Crafting

Another awesome translation by Jameinkaiser posted in Aionsource.com, enjoy:

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Last December, AionMeca took a poll survey to see how people approached their crafting professions.

The results showed that for many, self-sustenance came first before profit.



[Guide] How do trade professions work in Aion?



Aion’s trade professions aren’t much different from other MMORPGs. The resulting item goes through three steps: Preparation of the raw materials/ingredients, the crafting procedure, then the resulting item (success/failure). The chance of success is largely determined by the player’s crafting level. All the involved materials will be lost should a player fail to successfully craft an item.



1. Preparation of the Materials/Ingredients



The materials required to craft can be divided largely into four categories:

The size of the circles represent the frequency in which they are required

Ingredients dropped by mobs consist mostly of meats, leather, and soul stones



Raw materials collected from the wild must first be taken through the steps of refinement (Ore -> Ore Bar, Wood -> Paper, Edible ingredients -> Food) before being used for crafting. The initial crafting levels consist mostly of these refinement activities.



One notable feature about crafting in Aion is that raw materials, vendor-sold materials, and materials obtained through other trade professions are all interconnected. For example, if you require [Thin Leather Strap], you can obtain this item through the appropriate trade profession, but you can also purchase it from the corresponding NPC. The only disadvantage of doing this is that purchasing materials from NPCs is not cheap, and it would be in your best interest to obtain the required materials yourself in order to advance your skill level.



2. Refinement/Crafting

Using Cooking Skill in a kitchen

The refinement/crafting process does not require the player to equip special crafting tools in order to perform the process. However, the player must find the appropriate facilities which can be found in the city not far from the relevant NPC.

Crafting in Aion requires patience. Players must take the three following steps: Material preparation, crafting/refinement process, and creating the final product. Each step involves a chance of success and failure, so it is recommended that you stock up on raw materials before working on your trade profession.



3. Types of Professions



There are total six professions in Aion. Taking up a profession in the beginning costs 3,300 Qina each. Additional Qina must be given to the corresponding Master NPC in order to advance your skills in the profession. Since each profession comes with its own set of crafting related quests, you can partially reclaim the money you’ve invested through quest rewards.

Tailoring

 

Create cloth-based items including robes, leather armor, and clothes

Recommended for: Scout classes, Mage classes, Healer classes



If your character class utilizes cloth and leather armor, you can benefit from the armors that can be made through this profession. High quality armors from monsters have a low drop rate which makes them difficult to obtain, but you can obtain armors of good quality by crafting them yourself. Cloth armors frequently utilize plant-based materials while leather armors make use of leather obtained from beasts.

Armorsmithing

 

Create armors from metal.

Recommended: Warrior classes, healer classes



Characters that can wear plate or mail should take up this profession. High quality armors from monsters have a low drop rate which makes them difficult to obtain, but you can obtain armors of good quality by crafting them yourself. Metal armors frequently utilize ore-based materials, and overlap in many aspects with weaponsmithing.

Weaponsmithing

 

Create weapons from metal

Recommended: Warrior classes, scout classes



Weaponsmithing profession allows you to create metal-based weapons such as pole-arms, great-swords(zweihander), longswords, shortswords, and maces. Weaponsmithing frequently utilize ore-based materials, and overlaps in many aspects with armorsmithing.

(Artisan) Crafting

 

Create jewelry, wooden weapons and small parts

Recommended classes: All, especially rangers & chanters



(Artisan) Crafting allows you to make jewelry, wooden weapons and miscellaneous objects. Bows and staves can be crafted through this profession. Gems and wood are the most frequently utilized materials in crafting.

Alchemy

 

Create magical weapons and items that provide buffs

Recommended: All, especially mage classes



Potions can play a vital role in keeping the player alive by rejuvenating health and mana. Alchemy can provide additional benefit for mage classes, as the profession allows access to quality spellbooks and charms. Herbs, wood, and soulstones from monsters are utilized.

Cooking

 

Make food items and drinks that can grant beneficial effects upon consumption, or purify contaminated materials.

Recommended: All classes



Cooking can provide the character with food items that can provide buffs. Obtaining materials for cooking is an easy task in the fertile world of Atreia. Common ingredients include fruits from the woods, fish from the lakes, clams from the strands, as well as myriads of other materials found in nature along with meats from monsters.



4. [Conclusion] – The Future of the Crafting System



Crafting system in CBT 1 was rather disappointing, due to the short playtime of 10 hours per week permitted. By the time I had stocked up heaps of materials for crafting, it was already time to say good bye to the server.



On a brighter note, the crafting system is planned to undergo many changes by the time the second closed beta comes around. (refer to the interview below)



Q. Currently, one must make a trip to Sanctum to work on trade professions. Crafting uses up heaps of materials, but the distance between the warehouse and crafting facilities seem a bit too far. Couldn’t you add another warehouse closer to the facilities?

Dev: We plan to make it so sufficient info can be obtained by talking to the corresponding NPCs. We’re also going to fine-tune the difficulty of crafting. The future crafting system will be a bit easier to advance in and learn, which we believe may also take a bit of grief away from not knowing which profession to pick.



Q. Initially, alchemy requires quite a bit of soulstones from low level monsters, but the drop rate is very low. Comparatively, collecting materials for alchemy seems much more difficult, is it possible to improve the droprate?

Dev: We’ve previously mentioned in a development keynote that the difficulty of the crafting system will be adjusted. This includes the said case; the difficulty of the profession won’t be determined by the droprate of the required materials any longer.



Q. I have a lot of materials stockpiled but have no idea which is used for which. It’s a hassle to have to open up the crafting window every time I loot an item; it’d be nice to implement a system that tells you which is used for which.

Dev: We’re already looking into this, we’ll be making it so the use for the item can be confirmed through a tool tip text.