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Crafting...make it useful

daelnordaelnor Member UncommonPosts: 1,556
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM

I've enjoyed crafting to a point in some games...hated it in others...and even more yet, found myself saying "why bother."

In my experience people craft for two main reasons:

1. Some people really enjoy it, and may not have the time to run dungeons with guildies constantly, but can craft for an hour or two once in awhile and get some kind of enjoyment out of it.

2.  They expect to use crafting as a way to turn a proffit down the road, and make mass quantities of gold that they can swim through like scrouge McDuck.

Most games these days seem to be lots of effort for little payout in the end game...or so many mini game efforts are made with it that just make it even more tedious to make skill up gains after the novelty wears off.

If you're going to have crafting, shouldn't it really MATTER at the high end?  Why bother crafting anything if people are just going to go kill the dragon 30 times until they get the uber sword of purple namedness that blows away anything you can do.

What are your ideas for making crafting not so tedious...yet difficult enough where you have to put some effort into it to become that well known armorsmith, etc.

What are your idea for crafts that matter?  Or are you content with growing weeds in your backpack and calling it crafting?

Personally, rather than the obvious desire to have all my hard work really be worth something in the end...I'd like to see some other things also.

I'd like to see crafters be able to manipulate gear in cosmetic ways.  Like your uber purple sword of iPwn but hate the way it looks?  Get the swordsmith to customize it for you and reskin it.

Love your robes of uber spellcasting but hate the fact that some bozo decided it should be purple with pink swirls? Get the Tailor to add a bit of trim to it and dye it a different color that isn't so horrendously ugly..

You get the point.  What are your ideas?

 

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Comments

  • CzzarreCzzarre Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 3,742

    I was never big into crafting in MMOs...I wanted more action than a an online stove or lathe could provide. I will say that DAOC made a point that crafted items would always be considered the best and I appreciated that aspect in this game. Darkfall followed a similar path but to more of an extreem. You must craft to survive in Darkfall (or you better have a lot of friends)

    Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
    Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
    Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)

  • Dewm1Dewm1 Member Posts: 27

     

    I love crafting in MMO's. and the worst that i've seen is in WoW....

    If you want good ideas. Look at FFXI, that was near perfect crafting. there might be a few small changes I would make, but it is awsome.

  • DibdabsDibdabs Member RarePosts: 3,203

    I have always found crafting to be boring, expensive and an overall waste of time in every MMO I have played.  Good luck if you enjoy it, though.

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by daelnor


    I've enjoyed crafting to a point in some games...hated it in others...and even more yet, found myself saying "why bother."
    In my experience people craft for two main reasons:
    1. Some people really enjoy it, and may not have the time to run dungeons with guildies constantly, but can craft for an hour or two once in awhile and get some kind of enjoyment out of it.
    2.  They expect to use crafting as a way to turn a proffit down the road, and make mass quantities of gold that they can swim through like scrouge McDuck.
    Most games these days seem to be lots of effort for little payout in the end game...or so many mini game efforts are made with it that just make it even more tedious to make skill up gains after the novelty wears off.
    If you're going to have crafting, shouldn't it really MATTER at the high end?  Why bother crafting anything if people are just going to go kill the dragon 30 times until they get the uber sword of purple namedness that blows away anything you can do.
    What are your ideas for making crafting not so tedious...yet difficult enough where you have to put some effort into it to become that well known armorsmith, etc.
    What are your idea for crafts that matter?  Or are you content with growing weeds in your backpack and calling it crafting?
    Personally, rather than the obvious desire to have all my hard work really be worth something in the end...I'd like to see some other things also.
    I'd like to see crafters be able to manipulate gear in cosmetic ways.  Like your uber purple sword of iPwn but hate the way it looks?  Get the swordsmith to customize it for you and reskin it.
    Love your robes of uber spellcasting but hate the fact that some bozo decided it should be purple with pink swirls? Get the Tailor to add a bit of trim to it and dye it a different color that isn't so horrendously ugly..
    You get the point.  What are your ideas?
     

     

    Do what WOW did. Have some slots with crafted items as BIS or close ot BIS.

  • Vagabond80Vagabond80 Member UncommonPosts: 36

    Easiest way to make crafting matter would be to remove the uber sword of unbalancing or whatever from the raid. Then in it's place add say a 'dragon tooth' or some crap like that that actually makes sense.... Now have a recipe for a sword that has an optional ingredient... say a 'dragon tooth' that now makes the sword a hell of a lot better than before. That'll make crafting matter for sure... course if you want it to matter AND be fun there should be a lot more to it... Do NOT use the WoW method or anything else that just 'add X ingred's hit button and get exact same weapon' every single freakin time you hit the make button that's just a recipe for tedium and boredom.

     

    Add flexibility to it as well... to keep going with the sword metaphor... The metal used should have different stats, the shape of the blade should be an option... again with different stats, the shape of the hilt etc... you should be able to mix and match to make whatever you desire....

     

    Unfortunately this is not likely to happen in the near future I haven't seen a game even try in years. games seem to be moving away from anything complicated so that people can understand it immediately and very little thought is involved. Personal opinion is that the casual gamers run the market now so anything complicated is going to lose their interest fast. Only 2 games I can readily think of are SWG and Ryzom and both of them were so mutilated by problems (NGE, and legal fights) that they never recovered or are not playable anymore.

  • mechnomechno Member UncommonPosts: 2

    Mortal Online is looking  to deliver a crafting system where various materials have different status and combinations matter.  Looking foward to that

    to some degree I do not like the model where you go and get a recipe and bang you can craft the magic sword.  It would be nice to have to learn and have improvemetns apppear in your work as you practice / make more.

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