Over the past two years, Deci, Mateo, Llama and I have been chatting amongst ourselves and staff members about the current situation of professions. Over this time we have come to some agreements that we think would help reignite professions into the day-to-day Potterworld life and economy. Mateo made a suggestion sharing these last year, but here are my specific ideas with a more concise and chronological order.
Step 1: Accessibility
This is by far the easiest thing Potterworld can do to make professions feel a LITTLE bit more alive: that is to add an obvious brewing/cooking station VERY close to the Great Hall (the closest right now is in the dungeons). One of the aspects of old professions that made it so nice was the ability to see all your friends making food and potions around you. This is basically impossible nowadays due to how many profession stations there are, all sparsely placed around the map.
To stick a few stations right in the centre of Potterworld would remind people constantly that professions actually exist, and show people that they don't have to be alone when doing them.
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Step 2: Organisation
This step should be very easy and not take too much time: please organise the professions GUI. For example: there are NINE levels of 'Transformative Tonic' potions, all giving varying amounts of Transfiguration Damage, there are ALSO nine types of Hijinx Mixture (all giving Jinx Damage), nine types of Restorative Draught, 3 types of Piercing Potion, nine types of Puffing Pod (Transfiguration Resistance), nine types of Jester's Tea (Jinx Resistance).... and I think you get the point.
In fact, there are only 16 types of potions and food with differing names and base effects, but there are a 121 FILLED slots! All the potions with the same base name and effects (not the same level) should be merged into one clickable potion that will then take you to the rest.
In addition to this, some potions should be removed from the game all together, for example: The level 10 potions all give 100 of a certain effect while the level 1 potions already give 50 and the level 20 potions give 150. The same is true with the level 40 potions which are only 150 effect points above the level 30. These potions just seem unnecessary and either changing their stats or removing them all together would be a beneficial change.
Lastly, food names should be tweaked to make it more obvious of their purpose and make them feel more magical: 'Puffing Pod Tea', 'White Cocoacursed Delights', and 'Charming Fizz Tea' aren't exactly the best names for food, especially not when you want to know what they specifically do.
All this will make the menu feel less cluttered and therefore be less overwhelming to players: both old and new.
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Step 3: Balancing
This one, while possibly taking some time and a few complex spreadsheets/docs, should also be fairly easy to implement with little tech needed.
Unfortunately, one of the main problems with professions is the amount of materials needed to make them, with huge disparities between them. To me it seems that random numbers were just thrown at each item. Piercing Potion needing EIGHT nightsahde and even Felix Fortuna needing NINE dittany - both these plants are EXTREMELY hard to get (as they are not tied to a specific mob) and take hours to get a good portion of. On the other end, you have foods such as the 'Dark Cocoacursed Delights VIII' (super catchy name btw) needing only 3 ashpodel - a plant you can get stacks of in only a couple of hours, and much more with a good group of people.
First of all, I would suggest to fix the distribution of both Dittany and Nightshade (possibly Wolfsbane as well but for now it seems okay). I know the goal was to make plants distribution seem unique but that doesn't require them to be so sparse and random. They could be placed around buildings, on more specific routes, in caves, near trees, by he sea, or on islands.
Secondly, the staff should take a look around the map and test how easy it is to get certain plants and mob drops, and tailor the requirements accordingly - hopefully they can look at drop rates to do this, as well as going to pre-known plant areas to estimate their number/concentration (I will leave a comment below with all of the locations, just in case they aren't already known).
Thirdly, the staff must take into account the possibility of failing profession cooking/brewing, which will remove all the used ingredients. While this shouldn't be focussed on overwhelmingly (as eventually people will perfect the technique), it should be considered for newer players who are less experienced.
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Step 4: Fixing Herbology
Most people don't know where plants are. It's that simple.
One of the most frequent questions I see in chat is "Where is (*insert plant here*). Obviously this was done to give a sense of exploration but with Herbology no longer acting as a seperate entity to the other professions, it should be made easier to navigate the map to find them. One idea would be a GUI codex (incorporated into the existing Recipe Book) which tracks whether you have been to a location with a higher concentration of a certain plant - very similar to how Explorations work but with plants! This would mean the exploration sense would not be ruined but also would remind players of the best areas in which to get all their herbology goods!
Also I'd like to mention that there doesn't seem to be much reason to have plants at different levels right now... apart from just being awkward. Making all plants have the same level would mean that herbology can be done anywhere in the world and that all plants currently under level 70 wouldn't be completely useless to graduates. Obviously the ingredients would have to be balanced accordinly if this were to be done.
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Step 5: Selling and Collecting
Okay, this step has been suggested many times already but I wanna go into more depth on why it should be done.
Many people have said this shouldn't be done because Potterworld should build an economy around the players and the distribution of wealth, rather than the spawning of it. I completely agree.
However, if Potterworld wants to reignite the desire to make professions items, but doesn't currently have the staff force to make any major changes, then this would be a great way to do it. This feature would simply involve selling potions to an NPC in return for gold (probably a lowish amount to continue to decrease inflation).
I do think if Potterworld has plans to update professions and incentivise them to be sold on the market, then they should eventually get rid of the selling to an NPC mechanic and allow the player-based economy to flourish in its place. Unfortunately, this would likely be a long way off.
If the staff team still isn't fond of this idea then another one would be collecting. Potentially there could be a GUI or book where every potion/food is categorised with its specific level. One you brew/cook all the professions items from that level, you can redeem some sort of prize (maybe gold, but even better: a collectable). The rewards would get better and better as you go up but eventually you would have the chance to have made ALL the professions items and get a MEGA prize such as an awesome wand, a broom appearance, a prefix, a super cool interactable collectable, or maybe a whole host of things (to be extra cruel, you could have this last reward require the trading in of all previous prizes - making it far more valuable).
This would be a kinda meh way of incentivising players to brew but it is far less effort than adding a new levelling system or completely revamping the whole of professions.
^
Alternatively, a system similar to Lacerum Incisis could be done with just one NPC that you can trade profession items in and it gives you points based on the difficulty of the potion. Eventually, once reaching a certain amount of points, you get a spell or a cosmetic (personally a PvP spell would be the most incentivising). There could be multiple tiers that you have to surpass to get to the grand prize, acting as a de facto levelling system. This would be my preferred way of doing things.
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Step 6: Fun Potions!
Now, I realise that there is currently only 1 Engineer right now, but this step is more for the future. Staff should never be afraid to add new and fun potions to break the mold of the currently boring and repetitive ones. There were LOADS of different cool effects in pre-Revelius professions that made them actually fun to use - even in Duelling. They had tornadoes, wigs, blinding ones, ones that would put messages on people's screens - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Potterworld shouldn't think that going back to these old potions and using the exact same effects makes them unoriginal or regressive; we all agree the old professions items were awesome and we'd love to see them make a return whenever possible! I'd certainly brew a potion that would send my friend flying in circles into the air!
Right now, potions and cooking items just feels so repetitive and all merge into one after a while. So it would be great to see some more experimental goods, even if only one is added each month because it would still be better than the current scenario.
Some of these potions could even have to be unlocked or discovered in different parts of the map or with quests etc.
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Step 7: Focus on Professions!
Professions are a vital part of the game and making potions is a crucial aspect of any wizard's life. Professions could act as a great way to stimulate the economy with a greater distribution of goods and, in my opinion, it is the one thing that needs the most attention right now. There's so many options for the future and all it needs it a bit of creativity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, these 7 steps alone won't make potions completely active, but they are a great start. Eventually, potions probably needs to return to some kind of levelling system to add a feeling of progression (not as rigid as the one pre-Revelius though), but until the staff team feel comfortable to do that, these will at least show the playerbase that professions haven't been completely neglected.
Also, please don't feel a need to add all these steps simultaneously to the game in a big update. The whole point is that they are done one at a time and that's why the first ones are much easier than the last.
Thanks for Reading!
Step 1: Accessibility
This is by far the easiest thing Potterworld can do to make professions feel a LITTLE bit more alive: that is to add an obvious brewing/cooking station VERY close to the Great Hall (the closest right now is in the dungeons). One of the aspects of old professions that made it so nice was the ability to see all your friends making food and potions around you. This is basically impossible nowadays due to how many profession stations there are, all sparsely placed around the map.
To stick a few stations right in the centre of Potterworld would remind people constantly that professions actually exist, and show people that they don't have to be alone when doing them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 2: Organisation
This step should be very easy and not take too much time: please organise the professions GUI. For example: there are NINE levels of 'Transformative Tonic' potions, all giving varying amounts of Transfiguration Damage, there are ALSO nine types of Hijinx Mixture (all giving Jinx Damage), nine types of Restorative Draught, 3 types of Piercing Potion, nine types of Puffing Pod (Transfiguration Resistance), nine types of Jester's Tea (Jinx Resistance).... and I think you get the point.
In fact, there are only 16 types of potions and food with differing names and base effects, but there are a 121 FILLED slots! All the potions with the same base name and effects (not the same level) should be merged into one clickable potion that will then take you to the rest.
In addition to this, some potions should be removed from the game all together, for example: The level 10 potions all give 100 of a certain effect while the level 1 potions already give 50 and the level 20 potions give 150. The same is true with the level 40 potions which are only 150 effect points above the level 30. These potions just seem unnecessary and either changing their stats or removing them all together would be a beneficial change.
Lastly, food names should be tweaked to make it more obvious of their purpose and make them feel more magical: 'Puffing Pod Tea', 'White Cocoacursed Delights', and 'Charming Fizz Tea' aren't exactly the best names for food, especially not when you want to know what they specifically do.
All this will make the menu feel less cluttered and therefore be less overwhelming to players: both old and new.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 3: Balancing
This one, while possibly taking some time and a few complex spreadsheets/docs, should also be fairly easy to implement with little tech needed.
Unfortunately, one of the main problems with professions is the amount of materials needed to make them, with huge disparities between them. To me it seems that random numbers were just thrown at each item. Piercing Potion needing EIGHT nightsahde and even Felix Fortuna needing NINE dittany - both these plants are EXTREMELY hard to get (as they are not tied to a specific mob) and take hours to get a good portion of. On the other end, you have foods such as the 'Dark Cocoacursed Delights VIII' (super catchy name btw) needing only 3 ashpodel - a plant you can get stacks of in only a couple of hours, and much more with a good group of people.
First of all, I would suggest to fix the distribution of both Dittany and Nightshade (possibly Wolfsbane as well but for now it seems okay). I know the goal was to make plants distribution seem unique but that doesn't require them to be so sparse and random. They could be placed around buildings, on more specific routes, in caves, near trees, by he sea, or on islands.
Secondly, the staff should take a look around the map and test how easy it is to get certain plants and mob drops, and tailor the requirements accordingly - hopefully they can look at drop rates to do this, as well as going to pre-known plant areas to estimate their number/concentration (I will leave a comment below with all of the locations, just in case they aren't already known).
Thirdly, the staff must take into account the possibility of failing profession cooking/brewing, which will remove all the used ingredients. While this shouldn't be focussed on overwhelmingly (as eventually people will perfect the technique), it should be considered for newer players who are less experienced.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 4: Fixing Herbology
Most people don't know where plants are. It's that simple.
One of the most frequent questions I see in chat is "Where is (*insert plant here*). Obviously this was done to give a sense of exploration but with Herbology no longer acting as a seperate entity to the other professions, it should be made easier to navigate the map to find them. One idea would be a GUI codex (incorporated into the existing Recipe Book) which tracks whether you have been to a location with a higher concentration of a certain plant - very similar to how Explorations work but with plants! This would mean the exploration sense would not be ruined but also would remind players of the best areas in which to get all their herbology goods!
Also I'd like to mention that there doesn't seem to be much reason to have plants at different levels right now... apart from just being awkward. Making all plants have the same level would mean that herbology can be done anywhere in the world and that all plants currently under level 70 wouldn't be completely useless to graduates. Obviously the ingredients would have to be balanced accordinly if this were to be done.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 5: Selling and Collecting
Okay, this step has been suggested many times already but I wanna go into more depth on why it should be done.
Many people have said this shouldn't be done because Potterworld should build an economy around the players and the distribution of wealth, rather than the spawning of it. I completely agree.
However, if Potterworld wants to reignite the desire to make professions items, but doesn't currently have the staff force to make any major changes, then this would be a great way to do it. This feature would simply involve selling potions to an NPC in return for gold (probably a lowish amount to continue to decrease inflation).
I do think if Potterworld has plans to update professions and incentivise them to be sold on the market, then they should eventually get rid of the selling to an NPC mechanic and allow the player-based economy to flourish in its place. Unfortunately, this would likely be a long way off.
If the staff team still isn't fond of this idea then another one would be collecting. Potentially there could be a GUI or book where every potion/food is categorised with its specific level. One you brew/cook all the professions items from that level, you can redeem some sort of prize (maybe gold, but even better: a collectable). The rewards would get better and better as you go up but eventually you would have the chance to have made ALL the professions items and get a MEGA prize such as an awesome wand, a broom appearance, a prefix, a super cool interactable collectable, or maybe a whole host of things (to be extra cruel, you could have this last reward require the trading in of all previous prizes - making it far more valuable).
This would be a kinda meh way of incentivising players to brew but it is far less effort than adding a new levelling system or completely revamping the whole of professions.
^
Alternatively, a system similar to Lacerum Incisis could be done with just one NPC that you can trade profession items in and it gives you points based on the difficulty of the potion. Eventually, once reaching a certain amount of points, you get a spell or a cosmetic (personally a PvP spell would be the most incentivising). There could be multiple tiers that you have to surpass to get to the grand prize, acting as a de facto levelling system. This would be my preferred way of doing things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 6: Fun Potions!
Now, I realise that there is currently only 1 Engineer right now, but this step is more for the future. Staff should never be afraid to add new and fun potions to break the mold of the currently boring and repetitive ones. There were LOADS of different cool effects in pre-Revelius professions that made them actually fun to use - even in Duelling. They had tornadoes, wigs, blinding ones, ones that would put messages on people's screens - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Potterworld shouldn't think that going back to these old potions and using the exact same effects makes them unoriginal or regressive; we all agree the old professions items were awesome and we'd love to see them make a return whenever possible! I'd certainly brew a potion that would send my friend flying in circles into the air!
Right now, potions and cooking items just feels so repetitive and all merge into one after a while. So it would be great to see some more experimental goods, even if only one is added each month because it would still be better than the current scenario.
Some of these potions could even have to be unlocked or discovered in different parts of the map or with quests etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 7: Focus on Professions!
Professions are a vital part of the game and making potions is a crucial aspect of any wizard's life. Professions could act as a great way to stimulate the economy with a greater distribution of goods and, in my opinion, it is the one thing that needs the most attention right now. There's so many options for the future and all it needs it a bit of creativity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, these 7 steps alone won't make potions completely active, but they are a great start. Eventually, potions probably needs to return to some kind of levelling system to add a feeling of progression (not as rigid as the one pre-Revelius though), but until the staff team feel comfortable to do that, these will at least show the playerbase that professions haven't been completely neglected.
Also, please don't feel a need to add all these steps simultaneously to the game in a big update. The whole point is that they are done one at a time and that's why the first ones are much easier than the last.
Thanks for Reading!
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