Vanadiel Crafters' Compendium: First BetaFollow

The Crafters' Compendium is like an encyclopedia for crafters. It's meant to make crafting easier. It's meant to be printed. This is a beta version which means it's not done yet. Cost data is from Valefor November 2005. Use at own risk.

There are eight chapters to the Compendium, one for each craft (no separate fishing, sorry). These are static versions of the chapters. (Word doesn't like saving dynamic docs with the # of links this has.)

Downloadable chapters (each about 1-1.5 MB)
Alchemy
Bonecraft
Clothcraft
Cooking <<< new version with appendix and some fixes (not in ZIP;corrected link)
Goldsmithing
Leathercraft
Smithing
Woodworking

Here are all eight chapters in one ZIP file (1.3MB)

Instructions
Simply open the Word document of your choice and print. Some have 2 columns, some 3. I can't decide which is better - please tell me which you like, and change it if you want.

If you want to play with the update features, or see the underlying database (2 Excel spreadsheets), download this ZIP file with all eight dynamic chapters and two spreadsheets (9MB) Just be warned: it has sharp teeth and bites.

Enjoy and please post feedback, suggestions, errors, questions, etc.


Edited, Thu Nov 10 18:33:24 2005 by Jehebbyo

Edited, Sun Dec 4 23:37:19 2005 by Jehebbyo

Edited, Mon Dec 26 21:44:01 2005 by Jehebbyo

Frequently Asked Questions.

Q: Why not use online databases (see next question)?
A: This can be printed out so you don't have to go online and look things up while you are playing. It also includes cost data not generally available online.

Q: How does this differ from the Vana'diel Cookbook?
A: The cooking chapter is Vana'diel Cookbook version 3, but with more recent prices. The other chapters are "Cookbooks" for other crafts.

Q: (Someone's gonna ask:) Does this include the Dec 12 updated recipes?
A: Unfortunately not yet (nor the mini-update before that). See my post from Dec 18 below.

Edited, Sun Dec 18 13:01:28 2005 by Jehebbyo

Edited, Sun Dec 18 13:02:33 2005 by Jehebbyo

It includes the prices which is much more helpful than a list without them.

Rate up.

Very nicely formatted and dynamic documents. Great Job, I can see you have spent a lot of time working on this.


I do have a suggestion though, you list all the recipes in alphabetical order, this is fine if you know what you are looking for. However, I think there might be benifit to adding an Index or Appendix, that briefly lists just the final products in order of Skill Cap for that craft, and maybe its cost for NQ if known and then the page number its on... though the page number is really going out on a limb, it really isn't necessary given the alphabetical order the recipes are in.

Again, this is a great "For Print" set of documents.

Thank you.

Bump - all documents now updated with complete info and update stuff taken out. Updates work but the number of links required messes up saves... been doing that for 5 months now and I give up...

Hope the static files are useful though. I'll still be adding appendices and making them look nicer.

By the way, half the files are 2-columned, half 3-columned. I'm interested in which people like more.

Edited, Thu Nov 10 00:30:25 2005 by Jehebbyo

You are my hero. I have been using your cook's guide for a long time now. I would be lost without it. Makes life so much easier.

Achilles,

Great question. If you are using the cookbook chapter, v2.3 Vana'diel Cookbook is still much more complete (though the pricing here as you suggest is less than a week old). Replacing A-Z would be just fine, or you could wait until I've redone the appendix for this one. The final "non-beta" version will have appendices for all the different crafts. The cookbook appendices will be the same as the Vana'diel Cookbook, but with updated efficiencies.

I also might add the 8 or so new cooking recipes if I get motivated enough.

I went ahead and did the appendices for the cooking chapter so it is up to date with Vana'diel Cookbook. I also noticed that some of my guild point info was off so that's been fixed.

Note the updated cooking chapter is *only* in the separate link, not the zip.

First. Thanks! This is really a very useful resource for someone like me who refuses to use the windower and doesn't have a second computer to look up recipes while I'm in game. I've used the Cooking chapter for a couple months now and love it. In fact, I was using it over the weekend while working on some cooking GP and thought I'd make a suggestion.

Is there a way that you could include information on where to aquire the foods that some NPCs do sell, like you do for ingredients. For instance, the item I needed to cook for guild points was Roast Mutton. This can be crafted from scratch no problem, but can also be bought from NPCs in Jeuno, Bastok and from the guild in Windy...with Jeuno and Bastok prices being significantly cheaper than either the guild or the cost of ingredients from NPC/AH. These latter points required me logging off and looking up Roast Mutton on Somepage. If it were all included in your guide, it would be all inclusive for my needs.

Ok, that's all. Thanks again. As it is, it's certainly the most useful piece of gamer-produced literature I've used to date.

Yes, I realize this is an old post.

The llinks for all the zipped books are unavailable. Anyone out there know another site these books are hosted on?
I'm looking for the Smithing one the most.

Thanks

let me know if you need an alternate host / mirror, i've got around 25GB of unused bandwidth... (from my hosted webserver which i love X3 ) send me a PM if interested.

To help out those that aren't a big fan of msword, here are the files in PDF format created from the dynamic files and these are more search friendly. Complete props goes to the author and contributors for the invaluable information contained in these guides.

Alchemy
Bonecrafting
Clothcraft
Cooking
Goldsmithing
Leatherworking
Woodworking


Edited, Sun Apr 30 18:59:43 2006 by blazingskull

I'm not sure how you have the prices figured but it might be more useful if you made separate appendixes for ingredients where the price is constant (from standard npcs) and another for ingredients where the prices shift (whether because of differences from server to server or if they're only purchaseable at the guilds)

um...Brady Guide Powns this...

/sarcasm+5!


But seriously, this was AWSOME! Thanks so much for all your time and effort. I wish/hope that this can be added to the useful links sticky!

Can anyone help me out, I want to get ahold of this book but none of the links work. No site available. Please I would love to have the help and knowledge including in this information. Thank you

it seems like a great idea though. Should get a team to update it, and rerelease.