Newbie Tradeskill Information is very confusing! Here is my 2cp's [Archive]

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Drakah

06-19-2011, 10:16 AM

Here are my thoughts in how to make the tradeskill system better...There should be more direct information on how to progress to your profession.My guildmates, and even including myself, being a veteran, had a hard time figuring it all out again.Even though I know how to craft, I figured I would look at it from a total new player standpoint.Either way, this was a good refresher to see how the crafting updates are vs. when EQ2 1st launched.I started a Tailor today from scratch and figured I would pay attention to the starter quest line, from Kelethin.The starter system of gathering, at the newbie location, should had given me a quest to find the Tradeskill Tutorial, which she did not, I had to look all over to find it the NPC to start the profession system. NPC text was not really helping me.After a while, I did manage to find Ikile Harmonia <Tradeskill Tutorial>.After speaking with Ikile Harmonia, the quests led me to the correct direction (YAY) I needed to get aquainted with the system. However, I had a hard time figuring out which NPC there sold Fuel and components (ex: water).After gaining the Artisan Tunic, the NPC would had been more informative if you had got a Quest to find the <Crafting Trainer>, so you do not miss it. The purple tell chats from the NPC of Ikile can get lost in the shuffle as I dont normally pay attention to it. So, a dialog box would had worked better, as would a dialog box to even find Ikile originally.Once you find Ralika Mekkila <Crafting Trainer>, the Quest that should had been there to complete to explain that you would need to purchase books that are WHITE that you can memorize, as opposed to grey ones that you have already learned. Really needs to be descriptive.I know that the Adventure Tutorials have Pop-Up example screens....should have ones for tradeskill just like that!So I went threw the dialogs of Ralika Mekkila, and chose my sub-tradeskill class, but it failed to tell me AT ALL what to do next or WHERE to go next to continue. The only thing she says is to come back to her when you have excelled further.Ralika Mekkila SHOULD give you a quest to go to Tami Swifthammer in Halas to continue my profession series, but she does NOT!The only way I knew is to scour the internet for that information.After going threw the quest line with Tami, she SHOULD had told you whom to speak with to progress to your main tradeskill, as well as at what level to do this.Even an In-Game mail would had helped telling you where you need to go or what to do. My friend found out that he had to literally ding 20 in order to choose the profession.In any rate, I hope this information helps to make the newbie tradeskill quest lines more descriptive and easier to figure out what you need to do AND where to go.

Mazra

06-19-2011, 11:31 AM

I haven't leveled a tradeskiller up past 20 since the revamp. I actually leveled up my last one, a sage, to 20 just before the revamp to take advantage of the First Combine xp before it disappeared. But I recall receiving in-game mails from NPCs at level 15 and 20, or perhaps 10 and 20, asking me to come to Halas and Butcherblock to help out with Farseas Tradeskill Missions. This doesn't help much with career choices, but it sent me to places to advance my skills. And unless it got changed with the revamp, I was able to choose Scholar at level 9 and Sage at 19, getting auto-dinged to 10 and 20, respectively, upon my choosing.Now... I tend to play EVIL EVIL EVIL toons and level tradeskills in Neriak, but... there Darklight gathering and collecting NPC was right there near the starting point. After collecting items for him, he directed me in to Neriak to get further information about crafting. I don't believe it was a quest of "Go here, talk to this guy, gain TSxp", but more of a comment after I had finished the collecting. There now seems to be a blacksmith in Darklight who will teach the basics of tradeskills who I don't remember seeing before.Upon reaching Neriak's Tradeskill section, there was a nice feather over one NPC's head and he took me through to level 9 in tradeskilling. After reaching 9, I don't recall being told to seek the Trainer for my general tradeskill path choice, so yes, that would be a nice addition. After level 10 I don't recall much. It wasn't until my sage was in his 20's that I paid heed to the mails I had received since I, again, took full advantage of the First Time bonuses. I have three toons who don't have tradeskills yet, so perhaps I'll bring one up to 20, just to see what the changes have done. But prior to the changes, there were hints on where to go, they just weren't smacking you in the face type hints.

Drakah

06-19-2011, 11:38 AM

Mail notificiations from NPCs would at least had pointed me in the right direction....but no ingame mails delivered.. (sigh)

Tigress

06-19-2011, 11:46 AM

i said something abt this a little over a year ago and was dismissed. they did make some minor improvements over the past year so maybe i wasn't totally dismissed <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /> OR they realized how messed up it was after they removed the training isles. you get your clue about tradeskilling when you talk to the collector/harvesting trainer. when you turn in your "learning to harvest" quest, the nearby mender gets a feather over his head and teaches you to make the lucky wolf paw. he is the one that directs you to the TS quests in your city. did you miss it bc you arent a new player and didnt bother with the harvesting trainer?you do get a msg that you wont receive any XP until you pick your class and then profession when you max out at 9 & 19. (i learned that the hard way, last year.) it would make more sense for it to be a pop-up when you ding 9 & 19.they do send mail now abt "a gathering obsession" and TS work for you in new halas and butcherblock when you hit 10 & 20; however, my guildmates never know about these things. why? they dont read their mail. yes, the mail still comes. i have pointed quite a few to their mail within the last week or two and then they say, "oooohhhhhh". perhaps a pop-up would be better? (i have several guildmates that are leveling TS for the first time after a lot of time in the game.)when i notice a guildmate is grinding away at level 10-14 (or 20-24) and they are not in new halas (or butcherblock), i will say, "did you begin the TS questline? you start it in new halas (OR butcherblock). check your mail to learn who you need to speak with."there is not a mail telling you to go to steamfont; however, the butcherblock lady brings you there. you do not get a mail for the rest of the TS questlines nor do you get any clues from previous quests. once you ding 30, eq2.wikia.com becomes your best friend. there is nothing telling you to speak to the grandmaster so you must notice the feather before it becomes grey and invisible to you. that should be changed.

Mazra

06-19-2011, 11:56 AM

Just a quick update. I'm running through it now with my little noob monk, again in Neriak. After doing the noob collection mission, the other npc across the street lit up with his feather and I was taught, barely taught, to make my first item. After turning in the lucky rabbits foot, a rather bit too enthusiasticly, the quest journal, not the npc, told me to seek out a Tradeskill Tutor in Neriak. Upon entering Neriak, I asked a guard for 'Tradeskill'. He directed me to a Tradeskill Fuel merchant in the slums. Stupid guard. So I ran back to him and asked him for 'Tutor' and he directed me to the Tradeskill section and to the npc I needed. Granted, this took knowledge on my part since I knew I could ask the guard for directions.Once I started talking to the tutor, there were a number of questions I could ask him. One of which was "How do I choose what type of crafter I will be?" He goes on to explain that I can choose my subspecialty at 9 and my specialty at 19 by speaking with the Crafting Trainer. So why your friend had to ding 20, I don't know.I'm going through the 1-9 missions now and I'll get back with further updates.Edit: Oops, I wasn't going through the 1-9 missions. I thought I hadn't touched tradeskilling with my monk, but he was a level 9 artisan. So I was able to pick my sub-specialty. After picking Craftsman, I went to the mailbox, there was a letter there from Lasarian Nasin asking me to come to New Halas. However, I did not get the pop-up notification telling me I had new mail. It's likely, as a complete noob that I would have been unaware of new mail until I next logged in or I manage to notice the icon in my buffs.

Tigress

06-19-2011, 12:00 PM

<cite>Mazra@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Just a quick update. I'm running through it now with my little noob monk, again in Neriak. After doing the noob collection mission, the other npc across the street lit up with his feather and I was taught, barely taught, to make my first item. After turning in the lucky rabbits foot, a rather bit too enthusiasticly, the quest journal, not the npc, told me to seek out a Tradeskill Tutor in Neriak.(snipped)</blockquote>the mender does tell you. having done this over 20 times... he does. your reply is "i just might do that".

Drakah

06-19-2011, 03:12 PM

<cite>Mazra@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>After picking Craftsman, I went to the mailbox, there was a letter there from Lasarian Nasin asking me to come to New Halas.</blockquote>Thats so odd.... I never got any mail of any kind, at all....checked the mailbox too just to be sure.

Finora

06-19-2011, 05:18 PM

I've already made comments regarding most of this in a thread a week or two ago about the newbie crafting. I am an experienced crafter however I think for the most part the game does a fairly good job of pointing you in the right direction if you bother to read the text, mails & the couple of pop ups you get for the first few tiers.I can't see how anyone, even a newbie, could be too terribly confused about who to buy fuel & components from since all the NPCS in the crafting area that do anything have labels right beneath thier names. If you can't find one you can just ask a guard for their job (ie banker, fuel vendor, tailor, etc) and they'll point you to the closest one with an X on your map and a wispy trail to follow. I suppose if you have labels turned off in options, it could be more difficult but as far as I know labels are on by default so that isn't a problem a newbie would have unless they changed the option themselves.For the crafting books, if you hover over the books the tool tips do say "you have already scribed this recipe scroll" just like spells that you've already upgraded.You do get messages saying "you must speak to a crafting trader before you can progress" or some such when you get to the end of level 9 or level 19. It'll do it for every single combine you make after it gets to that point. So it isn't as if the game leaves you completely hanging, you just have to pay attention to the text the game gives you. It would make it more noticable if they made it a big popup like the new tutorials. Even the most inattentive newbie couldn't help but see that unless they were botting and if they were doing they, that's just too bad =).It's been a bit since I ran through Tami's quests in New Halas, however I think she does direct you to Butcherblock. I do recall a weirdness with her dialog on test though that I bug reported. I know the woman in Butcherblock directs you to Gnomeland Security. There is a gap there, no lead off to the Lavastorm quests (at least I don't recall it). There should be some direction added there for certain hopefully they'll add that & a merchant for 40-49 like they did for the other lower tiers.

Mazra

06-19-2011, 06:07 PM

Well, after the 10-19 stint, 10-17 went fairly smooth doing the New Halas quests. 18 and 19 would have been a stumper to a new player. After completing the New Halas line for EVIL EVIL EVIL, Lasarian Nasin says she's heading back to Neriak to sell Adv. Books. I went to see her and sure enough, I could buy the books. But at 17 there was no hint about Butcherblock yet. And no hint to go see the Writ giver other than a flashing feather on my mini-map, which I had to zoom out a bit to see. Completely zoomed in you can't see it from her position. Now, it could be argued that once you're done with the Halas quests, you could go make some TS items (spells, gear, furniture) for yourself and in the process run into the writ giver. 2 levels of writs later and I picked my specialty at 19, auto-dinging to 20. At this point I get the mail to go to Butcher.All in all, I'd say the learning process is fairly straight-forward. There's the little hiccup where I either missed or was not notified of new mail at level 10 and the 'what to do now?' at 17, but other than that, it should be easy enough to follow. It's just not smacking you in the face with a frying pan easy.

Drakah

06-19-2011, 11:26 PM

It just needs to be tweaked to be more streamlined.Whether it is by ingame mails leading you to whom you need to speak with, along with actual popup windows telling you that you can now choose a Subclass tradeskill profession/Main tradeskill profession, without having to hunt down the Crafting Trainer.NPC say's to me are not enough, but the popup windows do get my attention alot more.I dont remember if you have to hunt down someone for your adventure class or not, but if so, would be nice to have that same respect by getting a popup window to choose that as well without hunting somedown down.

Tigress

06-20-2011, 06:09 AM

as several said, it does direct you. it requires the player to read the text, read their mail and read the pop-ups. it also requires the new player to actually pick up the quests where they land and any newbie would be doing that. (there is one exception and that is tim deep. they need to move the "learning to harvest" and mender to the "hey i exist spot" and not at the spot you are when you go to when you are around level 15 adventurer.) if you dont read the text, read the mail and/or read the pop-ups, then of course you'll be confused on what to do & where to go.it has been improved over the past year. it used to be that you were given no info whatsoever and just had to fumble along. they explain it to you but, like someone said, it's not smack you in the face. as long as the player pays attn to the game, they'll find their way along. the *only* reason that you have to hunt someone down is bc you didn't read the text, read your mail and/or pay attn any pop-ups. that's not SOE's fault, that's the player's.i dont think that we need it to be so dumbed down that ppl don't have to read the game text. the only thing that they could do differently is always give you a pop-up, instead of mail OR do both.yes, the lavastorm one needs to be included in the next stop. they also need to direct ppl to the grandmasters. i have not done the new halas 10-19 since they added the level 15 writs. the last time that i went through it was about a week before the level 15 writs were added. if the NPCs do not tell you, "hey you can do writs now!" OR you do not get a mail teling you about writs, they need to change that. p.s. nothing directs you to your adventure trainer, you have to figure that on your own.

Finora

06-20-2011, 12:15 PM

<cite>Drakah wrote:</cite><blockquote>NPC say's to me are not enough, but the popup windows do get my attention alot more.I dont remember if you have to hunt down someone for your adventure class or not, but if so, would be nice to have that same respect by getting a popup window to choose that as well without hunting somedown down.</blockquote>You don't have to hunt down anyone to get your adventure class anymore since they made it so you pick your final class at character creation rather than at 20. You do have to find the person who sells the spells and things yourself though. You aren't directed to the people who give the lower armor quests or your epic weapon either.I have to agree with Tigress, most of what you are asking for is already right there. If they aren't paying attention to what is already right there then that is their fault, not SOE's. It's a bad habit to just click through all the dialogs and not pay attention when you are new to something.It's like the people who frequently ask how to open up a new hotbar when they are in their 20s. If they'd bothered to look at the pop ups, they'd already know how to do that. You get a pop up for that when you are like lvl 5.