"...ways to make those recipes as interesting and diverse as possible."

"Thats all going to be up to B, but I'm sure he will be happy to hear ideas you guys have for ways to make those recipes as interesting and diverse and possible." -Lord British

This is of course from the Crafting Deep Dive of April 2, 2014. Three major themes I heard described as goals for the recipes in SotA are, diversity, interdependence, and logic. Logic and diversity could come into conflict depending on how those terms are understood. Let me explain what I mean. If I'm starting out as an aspiring craftsperson and am experimenting with recipes I may try some things that seem logical but what is that logic based on if not some semblance of reality? When logical approaches fail or there are no clear "logical" choices a player will go to Google and once the Wiki is bookmarked random experimentation is out the window. Adding diversity in tools and materials could make for clearer more logical choices between items when experimenting, but too much diversity could also stymie a player. It may be that the simplest solution which allows for experimentation and diversity of items/recipes would be to include crafting manuals as in game books that would not describe recipes, but would describe the tools and materials available and their uses or qualities as hints to guide experimentation.

There is often more than one way to achieve a goal when making a thing, but there is usually a better way. For a system that is meant to have a low skill beginning and a high skill end point I think it would make sense to have simpler less effective recipes at the low end and more complex ones at the high end. In carpentry for instance "milling" refers to cutting logs into pieces usable for the desired craft. There are different ways to do this depending on the item to be made. To put it simply, in milling lumber for furniture there are ways to mill the log which yield a high number of usable boards and another way to mill the lumber which yields a lower number of usable boards which are each more dimensionally stable and often more attractive as well. In the medieval period there were simple but crude ways to obtain usable lumber from logs and more sophisticated which improved efficiency or quality. It is also important to note that milling logs for furniture and milling logs for bowyery are two completely different things, but I will describe that in more detail in another post.

Currently there is only one tool required for most recipes. While that serves as a proof of concept I would like to see recipes that require combinations of multiple tools. For example, milling lumber into usable boards could be achieved simply by splitting a log with wedges (wood+hammer+wedges=timber bark ) and smoothing the split timbers into boards with a drawknife (timber+drawknife=board). This simpler method should be balanced to have a lower yield than higher level methods. This may not look simpler at a glance than using the milling table, but consider that using a sawmill and using a hammer are very different levels of sophistication. Use of the milling table should be a higher level perk, which gives access to recipes that provide a better yield from raw materials.

If carpentry is going to be economically relevant on its own rather than as a sub skill for smiths who need axe handles there will have to be a demand for higher quality items from higher level carpenters. It seems this could be achieved by locking certain recipes until a player reaches a certain skill level, or by adding tools and materials that can only be created/used by a higher level carpenter which are required for higher level recipes, or by both. Things which could be added to carpentry to create a more diverse set of combinations/advanced options:
Tools:
wedges
drawknife
mallet
gouge
Materials:
hide glue (from tanner)
quartered board (advanced milling recipe lower yield, high quality furniture items)
veneer (advanced milling recipe, very wasteful but useful for fancy marquetry/inlays)
(I could continue to expand this list but I don't want to get carried away.)

There seems to be a desire among the devs to make this game as realistic as possible while still being fun and fantastical. With that in mind it should be possible to reason your way through an in game puzzle without feeling the need to navigate away to a wiki or walkthrough. Obstacles are created when a player needs a certain minor item for a recipe, but there is no apparent reason why. Currently, when milling lumber players are required to add "chemicals". I don't understand the reason why these chemicals are necessary, but it does seem that from a game mechanic standpoint an item which must be purchased is the pattern, coal for the smith, salt for the tanner etc. I would suggest that the chemicals issue be addressed by either changing it to wax (lubricating the blade) or explaining why it is necessary in some kind of crafting manual that can be read in game.

Lastly in the name of diversity and interdependence, I would suggest that flux be added to some advanced smelting recipes so that higher quality materials can be made from the same ores while also creating a dependence between the smith and the alchemist for the flux. Flux could be used in the creation of certain finished items as well, such as in the tempering of weapons or tools or in forge welding. If a player brought an item to a smith with durability 0, coal, flux and a high skill level would be required to put its broken pieces back together. Perhaps a repair from 0, or broken, would involve a change in the item from xx/100 to xx/90 durability.

 

**Reserved for recipe ideas**