Crafting Revamp Wishlist

[Boinli]

Recently, when perusing this forum, I found the following post from producer @Raninia in the thread, "Crafting overhaul anytime soon?" (lotro.com), where he writes:

I don't think we need a document per se, but would love to get broad sense of what y'all enjoy about crafting and what things you don't. That said, just because you give us feedback - some of which will undoubtedly be contradictory - doesn't mean we'll do the specific thing you specifically asked for.

Reading this, I was a little struck that we didn't already have a thread to discuss "what [we] enjoy about crafting and what things [we] don't". Though I myself am a pretty casual crafter, I think it's about time we got a thread like this going, especially since we have heard a crafting update may be in the works. With that in mind, I propose we use this space to detail 1) what we enjoy about the current system, 2) what we do not, and 3) what we'd like to see in future iterations of the crafting system (this might be a good area to offer suggestions from the crafting systems of other games like FF14). Perhaps a single thread like can more helpfully illustrate to the devs what we want from crafting and what we expressly do not.

I encourage people to think beyond the common complaint that crafting up until level 100 was solid, while the last 3 tiers were useless. What would make crafting even up to level 100 better for you?

I myself am a fairly casual crafter and have yet to reach the final tier (my highest levelled character being just over 100), but I have spoken to enough kinnies and people in World to know that LOTRO's crafting as it currently stands leaves something to be desired. Thus, I'll leave the floor to those of you who are more familiar with the crafting system than I am to air our your frustrations with the system and your desires for future iterations of it.

[TesalionLortus]

Useful crafted items that give satisfaction, plain and simple, and remain "ageless" (sort of how dyes are). All of the crafted decorations (from Minas Morgul, for example) are a great example of this. Although I would like to see some more interesting ones for certain professions like weaponsmith - not limited to a small wall-mounted sword/dagger/axe but maybe entire sets to craft or other things that involve weapons but *aren't just bore weapons* - so something like a collection of orc heads on spikes. The general theme of weapons being there but not limited to a single weapon object. Farmers can be able to craft "field" yard decoration sets or anything else from available in-game assets that has to do with farming, for example

Even if they *did* allowed crafted gear to be "useful" (rather than have the useful stuff behind end-game/rep/grind) these things aren't "ageless" and make entire tiers of crafting useless as soon as next update hits. So maybe purely cosmetic weapons and armors to craft would be a great additions too, such as faction ones from assets available in-game - things like "orcish sword" or "black-numenorian blade" that kind of more special stuff. I remember when we were able to barter for Easterling blade or Khand axe in Gondor, or Goblin king's crown in the Vales, so yeah, MORE of things like that and bring them to crafting too

[Boinli]

Useful crafted items that give satisfaction, plain and simple, and remain "ageless" (sort of how dyes are). All of the crafted decorations (from Minas Morgul, for example) are a great example of this. Although I would like to see some more interesting ones for certain professions like weaponsmith - not limited to a small wall-mounted sword/dagger/axe but maybe entire sets to craft or other things that involve weapons but *aren't just bore weapons* - so something like a collection of orc heads on spikes. The general theme of weapons being there but not limited to a single weapon object. Farmers can be able to craft "field" yard decoration sets or anything else from available in-game assets that has to do with farming, for example

Even if they *did* allowed crafted gear to be "useful" (rather than have the useful stuff behind end-game/rep/grind) these things aren't "ageless" and make entire tiers of crafting useless as soon as next update hits. So maybe purely cosmetic weapons and armors to craft would be a great additions too, such as faction ones from assets available in-game - things like "orcish sword" or "black-numenorian blade" that kind of more special stuff. I remember when we were able to barter for Easterling blade or Khand axe in Gondor, or Goblin king's crown in the Vales, so yeah, MORE of things like that and bring them to crafting too

I absolutely agree with all of this. As a fiend for cosmetics and decorations, I'd love to see more of these items available from crafters - I'm still seeing (andbuying) crafted furniture items on the auction house which speaks to their utility. Further, because these items remain relevant, they're good for the in-game commodity. It would be great if some of these items required interdependence with other crafts.

As well, I like the idea a kinnie mentioned of using multiple decorations to craft a "set of decorations." Scenario talked about how he wanted to add more housing items that included multiple decorations in order to offset the problem of limited hooks, and crafting could be involved in this project. Want a set of table and chairs -- well, get a woodworker to turn the chair and table items you have into a single decoration!

But I agree, most crafted items should be ageless and remain relevant: giving crafters the ability to create more cosmetics and housing items is a way to achieve this.

[scorrp10]

As someone from other end if spectrum - zero interest in decoration stuff - my dream would be ability to craft servicable gear for in-progress character. Kinda like you could in lower tiers. I.e. you had lvl 22(granted recipes), 25 (vendor recipes), 28 (drop recipes) and 30 (incomarables requiring the rare shard)
Even in tier 9, you could craft lvl 90 purple gear that could fill in the gaps as needed, in addition to all the rep-gated stuff.
Doomfold basic stuff would have been great if it was min lvl 110. The last three tiers are just... sad.

Of course, the woes of current crafting stem directly from current gear situation overall. You got literally no landscape drops, bartered gear all locked behind huge rep grind, and literally everything is hinged on store. Makes no sense to give us viable crafting options when everything else is a major grind with store shortcut.

[Galuhad]

My suggestion, remove the vocations entirely. Create profession 'slots' which all characters are given three to start and allow people to select the three initial professions of their own choice. Then sell extra slots so people can add more professions onto their character(s). Remove the need for alts just for the purpose of crafting.

[scorrp10]

Would have loved that. ESO lets you do all crafts on one char, only real restriction being skill points. But if you do all areas quests and find most skyshards, you get more than enough.

[Boinli]

My suggestion, remove the vocations entirely. Create profession 'slots' which all characters are given three to start and allow people to select the three initial professions of their own choice. Then sell extra slots so people can add more professions onto their character(s). Remove the need for alts just for the purpose of crafting.

I agree. FFXIV allows you to do all crafting professions. If someone wants to take the time to level up multiple professions on one character -- why shouldn't they? I really think this should be added, and fairly soon.

[YamydeAragon]

On the recent interview with the devs Orion mentioned that they have plans to start a crafting system revamp on the near future. Also Scenario mentioned on a prior interview that wasn't that long ago neither that they are considering doing new complex decoration arrangements by using the crafting system.

[Trientalis]

As long as we're creating a wish list - let us craft dyes for war steed gear! That would be super cool.

And I ditto the requests for crafting of cosmetic items and more decor items. In particular, I would like to craft items relating to artisan and farm work (not actual crafting stations, of course). So a loom and spinning wheel, for example, with baskets of wool, finished textiles, balls of yarn and so on. Or herbs that can hang from rafters along with vials, mortar/pestle, and other tools of herbalist trade. Yes we have the wonderful herbalist table from Rowan Raspberry, but would like to decorate an entire room in that theme. Items for a dairy, like butter churns, cheese presses, racks of cheese wheels for aging, and so on, would be fun.

And now that we've had the quest line of the elven artist in the Angle, how about items for an artist studio? Yes we have the easels from yonder shire (great decor items), but jars of brushes, pigments and equipment for making oil paints, maybe items for sculpture, would all be nice additions.

Thanks Boinli for starting this wish list!

[YamydeAragon]

As long as we're creating a wish list - let us craft dyes for war steed gear! That would be super cool.

And I ditto the requests for crafting of cosmetic items and more decor items. In particular, I would like to craft items relating to artisan and farm work (not actual crafting stations, of course). So a loom and spinning wheel, for example, with baskets of wool, finished textiles, balls of yarn and so on. Or herbs that can hang from rafters along with vials, mortar/pestle, and other tools of herbalist trade. Yes we have the wonderful herbalist table from Rowan Raspberry, but would like to decorate an entire room in that theme. Items for a dairy, like butter churns, cheese presses, racks of cheese wheels for aging, and so on, would be fun.

And now that we've had the quest line of the elven artist in the Angle, how about items for an artist studio? Yes we have the easels from yonder shire (great decor items), but jars of brushes, pigments and equipment for making oil paints, maybe items for sculpture, would all be nice additions.

Thanks Boinli for starting this wish list!

I wish that all exissting colours be crafteable & the recipe permanent.

For crafting cosmetic items i propose that all the existing outfits, weapons & instrument recipes, receive a multioutput treatment, On the 1st recipe that use certain specific skin (or the less clutered that use that skin, if the 1st recipe have too many multioutput versions already) get added a ceremonial version of that crafting gear.

I welcome any new house decoration item! Don't forget the palette for the art studio.

[Fantomex]

Low Level Crafting Instances

These exist at certain levels because they provided capped characters (at the time) a place to reliably gather ore, wood, and scholar mats. But they don't exist at every tier and are sometimes gated behind poorly explained requirements (Hytbold).

I would love to see them (a) fill in the gaps, and (b) improve accessibility. I think Crafting Guilds are the perfect place to do that. Replace the now obsolete Legendary Item vendors with a Resource NPC that gives you access to Crafting Instances based on your Guild Reputation.

This incentivizes the already monetized crafting guilds across all levels while making them central hubs where new and veteran crafters would actively gather, as they should be. Supply the Auction Hall with raw and finished materials so prices are more reasonable for non-endgamers. Win-win-win.