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Crafting and player driven economy … really ?
Silberwolf
Member
Ladies and Gentlemen,
beg your pardon to bother you with my thoughts, but I would like to draw your attention to the subject of crafting and player
driven economy for a moment:
As many of us know, crafting itsself continously has been reduced from a very useful and also challenging activity in an
MMORPG (anybody here who remembers UO or SWG ?), into a „nice-to-have-but-can-be-easily-ignored“ feature in almost
any MMO which joined the market within the last two decades. (very few exceptions).
As I am not sure if I missed detailed informations so far, I would like to kindly ask, if anybody knows, If the developers plan
to implement a mechanic of decay or anything similar into the game…? Once the statement from Intrepid Studios was given
that AoC intends to be preferrably a Sandbox-style game, I wonder, how they plan to implement a player driven economy.
An economy can run only, if there is continously demand generated of ALL (and this is the very crucial point !) items in the virtual world. Oversimplyfied said: Even the best armor from the most challenging Raids should have a durability flag with a limited number of possible repairs before it is destroyed irrecoverablely. (Just a note aside: Maybe it would be an option to drop not the Armor or Weapon, but the specific material to craft it …)
Some other thoughts would be:
Crafters also might create so called „Repair-Deeds“ that players can buy from them and use at will …
Or imagine a skill like Healing: Players might shear sheep in the environment, take the wool to a spinning-wheel, then a loom and finally cut it into bandages which can then be sold to other players ...
Spells could consume material like minerals gathered from miners, or jewels enhanced by goldsmiths …
Maybe ammunition could work ?
Ok, before my thoughts and ideas bother you too much, I’ll better stop here 😉
However, those "ideas" are not new, they worked in "older" Sandbox-MMO's very well ...
Honestly, my biggest fear for „Ashes Of Creation“ actually is, that crafting would become as useless and boring as in most
other MMORPG’s …
Hope, that was understood as intended, as I am not a native speaker for English language 😉
Thank you so much for your attention 😊
Kind regards
beg your pardon to bother you with my thoughts, but I would like to draw your attention to the subject of crafting and player
driven economy for a moment:
As many of us know, crafting itsself continously has been reduced from a very useful and also challenging activity in an
MMORPG (anybody here who remembers UO or SWG ?), into a „nice-to-have-but-can-be-easily-ignored“ feature in almost
any MMO which joined the market within the last two decades. (very few exceptions).
As I am not sure if I missed detailed informations so far, I would like to kindly ask, if anybody knows, If the developers plan
to implement a mechanic of decay or anything similar into the game…? Once the statement from Intrepid Studios was given
that AoC intends to be preferrably a Sandbox-style game, I wonder, how they plan to implement a player driven economy.
An economy can run only, if there is continously demand generated of ALL (and this is the very crucial point !) items in the virtual world. Oversimplyfied said: Even the best armor from the most challenging Raids should have a durability flag with a limited number of possible repairs before it is destroyed irrecoverablely. (Just a note aside: Maybe it would be an option to drop not the Armor or Weapon, but the specific material to craft it …)
Some other thoughts would be:
Crafters also might create so called „Repair-Deeds“ that players can buy from them and use at will …
Or imagine a skill like Healing: Players might shear sheep in the environment, take the wool to a spinning-wheel, then a loom and finally cut it into bandages which can then be sold to other players ...
Spells could consume material like minerals gathered from miners, or jewels enhanced by goldsmiths …
Maybe ammunition could work ?
Ok, before my thoughts and ideas bother you too much, I’ll better stop here 😉
However, those "ideas" are not new, they worked in "older" Sandbox-MMO's very well ...
Honestly, my biggest fear for „Ashes Of Creation“ actually is, that crafting would become as useless and boring as in most
other MMORPG’s …
Hope, that was understood as intended, as I am not a native speaker for English language 😉
Thank you so much for your attention 😊
Kind regards
0
Comments
Honestly, I really dislike the idea.
Makes the feeling you get when you find an epic item just... less.
I'm pretty sure that's what they said they're going to do.
Scarcity
- The artisan class system allows you to master one parent skill tree or dip into one or more of the three skill trees. (Gathering, Processing, Crafting)
- Gatherable resources are spread out, and will be discovered through trial-and-error.
- Gatherable resources will shift locations as they’re exhausted. The intention is to avoid devaluing raw materials by limiting its accessibility.
Interconnectivity
Gathering:
- Gatherers require tools. Tools have durability and limited lifespans. Tools may become non-repairable and need to be re-crafted.
- Gathering tools are associated with a specific resource tier, to limit their use.
Processing:
- Processing requires blueprints. Blueprints are obtained through defeating mobs, quests and more.
- Blueprints are consumed on use.
Crafting:
- Crafting requires recipes which operate similarly blueprints.
- Crafting will be executed at crafting stations within a freehold. There are a finite number of freeholds.
Macroeconomy
- Item decay and various gold sinks will be implemented to combat inflation.
- Dynamic pricing by NPC merchants is being considered.
- Various methods of trade ie: player-to-player trade, mailing, player stalls (unattended), personal shops, auction house, caravan.
In summary, the game economy revolves around crafting and degradation of items. Don’t expect the economy to be perfect. With patience and community feedback, we may end of up with a robust virtual economy.
TLDR: Item decay will exist
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Enchanting
You don't get excited about any one victory.
You build up a stockpile - not just of the best gear you can obtain, but also of lower tier gear and materials so that you don't waste your top end gear on content where it is not needed.
What you do get excited about in such a game is when someone in your guild learns to make a new top end item. Rather than going after drops, you go after recipes/blueprints, and then put your stockpile of materials to use.
It is a very different type of game to something like WoW where you just get your drop and then you're good. You need to think far more about loot when item destruction is a thing.
It is really not a game system for everyone. Many players just can't handle it.
Participating in the economy and crafting will be meaningful.
Not a competition for who can undercut the others and place their stacks 1g cheaper, with the market full of endless mass produced crap.
1) It won't be easy to lv up a crafting job. Players will have to chose only one path if they want to produce anything worth selling.
2) Crafting will require lots of materials to produce 1 piece of gear These materials will be found in the open world, where PvP is not restricted.
3) Not every material will be found a 2min walking distance from your comfort. Not every material will be available in every part of the map. Players will have to travel to other cities to buy and sell their goods.
4) There won't be auction houses with search engines. You will have to walk around town and search at the goods the players sell on their stalls. I would like a feature like /findstall animal bone, which would highlight the player stalls that have animal bone on their title (or their abrevassions AB for animal bones, etc etc. Just like in L2 mmo)
thank you so much for leaving your comments here. This is highly appreciated.
However, after further investigation, I obviously recognized that any kind of gathered materials will
NOT be tradable within the chars on my account ! Did I get this right ? What about the processed
products ? Are those not shareable as well ? Would I need to have at least three accounts to cover
all three mechanics and trade raw/processed materials between my twinks ?
Thanks very much for your support/opinion
Kind regards
That's in the wiki, too, @Silberwolf ... but on the page that describes Alts.
You can totally transfer materials (through housing storage) as long as the Alt character resides in the same node.
Of course, that could be open to some tweaks as the game moves through beta testing.
"Transfer of resources and materials to alts will only be possible via player housing storage, which is localized to a particular house.[4]"
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alts
You can't using the warehouse system, but should be able to using in house storage.
It will depend on what meanings are given to "decay" and "destruction." For example, if items become unusable until they are repaired by a crafter who can repair them, that's okay with me. If they become destroyed completely and cannot ever be used again, that would really be a let down. I think the true destruction of an item would only be a risk for those who try to over-enchant an item, but we'll have to wait and see what they come up with.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Item_repair
When an item is "destroyed", that just means you can't use it anymore. Your gear is useless and is unequipped, and can't be equipped until repaired. Repairing an item involves reforging it, which requires using a portion of the materials that would be used in creating it. So, a breastplate might need some leather and iron to repair.
You can repair an item any number of times. It's not going to fall apart and become permanently useless at any point. What might happen is that you determine that repairing an item isn't worth the cost, and it might be better to just replace it. But that's the choice that you make as a player, it's not something forced on you.
Yeah I know, I was responding to OP, who floated the idea that items have a certain number of repairs before before being irrevocably destroyed.
Absolutely! Again, though, remember that "destroyed" only means "useless until fixed". If you destroy an item from over-enchanting it, it just means you can't equip it until you reforge it. Which is bad, of course, because you then have to spend materials. But it's not lost forever or anything.
Twinks? Everybody will play as part of a guild, covering each others needs, and you will waste time leveling up different characters?
You will fall behind, low lv, crafting low lv items through your low lv production chain of gather/process/craft.
Pick one path and play the game properly.