I have about 150 hours in game and like it’s lore and immersion.
I like game but the problem with the recipe mining method boils down to the fact that the entire process has become an artificial laboratory for obtaining all recipes through the scribe’s table.
Overall, it’s a useful feature; it should help fill the gaps left by exploring the world and not finding a particular piece of armor or recipe for a food item that you could make from the resources you’ve already gathered.
But at the same time, recipes have been removed from all other places in the game.
So, Gordon the cook can’t teach me a single dish?! Fillmore the blacksmith doesn’t know how to teach me to forge rusty swords?!
The Markos alchemist, we rescued from the cave won’t sell me a single potion recipe? Why did we even save him?!
Just sell resources?!
And I’m supposed to only get recipes for everything through the scribe’s table? This kills the game’s immersion, reducing the process of obtaining recipes to a banal scribal table sweep, instead of the enticing exploration of merchants, chests, and the world as a whole. I’m not asking for the scribe’s table to be removed, but recipes should drop while exploring the world, and profession vendors can sell certain recipes, even the most basic ones or just a subset of the rarities already available to the player. This would make exploring the world much more interesting, purchasing certain recipes for money, instead of farming research papers and burning them on the scribe’s table for random of everything you’d like to craft.
The scribe’s table will take its rightful place in this loot system—as a legitimate way to complete a collection or obtain the missing piece of a needed set item.
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having started with only this version of the game last weekend, I also think that the recipe system is in an odd place.
Either you find an item, then burn research paper to unlock it. or you gamble on getting recipes by randomly unlocking items in a category.
- Vendors should sell basic recipes at appropriate levels. Not all recipes, simply some basic ones.
One of each type maybe. One wand, one Sword, One dish. Maybe add another recipe when you upgrade that vendor to second/third level.
- I don’t think random dropped recipes are needed. You can unlock specific recipes of things you’ve found, so in essence you already got the recipe already, you only need to unlock it instead of gamble-unlock it. I’m fine with paying 3 paper to actually target-unlock something.
- Random unlock needs to stay for those “I havent found them yet” items that will inevitably be missing due to RNGesus.
Its weird that my character cant cook anything besides mushrooms at lvl 25 or that no one is willing to sell you recipes at all.
The newer scribe table-based system works well with those things we can’t use/equip, like furniture and crafting stations.
For equipment, it would make sense to me if I needed to reverse-engineer a piece of gear (maybe even multiple of similar ones) to learn how to make it myself, destroying that said piece of gear in the process (maybe receiving an insignificant number of crafting materials back for sacrificing an item).
For foor and potions, using them to learn how to replicate them sounds okay-ish, for simpler items like a very basic potion or a dish that requires only an open fire to cook.
Overall, the more complicated the item, the larger amount of effort it would require to learn how to make it.
Finding a crafting schematic for a new piece of armor sounds like a decent reward for exploration to me, too.
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My other complaint is that it adds a noticeable dose of artificiality to the game. This recipe system breaks the immersion. For me, the scribe’s table should be a background feature, allowing you to 100% complete your recipe collection for those who need it. But the main source of recipes should come from the world, vendors, chests, enemies, and maybe even quests, where for completing a task npc rewards you with a special potion or food recipe—for example, a home decoration, or maybe even a weapon that specifically requires forging. Such a world would be more interesting to explore, but now, if you’re playing a blacksmith or another crafter, you have to “legalize” your craft through the scribe’s table: If you find a weapon you want to forge, go and learn how to make it at the scribe’s table for 1 research paper; if not, then randomly acquire it for 3 research papers at the scribe’s table. This makes the process artificial for me.
The different cost of research depending on replicating the item you already found vs randomly research is a good idea and could fit well in the game. But 3 pages in the endgame is quite easy to get anyway, while in the early game its a chore. Maybe another layer of different costs would be needed there. Recipes unlocked with the first scribe table are 3/1 (random/already found) paper, recipes that are on the higher tier table could be 5/1 paper instead.
In the end you probably pay the same total amount of paper (you save paper by researching already found recipes, you pay more for the missing recipes).
For house items (crafting stations, deco, storage) maybe another price tag is needed. 3 is harsh for deco items, while 3 for crafting benches feels cheap. That one is harder to balance in my opinion.
As for “unlocking X only via quest or event”, the game would need to avoid dropping item X until you fulfill that requirement, or you could “reverse-engineer” the item instead. But also missing an item due to the player being busy and not noticing something in a corner somewhere is really annoying and thats where the random research really shines and is a great addition to the game.
my thought behind the standard bronze silver gold problem, has always led to item and feature quality compromise. E.g. let us cook the fish recipe that needs t3 ingredients, but with substitute lower level fish, that when using, could make the end result not as potent, and cause the dish to have a chance to fail when cooking.
This would enforce scarcity, risk vs reward, and open the path for scalar experiments.
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