Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
Please make the crafting mini game optional for master crafters
DrPlague
Member
I was a bit disappointed in hearing about mini games for crafting. As a hardcore crafter that's just going to add unnecessary mechanics that I don't want to deal with. I rather have that as an optional mechanic for those that want it or not required for least master rank. AFK processing is way more efficient whenever you're doing large amounts. Those are the times I make my food and eat, take a break and watch TV, work out, do laundry, go work on quests, etc.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxG8GR_wc6Gn6wtUhnNroQZr681sRZg9Mi
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxG8GR_wc6Gn6wtUhnNroQZr681sRZg9Mi
1
Comments
I believe you may have misunderstood the thread that this comes from.
That was a suggestion, not a discussion about minigames that are specifically planned. There may be some interactions for Processing, and similar, but the actual quote from the Wiki is:
Repetitive skill-based crafting mechanics, such as mini-games, are not an intended part of the crafting experience.[15][16]
We did discuss that type of a feature where the skill of the crafter would grant a greater window of skill-based type crafting. So the higher master level you have of crafting a certain item, the greater your potential to impact the quality of that item might be... The concern obviously that we have when going into developing this type of system is that we don't want what is a fun - you know for lack of a better term - mini-game to be something that becomes repetitive and kind of makes it monotonous... If when we start to flesh out the crafting system and we take a look at that interaction of melding crafting, the actual activity of making something, there is room in the design sheet for different iterations of that particular action; and we may see something come about that can be skill oriented, but that's something that's going to require a lot of testing and different iterations from a design standpoint.[16] – Steven Sharif
I didn't misunderstand anything. It was in the **correction** Feb stream from the Q&A on crafting. Steven mentioned the mini game and I'm voicing my concern about it.
*added clip up on top
@JustVine see above
Added the clip. It was from Feb Q&A. There's so many required steps that makes AFK crafting impossible.
@DrPlague are you sure it was in the June 2022 Q&A specifically? I didn't hear anything about crafting mini-games after re-watching the entire section.
The things relative to crafting I heard on the June 2022 Q&A were: 'freeholds have the best artisan profession stations', 'crafted gear is always going to be the best gear', and 'gear for artisan professions will be equip-able as an under layer to your adventuring gear.'
If it was in another Q&A or different section I am more than happy to re-watch the segment in question to advance discourse. I'm just not seeing the data you are referring to right now.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhr9WpjaDzw
There will likely be several iterations of the Processing professions in Alpha 2 and Beta.
All that said, if you can't be bothered with the responsibilities of being a master crafter, why put in any effort to getting that title in the first place?
Saying mini game is just easier than saying, prerequisites, upkeep, and equipment maintenance required to craft.
To me when I'm required to constantly maintain equipment to make ingots that's a mini game. Watching the temp and having to throw some water on it if it over heats and adding some more wood to keep the right temp is a ton of unnecessary steps that is not in any MMOs that I play. Adding all the elements to make ingots and walking away or AFK until it's done is what I want. I don't even want to think about what kind of steps is required to make a finished product if an ingot is so complex and time consuming. The price of ingots will be outrageously high because no one will want to produce large amounts needed to make weapons and armor. I won't be making ingots if I have to spend an hour of mundane prerequisites, upkeep, and equipment maintenance whenever I could have just added the mats and come back an hour later when it's done.
A simple select and click/craft or "not enough material" should be ok.
1, it means players that want to mostly craft in the game have an actual game to play, and 2, it means you need to spend time to make an item, rather than just being able to mindlessly vomit out item after item.
Put another way;
This is the point.
In the same way Ashes will not have any AFK leveling, it will not have any AFK crafting. If you want to be a crafter, you need to actually play the crafting aspects of the game.
Crafting isn't optional, it has weight and importance.
As such, it should also take time.
You - of all people - should understand this.
It's tedious since it will be ez. If it was a challenge I wouldnt mind. However the challenge lies in getting the mats needed, through succesful pve, dealing with pvp.
Nobody will mindlessly vomit anything. Read above.
It may be tedious, but time is the important factor at play here.
I'm going to have to agree with Noaani here.This kind of logic sounds absurd when applied universally. Why is being AFK for crafting okay? Players can't AFK mobs, bosses or PvP. If someone feels compelled to AFK during an activity, that's a problem with the activity not being fun, and the focus should be on improving said activity, not making it automatic.
The example overheating mechanic sounded like a pretty good part of a production "minigame". If a player is needed to craft 1000 stone bricks, then there shouldn't be a minigame for each individual brick, but rather some set of activities to maintain the process at an optimal state. Simple mass production tasks could have simple, less involved processes, but single high value operations like making a bar of omegapowerium could be a very involved process where everything has to be just right.
Crafting not being gameplay is just a carry over from old MMOs, where crafting systems were barely crafting or systems.
I want the game to make progress for me while im doing nothing ...? Um... i'd rather it didnt. I would like to play the game while im playing the game.
Make a sandwich while you hangout in the taverns or something.
And as well, if the minigames just maintain optimal speed of the process, and dont halt it except for maybe a check point here and there. Then perhaps you can afk to an extent, and produce unoptimally.
I think processing should require some sort of occasional player input to counter AFKing players (to me it sounds like that's what Steven is talking about in the video, not actively pressing buttons. he is talking about performing an action if an an equipment is overheating and such), I disagree with the sentiment of "I want the game to perform actions for me while I'm not even at my PC doing other stuff", like sorry but that's just so bad. what you are suggesting is you want to perform actions in the game while not even being there. not having some sort of player check would not only reduce the worth of items, but would also make it easier to utilize bots to create large bulks of items.
that being said I specifically talked about processing, because gathering does not necessarily require an input. you walking up to a tree and cutting it is already an input in itself, and you also spend time running around looking for gatherables (fishing and taming feels like an exception here).
On the other hand I'd like it if (gear) crafting would have it's own opt-in minigame, and let's say the better you do at said minigame the higher stats you roll on your gear, or maybe the higher durability you get, or maybe it would require less materials to repair that item, etc.
so the mini-game wouldn't be something that you feel incentivized to perform every single time (to counter making it boring), you'd opt-in to perform it only on a gear piece that you actually want to use or sell (let's say you craft a piece you don't want to use, but you can sell it for good money so it's worth it to maximize the value), or if you want to practice before an important craft.
I'd love it if professions were not only useful, but also required more effort than just getting the materials.
It would be nice if artisanship wasn't just a byproduct of the genre, almost like an unwanted child, like in most other MMORPGs...
Exactly, why is there so much more involved in making minor things like ingots? I already spend the time to gather mats and pvp to keep or take it. My end goal is to be an armorer and maybe weapon maker also if possible.
**Example of something different but same logic**
After killing mobs for 1 hr you're not required to process your kills for XP and I feel doing all the extra work to process mats is no different than adding another step to mob grinding for XP. Everything drops 1 token which you have to take to a certificate of death printer which you have to stay there to fill with paper and add toner when getting low. Then you take all your certs to trade in for XP. But be cautious out there because you can loose some of those XP tokens if killed.
But you most likely won't be getting the materials in ashes. You will be mastering only one profession branch. Unless you want to be a jack of all trades and only work with the basics. So your line of thinking doesn't really work. If you want to master making armor you won't be getting the materials or making the ingots (again other than the basics) so it makes sense to have each profession line have to perform some sort of task
Do you need items from processing to craft? Nuff said.
You can have more than one character and from what I understand master is not locked per account by per character. 3 characters, one for gathering, one for processing, and one for crafting. Whatever I can master from those 3 is all I'll be making. If I'm required to have 3 accounts then so be it, 3 accounts I will have.
"I want to have 3 characters so i can manage to do everything myself, but one of them shouldnt have to play the game, he should just exist so my other 2 can gather/craft together"