Crafting and Cooperation

Yulivee

We heard several times and can also read in the AOC-Wiki that one of the goals for the crafting is (as with other Parts of the game) to encourage cooperation. This mainly manifests in the split between Gathering, Refining and Crafting and not being able to master all three.

But what about cooperation between totally different professions?

• Maybe the breeder can breed Scorpions that give more or deadlier poison than others and the alchemist needs this for his recipes?
• Maybe the Smith needs high quality mordant (hope this is the correct word) for some things that only a master alchemist can provide (or at least provide at a certain quality)?
• The Fisherman can not only provide Fish for Cooking but also Oil for processing wood.
• The cook can provide special food for taming especially picky types of animals.

And whatever you can think of....

And not only betweed professions there is a possibility for this kind of cooperation. One thing I really liked in Minecraft, is, how they connected many aspects of the game via the Crafting-System.
You needed parts from mining, farming, hunting, fishing, dangerous Nether-Fortresses, Bosses, Exploration, Trading with Villagers... For AOC I can see those kinds of interconnected parts of the game too.

• Crafting-Materials coming from hard to reach subnautic mobs
• Crafting-Materials coming from (ok iam really not sure about this...) player races
• Crafting-Materials only obtainable from a befriended Faction of... eh Golems?

Are there already statements regarding these kinds of things, that I wasnt able to find in the Wiki or the Forum?
And what are your thoughts about this?

Syndraela

The wiki states that you can only either be gatherer, processor or crafter and that inside of these three groups (artisan classes) you can only master 2-3 professions while the other ones will be capped at 3 or 4 of an yet unknown number of tiers (at least 5 but propably more. Referring to the artisan tools table + master tools). Since at first you could technically master all professions in your artisan class and explicitly stating this was for player interdepencency, I guess they are moving in this direction already. At least this should be somewhat discouraging to build your solo business empire

I am a bit sceptical about how long or how high in terms of tiers the profession trial period will be but if it stops somewhere around 50% of the way I'd be fine with it. If done well the efford is not lost and you can at least provide a cheaper but less effective alternative to the high quality stuff when it is just not necessary.

Looking at the wiki the descriptions of certain professions are rather scarece or vague. There is a lot of potential for crafting professions requiring one or many gathering or processing professions but interdependency among crafting professions could be done for a few single items but propably not so much on a larger scale. Alchemy and maybe also cooking could be the the exception to this rule.

For a satisfying crafting experiance I think it is necessary to have somewhat changing ingredients when crafting different recipes. It should not stop at finding a new recipe and then magically craft a much cooler item with the same stuff I always use. That would be quite boring. E.g.: Finding out where to get that magically enchanted wood that makes you caravan extra resistent to magical attacks could be an interesting side quest for a crafter or even a guild.
Also the usage of the crafted goods should enable you to interact with the world differently. But this usage or even the aquisition of such an item should be strategical choice because it costs expensive materials. Of cause also items with lower effectiveness and cost should exist. This could also have interesting effects on the economy, when to stocking up materials and your customers needs.
A totally valid and creative use for crafted items can also be outside of combat and conflict. Maybe an alchemists can brew something that can enable you to survive in a maybe not so healthy environment and with this open up a whole set of new adventures.

TLDR: Interdependency between systems in general is important. It may seem like a hassle at first but it is so much more satisfying if you can't do anything anywhere anytime and just rush headless through the world because it lets you.