Lord of the Rings Online crafters, listen up, all two of you! OK, three of you if I count myself! I kid, I kid, and Standing Stone Games is more than aware that the state of crafting is not strong, which is precisely why it’s addressing the crafting system this year.
In a post on the official forums last week, SSG’s Allan “Orion” Maki laid out the team’s plans for shoring up crafting so that it’s more meaningful and also in a better spot for future updates. Most notably, Orion reiterates SSG’s goal to remove vocations and allow players to choose their own crafting skills – up to four of them, in fact, not just three (but also never more than four in order to “keep the social and game economy moving through the crafting system).” He also discusses new recipes, adding more specialized crafting drops throughout the game, and making crafted gear more valuable (better than quest drops so it can be used as a stepping stone through instances). Housing fans, it sounds like the studio is also looking at adding housing-related recipes and hooked items too.
The biggest point of contention is Orion’s original suggestion that crafting guilds might be easier to level up but decay over time: “We know that the length of time needed in order to increase standing with guilds is prohibitive. We want to address that by making enrollment in the guild a more active experience where you will be able to maintain your membership and access by continued activity or it will decay slowly over time.” Players replying to Orion’s thread, uh, did not love the idea of their hard-earned guild standing decaying, for obvious reasons.
“Totally against the decay of crafting guild experience over time,” one player opined. “[W]hat’s next? You’re going to make reputation with factions decay over time if you don’t quest with them regularly?”
Orion ended up deleting the line about decay from his missive, saying, “Already enough consternation about what was deleted from here that we will not discuss it further.” Within the thread itself, he adds, “[T]here is enough vitriol toward this that it will not be considered. We can move on.” So hopefully, that means SSG will cut it from the to-do list, not just stop talking about it and slip it in anyway.
It’s a massive eight-page discussion and worth the deep-dive if you’re a crafting fan.
