Crafting in this game is a joke

I live in mortal fear of having to craft something.
so far I've leared that the 1-6 buttons are worthless and do nothing. there is no skill involved with them. Oh, you can click the right button when it says you need to but even doing that can fail. pre-pressing anything just means you can't press the right butten when you need too. you can loose everything without it ever saying you did anything wrong.
I've had at least 4 times been at 99% done and watched the durability of the product go from 100% to 0% and failure without it ever saying I did anything wrong or asking me to press anything, it just went POOF!
what am I missing?

So, in effect, crafting isn't a joke... its just you don't know how to do it so you perceive it as a joke.
The 6 buttons are crafting events and if hit collectively and at the correct time can speed up the progress of your item while maintaining durability.
The "floaty" green and red numbers are your key.. once they pop, press your collection of 3 buttons (1-3 or 4-6) to build progress or durability
The crafting event that appears will only appear once your floaty numbers have shown.. its at that point you know what order to press your 1-6 buttons in
Try the wiki for a crafting write up - you can find it here

Ardrek wrote:

You might also join the crafting channel which usually has helpful people in it It's not as user friendly as hitting auto attack and killing a mob, but it is doable Sometimes it can even be fun and the questlines are quite interesting

There is a rthym/cycle to crafting. The 6 buttons are actually 3 pairs of buttons. One of each pair helps the green bar (durability) the other on the blue bar (progress). For maximum effectiveness, you want to hit one of each 'pair' each cycle. In order to complete the item, you need to finish with the green bar on the 4th line when the blue bar reaches the end of the 4th line.
For the cycle... you'll notice that at the end of each 'cycle' the bars on the crafting window move.. the reaction to counter, if one comes up, will come up right after the bars move. So, the most effective way to craft is to start the combine, hit the buttons, then wait for the progress bars to move. After they move, hit the matching button, if one appears, then hit the other two. If none appears, hit the three. Rinse and repeat
If the green bar is backing up too much hit the durability reactions (1-3). If the green bar is doing well, hit the progress buttons (4-6). At lower levels you'll be hitting more 1-3. As you gain TS levels, you'll shift to using more 4-6

Usually these threads are complaining that it is too easy.
I do not like the way you lash out and attack then ask for help, so I encourage you to figure out how the buttons work on your own. Just informing you that it is easy when done right, but you are using the buttons wrong should be sufficient to guide you back to the correct path.

Ardrek wrote:

1-5-6, repeat if you see one come up hit that one first so it then becomes 5-6-1 or 6-1-5.
Never fail at crafting again.
Alternately 1-5, or 5-1 depending will also never fail.

It is not complicated and it clearly isn't a joke. If you can't figure out the system, you're in for a frustrating experience gamewide.

OP, this is not the game your looking for. Move on, there are other games that will better cater to what your looking for out of a game.
Mechanics in eq2 are very subtle, and the best solution to them isn't easy to percieve. If you found the simple crafting system too hard to comprehend, you are by no means ready for what is in store for you in this game.

Ardrek wrote:

If you aren't hitting some button everytime it is available, then you aren't doing it right. You can not just push a button to react to a counter & expect to successfully complete combines most of the time.
Someone earlier suggested a ability rotation, but of course yours might vary from their's depending on of you have moved your abilities around in the hotbars or if you prefer the slow & sure method using more +durability or a fast with greater chance of failure if you aren't watching pure +progess method or some mix between the two (which I highly suggest).
Good luck. =)

To me, it sounds like what's missing is skill points in said craft. Early on, it can be a bit troublesome to craft items purely by reactions. You might consider a few extra hits on a durability button (1-3).

Even if you understand the process and do everything right the first tiers can be tough.
The secret is Alternative Advancement Points, I struggled like heck for the first tiers with my first character, now I dump the first 30-40 AA's for every new character into crafting, first I fill up the Durability buffs, then the progress, success, etc buffs and I find it's much easier!

Also, it gets easier as you level up, every 20 levels, I think it is, you get better reaction arts. At level 90, with the AA's, I recently finished a Rush Order writ with 4 minutes left on the clock! And I can't remember the last time I failed a combine.

I understand how frustrating crafting can be. However, if you have the default setup, then you should have the abilities already set up on a hotbar automatically by the game, once you start a crafting combine. The icons will vary depending upon the station you are located at, but they will all do the same thing, basically. The first 3 will increase your durability, the bottom bar. The third one uses power, so you won't be able to use it if you are too low on power. The next 3 will increase your progress, the top bar. Again, the third of that set (6th spot) uses power. If you use a good drink, you will be considered out of combat, therefore allowing your power regen to be at max, and power buffs will also work.
You were advised on two very good ways to tell when to start your rotation. One, the 'floaty' numbers, that tells you how well your combine is going. The red numbers indicate a negative effect, generally against your durability, but can also affect your progress. The green numbers mean that a positive thing happened. You can easily get both types of effects each time, so don't expect to see just red or green. When you see those numbers, wait a sec further to see if an icon comes up. If it does, then hit either the first set (1-3) (if your durability is less than halfway through the fourth bar), or the second set (4-6) if your durability is good. Once you have countered the icon, you can either decide to wait for the floaty numbers again, then resume your rotation, or risk pushing buttons to complete your normal rotation. Be aware that you may get another icon when the numbers come up, and may have an ability quequ'd if you try resuming your rotation. You generally have time for up to 4 button presses.
The other method, waiting for the bars to progress or decline, is also good, but slightly less reliable. Generally, when the floaty numbers come up, you should see some kind of effect on your progress and/or durability bar. However, sometimes the progress is so slight that it's hard to detect. If you wait for the bar to show a difference, sometimes you end up waiting for two rotations to pass before you notice something, and it's usually a negative effect. So a combination of floaty numbers and watching the bars is probably the best.
As a new crafter, you should expect things to be difficult. You will be using your first three abilities far more than the second set, because your durability goes down very fast. As you gain levels, however, your skill improves, and the detrimental effects of the combines will decrease, allowing you to use your progress set more frequently. Soon enough, you will be using almost entirely your progress set only, only using the durability when you miss an icon, or when you take too long and get too low on your durability.
One thing that nobody has mentioned, those buttons actually will advise you that hitting them will affect the other stat. Using your progress set will reduce your durability, and vice versa on the durability set. So it's to be expected that you will see a difference happen when you use the buttons, rather than not use them. However, the effect of NOT using the buttons is far more drastic, because you aren't even trying to do anything, just standing there twiddling your thumbs.
There are various types of success and failures, and I'm not sure where they would show on the chat window. It might be considered 'combat', so you might want to check that tab to see if it's listed there. I'm not sure, it might be that the default is that crafting is not shown on the chat window, unless you specifically add it. I know I have one window with everything, and another window that just shows certain items. I'd suggest you check to see what your crafting section of the chat says. But a critical failure/success just indicate a random (seldom something you did) event. The only reason you would have actually affected the failure or success would be by either countering or failing to counter the icon that comes up. Otherwise it's pretty random when the game decides something is a failure or success. It is also affected, I believe, by your level and skill.
Also, as mentioned, aa in the tradeskill tree makes a huge difference. You can allocate 40 points, filling out all but one spot, in the tradeskill aa tree. One of them is a duplicate, with a speed or food/drink additional effect, I can't remember exactly. All but two will directly affect your crafting in one way or the other, the other two effect harvesting. I suggest taking the two harvesting bonuses. You can then go with selecting which one to not get (I usually select the duplicate that DOESN'T have the additional bonus to drop), and just fill out the remaining points. The total points do go against your 320 point allowance, but at the lower levels, when you are already limited in what you can allocate anyway, it doesn't affect you in a negative way. Instead, it will allow your crafting to get much easier. I suggest that you first assign points to durability, then progress, to make things easier at the lower levels.

Trebien@Nektulos wrote:

Actually, one of each group affects the other stat, one takes power and one affects the success chance (I think).
I've rearanged my icons, with the power drains in the middle, success chance depressors a bit further out and the progress/durability depressors on the outside to make it easier to tell which is which in case I fell I need to adjust my stratagy, though mostly I just do them in rotation, one durability increase to two progress increases.

Boy does your thread title make it really hard to sympathize with you. The crafting community as a whole is helpful, friendly and patient so you should have no trouble finding help. The in game crafting chat channel is also very good as cloudrat mentioned.
That being said, like anything worth doing tradeskilling takes a bit of getting used to so that you can find your own pace and rythym. I have 18 crafters (yes like many I am addicted) and 11 are max level. I have never used any AA in my tradeskill tree because they are all adventurers too and I never have AA to spare. So it is possible to be a successful crafter without using up AA but if you have them to use it would probably make your life easier.
Hang in there, levels 11-19 are the most challanging imo but totally worth it.

Ardrek wrote:

/Troll
I realized this immediately after you you said "I've leared that the 1-6 buttons are worthless and do nothing". Every button has a purpose and DOES do something.
I control every aspect of crafting when making something. I can ( and have ) get almost done, let everything fail back to the 1st bar, then bring it back and complete the item. Easy stuff IF you know how to do it. Full control and yes, there is a bit a skill involved. I have 8 level 92 crafters and working on Sage right now. I love the crafting this this game. If you don't, then this game is probably not for you.
Now, with that said, IF you are Trolling, enjoy the laugh at all the people here trying to help you.

Ardrek wrote:

That crafting is on a 4 second cycle.
Every 4 seconds, a crafting round ends (red and/or green numbers float up from the table) and a new round begins (sometimes you'll be asked to press a Reaction).
Also, you should familiarize yourself with the 6 reaction buttons. 3 of them improve item quality (durability). 3 of them increase crafting speed (progress). Most crafters use a mix of them.

i just press 3, 4, 5 repeatedly, and reverting to 1, 2, 3 if the durability goes down a lot, keeping an eye out for the events obviously, seems to serve me pretty well.

" it so you perceive it as a joke"

thanks for the link it was helpful.
apparently my 75% failure rate was bacause I didn't make something simple to get the hypro-glow going before making what I really needed.
Per say, NOBODY could have figured that our without leaving the game and going to the internet... thus my joke comment. if the simple stuff is it's too complicated to figure out without the internet then it's a joke. Crafting is in my opinion too complicated, I was only making simple level 5 stuff. The link says I should ignore everything except the top bars... if that's true then why display anything else? if my basic fighting of the level one content had been at a 75% failure rate I wouldn't have bothered to become a paying customer, so basic fighting is simple enough you don't need the internet to figure out how to do it. I understand going to the internet to get better at the advanced stuff but at level 10 you really shouldn't need to.

Errrr....
Crafting is easy. Crafting was complicated the year as Everquest2 started. I never had to look at a crafting guide, just a look at the buttons and a lot trial and error on the Isle of Refugee (the forge killed me a lot).
There was no floaty explanation of what the green and the blue lines do, there were no buttons (you had to look in your knowledge book and sort them out, put it on the hotbar), you had to read whats on the buttons and think about it, watching your effects window what happened when you pressed on, looking on the floating numbers...
And in my servers case, it was in english (and i'm not a native), but i figured it out, with a lot of help in the various channels.
There will be a LOT more things which are subtle. Learn to watch the effects. Learn to look at your surroundings. Learn to look at the Creatures (be it friend or foe). (It helps also a lot if you learned to read the Logfile)
Thats the key to success in EQ2.
Regards, theriatis.

Ardrek wrote:

Actually, if you do the tutorial and actually read all of the information the NPCs give you, much of what you find on the sites is there. It tells you about the cycles and the reaction arts, etc. It does require reading.. but the information is mostly in game without you having to look for it.