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Crafting?
Anashel
Member UncommonPosts: 200
Should we have harvesting / crafting as part of the game?
In our early brainstorm, we suggested that all barcode could be harvested using the companion app and then traded with higher ranking player to be assemble as an item or asset. (Security card?)
Assembling basic components would yield virtual item. Getting lucky might give you the Gold version of the item, redeemable by as a physical item. The code will be a combination of the server sequence number and the barcode sum. So this mean that it could be rotate and change everyweek. But one thing for sure, you may see you next trip to the supermarket really different once you realized that the Froot Loops and the Cheese Whiz drop major loot!
Now everytime you watch a bar code in your life, your' asking if you are next to a major uber loot juste wating around to be pickup, or you are about to launch minions of Cthulhu creating havoc in a region where we will have to find player and send them in to clean your mess.... 
Comments
Maybe. I say maybe because I've seen other games do something similar, and it was sort of a big flop. (here is a list of some of them= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_barcode_games )
There is also the issue of people using bar-code generating programs to simply print out ones that unlock the desired reward (or simply scanning every possible code... don't laugh, it's possible).
So, I would say it depends on how it's implemented. Having it as "I wander through the store/supermarket/mall scanning all the codes" is, I think, a bad way for it to be implemented. "We received intel on product of type X in area Y and need it scanned." Or a puzzle leads to a product that needs to be scanned, etc.
Granted, these both still fall victim to the barcode generating issues above, but it makes it less abusable.
Though, it does generate the possibility of product placement opportunities (possibly even geographic area specific if the app is location aware). Of course any such thing is likely to draw the ire of some anti-monetizing people, but hey, I don't mind advertisers paying for my entertainment, as long as they don't warp the entertainment.
Provided that the possibility of cheating is dealt with, I honestly would find it a real joy.
I'd wind up going around excitedly checking if my favorite items have awesome loot or not. I'd have a field day, I'd say!
I know not everybody likes bardcode scanning, but it brings at least mild amusement and a bit of excitement to what could otherwise be a very mundane trip to the grocery store.
I just hope honey has a very sweet surprise!
Tyryt: well... you'r good. I have to agree to everything in your post. It's doesn't blend properly with the storyline and doesn't blend.
I actually quite like the idea!
Crafting could be similar to TSW by being able to collect base material (metal, water, fire, dust, runes?, ...). Those materials could then be used to craft some quest items.
You could even take the idea of the Whispering Tide Event in TSW. At some points players would have to craft a massive amount of a specific item to start a big new mission!
I have a possible idea on how cheating via mass reproduction of a code through imagery or otherwise may be avoided.
I admittedly have no programming or coding experience, and I don't know precisely how a barcode-game works, but:
Every product has a particular barcode, and since the original post suggests having rotations, could the application ping, say, a database, every time a code was scanned? When scanned, a code could be checked for in the database and added. If the code was already there before you scanned it and added it, it wouldn't return the major uber loot that the first person got - possibly not giving anything at all. That would also allow you to see how many times a particular product is scanned in a given period of time (every rotational period, such as the one week originally suggested), should that be of any interest or use. It also prevents people from mass-producing loot by simply printing out or posting a code or the product involved... in theory.
Of course, it requires an internet connection, but possibly a code could be kept in storage if you scan it and it can't connect to the database, allowing you to wait until you get to the internet but still allowing you to scan all the store things you want.
And then when the codes rotate? Wipe the database!
At least there are a multitude of products in existence, so I couldn't really see people exhausting all codes in a reasonable time frame.
I apologize if this is an idiotic, ignorant, impossible, expensive, or otherwise presumptuous suggestion. Or if it's poorly worded.
Vomher, you said your not a programmers but you have quite a clear understanding on how to do it.
And yes, your idea is quite spot on, first draw will avoid repeat looting of the same product.
It won't prevent sequential scanning. But then again, we can come with and algorithm that use location + code ID for the loot. After that, we are never 100% safe from hacking but catching someone will be easy at that stage, just based on the amount of submitted code.
I like also imef. That you are looking for faint signature of rupture radiation that tainted the 'box' or whatever item you scan when it passed near the rupture. And via multiple scan, you are tracking down shipping waybill and triangulating the original rupture site.
As for the radiation there could be many type that give you various basic reagent for crafting.
Successful scans that produced a reward or total scans regardless? I'd imagine people wouldn't be very happy if they scanned to max and not a single one came up with anything.
And there will be some days they don't go out and maybe don't scan any. It happens.
It wouldn't be something on a timeline, it's a persistent ARG, remember?
There is no needed to be rewarded all the time, every time. It looses it's impact.
If I may meddling into the thread (since as I wrote in the other one, I'll most likely skip the division
), I think it's a nice idea, just not on the physical goods. And I don't say it because of me being lazy (which I am of course), but it has some buil-in defects, like bar-code printing as mentioned above, or massive scannings in a depot.
The biggest flaw is in the codes themselves, since they're location-based (by producer or assembler), so you can't make an universal loot table from them for everyone. Even globally widespreaded goods like C*ca C*la (not advertising until they pay me
) have different codes everywhere. If you say for example ("So this mean that it could be rotate and change everyweek.") one of the codes of this week is 1L C.Zero, and you link it's barcode to the database, with that code you narrow down the people who can access to the item into one region (or in Eu's case for a sub-region with only a few countries), and with it excluding everyone else - unless they're printing the codes of course.
Maybe it'd be better, if - followed by the common mmo resource nodes - you'd select a bunch of pages on the web, and with a rotation you'd put codes on them. The code should be "harvested" through the app (maybe with some additonal activity, to avoid script farming with sweeping the pages constantly and snatching the code), and after your database registers a hard set number of reads, the code would vanish from that page (like when a node is harvested in mmo's) and after a delay a new code would appear on a random location.
That way it'd have a global access, you could set different items behind the codes for different times (because folks need to sleep as well), or keep the same items always at the same time to encourage trading among players, etc.
No, of course not, but if some scans were already used and, say, you can only go to the store one day a week and most people have used most of the common scans, then there is a chance that what a person scans is already used for that week and they wind up with absolutely nothing.
Persistent ARG it may be, but most people don't go to stores that often. If the quota was based on total scans in a day and every item they scanned during their trip managed to turn up nothing, they could very well become bored with the function entirely, particularly if their shopping was done during the latter half of the week since it would be more difficult for them to get anything as compared to those who can do their shopping when codes are fresh.
If daily and a maximum was put in place, I'd suggest it be based on successful scans.
Then again, I may be biased - I only go to a store when I need to and have the rare time to do so, and the few times I go for fun, it's to things like antique stores where there aren't barcodes at all.
I honestly thought the rewards would be determined by some algorithm. Any product could produce any reward, but it would differ week to week on what made what. With so many products and codes out there, surely more than one would give a specific reward, especially if a product's code could only be used once a week. People couldn't race to a product anyway, because it would already have been checked off as used, so listing specific products sold only in specific places would be a silly waste of a code.
Half the fun is finding out what product gives what! If you're racing to a certain product all the time, you lose half the excitement of a surprise!
I agree with the surprise part, I only tried to point out that you somehow need to tie the outcomes to the codes, and it'd be tough to make an algorythm which handles all the areas, and even if it does, it still means that in the end you'll have a pool of "winning" codes for the week, and each of those codes are area-based
Just imagine if I'd post in the forum of the game: "wow, I just got a xxxxx from a local dessert". Or, because I'm a nice guy: "sorry it's only available here, but here's a scan of the code" 
Based on the former ARG's there's usually a tight-knit playerbase, so there would be most definitely a page of the current week's codes, and that would be updated often. I think after a few weeks there would be even guesses and tries to crack the algorythm based on the former pairs
And it would be totally legit, because without a page like that a lot of people couldn't get any item simply because there's no such codes in their vicinity.
But why would there be a list of codes? The application would, as far as I can see, simply take a code and convert it into some loot through some deliciously mathematical method. As discussed earlier, a code would only work once until the database is wiped.
There was already a discussion of how to deal with people putting a scan of codes up, actually! On the first page. In short, each product has an individual code, each code works once per week, and that's not per person. It goes in the database as used and then the next person to try and use that code wouldn't get the uberloot that the first person bragged about.
Why make a list of codes except to simply help people know what's already been used? Even then, it means people would have to know the exact product and exact form it comes in. A six pack of twelve ounce cans is not the same, for example, as a single can sold separately or a four-pack or what have you. That's asking a lot from people to recall the precise item and brand unless the app also saved a list of what was scanned on a given week.
It doesn't sound like codes need to be tied in, and even if a specific product was somehow chosen to have a grand prize item, it would only be used once and there's no guarantee that anybody would find it. Listing where the loot is would just cause people to dash madly toward their nearest mode of transportation.
I've never seen a barcode scan game that NEEDED the viable products listed. They just produce things based on the code itself.
I think Moiren makes a very important point here. I also don't think that crafting will... distract from the ARG/Universe or story, but I am not 100% certain about how much it will add either.