Posts from Darkfall Closed Beta - Post 1

Disclaimer: I did not make this post and I have not tested the claims.

Posted by Homebrew:
Arrow Crafting UNPRACTICAL - Detailed Explanation

Since, I've always enjoyed archery, I decided to look into bowyer because it is quite needed to really level up archery high. I found bowyer to be faulty when it comes to crafting arrows and the economy (and since crafting arrows is half of the skill, that's a big deal). Right now it is not practical to make arrows. The output of arrows is nowhere near worth the input of time and resources. I did a timed test in order to figure out how bad it really is.

Before I start explaining I'll just list all of my current skills related to this test.

Sprint: 63.3
Rest: 67.2
Logging: 62.7
Mining: 65.6
Smelting: 42.0
Woodcutting: 42.6
Bowyer: 26.3 (this is strictly from making arrows only, have not begun to craft bows, this is from making over 2,000 arrows)


So my test is broken up into two intervals: gathering and crafting. There are many faults when it comes to gathering as well as crafting.

I had all required tools on me before I started this test. I went as quickly as possible, by sprinting when I changed location and only resting once between mining and logging.

1. Mining: I Mined one full node of metal at a success rate of 57.3%. 51 out of 89 attempts I received a resource. Now out of the 51 resources I got from the node only 38 of them were Iron ore. It took 89 casts in order to deplete the node. This took about 16 minutes.

It took one full stamina bar to empty the node, I then rested in order to gain back stamina so that I could then start getting the timber I needed. I then sprinted to the closest tree.

2. Logging: I mined one full node of timber at 77.27% success rate. Like the iron ore, I received 38 timber and 13 resin. It took 66 casts in order to deplete the node. This took about 12 minutes.

This left me with 35 timber and 35 iron ore to work with. It requires 5 timber to make 2 wood. It requires 5 iron ore to make 2 iron ingot. So, I was left with 3 extra materials of each for a later time.

After logging, I sprinted to the smelter which took a couple minutes, to turn the iron ore into ingots. This is a fairly quick task. It requires 5 iron ore to make two ingots. This took about one minute.

I then sprinted to the workbench to turn the timber into wood. This is like smelting and only took a little over a minute.

After I had 7 iron ingots and 7 wood I was finally ready to craft the arrows. I was already at the workbench where you use the Bowyer skill. It takes 1 wood, 1 iron ingot to create 10 arrows. Now, for every skill up to this one it is a 10 second cast (excluding gathering mastery skills). The arrows skill to cast takes 20 seconds. So this took over two minutes to turn the manufactured materials into arrows.

The end result: 130 arrows. (One failed)
The Duration to make: 43 minutes 12 seconds.


Now there are many factors as to why this is ridiculous. For starters, the cost of arrows to buy from npcs is 2gp per arrow. I could have spent 260gp and bought 130 arrows instead of spending 43 minutes to make them.

Also, players are frequently selling arrows 1:1. So technically, I could buy 130 arrows for 130gp instead of spending 43 minutes making them.

Another option would to be farm the arrows. In 43 minutes time I could easily get 130 arrows from farming goblins or gnolls. With this farming, I would make ample money off of weapons and coin drops as well, which could then go towards buying more arrows if I wanted to, thus making crafting arrows obsolete.

I could even just farm any mobs that don't drop arrows and still make more than enough money to buy 130 arrows.

Even pking is a more viable way to get arrows. The money income from pking is pretty high right now and will escalate greatly come release when the world is more full. It's be easier to go out and pk someone for their arrows and gear and sell it, then buy arrows from the npc.

So in conclusion, it is not viable to spent time and resources making arrows. It is better to put the time and materials into a different skill like weaponsmithing. It does not benefit the person whether they are crafting the arrows to use them or to sell them.

Also a note, making arrows to level up the Bowyer skill in order to make better bows is a completely different story. In that case, crafting arrows would serve the purpose of leveling up the skill as well to make bows. This thread is just explaining the practicality of crafting arrows in order to use or sell them.

Some of my personal thoughts on what needs to be changed to fix the problem.

First I think arrows don't cost enough from the npcs. I think their price should be raised to 3 or 4gp each. If players could trade arrows for more than 1gp each it would be more practical to spend time making them. It would also create a better economy, because players would rather buy cheaper arrows from crafters than pay 3-4gp from the vendor.

Also, the time it takes for the entire process is too long. This game has been attempting to not be a grindfest. But when in 43 minutes time you can only create 130 arrows? I don't think anyone will really disagree that this is too much of a grind. Many other crafting skills are in the same boat, this is just the one I decided to go ahead and test. I think at the very least the cast time for arrows should be reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Another thing that could be done is instead of making 10 arrows at a time using 1 resource, maybe 20 arrows could be made at once.


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A side note on gathering: I haven't figured out what the success rate has in relation to gathering. As you know I have 62.7 logging and 65.6 mining. What you don't know is I also have 100 herb gathering and 85 mastery herb gathering. I haven't noticed a single change in the success rate from lvl 1 herb gathering to lvl 100. So my question is, what is the point of a higher herb gathering level? Also, it seems some skills have better success rates than others. Now I know one node from my test isn't enough testing to determine the success rates of gathering, but still 77% in logging and 57% in mining? The skills are both at about the same level.