Crafting Mechanic's

synthspence

So I read online that the devs want some feedback on how crafting can be more involved. Well, I think I got something like that for them.

I have played as a black smith in a few MMO's now. WoW, FFXIV and New World to name a few recent ones.
The most involved is 14 by a long shot. So many MMO's crafting is just X/X items, press craft, "name of item being crafted" progress bar, item crafted. Rinse repeat.

I hate it.

Well, what if was more involved? By pressing an ability, lets say "basic hammer", you do +10 progress or something to the item. But, what if there was bigger skill you can use BUT required a quick time event? Pressing X on your keyboard or an arrow key, the closer it is to perfect, the better your overall item will be.

Along with, needing to go to different stations for the items to be crafted. Start at the forge, smelt down your bars and get them red hot. Go over to the anvil and begin to work there. Then bring your item to the cooling area, where you have to hit the on screen action at the right time to pull it out, then go back to the anvil or forge again and repeat the process till completed.

A few extra steps, no source/mana costs on anything, just players skills to hit the right thing at the right time. Could even throw in "fake" hits to throw off crafters at higher levels.

Again, this is all just my ideas and I would love to hear the communities feedback on this. How would you make this different? More involved? Too difficult?? I want to hear from ya. I want crafting in this game to be rewarding in it's own right, like crafting a legendary item should feel like a raid boss mechanic. Very hard to get right, but very satisfying when completed.

C&C welcomed. Thanks for the read and hope to craft y'all some gear in the future.

Voeltz

Crafting should definitely be more interactive and in depth, but the method you're describing is hardly an improvement. Just clicking more buttons on a UI panel like FF14 is not at all what I'm looking for, there doesn't need to be quick time events either. Crafting in Ashes should emulate the actual process IRL. So if that's blacksmithing, I want to have full control of my character with a hammer over the Anvil, moving the mouse to aim and clicking to strike the metal in specific spots which causes it to take shape. There would also be a panel or blueprint page in the corner of the screen, depending on how well you do in replicating it determines the quality of the item. Higher level recipes would have more steps and take longer to create, thus increasing the difficulty and making things more challenging.

synthspence

So you are suggesting more like the V.A.T.S. system from fallout where you can aim for a specific piece, click it but it will have a certain % next to it, to see if you actually hit or not.
I'd be cool with that. Mainly I wanting something more than just get stuff/click craft/done.
Not a very fun or rewarding way of play. I want crafting to be like it's own game experience in itself.
Also, am I hearing you right on your suggestion??

Nerror

I am all for making it more involved, but not with quick-time events. It feels weird to me your character has mastered the art of sword-making through years of learning about the properties of the metals and the shaping and forging and it all comes down to "ok now to hit a button at the riiight... OMGNOWCLICK... OH NO! I clicked too fast and the whole thing is now not perfect which in MMORPG terms makes it trash that no one will buy."

Quick time events just incentivizes people to cheat with scripts that read the screen and click at the right moment. I am against them to a point where I would prefer RNG results over quick-time events.

But I must also admit to not really knowing how to translate character skills into a good system with a player skill check though. Maybe some knowledge based something something, which can be looked up on some website sure, but the good crafters know by heart and involves more than clicking a button at the right time. It can even be timer based. Not quick time event fast, but where you have to make a decision within 10 or 20 seconds or so several times during a craft. In the end that can be scripted too probably, but with more effort.

Perhaps the solution is to not have player skill checks at all really, other than knowledge.

Voeltz

synthspence wrote: »

So you are suggesting more like the V.A.T.S. system from fallout where you can aim for a specific piece, click it but it will have a certain % next to it, to see if you actually hit or not.
I'd be cool with that. Mainly I wanting something more than just get stuff/click craft/done.
Not a very fun or rewarding way of play. I want crafting to be like it's own game experience in itself.
Also, am I hearing you right on your suggestion??

No, not at all what I mean. That's a combat system for detecting and shooting weak points..

Here's a pretty good example of what I'm imagining, just needs to be streamlined and the hammering would need to be about 10x faster in forming the metal. I would also get rid of the thermometer and let the metal tell you its ready to take out of the fire with visual queues (bright orange)

4:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCd_wxlqvyE

CROW3

I still like the crafting from Vanguard & EQ2.

synthspence

Well, I meant with VATS is just a targeting system to hit and strike pieces of armor/weapons and each piece has a %. Taking a look at your video, I see what you meant but imagine that each piece under it has a % on it. So adding it to the final craft, a better shape could mean making it better overall and the skillcap to hit it higher.

Now going off your visual ques, I am all for that more so than my quick time event. Mainly I wanted something that is action orientated that gets you actually pressing buttons that aren't abilities but just pure smash X 15 times in 2.5 seconds or something. Just get you pressing more than waiting on a bar. Visual ques could be cool to see, specially if we are able to dunk the glowing orange pieces into the water and only pull it out when it's darkened completely, and not just a small animation that plays for us.

What other kinds of visual ques would you like to see?

Voeltz

That's about it for blacksmithing visual queues, unless they're able to do something with the grindingstone. Another example would be cooking. The food changes color when it's done and black when it's burnt. Liquids start bubbling/boiling when done.

Individuated Soul

My suggestion:
I would focus on the material itself to implement depth of gameplay within the crafting process. Each item would have different or more steps required to refine/finish the product depending on the attributes given at the 'drop' of the item. Some items can be more involved depending on real life refinement considerations.

[Using Diamonds as an example]

A raw diamond is found/mined:

Inclusions and Imperfections
Blemishes
Color
Clarity
Size

Cutting the diamond:
What type of cut is performed would change which steps is required.
[Optional] Insert some material here (rarer the better) to give a % to either upgrade quality or give a higher score in the end product scoring.

I would then add another depth to the end result of the refinement/processing.
Cut diamonds are then graded on the 4Cs:
Color
Clarity
Carat
Cut

The end product would provide a rating and some tangible benefit to the end product (or a certain rating is required by the end crafted product recipe - probably better).