Developer feedback request, Crafting and mining: What are the essentials?

[Haze]

my apologies to whom ever said anything that resembles what I say.
The greatest craft system I ever seen was in UO, at least when I came back from a break I had on it. They had introduced a Bulk Order in a later patch in the UO saga. This made players create a great deal of armor to fill these orders, in return they would get rewards. cloth,hammers and sowing kits and then there are random rewards, trophy items. these items had their own limits and created very nice gear, you could get lucky and create a whole set that would be worthy of anything else in the game. I have not played UO in years so if this has changed then shame on them.

I believe a crafter with max skills and materials they should be able to create gear that would be just as good as any raiders. If it was my way, crafting > anything else. I believe the players should manifest what they want and make profit. only reason why UO succeeded in the crafting was because of the huge range of stats the gear hold. now I have no thoughts about how to obtain these materials but I would think some should be absurd to make and then others not so hard. it should depend, now if you want to rival the raiders gear I would agree that your mats should be as insane as farming for days.

[Pancak3s]

The worst crafting system by far goes to =


TA DA! = Lineage2

When you have to depend on farmers to FARM and FARM TONS of items to make gear .. causing prices to sky rocket and drive a farmer controlled economy... your leading towards disater/ebay/poop economy...


The best craft system i have done so far = WoW

Mining in WoW is not tedious,
anyone can who wishes can take it up and...
combine it with another profession leaving many possibilities..

Actually.. mining in WoW is not hard at all...and i DONT mind it!
When i do quests mines will be around here and there and it is VERY easy to get the amount of mats you need to craft your own gear... spending minimal cash at the auction house for mats you couldnt find/obtain



Honestly if you people are looking for a L2 based crafting system your just cruising for a brusing in your real life and in game wallet.

One thing i WOULD like to see is an optional AFK mining/item farming area on the idea of the crag mines in RF Online but with only non-trade/sell type items in order to raise personal funds

[Nagual]

justa few short and organized thoughts:

>>Crafting should be available to all (not class speciffic etc.)

>>There should be a number of options for things to craft (different proffesions).

>>In the spirit of Aion's great graphics, and intense detail i would say Player customizeable items should be a no-no (including coloring your armour)

>>It should be meaningfull - WoW system is not bad but half the professions are pointless as drops are more fun to get and are innevitably better than anything you can craft (soooo...what's the point?!?)

>>PLZ, and i mean this sincerely, PLZ don't make it all go into a machine and have stones, crystals, gems or whatever to upgrade them to +16 for example, instead have 16 choices of armour (for the certain lvl margin) available in the game which fit a different playstyle for example and so on. And for those who mentioned it earlier: dying your armour will not make you feel different, having a different armour will.

all my thoughts for now...

[Anuxinamoon]

I would definitely prefer amour variations even if it is just a re-texture on an reused mesh.

If you do the math for making every piece unique... 2 races, say there is 4 classes, each get a new lvl amour every 10 levels and each increments had 10 different types of looking amours with different stats for different play styles. *pant pant*

Say there is a lvl cap of 60, that means 60 armours x 4 x 2 = 480 different amours they have to make! If one amrour takes say 3 days to make actually if they normal map it it would take at least 8, that means it would take around 4000 days to make for one artist =D
Divide that by 10 (say they have 10 item artists working) and its just over a year to make all that amour. =O

I wouldn't mind if they released a quarter at launch then 1 month after another amour batch and so on and so forth. Adding more content with items and amour is always a boost to player happiness =D

[TwilightAngel]

Originally Posted by Anuxinamoon

I would definitely prefer amour variations even if it is just a re-texture on an reused mesh.

If you do the math for making every piece unique... 2 races, say there is 4 classes, each get a new lvl amour every 10 levels and each increments had 10 different types of looking amours with different stats for different play styles. *pant pant*

Say there is a lvl cap of 60, that means 60 armours x 4 x 2 = 480 different amours they have to make! If one amrour takes say 3 days to make actually if they normal map it it would take at least 8, that means it would take around 4000 days to make for one artist =D
Divide that by 10 (say they have 10 item artists working) and its just over a year to make all that amour. =O

I wouldn't mind if they released a quarter at launch then 1 month after another amour batch and so on and so forth. Adding more content with items and amour is always a boost to player happiness =D

Well that nice ideal in RFO I think every 2 lvl or sumthing like that you get new armor and every 5 lvls you get new wep... but liek how you daid it where we can chang the color or styel it would be nice

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Anuxinamoon

I wouldn't mind if they released a quarter at launch then 1 month after another amour batch and so on and so forth. Adding more content with items and amour is always a boost to player happiness =D

That sounds like a good idea to us, the rabid fans, but to the developers...they'd probably feel like they were releasing a half-finished product. Non-fans would probably feel a little cheated too.

[Elisandre]

I would hope for a crafting system less like Lineage 2 (which I consider terrible) and more like FFXI.

Why?

Having to amass 3000 threads to sew 13 pieces of fabric and 2000 suede into, say, a shirt, then on top of that having to purchase a "one time use" recipe, is completely ridiculous. Who are we making clothing for, King Kong?

That's not even taking into account the fact that you'd have to EXP-grind a dwarf to be able to craft your own item, or be stuck getting help from someone else.

In FFXI, you level crafting skill completely differently (by crafting a lot of items at a given level, then taking a test every 10 levels, to be able to craft higher and higher items)... it gives you a break from the exp grind, not just another exp grind on a different character. You could be a level 1 character and a master crafter, if you so wished.

And it's fun being able to make your character a pastry chef on the side, just because...

That being said, I loved the mining, harvesting, and fishing, but also the fact that you could get item drops from all mobs regardless of your level. It made it possible to gather your materials and craft on your own (no outlevelling your needs), which I found incredibly rewarding. Of course, for higher level crafts, you would have to cooperate with crafters with different specialisations than yours and trade materials.

Being able to sign your items, or rarely create a higher quality item with better stats than the regular one added a nice twist.

Not having to collect physical recipes, never needing more than 8 or so items for a recipe, and the system stopping you from mixing imcompatible elements also made the process a lot more painless. I lost track of the number of hours I spent running around, mining, then melting the ores into ingots on the spot. Thinking about it, I almost want to reactivate my account just to do that!

The one thing the FFXI system could use improvement on is balance: more useful end-game items being craftable, and less "junk" recipes no one needs but has to make anyway to level. I also like the idea of crafting purely decorative items, or perhaps being able to craft items of different colors, by adding dye to the materials.

[Axels]

Well Thank for you opinion....Ruhne....MUHAHAHAHAHa! you finally post! Speak your mind girl! GOGOGOGOGOGOGO!! *Does DBZ-isk styled powerup(meaning it's going to take a few hours)*

[Andarel]

Here's something, what about npc crafters?

I'm a big, scary archangel. I have -way- more important things to do than chop down trees, dig up rocks, or stitch my own clothes. In place of, or simply in addition to a more traditional crafting system, here's my idea:

Basic materials -can- be harvested, for those who enjoy it, but can also be bought/sold via NPCs at a stable price. Rarer mats would be quested for, a la "The rare ore Somethinginium, required for forging the item you seek, is mined by the fallen from the depths of Mt Something-or-other and carefully guarded by Wicked McNasty..." etc.

Once our heroes get all the mats needed for their item, they bring it all to a Divine Smith(or tailor, carver, jeweller), hand over the items and some hard-earned cash(or reputation? Similar to the Conquest system of FFXI, since Angels aren't generally associated with material wealth), specify a few cosmetic details(already mentioned things like color and personal decorations) and come back in a few days of game time.

More skilled smiths would charge more, but be able to apply more customization and craft more powerful items.

If paired with a traditional skill-based grind-ey crafting system, this could keep everyone happy while also keeping the economy stable against RMT.

[Anuxinamoon]

Basic materials -can- be harvested, for those who enjoy it, but can also be bought/sold via NPCs at a stable price. Rarer mats would be quested for, a la "The rare ore Somethinginium, required for forging the item you seek, is mined by the fallen from the depths of Mt Something-or-other and carefully guarded by Wicked McNasty..." etc.

That sounds kind of like what GW does and its a really good idea actually. At least then you have an option as to weather you want to harvest or not and still proceed with the game.

[Ecronyte]

I love the mini game idea. I would like for the mini-games to relate directly to what you are doing. And the higher your skill lvl the easier the games are.

I also like the idea of mixing things in different proportions, creating a slightly different item. Adding a lot more steel to a sword would make it heavier and thus swing more slowly, but would do more damage. Maybe adding special rare ingredients gives the weapon a special ability, or different appearance. That sort of thing.

I would like to see the harvesting of materials be somewhat more engaging. Having items drop from any old monster, or simply clicking on VERY obvious outcrops of minerals/herbs, just doesn't feel like anything but a dull formality. I don't expect something like mining, or fishing, or picking herbs to be a thrill a minute. But they should at least feel like an activity and not just a mouse click.

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by Anuxinamoon

That sounds kind of like what GW does and its a really good idea actually. At least then you have an option as to weather you want to harvest or not and still proceed with the game.

Imo this would result an easier crafting method - its kinda bad for the mmo experience.

[Andarel]

Originally Posted by lyankyj

Imo this would result an easier crafting method - its kinda bad for the mmo experience.

Hmm... Can you explain your logic here? I'm afraid I don't quite follow -how- it's bad for "the mmo experience."

[Delgoth]

To answer Andarel's Question:

WARNING: sorta long, grab a coffee!

It is bad for the MMO expirience because it promotes a gold driven crafting system, instead of one that involves skill.

I might be speaking from a biased standpoint, but i believe the crafting system should involve WAY more skill than any MMO like WoW.

example: So long as you get Shiro's Blades (after completeing the main mission in GWF), you can then sell them for 25K, which computes into money to be spent on rather inexpensive materials. Where was the skill in that? Beating the easiest mission out there, getting a great item, selling it to a sin to make some K, then buying over 500 iron ingots...no thanks.

The only redeeming quality that GW has is a set economy. No matter how much someone could grind and gather mats, the vendor will always be there to regulate prices. If you had 250 iron ingots (a full stack), and you could buy at the vendor for 4K, and you were trying to sell them for over