Tweet
Originally posted by AbsorEQ
Hello Tradeskillers!
You've probably been hearing rumors and rumblings about some upcoming changes to the tradeskill system and you're probably curious as to what they might be.
Well, you're in luck! We're planning on implementing the first portion of these changes with the next scheduled update, with the second and third portions to follow in future updates. Due to the nature of these changes, we want to explain them now, giving you time to prepare for them and discuss them within the community.
NOTE: We use the word "average" in this discussion very frequently. There's a reason for that. We can only calculate the average rate at which a skill will increase. Any particular character will most likely experience deviation from that average.
The mathematics used to determine the change to gain a skill increase with any given combine are rather complicated, and for those of you with the enormous brains needed to understand them, you can probably get formulas from Tanker at the next Fan Faire. For the purpose of this discussion we'll keep it more generalized. Currently the average number of combines needed to gain a skill increase does not progress at a smooth rate. The current system was built when the skill cap was 200, and therefore the most dramatic increase in the average number of combines needed to gain a skill point is between skill 160 and 190. Currently the average number of combines needed for a skill up more than quadruples between 160 and 190.
That made sense back when the skill cap was 200. It doesn't now.
We have created a new algorithm (some sort of mathemagical formula) which will effectively remove the harsh spike in combines required for a skill-up in the 160-190 range and spread out that progression across the entire range from 0 to 300. This change makes the progression a lot more logical, with a more reasonable increase in the average number of attempts per skill increase from 0 all the way up to 300.
There are some side-effects associated with this change that we wanted to make you aware of, the largest of which being that it will decrease the over-all average number of combines needed to get a skill from 0 to 300 by about 15%. At the same time, however, it will increase the average number of skill-ups needed to go from 250 to 300 by about 20%. Basically, the average number of combines per skill-up needed from 160 to 190 was too high and those needed from 250 to 300 were too few. Smoothing out this skill increase progression required reducing the effort in some places and increasing it in others. The over-all effect of this change is a net reduction of about 15% in the average number of combines needed to reach 300, along with a smoother progression that should make the entire system feel more reasonable.
We plan to make this change with the next update, so plan your tradeskilling accordingly. There are two other changes that we plan to implement in the near future, though they will not be going in the next update.
In the near future (not this next update), we will be introducing a new feature to the tradeskill system that will allow us to add a new flag to some of the recipes that require more difficult to find items. We haven't given it a name yet, but this new flag will allow us to set a minimum chance to gain a skill increase on specific recipes. Basically, if we assign a minimum skill increase chance of 50% to a recipe, then there will be no less than a 50% chance of gaining a skill increase on that recipe. Keep in mind that there are other factors still involved that can supersede this, such as your primary stat and the success of the recipe, but it is close enough to use as a generalization. Using this new functionality, we can make it so that recipes with hard to find components can be useful for gaining skill increases, perhaps equally as useful in that regard as recipes that only use store-bought components.
Initially, we will probably set the minimum skill increase change on a limited number of recipes, in order to evaluate them. From that point on we will continue to evaluate recipes to see if they should also have a minimum skill increase chance.
The third change (also not happening with the next update) will be an extensive revision of the trivials for most recipes. We plan to evaluate the recipes for each tradeskill and change their trivials based on various factors, including the overall value of the final product and the time investment / difficulty to gain the items needed to make the product. We will use this information to create a reasonable progression for all recipes in available to each tradeskill.
This is very likely to mean changes to the trivials for most or all of the recipes. It will likely mean that recipes that produce better items will have higher trivials. It will also probably mean that recipes with easy to obtain items will have lower trivials than those with harder to find items.
We understand that this will probably stir things up for the folks that do tradeskills, but once the dust settles we believe that the system will be much more reasonable, rewarding, and much easier to work with, both for players and designers.
This change will take us some to implement, as there are a lot of recipes to evaluate, so please be patient and keep an eye open on Test, since that's where the changes will show up first.
So, in summary, there are three large changes coming to tradeskills:
1. Smoothing out the increase in the average number of attempts needed to produce a skill increase (coming with the next update).
2. Introducing a per-recipe minimum chance to gain a skill increase based on the effort and time required to get the components of the recipe (also coming in an update soon, but not the next one).
3. Changes to the trivials on many recipes in order to make the skill up and reward path more logical (coming in an update soon, but not the next one).
We know this is a lot to change, but we think it will make the whole system more logical and rewarding.
You've probably been hearing rumors and rumblings about some upcoming changes to the tradeskill system and you're probably curious as to what they might be.
Well, you're in luck! We're planning on implementing the first portion of these changes with the next scheduled update, with the second and third portions to follow in future updates. Due to the nature of these changes, we want to explain them now, giving you time to prepare for them and discuss them within the community.
NOTE: We use the word "average" in this discussion very frequently. There's a reason for that. We can only calculate the average rate at which a skill will increase. Any particular character will most likely experience deviation from that average.
The mathematics used to determine the change to gain a skill increase with any given combine are rather complicated, and for those of you with the enormous brains needed to understand them, you can probably get formulas from Tanker at the next Fan Faire. For the purpose of this discussion we'll keep it more generalized. Currently the average number of combines needed to gain a skill increase does not progress at a smooth rate. The current system was built when the skill cap was 200, and therefore the most dramatic increase in the average number of combines needed to gain a skill point is between skill 160 and 190. Currently the average number of combines needed for a skill up more than quadruples between 160 and 190.
That made sense back when the skill cap was 200. It doesn't now.
We have created a new algorithm (some sort of mathemagical formula) which will effectively remove the harsh spike in combines required for a skill-up in the 160-190 range and spread out that progression across the entire range from 0 to 300. This change makes the progression a lot more logical, with a more reasonable increase in the average number of attempts per skill increase from 0 all the way up to 300.
There are some side-effects associated with this change that we wanted to make you aware of, the largest of which being that it will decrease the over-all average number of combines needed to get a skill from 0 to 300 by about 15%. At the same time, however, it will increase the average number of skill-ups needed to go from 250 to 300 by about 20%. Basically, the average number of combines per skill-up needed from 160 to 190 was too high and those needed from 250 to 300 were too few. Smoothing out this skill increase progression required reducing the effort in some places and increasing it in others. The over-all effect of this change is a net reduction of about 15% in the average number of combines needed to reach 300, along with a smoother progression that should make the entire system feel more reasonable.
We plan to make this change with the next update, so plan your tradeskilling accordingly. There are two other changes that we plan to implement in the near future, though they will not be going in the next update.
In the near future (not this next update), we will be introducing a new feature to the tradeskill system that will allow us to add a new flag to some of the recipes that require more difficult to find items. We haven't given it a name yet, but this new flag will allow us to set a minimum chance to gain a skill increase on specific recipes. Basically, if we assign a minimum skill increase chance of 50% to a recipe, then there will be no less than a 50% chance of gaining a skill increase on that recipe. Keep in mind that there are other factors still involved that can supersede this, such as your primary stat and the success of the recipe, but it is close enough to use as a generalization. Using this new functionality, we can make it so that recipes with hard to find components can be useful for gaining skill increases, perhaps equally as useful in that regard as recipes that only use store-bought components.
Initially, we will probably set the minimum skill increase change on a limited number of recipes, in order to evaluate them. From that point on we will continue to evaluate recipes to see if they should also have a minimum skill increase chance.
The third change (also not happening with the next update) will be an extensive revision of the trivials for most recipes. We plan to evaluate the recipes for each tradeskill and change their trivials based on various factors, including the overall value of the final product and the time investment / difficulty to gain the items needed to make the product. We will use this information to create a reasonable progression for all recipes in available to each tradeskill.
This is very likely to mean changes to the trivials for most or all of the recipes. It will likely mean that recipes that produce better items will have higher trivials. It will also probably mean that recipes with easy to obtain items will have lower trivials than those with harder to find items.
We understand that this will probably stir things up for the folks that do tradeskills, but once the dust settles we believe that the system will be much more reasonable, rewarding, and much easier to work with, both for players and designers.
This change will take us some to implement, as there are a lot of recipes to evaluate, so please be patient and keep an eye open on Test, since that's where the changes will show up first.
So, in summary, there are three large changes coming to tradeskills:
1. Smoothing out the increase in the average number of attempts needed to produce a skill increase (coming with the next update).
2. Introducing a per-recipe minimum chance to gain a skill increase based on the effort and time required to get the components of the recipe (also coming in an update soon, but not the next one).
3. Changes to the trivials on many recipes in order to make the skill up and reward path more logical (coming in an update soon, but not the next one).
We know this is a lot to change, but we think it will make the whole system more logical and rewarding.
We play this game for enjoyment. Finding out that 1000's of man hours are wasted is just plain wrong. Do the right thing and gain some positive PR. EQ sure needs it, especially now.
Ngreth Thergn
Comment