Along with several other posters I'd suggest that Horizons/Istaria belongs on the list. Crafting (and dragons) are probably the main reasons it still has loyal, long-time players. It takes a complex, sensible system to hold players' interest that long. And FWIW, I didn't think much of either EQII or VG's crafting systems; they seemed bland.
The only game on this list that I have played is EQ2 and I haven't played it enough as of yet to say. I have heard some really good things on its crafting but as yet no personal knowledge.
I can say that most MMO's crafting is pretty much a waste of time. By that I mean it is just a filler and the items are pretty much worthless. I mean crafting in most isn't worth what it cost to advance it and make the items. True some things can be useful but there again you can't sell them for what it cost to make them for the most part. I love crafting and for me it gives a game more meaning. The games I like to play don't all have truely good crafting systems. The one I play now is better than the others I have played but still why does crafting have to be so useless.
In RL people that make things can make a profit. I mean they make a product that they can sell and at least make some profit. Why does most MMO's think this is not important to a games economy? Same principal even if is just a game.
I donno how you cold put EQ2 and Vanguard to the lowest end of the scores, they have more interaction than half of those games when it comes to crafting, not even SWG has interaction like they do, hell you could set up a crafting system to do all the hard work for you overnight if you had the right mats, I don't see how that makes crafting any fun in SWG personally.
Regarding to Horizon/Istaria which i left after the first month bcs it was so broken the crafting was the one thing that made it shine.
But i also remeber to have read that they did a big crafting overhaul months later so i really doubt that the crafting today is the same as it was back at release.
I'll disagree, having been through the entire game since December, 2003. Granted, the resources for techniques have changed some recently (newest patch), but the process and formulas has remained the same. Go gather raw materials, make processed materials, refine those to final products. Changes that I recall include:
addition of tier 5
dragon lairshaping
dragon claws and tool claws
lairshaping revamp to reduce the numbers of raw resources (the original setup was using up to double what the same sized biped equivalent
addition of tier 6
new cargo disk sets, particularly the Knut, Nielenoss, and dragon faction disks
tier revamp (making an orderly progression of resources across Istaria)
I donno how you cold put EQ2 and Vanguard to the lowest end of the scores, they have more interaction than half of those games when it comes to crafting, not even SWG has interaction like they do, hell you could set up a crafting system to do all the hard work for you overnight if you had the right mats, I don't see how that makes crafting any fun in SWG personally.
True, but thats only for mass produced items. Most games don't even have that kind of capability let alone the whole varied resources, skill of the crafter, quality of the crafting station type of crafting. I have never played EQ2 or Vanguard so I cannot really comment on theirs but for me personally, crafting in SWG smashes any other MMO's out the water.
I agree with SWG and EVE being on this list. The simple fact that you could set-up factories in game were always cool beans to me. Since you could start products and LEAVE to do other things.
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby) Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six. Tried: Too many to list
IMO Vanguard needs to be placed near the top of the list.
The majority of crafting systems in MMO's require you to thrown large sums of in game cash and resources to progress. In VG all that is needed is time.
The game rewarded you has you progressed with mats, equipment etc through work orders. You used work orders to progress through the sphere. Work orders provide you will the required mats except for some cheap crafting regents to complete the order. The majority of the time the rewards from the work order will cover your costs and make you a small profit. You only needed to buy mats when you wanted to make a useful product to sell, guild or yourself etc. It had it's own quests, gear progression factions separate from the adventuring sphere of the game. Work orders can become a bit of a grind after a while, but most crafting systems I've played become a grind after a while.
This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding VG's crafting system. The above is often overlooked when comparing it to other crafting systems.
Nice post i'd forgotten all of the details if this went F2P,i'd be there in a flash as POTBS F2P,seems to be working rather well coupled with the captains club offer.
I'm sorry, but the crafting system in darkfall is exactly like WoW, granted you make pretty much everything in Darkfall. However, the actual sytem itself is EXACTLY like WoW.
Have ingredients in bag, have tool in bag, be at work station, select item to craft, select quantity, hit ok, and wait. There is absolutely no dif. between the system used in Darkfall and the one in WoW.
Was the only reason that Darkfall made the list because almost everything is player made? If so, how can it be justified as better then Saga of Ryzoms? SoR at least accounts for the quality of materials used, and when combined with the gathering process you have something with much more depth.
What about Mortal Online? Aside from SWG I'm unaware of a crafting system even remotely like it.
I'm sorry, this was one of those articles that made me feel as if the writter simply threw it together without much thought, or with little knowledge of other games.
I agree with #1 being SWG. Pre-NGE or current state.
The key was the resource system. Each resource has several stats, and they varied from spawn to spawn. There was some resources that didn't respawn again for years. This affected EVERYTHING. Because of this, you could actually have a server's best crafter in a specific area. Along with different stats of the resources, you could actually shift specific stats to create unique items based off demand. Need a longer buff from food? Put all your experimentation points into duration. Always fighting enemies with heat-based weapons? Shift the stats around to give armor extra heat protection. I've played majority of the games on this list, and none came close to the uniqueness of SWG.
On a side note, before I stopped playing a couple of years back (played pre-NGE and post), I still had one suit of composite armor that was max stats and sliced (got missed in conversion). I had so many people try to buy that suit from me that it wasn't even funny. It was impossible to craft at those stats. I want to say the base stats was 6400. I can't remember what the two stats were that varied were off the top of my head. I loved that armor....
It must have not been Bind On Pickup armor if you could sell it. *rolls eyes*
One really odd crafting and harvesting system I liked was, believe it or not, Free Realms. The crafting consisted of mini Tetris and Gems like games. I would like to see such a system added on to one of those watch the bars slowly progress systems found in VG ,SWG or EQ2.
Haven't played all those games but I can't possibly see how any of those have a better crafting system then Wurm Online. Not only does Wurm Online actually let people discover new things by combining different items, the entire world is player built.
Comments
I disagree with the list based on the fact that the usefulness of what was crafted was never mentioned.
Sure the crafting is fun and I made an awsome sword or armor...but without demand, it has no value.
For me, a good crafting system must go hand-in-hand with the in game economy, the article mentioned this, yet never expounded.
But one thing I agree is, EvE has the best gathering, crafting, and economy relationship. Very very solid IMHO.
Ready for GW2!!!
crafting needs some love
You sir, win this thread !!!
xx
I'm not sure if that is really an accurate statement as Vanguard was really developed by Sigil and PotBS was Flying Labs.
Wow, you guys only picked US MMO's... There are a lot of games with very good and complex crafting systems...
These are really well picked and I agree 100% with SWG getting the top spot!
Along with several other posters I'd suggest that Horizons/Istaria belongs on the list. Crafting (and dragons) are probably the main reasons it still has loyal, long-time players. It takes a complex, sensible system to hold players' interest that long. And FWIW, I didn't think much of either EQII or VG's crafting systems; they seemed bland.
The only game on this list that I have played is EQ2 and I haven't played it enough as of yet to say. I have heard some really good things on its crafting but as yet no personal knowledge.
I can say that most MMO's crafting is pretty much a waste of time. By that I mean it is just a filler and the items are pretty much worthless. I mean crafting in most isn't worth what it cost to advance it and make the items. True some things can be useful but there again you can't sell them for what it cost to make them for the most part. I love crafting and for me it gives a game more meaning. The games I like to play don't all have truely good crafting systems. The one I play now is better than the others I have played but still why does crafting have to be so useless.
In RL people that make things can make a profit. I mean they make a product that they can sell and at least make some profit. Why does most MMO's think this is not important to a games economy? Same principal even if is just a game.
Gikku
For sure agree with swg getting 1, but eq2 should have got number 2.
Another agreement with SWG being #1. I sorely miss its depth in the MMOs that I moved on too.
How A tale in the desert and wurm don't even get a mention is beyond me.
i agree with SWG as number 1.......
What they had has never been matched!
What Sony did when they nerfed it will be read about for centuries..(how not to loose 5 million subscribers)
I donno how you cold put EQ2 and Vanguard to the lowest end of the scores, they have more interaction than half of those games when it comes to crafting, not even SWG has interaction like they do, hell you could set up a crafting system to do all the hard work for you overnight if you had the right mats, I don't see how that makes crafting any fun in SWG personally.
EvE should be 2nd
So What Now?
True, but thats only for mass produced items. Most games don't even have that kind of capability let alone the whole varied resources, skill of the crafter, quality of the crafting station type of crafting. I have never played EQ2 or Vanguard so I cannot really comment on theirs but for me personally, crafting in SWG smashes any other MMO's out the water.
I agree with SWG and EVE being on this list. The simple fact that you could set-up factories in game were always cool beans to me. Since you could start products and LEAVE to do other things.
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks
Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six.
Tried: Too many to list
Nice post i'd forgotten all of the details if this went F2P,i'd be there in a flash as POTBS F2P,seems to be working rather well coupled with the captains club offer.
I'm sorry, but the crafting system in darkfall is exactly like WoW, granted you make pretty much everything in Darkfall. However, the actual sytem itself is EXACTLY like WoW.
Have ingredients in bag, have tool in bag, be at work station, select item to craft, select quantity, hit ok, and wait. There is absolutely no dif. between the system used in Darkfall and the one in WoW.
Was the only reason that Darkfall made the list because almost everything is player made? If so, how can it be justified as better then Saga of Ryzoms? SoR at least accounts for the quality of materials used, and when combined with the gathering process you have something with much more depth.
What about Mortal Online? Aside from SWG I'm unaware of a crafting system even remotely like it.
I'm sorry, this was one of those articles that made me feel as if the writter simply threw it together without much thought, or with little knowledge of other games.
+1
Crafting and harvesting depth in SWG (pre NGE) has never been matched in anything else I've played.
It must have not been Bind On Pickup armor if you could sell it. *rolls eyes*
One really odd crafting and harvesting system I liked was, believe it or not, Free Realms. The crafting consisted of mini Tetris and Gems like games. I would like to see such a system added on to one of those watch the bars slowly progress systems found in VG ,SWG or EQ2.
Should be:
1. SWG
2. EVE
3. Vanguard
rest
Haven't played all those games but I can't possibly see how any of those have a better crafting system then Wurm Online. Not only does Wurm Online actually let people discover new things by combining different items, the entire world is player built.