Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

[General Article] WildStar: Crafting - A Deep Experience

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

Information about WildStar has come largely from Carbine Studios....until today. We have a full suite of articles that cover the game in general, PvP, crafting, the Medic and Engineer classes and housing. It's a ton of information that you simply do not want to miss. Read on!

The world of Nexus is crammed full of useful stuff. It might be stuff that you loot from the stomach of a panthera, or stuff that you buy from an entrepreneurial Protostar Corporation employee. And now, thanks to WildStar’s tradeskills, it can be stuff you create yourself. After all, nothing is quite as special as when it has your own name stamped on it. Right?

Read more of Gareth Harmer's WildStar: Crafting - A Deep Experience.

image


¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


Comments

  • darkthund3rdarkthund3r Member UncommonPosts: 21
    Crafting in WildStar looks and sounds pretty awesome. One thing I always hate about how some games do Crafting, is that all players at max level in a given Profession, have exactly the same recipes as the other players. What drives an economy, is when a crafter has that one unique recipe, that no other crafter has. And from the sound of it, WildStar crafters may very well end up having some diversely unique recipes from one and other.

    //

  • AnhrezAnhrez Member CommonPosts: 3
    Great update Gaz

    There are a lot of us crafting/econ meta players that are hopeful the amount of creativity we have seen in the game play and questing is fore-shadowing for the crafting options we all will see at launch. I am sure its a challenge for any studio. Most players want crafting to be either easy or not impact-ful if they choose not to pursue it, but to many of us its as important to our 'stickiness' to a game as PvP and Raiding.
    I look forward to a lot of creative dev speak videos talking about Professions, the replacement of CBC, the Exchanges, and a few funny ones about Gathering where an Aurin gets eaten by an Ore Worm!
  • FoomerangFoomerang Member UncommonPosts: 5,628

    I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.

  • darkthund3rdarkthund3r Member UncommonPosts: 21
    Originally posted by Foomerang

    I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.

    Perhaps the random mobs that spawn while you are picking flowers or chopping rocks, end up dropping some materials once you kill them? :)

    In WoW, "Skinners" have to kill their bounty before they get the crafting materials. It's fun to see that other Gathering professions might be subjected to the same in Wildstar :)

    //

  • MechanismMechanism Member UncommonPosts: 143
    Hopefully chefs also get the option to overclock their food in some way.
  • GazimoffGazimoff Staff WriterMember UncommonPosts: 225
    Originally posted by Torvaldr

    This doesn't sound deeper to me at all. It sounds exactly like every other mmo crafting system. Instead of many diverse recipes you have simplified templates. How is that deeper?

    There are a couple different twists like being able to plant ore farms at your house or the anti-farming tech for nodes - the latter is sounds rather clever. But again there is nothing here that sounds particularly deep. In fact it sounds overly-simplified which should appeal to the demographic that this game is going for.

    Here's the p2p cash grab part in case anyone missed it: although it feels as though it can be a long process that requires both dedication and a bountiful supply of raw materials. Who would have thought that a subscription based game would throw in arbitrary time sinks to keep you paying longer. I'm waiting for the backdoor rationalizations on that one.

    Why would you try and sell a streamlined, simplified crafting system as deep? I don't get that one.

    There's two elements of depth that I drew attention to:

    • Collecting a list of recipes is a pretty boring approach - it means that everyone gets the same set, regardless of their particular interest or focus. By arranging them in a tree, it means that you can focus on what you're particularly interested in. And those trees extend pretty far - the screenshot was just the tip of the novice tier.
    • Providing further specialisation through trade skill talents is another example of depth. It's not just a case of picking a specialisation, but rather tuning your profession for what is of benefit to you, either because of the benefits it provides, or because there's a strong market for it. I haven't seen that feature in another MMO of this type (EVE is a completely different ball of wax).
    Crucially though, you can make a set of pistols with the stats you want, rather than making the same pair of pistols that everyone else does. Providing choice in this way makes sense to me, particularly that there are ways of pushing the template beyond its limits if you have the skill and materials to do so. Again, these are stronger than existing offerings for the same MMO type.
     
    All that said, if someone really wants to dig into crafting and industrialisation in an online game, I'd encourage them to play EVE (incidentally, it's a game that's also popular with some of the Econ team). But if they've felt that systems in other games are superficial (and I'm thinking of WoW, Rift and even GW2 to an extent here), then this is a huge improvement. But we rarely tend to get involved with an MMO because of one aspect, and instead choose it because of a whole bag of reasons.
    Player of games, smither of words, former of opinions, and masher of keys. WildStar Columnist
    Currently playing: WildStar, Guild Wars 2, EVE Online, Vain Glory.
  • NorewonNorewon Member UncommonPosts: 100
    Also I'd like to comment that some items further down the tech tree have proc's and you have to work to get those recipes.
  • achesomaachesoma Member RarePosts: 1,770

    [quote] although it feels as though it can be a long process that requires both dedication and a bountiful supply of raw materials. [quote]

    This is the part that concerns me.

    How costly is crafting?(especially at lower levels).  Typically, it's much better to craft on alts after you've built up a healthy supply of gold and resources.  Otherwise you go broke trying to level up crafting.  Any idea how crafting will fair in WIldstar since it's a loot-based economy?  Was crafted gear any better than equivalent level looted gear? 

    Preaching Pantheon to People at PAX  PAX East 2018 Day 4 - YouTube
  • BillMurphyBillMurphy Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
    Originally posted by achesoma

    [quote] although it feels as though it can be a long process that requires both dedication and a bountiful supply of raw materials. [quote]

    This is the part that concerns me.

    How costly is crafting?(especially at lower levels).  Typically, it's much better to craft on alts after you've built up a healthy supply of gold and resources.  Otherwise you go broke trying to level up crafting.  Any idea how crafting will fair in WIldstar since it's a loot-based economy?  Was crafted gear any better than equivalent level looted gear? 

    I can mention that on my Medic, right out of the gate I was able to make a level 12 pair of resonators that was better than the 12 pair I was wearing from quest gear.  How well that translates to later items, we'll have to see.

    Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.

    My Review Manifesto
    Follow me on Twitter if you dare.

  • FoomerangFoomerang Member UncommonPosts: 5,628


    Originally posted by thunder84
    Originally posted by Foomerang I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.
    Perhaps the random mobs that spawn while you are picking flowers or chopping rocks, end up dropping some materials once you kill them? :)

    In WoW, "Skinners" have to kill their bounty before they get the crafting materials. It's fun to see that other Gathering professions might be subjected to the same in Wildstar :)


    Farming mats off mobs is fine. Adding combat to mining is kinda meh. As if its not tied into 95% of what you do these days anyway. Mining type activities area nice break from killing stuff. Hopefully its a rare occurrence.

  • ButeoRegalisButeoRegalis Member UncommonPosts: 594
    Separating the raw material and finished goods AHs might be tiresome if you want to find stuff you can craft at a profit from bought mats. Having to run back and forth between the two?

    image

  • NorewonNorewon Member UncommonPosts: 100
    Also I'd like to comment that some items further down the tech tree have proc's and you have to work to get those recipes.
  • makasouleater69makasouleater69 Member UncommonPosts: 1,096
    Originally posted by Foomerang

    I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.

    Ruins those plans for afk macroing huh

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,843
    Originally posted by Torvaldr

    This doesn't sound deeper to me at all. It sounds exactly like every other mmo crafting system. Instead of many diverse recipes you have simplified templates. How is that deeper?

    There are a couple different twists like being able to plant ore farms at your house or the anti-farming tech for nodes - the latter is sounds rather clever. But again there is nothing here that sounds particularly deep. In fact it sounds overly-simplified which should appeal to the demographic that this game is going for.

    Here's the p2p cash grab part in case anyone missed it: although it feels as though it can be a long process that requires both dedication and a bountiful supply of raw materials. Who would have thought that a subscription based game would throw in arbitrary time sinks to keep you paying longer. I'm waiting for the backdoor rationalizations on that one.

    Why would you try and sell a streamlined, simplified crafting system as deep? I don't get that one.

    Winner

  • FoomerangFoomerang Member UncommonPosts: 5,628


    Originally posted by makasouleater69
    Originally posted by Foomerang I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.
    Ruins those plans for afk macroing huh

    hehe no not really. I can see how this would be a good bot deterrent, which is nice. I guess Im a purist. Dont feel the need to have combat in my gathering.
  • FoomerangFoomerang Member UncommonPosts: 5,628


    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by Foomerang Originally posted by thunder84 Originally posted by Foomerang I'm a little uneasy about random mobs you have to fight while gathering. But other than that it seems pretty good.
    Perhaps the random mobs that spawn while you are picking flowers or chopping rocks, end up dropping some materials once you kill them? :) In WoW, "Skinners" have to kill their bounty before they get the crafting materials. It's fun to see that other Gathering professions might be subjected to the same in Wildstar :)
    Farming mats off mobs is fine. Adding combat to mining is kinda meh. As if its not tied into 95% of what you do these days anyway. Mining type activities area nice break from killing stuff. Hopefully its a rare occurrence.
    It could be an interesting attempt at breaking mining bot scripts which is pretty clever. I think bots are able to deal with these things much better than they used to. Rift had that problem with fishing bots and Trion added the mob spawn to the fishing area and the bots were able to handle them if they were appropriate level.

    The problem is the mob spawn can't overpower the node harvester so it's not necessarily going to be that useful against a bot. It's more of a time-consuming inconvenience for them, and the player.



    It would work if you had no choice but to run away as fast as you can as soon as it spawns. Maybe a 3% chance or something just to make sure everyone is at the keyboard hehe
  • DaGafferDaGaffer Carbine StudiosMember Posts: 62

    For those concerned on the random rare spawns on mining nodes, they're all tradeskill-related:  for instance the node might jump up and run away (it is on the back of a bug type creature) and you can run after it knocking more ore goodies off its back as it tries to break for freedom.

    About 1% of the time it's on the back of a giant ore worm which jumps out of the ground and summons more ore-bugs to attack you.  As you fight it and its minions bits of ore fly off, and if you can defeat it it falls to the ground and its mouth is a cave opening where you can run into the stomach and mine as much ore out of the interior of the creature as possible until the cave collapses.

    We do that to limit bot-farming (write a bot that can fight the oreworm and I'll be impressed) and to add some variety so that it's not always just a trivial bar-watching experience, but most of the time it's zen like you would expect from gathering.  I forget the % of uncommon/rare spawns but it's on the order of 15% or so (at least in the areas I've mined).

    So the creature spawns grant more (sometimes MUCH more) ore in penance for us springing them on you.  And to mean that real players will get more ore than bots.

    Different harvesting types have different random events.

    Jeremy Gaffney
    Executive Producer, Carbine Studios (Wildstar Online)

  • AndonSageAndonSage Member UncommonPosts: 8
    Originally posted by Mechanism
    Hopefully chefs also get the option to overclock their food in some way.

    Jalapeno peppers, Cayenne peppers, Habanero peppers, Ghost peppers, etc. :)

    The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all it's eggs in - Robert A. Heinlein

Sign In or Register to comment.