I don’t consider titanium tools as basic, i don’t think the game does either.
It’s progression really is all it is. I mean I can’t say there is value in 10 mins per hammer or 10 mins per 10 hammers just as I can’t say having crafting times at zero adds any value to the game.
Progression is:
Wood Hammer: Instantly Crafted
Stone Hammer: 10 seconds
Copper Hammer: 28 seconds
Iron Hammer: 56 seconds
Silver Hammer: 1 min 52 seconds
Gold Hammer: 3 min 44 seconds
Titanium Hammer: 9 min 21 seconds
Could these be adjusted sure… but for me it makes sense from a progression standpoint.
Technically speaking a Titanium Hammer is a Tier 7 Hammer … basic… not so much.
1 Like
1,000,000,000,000,000,000% this 
1 Like
I am not going to try and pretend I know what the developers consider to be basic versus advanced. All I can say is I was crafting titanium tools within a week of starting out the game. I was very much a new player, and now that I am what I consider mid-tier I no longer need, want nor use titanium tools for anything except chisels. In my opinion, titanium tools are very much basic tools. Others may see it differently.
I disagree. I think people are pointing out the long crafting times and I do agree they take a little longer than some other games Ive played, but shorter than others.
If crafting times were causing new or veteran players to quit than I think it warrants a discussion. I also feel MANY of the discussions we have are quite awesome from a development standpoint as it might allow James to look at the new player experience or one of many other issues the game has the detracts the game from gaining and retaining more players.
1 Like
Ok, but getting the titanium to make the tools was progression as well. Does there need to be redundant progression? If so, does the escalation in timers need to be such a high multiplier?
1 Like
I said, “could these be adjusted some, sure”.
I don’t think they need to be though and having talked to 20 or so new and old players that quit, crafting times weren’t the reason.
Again though, could they be adjusted? Sure. do they need to be? Nah.
1 Like
Fair enough. We all play the game differently. For instance i use silver tools all the time still, despite being end game. Why? Because they are fast, cheap, easy to forge, and specifically the axes are great to gather surface resources with. But i don’t expect I’m in a majority there.
1 Like
I did all of these things when I found a portal hub, which took an amazingly long time. I didn’t stumble across one until I had been playing 4 or 5 days. There is definitely value in exploring and finding other people, but I’m not sure that needing tools is a good motivator for that. I explored more while gathering plants than I did while waiting for stuff to craft. Then I just logged out and whined.
I don’t think crafting times alone are the reason new players are quitting. I think there is a bunch of little things, like crafting times, that all add up to a bad experience for many people. Not all people, but the lack of new player retention is coming from somewhere. I think it wouldn’t hurt anything to adjust the timers for early game items to be more friendly, and it would alleviate one of the factors contributing to a frustrating new player experience. You can keep the late game material timers without frustrating new people.
2 Likes
You are missing my point…I am agreeing with what has been said but now this thread has gone on and on with the nuances being argued.
But hey we can agree to disagree. 
Crafting times were NEVER mentioned by any of them as being a reason for quitting.
The NPE sucks as there is no tutorial, you are technically thrown into a open world in the middle of nowhere unless you know you can point and warp near a city or another person. These were a few things mentioned by a few people.
When a new player warps to a planet it should a “tutorial planet” that planet should then lead them to a city and at that city they can get more guidance on how to do things. This alone would have prevented me and several of my friends from quitting. (I came back luckily, several of my friends did not.)
I know myself and another veteran player helped this new player that was lost in the middle of a T3 planet. We only had their coordinates (from a forum post) and we led them to a better planet and area where they at least had access to a few portals. Needless to say, how many other people never posted their coordinates on the forums or asked for help and just quit out of frustration.
Anyways, back to the OP, crafting timers COULD be adjusted. I just don’t think they SHOULD be.
I see your point and partially agree. I think open discussions like these lead to more discussions and ideas though and have no issue with them. Granted, I know I won’t change anyone’s mind.
1 Like
This is the biggest issue with the new player experience, in my opinion. In mid and late game stages, most of this grind is mitigated by having a bunch of machines instead of 1, having built up stockpiles of stuff, earned some coin, earned multiple skill sheets, learned how things work, etc. As a brand new player, though, you just get swamped with grind.
This is mostly a matter of getting a skill sheet of combat and getting high tier weapons. Once you have enough damage output, the high tier planets stop being hard. On non-combat characters if you add control and stealth, the creatures don’t bother you even on high tier planets. Unless you stand still. Then a hopper will blow your head up. I think the combat scaling is overly heavy, but I hate combat so I am not a good benchmark.
1 Like
Go start an Alt character and experience the NPE and see where it lacks. I think a lot of people that have been playing for a while forget how it is or was. Heck it might have even changed since you last experienced it.
Even with this, those of us that have played the game will know what to do and how to do it so the NPE for us is quite a bit less frustrating.
1 Like
I did this recently. One of the areas that I found particularly troubling was crafting times once I started actually crafting things in earnest. I have not logged into that character since and I don’t craft anything on Dhusk anymore either because it’s too painful. I ALMOST decided to craft Titanium Octigrid as I had all the stuff gathered already just from hundreds of hours of gathering over the years (I needed 10SS of it) but did the math and the wait time was around 3 IRL days so I decided to drop 2.4M coin on it instead - not a luxury most players have.
All I can say with this is based on the “old James” he would say all of this is a balance issue and likely not seriously change things because the Devs believe time and effort is needed for result. The “new James” (which I haven’t talked to) might have a different view after 2 years of Development holds and other challenges the team is clearly facing.
1 Like
You’re diving into a circular argument here. It’s the ‘matter of getting there’. In both crafting AND skills. Which means time …
is that not the point of this thread? Time?
Just get a controller with a turbo setting.
On PC, I use an auto clicker for big craft jobs.
They should just add a repeat feature when you hold the key on the crafting button.
I don’t understand why this is not a feature yet.
3 Likes
I am curious- have you used all 10 SS in the (at least) 3 days that have passed since spending 2.4m on the octogrid- or is it still waiting to be used?