The first thign I would do is to allow crafting to be a mini game and not collect x amount of things and you immediatgely make one of the same items as every one else has in game.
i would make it so that one can give items certain attributes, maybe some negatives for some plusses.
I would include a deterioration for in all gear.
I would make it so that there was a smaller range between "best gear/items" and "worst gear/items". This way lesser gear isn't vendor trash.
Crafters couuld make weapons/armor/siege equipment but also clothing, potions (and I would make it so potions were not something you cuold swig during combat or at laest not while someone was beatign on you) boats, ships, fishign rods, housing and housing items, etc.
I would make it so everyone could craft but not everyone could be a master crafter.
Oh, you're talking about SWG before the devs destroyed the game.
The crafting in classic SWG is the best of all games i have played, better than EQ2, Vanguard, Istaria, EvE etc.
It had one flaw, that was the resources at some point become unusable bcs of the random attributes each resource got when generated.
That is ok but it had a problem:
You ever had huge numbers of leftover resources you could not mix with similar resources bcs of the different random numbers.
I dont know if they ever changed it but the solution is to enable crafters make a pool of similar leftover resources and adjust the attributes appropriately to the amount of each resource in the pool so you get a usable amount of resources out of it again and must not waste it.
Its not only the crafting mechanics that made classic SWG crafting that good but the harvesting was the best of all games.
Not wasting time to hit stones over and over again with a pickaxe but exploring, prospecting the areal looking for god spots setting up your harvesters was a great gameplay.
Also the vendor system was great - show off your stuff in the public vendors everyone could access and lead them to your personal shop.
That's right, players created their own cities with shops that displayed what they were selling. Players meticulously placed their guns, armor, and other items they were selling in their stores; something that would normally require a developer to manually place every object on the map, instead the player places them. Out of necessity, not decoration like your playing some lame Sims2 game.
It's called PLAYER CREATED CONTENT, and it means exactly how it sounds.
The old SWG economy system, mining system, and merchant system meshed together to form a real simulated community of PLAYER CREATED CONTENT. And if you take one link out of this chain it sort of all falls apart, like allowing loot drops.
In my ideal MMO, everything in the game would be craftable - equipment, buildings, dungeons, landscapes, monsters.
So basically you would like Second Life with an actual good game engine?
The level of crafting in Second Life is absolutely ridiculous, since it allows one to terraform, create buildings, use your own textures, literally shape objects, avatars, and even create custom animations for everything.
The problem with being TOO open ended, is you're going to have people who think the optimal use of full freedom is to have a 500 foot flying penis.
If you could improve crafting in an MMO, with the stipulation that crafting had to consist of more than just creating martial equipment (weapons, armor, clothes - generally stuff you can use to whack things/not get whacked by them), what would you include?
What would I include? Base you can take a review of the following systems:
1) SWG (Pre NGE)
2) Eve Online
3) Ultima Online (Pre Trammel - I say this because I left before Trammel and I don't know how / if it changed after Trammel)
4) Horizons (called Istaria now I believe)
Those four games, for me, understood what crafting means and how important it should be to the overall game. Anyone who is designing a crafting system for an MMO should review those four crafting systems as homework and use them as the framework for your craft system. If they want to be taken seriously, that is. Clearly that isn't the case so far with maybe one exception: ArchAge.
To make anything in ArcheAge, you need materials. There’s no “god” material like Aion’s “aether” that can be transmuted into other things, so there’s no shortcuts gatherers can take to amass a quick fortune. You’ve got to pick apples from an apple tree if you want to bake something with apples in it. Cut down trees for wood, mine for stone, ore, and minerals, etc.Everything make sense, everything has a place and time and order and use in ArcheAge’s crafting system. Everything costs labor points to harvest or craft.
The above is from a recent CBT3 review of the game by the ArchAge news Blog. What I highlighted in bold is the key sentiment that modern AAA crafting games who put crafting in "because players expect it" are missing with thier lack lustre efforts.
Here's another example from the same site:
There’s some cool details in ArcheAge’s gathering system that we noticed while playing during this beta test, including how mining nodes and tree cutting work.
First off, there’s three stages of mining nodes: fresh unbroken stone, broken stone with ore showing, and broken stone with minerals showing. If you see an unbroken mining node and you need stone, go break it up and keep on walking. If you need ore too, wait a second or two and the mining node will crack open like a geode and show off the metallic ore, which you can also mine. If that’s all you need, go find the next mining node and start over again. If you need jewels, however, stand around and wait a little longer. If you’re lucky the metal ore node will disappear and be replaced by a mineral ore node.
Second, trees give different amount of logs based on their size. If you cut down a young tree, it might give you one or two logs. If you cut down a larger tree you’ll get two to three logs. It pays to be patient.
Step by step process that makes sense. No dang mini-games or any of that nonsense like EQ2. If crafting bores one to the point they need mini-games then crafting may not be a normal fun activity for them, as it is for many, many others.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Comments
Another vote for SWG.
After all these years and all the love for the SWG crafting, why does no other development studio take note?
But that would involve having a real economy where crafted goods are better than looted drops.
Perhaps more so, it also involves interaction between non-crafters and crafters.
In these days of the single player 'mmo', maybe that's too much to ask?
Oh, you're talking about SWG before the devs destroyed the game.
That's right, players created their own cities with shops that displayed what they were selling. Players meticulously placed their guns, armor, and other items they were selling in their stores; something that would normally require a developer to manually place every object on the map, instead the player places them. Out of necessity, not decoration like your playing some lame Sims2 game.
It's called PLAYER CREATED CONTENT, and it means exactly how it sounds.
The old SWG economy system, mining system, and merchant system meshed together to form a real simulated community of PLAYER CREATED CONTENT. And if you take one link out of this chain it sort of all falls apart, like allowing loot drops.
So basically you would like Second Life with an actual good game engine?
The level of crafting in Second Life is absolutely ridiculous, since it allows one to terraform, create buildings, use your own textures, literally shape objects, avatars, and even create custom animations for everything.
The problem with being TOO open ended, is you're going to have people who think the optimal use of full freedom is to have a 500 foot flying penis.
What would I include? Base you can take a review of the following systems:
1) SWG (Pre NGE)
2) Eve Online
3) Ultima Online (Pre Trammel - I say this because I left before Trammel and I don't know how / if it changed after Trammel)
4) Horizons (called Istaria now I believe)
Those four games, for me, understood what crafting means and how important it should be to the overall game. Anyone who is designing a crafting system for an MMO should review those four crafting systems as homework and use them as the framework for your craft system. If they want to be taken seriously, that is. Clearly that isn't the case so far with maybe one exception: ArchAge.
To make anything in ArcheAge, you need materials. There’s no “god” material like Aion’s “aether” that can be transmuted into other things, so there’s no shortcuts gatherers can take to amass a quick fortune. You’ve got to pick apples from an apple tree if you want to bake something with apples in it. Cut down trees for wood, mine for stone, ore, and minerals, etc. Everything make sense, everything has a place and time and order and use in ArcheAge’s crafting system. Everything costs labor points to harvest or craft.
The above is from a recent CBT3 review of the game by the ArchAge news Blog. What I highlighted in bold is the key sentiment that modern AAA crafting games who put crafting in "because players expect it" are missing with thier lack lustre efforts.
Here's another example from the same site:
There’s some cool details in ArcheAge’s gathering system that we noticed while playing during this beta test, including how mining nodes and tree cutting work.
First off, there’s three stages of mining nodes: fresh unbroken stone, broken stone with ore showing, and broken stone with minerals showing. If you see an unbroken mining node and you need stone, go break it up and keep on walking. If you need ore too, wait a second or two and the mining node will crack open like a geode and show off the metallic ore, which you can also mine. If that’s all you need, go find the next mining node and start over again. If you need jewels, however, stand around and wait a little longer. If you’re lucky the metal ore node will disappear and be replaced by a mineral ore node.
Second, trees give different amount of logs based on their size. If you cut down a young tree, it might give you one or two logs. If you cut down a larger tree you’ll get two to three logs. It pays to be patient.
Step by step process that makes sense. No dang mini-games or any of that nonsense like EQ2. If crafting bores one to the point they need mini-games then crafting may not be a normal fun activity for them, as it is for many, many others.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez