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LF a Crafting/Creation MMO
I'm looking for an MMO where i can craft items that actually matter, and can "make a living" doing so. Ideally I'd like a game with a moderate amount of grind, and where I can impact the game by playing.
Games I have played (with my comments):
A Tale in the Desert telling 4: This game has a lot of what I want, but is not worth the cost. It also required far too much time, and I don't particularly care for Teppy or the way he manages his team. I know the tale is in telling 5 now (4 on bastet) but I will not give another dime to pay Teppy's rent, while his developers work for free.
SWG: This game's crafting system was wonderfully complex, but changes in the game have made crafting (in my opinion) less worth it. I have bad feelings for SOE, as I am a vet, but this game also has a lot of what I like. Pre-NGE, I loved that almost all the things you used were player made, which would be awesome for a game i am looking for.
Aion: the crafting system is interesting, but the game is not for me. I know that doesn't really help, but the ability to "crit" on crafting is nice.
FFX1: wonderfully mysterious crafting (if you're not using guides) and you can actually make useful things. I also liked the way skills levelled in the game, and (not part of crafting I know) you retained the weapon, defense, and magic skills you had when changing jobs (though their caps were lowered).
WoW: Barely deserves to be mentioned from a crafting perspective as its super simple. I don't mind the resource system used (simple), but would want more from crafting than plug in recipes and always getting the same thing out (I know alchemy and the like have a chance for procs, but it's not the same). Also until you get to epic items, most of it is useless, and hard to produce at profit. I also am not keen on having to raid to get advanced recipes.
Anyone have any recommendations for me? Free is obviously preferred, but not a requirement as long as the game is good. I've heard decent things about Rift as a game, but not much about its crafting system. I've also considered returning to SWG, but I don't have the heart to .
Comments
Nah don't bother with Rift, I don't think you will find what you are looking for there. Please don't go back to SWG!
Have you tried Wurm online? Great game, it is free, java based, but decent graphics. Great crafting/building game. There is a listing here on the site for it. Definitely worth a check out if you have not yet.
Also, even though the game is having some problems, you might want to check out Xsyon. Much like Wurm or ATITD, crafting is meaningful. Wondeful game if the launch issues get worked out. It's $40 though, but if you buy now or soon, I believe you still get two free months of game time.
There's also Mortal Online and Darkfall. Both with good crafting.
Mortal Online is perfect for people who desire crafting as a living because there are different paths you can take. It isn't free to play because you have to buy the game and then subscribe but there is a 2 week free trial and all you have to do is download the game and make an account.
You can specilize your skills to learn to learn the lore of certain materials so you craft with them and make better quality stuff.
Or you could be the guy who gathers all the materials and if you choose to specilize in stone rather than wood then there is another branch you can go where you learn how to make different kinds of stone material out of the basics.
Many ways you can go with this and it could someday be your craftsmenship that puts your guild on top in a war to control a territory or something like that.
I have played Wurm, and what you can do with a free account wasn't really all that fun (plus I found the UI horrible).
Xysyon seems interesting, but also seems like a game I would need to have friends in to get anywhere. Its on my maybe list.
Downloading MOrtal Online trial now to see what it has...does sound interesting, and if I'm useful all the better.
Darkfall also seems interesting and will be looked at after Mortal Online. Wonder how well it will run on my laptop (my prefered gaming method as of late). I do like a lot of what is mentioned for this game. Is it forced PVP?
You will have to PvP quite a bit in both Darkfall and MO, there is no avoiding it.. Xsyon is also FFA PvP, but it's a little safer, but PvP is not the focal point, as it is in DF and MO. Also, all three, Xsyon, DF, and MO, it is nice to have friends, but it is possibly to live a somewhat solo lifestyle. In MO and Xyson, you will have to rely on other players in some way or another because of the way the economies work. Darkfall less so, considering you can make everything yourself eventually.
MO is broken so I wouldnt bother. Both Darkfall and Xsyon have much brighter futures as far as longevity in my opinion.
Remember Old School Ultima Online
Ryzom just went no time limit trial.
As far as crafting goes, it has 5 or 6 categories, with branching with each category. Rough, rough estimate is needs 150,000 mats to max out one category. However, maxing out one category will somewhat level up the others, so you won't have to start at the bottom on the others. Something like months of dedicated playing to max one category if you aren't guilded.
You get mats from hunting or foraging. Animal mobs really only drop craft material or quest items as far as I can tell. No "useless" items. For foraging, you need to track, prospect, and then extract resources. You can have three pack mules following you, so some people spend hours and hours in the wilderness foraging for mats.
As for importance, I haven't played that long, but apparently the best crafted items far exceeds what you can get in a raid. Skills, both magic and fighting, depend on the quality of weapon, so you have to upgrade your stuff or else new skills don't even work. Complaints in game may be that there aren't enough unguilded high level crafters, and guild crafters normally don't sell to outside due to scarcity.
The problem with this game is population. With the new free trial, who knows.
Ahh yeah, forgot about Ryzom. I did not get too far in the game, but the crafting did seem in depth. I want to go back and try it out some more actually. Check that one out too OP, athough the interface is a little wierd and graphically it looks old, seemed like a fun game.
It's old, but very charming. The way the animals interact with you and come to you and sniff you, funny.
The game is a bit clunky though. Maybe it's because of all the trial players, but it has game lag like the old days. You know, you hit and kill the mob, but it stays alive for half a second longer and hits you even though it is out of hp, almost everytime.
Edit: Game has item decay, so crafting will always be important. Unfortunately, I'm having to triple major in craft right now because it hard to find anybody who sells stuff. Of course, I'm not in a guild yet because I haven't subbed.
1) Fallen Earth (i believe there is a trial as well)
2) and surprised no one mentioned it as of yet, FF14
Assuming you go after the second,keep in mind you will have to wait a week for it,as currently due to the events having occured in Japan SE has its servers down.
You might as well check out Ryzom since it's gone F2P. IMO, the crafting is second only to pre-cu SWG.
No offence, mate, but i found FF14 most horrible MMORPG ever made. It designed for PS3 so lots of menus and other strange things for PC. Even to equip skill to your action bar you can't just drag and drop it! You have to click through like 3 or 4 menus for that. Questing there looks like looooong walk (like 10 mins real time), cutscene (read a wall of text), cutscene (another wall of text), go back (another 10 mins), cutscene (yeah, wall of text), hooray you done you quest!
If you can wait a year or so, you may start looking at ArcheAge.
I'veplayed Ryzom at some point, I don't recall why It didn't agree with me, but I will try it again.
I don't mind pvp, but dying 1000 times to get anything done is far from fun (it also means that I have to spend even more time levelling combat related skills instead of crafting). It also depends on how broken the combat system is, if one template or strategy defeats everything else, or you have to grind out combat skills forever to be able to defend yourself, the point of being a non-combat character is quickly lost (its also not fun for anyone to have to have a bodyguard to do basic things). I guess buying stuff on the market is always an option, but then I have the WoW problem of being a character that sits by the auction house all day.
If FF14 is anything like FF11, then the interface is what ruins the game.
Also, how are the economies/how easy is trading in Ryzom and DF? Auction houses and the like are vastly preferred over things like personal item shops and the like.
besides mentioned games (especially ryzom) i would recommand:
haven & hearth (www.havenandhearth.com) - something like wurm, free, graphics is decent (but only 2D), UI is fine
istaria - crafting a bit like ryzom, only less complex, unlimited "trial" with human race char (with some restriction like not able to own a plot of land etc.)
vanguard - P2P game with unfortunatelly no dev support and low population (in BIG world), but with great crafting process (minigame)
So far, it's been easy for me. You go up to any vendor, click sell to others, set the percentage markup, and that's it. No fee, and you can "retrieve" it at anytime. What I'm not sure of is whether it is region specific, like if I want to buy something, I have to check the vendor in the same city where you put it up. Maybe someone more experience can chime in.
I do know that to buy a weapon, you have to check the weapon merchant, etc, but you can do filters and all that. It's buyout only, no bidding.
As far as the economy, I think it suffers because of low population. Everytime I put up helmets for sell on the newbie island, it gets sold out because no one else does it.
Tried HAven and Hearth...found it fairly interesting game to play, but after logging off for an hour to eat lunch and take care of things around the house, I logged back in with all my stuff gone. Managed to travel a bit (getting knocked out twice by animals) and eventually found an apple tree I'm going to make my new base of operations (food ftw). Still haven't found any rabbits or small critters to kill for bones, but its an interesting game...guess I'll have to grind up to yeomanry so I can plot out my land to prevent people from just randomly destroying everything (or does that never stop?).
Downloading Ryzom in the meantime, crafting seems interesting but if the pop is not there there's little point to playing.
DF is on a maybe, but I will try it.
Any other recommendations?
Well, H&H just got its map wiped, so we're all pretty much on the same playing field. They also changed the way you gain LP, to a more... non exploitable(?) method. To be honest with you, I'm not too fond of the changes as they are actually counter intuitive and not scaled properly (adding an element of waiting to an already slow game), but its still H&H so go check out the updates page on the forum before you play again.
Xsyon is the game I would choose. Give it a couple of weeks though for them to get through the launch and get a couple of things straightened out.
I self identify as a monkey.
I also would suggest Xsyon for crafting. In MO you might be needed more but your character will only be a crafter. Fallen Earth also has a great crafting system and running around finding resources reminds me a lot of SWG - but everyone has a crafter or knows one so you won't be "needed".
As mentioned above. . see how Xsyon gets through its first week. They changed a lot last minute as far a skill gains etc.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Xsyon is a good game for crafting. There is combat but the main basis of the game is around crafting and design of your city. The economy is all player run and the game is designed in way that the economy is an integral part of the game. They are about to stop taking preorders which allows you to play now. The official release is set for about 2.5 months from now.
Everquest 2 is great for interaction but if ya really want a huge ammount of options you could try Istaria or Mabinogi.
I still have anger issues against SOE, so EQ of any form is out.
Haven and Hearth is something I will keep poking at, (No more animal encounters, and still no rabbits/chickens, but I found a bunch of apple trees so I should be ok. Still having issues getting enough LP to be able to do much)
I've got Ryzom downloaded so I'm going to see how fun it is. If not, MO/DF.
H&H seems like it could be a fun game if the ridiculously slow LP gains are ironed out, I might check it out again later (finally did get a couple rabbits for a bone saw and hooks, but the new method of item aquisition (i.e. having to find all the components before being able to see the pattern for something) makes things very difficult for a new player. plus I'm not sure if some of the things I'm just doing wrong, or if they are bugged. For instance, I get one unit of clay and that's it no matter how much I dig, or how far away I go (i have had to almost cross the map to get more, which is ridiculous considering how much stuff needs a lot of clay). I also am unable to plow/beat down dirt to make way for cobblestone or buildings. Not neccesarily starving to death because of apples and nuts, but that's not going to buff any abilities, and I don't think I'm going to get very far in this game.
Ryzom is...interesting...but the stanza/ability thing is strange, and I'm not certain I like it all that much. Crafting is solid, and that might make me stick around. Still experimenting.
nobody has mentioned eve.
in eve nearly everything is player crafted and when you die your stuff blows up meaning crafted items are ALWAYS in demand as well as resource gatherers.
only problem with eve is the notoriously dastardly learning curve. go into it with patience.
as far as non linear mmo games it's hands down the best of the bunch.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
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VGTheory: ad ryzom - here (http://en.ryzomnomnom.com/wiki/Crafting) is great description of craftimg in ryzom (you also find there link to harvesting)