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This almost fits in Rants and Raves, but, I'm going to post it here as I feel it's generally something that needs to be discussed, it's just such a hot topic that I'm expecting it to be a rant:
Sony really missed a bet, again, with tradeskillers. Here's the situation:
Joe the Warior Barbarian goes hunting with his ND ubah sword and kills uber_critter_01 and get's an augmentation drop... which is ND. Now, Joe has never seen a jewelers tool, nor a smithy hammer, a potters cleaning knife or any of the implementia of any of the tradeskilling crafts... but, as he surveys his ubah equipment, he discovers that his sword would benefit greatly from the augmentation. He pulls out the sword, the augmentation, wips out a handy forge (well, augmentation puch), deftly crafts a mount in the pommel for the gem setting (this augmentation happens to be a gem), pulls out a handy 3 pronged mound for his round gem augmentation and with amazing skill emplaces the gem in the hilt! Then pulls out a jewelers croup to inspect his work, only to realize he doesn't know what one is!
Wait... something is wrong with this picture, and I know what that smely something is. With LDoN, Sony had the opportunity to augment the respect and ability of tradeskillers by having Augmentations be a tradeskill mounted item... the tradeskill needed would depend either on the Augment in question, or the item that it was to be set in.
Instead, we have what I suspect will be a no fail combine (which implies MASSIVE skill or a trivial process... and if it's trivial, there should be limited reward at best since what is easy rarely has high impact) that can be done by anyone... now, a key question here is "why?" Why is it a no fail combine that anyone can do without having to invest time in the skills that it would make the most sense to use in mounting an Augmentation?
ND. Look no further than to augmenting a UD weapon. ND was put on Norrath for a number of reasons, but, it mostly caters to those who like hack and slash and could care less about the rest of the game. However, with Augmentation, there is the risk that non-ND weapons and armor will outstrip the ND droppd weapons and armor. For me, I ask where is the harm in this? There SHOULD be a downside to ND weapons and armor... the first one being that you can't twink your 3rd alt with it, but, what's wrong with also saying it can't be maintained (speaking to EQII) and can't be upgraded (speaking to the impending Augmentation changes)?
Don't get me started on EQII by the way... Sony is catering to the Hack and Slashers in EQII by making tradeskills an arcade game there, they are beta testing with the Legends players (whom I suspect are predominately all hack and slasher 'uber' players rather than rabid tradeskillers) and thus their point of view as to what the mass of EQ players wants is skewed by the point of view of the Legends players... and we get things like Augmentation being a skill-less enterprise... just like armor dying requires no skill... and why? Given that we have tradeskills in the game, why aren't we using them?
Scenario:
Joe the Barbarian Warrior goes on a hunt and kills a ubah_mob_01 and gets a jewel that is an augmentation... which would do his boots quite proud given the stats. Try as he might, he can't get the augmentation to stick to the boots with bats blood and a little spit. He finally gives up and sees his friend the enchanter who dabbles in tailoring and jewelry making. She looks at the boots and the Augmentation gem and deduces that she can set the gem nicely in a point at the side of the boot with little alteration of the boots leather and modification of a gem setting. She does the work, charges Joe for the cost of her supplies used in mounting the Augmentation, since Joe is a long time hunting partner, she's willing to give him a break, and they both go on their way. Joe has better boots, and his Enchanter friend feels that all the time spent on those tradeskills was worth it after all.
Oh, well... another clear miss by Sony... unless, of course, we can raise enough of a hew and cry to tell them that we'd rather see Augmentatoin be a tradeskill based activity? Maybe, it's not too late to get the word across? Likely it is, but, maybe it's not and it can't hurt to try.
GnarliAnna
Sony really missed a bet, again, with tradeskillers. Here's the situation:
Joe the Warior Barbarian goes hunting with his ND ubah sword and kills uber_critter_01 and get's an augmentation drop... which is ND. Now, Joe has never seen a jewelers tool, nor a smithy hammer, a potters cleaning knife or any of the implementia of any of the tradeskilling crafts... but, as he surveys his ubah equipment, he discovers that his sword would benefit greatly from the augmentation. He pulls out the sword, the augmentation, wips out a handy forge (well, augmentation puch), deftly crafts a mount in the pommel for the gem setting (this augmentation happens to be a gem), pulls out a handy 3 pronged mound for his round gem augmentation and with amazing skill emplaces the gem in the hilt! Then pulls out a jewelers croup to inspect his work, only to realize he doesn't know what one is!
Wait... something is wrong with this picture, and I know what that smely something is. With LDoN, Sony had the opportunity to augment the respect and ability of tradeskillers by having Augmentations be a tradeskill mounted item... the tradeskill needed would depend either on the Augment in question, or the item that it was to be set in.
Instead, we have what I suspect will be a no fail combine (which implies MASSIVE skill or a trivial process... and if it's trivial, there should be limited reward at best since what is easy rarely has high impact) that can be done by anyone... now, a key question here is "why?" Why is it a no fail combine that anyone can do without having to invest time in the skills that it would make the most sense to use in mounting an Augmentation?
ND. Look no further than to augmenting a UD weapon. ND was put on Norrath for a number of reasons, but, it mostly caters to those who like hack and slash and could care less about the rest of the game. However, with Augmentation, there is the risk that non-ND weapons and armor will outstrip the ND droppd weapons and armor. For me, I ask where is the harm in this? There SHOULD be a downside to ND weapons and armor... the first one being that you can't twink your 3rd alt with it, but, what's wrong with also saying it can't be maintained (speaking to EQII) and can't be upgraded (speaking to the impending Augmentation changes)?
Don't get me started on EQII by the way... Sony is catering to the Hack and Slashers in EQII by making tradeskills an arcade game there, they are beta testing with the Legends players (whom I suspect are predominately all hack and slasher 'uber' players rather than rabid tradeskillers) and thus their point of view as to what the mass of EQ players wants is skewed by the point of view of the Legends players... and we get things like Augmentation being a skill-less enterprise... just like armor dying requires no skill... and why? Given that we have tradeskills in the game, why aren't we using them?
Scenario:
Joe the Barbarian Warrior goes on a hunt and kills a ubah_mob_01 and gets a jewel that is an augmentation... which would do his boots quite proud given the stats. Try as he might, he can't get the augmentation to stick to the boots with bats blood and a little spit. He finally gives up and sees his friend the enchanter who dabbles in tailoring and jewelry making. She looks at the boots and the Augmentation gem and deduces that she can set the gem nicely in a point at the side of the boot with little alteration of the boots leather and modification of a gem setting. She does the work, charges Joe for the cost of her supplies used in mounting the Augmentation, since Joe is a long time hunting partner, she's willing to give him a break, and they both go on their way. Joe has better boots, and his Enchanter friend feels that all the time spent on those tradeskills was worth it after all.
Oh, well... another clear miss by Sony... unless, of course, we can raise enough of a hew and cry to tell them that we'd rather see Augmentatoin be a tradeskill based activity? Maybe, it's not too late to get the word across? Likely it is, but, maybe it's not and it can't hurt to try.
GnarliAnna
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