Looking for a really deep and drawn out crafting system.

spineshank

Just wondering if anyone knows of a game with great crafting.  I've played ffxi for 2 years and i love the crafting but i'm looking for something new.  Preferably a crafting system that can't be mastered w/ a credit card and access to IGE.  Maybe something where you have to farm your own ingredients; and something that's gonna keep me entertained for a couple months.  Any input would be appreciated.

Lasastard

1: EverQuest 2 - really nice crafting system where you not only have to gather your own ingredients but also have to perform certain actions during the crafting process - almost feels abit like a combat-like thing. You will be confrontated with certain events (for example daydreaming) that you have to counter with special crafting abilites.

2: Star Wars Galaxies - you have to find high quality ressourrces all over the galaxy (which are shifting regularly), put up mining machinery and later you can craft single items or whole crates in your own factory. The whole SWG economy is based on player-made items and you can have your own shop(which you can equip with merchant-npcs) and become famous for your crafted goods - very involving and motivating.

Morphem92

Check out Ryzom, it got the best Harvesting / Crafting system around by miles.

It should keep you entertained for a while as to master every craft skills in Ryzom would require years and years of gameplay.

Really worth it.

Jorev

Horizons

Crafting actually impacts the environment.

Blingbling2k

bahh dont listen to them horizons is the best

vladww

How i'd ranked the different systems i tried :

1 - Saga of Ryzom

2 - Horizons

3 - SWG

( never tried EQ2 )

 

fulmanfu

here ya go. if its crafting you want this blows them out of the water.

enjoy, and thank me later.

crafting

Obraik

Although I can't call it the best as I haven't tried the others, but SWG has a very indepth crafting system that has been said by many reviewers to be one of the best out there.  First off you have a wide choice of crafting professions, Bio-Enginer, Droid- Engineer, Artisan, Taylor, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Shipwright and Architect.  Each profession as a huge variety of things that can be made, and everything requires there own resources (or different stat requirements). 

The Galaxy is filled with huge amounts of different resource types (take alook at www.swgcraft.com for a look at just how many), each with different stat types and spawn timers.  Some stuff you may only see every few months so you'll end up putting all your harvestors on that so you have enough to get through until the next spawn.  The stats on the resources you use determine how good the resulting product will be.  Since not everyone has access to the same resources, you see a large variety with the same item - it's very rare to see two crafters make something exactly the same (in the case of items that have values eg Weapons and Armor).  You can spend hours just finding the right resources to give you that extra edge.

You gather resources in two ways.  You use a survey tool for that type of resource and then speed around surveying until you can find the highest resource concentration point.  Once you find it you can either have your character sample the resources or the more logical answer is to place a harvestor down on the spot.  You supply the harvestor with some credits for maintanence and power to run and it will harvest the spot non-stop until either the resource runs out or the harvestors hopper becomes full.  Once its done you collect the resource and pack up the harvestor(s) and move on to your next resource that you want

The crafting part is where the fun begins   Using the right crafting tool, you select the schematic you want to use (for some you'll need to be next to a crafting station and some even require you have your own private station) and then add the required resources.  If you're next to a crafting station you'll have the chance to experiment on your creation (if the item has anything to be experimented on - items such as furniture don't need this ) and this is where you get to make you're item unique.  There are various lines you can experiment on and you only have a set amount of experimentation points that can be used so you need to figure out what is the most effective way.  To add even more variation to the mix you're experimentations can have mixed results.  You might be lucky enough to get an amazing sucess or just moderate sucess or even a critical failure!  Either way, the result you get determines how effective (or defective in the case of a critical) the experimenting was and how much the stats are affected.

Alot of things require other components to be made frist and some items can use multiple components.  Rather then having to constantly make components, you can make a draft schematic for the component and then place it in a factory to be made.  Factories can be placed anywhere you can place a house and use maintanence and power just like a harvestor.  You add the schematic to the factory, then add all the resources (these need to be the same you used to make the schematic) and start the factory.  Depending on the complexity of the schematic the factory can take anywhere form a few hours to a few days to complete.  Anything you can make you can have made in a factory if you wish.

So now you've made your item, you have to sell it.  This is where a totally different form of PvP begins.  Depending on your server there may be hundreds of others just like you trying to sell the same thing, so you need to make yours stand out and you need to advertise.  If you go up the Merchant profession you get better access to vendors which you can place in a house to sell your goods.  You also get means to advertise your business (such as barker droids) to the other players out there.  As has been said, almost everything in the game is made by crafters so you don't have to compete against NPC's, etc.

This is just a brief ( )run-down of crafting in SWG, you'll find the rest out if you join and get crafting