Event Blog: Crafting Caravan 2.0

[Glythe]

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.