Event Blog: Crafting Caravan 2.0 [Archive] - Project: Gorgon

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mrwarp

01-16-2020, 08:19 AM

Hello everyone!
Today, I want to talk about all of the changes that have been made with the newly revised Crafting Caravan event.

More Tasks
Using the game's live event system, we were restricted in the way we could deliver parallel tasks without there being one entity per task given. Looking forward, the casino's theater room would have filled up with NPCs very quickly as more levels were unlocked and more craft skills introduced. By taking this event and fully converting it to use the game's quest system and NPC tech, we are now able to provide unlimited tasks with much fewer NPCs.

The tasks have been broken down into 5 tiers per craft skill:

Tier 1 - level 10
Tier 2 - level 30
Tier 3 - level 50
Tier 4 - level 70
Tier 5 - level 90

Now, particular recipes for each skill don't exactly fall to those lines, but this is the general breakdown. Some Tier 1 tasks may require level 13 in that skill, some others 14 or even just 10. When you approach one of the NPCs and check their favors, if you meet the level requirements for the recipes needed to complete the task, it will show on the list. If you do not see any tasks initially, then you do not meet the level requirements.

There are also a couple of exceptions to this format. Because alchemy is still fairly restricted in level, there are only tasks for level 20 and 40. This will be adjusted to the proper format once more levels have been unlocked. Also for jewelry crafting, since the skill and recipes start at the level 50 range, only tiers 3-5 will be possible.

Reset times for tasks will depend on the tier of the task. Timers currently are set as:

Tiers 1, 2 and 3 - 12 hour reset timer
Tiers 4 and 5 - 18 hour reset timer

Xp rewards for all tasks are based off of the first-use xp value for everything crafted in the task. Most values have been rounded off and are not exact.

New favor and barter system
I had to ask myself, "What about all the people who have maxed out their crafting skills? Why would they bother with this event?" Both are very good questions! So with this new version of the event, we have added something that can invite participation beyond the need for crafting xp. This event includes Orran, the Caravan Leader. You may remember him as one of the blacksmith NPCs in the previous version. Well, he got a promotion! Orran will provide special random barters for rare crafting items plus other goodies.

In order to unlock bartering with Orran, and to increase the number of barters you can do each round, you need to gain favor with him. The way you gain favor in this event is a little different than the conventional 'do a favor for someone to gain favor with them'. For the Crafting Caravan, you must complete the crafting tasks of all the members of the caravan to gain favor with their leader. The more tasks you can complete, the faster you can gain favor. Favor rewards break down like this:

Tier 1 - 5 favor with Orran per task completed
All other tiers - 10 favor with Orran per task completed

Orran will remember you from event to event. Favor will retain and accumulate from event to event. You will need to reach the comfortable level to unlock his barter options, which you will then be able to barter with him once per barter round. The barter rounds work similar to Midge in the Fae Realm. You can earn an additional barter per round at the favor levels of friends, like family and soul mates for a total of 4 barters per round.

Now, what are you going to have to barter, you ask? When you complete any tier 2 or higher task, you will receive one Crafter's Guild Token. These tokens are the currency honored among the members of the caravan. Orran will gladly take them off your hands in exchange for several different items!

11

Several different items are available, including but not limited to, rare crafting materials and some rare dye colors. Currently, there are 22 different items that could be available for barter. More items will be added as more craft skills are added and more levels are unlocked, including some special items that can only be acquired during the caravan event!

Pricing on the current barter items is just a first revision. I'm going to need feedback from everyone after the event on how much favor you were able to gain and how many tokens you were able to build up. I can take this information and use it to make any adjustments to the pricing for later events. The special event only items will not be available for this run of the event. They will be added in a later run. For all those first timers to this event, the Crafting Caravan will come to visit about every 4 months.

I hope everyone enjoys the new and improved version of this event, and I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback so I can make it even better! We'll see you in game!

Glythe

01-18-2020, 09:38 AM

Glythe

01-18-2020, 06:43 PM

I guess really I would have liked to see some items related to trade skills that are convenient/make trade skils easier/save inventory space (maybe all of the above).Consider as an example some rewards you could have made for the trade caravan. Keep the barter idea but instead have it rotate which trade has an item listed.

Let's say toolcrafting is selected (maybe the person who has tokens should be able to pick the category with enough faction).

For 5 tokens you can get a tack hammer that loses 10% durability when a tack hammer would normally be destroyed.

For 20 tokens you can get a tack hammer that loses 2% durability when a tack hammer would normally be destroyed (requires either 50 Blacksmithing or 50 Toolcrafting to use and is bound to your account - just like player made armor)

For 50 tokens you can get an unbreakable tack hammer that requires either 75 Toolcrafting or Blacksmithing (still bound to your account).

The barter list would include a selection of "unbreakable" tools as very strong tools for a wide array of tradeskills such as an unbreakable firkin. I see an unlimited potential for ideas of prizes that are far more covetous than black dye. Imagine for example an expert carding tool for tailors that either reduces the cotton count for carding by 1, can card cotton anywhere, or gives a +10% chance (stacking with dance and display bonuses) for more perfect cotton.

Let's say Dye is selected.

You can buy the (crappy) non-black dyes as normal. Or you can learn how to make the dye for 25 tokens - with an agreed promise that you will only dye your own armor. In other words you could forever more make 'soulbound' dye once learned that can only dye your armor but anyone who wants it on their clothes would have to get it for themselves. This would still make a single dye purchase valuable because you could dye a special piece of armor you made and transform something like a piece of pocket gear to be even more appealing.

Black Dye of course would never be teachable as you want it to be artificially rare.

I've asked repeatedly if anyone has seen black dye available for trade. I've asked if anyone has successfully traded for black dye. The answer so far to both questions is : No. I see people buying up tokens for around 3k each which means that if it were available black dye would be worth 150k each. And this makes the other prices atrociously silly because now that feather is valued in tokens at 45,000 councils.

Let's say some player wants to make a nice set of armor but has no friends to run dungeons with. He is a bard and wants to make a nice set of bard armor. What if the feather cost a single token? If he crafts on a majority of the quests during the weekend he might scrape together 30 tokens. Talk to people who have a yellow bard hat and ask them how many feathers it took for their lvl 70/80 hats. Someone told me they spent over 120 feathers for their hat.

As for crystals you get from mining... you can grind out the skill necessary for that in a weekend. Then you can mine every day and get Crystals in under an hour. You can go out and get 15 yellow crystals in a fraction of the time it takes to craft 15 tokens. That really bothers me in terms of the effort you put into earning those tokens and what you get as the reward.

alleryn

01-18-2020, 07:43 PM

(snip)
You're already getting the xp for completing the caravan quests. That is the major reward.

I think of the tokens just as an added bonus. If people have already maxed their trade skills and are just doing caravan quests for tokens, they are already filthy rich (presumably) so they don't need to be getting valuable things from the tokens anyways.

Also some of your suggestions sound extremely overpowered (the unbreakable things).

Personally i like how the balance is for the crafting caravan. Really nice reward xp if you are in the level 30 range (i went up from 32 cheesemaking to almost 50 already just this weekend). For skills you are already maxed or close to maxed you can skip the quests to concentrate on skills you are weak in.

If the rewards from tokens were extremely valuable (instead of just fun, desirable, but far from game-breaking cosmetic stuff or small amounts of hard to find items) then i think i would feel compelled to grind away every quest just to farm tokens.

My two tokens.

Celler

01-18-2020, 08:02 PM

Only done a couple to be honest, I tend to craft for cash from work orders rather than exp anyhow.

I wanted to add that perhaps a portal to return to Serb would be nice, as many new folk end up in the casino and have no clue where that is or how to return.

INXS

01-18-2020, 11:12 PM

Great event! Black dye? meh time to forget about a lame boring color, want something dyed already black? Just keep killing Lomas he gives black clothing at times and you can add pockets to it.

mrwarp

01-18-2020, 11:21 PM

I already mentioned this to you in game but overall the caravan prices feel hugely misplaced.

15 tokens for a feather : commonly sold for 2-4k. you can farm these with two people in good 70 gear.
10 tokens for 2 vervadium : you can get a bunch every day mining or trade/buy it for 3-5k each.
10 tokens for 2 fae felt : this one kinda feels ok as fae felt is a super big pain to farm. Is the price justified for a once every 4 months caravan?

*sigh*

Pricing on the current barter items is just a first revision. I'm going to need feedback from everyone after the event on how much favor you were able to gain and how many tokens you were able to build up. I can take this information and use it to make any adjustments to the pricing for later events. The special event only items will not be available for this run of the event. They will be added in a later run.

I thought that was addressed fairly clearly. Right now all I have to go on is the extreme case scenario. Someone doing all of the tasks for the length of the event. With what is currently available, that would produce approximately 1,950 favor with Orran and 170 tokens per character. There is no way for me to know how much or how little any given player is going to do. This is why some pretty bland pricing was used and is also why the special items were not added for this run. Once the event has ended and people are feeding me that information, I can better balance the pricing for future events, as I said I would.

Figger1

01-19-2020, 08:53 AM

I was going to do the flower arrangement one, 10 violet bouquets but 40 flowers to grow is alot, so I didnt try it. It seems like way too much trouble, maybe it should be for less bouquets. The others for tailor, leather, and cheese are ok but the 'beef and broccoli' one was messed up, you had to make 20 instead of 10, too many mats.

Niqesse

01-19-2020, 09:27 AM

Chicken and broccoli gives 2 each time you make it so it is 10 times the recipe

cr00cy

01-19-2020, 10:00 AM

Glythe

01-19-2020, 12:45 PM

Ok, so difficulty/investment needed is not equal among all tasks. Flower arrangmnet (becaus eof flowers and additional mats) and Jewelry Crafting (because of copper) are, imo, 'harder' to complete than others.

But beside those two, I think that task are rather fair. Mycology is a bit annoying one, but not too hard.

Tokens - I have 53 tokens, but still have few tasks I can complete - I might end up with around 60 tokens. As for bartering - it might be good idea to increase number of options per every round. Instead of 2, give use 3 or 4 (maybe make it increase with favor, the same way number of trades increases).

I think the difficulty of any particular craft is a measure of how many mats you have stored up and how difficult they are to replace. For example I have 2 characters with 50 alchemy who could have run the myconian jelly task twice a day each for a week. I had just enough fire dust to do that one about twice per day with two characters. I started skipping the blood mushroom smoothie as it eats bottles too (which is annoying) and I don't want to use them all up and would rather keep growing higher tier shrooms with farming. Only one of my alchemists has the faction with Jaw for the higher tier bomb so I completed that one as soon as it cycled with only one character. I have lots of rabbits feet left over still from the easter bunny juice event.

I didn't gather anything special for the event. In fact I used up a ton of my wood and other materials with work orders before the event started to pay for unlocks after coming back to the game. My go to meal for cooking is chicken so I usually have 100-200 on hand at any given time but I know most people do not hoard like that; then again most people don't do industry 50-60 or higher on three characters every month. About half of my main character's inventory is work orders.

I quickly learned there was zero point in doing the low tier task unless it is a skill you want to start learning. I did the low level brewing task repeatedly even though there was no token reward. My initial skill was around 26 when the event started and I am maybe ~34 now and I should get to do 2 brewing quests again before the event is over. I did the initial cheese making recipe a few times to get the +1 mycology bonus; next time the caravan returns if I feel like it I will aim for the +1 alchemy bonus.

I did the leatherworking/carpentry/mycology/cooking/brewing/flower tasks as soon as they cycled (as well as the into jewelry making). I did some of the intro missions one time and immediately stopped. No token = not worth it unless the only mission I can do is the intro mission and I really need that skill leveled. I completed one of the mid tier blacksmith missions as it was an optimal use of xp for resource cost. The other Blacksmith Missions did not seem worth it to me but then again I don't really have a need for that skill.

If I had pushed myself to the limit in super grind mode I could have gotten over 100 tokens with the materials I had available (months of saving from before I quit for a while). Playing a little more than I would normally I expect to end up with ~25 more tokens after having bought 2 black dye. It was finally available this morning at 7 AM.

I chose to complete the toolcrafting events zero times. I have not unlocked that skill to 80 yet (because I cant make lvl 80 snail) and the resources were not worth the price of a token which were floating around 3k for the majority of the weekend. I plan to never raise tailoring past the level for trans/aug so I skipped that npc.

Effectively I had 8.5 npcs on repeat crafting.

For people griping about the flower quests I think they gave the most return for the mats used so it felt like it balanced out really well. I had to stop and unlock the next tier for skill progression thanks to this event. Overall grinding flower arrangement is really tough and slow (much like brewing) but this event made it go by very quickly. Sadly I will soon be to the point where I can make really nice displays but will not be able to use them.

*sigh*

I thought that was addressed fairly clearly. Right now all I have to go on is the extreme case scenario. Someone doing all of the tasks for the length of the event. With what is currently available, that would produce approximately 1,950 favor with Orran and 170 tokens per character.

While there are a number of people who do heavy industry I think there were almost no people who raised multiple copes of the same trade skills on multiple characters (except for things like the pre-nerf branches that could power level carpentry). Up until the caravan existed there was no point to have 2x carpenters, smiths, tool crafters, etc. You only need to complete most of the trade skills with one of your characters one time and they can make anything your account needs (for gear or work orders). Some very rich person might break this mold and decide to have a second character to start grinding tokens..... but it will take an extreme amount of time before those tokens will pay for the loss of a second set of repeated tradeskills. Then again do they really need their 5th or 6th skill completely unlocked for level 80 content with a complete armor set built? Some people might start using the caravan events to catapult token gain but a lot of people seemed really unenthusiastic about the event as a whole and the tokens.

I wanted to give you concrete references for your prices. I understand why you have the prices the way they are but I just want to point out why they are bad prices so they can be better for the next go around. I can go turn all the crystals into vervadium with a handful of GYC left over in under an hour and pick up several metal/wood/other nodes along the way. This is using a very low level piece of food to not waste resources, no box and no crystal coating. Unless everything is perfectly setup and ready to click click click and turn in it takes me about an hour to setup the different tasks to make 5 tokens worth of stuff. In other words ~45 minutes to get 7 vervadium and however many crystals are left over. In an hour I can crank out about 5 tokens when I have the materials on hand. This includes the things like needing to make a new tack hammer, zone over to elt to summon something from sie antie's storage - port back to serb because I forgot a piece, etc.

I love the event! The event is great but it could use a few tweaks here and there.

I love the idea about higher level of favor meaning more barter options available per trade turn in.

My main character got to the third tier for faction (no increased barter gain = /sadface). My secondary character is just shy of being able to barter once.

mrwarp

01-19-2020, 08:58 PM

Speakign of rewards, here are few suggestions:
- Inventory extension
- persoanl, portable storage, liek portabel Council storage machine. SOmethign that would allow us acce sout storage when in the field.
- Gear upgrades/crafting gear - some kid of agumentations that can't be aquire in any other way (preferably something crafting-related). Or craftign gear, that gives a lot of additional inventory, increased chance for better items when crafting, or chance to not consume mats when crafting. Or gathering gear - with greatly reduced monster aggro range, movement speed, etc.
- As @Glythe mentioned, unbrekable tools/portable work stations would be nice too.

Inventory extensions - some form of this is already on the list.
Portable council storage - IF I were able to pull this one off, the item would not be permanent. It would be more like the current storage crates. One time use. They would also be very expensive to barter for as well.
Gear upgrades - specialized augs I have thought about. Implementing those might be a pain because there would have to be so many of them to cover all the gear slots.
Unbreakable tools - sorry, but that one is a non-starter.
Portable work stations - maybe a hookable form for housing and/or guild halls when all that comes, but definitely not for field use. This also would be extremely expensive.

ShieldBreaker

01-19-2020, 10:08 PM

My Result

50 Tokens
Favor: Friends 175/300

ProfessorCat

01-20-2020, 01:35 AM

I really enjoyed the event.

I did a handful of the lower level quests, and did pretty good at getting through most rotations. I ended up just shy of friends, and got 17 tokens (the lowest level did not give a token, but the EXP was still good)

When I look at the EXP given on this event, and compare it to the longevity of crafting, it seems gracious. Every time I craft something after first time bonus, it kills me on the inside. This weekend felt like getting that first time EXP bonus, and then it resets every 12 hours and you can do it again.

My favorite part of the event, however, was the Dyes. All of them. I love that we now have a rotating weekend focused around a barter system for appearance. Long time heroes of PG have been waiting patiently for more customization, and this is just wonderful.

I was able to purchase a few stray tokens from players, and with that was able to pick up a few Black Dyes (using my own barter, and a couple friends' barters who didn't have the tokens).

The only opportunity I saw with the event was in variety of the non-dye options. A humble suggestion would be to make the top prizes 100 or so tokens (With the intent to take more than one event to redeem) and have multiple options at 10, 20, 30 tokens, etc. I like the idea of crafting ingredients, gems, or a rare-off season recipes (Like a Turkey recipe, or some level of bat hat). Keep the prizes related to crafting/Appearance!

It might not be the popular opinion, but I like my MMOs to be a grind, even though I don't like crafting as much as some do.

Overall great job, Jack. The barter seems entirely like a bonus to the EXP, and both parts of the event are worth looking forward to.

INXS

01-20-2020, 09:23 AM

Thank you for spending the time to improve it i really enjoyed the Caravan event i got 38 tokens, the favor system was nicely done the quests were good with lots of variety. To make it more interesting maybe have side quests that are available only once for the whole event maybe be Nimble armor set or Snail armor set for 2 tokens.
I would like the bartering mechanism to be changed this event is here for only 2-3 days, in FR the bartering works because it's always there you can go anytime to check it but on such a short window the bartering i felt didn't work adequately.
Maybe we could have a chart where you have 20 or 30 items to be up the whole event and once you buy something it's removed, would have liked the dyes to be in packages of also 2 and maybe 3, wanted to get some of the different dyes but being stuck with just 1 or 2 of certain colors i didn't spend any of my tokens for i felt i would not get what i wanted with the randomness of the bartering.

Vish

01-20-2020, 10:32 AM

My result from Event: 33 tokens and i play a lot (nor hardcore like some but still above average)

Lets go to price
25 for Pitch Black Dye, because of event it not so rare anymore then lets set this dye price at no less than 100k councils
so one token is 4k councils or more, so in current situation any other barter than Pitch Black Dye is not worth just 'get Pitch black dye or try next time when caravan back'
Rising price is a option but it make many casual players newet get this Dye so meybe it better to lower price of other thinks, my suggestion is
Dye (not Black): 2-3 tokens
Vervadium and Maximized Gem : 1 token
Fae Molusk: 5-10 tokens
Fae Felt: 5-15 tokens

Some other idea: add some only from caravan recipe
for example:
New 2-3 Ice cream recipe (not better that currently existing ones, just rare)
New 2-3 Sushi set recipe (not better that currently existing ones, just rare): Sushi-set (Sushi bentō) make from few various sushi and rice (add rice for gardening? as option but can use existing one) slightly better than other food at similar lv but best one not better than best endgame food at similar lv
New Musics instrument or New Musics instrument recipe (made from shell, another Fishing craft or totally something new, or Piano (carpentry?))
Lv 80 Animal Collar (the one that Cinnamon barter) recipe (toolcrafting?)
those above may be available as current system or as random 'caravan recipe': player barter for something like 'strange looking paper' and after examining it get one random recipe from 'only caravan recipe pool'

Optional Small Change in Tokens acquire from quests:
tier1 quest: 10-20% chance to get token
tier2 : 80% chance to get token
tier3&4: 100%
tier5: 100% + 10% for second Token
if in future be
Tier6: 100% + 25% for second token

Other optional change:
increase event time from 3 to 5 days but
first 2 days will be only with 1 or 2 Suspicious merchant (at Serb Inn?) that will offer onetime quest from some rarer (not popular?) crating skill: Artistry or Buckle Artistry or Sushi Preparation or Ice Conjuration or Mushroom Farming or (this is last 'or') Mining or (i lie before, this one is last) Geology and as reward for doing quest he will reveal some of new think at this caravan (compare to last one):
Eg. IF this time caravan 1) get new items for barter 2) get new crafting skill 3) get new quest like or quest will change
Then after doing those quest player will get ar random one of above tips
eg for 3) '
NPC will tell: Thanks for helping me with this not popular crafting (so not popular that there is no place for me in caravan so i need be early before they come) as my thanks i will tell you that this time 'NPC Name' will not need Awesome Chairs this time he want Awesome Calligraphy Stroll (TIPS: u can share this info with pther player or keep to yourself)'
day 3-5 will be proper event (current one)
Purphose of this NPC will be 'leak of some information' of change in event and making some chaos (players lie about what npc leak to them :) )

Mr. SEv3N

01-20-2020, 03:02 PM

It was another fun event! Token cost of rewards could be adjusted though.

Manwar

01-20-2020, 09:58 PM

I thought the event was GREAT for those needing to level up a craft, which I did on an alt (cooking mostly which feels nightmarish on its own). It really is a good way to grind out a few levels during the fair. For those already max-level though, I didn't feel it was worth the materials and time as the rewards just weren't that appealing. I can say though, that if what was suggested by Vish, new caravan only reward recipes, I'd be all in, until I got them anyways :) Eventually, I'd probably work for some dyes...but not until a 'final' gear set, or maybe a 'gardening/social set of gear. Definitely appreciate the effort you guys are putting into it though! It can be hard coming up with 'fun' things to do for the masses! Thanks!

Glythe

01-21-2020, 08:57 AM

My result from Event: 33 tokens and i play a lot (nor hardcore like some but still above average)
Lets go to price
25 for Pitch Black Dye, because of event it not so rare anymore then lets set this dye price at no less than 100k councils
so one token is 4k councils or more, so in current situation any other barter than Pitch Black Dye is not worth just 'get Pitch black dye or try next time when caravan back'
Rising price is a option but it make many casual players newet get this Dye so meybe it better to lower price of other thinks, my suggestion is

Black dye is still rare. There aren't 30 new people wearing a 5 piece armor set all in black. Most people posting here ended up with enough tokens to buy 1 black dye but might not have been around when the trade was available. I am sure Jack can tell us how many were bought during this event.

Personally I think 75k (25x 3000 councils) is a very reasonable expense for one unit of dye. That puts a full set at 375k councils. Remember this is for a vanity item that will be put on gear which will likely eventually be replaced.

This game has many income bracket levels. Some people have 17 councils while others have 17,000 councils. There are brackets for those with 170,000 councils average, and 1.7M councils as well as the silly rich who have 17M councils or more. I have at times found myself in 4/5 of these brackets and I don't think black dye should be so exclusive that only the people in the last category should have it.

Furthermore black dye doesn't necessarily have to be the end all for dyes in this game. Maybe there can be some new color patterns that are intensely unique like 'purple dragon haze, 'bloodmoon swirl', or 'acid wash cyan'. These completely made up colors might have unique color palettes and patterns that imprint wicked designs on clothing and armor. Maybe they have something of a pulsing glow or a 'smokey' like effect. Lets say these super dyes were in the caravan next time. Maybe only one of each is sold and if you buy one then you are locked out from buying any more 'super dye' for the rest of the event or at least that barter round.

I fully support the idea of caravan only learned recipes. If we can't have unbreakable tools maybe we can have tools recipes that are more robust or have special bonuses? Maybe these could replace the super tools from Yogzi/Amutasa.

alleryn

01-21-2020, 12:07 PM

If we are looking for more caravan-only QoL items i have a thought:
Special storage crates for hard-to-stack items:
* Milk Crate
* Ice Core Tray
* Honey Pot

Okeephe

01-21-2020, 02:42 PM

23 here. Didn't do as much, this time, as the last crafting caravan. I think it is a great way to level skills, especially the ones you don't normally like to do.

Few things you could put as barter items: Vervadium, Hippogriff feathers, crafting decoctions

Dibbuk

01-24-2020, 09:34 PM

Caravan only lasted one weekend, and only one portal in Serbule to casino, and zero portals in casino back to Serbule. Many if not all of the foraging quests were screwed up due to the very limited number if spawn sites for some items, and the long delays in respawn.

For the next caravan, i would like to suggest:
1) Let caravan run for a week.
2) More portals to and from casino, like one per zone.
3) More useful items to barter tokens for, and at a more reasonable cost.
4) Faster respawn rate for foraging, or increased spawn area.

Jinador

01-26-2020, 02:27 PM

I had limited time to participate in the last event (8 hrs). I did however reach first stage of bartering. The limited items I was offered were way over the priced. That said please add more time, one week possibly with a limited number of times a quest can be preformed. Final thought... good bones to build around.