Professions

ArchivedUser

Hello,

First time poster, though I've been following the game since a month or so before Kickstarter started.
I have been trying to find answers on how professions are going to work. For my example I'm going to use Alchemy, but the same general idea could be applied to other professions too.

As far as Alchemy goes, I wonder how it's going to work. The standard is basically gathering materials, clicking "create" and voila. This makes the professions wholly uninteresting, at least to me. I've heard the Devs say they want crafters to feel engaged in the community. I am not sure what this means, but from what I can ascertain it's about the end product, and it being good, depending on how one crafts it. I am not sure if I understood that correctly though. What I'm hoping for, and I say this with a suggestive wink.

Have the recipes and everything be unknown, let players figure it out. Make it a sort of game within a game. Stir, three times clockwise with a silver spoon, then add X. Then stop stirring, let it simmer for X amounts of seconds before adding the next ingredient and so on. If a potion fails, depending on the skill level of the alchemist in question, give a hint as to what went wrong. Players can start making their own alchemy books etc.

Maybe the idea is silly, it just sounds more engaging to me then the standard.
I would love if someone could point me into the right direction regarding professions.

Post scriptum: English is not my native tongue, please forgive the grammatical and spelling mistakes.

ArchivedUser

People arent allowed to fail in an MMO anymore ;)
https://www.twitch.tv/ashesofcreation/videos/all

ArchivedUser

First of all, your English is fine, so don't worry about that.

Second, I would recommend reading through the community information sheets to learn more about the game:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14luppZ3Ub8jmcw_aK65QWxYY4xa8qAo9zRfpYWBxOXE/edit

As to your specific question, right now we don't know exactly how the crafting is going to work in a practical sense. Just like you I'm hoping that it's a bit more involved than "press button to automatically create x amount of an item" but as of yet we just don't know. I really hope Intrepid will show us some crafting on 1 of the streams to set our minds at ease, but that is for them to decide.

ArchivedUser

Thank you, the Google docs link is really helpful. Thanks for your answer regarding professions too, glad to know I did not miss it.

ArchivedUser

Gleened info from google, wiki etc.+deduction and assuming similar crafting tables=my best guess. Gathered seasonal mats/processed into secondary mats/ recipe with dialed traits(duration)(efficacy of effect)(insert best guess here)%s to 100% /BOTTLED for your convenience. This seems to be the direction Alchemy will go. Add that when a new recipe drops, it will be yours to craft for a duration then open to your home node or guild(Memory fail) makes a craft result singular to a character.

ArchivedUser

I like this idea for alchemy crafting. It would also be interesting if there were slots that we had to put specific ingredients in. So that if we put the wrong ingredient in the wrong slot the potion would fail or accidently make a different potion.

ArchivedUser

I always liked EQ2's crafting system.  It was basically a mini-game, complete with progress bars showing how close to completing the item you were, and how well you did would affect the quality of the item crafted.  There was no create item button.  You had to be there watching and participating or else.  During the crafting process there were certain events that could occur.  For example if you were a provisioner you could have a boil over or if you were a blacksmith (armorsmith or weaponsmith actually) your forge fire could flare up and over heat the metal.  If you were there and paying attention you could react to these events.  If you did it correctly you would jump farther down the progress bar to completion.  Sometimes you might end up with food with a longer than usual duration or 2 instead of one.  The sword you just crafted could have higher stats than usual, etc.  If you didn't react correctly or weren't there watching (botting perhaps) you could end up with a lower quality item, no item or you could even take damage yourself.  Some professions were more dangerous than others.  It wasn't uncommon to walk into a craft-hall and see the body of a dead blacksmith laying there.  It was a lot of fun and made crafting an actual activity instead of the usual kind of thing we see now with the create item or craft all buttons.

That being said I'm not sure I like it when it says "You then need to process the resources, using a processing plant bound on a freehold."  Does this mean that only those that own a freehold can craft?  So those that just have an instanced apartment in town might not be able to do any crafting?  Or are there going to be public craft-halls in cities and town?  I hope there will be public craft-halls since it sounds like there may be a finite number of spaces for freeholds - " The amount of freeholds that exist in the world is limited by space in the open world."  Going back to EQ2 one of the things I liked was working at the public craft-halls until I had saved up enough money to buy my own crafting stations to place in my apartment.  Once I had those and chests that people could buy from and my bulletin board I basically had a home business in my apartment.  It gave me a sense of progression.  Like I had started out in my craft as a novice and worked my way up to owning my own business.  I'm hoping AoC will also give me that kind of feeling.

ArchivedUser

@Noemad
They have processors crafters and gatherers as different professions.
You can go weak in all, or powerful in one, or somewhere between from the way I read it.
That means high quality refined materials, a high class crafter would have to pay for because they couldnt be a high class refiner and crafter at the same time.
But a low grade crafter may be able to gather and process rudimentary stuff.

ArchivedUser

Rune_Relic said:

@Noemad
They have processors crafters and gatherers as different professions.
You can go weak in all, or powerful in one, or somewhere between from the way I read it.
That means high quality refined materials, a high class crafter would have to pay for because they couldnt be a high class refiner and crafter at the same time.
But a low grade crafter may be able to gather and process rudimentary stuff.

Thanks for the info.  I'll have to see how it works then.  I've never been one to have every profession on one character.  I will usually pick a different profession for each alt so I can try different professions.  I usually end up as a provisioner on my main in most MMOs I play but I tend to harvest every kind of raw.  I use what I need for provisioning and sell the rest to other crafters.  It's the best of both worlds IMO.  I can craft what I want and still make some extra cash on the side by selling raws for the other professions.  Hopefully that will be viable in AoC.  SWTOR goes so fast now that I don't even bother with crafting.  I just harvest and sell raws.

ArchivedUser

Noemad  It has been stated by dev that freehold owners can allow other characters to have their keys. I assume that would allow use of smelters etc. Node government building a crafting area into the town/city allows the same mix from what I have read.

ArchivedUser

Most likely there will be levels of access you can assign to your freehold. Set it to private and only you can access. Set it to public and let anyone on. Add people you trust to the list that can access various functions. Give full access to those you trust completely and they can move furniture around and have access to your storage. Remember many of these systems will be basic at the start and will improve over time. All mmos start like this, get the basic structure mechanics in place, then add quality of life stuff.

ArchivedUser

Fyziks said:

Noemad  It has been stated by dev that freehold owners can allow other characters to have their keys. I assume that would allow use of smelters etc. Node government building a crafting area into the town/city allows the same mix from what I have read.

Sweet.  That would be another way for freeholders to make extra cash or get raws.  They could rent out the equipment on their freehold and get paid in cash or possibly a trade for raws or something they need crafted. 

ArchivedUser

Fyziks said:

Noemad  It has been stated by dev that freehold owners can allow other characters to have their keys. I assume that would allow use of smelters etc. Node government building a crafting area into the town/city allows the same mix from what I have read.

Sweet.  That would be another way for freeholders to make extra cash or get raws.  They could rent out the equipment on their freehold and get paid in cash or possibly a trade for raws or something they need crafted. 

ArchivedUser

Fyziks said:

Noemad  It has been stated by dev that freehold owners can allow other characters to have their keys. I assume that would allow use of smelters etc. Node government building a crafting area into the town/city allows the same mix from what I have read.

Sweet.  That would be another way for freeholders to make extra cash or get raws.  They could rent out the equipment on their freehold and get paid in cash or possibly a trade for raws or something they need crafted.