Suggestions for Chronicles of ELyria
One of the big features that draws in members of the community, myself included, is the idea of being able to interact fully with every object and to build everything in the world in a true sandbox game. To do this, the developers promised skill-based tasks to increase different skills and build objects but as of yet, they have not announced any of their plans on how they wish to do it. So, like many others I will purpose how I hope certain things will be implemented and await impatiently for more information to be released on the topic. Please discuss your ideas and thoughts below as well.
Smelting
First and foremost, I hope that the citizens of Elyria will not start with blast furnaces but will instead have to use bloomeries and research better furnaces. As shown above, there is a vast world of metal preparation and refining between mining the ore from the ground to making a final product outside of simply throwing the ore inside of a furnace as is demonstrated in many different games. Not only would it add to the immersion but it would allow for players to have a greater impact on the world around them. For example, if there was a pocket of poorer quality ore, with the proper hard work, time and knowledge, the ore could be raised to a standard that their smiths could use proudly. That being said, it also creates the chance of good ore being lowered in quality if handled improperly. (This would of course be limited to some extent as the worst ore can’t be raised to the best but the best ore can be ruined to stop everything from becoming great.) This dynamic of variable quality in the materials would also promote a larger sense of community and a higher incentive to actually learn from someone else. The developers have already stated you won’t be able to succeed if you don’t first receive instruction. However, if the ore was instead wasted and ruined to a point very little acceptable material could be gained from it every time a new person attempted and failed, current smelters would bring many under their wing not only to expand their own business but the community would also be incentivized to educate them to stop the waste of resources.
Smithing
Looking through the forums, it seems you would be hard pressed to find a single job that is more popular and hyped about than blacksmithing by die hard fans and dabblers alike. With this comes its own challenges as the system must hold the ease of use to be fun to play for all but must also contain the depth, immersion and challenge to meet all the skill promises given by the developers. As such, what I am purposing may take a long time to develop but it could also be used for carpentry and stone working as well.
The first step to smithing an object would be to find the required tools and martials. When you have these, you could approach an anvil and open a list of all the objects you know how to build. This would be limited by the knowledge you have and could be expanded by working under a more experienced blacksmith or by watching them craft different things. When you have reached a suitably high level (such as expert or higher) you will be able to make items simply by inspecting them. After you select what item you would like to build, the ghost form of that object would appear and you would use your tools to try to turn the piece of metal into the ghost form. When you are lower level or it is your first time creating that specific object, the form would be faint, blurry and lacking in detail. Therefore, as you advanced and gained more skill the outline would become clearer and more detailed allowing for better works.
Taking that a step further, all items quality would be directly related to how close to the form they are of what it was supposed to look like. For example, if a first-time smith attempted to make an axe after watching a smith do it, he would only see the most basic blurry outline of the axe and he would be able to make the general shape. If he did good enough to meet the minimum level he could make an inferior axe. As he progressed in skill, the axe would gain more detail as he advances to legendary which would show the “perfect” form for that specific axe type. Furthermore, people could continuously improve by working beyond what their lower level form shows. So, if a smith is a high-end Artisan that is striving to reach Renowned, he could smith his blade slightly beyond directly by skill to where he thinks the next level is, and if achieved his work would gain the next level. This can work the other direction as well. Just because a smith is legendary, it does not mean everything he produces is legendary as well. Instead if they were going for quantity over quality they would be able to stop at the common level, only if they put in the high level of detail and time would they be able to achieve the legendary level (or any level in between). To prevent the spamming of low level items to reach higher levels it could also be made that a certain level of work must be reached to gain experience relative to each smith’s level.
Research
This smithing challenge would also allow for research in a logical method. When the smith would select research, the form would then lose detail and the form of the new invention or improvement would be hidden inside. The farther over the research bar the more detail that would be lost and the higher the chance that if something new was not made the quality of the work would be decreased only to be balanced by the higher chance of something new.
To bring the mining, smelting and smithing to full circle, the final step would be to add a shifting variable for the strength of each hit (controlled by the player) and the internal strength of the metal based off of the metals individual qualities such as composition and refinement. This would create a different dynamic as a softer lower quality metal might be easier for lower level smiths to work but may not be the best choice for that specific piece. Furthermore, each piece might then be rated not only on its workmanship but also its material qualities. This would make it nearly impossible for two blades to be perfectly identical and would create an ever-dynamic challenge for even the most seasoned while maintaining the simplicity for beginners as well.
While this crafting system might be complicated to develop its central principle and main design could also be transferred to wood and stone working with little tweaks. Instead of beating a metal into the form the, the wood or stone could instead be carved or cut into similar design forms and the underlying mechanics would all stay the same.
Thank you all for reading this, I look forward to hearing all of your feedback in the comments and if I receive enough good feedback I might do more of these on any other topics you choose.
