[Slydria]

Alright, so here's some thoughts I have about a few things brought up here.

Progression:

To me the accelerated progression is ruining the "game" part of SL2. It's really quick to get to 60 with the latest methods but it's not at all fun.

Furthermore there's always been this issue where generally people don't want to play through the game from scratch, for whatever their reason, they'd rather get it over with quickly, so they'll ask their pals to help on already geared up characters and pretty much ruin any semblance of difficulty.

Level 60 certainly doesn't feel particularly special as it did so many years ago. But I also don't want to go back to the "good old days" because it was changed for good reason. Level 60 was only really an achievement because it felt like a complete chore to actually get there. Ideally, it should be a challenge requiring some time and effort to reach the top but it also shouldn't be painfully slow and tedious.

I think it's a good time to think of how to smooth out the progression and make it more enjoyable for players. Personally, I'd like the non-Level 65 static dungeons to be more fleshed out and made into actual locations than large, specific Black Doors (for example like the Darkwood Manor) where they can be places for quests, they can have set loot that makes sense and helps in that area and be just far more enjoyable than what they currently are.

Crafting:

Now as for crafting, I think "crafting 1000 Longswords" to become a maxed out Blacksmith isn't necessarily the problem but the fact that you can do so relatively quickly is.

There's no stamina cost to crafting and as long as you have the Mura, there's nothing preventing you from buying a truckload of Iron Ore. So there's not enough to stop you from getting to Max Level Blacksmithing in a matter of minutes. (Of course, it's not just Blacksmith but all the crafts have a quick method to do this.)

Moving on, I don't think there should be a large divide in combat potential between characters with crafting skills and characters without. However, I wouldn't mind say tying some crafting effectiveness to traits and talents. At least then they have to give up some power for crafting prowess but I wouldn't go too much further than that.


Now what I'd like to see for crafting would be things like adding a stamina cost (Physical for most, Mental for Enchanting and Alchemy) to slow down the progression and to make multiple crafters of the same type not totally step on each other's toes. I think the only exception should be when crafting Furniture because stamina limitations would make house building more annoying than immersive, if that means Furniture no longer provides EXP as a consequence so it can't be abused then I think that's an acceptable loss.

Furthermore, I think Metalworking, Woodworking and Tailoring should be consolidated into Weaponcraft (for weapons and weapon parts) and Armorcraft (armor, shields, gloves, boots, accessories, etc.)

I think this is a necessary change because Metalworking can do a lot of things but Tailoring and Woodworking don't do much of anything and there's not enough Wood or Cloth gear in the game that can really compare to Metal but by dividing it this way, you can have two all-around useful crafts rather than one useful craft and two rather niche ones.)

However, to keep the diversity, I think you should be able to obtain bonuses (most likely through traits) when working with specific equipment types or materials. Furthermore with this, you could make it so there's at least some difference between each high-level crafter. One person could be a gun specialist while another could be a jeweller who makes accessories.

Other improvements I have in mind are simply things like more recipes, particularly ones for Armor and Accessories and more benefits for crafted Gear like unique qualities or more items that can only be obtained by crafting them.

Jobs:

I've wanted something like part-time jobs for a while, where you can do certain things for certain people for some experience or crafting experience and more importantly a reliable source of Mura that you can get without having to go kill monsters. Currently, the only thing we have like this is the clinic, which is a nice touch but we could use more things like that.

Examples would be things like:
Making particular weapons with certain ores for Michelle, helping Risu out in the kitchen with cooking or even things not tied to crafting like a courier job where you go deliver letters or parcels to NPCs.