Blizzard Response to Crafting Order System Success

[Stoy]

Blizzard Response to Crafting Order System Success

To speak a bit to the original question of this thread:

“Are the devs sure that the crafting order system is a success?”

The crafting order system is by no means perfect. There are many ways we would like to improve it over time. We have been having many of these discussions internally, as well as listening to feedback from all of you. Since this is such a new system though, we don’t want to make any snap-judgements and make big changes before giving things a chance to settle and seeing how it develops over time.

We do believe that the system has been successful in one of its core goal though - to enable crafters to make soulbound, useful gear for players at all levels of play. This elevates the overall value of professions within the game and helps to deliver on the fantasy of being a crafter creating valuables for yourself and others.

It has also been successful in providing a new way to for crafters and customers to interact, one which is inherently more social, and when you get to use it, hopefully more satisfying than previous ways to do so! But again, very much not perfect!

As far as the public order system goes, it seems to be working well as an easy way to get something crafted for yourself if you aren’t worried about getting the best quality and want it quickly. This was always its intent. We definitely wish that as crafters, it was easier to find public orders to fill. Unfortunately even though there are quite a few public orders going through the system, given the minimal effort it takes to fulfill a public order and the relative number of crafters around to fill those orders, there will almost never be many orders up an any given time with the way it currently works…they get filled too quickly and easily.

We are looking into ways to have more orders to fulfill though, because for most, we think it tends to be a pretty satisfying activity and a great way to earn skill and a bit of gold when you can find an order to fulfill.

We also think the guild / personal order side of things are working moderately well. These methods allow players to connect and get their items crafted with more control. There are several issues we would very much like to improve though, including:

• Helping better connect customers and crafters. There is nothing wrong with a bit of effort to get the best gear, or to attract customers. This is currently mostly accomplished through trade chat though, which while it does have a nice social component to it (something we love to see more of), it is by no means an ideal way to find a crafter for a specific item, or a customer to craft for.
• Helping better support interactions between players who are depending on inspiration to reach a higher quality level.

We suspect that as players finish getting their high end crafting gear and complete purchases of other one time uses for Artisan’s Mettle, players will be more willing to use Artisan’s Mettle to guarantee higher quality crafts. That will help, but even then, inspiration will always be a useful way to get max quality gear crafted. The crafting orders system is not supporting this as well as we would like it to, since as a customer, you cannot place an order and know exactly what you will get - you need to rely on a handshake deal that your crafter has the inspiration they promised when attempting to craft items for you.

In addition, there will be lots of other quality of life features we will be looking into to help making it smoother to use, easier to learn, and more.

As always, thank you for the feedback. We will continue working to improve professions in general and the crafting order system in specific! Meanwhile, happy gathering and crafting!

-Drough

[TobiasAmaranth]

Sharing my feedback again from elsewhere since Blizz does check these things:

There needs to be:

1. History in Public Crafting Orders. See who took what. See what was paid. See the resulting quality.
2. In addition to above, a summary page for crafted orders, something that shows the Skill Points contributed, inspiration proc, etc. On this page, allow for additional tips to be paid.
3. Faction-wide communication, please.
4. A much longer cooldown for public orders for armor professions. We're talking one order every two hours, max of three charges at a time. Maybe even less. Along with the above point, that would force players to talk to each other. "I can do that commission with X skill! I'm tapped on public orders, so pick me for $ and get X*!"

To further elaborate on the last one, if you create a risk of taking public orders, prices will naturally come up. Right now, with 20 orders and a chance at resourcefulness, I'm just gonna take every single order I see and hope for some free mats, regardless of price. People aren't even willing to tip 30% materials which is pretty sucky as someone coming out of 50-80% profits on legendary bases, selling a couple a day.

[mmocfd1b0ab5a3]

Doesn't make any sense tho a leatherworker can make a better ranged weapon than engineer can. LW can make 2.60 speed bow which is better than engineer's 3.00 speed gun. This makes sure no one wants to craft my engineering gun and they all craft LW one.

Weapon type doesn't matter in other professions so why is there a difference between engineer and lw weapon?

[Eladia]

The system is crap. Finding people in trade chat doesn't require any effort but being asked to pay 50k for a craft when you provide the materials is the real dagger in the eye. Yet again the developers can't foresee issues with systems they designed. The issues need to be resolved faster with a post-mortem afterwards.

Mild social interactions are a small positive side effect for SOME people but when you cannot fulfil orders or complete weekly quests without logging into an alt to send a request to your main then the system is fundamentally broken.

[Toadyus]

Crafting Orders and BOP items suck! Change the system to the original so I can make and post shit on the AH.

[Allegresse]

This whole system is 99% useless. My main is enchanter yet I have no reason to bother with it since there's no actual enchants on the system at all and only the weapon illusion mogs that the recipe drop rates are abysmal.

[Merin]

I like the concept of a lot of the systems for crafting and orders but seeing a blizzard staffer making a giant post to argue for design mediocrity and limitation is giving me terrible vibes.

[Inoculate]

I like the concept of a lot of the systems but seeing a blizzard staffer making a giant post to argue for design mediocrity and limitation is giving me a bad vibe

I don't see it as that. It's them responding to a big issue and saying they won't make snap changes but are overall happy with it. Is it corporate jargon? Sure. But any communication is better than ehat we've seen and experienced the last few expansions.

Im saying this as someone who thinks the system is less than half assed and needs a lot of work.

[kamuimac]

this post explains very well why DF is such collosal disaster as it is.

Devs are happy because they have to be happy because if they werent there would be no end of year bonuses for them.

crafting system is dead like dodo and ignored by majority of players. and no amount of PR stunts like this will change it.

[GMZohar1]

Half of the system is good, I like I can get anything I need crafted. However even though I have every recipe through rep and maxed out professions I can't craft anything for anyone because it's always blank, everyone gets to craft things and make gold but for me it's always blank. So losing out on lots of gold sucks, so its only a half good system.

[Morgaith]

I like the system but there's a ton of power (and ability to scam) on the side of the crafter atm. We should also be able to "simulate" crafts without having the mats on hand.

[Very Tired]

I'm an engineer/alch. Literally have not seen a *single* listing for crafting orders in my learned or even unlearned recipes all expansion. Of course Blizz is completely tone deaf to this as they insist on having a weekly that involves completing these crafting orders. Which now has ultimately dissolved into just moving mats around, getting on your alt, and telling your main to do some pointless work.

[Mad_Murdock]

I don't see it as that. It's them responding to a big issue and saying they won't make snap changes but are overall happy with it. Is it corporate jargon? Sure. But any communication is better than ehat we've seen and experienced the last few expansions.

I'm always torn on this. Do I want to hear something from the Devs?, yes. Do I want to hear a bunch of "Everything is fine" coated in a veneer of corporate spin? No.

I don't care for the crafting system and thus I don't use it. Other than the same as before, having a guildie make what we need for free. But I'm guessing the system wasn't aimed for people like me, so maybe that is why I'm so meh towards it. Though I prefer the older BoE crafts, I guess this does stop\limit the AH tycoons from buying and reposting all the BoEs for double

[Inoculate]

I'm always torn on this. Do I want to hear something from the Devs?, yes. Do I want to hear a bunch of "Everything is fine" coated in a veneer of corporate spin? No.

I don't care for the crafting system and thus I don't use it. Other than the same as before, having a guildie make what we need for free. But I'm guessing the system wasn't aimed for people like me, so maybe that is why I'm so meh towards it. Though I prefer the older BoE crafts, I guess this does stop\limit the AH tycoons from buying and reposting all the BoEs for double

Yeah, I get that. At least they admit in the post it has work to be done and that they are discussing those changes. As you said, who is the public aspect for?

I personally have been burned by the public order system, partly my fault for not noticing I couldnt set a minimum skill. I have never once filled a public order as they don't exist. I have to use alts for my weekly to get skill ups.

It's shit and I don't think anyone is happy with public orders. The guild and personal is fine though.

Im probably foolish to have hope they do right by it but I'll give them a shot but I'm not going to be holding my breath.

[Elepenke]

I think the Crafting Order system is a great start, but to say its a success, nah. The public order system is really bad. I just want a rank 5 craft and with gold mats its a gamble on public COS, while trying to get someone in trade; well no respons for 2 weeks already. Perhaps take some advise from the first reply on here. Also it would be nice to be able to roll specials on items/procs so you will. It will keep people busy to get the right stuff done.

[Skildar]

on my side, I've picked up jewelcrafting and am stuck at 25/100 because I'm in a place where I feel like every route I'm taking to get higher in this profession is not the optimal or valuable one.

A lot of the new sustem is based on people having a crazy amount of resources (herbs, minerals, cloth, etc.) and that is not the case for most of the players.
Discovering the activities that award you knowledge is skewed because it revolves around reading the right guides on wowhead and other fansite. And if you're taking your time to do the side quest then you basically shot yourself in the foot without knowing it.

The specialties are badly translated in french (since shadowlands they're fucking up french translations and voice acting when it was of very high quality before that). And if you invest your points "badly" then it's mostly done for you, competitivity will bury you just like if you're behind on knowledge gathering. No catchup mechanic, no refund mechanic, just an intimidating and unfriendly system.

You have a lot of npcs talking to you about the command system but it never feels like a safe place.

[Kyanion]

crafting system is dead like dodo and ignored by majority of players.

Source: Trust me bro.

- - - Updated - - -

on my side, I've picked up jewelcrafting and am stuck at 25/100 because I'm in a place where I feel like every route I'm taking to get higher in this profession is not the optimal or valuable one.

Then you are doing something very wrong. There are multiple gold making paths to take in JC.

[AtomR]

this post explains very well why DF is such collosal disaster as it is.

I dislike it thus it's a disaster.

[TbouncerT]

I dislike it thus it's a disaster.

Yup, and yet they keep playing and viewing anything about this 'colossal disaster'. Couldn't even be bothered to spell-check it. I love it when people hate something and can't even type the insult right. Also, as you pointed out, when someone doesn't like something they say it is a disaster for everyone.

[Nymrohd]

I think that at least for consumables/enchants/gems you should be able to issue a public order with a minimum quality requirement. That alone would keep public orders active.