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Ideas to make the crafting/processing of goods more engaging
Kionashi
Member
I made this post originally on Reddit but thought it would be a good idea to post it here too
Im sure there are a lot of people really interested in the artisan system, and wanted to see any ideas you guys have regarding making the actual process engaging to avoid making it a chore or something not worth doing.
My suggestion is making the crafting of an object a multi step process that requires interaction with several "stations", by example, you are an alchemist and want to make mana potions, you need a Dreamfoil , Icecaps and a Crystal Vials. Instead of going to the "alchemy station" mix the ingredients and that's it, we could make it a little bit more interesting.
So you first need to place the icecap in a "barrel station" with some yeast and water a leave it there for a day to ferment, is a pretty mundane task so you can make a bunch in advance with several barrels but the longer you leave them there the more potent the icecap brew will be, and maybe you can't make a mana potion with strong icecap spirits, so you need to be aware to leave them a certain amount of time so you still get young icecap spirits.
The next day when that's ready go to the "mortar and pestle station" to grind the dreamfoil into dust (the dreamfoil dust loses strength with time so you can't just make it in bulk and store it) and grinding 2 dreamfoil takes a minute.
Now you have the young icecap spirits and the dreamfoil dust, go to the "cooking pot station" and cook both ingredients together, the pot can be left alone to do other stuff but you need to be aware when it starts showing gray particles you must stir the mixture so it goes back to normal, do that a couple of times when indicated and when the pot shows some white particles, that means the cooking ready and you can turn off the cooking pot, now use a bunch of crystal vials to empty the pot and get up to 5 mana potions for your trouble. Now if you didn't stir the mixture in time you will get less mana potions (because part of the ingredients were stuck in the bottom of the pot), and if you didn't turned off the cooking pot in time you wont get mana potions but dark matter and that can only be used to make livestock food so is not a total loss...but you still need to start the process again.
And that's it....turned an usually mundane task of making mana potions into a multi part process that requires not only paying attention on when do you start and how to process all the ingredients (there are several fails tates but failing a state usually doesn't mean the lost of the ingredients but they simply turn into other thing that is used for other stuffs) I also like it makes you use several stations during the process so it feels more immersive than simply having an "alchemy station" and doing everything in one square and even some stations can be shared by different artisan branches.
And of course if you can't be bothered with doing all that you can simply buy your mana potions from your friendly alchemist neighbour.
Im aware it could be a too hardcore and can become a chore for people who just want to kill stuff, I totally get that so I think I have a solution to please both the people who just want to have a little distraction in between raids and the hardcore artisans who could enjoy a deep crafting system to dive into....
Since there are several artisan branches and you can only master 1, we could have some hardcore artisan branches and some more casual branches, by example the whole gathering tree (Fishing, farming, lumberjacking, Herbalism) could be more casual friendly, after all there is a limit on how deep you can make the act of chopping a tree, the crafting tree (blacksmithing, ship building, scribes, alchemy, cooking) could be the hardcore tree with more complex task and the processing tree (Animal husbandry, smelting) could be a nice middle ground not as laborious as crafting but also more deliberate than simply fishing....
That's my idea anyways.... what do you guys think? have any suggestions to make crafting/processing more interesting?
Im sure there are a lot of people really interested in the artisan system, and wanted to see any ideas you guys have regarding making the actual process engaging to avoid making it a chore or something not worth doing.
My suggestion is making the crafting of an object a multi step process that requires interaction with several "stations", by example, you are an alchemist and want to make mana potions, you need a Dreamfoil , Icecaps and a Crystal Vials. Instead of going to the "alchemy station" mix the ingredients and that's it, we could make it a little bit more interesting.
So you first need to place the icecap in a "barrel station" with some yeast and water a leave it there for a day to ferment, is a pretty mundane task so you can make a bunch in advance with several barrels but the longer you leave them there the more potent the icecap brew will be, and maybe you can't make a mana potion with strong icecap spirits, so you need to be aware to leave them a certain amount of time so you still get young icecap spirits.
The next day when that's ready go to the "mortar and pestle station" to grind the dreamfoil into dust (the dreamfoil dust loses strength with time so you can't just make it in bulk and store it) and grinding 2 dreamfoil takes a minute.
Now you have the young icecap spirits and the dreamfoil dust, go to the "cooking pot station" and cook both ingredients together, the pot can be left alone to do other stuff but you need to be aware when it starts showing gray particles you must stir the mixture so it goes back to normal, do that a couple of times when indicated and when the pot shows some white particles, that means the cooking ready and you can turn off the cooking pot, now use a bunch of crystal vials to empty the pot and get up to 5 mana potions for your trouble. Now if you didn't stir the mixture in time you will get less mana potions (because part of the ingredients were stuck in the bottom of the pot), and if you didn't turned off the cooking pot in time you wont get mana potions but dark matter and that can only be used to make livestock food so is not a total loss...but you still need to start the process again.
And that's it....turned an usually mundane task of making mana potions into a multi part process that requires not only paying attention on when do you start and how to process all the ingredients (there are several fails tates but failing a state usually doesn't mean the lost of the ingredients but they simply turn into other thing that is used for other stuffs) I also like it makes you use several stations during the process so it feels more immersive than simply having an "alchemy station" and doing everything in one square and even some stations can be shared by different artisan branches.
And of course if you can't be bothered with doing all that you can simply buy your mana potions from your friendly alchemist neighbour.
Im aware it could be a too hardcore and can become a chore for people who just want to kill stuff, I totally get that so I think I have a solution to please both the people who just want to have a little distraction in between raids and the hardcore artisans who could enjoy a deep crafting system to dive into....
Since there are several artisan branches and you can only master 1, we could have some hardcore artisan branches and some more casual branches, by example the whole gathering tree (Fishing, farming, lumberjacking, Herbalism) could be more casual friendly, after all there is a limit on how deep you can make the act of chopping a tree, the crafting tree (blacksmithing, ship building, scribes, alchemy, cooking) could be the hardcore tree with more complex task and the processing tree (Animal husbandry, smelting) could be a nice middle ground not as laborious as crafting but also more deliberate than simply fishing....
That's my idea anyways.... what do you guys think? have any suggestions to make crafting/processing more interesting?
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