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Nope.
They're still going strong, and while I had originally planned on one single ginormous preview article for the upcoming Game Update 43 (currently on Test), I am now conceding that it is too much information to pull that off. Instead, this preview of GU43 will be a more broad overview of things, while another article will be released later with some of the more detailed nitty-gritty, fancy screen shots and the like. (Or maybe even 2-3 more articles, at this rate!)
As usual, I won't cover everything that is in the Test patch notes, but will try to touch on the crafter-specific items of note.
There are now more amenities available in East, North and South Freeport, including bankers, menders, and mariner's bells to summon transportation in and out. Similar amenities are now also available in North and South Qeynos. The Ironforge Exchange of Qeynos has also taken advantage of the confusion to acquire the struggling business of Fhara's Furnishings in North Qeynos, and has refurbished this building to be their new headquarters.This is pretty self-explanatory. There should be a lot less zoning around to get to things like broker, banker and bells, for those who live in the larger homes in Qeynos and Freeport. The Ironforge Exchange is now also placed in a more central location in North Qeynos, and has crafting equipment and NPCs inside the old furniture shop for those who want to craft in a different environment (and be within spitting distance of the bank!), as well as the traditional crafting instance "cellar" entrance in front of it. There's even a handy mailbox that's been added there!
Crafting stations are now available in Maj'dul, in the Golden SceptreThose who visit, or live in, Maj'Dul, know that they could obtain certain crafting supplies and such in the Golden Sceptre, but they always had to travel elsewhere to craft. With GU43, however, crafting stations are being added to the Golden Sceptre at last.
Quartermasters at Bathezid, Riliss and Danak are now stocked with rewards for those crafters that are looked upon favorably!Oddly enough, just this past week, I'd been wondering what happened to Domino's apprentice, Olihin, who had done a lot of work during expansion time on the RoK crafting writs and such. Today I found out that he is still around, but has been very busy working on all these faction recipes and the items that they make.
We'd been told, more than once, that these recipes were incoming, but they had been delayed. Now that I've seen the full lineup, I can understand why it has taken a while to get it all sorted out, polished up, etc. Let me just say ... wow. There's a whole lot going on, on this front, and it will require a lot of in-depth coverage in another article or three.
The short version, however, is that Riliss, Bathezid's Watch and Danak Shipyards each have two unique recipe books for every primary tradeskill class. (No tinkering/transmuting, but since you can't grind tinker/transmuter writs, it isn't logical to expect faction recipes based on those skills.) One book in each faction is available at the 20K faction mark, the other at 30K faction. Since crafters cannot perform crafting writs until level 70 for Riliss and Bathezid's Watch, and until level 75 for Danak, these are, understandably, level 70+ recipes.
I know folks are going to scream about the faction requirements. So, let me reiterate and expand on what I mentioned above. These recipes were always intended to go in. We have been told that they were intended more than once. It has been mentioned in Domino's state of the tradeskills thread, among other places. ("More recipes as faction rewards in Bathezid, Danak, and Riliss.") This is where several of us get to say "I told you so!" when folks act all surpised, m'kay? Given that some of this preview was written at 2 a.m. by a grumpy redhead, you durn well better believe I'm going to be tempted to thwap some folks with a clue-by-four when they complain that it "isn't fair" to spring these on folks at this late date, while another chunk of folks is grumbling "about time they put these in, we've been waiting for months!"
We told you so. Nuff said. {grin}
We'll have details for you, and nummy screen shots "soon". (As the desire to finish this wars with the desire to fall on my nose, Kaisha was still busy on the Test server with yet more screenshots for us.)
Some additional mannequin recipes are now available to crafters with sufficient faction with their city's tradeskill society.Female and male froglok mannequin recipes have been added to the existing mannequin recipe book, which is available from your home city crafting society for those who have 30K crafting society faction. (Ironforge, Tunare's Pages, etc.) More mannequins are in the works, and Rothgar, especially, has been juggling a lot of questions, comments and such regarding the mannequins. Stay tuned to Dev Tracker in the SOE forums for more breaking news as it is announced.
the Medium Female Display Mannequin recipe now requires sandpaper instead of coal.It seems the crafting society maintenance folks were getting tired of cleaning all the coal dust off the sawhorses, fixing the coal-dulled saws, and so on. Sandpaper it is, then!
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New characters no longer receive an introductory note to speak to a tradeskill trainer. They now receive a full manual from their local tradeskill society. Existing tradeskill note quests will auto-complete.The manual, which is a readable house item, is available from city tradeskill societies for a whopping charge of 1 copper. Make sure to pick one up for your home when this update goes live!
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Armorers and Tailors can now imbue all types of chestpiece and leggings from their level 60-69 recipe books.Tier 7 armor now allows for imbues on the chest and leg pieces of specialty sets. (Dexterous, Tranquil, etc., etc., etc.) Yayy!
Edit #1: Operating under the assumption that folks will want to know "is it worth" it on grinding any specific faction, before they get much more eye-candy, I spent the day working on testing and documenting recipes for every class. I could have had this up much faster, but I feel pretty strongly about helping to test things while on Test, not just slipping over, grabbing data, and sneaking off again. Without further ado, here are the GU43 Recipe Details for each and every crafting class. I will now begin image juggling left, right, sideways and diagonally, thanks to my partner-in-crime, Kaisha.
Edit #2: Ohmygoodness. You want eye-candy? You get eye-candy. This page has a huge amount of graphics and some of the images are rather large, to display the finer details of the items, so be prepared to be hit with a bit of loading. I suspect you will find it worth the wait when you see the GU43 Faction Items Image Gallery that contains the various house or worn items that can be crafted from the RoK crafting faction recipes.
Heartfelt thank you's go out most especially to: Kaisha - for all the image editing and re-editing, late-night image shoots, and everything else she does so wonderfully, all while still under the weather with "the Kunarkian death flu". To Domino, not only for this lovely update, and all the crafter love she continues to give us, but for the immeasurable patience she has when I interrupt her busy schedule with random comments, whimpers, and sometimes just plain bouncing off the walls. To Fedd of the amazing crafting alt-army on Test, as well as the rest of the Test community, for all their helpfulness and company as I poke, prod, spin in circles, gibber as I test things, distract them with creative terms such as "oomph" and so on. I hope you folks realize that if I wasn't so attached to my guild of friends and family on my main server, I would so be living on Test with you folks all the time! To Rothgar, who has shown much grace under pressure on the SOE forums when folks got heated with their opinions on mannequins (and placement surfaces on furniture), for still being willing to post updates for us regardless of the sometimes aggressive behavior there. And, last, but not least, Domino's mysterious apprentice Olihin, for all the work he put into all this faction-stuff.
March 1 Update: Those wanting to see size comparisons on the furniture items can now see them here.
March 3 Update: We've had a bit of news about updates/changes to what has been previewed here. Check out this late-breaking-news article for more details.
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