Combining multiple items may be coming

[Grimsoul]

Was reading the Fan Fair news on EQ Caster and there was one item of interest mentioned for tradeskillers.

Can we see some kind of way to mass produce tradeskills?

It is possible that you may at some point be able to drag 20 Silver Bars and 20 Rubies and hit combine 20 items to produce items which go straight into your backpack. This is one of the changes to tradeskills we are considering.

This does bring a couple questions to mind

Will the combine have to be trival to you to do this or will you be able to get skillups doing multiple combines? Put a stack of items in and hit combine and get 3 skillups in one shot. Probably should have to be trival to you or would make skilling up to easy.

Will there will be a way to do multiple combines for non-stackable items?

But it might just be a fantasy. Just have to wait and see.

[Nimphe Wildwood]

nm, got the link...EQ Casters is what threw me. (Casters Realm or CR)

http://eq.crgaming.com/viewarticle.asp?Article=5199

If this really happens, I hope they hurry up as Smithing is my very last skill to conquer!

[Rewde]

Re: Combining multiple items may be coming

Originally posted by Grimsoul


Will the combine have to be trival to you to do this or will you be able to get skillups doing multiple combines? Put a stack of items in and hit combine and get 3 skillups in one shot.

Reading the quote, you put 20 of each item in the container, then hit the combine button 20 times, it won't automatically combine the 20 items.

This would make tradeskills a LOT easier to do, especially the combines that use 8 items. Picnics, anyone? That would make my day for baking, really. Brewing, fletching, smithing also come to mind for those multiple item combines.

I think that if this does go live, there might, just might, be an influx of people doing tradeskills as getting to GM will take a lot less clicks, no less pp, mind you.

Oh, well. We will have to wait and see. Patch day coming soon?

[Nimphe Wildwood]

Patch day coming soon?

Next scheduled patch - Oct 8th.

[kiztent]

Originally posted by Nimphe Wildwood
If this really happens, I hope they hurry up as Smithing is my very last skill to conquer!

Molds still don't stack...

[Nimphe Wildwood]

Duh, that's right...Maybe if I could put in the stackable items plus the one mold it would combine for 1 but stops at the 2 attempt - ahh but that's *too* far fetched.

Excuse my brief moment of insanity!

[Lilosh]

I may hold off on tailoring for a while.

Stack of Swatches + Stack of Ribbons = WIN.

(yeah, yeah... Pattern, needle, etc...)

But how would they deal with putting 20 non-stacking results into your inventory?

Oh, and this would be a GODSEND for making runes --> Swatches

-Lilosh

[Iannyen]

I would assume that all the items in the container would need to be stacking.

I've often thought that it would make sense to be able to load a stack, and each "combine" would remove 1 item from the stack.

For example, in a jc kit, place 1 stack of gold bars, and 1 stack of opals. Click combine once. On cursor is the result of the combine ( an necklace? I can't recall), and in the kit is 19 gold bars and 19 opals. Lather, rinse repeat.

I always assumed that the combine button acted like a spell, in that it takes components from "inventory" (in this case the container) and applies all mods and equations, then the RNG kicks in, and determines success or failure. Failure = summon nothing, success = summon NewItem.

Now that summoned items (ie- enchanted and imbued materials) will stack on the cursor, regardless of wether they will stack in inventory, the "stacked combines" would be feasible.

Now take smithing components for example. I would imaging, that one could put 3 stacks of folded MQ sheetmetal, 1 stack of goblin temper, 1 smithy hammer, 1 stack of superb leather padding, 1 stack of water, and 1 breastplate mold in the forge. Click combine. Result on cursor, Calcified Steel breastplate, smithy hammer. Result in forge. 19 water, 19 padding, 19 temper, 57 folded MQ SM (in 3 partial stacks of 19 each). The forge would then have to be reloaded with a new mold and a hammer, then combine could be clicked again. Unless they make molds stack......

[cattywumpus]

Not entirely a good idea.

Think about what this would do to the tradeskillers who finance their obsession with low end combines like Heady Kiolas or Jum Jum Spiced Beer. Celestial Essence also comes to mind.

Would you pay for those items if you could do them 20 at a time?

[Cigarskunk]

I seriously doubt that at this point, you could make any kind of change to tradeskills that wouldn't hurt some group of players somewhere along the chain of progression.

1) Make progression easier or harder and you hurt the more skilled or the less skilled due to changes in the number of competitors.

2) Add highly desirable recipes and you effect the number of people doing a skill, the prices of raw materials (especially if a material for a normal item is used in the desirable item) and the value of the item itself.

3) Change the raw material supplies and you'll either raise or crash prices on items.

I wouldn't be too worried about the subcombine people though - there will always be lazy and uninformed people out there to purchase pre-combined stuff. Heck, just look at how well Coldain tempers sell in the bazaar - I've even seen them sell for more than the Coldain merchants charge for them.

[eniamn]

i would like this very much. takes some more of the pain out of tradeskilling. that said i have made heady kiolas to the point where my character had to start drinking them to keep going. did anyone else notice?

"Is there any way GM made items could be better than say a Master?

We are looking into a system to perhaps add extra stats to an item on a master combine."

now even more reason to only go to a gm but it does make perfect sense. gm > master. should be reasonable though. like at 50 above triv it caps. maybe 100 but that will still make only gms the ones sought after for this kinda stuff.

would be kinda nice to make "exceptional" banded for some of my twinks. yeah i know i can get better stuff cheaper in the bazaar but i like making items for my characters.

[Shere Khaan]

My interpretation is that they would add coding for tradeskill combines where the combine button is still just one combine but stacks of items are checked and only 1 ingredient is used.

So misty thicket picnics would be very much easier while smithing would be moderately easier. You could put stacks of padding and metal in the forge however you would have to put the hammer and mold in each time.

Shere Khaan

[Quesci]

Originally posted by cattywumpus
Not entirely a good idea.

Think about what this would do to the tradeskillers who finance their obsession with low end combines like Heady Kiolas or Jum Jum Spiced Beer. Celestial Essence also comes to mind.

Would you pay for those items if you could do them 20 at a time?

This is what happened to imbued gems, enchanted bars, and mana vials when the mass enchant spells went live. Distilled mana went from 300pp per vial to 225pp on Quellious. Imbued emeralds are 15pp now.

[Sanna]

nononononononononononononononononononononononono

Tradeskills are a pita. This is known and accepted. Like someone said, there is an entire 'sub-economy' built around those who will pay lower lvls and poorer people for CEs... Heady Kiolas/Paealas... Silk Thread/Swatches... Soda Water... etc etc etc etc ad infinitum nauseum.

Tradeskills ARE NOT and SHOULD NOT EVER be 'easy'. I am willing to sit in front of the dang oven for hours, because /I/ have the patience to make picnics. Someone else does not.

Why should I 'waste my time' skilling up Baking to 220, if Joe Schmuck can just get a load of components for MTPs and click away till he gets successes? Doing something like making stacks combinable, even if you have to click combine 20 times but only move things once, will skew things so very very very very very very very much.

Now, I've had some really dumb ideas, and I've had some only half-dumb ideas, but even I know better than to suggest something as destructive as this.

Don't do it, Sony. For the love of my carpal tunnel, don't.

-- Sanna

the BF has read this thing on CRgaming, and thinks it's PR talk for 'hahah, made you look.' /snicker.

[Arghargh]

I (and others) suggested this ages ago. For each item in a recipe, place a stack in the trade container. Upon a combine, step through all the items in the container, and reduce the stack count by one. If the item isn't stackable, remove it completely. If this code replaced the current code that emptied the trade container, it would be an extremely small change, and shouldn't effect the other items (tools, alternate products) that are always returned.

One problem that could happen with this is if you have missmatched stacks. Some recipies call for 2 of an item, and another for 3 of the same item. If one stack runs out first, you'd start making a different item.

I doubt that this will really make that many more GM tradesmen since many tradeskills are limited by componant availability, or pp. Besides, if a delay is placed on combine button, that would limit the power leveling.

Arghargh Grumble, Darkblood
62 Ogre Shaman of Rallos Zek

180 Alchemy
200 Baking
250 Blacksmithing
200 Brewing
200 Fishing
200 Fletching
200 Jewelry
200 Pottery
167 Tailoring