[Feedback Request] Alpha Two Artisanship Preview Shown in November Livestream

Looked really good. Loved the slightly darker night.

Better rock animations look amazing.

The "rarer mats make better things" is great.

Recipe XP sounds interesting, but I'd need to see it in practice, cause crafting the same thing over and over doesn't sound as good on paper (even if I'm totally used to and ok with that).

Artisan gear bonuses looked a bit basic, so I hope there's a deeper variety there. Maybe it's simply on higher lvls, but I don't think that was mentioned.

Profession storylines sound nice and I trust the writers to make them interesting.

Processing fuel stuff looked a bit too passive, but I'd chuck that up to "WIP alpha". Just as it was explained about the active crafting part.

What excites you about playing and interacting with the Artisanship system?
It looks great, it reminds me of the good old days of high economic activity in FFXI, obviously. All the little details are exactly what I expected from a team so dedicated and passionate about this. I look forward to playing the greatest MMO ever, as always.

Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Artisanship Preview?
No concerns except the leftover ones from Caravans in the last feedback I gave. This is absolutely hitting all the right notes for me. Though I end up feeling as if it's just the obvious/minimum, I tend to focus on games that already do this really well, so I hope it's not too arrogant to say that even clearing my minimum bar is a great achievement.

How do you feel about the full-cycle of Artisanship shown during the November livestream?
Looks great, obviously the nitty-gritty details are important if you're going this hard, but that's what Alphas are for. The solid base (excluding Caravans, I feel like I need to say this for various reasons) is making me really look forward to it, as of now. Everything is at least 'how I'd have assumed it would be done' except maybe the Processing aspect in-Node, but 'being personally involved' vs 'running around doing other things' isn't really that big a gameplay difference. If nodes generally don't have a lot of other things to be doing at other specific locations that lead to big progression, then I don't think even pattern-matching optimizers will become a problem here.

What is your impression of the dynamics shown with gathering? (E.g. Nightstone being invisible during the day, and visible at night)
Basically normal/what I'd expect from this game type? Even BDO has a small amount of this. I'm glad to see it going a little further, but I also sort of expect it to be dialed back, since FFXI, BDO, and even Throne and Liberty seem to be dialing it back a bit. That said, it could be that the team has already set it to the 'commonly accepted value' and we just don't know the details.

What is your impression of the crafting portion of the livestream? (E.g. Using fragments of various rarities to affect the stats of the item)
Exactly what I was hoping for/expecting. We were preparing to send a lot of feedback to NCSoft on the specifics of this due to ... certain things, and similarly expect to have lots of similar feedback for the itemization team come Alpha-2.

I might as well throw in here, two things that my team members might expand on. The first is that none of us want the 'Take ten of this White Grade and make one Green Grade' thing, as a direct play flow, particularly not if it is a 'processing job', however would accept and possibly even love it if it were related to a 'trade relationship', a limited quest, etc.

The second is that we would like the bag system to only advance a bit. Basically, the 'best bag' shouldn't be too much better than the 'average bag' for any given task. This is even more true if Artisanship has been changed in such a way to bring it closer to what we are used to from FFXI, which it somewhat seems to have been.

Basically, if I can be GrandMaster Alchemist, Grandmaster Animal Husbandry, Master Smelter, Master Cook, Master Farmer, Journeyman Fisherwoman, Journeyman Leatherworker, Journeyman Herbalist, Apprentice of most other things (this is my approximate FFXI spread converted to Ashes) then the bag system specifics matter a lot more, because despite having mostly Processing skills, I would still want good Herb/Farm Produce bags.

I feel like I didn't explain the second point as well, so I may leave it to teammates who have more complex Crafting Skill configurations on their FFXI characters, to describe their playloops, and just try to support them with clarifications (I might post a lot in this thread...)

Once again thanks as always to Intrepid staff for all their hard work, another really great and clear presentation, and their vision, to truly revive what I want to play and bring the genre forward. From Vana'diel to Verra, we appreciate you.

I love this whole "use higher quality materials to boost your recipe" thing. High Quality items are normally something one has to work toward via 'spamming the RNG', which is meh. I haven't personally experienced this type before, and I love the simplicity. You can put in exactly as much work as you want, and get proportional results. But better yet, you can choose where you want to spend your higher-quality resources.

I expect that the resource acquisition system will be the one that matches this design, and I really hope it is. I hate having to convert my White materials into Green ones into Blue ones, only then to then finally make my item. This method looks like instead we'll be spending our time locating rarer resources, getting them from bosses or the like. Maybe questing them up in an occasional or situational manner. I love that sort of system. Putting this type of 'grade variance' on the end product, and making it be a question of quality over quantity brings me into the world, rather than taking me out of it with tedious grind. It gives me rewards for investment of my time, energy, or skills, and combined with the above crafting system, lets me use those rewards exactly how I want to.

It's perfect.

Also, that Night Blade looks sweet .

As long as the processing and gathering support this design, as I've mentioned above, (and so far, no bad signs) I don't think I have any complaints with this crafting system. By focusing on the processing as conversion or combination of various materials, rather than adjusting grade or quantity, everyone is relevant, there's plenty of room for specialization and thematics, without throwing anyone under the grinding-wheel.

This type of system works even better when weather, time, and environment come into play for gathering. In a world where it's 'grind for quantity', or 'everyone needs a ton of X or Y item', these sorts of things become painful bottlenecks, but when you're using them as components of at least somewhat specialized or differentiated final products, rather than 'base requirement for staple goods', you get shifting availability without losing out on personal specialization or varied personal adventures, and without economically forcing people into the unspecialized types of grind you get when the likes of BDO pressures everyone into the same niches. I'm glad to see that Ashes is likely to avoid that particular trap, particularly in a way that keeps things interesting, and prevents low to mid level gathering from getting too stale.

As long as the environmentally-limited items are primarily niches rather than staples (even if they are important ones), I think that this type of system can only be a benefit to the artisanship experience, and market diversity. If you can find reasonably immersive explanations for why or how any given item is environmentally limited, I'm all for it.

I'm quite happy to see the direction artisanship has taken overall. Good work, Itemization Team! Keep it up!