Notes on Professions

[madsplatter]

As it appears nearly everybody in a short period of time will be a crafter in the form of a profession, I feel as though the options for specs as a crafter are painfully limited. What will happen is everybody will become one of 4 specs, which essentially makes a lot of services and goods made by the specs worthless. Take for example alchemist, however biased I may be as someone who has only been an alchy their whole time on HC, you can't disagree many will choose alchy as a profession. It will honestly send alchy prices to shit, once rare items like ice and grass will now be as common as coal. Masons will hardly be a valuable spec anymore when a good portion of users will be able to create gates and lifts of the like. Therefore, I propose that the crafter class gets a good deal more variety in terms of options for speccing. The way I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong, everybody will get nearly every tool if they spec crafter for their profession. Everybody will get a diamond pick, a diamond axe, a diamond shovel, and a diamond hoe regardless of regular class. I think there needs to be individual classes which exclusively get tools.
There could be a miner class or something of the sort, which gets a diamond shovel+pick, and other mining specific skills, while lacking a hoe and an axe.
I know Kain was talking about increasing the value of food somehow? Maybe a farming class would be possible, which gets exclusive access to some methods of farming, ie: wheat. This wouldn't make getting food impossible, merely increase the demand for food.
Sorry, my ideas are a bit basic atm, but I'd love to hear some feedback. Even if you don't like my class suggestions, at least tell me what you think about diversifying the crafter class.

 

[agentjwall]

with the switch to professions the crafter classes will act less like a job/source of income and more like a secondary skill set (kinda ironic considering they're called professions). Its inevitable that each spec will be much more common and players will choose them not to make money but to buff/complement their play styles. Like having buffs or rarer Items? go alchemist. Like to set up traps and gadgets? go engineer. Dislike Watching your tools crumble to dust in your hands? go Smith. Like to building defendable/efficient structures? go mason.

Regardless, though I agree that more options with less benefits need to be available now that they aren't a full classes.
Some professions ideas:

Mining (diamond spade/pick)
Farming (access to breeding and maybe a higher crop yield)
Alchemy (access to alchemy table only)
Enchanter (Access to enchanting table)
Chemist (access to cauldron minus chain-mail)
Smith (same as before but can make chain-mail)
Mason and engineer can stay the same

My intention is that each profession would have less then a normal class and act more like a secondary skill set.
I realize that what I've suggested completely changes some classes but I'm just throwing ideas around.

 

[Aerokii]

On one hand I agree with you, though on the other it must be known that part of the prices for "rare" items is decided by the cost of the materials, which will not likely change, especially for items that use things like diamond. The part of the price that WILL be affected is the mark up that is used for profit, which will be, logically, reduced based upon availability. While this does suck for alchemists, it also means that prices will be based more on real value of the item rather than "what can I get away with?"

 

[agentjwall]

I think Chest shops should also be limited to certain professions. It seems ridiculous that everyone will be able to have a shop. I mean, do smiths, masons, and engineers even need chest shops? They have more service-based abilities so they have no reason to need chest shops...

 

[Kainzo]

Professions/Crafters are still full classes. They are in no way 'combat' classes.

 

[donnymeyer]

since a blacksmith can use every tool/weapon, how much dammage dows the gold sword do for them?

 

[c12095]

since a blacksmith can use every tool/weapon, how much dammage dows the gold sword do for them?

Weapons/armor as still restricted to your PvP class.

 

[Nalestom]

I like the idea of crafter classes being a bit more spread out, especially if there was a "Miner" profession. Perhaps a Miner profession would not only be able to use diamond pickaxes and shovels, but have a chance to double-drop rare blocks when they're mined?

Honestly, professions should be less of a secondary spec and more along the lines of something to personalize and complement your playstyle. If you've never touched a redstone torch in your life or don't want to learn how to utilize CraftBook, then why be forced to spec into one of those branches? There needs to be a few more "casual" professions for the people who would only pay attention to the professions in the first place because of diamond tools.

 

[Sleaker]

@Nalestom - double-drops are already implemented for most crafter classes (depending on which one) - The crafter classes will be expanding when we get 1.0 features integrated, and this has been discussed in the past (I suggest coming to the monthly meetings or reading what was talked about). The majority of the OP has already been answered multiple times in multiple places when the discussion around splitting the crafter classes came up.