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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Where Ma Crafters At ?
ArchivedUser
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Crafters, what are you looking for in game? I'm kinda hoping we get away from the current 'read a book while the progress bar fills' crafting systems. Off the top of my head, I can think of:
- Crafters should produce the best items in game! Dungeons/Raids should drop rare materials that require a crafter to produce the finished item. Otherwise, crafters become useless at high level.
- Crafting uses the same points as other attributes - if you shouldn't be able to 'do everything' on one alt. Leveling crafting should come at the expense of not leveling something else.
- Recipes with multiple crafted components - crafting a boat should need you to craft/buy nails.
- Material Quality system (a la SWG, EVE, etc) - NOT just 'normal' and 'uber' mats.
- Recipe discovery - I'm sorta on the fence on this one, as they all end up on wiki's anyway.
- Maker's Marks/Engraving - good not only for advertising your services, adding special messages on 'custom' pieces
- Crafting only content - crafting quests that reward crafting mats, armor, mounts, etc.
EDIT:
Can't believe I forgot this one!
- Use based crafting! Just because you crafted the 100 swords to become a 'master' doesn't mean you should make as good a sword as someone that crafted 500 swords...
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Dammit - I forgot decay/durability too! Thanks for the link.
Sounds like crafting will be separate from adventuring (you can level both with no compromises or tradeoffs). I'm not a fan of that style, as it tends to lead to a ton of 'crafters' that simply got bored at level cap and decided to work the crafting system a while.
Other then that, the crafting system sounds like it will be great! I love the ability to 'dial in' stats on items. Maybe you don't need a +20 sword to farm hide, but you want it extra durable to reduce repair costs, etc.!
It sounds really good - almost SWG good. You can 'tune' specific crafts/items to specific uses, and there will be multiple crafted components for some recipes (requiring your woodworker to get leather from a tanner, for instance). Didn't see anything about material qualities though.
Crafters will produce some of the best items in game - hopefully that means BiS items at high level. Item wear/decay will help create a constant demand for crafted gear, as well.
Overall, I'm really getting excited about the crafting in AoC. As we said earlier though, I just hope crafting requires enough of a commitment to prevent flooding the markets.
The crafting stations will be on the other side of town from the bank, auction house, etc. and you'll spend half your time playing inventory mgmt. carting stuff back and forth Then 'magically' after the first expansion, they create crafting heaven with everything in the same place
Seriously though - I'm not worried about resource locations/amounts. I'm more worried about how many 'crafters' will be viaing for them. Since there appears to be no 'down side' to leveling crafting, I think EVERYONE will at least initially be a 'crafter'. Eventually, most of them will get bored and move on to raiding or exploring. But the 'early days' could be real interesting.
Of course, Harvesters always make good money at the start of a crafting tier...So you could make quite a bit of bank selling mats to people for leveling - then level your own stuff a week or two later when prices normalize
I'm on the fence with push button crafting - it does get boring, but unless you can batch craft items, crafting hundreds of items while doing a mini-game can be just as bad. Really wish I could think of a better, third option...
I've always like the idea of 'use based' crafting instead of levels. The more swords you craft, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the fewer mats/higher stats the sword gets.
But that doesn't solve the problem of the actual crafting 'process'...
Yes, extremely similar if previous statements are to be believed. Iron as an example will have different stats depending on the spawn mined. There was talk in the very early day of harvesters that would require multiple people to operate, though that has not been mentioned again and may have just been them spitballing ideas at the time.
Actual harvesting 'machinery' like SWG had would be cool too...I haven't seen those in _ages_
One big difference between AoC and SWG is that in SWG, crafting wasn’t a side activity. The game was profession-based rather than class-based, and your character was defined by whatever skills you learn among three different professions. So to be a diverse or really advanced crafter you needed to take crafting professions instead of combat professions and you gathered and crafted instead of fighting and adventuring.
AoC will be a game where you are defined by your main class and second class, and like most MMOs crafting will be a side thing. Which is good and bad. SWG was cool because you could make a character who really was just an accomplished baker, or weaponsmith, or tailor. Or dancer/musician! AoC is cool because you can do that stuff and still go on quests and fight monsters and so on.
I think I prefer the AoC system. Especially since with SWG’s “one character per server per account” rule you couldn’t have alts.
yeah - one of the downsides to games with crafting like that, is eventually _everyone_ is a crafter, because why not. It can make it a lot harder on 'professional' crafters.
Just as a silly example, item wear/durablity is a lot less effective at supporting a crafter economy, when each player can just repair/craft their own gear.
It would be nice to see crafting skills use the same stat points as combat/adventuring skills, so there would be some trade-offs involved in becoming a crafter...
Having been a raid harvester, I can tell you having a 'master skinner' will probably not be as unusual as you think. Typically, by definition, raiders are max level characters - they also generally have money to spend. So maxing a one or more crafting skills (depending on the game limits) is a non-issue. My EQ2 toons were max adventuring level, maxed Tinkering, maxed the-other-thing-that-went-with-tinerking, AND a max trade craft. There was literally no down side to doing this.
Compare that with a system where your 'master skinner' needs to gimp his survival and/or combat skills to max the crafting skills. That would tend to make them more rare/valuable, as many people don't want to limit their combat/survival ability.
You can see examples of this one new expansion packs drop. "Professional" crafters spend tons of gold/plat buying materials from the new tiers, racing each other to be the first with the ability to craft the new BiS pieces. Demand is high for people that can harvest/craft at the new level cap. Prices are high, but very few people actually grumble, as they know they are paying to get the new BiS slots before other raid/pvp guilds have them, giving them a real advantage.
Now look at the _end_ of an expac - prices are lower, markets are flooded with mats, and pretty much every max level character has at least 1 trade craft maxed out - making it hard to sell finished goods at a decent profit.