I'm sorry (my eyes are bad), but what day did you say you were on?
I was at level 2 armor crafting, and then I went and tried "Grandpa's Fergetin Elixor", and went and maxed Intellect Mastery (didn't read how worthless the last two points were to my playstyle), and now I got myself up to level 5 armor crafting in no time.
Keep in mind this was possible by me, and I am surely not the sharpest tool in the shed. This is without maxing the three armor perks/levels, this was all about the extra books, w/level 5 Nerd Body Armor. (so about a 75% increased chance) of getting an extra point.
Can anyone tell me what else can affect my armor crafting skill progression?
I like how long it is taking, but I didn't max things out (Read as, I don't even know how to max this out), but I'm thinking the armor crafting is about right, or perhaps, needs a little bit more of a delay
What are everyone else's thoughts on armor crafting progression in v2.1 and going forward?
Ok, I'll try to respond to everything in your different posts....
I am playing 2 hour days and am day 16, I believe. So that means day 32 on default 1 hour days. Again, this is with 0 points in an armor perk and without nerd armor, but with Intellect Mastery 1-3. That may seem low, but considering I can loot all T3Q5 stuff by day 20-25 on two hour days at the very latest (I'm already finding T3Q5 items at day 16 in this game), you should see crafting run around the same rate.
As far as what affects armor magazine drops, I think only armor perks affect it (bonus for each point in each of the 3 armor classes, so more points = more drop chance). Of course, the magazines drop in specific containers, so whether or not you're seeing those containers will impact how quickly you can find the magazines. And maybe that's part of the problem. If you don't have POI around that have an increased chance of the correct containers, it can prevent getting armor magazines very quickly. Other magazines that are limited by container. For example, forge ahead magazines are mostly found in broken workstations and in construction crates. But you can find those in a LOT of POI. Armor magazines are found mostly in the working stiff crates, and although you can find those in many POI, they aren't very prevalent except in certain POI. I think that's part of the problem. If you have the right POI near you, you can level it up quickly. If not, it can take a really long time. Not sure if there is any good way to balance that. All I know is it's very slow now in my current game (I'm only in one game since 2.0).
Regarding needing to spend points if you want to craft, I disagree. I don't put points into much of anything crafting related and can find the magazines quickly enough to craft things at around the same rate I can find them.... except for armor. For example, with no points in salvaging, I can find the magazines for making salvage tools at a rate that keeps me close to even with what I can find. It varies, some games being faster or slower, but generally about equal. Now, if I put points into salvaging, I find the magazine more frequently and can usually craft things before I start finding them, which is how it should work, imo. In other words, if you want crafting to be faster than looting, you put points into the perks that get you those magazines more quickly. Otherwise, crafting should run close to even with looting. And remember that I have points in Intellect Mastery, so I should definitely be able to craft the same level armor that I can find, which isn't the case.
To summarize, crafting should run at about the same rate as what you can loot even if no points are placed in crafting perks. If it does not, then there isn't much reason to craft unless you want to do so. That was the problem in older versions. Crafting was basically only done by people who wanted to craft and ignored by others because you just found everything faster than you could craft it. They fixed that in 1.0 and brought crafting to roughly equal with looting, which was a good change. It got more people to start crafting things. However, armor was really fast because the magazines dropped everywhere it seemed. You could craft Q6 armor within a few game days of starting the game. That wasn't good. But now, it's been moved in the other direction rather than being balanced. It's now so slow that you can easily find better armor than you can craft if you aren't putting points into crafting perks. Any other crafting (except weapons, which mostly end up matching your perks, which is fine since you're not really crafting what you're not using anyhow) is roughly equal with looting without any points in the crafting perk. But armor isn't. Even with Intellect Mastery, which I got to level 3 very early in the game (I got my weapon to 4/5 and I had, I think, 2 points in parkour, and I believe that was all until after I got Intellect Mastery to 3), but can only craft Q3 armor (just barely) even though I've been finding Q5 armor for at least a few days... in the forest. That just feels wrong.
Now, again, it may be entirely related to what POI are around you on your specific map. It may be that the limited locations for armor magazines are too limited to be balanced from one map to the next. That may be more of the problem than anything else.
So, yeah... at least in my specific map, armor crafting is far too slow. No, it shouldn't be anywhere near as fast as in 1.0. I could get Q6 armor by day 4 (roughly) in 1.x without any perk points spent to increase that (2 hour days, remember). Now it's around 4 times as long and I am using perk points to increase magazines, even if not specifically armor magazines, and I am still only at Q3. It's one thing to make it slower. It's another to make it more than 4x slower.
Anyhow, you might disagree, which is fine. But this is my opinion.
