Do MINIGAMES belong in MMORPG Crafting?

Jahlon

During the October 2022 Ashes of Creation Livestream, Steven Sharif the Creative Director mentioned that the crafting system might have some sort of mini-game in it. In over two decades of MMORPG gameplay only two games have really stood out for their crafting systems; Eve Online and Final Fantasy 14. FFXIV is without a doubt the more complicated of the two systems, with at this time 24 different buttons on your hotbar for crafting. The problem is, that in FFXIV you can simply create a macro that 100% ensures you HQ each and every craft. Where is the game in that? The other is Eve Online, which isn’t a crafting system but more a Manufacturing and Logistics system, which I believe is the gold standard of production and more MMORPGs should model it.

What do you think? Is simple 1 button push crafting enough? Do you want mini-games? Do mini-games belong in MMORPGs? Or would you prefer a more logistics/manufacturing approach?

https://youtu.be/7OJPNhZIcRY

MetalGunTalk

I can see the benefit of individual improvements for crafts, like the efficiency. I think, if I understand the ethos of this game correctly, a heavier priority should be put on the individual steps of processing and for material locality.

In real life the calculations of space x time for material/processing/production planning is very in depth and can make or break entire economies. I can imagine the AoC experience of planning freeholds to better secure caravans might be more important than say spatial proximity to natural resources. Entire Ghettos of raw material processing could exists like boom towns only to realize the local natural resources cannot support such consumption. The engagement of freehold placement and territory planning seems like the most interesting part of end game crafting.

Whatever they do individually I can say it typically feels good to be a highly specialized crafter, at the ire of completionists I suppose. The mistake with WoW Dragonflight's approach being the arbitrary time gates imo.

My ideal would be highly specialized crafters spread out around the world requiring manual goods transports for crafts.

Social and logistic endgames for crafting seem BiS.

Freemeta

i want mini game i was a huge fan of craft boring system like wow disgusted me. i want a system rewarding skills and punishing bots.