Suggestion Why not making the FIRST profession spec free is a bad idea.

[rahlzel]

After reaching level 20 Crafter I was (un)pleasantly surprised to find that I need 400 souls to specialize.

Here's why this is a bad idea:

Progression is stalled - For many players, they only want to craft or build. They don't care about fighting players or mobs. In order to get money, a level 20 Crafter will either continuously craft/farm/fish/etc with zero exp gain (it stops at level 20 and 99%), or feel forced to fight mobs/players in order to gain the needed souls to specialize. This stall in progression is the most significant impact and can be felt not only by the player, but by the town the player is in. A player wanting to assist their town by building circuits as an Engineer is now stifled from doing so.

As an unwritten rule, smart game mechanics dictate that a game's progression should always feel smooth and never stalled. Most of all, mechanics should provide multiple faucets for allowing players to progress - in this case, crafting or fighting - especially when the game allows these paths (Minecraft). This is why Mojang coded in experience gain while mining or smelting. It's so players who don't like to fight mobs can still gain levels. It doesn't make any sense to practically force a player to engage in gameplay that they don't prefer in order to progress in something completely unrelated - "I want to be a Farmer, so I have to kill a bunch of mobs."

A smooth transition between Crafter and a specialization will also add server retention. Players won't get discouraged by being stalled and will stay online longer. They'll have a reason to stay because they can progress to the next "level" as soon as it's available. Would you play a game that forced you to master a shield in order to wield a better sword? At the moment, my interest in staying on Herocraft is teetering precariously on a razor's edge. I don't really want to fight mobs/players to grind souls. I just want to help my town by crafting/farming and gaining items for town upgrades. This type of mentality SHOULD be rewarded instead of stifled.

By all means, keep the 400 soul requirement for changing a spec AFTER the first one is obtained, but making the first one cost money is, in my humble opinion, a very poor decision.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Carbash]

Try mining, it is more profitable anyway. In 3 hours i made 300 souls, and i was screwing around... you can get enchanted tools from shops at central.

Edit: alot of ppl farm to level crafter, i suggest mining.

 

[rahlzel]

The point is, if a level 20 crafter chooses to mine to gain souls, they still aren't gaining any useful experience from it because they're stuck at level 20 and 99%. So they have to mine with the knowledge that the only thing that is gained is money in order to buy a profession and they THEN can continue to gain experience. This is completely backwards.

What if I don't want to mine? What if I'm getting sick of dying in lava or from mobs? What if I want to be a Farmer in the safety of a town? The need to purchase your first profession is the quickest way to constrict and funnel a player's interests into a specific gameplay style, which is completely the opposite of the intentions of Minecraft as a whole.

There should be absolutely nothing from stopping someone farming to their hearts content from level 1 crafter all the way to 60 Farmer if that person really wants to, and for free, at least the first time. If they want to drop farming and go for something else, they gotta pay.

 

[Carbash]

The idea would be to level crafter by mining. I know that would require prior knowledge of the costs and that mining yields a higher soul drop. The thing i stress is use the resources in place. The wiki has all this info as well as the players. Dont be afraid to ask. I personally feel that it should not be free. Its easy enough to get the souls. Will you have to work for it? Yes. Thats part of the game.

 

[rahlzel]

The idea would be to level crafter by mining.

I don't think I can explain why that's a bad idea any more than I already have.

 

[Dsawemd]

Work for your money, it does not take long at all to reach 400 souls.

 

[Kainzo]

After reaching level 20 Crafter I was (un)pleasantly surprised to find that I need 400 souls to specialize.

Here's why this is a bad idea:

Progression is stalled - For many players, they only want to craft or build. They don't care about fighting players or mobs. In order to get money, a level 20 Crafter will either continuously craft/farm/fish/etc with zero exp gain (it stops at level 20 and 99%), or feel forced to fight mobs/players in order to gain the needed souls to specialize. This stall in progression is the most significant impact and can be felt not only by the player, but by the town the player is in. A player wanting to assist their town by building circuits as an Engineer is now stifled from doing so.

As an unwritten rule, smart game mechanics dictate that a game's progression should always feel smooth and never stalled. Most of all, mechanics should provide multiple faucets for allowing players to progress - in this case, crafting or fighting - especially when the game allows these paths (Minecraft). This is why Mojang coded in experience gain while mining or smelting. It's so players who don't like to fight mobs can still gain levels. It doesn't make any sense to practically force a player to engage in gameplay that they don't prefer in order to progress in something completely unrelated - "I want to be a Farmer, so I have to kill a bunch of mobs."

A smooth transition between Crafter and a specialization will also add server retention. Players won't get discouraged by being stalled and will stay online longer. They'll have a reason to stay because they can progress to the next "level" as soon as it's available. Would you play a game that forced you to master a shield in order to wield a better sword? At the moment, my interest in staying on Herocraft is teetering precariously on a razor's edge. I don't really want to fight mobs/players to grind souls. I just want to help my town by crafting/farming and gaining items for town upgrades. This type of mentality SHOULD be rewarded instead of stifled.

By all means, keep the 400 soul requirement for changing a spec AFTER the first one is obtained, but making the first one cost money is, in my humble opinion, a very poor decision.

Thank you for your time.

I can agree that its not seamless and needs to be smoothed out.

We may be able to make "first swap" free.

 

[Ahrall]

While I do agree that making the first swap free (either crafter or combat but not both) is an excellent idea I will also state that the money you get as drops while levelling to 20 should be enough to fund your class change.

Key word is should. RNG will be RNG so it is wholly possible to make virtually nothing, but with the flip side being that you could make a fortune

 

[w0nd3rb0y]

You can easily make 400 souls mining to lvl 20. No questions. I made enough to fund my crafter and combat from mining to lvl 20 if I'm not mistaken.

 

[rahlzel]

I can agree that its not seamless and needs to be smoothed out.

We may be able to make "first swap" free.

Thank you for the support, and the awesome server. It's always a good sign when the server owner responds to "the little people" and their suggestions

If you don't mind me making an off-topic plug, I think this other suggestion I made is both popular and very simple, we're just waiting on a forum admin to tackle it.

While I do agree that making the first swap free (either crafter or combat but not both) is an excellent idea I will also state that the money you get as drops while levelling to 20 should be enough to fund your class change.

Key word is should. RNG will be RNG so it is wholly possible to make virtually nothing, but with the flip side being that you could make a fortune

Unfortunately, I had only ~60 souls by the time I hit 20 Crafter. If this is unintentional, it might help for me to say that 99% of my souls was made farming. The other 1% was in voting.

 

[Trazil]

I don't see why this would be needed, you can make an easy 1k a day off Mining, farming, or killing mobs. If you don't have the 400s after a day or 2 you can always buy a codex for the class you desire, and people usually sell them for 250-300s.