I really hate to say this as I love EQ2. A 1 hour quest line for the crafting side of the expansion is not worth the purchase price. I do some solo adventure so I will hopefully get my money's worth but in the future, I will purchase expansions when they are 2 or 3 out. That way at least the content value will be worth it hopefully. I think I will also stop purchasing the Collector's edition. The mount, mercenary, and familiar are nice but as a crafter and decorator first, I am more after the prestige home and other goodies. The home is 2 oversized rooms and a flat island you can teleport to that is not even connected to the main building. I miss homes with rooms and more rooms. I want to decorate the rooms. I do appreciate the hard work that went into the art and other areas. I just feel that the crafting quests are being slowly forgotten. The dialogue even feels like there was supposed to be more. You accept quest, talk to quest giver, talk to quest giver again, then do something. It feels like a step was pulled from the middle of the quests.
I would be shocked if there is more than one or two people that play eq2 for crafting. Crafting in eq2 has been an afterthought, something you did on non heroic/raid nights with the exception of 1 expansion the last 20 years where it was needed for a great cloak. What and how would you make crafting last 11 months outside of consumeables that is now mostly covered by overseers?
Well if it had a questline that lasted more than an hour, that would be a start. Those of us who craft and decorate, have multiple characters. Quest lines in PoP, CD, BoL, and RoS all took time to complete. Sadly I wasn't here for these live so I rushed through them to get to end game. I have managed to get a few months out of doing the dailies in RO, unlocking my Takish Guild Hall, and doing the Renfry Weeklies to get the advanced books for my alts. Quest line that takes time. Research and dailies. I can make those two alone last months. If the house items are interesting that can be crafted, redecorating homes can last several more months. I'm willing to bet the good furniture will be rewards for the adventure quests instead of crafted.
Be shocked then, because there are quite a few folks who are only still in EQ2 for the crafting. The OP is one crafter who's concerned about this and I'm a second, so that puts us at the upper end of "one or two" - and this discussion thread is less than an hour old. One of the game's biggest draws (arguably) is decorating player housing for fun and profit, and that's something that just will not fly without the support of avid crafters. I know because I'm one of them, and I've also participated in any number of chat discussions with other tradeskillers on my server about this. To Evilary's point, if the crafting content in BoZ is indeed that measly (one hour?), then yeah, it'll disappoint a whole lot more than one or two of us. Take it to the bank. For my part, I'm an altoholic and I've only just returned after being gone for a long time, so it'll take me awhile to feel the same level of pain as the veteran crafters who never left.
Sadly, the hour is not an exaggeration. I completed it and a handful of quests to unlock some of the research missions in a little over an hour my first run through. I am an altoholic as well and I really like the turtle familiar pet so I have completed it 9 times now. I average about 40 minutes per run to complete the signature quest. My fastest time was from log in to completion, 33 minutes /played on the session. There was a post requesting a house item that the Dev replied and said that it would just need to go to feedback. At this point, nothing else would be added to game. They were spending the remaining time working out the rest of the bugs and such. That tells me that the quest line is complete.
Once upon a time, in the land of Norrath, there were dedicated people that specifically made content for crafters. Crafters rejoiced. They were able to make things people wanted. Players wanting gear, house items and supplies were able to make posts asking for crafters to make things for them, and pay them in-game money for their time and expertise. Crafters used to be able to make some plat in game just by crafting. Really! It's wasn't a fantasy. But gone are those days. Food, drink, spells are about all now that people want or need other than some decorators that need some items. There is nothing new or innovating for crafters, or for crafters to create for players. When was the last time we got a recipe for a new player bag, backpack or storage box? When was the last time we got new totems that are needed and wanted in "todays" game environment? Please don't get me started on the copy and paste gear and cloaks, that just have their skins changed. The mage robes look like a bath robe, that came from salvation army... I won't go there lol. I can honestly say 1/2 of my game used to involve crafting. I love to craft. I wish it would get reinvigorated and revitalized. We need new content. I can't tell you how many things look exactly the same, not even a color change. Just a name change. Lastly, there is a HUGE following of crafted items, just look at the Norrathian Home Show, it is still active today. Thousands of posts. To say there are no crafters, or very few, is not so, we are waiting for new content.
Since most guilds have crafters in them, then what does overseers have to do with anything. Most guilds were/are still self sufficient to make everything they need and never be charged for anything. It's hard to make stuff to last a year for crafters, period. Even if they had quests to get them some great crafting only gear to help with more rares, etc, something that would last through expacs (yea, yea they dont' do this anymore), what would it be? If crafters can answer questions like this and send them to denmum, then maybe something can be brought to light to help with this. It's hard to be a crafter only player in this game, again, since most adventurers are also crafters or guilds have dedicated crafters.
I see people talking about it being hard to make content to last crafters for a year. The whole issue I have is the content does not last a day as far as the main story goes. I would like for you to imagine if the adventure story was able to be completed in 45 minutes. 8 to 10 quests(being generous) and you are end game. Raiders might like that but anyone who is more into solo play would be up in arms on this. Yes, there are numerous issues with crafting as a whole. I don't think I have crafted a single piece of armor or weapon post 100 unless it was for a quest. They started several expansions ago having crafters gather the resources required to make the combines as a part of the quests. This expansion you do this 1 time. You can then complete the full series with the resources you gather from this 1 quest. Previous expansions since PoP they have tradeskill instances as part of the quest series. This expansion, nothing. It's like they spent all their time on the mechanics of the WHOO and forgot to work on quests and instances.
I'm not one that loves timelines in order to fly in general, but if the guy has something on his mind that he doesn't like, especially for something he paid for? He has every right to complain.
Immediately. No researchers to go through. Most of the expansion's content for crafters comes after the sig line is completed though.
Personally i dont like long timelines but i do understand where people are coming from, I am glad they didnt make it so we had to do x amount of researchers quests to fly I found that annoying i barely do those even when it isnt required to fly it bores me to tears. What I would like to see both for adventure and crafting is lots of side quests again, hidden quests, quests that require us having fun looking not just logging on doing zones and logging off thats where the game has gone completely sideways, like so many have said before this game is called Everquest but its really EverGRIND, dont get me wrong I still love this game and will be here till the day I die (or it does lol) but even I have gotten frustrated to the point that some days I just look at the computer screen and cant bring myself to log on. Plus make crafters useful again PLZ, there used to be quests where it was necessary to have a crafter make a piece for the adventurers to do some side quest or 2 that wasnt just part of get these done for achievement (PS I am NOT a crafter lol but i do have one of all needed just cause i hate asking for help)
They've had those sidequests before to get into raids.. it was horribly received by raiders, but not because they needed to find someone else, but because of the randomness of the updates. Most guild's have crafters where they won't rely on those people that just play to craft. I hate the fact that I'll be flying with-in 30 mins by doing the TS line, because if I choose to do the adventure line, it would take double the amount of time and it only opens up each area. They really just need to re-instate flying upon expac release and stop curbing it, because the way the TS line is again this year, everyone will do it to fly and then leave well enough alone. If they really wanted to make crafters unique they would do away with the ability for each person to max a crafter on the adventurer, but most people would get around that by making one of each lol, so there is no real answer. They could do away with overseers things and make potions/invertors/injectors all come sololy from TSers, but again, most adventueres are TSers as well, so there is no "right" thing. They could make another long quest line that makes need for all TSers like the cloak from back in the day, but what does this item do for you. It would have to be something great. Rambling, I know, but it's just too hard to find something that is unique to a thing that doesn't need solo people of said thing to be successful.
I don't craft, but my GF does and it is the main reason she still plays. She has worked several characters up to have an ability to craft items she may or may not need, by herself. She LOVES crafting; the reason she levels is because she does the Trade Skill Time Line first and the adventure solo line second and mostly as a support for the TSTL. Once I let her know about the state of crafting in this expac later tonight, she may not buy it, at all, let alone at the more expensive versions.
