The "no need of bad crafters" issue

Making crafting take a lot of time would fix the problem of GM crafters being able to make large quantities of desireable items, but it would in my opinion also make crafting much less fun and less accessible to casual players. I'm not saying that crafting the same item 500 times is fun either, but there has to be a better solution.

If every basic weapon takes 5 minutes to craft, what do I do in the meantime while I'm crafting? I think someone suggested a minigame to pass the time while forging an item, but I have to ask if you can honestly think of a minigame that wouldn't become mind numbingly tedious after going through it a few dozen times, not to mention hundreds or even thousands of times?

Crafting taking time is realistic for sure, but I've found that too much realism can really make a game less enjoyable. Personally I have a hard time believing that more than a small fraction of the playerbase would consider it fun to play a very in-depth blacksmith simulator where we go through every step of the crafting process just like in the real world. I mean next thing you know, we'll have a minigame for paying property taxes as well. (not trying to be rude, just trying to make a point)

Games like Eve Online have made it so that when you start manufacturing an item, a timer starts and then you can do other things in the meantime, and it does seem to work quite nicely. The problem is that this doesn't make any sense in a medieval setting where our characters are supposed to be doing the crafting by hand.

The truth is, I don't really see the problem. Most games do have some sort of crafting timer anyway. Using the ringmail example mentioned earlier: if a novice blacksmith can create rings that are used to create a ringmail, and each ring takes X seconds to craft, then a GM blacksmith that wants to craft a large quantity of ringmails would still be better off buying said rings from the novice crafter than creating them himself, as he'd be saving time. Then again, maybe I'm just missing something?

 

You miss the point a bit, it seems.

The point, in my opinion is, that if i spend hundreds of hours blacksmithing, i should be able to craft better stuff than rendom joe Blacksmith that spend 5 minutes crafting some stuff and put them on his vendor.

 

I'm sorry, but on the contrary, you missed my point.

I'm all for GM crafters creating the best equipment. In fact, I actually quite liked crafting in UO. In other word, I don't think it's a problem that raising the crafting skill takes long and I don't think that novice crafters are useless (if implemented correctly), my main gripe is with the suggestion that every specific item should take a long time to craft. That is, if crafting a basic weapon takes 5 minutes and I have 30 minutes of playtime on the average day, would I rather spend that time crafting 6 swords or hunting with my friends for 30 minutes? For me the answer is quite easy. On the other hand if crafting an item is relatively quick like in most other games, I can craft the swords for myself and my friends and spend the remaining time hunting with my friends (just a quick example).

 

The more I think about it, making things take a while just for the sake of padding out the process is nothing more than a Band-Aid fix to an arterial problem. People often don't enjoy the crafting process because there really isn't much to do. The only game that comes close to offering engaging crafting was vanguard. During the crafting process, scenarios might occur that would require player action to overcome problems or something. You couldn't just select the item, set the desired quantity and click craft and go read a chapter in a book while waiting for the process to finish. You had to PLAY the crafting aspect.

Resource gathering is engaging in that the player actually has to get out there, look for the nodes, and mine them, or hunt the animals, kill them and then skin them. It isn't just sitting there and watching an animation loop over and over again.

 

Vanguard crafting was epic. Even I was never able to max out my crafting skills in that game. It literally would take a year to max out any 1 crafting profession...which was a bit of a grind, but the rewards were pretty good while you were crafting in reguards to crafting gear etc.

I don't really think crafting should take 5 minutes per item, but I would like to see something more than just click and it's done crafting...boring to me. I like to work a bit and have some control of what kind of quality the item I'm making has.

 

Well this is a matter of preference. If you like going hunting, you can buy swords from a blacksmith and go hunting the full 30 mins.

As I said before, I think it's very important to limit the production rate, in order to make crafting more valuable, and crafters more required (instead of everybody having a second account with a GM blacksmith). Both limiting modes could be used:

• "Casual" crafting: anything you do comes out immediately, with average quality (according to your craft level). You have a cooldown before crafting again, during which you can do other things.
• "Serious" crafting: you have to pay attention to the crafting process, through a sort of mini-game. Takes actual time; if you do it correctly, you get better results than average.

 

Another thing that is a must for crafting viability is item degradation.

Not as a death penalty, but through wear and tear from EXTENSIVE use... By extensive I mean that average quality degradable items should have enough integrity to last a full 24 hours of constant use... In other words, if I whacked something with an average quality sword for 24 hours STRAIGHT it would break.

Here would be the integrity scale:
Abysmal Quality - 9 hrs
Very Low Quality - 12 hrs
Low Quality - 16 hrs
Average Quality - 24 hrs
High Quality - 36 hrs
Very High Quality - 48 hrs
Exceptional Quality - 60 hrs

If I am a blacksmith, I could hire an assistant (NPC) to open up automated repair ability for my shop. As long as I keep him stocked with materials, he can keep the customers' needs satisfied, whether I am in the shop or not. That would help a great deal with the whole "Do I spend time making swords or go hunting with friends?" question.

An assistant would have different degrees of responsibility, which would determine daily wage requirements.

Deg 1 - Sales - He handles only sales transactions for items that the shop owner has designated for sale. - 4%
Deg 2 - Service - In addition to sales responsibilities, the assistant can service worn equipment. - 5%
Deg 3 - Repair - In addition to service responsibilities, the assistant can repair broken equipment - 6%
Deg 4 - Forging - In addition to repair responsibilities, the assistant can forge new equipment. - 10%

Deg means the degree of responsibility. the percentage is how much of each transaction goes to the assistant. Owner decides what degree of responsibility the assistant will have.