I am suprised noone has started a thread about this yet, so I might well do it.

Quote from Matt Firor interview:

So Firor is basically saying that crafters will not be able to make endgame gear but they will be able to make endgame augmentations.

I think that augmentation only for endgame gear (which will apperently only come from drops) is a good solution for an MMORPG. If crafters could make and sell the best endgame gear (like some people wanted) you would get into a situation where players could just buy gold from gold-farmers and then buy the best gear from crafters. This would inevitably turn ESO into a Pay to Win game, triviliaze the challenge and difficulty of endgame content, and the high demand for gold would explode the gold-farmer/bot population who would in-turn ruin the in-game economy.

Personally, I wish they would have taken it a step further and have crafting profressions only produce things you would not get elsewhere. I dont see the point of having armor-crafting when armor can just drop from mobs and the best armor can ONLY drop from bosses. I think that all crafting should be things like alchemy, enchanting, gem-making and other such profressions that produce things you could not get anywhere else.

What do you think about endgame crafting in ESO.

He doesn't explicitly say that you wont be able to craft top tier gear, but instead the game is designed to focus on augmenting the available equipment.

I actually like running a crafting character and merchant business in MMORPGs. But they usually end up being ruined by gold & resource farming in the end. It took Ultima Online about 8 years to go down this path, other games have takin less then a year to become unbalanced.

The Devs also said you can break down anything and learn how to make it. So, if you get some uber gear from a dungeon, break it down and now you can make it.

Ive known "enchanting" is part of ESO last 6 month or so? Confirmed enchantments are frost, shock, fire.

I dont understand how gem-souls are part of the game TBH. Thats where they lose me. I think we kill bosses to get good souls to get better enchantments.

well, it's nothing new.
GW2 had the very same thing.

it was a nice feature though I never was enough into GW2 to make efforts to get one.

but as far as I see there is a big difference in ESO.
you won't be able to get all crafts to the max level, which means you either have to have a 2nd/3rd character for crafting or trade with other people.

as for the first option I hope it won't be as easy as in GW2 to get your crafting skills maxed out (it was like 2 weeks for everything in GW2)

the second option sounds far better in theory but when it comes to reality it's far worse...
because if players are forced to trade with each other there always will be someone to be scammed:

player: looking for smith to craft Uber 1337 Dagger of greater Imbaness, have Dagger of Imbaness + Mats
scammer: come to me. I can craft it for you. it's free, but if you want to give a little tip you're welcome
player: you really craft it for free?
scammer: of course, we're the same faction!
player gives weapon and mats.
scammer logs out.
player: oh noes, that was all my life savings! :'(

Well clearly we need to have a way to rate traders like on ebay. So only an idiot would give a very valuable job to a player that doesn't have lots of positive ratings. And a player with lots of positive ratings should find that the can charge more for what they do and actually turn a profit.

I think that if you had to to 100 menial tasks to get 100 positive ratings it would no longer be worth ruining your record by scamming someone.

Also I suppose if a player who had previously only had positive ratings gets a negative rating it should probably be run by a GM to avoid people griefing.

I think its just easier to make secure-trading/crafting/enchanting, when both players click accept its done. But anyway, hard to imagine it becomes a big problem, just like folks who buy gold from gold-farmers, those must be minority, ESO might be big, but its not big enough to make people act like that. (buy gold from gold-famers to get good gears, thats bit too far fetched.

Or that.

Own window for that kind of stuff... btw, someone suggested dice, card games, they'd use that same window for that I guess.

This.

how could that work with mats for crafting?

I have seen this done. You trade the mats. They appear in the trade window. The crafter then clicks on the mats to make the item. The trade goes through if you both agree on the amount. If you do not both agree and the window closes, you just get your mats back.

Hmm, one big window with 2 ingredients slot and one recipe? And of course gold. Crafter most likely put recipe and dude who wants the item, 2 ingredients and gold.

where?

So many MMOs.... Can't remember which ones did this. But I can tell you it worked well.

Should still be a requirement to have the forge/alchemist lab/etc present though.

@OP: reading too deeply into it man. You'll most definitely be able to craft endgame gear as well.

Yeah there have been several video interviews where they talk about how PvP/PvE/Crafting gear will all be on par with each other. I think Matt was just trying to point out that crafters can make the best gear in the game even better.

The question was about the proliferation of endgame gear due to crafters be able to make it. I think he was being pretty clear in answering the question. In fact, I am not sure how he could have been clearer.

You cant just read an answer, you have to read the question too to understand what they are talking about. Again I am sure why people are confused about what he said, he was not being unclear at all.

In ESO crafters will not be able to make high-end endgame gear (e.x. same quality as the ones dropping from endgame Dreadic Princes). If you want to believe differently thats fine, just expect to be disappointed when the game releases.

It honestly boggles my mind how people could possibly understand something different from that Q&A lol. I really thought everyone would be on the same page about what is happening after that clear answer and that we could debate about if we like the fact that crafters will not craft but only augment high-end endgame gear or not.

His elusive style of answer.

Why not just say -- you guys will not be able to craft high-end gear -vs- crafting at high levels focuses on augmenting. Just because I focus on augmenting it doesn't exclude the ability to craft my gear. You see?

Also the game is not complete, far after release may it be in a polished state where end content matters. A well designed crafting system will be easily expanded with future recipes.

Worth mentioning that this isn't the only question he answers with such ambiguous style.

Well when I said endgame gear I meant like, entry-level stuff. Stuff that'll take you from freshly dinged 50 into doing endgame content easier. I don't really want people to be able to craft the absolute best stuff, I'd rather the professions be able to make some stuff but be able to just enhance the absolute best stuff from PvP vendors/dungeon bosses.

I want crafters to be able to create the best end-game gear. I had a store in SWG for many years and I believe I spent more game time on that store than raiding/grinding to be honest. And crafting in SWG held the player made economy the entire 8 years the game was up. Crdit sellers came and went and crafting was not all that harmed in the process. What did affect the economy way more than credit sellers was a "credit dup" exploit that lasted far too long until it got fixed.

If end-game gear is unable to be crafted, crafting goes right out the window. It becomes totaly un-necessary. If any1 has a different feeling about this, try TOR. You'll find out pretty fast. If TESO ends up yet another sword/board gear grind MMO, I believe I'll pass. There is 1 out there right now that has MANY expansions and 8 years post launch content. No new MMO can or will compete with that. I was hoping that TESo would be different, but just this single answer has lowered my personal "Hype-meter" way more than half. And now, I tend to be a little more criticle about game systems post TOR. I still have 2 150 buck collector's editions collecting dust. I just do not need another set doing the same.

All these gear grind drop lotterys/token grinds are already out there. Probably the best has been built by Blizzard. And, again looking at TOR, if you try to beat Bliz at WoW, Bliz and WoW is going to win every time. Again, looking at TOR.

non I've played! which means non AAA and non top f2p MMO in the past 7 years had that feature (well, maybe lotro... never played that).

Without gear-loss, even crafting enhancements is going to be fairly pointless over the long term. There's not going to be a real economy, just a shadow of one lingering around temp-buff consumables because that's the only thing that'll have a consistent market.

But I guess having no economy worth speaking of is one way of spiting the gold farmers. Even if it does screw over the point of trying to make an in-game living doing anything other than raiding, which is exactly what I predicted would happen if the devs give more than token interest to that community.

The alternative you're presenting is being disappointed before the game releases.

Gods. If we're farming Daedric Princes for endgame gear, it's just going to make a joke out of the setting. Why the hell even bother with the ES IP in the first place, if you're just going to piss all over it? I know that's been said about other features, but for me this would be crossing one of the few lines in an otherwise murky grey area. Maybe the gameplay will still be decent in it's own right, but it won't have any legitimate place in the series history at that point.