Crafting, Recipes, Sorting, Searching

I honestly do not “get” crafting in this game.

There is so much information that is difficult to find or understand, or just plain missing. For example, I saw that compost requires bonemeal. But, I found that information on the wiki… not in-game. And, I had to use the wiki to learn HOW to make said bonemeal. It certainly isnt in the game anywhere that I can find. Everything takes a lot of guessing, and praying you guessed right.

There are hundreds of examples like this. The only way to find out what works, how it works, or how to accomplish something requires that we tab out of the game and search the wiki?

And the recipes, oh my lord, what a mess! There is very little sorting, and trying to find out what I need means I must buy the skill to build a crafting station for that item, only to THEN look and see what is required to craft said item. If you guess wrong, and spend the points for the feat, and THEN find out that feat is not at all what you thought it was.

For the love of all that is holy, what am I missing? Because evidently I am doing it all wrong.

Where can you find the information IN-GAME, without going to the wiki?

I’m afraid you’re not wrong. It’s supposedly by design that you have to “guess your way forward”.

Yes, I have the feeling that it is intended that you work through trial and error to learn how certain things work in this game. Part of the survival process, maybe…

I don’t know if this is “par for the course” for the genre, CE being my first (and so far, only) foray into Survival games.

This is indeed par for the course in most survival games. You are left abandon to fend for yourself and you must learn how to. In a real survival situation you would not have manuals or the internet. Only your existing skills and knowledge and the ability to learn new things. The set up is correct and true for survival.

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Only thing you can do if you’ve chosen the wrong feat / attributes you can craft a potion to resethe stats and re do them… but it’s gets anouying after a while. Have to reset all stats… another anouying thing about this game… hats off to funcom for starting what could be a fantastic game… but they need to hand the reigns over to a game developer who knows what there.doing…

Funcom has made some of my favorite games, but they remind me a little of Rockstar… meaning, “let’s take this great idea, start coding it so it seems fun… and then stop short of every single thing that would make this something the player would want to stick with.”

To others I’ll say this…

Yes, this is a survival game. But when we have NPC specialists we can (should be able to) consult, we should be able to unlock a UI or interface that let’s us look for a recipe that is logically sorted, and optimized for finding that recipe from a list, context or visual, and begin the crafting process.

We are NOT cavemen/women, unlearned and unintelligent. Our characters have some level of smarts and quite possibly even education. We can figure out that a stone attached to a stick can make a club, or a weapon. When it gets more complicated than that, we still have some concept of “building” things. Stack enough rocks in one spot and you have a foundation. Great! But Funcom wants it to be more complicated than that, which is GREAT! But why must I “quess”? That is not survival, not does a survival game it make.

I have no issues with the stumbling in the dark approach to discover recipes, but the interface should be a place to help us players DO things. If I have learned the recipe, then I should both be able to sort my recipes into categories, and sub-categories, and once I locate it in the interface, it should show me what I need to craft. OR tell me which crafting station to assemble it at. But by throwing every single recipe into a box, and making us search visually for the right icon, and then NOT show us what we need to complete that recipe is just silly, frustrating, and what drives all but the absolute hardcore players… away.

Hey… I did “learn” the recipe right?

How about a feat then, that we can purchase, that lets us sort our lists out. My character may or may not know how to read, who knows. But I bet he can sketch or draw, and use that ability to keep track of what to use, or where to go, or what goes with what to make a thing.

Hell, even the Feat section is totally confusing and non-intuitive. You want to make a “thing” well, you will need a skill. Where is that skill you ask? Go click on every single icon until you see the icon that this icon is a part of. Oh wait, that icon you were looking for is in a different section under “more icons” – good luck!

Short version: The crafting system is not bad, but the information to guide us, and the user interface we have been given is downright shameful. The UI lacks a tremendous amount of information. I think most players would agree. And not just about the crafting system, but that is for another post/rant.

For those that think I am asking for too much information, and that the game does not need to provide a more intuitive UI… well, some of us WANT more info. For those that want less, then Funcom can put in an option to turn OFF the extra info. Let the player decide what is too much or too little.

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