How to make crafting new and exciting without breking the bank and topping botters.

Hi everyone.

I know I am new and unduly vocal but I am spinning this off of a previous thread posted by another new player who used to play UO.

He (correctly) claimed that crafting is the sa eol' same ol'.

He is right.

So lets make some innovative suggestions to make it new and do my favourite thing--- make botter's lives a living hell.

Here is my suggestion that should make it new and fun without breaking the bank for the devs:

Make crafting interactive. Remove the RNG (as the other post suggested) and make it skill based.

A great example would be like picking locks in the Elder Scrolls game. Everytime youm raft something you have to do a miniskill game that will determine the outcome.

While this takes skill it also eliminates the need to have playrs craft 10000 items just "master" some craft. It would be inherent to the system and the player.

Once again (like the weighted coin arguement) this isnt something difficult to implement and would be something that makes this game standout.

Please post your ideas and feedback since we are ll in this together 8^)

 

Um this isn't a game where you craft to learn, don't know where you got that idea from.

The crafting itmes and if you get the chance to add some resources you cant , not much RNG to it????

 

I understand what the OP is saying.. I feel similar.

I'd like to see crafting as something you actually have to do in the game.. Not just click a couple buttons....
Exampe: In a Golfing game, you have to aim the swing, take into account the wind, choose the angle, then make sure you power the shot correctly... Everyone will eventually get it in the hole but some players will take better shots than others....

Is it possible that crafting a sword might utilize a similar system, where you have to stoke the fire and maintain the correct temperature of the forge... You have to line up the swing of the hammer, choose the correct power to swing... Possibly taking 20 - 50 blows? With the score at the end determining the stats and bonuses? This would make crafting something to take a lot of pride in.... It would make it a lot more fun instead of another roll of the dice to see if we were successful treadmill...

Blacksmiths, Tailors and other crafters could take pride in actually being some of the best crafters in the game and gaining reputations among the player base as crafting the best items....

Is there a way where people can mod or design some of the weapons? Can people craft and create their own designs? Is there a way to modify the design of the weapons in game? That would also be a very fun and innovative... I imagine the most expensive weapons and armour would be the best looking and the ones with the best stats....

Does anyone like ideas like those? There are a lot of options outside of the traditional, click and random chance of success........... I'm really hoping to see a lot of innovation in this game, not just the same way of doing things... More interaction... More creativity...

 

I love the golfing game analogy. This is what I meant. You nailed it when I could not.

 

I don't know any details, but I understand a crafting overhaul is right around the corner - none of the game's major systems are done yet. I understand crafters will be experiencing a new potential to change crafting outcomes by events popping up during the crafting of each item. The people I know who are really into crafting are very excited with the upcoming changes. And everything I've read about crafting says that Portalarium intends for virtually everything in the game to be craftable and the best items will be crafted items. Plus when crafted items are sold to vendors, half will be randomly placed into mob loot tables throughout the world. You could kill a skeleton and loot something you or a friend crafted (the crafter's name will be on the item).

 

K I agree with that concept TY

But those are more steps to complete so now oyu have to get the fire hot, fold the steal, etc, a lttle to complex

 

Here's the problem.. every archetype item would end up requiring it's own mini-game. That's a LOT of work.

Ok so you make all sword blades the same way.. what about hilts? Axe heads? Mace heads? Bowstaves? Cloth Boots? Leather Boots.. Chain boots.. plate boots.. all made differently where one mini-game does not fit even two of these examples and the list goes on and on with just what we have now. Never what's actually going in. Only a very small number of recipes are in right now. Maybe you could do it if Portalarium had a couple millions just to spend on crafting mini-games but they don't.

 

This forum is full of people with great ideas and people who just say things are impossible...

The crafting is boring and tedious...

 

I am of the opinion (as stated many times) that our crafting is still quite dull...Looking forward to testing events.

I loved crafting in Vanguard where you had to work thru conditions where your character would actually get hurt sometimes and have to work up quality of your product. Skill was a huge factor, both character skill and your own decision making skill. I know a lot of people do not like mini-games, but I think in crafting major items, that shouldn't be too painful...Perhaps cutting boards down could be a lot quicker to achieve...but when creating a big item like a desk or a sword, it shouldn't be a progress line and done...it should take some skill...

Well I'm a crafter by nature so kind of hard core thinker on that. Thus far looking up a wiki and adding ingredients to the table has seemed quite lacking to me...but again, things are still being added so hoping for much more

 

No one said impossible. Only pointed out the situation. Portalarium doesn't have the kind of budget or manpower to implement the suggestion properly.. so unfeasible sure, not impossible.

Crafting is one of those areas where different players have different preferences. Some want mini-games.. some very much do not want mini-games. I've heard people argue that mini-games would be tedious and too much work.. I've heard people argue they'd be more interesting and fun because they're more realistic. Etc etc..

But you must understand there are design and budget concerns attached to any idea no matter how good you might think it is.

 

Well, I don't see why we couldn't have a separate mini-game for each crafting table. So If you're cooking, there's a cooking mini-game. If you're smelting, there's a smelting mini-game. If you're smithing, there's a smithing mini-game.
What differentiates the mini-games within a table, is the items pictured on the game, but the game mechanics would be the same within that table, after all, we're always using the same tool, right? That sounds doable to me.

 

Why is it so easy to add a type of mini skill into every other game that has them?

People are asking for many features that are or are similar to those found in other games.

 

This sounds reasonable and should be something seriously considered by the devs.

 

If it was just one mini-game per table that'd be a lot easier to do but makes about as much sense as not having them at all if it is realism you're after.

Ok.. right now SotA's budget including the past two years tops off at around 6 million and a relatively small team. AAA titles who have all these nice fancy features can have very large teams and budgets sometimes in access of 80-100 million. Some features in all those other games, they spend more money on than Portalarium has spent on SotA to date.

All in all, Portalarium's doing an amazing job with what they have but they have to be weary of 'feature creep'. No matter how good an idea is.. how much we or they like it.. there's only so much time, so much manpower and so much money.

Mini-games at this stage would involve in the very least, animation, new UI and a new system to run it all and do the calculations.. One or two probably wouldn't be too bad but it would add up fast. It may be more feasible to do later on.. EP2 or 3? and also depending on how the completed crafting system looks.

Please don't misunderstand I'm not entirely opposed to mini-games depending on what they are and how they work, or looking for ways to make crafting more interesting but there are very good, legitimate reasons why we'd have to wait for a lot of things we'd like.. especially those things which haven't been promised.

Believe me.. if every last one of my own crafting ideas were going in.. you wouldn't (I hope) think it was boring. But a lot of them were just too expensive. I could say the same about other systems too. Honestly though I can't say what the final version of crafting will look like. R17 will introduce a crafting events system.. being pretty bare bones it probably won't help it feel any more exciting.. yet.. but we'll have to see.

 

This is very true, all the systems aren't in the game yet, crafting skills will count for outcome of events (R18)... We will see the events in R17...

The main reason there won't be any "mini games", other than decorative, is because that turns SotA into your standard item based game, where everyone no longer wants standard armor/weapon, but instead they want only the mini game created armor/weapons... So to keep the playing field level, every crafter has the same chance to create the same piece from a recipe (the only thing different is the name of the crafter) ... And skilfully applying their skills to the correct tree's...

 

I like the idea of 'interuptions' to the crafting process that can affect the quality or success of making the item.

Putting a mini game into the mix would become like hard work very quickly (for me anyway). How about processing the 200 ores you've collected....it could take hours. If it feels like work, it is work.

Some item's will always have a finite need; how many bed's are you going to buy compared to repair kits? So each crafting line needs to be capable of creating several neccesary consumable/ingredient items.

For none crafters, high end drops should be randomised and equal to high level crafted item's. Not better, one mob dropping a shield of uberness would wipe out shield sales overnight.

 

It is refreshing to see a post that offers new ideas instead of just bashing and negativity. Thank you for that!

I played Skyrim and am familiar with the lock-picking mini-game. I personally would prefer not to have a similar mini-game where RL agility with the gaming device is more important than skills that the avatar acquired in-game. A golf game is a simulation, a different kind of game than SOTA.

Having said that, if your idea to make crafting more interesting for the greatest number of players makes it into the game, I won't complain.

 

I think the idea here would be that increasing your character's skills would alter the way the mini-game is played, making it easier in various ways to succeed. Skyrim did this with the lock picking skill making the mini-game easier to accomplish successfully with each skill increase..

 

Just so that we are all on the same page here.

Crafting mini-games are mentioned by devs in several hangouts. IIRC for top tier but not for refinement. A first iteration 'events' are in the R17 release notes. You really want to read through the crafting bits there if you are planning a career. Criticals depending in lunar cycle sounds awesome and such crits asking for added resources you might have to get - fast. Not an easy thing to bot that.

Also producer XP is diminishing returns, from the R17 player instructions.
"Crafting an item for the first time awards a sizeable bonus to Producer Exp. The amount awarded for crafting an item decreases slightly each time the same item is produced."

Also ingredient attributes are kept throughout the process as seen fromR16 and continued in R17. So meteoric iron hilt and all that jazz.

 

What if crafting will be as interactive as combat?

Having crafting deck with combinations of glyphs to "forge" the item (or gather resource), adding different effects by triggering certain combos in real time.
That would make crafting exciting and let us avoid time-wasting monotonous grinding.