suggestions: guides for the crafting process

Professor Vines

hello, one of the things that I like about ff14 and dislike about most other mmo's is the crafting and gathering system. I feel like most games leave you out in the cold when comes info about their systems. like there is a few gathering points but you don't know what to gather or where things are. I normally just give up on them or if I am really dedicated I go online to figure it out. if the systems are hard for me to figure out who has played various mmo's I can even imagine the annoyance for first time mmo players.

possible solutions: have a side quests if not full on quest lines to help you with your professions ( gathering, processing and crafting)

in game notebooks or manuals that are updated with gathering spots when you fid them, maybe something similar to a monster manual that will keep track of the materials a monster will drop.

these are just some of things that have been on my mind. other feel free to chime in if you can think of anything

McShave

There is a very fine line between hand-holding and guidance. Having a quest chain to introduce you to the topic is a good idea (for all parts of the game), but it should not tell me where to go and what i should do all the time.

Edit:
I found WoW's professions to be a good example of a system that is easy to learn. I don't remember how I learned about each profession, it feels like I've always known, but I like that you can see every item you can make with a crafting profession from the trainer. It makes the goal of the profession easy to learn, and it tells you all the ingredients you will need to level up the profession.

tautau

Personally I am fascinated about some of the areas in AoC that we will NOT be told about and have to discover on our own. For example, breeding. We will have to find out what species can be tamed and how to tame them. Then we will have to learn how to keep them in captivity, breed them, breed them with other species and raise those babies. Most of all we will have to learn how to encourage desired traits until we get the potentially magnificent mounts that we can sell for fortunes, or ride ourselves. I certainly don't want a quest to learn those secrets because I want my hard earned knowledge to be my own secret!

Another example which I hope to have work that way in the game is cooking and brewing. If my cherry tarts add +5 to the range of an archer and the next best cherry tarts on the server only add +2, ain't nobody gonna get my secret!

Noaani

Professor Vines wrote: »

if the systems are hard for me to figure out who has played various mmo's I can even imagine the annoyance for first time mmo players.

What MMO's have had a crafting system that you have had trouble figuring out?

Professor Vines

thank everyone for there responses I will answer what I can. first on the issue of hand holding, I rather have to much rather too little but it is up to the devs to find that balance. just because most of us will be able to look the answer up online doesn't mean we to break immersion to do it.

when I say I have a problem with crafting it is almost always with the gather phase as most games have an A+B=C logic. in most games I stumble into crafting rather than learning about as part of progression. normally the areas in need to go to are above my ability range if I find any info at all making it feel like an endgame only activity.

I normally stick to ff 14 now which by far the most enjoyable crafting system I have seen in a mmo. the last couple of systems I have tried before that was archage and guild wars two. though normally I will give it a game a chance but it proves to much of a headache I just settle for dropped loot.

Tyranthraxus

As long as AoC features something more-guiding than SWG did, then yours truly will be satisfied; SWG literally explained NEXT TO NOTHING to you, about any of it's systems.

My feeling is that players will create enough guides to satisfy anyone who is purposefully looking for information about their needed topic. The only case wherein it feels like the game publisher should be putting out their OWN guides are the point that certain milestones have been reached by players in-game, already - moreso for dungeons and raids than for crafting, though.

Still, it's an ethic SS has relayed in many interviews and videos that they're going to want us to largely explore and learn the game for ourselves. That said, I'd be perfectly fine with Intrepid publishing their own crafting guides, once so many players have hit this-or-that milestone in crafting (i.e. a complete guide on how to best refine wood into build-able timber, once 1 million units of refined timber have been produced by players).

Noaani

Professor Vines wrote: »

normally the areas in need to go to are above my ability range if I find any info at all making it feel like an endgame only activity.

Generally, games that do this do so in order to encourage you to make use of other players - buying materials off them to craft as you dont have access to them yourself yet.

It seems to me that what you may just have trouble with are games that dont allow for/make it easy to do everything yourself.

Archeage has an entire quest hub dedicated to crafting tutorials.