Does anybody craft guns, or T3 melee weapons?

[ElDudorino]

I've found over two games in A20 that by the time I save up enough parts to make a quality 2-3 gun or steel weapon, I've already found a higher-quality version of it either in a PoI or from a trader. Even in the pine forest the loot usually seems to be much better than what I can craft.

 

Even T2 weapons I haven't needed to craft, but I can see how it would make sense to if you're just digging, mining, chopping, and building because you'll have plenty of raw resources and minimal loot, but for guns and T3 melee you need parts that can't be crafted from raw materials.

 

Honestly, in terms of gear and tools the main thing I can see myself ever crafting past wood/stone is T2 armor because for some reason T2 armor seems way rarer to me than T3 armor but finding a full set of T3 armor at high quality could take a while.

 

I'm also wondering if Q6 should be crafting-only instead of loot-only, since I will find Q6 long before I can craft Q5 and with no skill investment, whereas crafting a Q6 if possible would have to be earned by full skill investment and breaking down a lot of gear for parts.

 

Is this just me?

[Sjustus548]

We've enabled Q6 crafting on our server because we would always find them before we could even craft Q5 so the parts were only good for selling at that point.  With Q6 crafting enabled it gives us the opportunity to craft them in hopes of getting better stats than the ones we already have.  It's been a nice change that we will be sticking with from now on.  

[Boidster]

9 minutes ago, Sjustus548 said:

We've enabled Q6 crafting on our server

 

I've thought of doing this and removing them from loot. But I'm my game's engineer/crafter so I'm biased towards "best stuff should be hand-crafted".  

[Sjustus548]

2 minutes ago, Boidster said:

I've thought of doing this and removing them from loot. But I'm my game's engineer/crafter so I'm biased towards "best stuff should be hand-crafted".  

That makes perfect sense to me.  I've always thought that to get a Q6 version you should have to go out and find enough parts to be able to craft the best version as well as have enough skill to make it.  That's an interesting change to make.  

[bloodmoth13]

Yeah its a bit weird. My last few games were melee prioritized so i specced into melee straight away.

Both games i loot shoot trade and barely craft.

crafting t2 stuff is nice but by the time i can craft t3 stuff i ALWAYS had a 6Q looted item i was using. I saved up the parts specifically for it too.

I have to think of the crafting as a bonus perk to the combat side of things, but it really does feel bad.

 

At the moment crafting is really just a sales gimmick. Craft q5 knuckles, load it with cheap/easily mass produced addons, sell em for 2k dukes.

 

I think its worse for guns tbh, the only guns you can craft without parts are pipe weapons. If you spec into crafting you delay when you can craft those weapons, so you are stuck either holding off perking into them so you can craft lowQ high tier items or you hoard parts to craft a highQ item for a ton of parts.

When you begin approaching the amount of parts to craft a gun you almost always have better items from looting than you can craft.

 

I find the loot disparity between zones a bit too extreme too, i do early game in the forest to get forges, benches and building materials, then transition to the next zone which for some reason is always snow and go from looting shotgun parts to Q6 auto shotguns. In my experience finding the damn pump shotgun is rarer than the auto since they never appear in the forest and in the wasteland/snow you get T3 items.

 

I think its weird that i will loot a T4 forest loot crate and get bow parts and a t2 sledgehammer then go to the snow biome and loot a sniper from a normal house.

 

This is probably getting a bit off topic so ill just wrap it up by saying i think loot needs a bit of a rebalance so that its worth crafting 

[Fightingchook]

in my current play thought i seem to have crafted more than I ever have done previously...

eg: workbench, cement mixer, chem station, 4x4 and gyro

tier 5 Steel sledge, steel shovel, steel axe, Impact Driver

 

This has probably because for this run though I have only put 1 point into lucky looter and have only found/brought a few nice weapons but other than that haven't found jack @%$#.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Crater Creator
bypassing profanity filter (see edit history)

[bloodmoth13]

On 2/4/2022 at 1:45 PM, Fightingchook said:

in my current play thought i seem to have crafted more than I ever have done previously...

eg: workbench, cement mixer, chem station, 4x4 and gyro

tier 5 Steel sledge, steel shovel, steel axe, Impact Driver

 

This has probably because for this run though I have only put 1 point into lucky looter and have only found/brought a few nice weapons but other than that haven't found jack @%$#.

I didnt go LL on my current and have looted plenty.

What biome were you in? forest is awful for loot, you have to go to snow to start getting decent loot. My experience in the snow biome has been ridiculous, just great loot after great loot.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Crater Creator
quote was edited (see edit history)

[Fightingchook]

 

5 minutes ago, bloodmoth13 said:

I didnt go LL on my current and have looted plenty.

What biome were you in? forest is awful for loot, you have to go to snow to start getting decent loot. My experience in the snow biome has been ridiculous, just great loot after great loot.

 

yes...living in small village in forest... with a minimal incursion into wasteland. i'm playing insane level permindeath so really dont want to be ther yet.. lol.
But I started right next to the snow biome.... but sadly have massive mountain range and 4km between me at the snow town which i have just found with the gyro.
Although will be planning day trips there there soon as i have just got the go to trader quest there.
But I'm also playing random horde nights with horde night warnings turned off.... so need to plan well.

[Viktoriusiii]

Why would you ever craft a weapon? You find 2-3 tiers higher ones in loot anyways, so the only thing to do with the parts is craft weapons to sell.
I think you should be able to craft ANY tier at every level, with the only restriction being the amount of parts you need.

[ElDudorino]

I like the idea of having to unlock Q6 crafting, maybe with perks being one way to do it or schematics being an alternative, like with chem stations etc. But also maybe unlocking Q6 wooden clubs should happen with a lesser/easier investment than Q6 steel clubs.

 

All in all I feel like I should be crafting more good gear and finding less of it.

 

Also, I've had the same experience of finding auto shotguns more easily than pump shotguns. The middle tier of gear seems kinda glossed over... and I don't think the weaker guns should require parts like the strongest ones (or scrap into them).

[theFlu]

Hmm, most of the time I craft a blue quality melee weapon for the first horde night (default times). Occasionally I do end up crafting a blue high tier weapon, but I'm usually blaming that on terrible luck. That is, I have looted/quested several 'wrong' types of the same tier by then. This applies to both melee and ranged "best in slot" things.

 

And then I usually end up finding a green upgrade the next day..

[warmer]

ya by the time I can craft them and bought all the required skill level ups, I have typically found much better versions from quest rewards or looting.

 

I think crafting weapons really has the most benefit when playing multiplayer and each member is specializing in a given task. In solo rarely spend points to learn workbench because I almost always find a schematic by day 7. 

 

Back when ammo wasnt as easy to come by I always leveled into workbench. Now it doesnt feel necessary for my play style.

 

[bloodmoth13]

2 hours ago, Fightingchook said:

 

 

yes...living in small village in forest... with a minimal incursion into wasteland. i'm playing insane level permindeath so really dont want to be ther yet.. lol.
But I started right next to the snow biome.... but sadly have massive mountain range and 4km between me at the snow town which i have just found with the gyro.
Although will be planning day trips there there soon as i have just got the go to trader quest there.
But I'm also playing random horde nights with horde night warnings turned off.... so need to plan well.

Sounds hardcore, but staying in the forest is why your loot sucks. Other than irradiated i didnt find the other biomes much more difficult than forest, you get ferals at a certian point everywhere in the forest and it isnt much worse in the snow, just gotta watch out for bears and cougars. But im not playing insane. I should try that for my next game.

[ElDudorino]

The wasteland is full of vultures and there are zombie bears everywhere, plus you can get all night hordes if you make noise. I've killed probably 200 zombies in a single night while overnighting in a wasteland T5, plus they're higher-tier zombies relative to your game stage. It's definitely harder than the forest. But even in the forest my loot is outpacing what I can craft. So although the tier of loot is lower, it's not crafting-tier bad.

 

Edit- I guess if you have random horde nights you're already used to all-night attacks, though...

Edited February 4, 2022 by ElDudorino (see edit history)

[Vaeliorin]

4 hours ago, Viktoriusiii said:

Why would you ever craft a weapon? You find 2-3 tiers higher ones in loot anyways, so the only thing to do with the parts is craft weapons to sell.
I think you should be able to craft ANY tier at every level, with the only restriction being the amount of parts you need.

I'm playing using spears right now (I know, they suck..already gotten me killed once in a fight I'd have been fine with a club) and I'm using a q5 iron spear I crafted.  I haven't found anything better than a q3 stone spear (but I got a q6 steel axe from the trader and a q5 AK...got a q4 steel shovel from like my 2nd or 3rd Tier 2 quest...3 different compound crossbows and 3 machetes as well.)

 

So...that's why I'd craft a weapon.

[Fightingchook]

16 hours ago, bloodmoth13 said:

Sounds hardcore, but staying in the forest is why your loot sucks. Other than irradiated i didnt find the other biomes much more difficult than forest, you get ferals at a certian point everywhere in the forest and it isnt much worse in the snow, just gotta watch out for bears and cougars. But im not playing insane. I should try that for my next game.

Thanks for the tip. Have had ferals night 1 in the forest.
Will be heading into the snow as soon as I find my next Puffer or Duster.

Did my first Tier 1 house in the wasteland, and given Q6 compound bow and Q6 knuckles in loot. lol.
But yeah...one really needs to secure the area before one goes in.

And i suggest try playing with random horde nights with horde night warnings turned of as that is fun for me.
Its not as bad as it sounds as you still get thunder after 6 pm... and you just need to be prepared.
Rain at 5.45pm is scary though....    do I stay or do I go.... lol.

[Scyris]

I don't craft any gear usually in Vanilla, I buy what I need off traders, Not a big fan how crafting higher tier stuff needs more and more mats. About the only stuff I may craft early is some iron tools. a Primitive bow and a bone knife. I mostly craft consumable items like repair kits, ammo, medical stuff etc. Rest of gear I generally just find.

[canadianbluebeer]

I do craft the machine guns, particularly Q5 M60.

Still haven't found any past Q3, so .. 

 

I try not to craft the lower stuff unless I have to.  (iron tools/armor sure, no parts needed, so upgrade as fast as poss. steel stuff w parts...)

 

Steel knuckles the same, shotguns (pump/auto) same.

 

Never had to make high quality clubs though. (don't perk into it usually)

 

[BFT2020]

In my mod, I brought back Q6 crafting like others have (though I placed it in a Quality Engineering Perk in the Int tree so you have to spend points in there to be able to do it).  At the same time, I really nerfed drops of equipment Q3 or higher (I think right now I have probability set at 0.05).  Still working on Trader quest rewards, but they only sell A6 weapons now at vastly inflated prices.

[Gazz]

In my last playthrough I crafted both melee and guns at QL5 (but not lower than that) and also as many as I had parts for so I could pick the best of the bunch.

 

A lot depends on how you play, if in a group, where you go...

[POCKET951]

I crafted a q5 lever action rifle because I never found any. as soon as I hit lootstage 100 I jumped to the much higher biomes so it was much so I most likely skipped over the lootstage window to find them

[OneManStanding]

When I started playing properly with my brother I offered to perk into tool or weapon skills, but he said that you will generally always find better stuff than you could make - which has largely proven to be true in my experience. I pretty much rely on finding a crossbow before I have the parts or the skill to make one. I have always found better gear in mission loot or rewards than I've ever gotten around to crafting, and as such I simply do not bother with weapon crafting skill at all.

 

I do, however, perk into making tools once I get the steel tool schematics - this is largely due to impatience as the game is typically not finished offering me iron tools by the time I need large quantities of resources and I just think that steel tools are so much better. I'll generally make a better steel pick axe or auger before the game catches up and starts offering me better ones.

[ElDudorino]

The perk to make tools is really good anyway because it gives a huge bonus to block damage from tools, so you do everything faster: digging, mining, chopping, and bashing.  I actually start the game with it so I can use Q2 tools right away and collect resources more quickly.  But on this game I haven't had to craft any iron or steel tools because the game gave them to me at high quality before I would have crafted them.

 

I guess I can see why you would craft a bunch of Q5 gear to take the ones with the best stat rolls, but by the time you can do that I've usually found Q6 and I would usually take that even with slightly worse stats for the extra mod slot.  In my current game I've gotten a Q6 machete and Q6 steel club but only ever found like 12 machete parts and maybe 7-8 club parts so I was nowhere close to being able to craft any decent ones.

[seagas]

I will craft tier 3 or 4 weapons if I'm able and haven't looted something as good or better. Also tier 2 weapons early game as I usually point one of the four initial points into melee, usually wood club, and a point in bow. 

 

[Crater Creator]

I feel pretty paralyzed from crafting any weapons.  It feels wasteful, because if I make what I can now, I won't be able to make a higher-quality one later, without taking even longer to find the increasing number of parts I need.  And even if I wait to make a quality 5, not wasting parts to make qualities 1 through 4 first, it still seems wasteful since there's a quality 6 out there somewhere if I loot long enough.  The end result is, I don't put points in weapon skills until I already have a high tier weapon in that class.  I have a big box of weapon parts that ultimately just get sold to the trader.

 

What if the game crafted a weapon of the highest quality level you can, given the number of weapon parts in your backpack at that moment?  Then you wouldn't need a one-off UI element to select the quality you want.

 

I also think it would be a really good idea if you repaired weapons with weapon parts, so there's a mechanic to consume that big box of parts.  I mean, if the idea is you amass all these parts and craft a bunch of them to roll slightly higher stats on one of them... that's just another form of spam crafting. 😕