To summarize this wall of text. I posed the question how depend crafting will be on adventuring. The below answer says crafting will be independent and then states mats will have to be acquired by adventures. You can't have it both ways. It is either UO style or every crapfest since.
So it sounds like Alganon will just mimic every crappy crafting system out there. I hope I am wrong I guess we will see.
"Q. How dependent will crafting be on adventuring and combat, specifically on advancement?
A. As a general rule we try to keep crafting and adventuring separate on an individual level, but interdependent on a massive level. What do I mean by that? If you tunnel vision down to one character, the two are practically unrelated. You don't have to adventure in order to succeed as a crafter, nor do you have to craft to succeed as an adventurer. You can choose to do both, but you don't have to. However, if you step back far enough that you can see the entire player base as one unit, then it becomes very interdependent. Someone has to be out there adventuring to provide mats for the crafters. Someone also has to be out there crafting because crafted items will need to be purchased in order to maximize your success as an adventurer."
At first they may seem to contradict one another, and if this were a single player game, they very well would - but with the consignment system, you never have to be the "somebody" in that statement.
If you need the scales of a Trelk to complete the armor set you are making, you don't have to go kill a Trelk, or fight your way through the wartorn hills of Denub Juxx. You can use the consignment system to send some "sword-monkey" out to get the hide for you. But don't expect to make armor as fine as a Trelk-scale cloak without a few Trelk dieing in the process.
Somebody has to go kill them - but it doesn't have to be you. Even if you're the kind of guy who, when face-to-face with an assassin, you spend more time admiring the craftsmanship of his blade than dodging it, you can still max out your crafting skills.
On the other side, you can't expect to find Trelk-scale quality armor in the stomach of a Greenvale cow. If you want goods of that quality, you're going to want to use the very same consignment house to get some "anvil jockey" to make it for you. Somebody has to spend hours slaving over a hot forge in order to be skilled enough to create armor of that quality - but it doesn't have to be you.
Even if the only things you ever hit with a blacksmith's hammer are sprog skulls, you can still get the best crafted armor in the game.
-Vanpry, i think the way this is handled in non-UO games works well enough. That is, you as a crafter have access to materials for crafting in towns (say, from vendors) that will carry your skill into all tiers of mastery. But to get the materials to craft the absolute-bestest gear, you have to actually leave the house to get those materials, otherwise there is no challenge. Leather isn't free, after all, and *some* work has to be done to get the materials. If you do not want to adventure at all that's fine, and you can skill up entirely based on mats found in towns, but some effort somewhere has to be put into acquiring the materials for the strongest combinations for the best gear.
Perhaps a more specific example from you on exactly *how* you expected to get access to the best material for the best items to be crafted is in order to increase understanding of your perspective here. I wouldn't worry about cash, i know in all games i've played many players get the mats and ask around for crafters to combine them for them. Your skill will most certainly be marketable. And i would also recommend we take the discussion elsewhere to not clog the Roundtable question posts.
Jergis
Jergis
That is not how crafting works in any mmo. You can not gain skill at all in any mmo unless you are high enough level to acquire the mats for yourself or buy them off AH which are ridiculously priced. I have no idea what mmo you are playing. It is absolutely reasonable that the best of the best would require mob drops that is not at all what I am saying. I simple want to be able to gain basic crafting skill by crafting basic item without being forced to keep my adventure level high enough or pay outrageous AH prices.
I also stated that there will of course be some crafting skills like leather working that would require some killing. But like every mmo has done since UO they create tier leather so to be able to gain skill in leather working you would have to kill progressively higher level mobs. Like some how leather off a level 50 cow is more special the leather off a level 1.
I am not expecting a strictly crafter to be able to craft the best of the best without purchasing the items or killing high end mobs. What I want is to be able to gain basic skill, from I would assume creating basis items, without having to kill progressive higher level mobs or purchase materials all the AH which has always been over priced.
