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Sandstone/Sunstone

1
AuthorMessage
Hero
May 27, 2009
762
I really thought that having a transmute-only reagent was an interesting concept. However, in reaching Grandmaster Artisan, I had only 354 stone blocks among the six wizards on my account. This means I had to find another 646 stone blocks to craft the amulet. Okay, it's possible, I did it - but IT WAS NOT FUN. The lack of reagents is the number one complaint among wizards who attempt crafting.

Don't get me wrong - I like crafting. All of my wizards craft. I have several Master Artisans and have crafted the Watchtower Hall and many housing items from Grizzleheim. But there are many things I would change about crafting as well. The gear needs to be BETTER than the stuff that is dropped. Gear and Housing Items need to be WORTH MORE when sold at the Bazaar. We need to be able to choose colors of the hats, robes, and shoes that we craft.

But the sandstone/sunstone issue will definitely break the proverbial camel's back of crafting.

Defender
Jul 15, 2009
132
I don't mind the challenge of a crafted-only crafting quest for Master Artisan, but I would like to second the motion that the cost of crafted items at least reflect the value of the ingredients involved.

I would also really, really, really like to define the colors of an item I am crafting.

Survivor
Jul 25, 2009
2
Sandstone/Sunstone issue is seriously out of control. I have all my wizards stationed in DS to collect the needed stone block to craft these. Yesterday between all my wizards and hours of hunting I collected 150 stone block. Luckily I have time to spend but what about people who would rather purchase sandstone/sunstones? I certainly would because collecting and then transmuting takes hours upon hours of time to accomplish. I am attempting to only buy recipes with lower demand for these items, but as usual the most wonderful things have these ingredients. Please allow us to purchase or find sandstone/sunstone. If anyone has found even one of these please post it! Thank you and happy crafting.

Champion
Apr 18, 2010
403
Survivor
Jun 24, 2008
33
i think what happens is when ki does there closed beta test
there able to get regrets fast.
and they fail to realize just how many people are on live realm
and how many people are looking for same regrets makes
it a night mare to farm to get or try to buy in the bazar
it is the reason i do not craft
only when i have to like
like doing gm crafting quest and it is a night mare
there is no fun in it

Survivor
Jul 17, 2010
3
Seriously, why not make some of these materials drop from monsters at least.
You know, Parts from golems drop in golem tower. Thats it???

Who is the noob in charge of this kind of thing?

What are we paying subscription for?

Here's a Idea. A new school talent that requires a training point to learn the skill of spoils. They get a chance to gather materials from monsters!
Rock, ore, sandstone, Sun stone from Colossus.
Leather straps, scrap iron, springs, gears from Golems.
Any type of herbs and flowers from Life monsters etc etc.
And Maybe a 2nd talent that lets you break items you find or craft and get random materials from them.
"ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY I"

Astrologist
Aug 21, 2009
1205
I kind of like having crafted items that others don't have cause they can't muster up the regents for them. At the same time though, you can find about any regent from drops in the game that allows you to farm them. I have yet to see a sunstone drop in the game, and I have only found a couple sandstones and they were extremely rare.

Survivor
Jul 17, 2010
3
seasnake wrote:
I kind of like having crafted items that others don't have cause they can't muster up the regents for them. At the same time though, you can find about any regent from drops in the game that allows you to farm them. I have yet to see a sunstone drop in the game, and I have only found a couple sandstones and they were extremely rare.


What monsters dropped them?

Survivor
Sep 16, 2010
18
I agree with the general sentiment of this thread in that some of the most valued reagents in the game are the most tedious to gather.

There are so many creative ways KI could incorporate to make the gathering of reagents more productive and fun. A more robust crafting system could be an expansion unto itself, but a few things could be done to at least take some of the tedium out of getting sandstone/sunstone.

Even the option of logging on at down time hours to scoot from realm to realm, has only added to the frustration because everyone including entire families are now looking for these reagents to attain Grand Master.

Its just not fun.

And when some aspect of a game is not fun and becomes tedious, you run the risk of loosing subscribers due to their frustrations.

Any task in a game must be met with reward. But when the light at the end of the tunnel is so dim you can not reach for it, then someone needs to plug in a new light bulb.

Astrologist
Aug 21, 2009
1205
Sargon3 wrote:
seasnake wrote:
I kind of like having crafted items that others don't have cause they can't muster up the regents for them. At the same time though, you can find about any regent from drops in the game that allows you to farm them. I have yet to see a sunstone drop in the game, and I have only found a couple sandstones and they were extremely rare.


What monsters dropped them?


I think I found two of them from chests.

Defender
Jul 21, 2009
102
Sandstone should be gatherable like the pearls. You need 11 gold pearls. I'm not complaining, it's not to hard, but you just have to take the time to collect them from the moon dungeon or the grotto. Sandstone should drop from a dungeon like the star dungeon or even better, the sun dungeon. That way people can enter by themselves and get all of them in the dungeon. That is what I think made pearls easier to find. The fact that no matter now many people are looking for them, you can always get them at a constant rate. If sandstone were easier to find, in the sun dungeon, there would be a lot less people complaining about this. Dungeon gathering, the best option.

Survivor
Aug 29, 2008
17
Has anyone actually seen sandstone on the ground that can be harvested? I have received it from wooden chests and silver chests, though very rarely. It is obviously intended to be a harvested reagent since it appears on the 'harvested reagents' page. I reported several times on test that it could not be found anywhere to harvest. I have also seen several posts here and on central refrencing this issue, but no response at all from KI on it. At this point (6 weeks in, including test time) I would think that we deserve some sort of response even if it is just to say "yes, we are aware of the issue and we are working on it."

Survivor
Jun 02, 2009
1
Shadawulf wrote:
Has anyone actually seen sandstone on the ground that can be harvested? I have received it from wooden chests and silver chests, though very rarely. It is obviously intended to be a harvested reagent since it appears on the 'harvested reagents' page. I reported several times on test that it could not be found anywhere to harvest. I have also seen several posts here and on central refrencing this issue, but no response at all from KI on it. At this point (6 weeks in, including test time) I would think that we deserve some sort of response even if it is just to say "yes, we are aware of the issue and we are working on it."


yes this is too time consuming who wants to farm or look for these reagent to get nothing in return it makes people want to quit the crafting cause it to hard please oh plese make it more real

Defender
May 31, 2010
167
kenwells wrote:
Shadawulf wrote:
Has anyone actually seen sandstone on the ground that can be harvested? I have received it from wooden chests and silver chests, though very rarely. It is obviously intended to be a harvested reagent since it appears on the 'harvested reagents' page. I reported several times on test that it could not be found anywhere to harvest. I have also seen several posts here and on central refrencing this issue, but no response at all from KI on it. At this point (6 weeks in, including test time) I would think that we deserve some sort of response even if it is just to say "yes, we are aware of the issue and we are working on it."


yes this is too time consuming who wants to farm or look for these reagent to get nothing in return it makes people want to quit the crafting cause it to hard please oh plese make it more real


I agree that the sandstone is a pain , gathering thousands of stone blocks is very time consuming. But I don't understand why you feel you get nothing in return. I have been able to craft some nice gear since completing this quest , and currently working on crafting a new deck. This is what you gain from it. The ability to craft more , the ability to spend hours hunting down even more stone blocks , lol. I am hoping eventually we will get new furniture to craft, Love the floating land area, perhaps a whole tropical furniture set. complete with coconut glasses and umbrellas for the drinks.
It is a pain to hunt the reagents some days , but well worth it imo.

Defender
Feb 28, 2010
114
There is a lack of Stone Blocks, Black Lotus, Black Pearls, Red Mandrake, etc throughout all of the worlds. Seeing as the crafting quests now require so many of them, KI, you need to have more of them, have them re-spawn more quickly.

Also, when found and clicked on, the level of crafting that you are should dictate how many you receive from that one harvest. Master Artisans should receive more than Adept, Initiate and Novice. Our quests require so many more of these and requires so much more time.

I really do not appreciate having to spend countless hours running around clicking on reagents only to end up with a hundred or so. Nor do I appreciate having to compete with who can click their mouse faster in the Bazaar to purchase the few that show up once in a while. You have us acting like starving people at the supermarket trying to battle for the last can of tuna on the shelf.

There is a lack of reward to those that have moved to higher levels in this game. Does this amuse you at KI? Do you sit back in your boardroom and have a good laugh when you come up with the ridiculous ways you have us do things sometimes?

Hero
May 27, 2009
762
Coopkoda - your last paragraph says something I have been thinking recently lately also. Who at Kingsisle was in charge of setting up this Crafting Program? I'd really love to have a chat with the guy who thought up crafting as a way to make less money selling something that you crafted than it cost for the ingredients, gear that isn't as good as stuff that is dropped, reagents that spawn in only half the quantity needed (if at all) and now a transmute-only reagent that is needed in most of the desirable recipes requiring collection of thousands and thousands of an item by thousands and thousands of wizards all at the same time.

I wonder if these programmers have ever crafted in-game, or only on their pristine pre-Test realms where no one else is ever ahead of them to get the reagent spawn, or item in the Bazaar. Some of the recipes seem to have been created based on making them torturous rather than interesting. Which one of them is the descendent of the Marquis de Sade, I wonder, suggesting that it would be reasonable to have more than ONE recipe that requires 1000 stone blocks? Of course, we are the masochists who continue to pursue crafting even with such handicaps as have been built in.

I apologize in advance as I am currently taking a break from collecting stone blocks, trying to collect a capacitor from a Water-maton - almost as impossible!!!!!

Survivor
Jul 19, 2009
18
For me the seal of 7 seas is a worthless quest, the reward for completing is way too small for the effort made.

Its litterally a waste of time even for a crafter.

It woul dbe different if the reward wasnt so easy to get.
Ie; I already have the very cards that the quest gives and have had them for a very long time.

Hero
May 27, 2009
762
Well, Tulsaboyw, you won't be able to craft anything else in Celestia, including your level 7 spell, unless you complete this task. Hopefully, you'll be lucky and they will actually add sandstone as a harvested reagent. Sometimes those who procrastinate benefit.

Survivor
Aug 04, 2009
7
I agree with a lot of what most are saying here. As much as I love crafting (and I do), it is becoming a significant drag on my game. The dynamics of the game have changed drastically with the addition of the grandmaster artisan badge. Many players are no longer friendly about their craft, keeping farming routes secret, or namecalling those who are patiently farming for even one stone block per round.

This morning, took the cake for me, I was ordered out of two different areas by two different wizards, who didn't like me getting to the blocks first. I know they're frustrated, we all are, but it's an indication of where the mentality among crafters is slipping to. As patient as I am as a player, it is unacceptable that my game is so determined by the number of players logged in.

Not being one to just whine about a problem without suggesting a solution, I'll suggest a few.

1. The obvious quick fix is to change the recipes, I think. Instead of the heavy emphasis on stone block, either decrease the number of sunstone needed, or change the recipe entirely, from sunstone to another harvestable reagent type. The fact that so many of the Celestia recipes are dependant on one reagent is rather unimaginative.

2. Build/code farming areas, on the same order of dungeon type areas. A gold payment, say 500 gold (I know I'm dreaming, but gold, not crowns) to enter the area and harvest all that is found. These reagents should be plentiful in that area. One only can enter, otherwise, people will jump on the sigil for a free harvest. These can be coded for a lot of the reagents that are meant to be plentiful. Perhaps a quarry on Krok for stone blocks, a marsh adjoining Wizard City for cattails, forest for mistwood, and so on. With the fertile imaginations of the staff of KI, I have no doubt they can add these areas without sacrificing either the integrity of the game, or the "need" to make reagent gathering a commitment to crafting.

3. Get harvestable sandstone into the game pronto. Daily, the game is changing both for crafters, and their wizard friends who wonder why their buddy has become such a boring drudge. The hunt for stone block is affecting far many more than those wizards looking for their GM quest or GM craft items. I have to wonder how many lower ranked wizards can't find the reagents for their own items, because the GMs need so darn many of them.

Regardless of the way KI fixes this, we NEED to know there is a fix intended. KI should not be forcing this negativity into the game by their silence, else it appears this player frustration is acceptable to them.

Armiger
May 10, 2010
2080
Tulsaboyw wrote:
For me the seal of 7 seas is a worthless quest, the reward for completing is way too small for the effort made.

Its litterally a waste of time even for a crafter.

It woul dbe different if the reward wasnt so easy to get.
Ie; I already have the very cards that the quest gives and have had them for a very long time.


A worthless quest? Have you checked out the stats on crafted hats and robes? Seriously, they are much better than the 58 stats. But hey, if you think you are all powerful without it.

The only thing that I don't like about completing this quest, is that for the first time, in all of crafting, do you make something that you actually want, and you have to give it up. The Seal of the Seven Seas, is probably one of the best amulets out there.

Survivor
Aug 28, 2009
14
Willowdreamer wrote:
Coopkoda - your last paragraph says something I have been thinking recently lately also. Who at Kingsisle was in charge of setting up this Crafting Program? I'd really love to have a chat with the guy who thought up crafting as a way to make less money selling something that you crafted than it cost for the ingredients, gear that isn't as good as stuff that is dropped, reagents that spawn in only half the quantity needed (if at all) and now a transmute-only reagent that is needed in most of the desirable recipes requiring collection of thousands and thousands of an item by thousands and thousands of wizards all at the same time.

I wonder if these programmers have ever crafted in-game, or only on their pristine pre-Test realms where no one else is ever ahead of them to get the reagent spawn, or item in the Bazaar. Some of the recipes seem to have been created based on making them torturous rather than interesting. Which one of them is the descendent of the Marquis de Sade, I wonder, suggesting that it would be reasonable to have more than ONE recipe that requires 1000 stone blocks? Of course, we are the masochists who continue to pursue crafting even with such handicaps as have been built in.

I apologize in advance as I am currently taking a break from collecting stone blocks, trying to collect a capacitor from a Water-maton - almost as impossible!!!!!


I could not agree more. Dear KI, why go through the difficulty of creating all the possible reagents and then require a double dip of the same item (stone block), in the mandatory quest for the creation of the grandmaster artisan object? 1000 stone blocks needed. REALLY? Did anyone do the math? You are developers, you CAN do math, can't you? Is there no quality control? This is the very same thing that happened with the black pearl debacle for the Master Artisan quest. Don't get me wrong, the ingredients should be rare and challenging to find, but VARY them for goodness sake! Change the recipe for sunstone to require something other than sandstone, which, of course, requires stone blocks. Do YOU want to hunt for weeks for stone blocks? really? Well, we don't either. (After five hours of hunting, and begging my friends to sell whatever they have so I can try to buy them quickly at the bazaar, I have a grand total of 60 stone blocks)

A good game developer should be able to make a quest difficult without making it ridiculously tedious, but ridiculously tedious seems to be the fallback position for all of the high level crafting quests. This is very disappointing because so much of the rest of Celestia seemed to be designed with much more thought.


Survivor
Jul 19, 2009
18
Yep I did.

Ive been lvl 60 for about 2 weeks and the resulting award for this quest is cards Ive already had for a while.

Worthless quest in the sense that the award is not worth the effort for me at least. As it is, im pretty much disgusted with celestia being too easy.

Yea I can do this final quest but its really not worth the time to do it in my case.

Im pretty much going to cancel my familys subscription to Wizard101 by ened of year.

The new world was cool for a short while but in hindsight isnt really much.

Survivor
Jul 19, 2009
18
Ive been lvl 60 for a bit and have hats that are very compariable.

Ive been able to repeat many of the quests that previously required a team though some quests still would be team worthy to work with.

As it is, I was talking about the reward for this quest and it is a worthless quest for me.

As it is Ive been done with the game and have had many of the best things from crafting and etc..

Survivor
Jul 19, 2009
18
as it is having lvl 8 stuff and have had zero problems in playing since lvl 58 except for crafting quest, i find the quest not worth it since the reward is what I already had.. Therefore the comment still is valid because the quest truely is worthless.

Now I didnt say other crafting quests were worthless though.

However if what you mean is that this opens up other crafting quests that might be worthwhile, then cool, though with my current schedule I will likely still cancel the family acct by xmas or Jan 1 anyway since its still nothing more than helping others (friends, etc) play.


Delver
Apr 02, 2010
259
Used to be I could go farm for black lotus or red mandrake, and if I found someone else, I would just go farm something else and be fine. Or strike up a conversation. Met some great in game friends this way.

But this is different.

1