born of prizes rather than DT). However I think giving crafters more things to craft (thus 2 types per herd instead of 1) could be more helpful. For instance, I used an item prize to get my dragon ball made because I wanted it made of scales and no crafter, herd or personal, does that. Then I also got my metal knives and metal shield from item prizes instead of crafters because I wanted them enchanted (hence suggesting crafters be allowed to enchant in rare occasions). True you can get the item crafted first then quest to enchant it later, but just as there's a difference with joining a character already intact with magic vs. questing for it, so I feel there's also with acquiring an enchanted item vs. placing the enchantment, there's a different history to it which might vary with certain characters.

Anyway, getting into a tangent. I feel crafters need to be helped to more usefulness, which is not a fault in and of the crafting system itself, true, but changing the system could also help.




1. The herds don't seem balanced at the moment with what they can craft. DT metal, HF stone, WE glass, AB cloth. Metal and stone are very strong items and there's a lot more demand for them. Glass and cloth seem much weaker and there doesn't seem to be much need for them, due in part because of this weakness. Because what are the main items people want? They want things that increase their stats, armor, horse shoes, weapons, these are the most common, along with various little decorative trinkets which are mostly metal in origin, sometimes glass and bone. I know glass and cloth have plenty of practical uses, definitely that's true, but I think that's more true for real life than it is the rp life of our horses. Maybe if the glass and cloth were magically as strong as metal and stone, then sure (like how skyrim has glass armor), but we apply real rules to them.

That's why I think we either need to balance the herds DT metal, HF stone, WE diamond?, AB leather? (I don't know if part of the reason we didn't do leather to begin with was inability to harvest hides easily? I feel like the north region though would see lots of corpses with animals starving, it's one of the harshest herd lands to live in, so realistically I feel hide could be arguably easy to find there).

Or, keep the herds crafts as is but add additional crafting to them. Something 'weaker' but still useful to DT and HF, and something stronger, more able to be armor and weapons, to WE and AB. I prefer this because again it'd give more resources total giving characters more options with the crafters versus items prizes.



2. I feel like crafters haven't had a lot of structure or guidance. They ask questions that go unanswered (not by admin per say) or have unclear answers that leaves people confused and uncertain. Particularly in what the requirements are to craft and when something is 'done', and how much is needed to complete something. Sure we have small, medium, large, and general ideas for how much that is, but how many large items to build a house? 1 horse length is roughly a large item, so 1 wall that is horse lengths long, but how high, how thick, is a room with 4 walls (4 large items) that roughly fits the horse enough? What about a wall all around the herd, or a classroom to fit several horses - I feel like we don't always have answers for these questions. We have gotten better, which is because crafting already has improved and increased from where it used to be, so as with any of our rules and systems our answers as admin have evolved with the questions and the problems that are newly proposed to us, but I still feel like this system needs help in that department.

Which, is why we as admin have discussed writing a crafting guide, and I think that will be a huge help to the crafter rank.
I also think herds leaders (PSA here) need to give their crafters more guidance - because crafters have x amount they can make each season they don't want to upset the herd leads, but without quick confirmation and direction, the season is suddenly up and nothing was made because of a fear of waste, which in turn created nothing. I feel like crafters are so afraid to use their seasonal slots that in turn they don't use them at all - I once had a character Ink that wanted a glass fake amulet made, and I was told no by the crafter because the herd needed the slot (but to my knowledge nothing was ever made for seasons). So I think crafters need to take charge of their rank (second PSA) and make shit all the time - if a leader specifically says hey make this, then you do, but otherwise don't be afraid to spend your slots.

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I dunno, I really want crafting to succeed and I feel like just saying crafters need to do more is not necessarily enough. They need help - the admin guide will be a step in that direction, and maybe some time after that is released we can re-evaluate my suggestion of adding more resources to the herd crafters, but I really think that variety is crucial because crafting is a supply and demand economy and they cannot supply what is not demanded =/