You work to make them better already, with the mastery system.
Potentially, if we want to keep the feeling of discovering through pratice, one could be granted some limited uses of the tier 2 craft when he 4/4 the primitive version for the first time (account wide).
I'm for 10 uses and increased drop rates.
Well... you actually get better at combat by picking daisies since they reward KP...
There have been multiple discussions on the topic of the recipes.
Currently, they can drop from any creature of challenge rating 4 or more and once used they teach to a player how to craft that item.
As we pretty much all agree, this system cannot last like this. Before late, everyone will know all recipes and they will cease having any value. The same happened in other games which had this same exact system, and there is no reason to believe in a differen outcome.
Now, there are many ways to change this, and many players have different ideas on how to do it. One of the ideas presented is to have the recipes limited in uses. So for example with a recipe you can craft that item 10 times and then you need to find the recipe again. Since according to the last AMA, this solution is under evaluation by devs, I would like to open a discussion on it.
So, let's try to list the good and bad of this solution:
The Good:
Gives a long term use for the recipes, the market for those cannot "Saturate" if you keep needing more.
Since they are dropped completely at random, they create an interesting economic feedback system. The amount of recipes for each item will be grossly the same, but some recipes will be more requested than others, giving more value to those. You can't specifically grind for the recipe you want. This means that items will increase in price based on how popular the builds that use them are, rewarding those players who come out with innovative builds.
Rewards specialising in a few crafts, which is something requested by players. While there is no hard coded limit to your masteries, if the act of crafting itself has a cost associated, then you have to decide which ones to pursue. You can't simply offer to "Craft for free Xyz, Your mats" and advance in masteries.
The Bad
You are never done with recipes. As a crafter you will have to continously get new ones. They are no longer an "unlock" but just another material.
It doesn't really make sense to forget a recipe because you actually practiced doing it.
It is counter intuitive. New players may get their hands burned in the process.
You have to carefully balance the drop rates of recipes. Too many and they are useless, too few and we go back to Jurassic Wars meta.
My opinion:
I like the limited use approach.
I think that the mistake was naming them "Recipes". It carries no sense to have a recipe drop from a Mammoth and there is no reason why you should forget a Recipe.
My idea would be to rename recipes to "Spark of Knowledge" or something like that. Generated and spread around by the God of Knowledge that watches over Syndesia. This way it makes sense that you can find them literally anywhere and that they are not permanent.
Also, since they are generated by the God of Knowledge, it makes sense that those under his favour (neutral aligned players) will have an increased chance to find them. Since recipes can be found no matter what you hunt, it gives players a good reason to want to go around in Neutral alignment, solving one of the current issues on Syndesia.
What about this?
Since we now know that there will be a tier 3 level of crafting, which will have its own recipes, we could just make it so only neutral players can drop tier 3 recipes. They are under the favor of the god of knowledge, so it would actually make sense.
Since recipes drop completely at random, it would give players a reason to always stay in neutral.
For Tartaros you can just have them drop normally, since everyone is evil.
For Arboreus you allow everyone to drop them, but make them drop only by legends or stuff like that.
Syndesia is expected to have the majority of the population as neutral aligned, so if this does not happen, then one has to find ways to make neutral alignment more rewarding.
The wiki is currently fairly well updated.
The game is changing fast, but the current wiki team is pouring a lot of effort in it, so the wiki is in a good condtion.
In particular, the following sections are now fully updated:
There were no stats tied to arrows.
Bone and stone ones were identical.
It works, but the mana consumption is impossibly high.
@Tuoni surely there are a few things to get better in the combat, desync first.
But for kiting I think that it is mostly fine. I mean, I used to be an ADC in LoL, so maybe it simply comes more natural to me.
Use right click to attack when kiting, not left click.
Would still be far better than the current one.
No system is perfect.
The game recognizes when you are in combat, so it could simply be based on time spent in combat.
I'm in favour of any wear system which is not based on physically hitting or being hit.
Even just a time based one is fine.
Problem is that ordinarily there is almost no wear.
They only items which are getting degraded are bows, melee weapons and the armors of melee toons.
Mage staves are eternal, armors of ranged tools are eternal, same for their necklaces and shields.
A few comments:
Auto targeting for ranged: This would go against the intention of the devs. It is intended that you need to manually aim the target.
Reds on arboreus: They are simply not there. You can't turn evil on Arboreus. The only exception would be the demons in those areas where you can invade.
Looting on Syndesia: I agree with no gear loot for anyone, but there must be some kind of penalty for reds. If we add (as sorely needed) an equipment wear on KD/Death, then reds could suffer more from it.
@Vortech there was never progression in arrows though.
