Here's my 2 cents (I'll try to keep it paragraphed since it will be a long post)
I guess I should start with a bit of a background in order to put my opinion in context.
I joined Fractured last year in summer so i played autumn 2021 alpha and beta since it launched back in march(?). I am used to play theme park MMOs, the first and actually sandbox rpg i played was Albion online back in 2019. I am a PvE player (not good at PvP since i panic easily and start mashing buttons) and even in PvE i'm not very good if it comes down to action RPG style games where you have to constantly dodge things. I prefer to relax when playing games so my approach is usually to face tank things while dealing damage and popping healing potions. These being said, one of my favorite way to play sandbox games is gathering/crafting (I joined Albion because of their fishing mechanic).
Now coming back to Fractured, I enjoyed alpha 2021 a lot, even if it was rather short. So my surprise was pretty big when they announced a new crafting system. And I wasn't much of a fan. Again, I have no idea what the original vision of the game was, I'm just speaking from my own observations(short experience). Also, during the beta I wasn't able to do much crafting since I was busy with guild/town management. But that changed a bit now so let's get on with it:
First, a couple of things that i would like to note, and again these are my conclusions (more or less exemplified further down below:
1) the devs are not playing their own game (lack of testing before release that lead to bugs that take weeks to be fixed afterwards)
1.a) some features of the game make no sense
2) there's only two options with them: either dialed all the way to 100 (which usually consists in a bug) and then nerfed into the effin ground (chests nerf i think is the best example)
3) the crafting system (and at this point the whole release timeline of the game) feels heavily rushed/not planned out properly
Point #1 I think it is pretty clear (the best recent example are the bridges on terra). I'm doing almost daily runs from western to eastern town (to sell stuff). So in my estimation it would take approx 30 minutes to go around and test all bridges (since they are kind of an important feature of an island based continent).
Point #2 I'm not even going to rant about as it will be exemplified later on
And point #3:
Quick background. Previously i played mage and rogue (alpha '21) in beta i played mage and archer (no longer needing to craft arrows, yay) but now i'm playing archer and tank (i always play 2 characters as, more often than not, i need to be in 2 places at the same time). So crafting wise, I've dealt with mage a bit and now i'm full on leather and metal. Also game wise i play with 3 friends (have been since the Albion days) and they are from NA (us and Canada) so i have lots of downtime when they are asleep (i'm from EU). So I do lots of crafting (and another reason why the chest nerf bugged me since that was my favorite solo activity before early access). Now let's get to my EA experience, opinions and let's wrap it up.
Material wise I think the system is ok. I'm fine with mages having early/easy access to gear while leather takes slightly longer. As for the metal grind, I think it's also fine and I actually enjoy the wagon system, going around and gathering stuff (this is one of the things i like most about the game). Access to smelters is ok since it's one of the early tech so it depends on the city (our city took a bit long to be established because of the relatively low community and first few days bugs even if we had a founder package, compared to another city close by that did not have said package but had the numbers). One problem I might add is that the cost of metal components/plates is relatively high compared to their (no longer) availability from drops. (and like with lockpicks, which have been changed, it doesn't make sense to make ONE lockpick/component/plate from ONE ingot - see point 1/1.a) It took me about a week of smelting to get to my usual layout of 6 adv smelters. Again, I don't necessarily want a 1/5 ratio for the components but at least a 1/2. This again leads me to the points I made above.
Now, the last part, rant (as if this whole thing wasn't one) getting to the subject of the thread, and wrapping up.
As mentioned, I'm doing leather and plate. With plate I'm at a decent level so now I'm focusing on leather to make money. And it's just hitting me (after one of my friends told me that there is a 5% durability loss when downed):
- What is the point of better quality items? They no longer give a gradual increase in enchanting sockets/stats. And a gradual increase in durability (i'm looking at leather helmet: 250,315,375,500 is pointless if the 5% is being applied out of an actual HUNDRED instead of the ACTUAL DURABILITY. (again, i'm seeing some items with above 100% durability and i don't understand if that's from the material or maxed crafting, but i don't think it matters that much).
- And after all the grind (I'm taking my time to get to 4/4 leather/hide before I get into recipes) comes the even bigger grind of recipe/material drop rate. I will not go on much about it since we all know how it goes and some have already mentioned it. All i want to ask is:
- Have any (like literally any, doesn't need to be Jacopo, literally ANY) of the devs played the game and tried several aspects of the crafting systems? (smelters, recipes, actually crafting a set)
- if your reply to the above question is "The devs don't need to play their own game" then i guess you don't have any idea about QA/marketing/customer orientation
- if the reply to the first question is "This is supposed to be a community grind where a whole guild works in order to feed 3-4 people" then you don't understand human psychology (both individual and collective). And if this is the basis of/direction where the game is heading, i think it has a big chance of getting to a point where big guilds establish a monopoly over the market (this is already being noticed in prices) and the game will become a (less popular) version of Albion online.
If you've made it this far I guess congratulations (and a thank you) are in order, and again, this is my personal opinion based on my way of experiencing the game. So take it with a grain of salt. And as much as I would like for this to be constructive criticism I do feel that it would fall on deaf ears, as I am not sure what the devs' vision of the game is anymore.
