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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Gathering Mechanics Proposals And Discussion
Uriah_Asulin
Member, Pioneer, Kickstarter
The main thing that made me dislike gathering in every MMO that I've played is the monotony in performing it. It would usually be something like this:
1. Go to an NPC merchant to get a gathering tool, which most times just sits idle in your inventory because you don't even need to equip the damn thing to gather. So not very immersive right from the start.
2. Approach a gatherable object.
3. Press a key.
4. A little bar appears on the screen that fills while the character animation plays in the background.
5. The bar fills completely and you get a resource.
6. Go to other gatherable object and repeat.
This cycle continues until I get bored so much that I decide that the item I'm trying to craft isn't worth it and I go kill some monsters or something. It isn't engaging enough and the action of gathering resources doesn't give a real dopamine kick that's strong enough to sustain me.
The only game in which I liked gathering was Warframe. In this game, they implement a skill-based gathering system in which you are presented with a real-time mini-game that requires from you both precision and reflexes, and the better reflexes you have, the better you become at getting the more rare resources.
For example:
Mining: Ores and other mined materials are gathered from veins in the rocks around the map. To mine them, you first need to equip a mining laser and point it at the vein. When you point it you can see little flickering spots on the vein and you need to shoot at these spots. While shooting at a spot, a circular bar appears and there's a section in it which is marked with parentheses. A pointer moves through the bar from start to finish at a constant speed and you need to click the mouse button when the pointer is between the parentheses in order to successfully mine the materials in the vein. The area enclosed by parentheses can either be large, in which case it would be relatively easy to score successfully, or very tiny, in which case it would be harder to click inside it. The resource rarity is partially influenced by the player's ability to score inside the tiny area, thus it requires the player to be more engaged and skilled in order to get the best possible resources.
The satisfaction in receiving a rare resource after scoring successfully is so rewarding that I usually keep mining even after I got all the ores that I needed. After traveling through the map looking for ore veins I learned that there is a much higher density of veins inside caves than in the open and so I also got a reason to explore more of the map looking for caves.
Lastly, I think that because gathering professions are meant to have a key role in every part of the game, much like fighting monsters, then we should strive to make it at least as actively engaging as fighting monsters. In my opinion, gathering through these mini-games and quick-time events will definitely make the gathering lass monotonous, repetitive, and blatantly soul-draining. I advise whoever agrees with me to propose a mini-game/quick-time event for a type of gatherable in the
discussion.
let's make MMOs great again!
1. Go to an NPC merchant to get a gathering tool, which most times just sits idle in your inventory because you don't even need to equip the damn thing to gather. So not very immersive right from the start.
2. Approach a gatherable object.
3. Press a key.
4. A little bar appears on the screen that fills while the character animation plays in the background.
5. The bar fills completely and you get a resource.
6. Go to other gatherable object and repeat.
This cycle continues until I get bored so much that I decide that the item I'm trying to craft isn't worth it and I go kill some monsters or something. It isn't engaging enough and the action of gathering resources doesn't give a real dopamine kick that's strong enough to sustain me.
The only game in which I liked gathering was Warframe. In this game, they implement a skill-based gathering system in which you are presented with a real-time mini-game that requires from you both precision and reflexes, and the better reflexes you have, the better you become at getting the more rare resources.
For example:
Mining: Ores and other mined materials are gathered from veins in the rocks around the map. To mine them, you first need to equip a mining laser and point it at the vein. When you point it you can see little flickering spots on the vein and you need to shoot at these spots. While shooting at a spot, a circular bar appears and there's a section in it which is marked with parentheses. A pointer moves through the bar from start to finish at a constant speed and you need to click the mouse button when the pointer is between the parentheses in order to successfully mine the materials in the vein. The area enclosed by parentheses can either be large, in which case it would be relatively easy to score successfully, or very tiny, in which case it would be harder to click inside it. The resource rarity is partially influenced by the player's ability to score inside the tiny area, thus it requires the player to be more engaged and skilled in order to get the best possible resources.
The satisfaction in receiving a rare resource after scoring successfully is so rewarding that I usually keep mining even after I got all the ores that I needed. After traveling through the map looking for ore veins I learned that there is a much higher density of veins inside caves than in the open and so I also got a reason to explore more of the map looking for caves.
Lastly, I think that because gathering professions are meant to have a key role in every part of the game, much like fighting monsters, then we should strive to make it at least as actively engaging as fighting monsters. In my opinion, gathering through these mini-games and quick-time events will definitely make the gathering lass monotonous, repetitive, and blatantly soul-draining. I advise whoever agrees with me to propose a mini-game/quick-time event for a type of gatherable in the
discussion.
let's make MMOs great again!
0
Comments
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/46030/why-gathering-refining-crafting-should-be-high-focus#latest
Maybe have an auto-mine button or something so we can opt out of the minigame w/ no extra reward but we can move on to the next gather point a little faster for those of us who might want to "afk" farm.
Some items really should be monotonous. And the reward should be equivalent to the pain..... as in those who love gathering and spend hours doing so... may goes nuts but selling basic mats will I believe become and always be vital and lucrative.