Star metal and it's need

Oh I knew it was controversial when I posted it and no worries about me coming to terms that it’s just not going to happen but the larger point is that character progression should matter more, both in the fun factor and enjoyment. I look at it like a good bourbon. Sure you can down a fifth and get drunk (going to level 60 in less than a day with 15 artisan benches producing fish mounts and doing the circular ape run in the southern jungle ruins) but you don’t really enjoy it or understand/respect the time it took to design those flavors and they come off the liquor…it’s just getting you drunk. Sitting there and enjoying a glass (preferably with a friend or 20 and having discussions) over the week or two. Which one do you prefer? I’m old but live fast paced so anytime you tell me to slow down and watch the grass grow, I’m all happy about it. There are those that just get drunk and that is their enjoyment and I can’t fault them for it but at the same time…I believe they miss out on so much more. When you can see the design elements come out…when you can picture the discussion that they did when they decided this path over that path (or when you know it was a heat of the moment /gotta get something together for launch) That is the enjoyment that endures a legacy game that I think CE can be.

I made the comparison with art vs product with tele above but you can have it be both and I firmly believe game design rests in both…artistic vision and customer friendly product but it requires lots of communication with the customer on the vision that was originally meant and an open discussion on if this vision needs to be adapted to be more palatable to the customer or if the customer can take the leap of faith to accept the vision, as is in order to enjoy it as the designer intended.

Literally true!!! Show me anything in the past year or year and a half where someone had some idea for or about the game that changed ANYTHING at all. And if there is one such example it’s WAY more than likely it was already on their agenda to fix or implement anyway. You REALLY think anything we say here makes any difference? I haven’t seen it in one full year. I’ve read people saying it does but seems like only in their imaginations. As I understand it, it used to matter more back when different people were in different positions at FC (years ago)… but it seems to me those days are looooong gone.

It’s no more controversial than suggesting we incorporate Star Wars themed battleships into the CE world. It’s just simply a dumb idea and is a fantastic opportunity for all the people who love to type about essentially nothing to chip in. Some people would call that trolling BTW. To me this is the very definition of it!

What about the request of examples of ToS enforcement to help understand what moderators are looking for? They have provided and granted more questions in these examples as many couldn’t figure out why some of these were enforceable but this is something new and directly linked to our discussions here.

Wow. OK. I’m at a loss on this one because the extreme comparison is so completely off where I was thinking I don’t see us having a way to walk back from that since it is very clear that we are completely misaligned. If it pains you that much, please don’t feel forced to feed the ‘troll’.

Is that a game change? No.

It doesn’t. But I don’t mind pointing out thoughtless garbage when I see it.

You moved the goal post.

Keeping that trollmobile rolling aye? Can’t read English huh? Can’t comprehend the context of your own thread? Okee-dokey. :stuck_out_tongue:

Let’s examine the simple sentence segment “the game” shall we? How bored do you have to be?

I directly quoted you. If you don’t think umbosis thread about ToS was “for or about the game”, I would love to know what you think it was about.

Another forum driven change that I know of

Voidforged bow issues were brought up in the forum that actually was changed due to abuse that was going on with the glove durability (significant change from the design of the weapon based on feedback from the customer) .

Sure. Here, I’ll list some outcomes of what people have been asking for on the forums:

Those are just some examples. It’s far from an exhaustive list.

I’d love to say that I can’t wait to read your next “yes, but” argument that explains how that’s completely beside the point and how you’re right, but frankly, I would be lying. We are now several messages into the process of derailing this thread to argue with you about your opinion that it’s pointless to participate in discussions like this.

If you’re really confident that Funcom doesn’t listen at all to what people propose here, then there’s really no reason to argue against this proposal. I see no reason why this whole discussion needs to continue down this path of trying to convince one sole participant to continue participating or not. It’s your own choice, feel free to exercise it however you want.

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yeah you’re probably right.

Getting back (or at least somewhat closer) to the original topic, I’m still intrigued by the idea that star metal is so much better with a bladesmith.

For the past two days, I’ve been actively trying to get a bladesmith in my play time after work. True, it’s just a handful of hours I spent on that, but I’m getting the impression that it’s much, much easier to get a tempersmith (which allows me to craft legendary repair kits) than a bladesmith.

Is this just another case of individual perception of RNG? Or does the whole premise that star metal is unbalanced rely heavily on grinding a rare RNG-gated thrall?

For context: I’m not on Siptah.

I have never understood the affinity for bladesmiths that people have. It’s only an increase of 12% of the weapon value from tempersmiths. So for a 50 damage weapon we are looking at 6 extra damage points. IMHO, having access to unlimited legendary repair kits is far more valuable than 6 points of damage.

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It’s not bad. It’s just rarely used on PvP. Right now you have better alternatives: Ancient Pike (Steel tier) which has 48 damage, compared to star metal or DLC (45) or simply Dragonbone. Lemurian weapons from the Witch Queen work too. For the endgame it’s Zath/Mitra Spear or Ancient Lemurian Spear. Telith’s Lament/Black Ice for 1h swords, Obsidian for 2h hammers, Daggers of Dagon/Obsidian Daggers and Khari Bow for Archers. (For Siptah it is different ofc, more OP weapons to choose from)

I think the bigger problem is that the leveling is so quick, that you can skip tiers. Myth of Empires did it better regarding the leveling: First, leveling was slower. You needed to craft or farm materials or kill in your current tier level in order to gain more XP. Which means you need to go to higher level areas. But high level areas were also high level. Which means you get oneshot by everything if you were not equipped well enough. For example going with Bone tier into an area that required iron tier, was suicide. The tiers had different armors, where each tier increased your armor rating. Not like in Conan, where you have normal and then Epic armor.

But yeah, star metal weapons are often skipped, because of other recipes that are stronger. Spending time leveling on private PvP servers is like 1% of the time you play there for a wipe. Often it’s 10x XP.

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Bladesmith is the best blacksmith in-game if you want to maximize the amount of dps your crafted weapons may do.

Penetration bonus smith a way worse due to minuscule craft boosts, so usually people craft a weapon using bladesmith thrall and then apply a kit with armor penetration bonus, master kit or oil of agony etc.

Okay, so that looks like it’s kinda the opposite of what I thought you and @erjoh were saying. It’s starting to sound like it’s better to improve star metal somehow rather than remove it, if indeed anything needs to be done with it at all.

Again, this is just my own opinion, but I don’t think that’s a big problem at all. I see the leveling system as a teaching tool for the newcomers. Anyone who has already learned from it is free to skip those lessons. In fact, it sounds like a great thing for PVP players. You guys already have to go through a whole lot of preparatory effort just to jump (back) into PVP. Do you really need a leveling system that forces you to slow down even further?

That said, even as a teaching tool, the leveling system is not perfect. It could be improved. But that’s the difference between a “must have” or “should have”, and a “nice to have”.

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Huh, just realized how similar leveling is to what FC has detailed in the BattlePass. 60 levels and they aren’t that concerned how fast you do it. So maybe I got it all wrong and they just want people to play without all the nuance of leveling and such. It’s just a shame that there are people that actually worked on that gear that people just skip over. Some of them look pretty good if you ignore the stats.

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If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure most newcomers take the time to appreciate that stuff. I know I did.

And there’s still some stuff that people say is “useless” that I keep using all the time, too. Hell, there’s even stuff I considered useless that I started using recently. For example, I thought the Brittle Bastard was a really bad joke, but now I’m giving it to some thralls :slight_smile:

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Yeah I can use the illusion magic to reskin the gear to those other tiers (I assume)

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OK, I stand corrected! And thanks for that!

Why would you assume that? I’m not erjoh you know, right?

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