Crafting Mechanics

I really enjoyed the mini game associated with crafting in EverQuest 2. It was timing based, and the order in which you fired off your skills affected the quality and the level of your item. This was more interactive and as a result, made the crafting process more rewarding.

If there were some sort of mini game associated with crafting, I think it would be more engaging.

 

Never played EverQuest 2, but Mabinogi had something similar; Whenever you crafted, you had to play a brief, simple minigame to complete the item. Failure meant a bad item. Success meant a good one. Perfection meant a higher-level one. It was an okay system, though not enough to get past the piles of grind they throw into becoming good at crafting. Korean MMOs, it's what they do.

 

Though our crafting won't be "game-based" it will be "recipe-based", meaning you need to have learned (or discovered somewhere) the correct recipe to make better and better items...

This recipe would include not only the base elements you need to craft the item, but also the tools required once you get to the crafing table. Tools might be able to be used many times, although they could eventually wear out and need to be repaired or re-purchased. The base elements needed (strips of lumber, boards, nails, etc.) would be consumed during the crafting process when used at a crafting table. Failure to use the correct recipe might result in the wasting of material elements used during the failed attempt.

An added level of complexity comes with a secondary crafting skill that will be required in some cases to produce the things necessary to build with. An example of this would be a lumber milling skill that would be needed (at a saw table) to turn logs (gathered by chopping trees in the forest), into boards, and further cutting boards down into smaller strips of lumber.

At a wood crafting table (see concept render below), a player might use several stips of lumber and a board, with nails, and perhaps glue, along with a few tools (undetermined), to create the final product of a simple chair (which the player could then use to decorate his or her house)...

This is still a work in progress, but you get the idea.

Scottie ^_^

 

What would be nice is if you have to find a recipe, and that recipe makes a chair. For me to make it takes 2 planks and 6 dowels but the next guy s is different. so everyones way to make a chair is different not a set way. do that for every thing you craft, that way you wont have 100 people making chairs or swords you must find a recipe first, and you cant trade them. I hated in WoW how you could train crafting in about 2-6 hours.

 

Actually, I think recipes should be able to be traded. This then opens a whole new facet of the economy. Say there's a rare recipe in some ruins that shows how to craft a better sword with a blade that never breaks. This is a powerful enhancement, so there would be much risk to get that reward. If a recipe can be traded then it means you have two choices; you can have someone else find it for you or you can get it yourself. Having the option of someone else collecting that rare item for you means you have more freedom to live an in-game life as strictly a crafter without ever having to swing a sword.

 

I think recipes should be discoverable through experimentation, whether they are available any other way or not.

 

Agreed. It seems like it should be possible for instance that an experienced blacksmith could breakdown a magical sword and test it to rediscover some lost way of folding steel to make it harder, while a mage might be able to experiment on it and discover how to recreate the rare enchantment on it that allows the wielder to swing it with the same speed of a dagger.