Hello Everyone,
As Ashes wants to be an real mmo that wants to give players as much freedom to play how they want to play i lost many thoughts on how a profession system could look like in a game.
I played many mmorpgs and a bunch of rpgs before, but no a single one realy got to a point where i could say „I dont want to raid or do pvp, no i want to be a blacksmith and on top – i want to be the best blacksmith on the server!“
I’ll take the example of a blacksmith, but you could change this on every other type of profession.
There are some things to consider :
There are things that need to be easy for gameplay reason ( get a non-rare weapon, repair, easy access to
health/manapotions etc.)
The introduction to the profession has to be easy as you want new players to able to start their carrer without being
punished for it.
At the same time it needs a „hard to master“ aspect, so youre able to reward yourself (and others) for your efford.
It has to make sense. Even in a world with magic, things have to follow rules and have some kind of logic behind it.
With all that said, lets see how a System could look like.
´
Blacksmithing:
Lets say you want to forge a „Moomsword“ . The recipe for this sword is a easy one that you’ll find in every blacksmithing workshop . The materials are 1 Moonstone, and 4 ironbar.
Now after you got all the mats for your sword you start forging .
For blacksmithing i like to see a simplified version of real forging .
You put your materials into the forge an have to adjust the temperature (1000°C or some freedomheit units i dont know 😉) and hold it for 15 seconds
After this you need to do i small hammering minigame ( could be points to click as fast as possible, or pressing some buttons in the right order)
And at last you need to quench your sword in a liquid (lets take water for this one)
Congrats! You got your moonsword! But here’s the clue. If you did all steps perfect (as told in the recipe) your moonsword becomes a „better moonsword“ with better stats on it.
the math sould look something like (Hammertime get a additional second for every wrong move on the minigame)
Playskillinfluence on itemquality=(Playerproflevel÷profmaxlevel)-{([[((besttemp-usedtemp))/|usedtemp| ]×100]+[[((bestheattime-usedheattime))/|usedheattime| ]×100]+[[((besthammertime-hammertimeused))/|hammertimeused| ]×100])/3}/100
(aaargg the formular won't show how it supposed to do, i hope you can still get the point)
(Hammertime get a additional second for every wrong move on the minigame)
Now choosing the right materials should be the best way, but not doing shouldn’t stop you from having no chance to craft the desired item (even if you have you accept a lower quality)
Here we need to evaluate the influence of all materials. So lets stay with our example here.
You need 4 Ironbars , 1 Moonstone and the water to quench the sword.
I would rate the ore at 10% influence , the moonstone on 60% and the water on 30%
Now apply these factors to the equation. If the max level you can get in the profession is 100 and your skillevel is 87, your can archive a maximumrating of 87% .
If we set the outcome like this
Below 50% = metal scrap
50-75% = normal moonsword
75-90%= fine moonsword
90-70%= perfect moonsword
You have still a chance to craft a fine moonsword, even if you use 1 copperbar and 3 ironbar.
I also would making a moonsword impossible to craft without a moonstone, even if you do everything perfect (as i said there has to be a logic behind this)
Now we come to the fun part !
All this above would be your everyday crafting thingy, but were not finished yet.
What if we go away from the lame recipes found in every workshop? What about experimenting with different materials or heats?
Now we enter the world of a hidden recipe : The Bloodmoonsword!
The Bloodmoonsword is the close cousin of the Moonsword, but need slighly other treatment.
Insteat of heating it for 1000°C you need 1050°C and you have to quench it in dragonblood instead of water.
On top it has a minimum rating of 90%
So as the curious blacksmith you are, you maxed out you skill to 100 and startet to questiong your life decisions… i mean you start trying new things at the forge, you craft a perfect 100% score Moonsword, but missclicked the quenchingmaterial and used the dragonsblood instead of water, you got a 70% score on the Moonsword – But suprisingly you craftet the Bloodmoonsword, as you unknowingly got a score of 95% on it.
Now it is up to you to see if you find out what step influences the last missing 5% .
It is up to you do keep your secret and be known as the only Blacksmith who knows the secret oft he Bloodmoonsword, or mabye you are the greedy one and sell your knowledge?
Know i think it is clear that you can't just rely on pure luck to find these hidden recipes, so i imagine this would be a good opportunity to place hints around the World of Verra.
How cool would it be to find the first hint of a legendary sword in the corner of a Bossroom, after your guild defeaded a huge dragon .
You haven‘t to be there yourself either, mabye you friends and guildmates keep their eyes open on interesting stuff or you buy information of some adventures that come around buy some stuff of you.
As i said in the beginning, you can apply all this to other professions (i also did some more math on this, and did some examples on other professions, but all my notes are in german, so not translated yet!)
I hope you like my ideas, as for me professions are a importent part of an mmo, and are still handled very bad by most games out there.
Maybe my feedback have some positive influence on Ashes :P!
Love from germany

octo