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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Profession Minigames Suggestion
Balin
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Hi everyone!
I'd like ot mention an idea that I think has been implemented in other games.
I like the idea of there being like some kind of minigame involved in gathering, proccessing and crafting.
I'm thinking minigames based on for example timing, precision, patience .
This would make the player for example doing gathering more focused and engaged on the gathering while doing so. As one could imagine one would be to not mess up the materials you are gathering. I think it would be quite thematic. Also would add aditional skill to it.
Rewards from succeding could be like % more quantity. % higher chance for better quality, some kind of buff (maybe even a stacking buff), bonus experince.
You could even, if you would go so far, have negative setback for failing too badly. Like mentioned above but flipped to the negative side. I could imagine if, while you try to mine something you fail so badly monsters spawn. Like, you're in the forest foraging herbs, pull out your sickle but slice all kind of vines and roots in the procces angering a nearby sentient plant and it comes to attack. Or you mine a node and hit a part of the node thats so hard i make a big noise attracting nearby enemies.
Or while skining you cut the hide so badly it angers the soul of the fallen creature for reckless behaviour of it's fallen body.
While crafting one idea I have is that you could choose to shorten/extend the crafting time to make the minigame harder/easier.
I think it could be fun.
Have a nice day!
I'd like ot mention an idea that I think has been implemented in other games.
I like the idea of there being like some kind of minigame involved in gathering, proccessing and crafting.
I'm thinking minigames based on for example timing, precision, patience .
This would make the player for example doing gathering more focused and engaged on the gathering while doing so. As one could imagine one would be to not mess up the materials you are gathering. I think it would be quite thematic. Also would add aditional skill to it.
Rewards from succeding could be like % more quantity. % higher chance for better quality, some kind of buff (maybe even a stacking buff), bonus experince.
You could even, if you would go so far, have negative setback for failing too badly. Like mentioned above but flipped to the negative side. I could imagine if, while you try to mine something you fail so badly monsters spawn. Like, you're in the forest foraging herbs, pull out your sickle but slice all kind of vines and roots in the procces angering a nearby sentient plant and it comes to attack. Or you mine a node and hit a part of the node thats so hard i make a big noise attracting nearby enemies.
Or while skining you cut the hide so badly it angers the soul of the fallen creature for reckless behaviour of it's fallen body.
While crafting one idea I have is that you could choose to shorten/extend the crafting time to make the minigame harder/easier.
I think it could be fun.
Have a nice day!
3
Comments
One of the most addicting games I've ever played is Fantasy Life for the 3DS. It involves minigames for every player-crafted item and the quality of the item really comes down to good timing and reflexes. If you're only processing materials, the better you do, the more materials you get out of the resource.
An example of one of the minigames can be found here:
To be honest, Fantasy Life sort of killed "professions" in other games for me. I no longer want to sit back and watch items put themselves together simply because I have the raw materials. Where is the engagement in that?
You can click a button to make things because you don't want to PLAY the game, I guess (that's the standard...). But it's less fun.
Normally I would be all for a straight up mini-game system but honestly those sorts of things just get macroed or burnt out on when its forced. The best example I can give is FF14's crafting and gathering. there are sites you can just upload your specs into, what you want to craft/gather, and it will give you the optimal sequence of abilities to use in order to complete it at the highest proficiency. Anyone serious about crafting or gathering will use these. Anyone not serious about it probably wont even craft or gather. Having an option to just purely make the item or gather the object without a hassle, but at perhaps less efficiency per node/craft seems like a good middle ground.
The more casual players can still pick up and progress their professions while the more serious crafters/gatherers can gain a competitive edge by going through the hoops of a mini-game. Depending on the mini-game players will be less likely to have access to easy ways that complete it for them like you can with macroing in ff14. However we dont really know how these systems will work yet so we will have to wait and see on that part.
Spend your crafting skill points on one type of crafting or the other.
1) For RNG based autocrafting you would spec/gear for either higher quality results or more end product
2) For craft-games you would spec/gear to make it easier to play the game perfectly
Either available to the player with a respec.
This:
"The developers will be seeking testing feedback on the addition of a gameplay layer to crafting that determines the outcome based on the player's performance.[12]
For example, if you're creating a sword, and you are crafting that sword, you will have an interface- a gameplay layer that you will see and you will begin to hammer actually that sword into an appropriate outline. And your performance there can help influence the outcome of that craft.[12]" – Steven Sharif
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Crafting
I can't recall mention of this being a thing for gathering. I like the planned surveying mechanic, but personally don't think I'd want a mini-game for gathering.
I think my feedback on this concept in general has been given enough times in other threads so I'll just echo one particular part related to the above. This is the part I disagree with.
Don't make the minigames be 'Timing/Precision/Patience' -> Reward.
Botted. 100%. (For those who don't know me well, I am not saying I will bot it, only speaking to my experience because I know how).
If you want to avoid or neuter botting, make it 'Control', 'Semi-Complex Risk management', 'Teamwork'. it's not that people won't bot these, it's that they will bot them mostly for 'nearly pointless levels of mass production', which one can actually disincentivize through economy design.
If it takes longer to reconfigure the bot to do it perfectly because your goal parameters changed than to just do it yourself 2-3 times, you'll see less botting.