Staying with the topic I agree that I can't jugdge how it worked in the old days I can only judge whatI find upon entering EQ at the present state. Although I still wonder how many fine steel weapons (a very realistic recipe and procedere) all you veterans actually ever crafted. I would guess roughly "0" but you will surely correct me if I'm wrong.
But even if the majority of recipes is somehow realistic it's obvious that only a small percentage of them is used actually. So it is fair to sy i judge the system by what people actually USE not by what they MIGHT use.
Talking about restrictions - the WOW TS system is indeed intended to be connected to character lvl, which would not make a difference compared to EQ. Grandmasters usually don't have a lvl. below 50 afaIk. Honestly I am not too glad with that solution either because it means a tradeskiller has to return to be "creature-killer" to make a further advance possible from time to time.
The statement of realism of failures on the other hand is totally ridiculous. Learning skills (no matter if combat, trade or magic) is still as simplified, abstract and totally exchangable as in the first D&D edition from the 80s I started playing. There's just a frame being constructed to make it fit into the fantasy roleplaying game. As I have a plumber as my father in law I can only tell you he'd love his *** of about TS in EQ.
oneiromancer wrote:
Look at the history of apprenticeships for various crafts through the years...they worked like dogs for 10 years or more making the same stuff over and over again while their mentor gets the credit for the good stuff, until they can finally set out on their own and make a name for themselves.
this is also a total abstraction of apprenticeships. From the mideveal until the 18th century you'd have 1 year doing just every dirty or boring work your master he'd allow you to work on his precious material and using his tools.
So having a system without PLAYED failures doesnt mean a skunks gland if the progress is balanced between cost, time and succes.
Would there be a diference if you had to stack 5 pelts for every recipe and after combine youre told that based on your skill and luck you used up all of them or you just needed 1 to tailor your piece? Certainly not. As you see by that example "failure to combine" is a complete abstract concept and as I stated twice I state it again:
If it takes 10 plat and 30 minutes to raise your skill by 1 point it DOES NOT MATTER how this is achieved - But I cant imagine that anyone would prefer
-to work on crap and fail from time to time - still having crap as a reward apart from skilling up over
having one crafted piece at the end thats no crap Also obviously producing 5-10% of pieces to achieve the same amount of raise in skill compared to the present EQ system would make each item more valuable as every student of economics would agree to.